Storm Season | Shelha Series 2 | ✔

Parted Ways

Silversand was out hunting when Ryatzi and Sethral collided with her.

"Silver!" gasped Sethral as the Royal leaped backwards.

Silversand collapsed in the leaves. "You're alright!"

"Of course we are. Silver, where's Jay? We need to talk to Whipper too—Silver?"

The moment Whipper's name hit the air, Silversand's smile extinguished. "Go talk to Jay," she said, then turned and fled.

Sethral's heart sank like a stone. A brush against her side made her jump.

"Come on," said Ryatzi. He bounded after the cat.

Jay and Wing explained everything. How the Fisher had escaped and Whipper had gone after him, how they had vanished over the pass, then Silversand's account of the scene by the river. How they had gone under the mountains and not come out the other side.

Whipper was gone.

Ryatzi was staring into the forest with a face empty of emotion. He would not talk like this, and Sethral did not feel like telling anyone about Flicker in the Hollow. That was just wrong, to pretend to have a link to one species' demise when another had just been extinguished forever.

She needed to be alone, now.

It was a long, rough night.

Come morning, Silversand had vanished again. She had apparently spent most of the last few days on her own. Sethral walked back to camp feeling numb. Wing gave her a nod, but he looked like he hadn't slept and he wasn't smiling. Wing always smiled.

Jay had lain down the previous evening with his muzzle buried in the mutt's fur. He had not moved since.

Sethral looked at her claws. "Wing, there's something I need to tell everyone. From Ratty and I's trip home."

It was all she could do to distract herself. Wing did not stop her, so Sethral told him the whole story of the Drakon spy and its gruesome death. She realized near the end that Jay was listening too.

"I don't know what it was there for," she finished. "And I don't know how it found us, or if it was alone, or which of us it was interested in. I couldn't find out anything."

She put her face in her claws. She had failed there, good and properly. She wished she had been faster when Ryatzi had spotted the Drakon fumbling with its pouch. She wished she had thought of a better trap. She wished...

She wished Whipper were back.

A tear leaked down her arm.

There was a soft click. 'I know someone who might know,' said Jay.

Sethral realized she knew enough Long Night to understand him. She lowered her claws and looked up.

Jay had removed his muzzle from Wing's fur and was looking at the leaves. 'She does not like me, and there is no guarantee that she would choose to talk. But she spies on everything in her territory, and right now that includes Winter's camp.'

"And why have I not heard about this before?" said Wing.

Jay scowled. 'Because I prefer to pretend that she does not exist.'

"Where is she?"

'The Rock flats.'

"Do the twins know her?" said Sethral.

Jay hesitated, then shook his head.

Taz and Fletch knew everything that happened in their home range. How could there be another Coppertail in that area, without either of them knowing it?