Once again a queen, Winter has a budding army and plenty to offer them to keep them loyal. Besides expanding her territory, she is using her forces to chase specific creatures for reasons nobody knows. None of them seem to be connected.
The changes...
Their footsteps are silent, their scents blow away;
Don't stop to think, don't dally or stray
When the forest ghosts come out to play.
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Sethral hunkered low in a tree fork as the Lesland patrol halted. 'Three fish it's Reefpaw and Ringtail again,' she flicked to Ryatzi, and saw him roll his eyes.
Ringtail's voice made it through the trees moments later. "Not a damn fur- or feather-breasted living thing to be seen since this morning's prey-rampage, and you're still hearing things. And what is it you are hearing this time, darling, that nobody else seems to be able to? Oh, a rustle.Every damn thing in this forest rustles, you sensitive-eared buffoon!"
Reefpaw looked peeved. It was the sixth time today he had stopped the group on account of sounds in the forest.
"Yo Bellrock, try and walk a little quieter, will you? You're tripping off radar-ears here," chuckled a Leslander named Condor, shouldering a large male.
"I tol' you already, Reefy hisself's makin' more noise than me. What if it's birds? Little birds peckin' for stuff on the ground?"
"Oh right, I forgot about the birds. Those silent, invisible birds that have been hiding all around us all afternoon."
"Guys, cut it out," said someone else. "Bell may be big, but he's not walking loudly. Maybe there are fruit or nut trees around here, dropping their seeds."
"Ooo, it's the invisible fruit trees now! You must have very good eyes, Creeline. I've sure missed every single one we've walked by!"
No sooner had the words left Condor's mouth than there were two firm stamps in the forest. An outburst of squeaks and chatters preceded a flock of squirrels out of a tree. They scattered and fled.
This had happened this morning too. Then there had been a screaming, broken-winged bird on the patrol's path, a dead branch that had nearly fallen on them, and rather a lot more Drakons than usual cruising overhead. At first, Sethral had relished watching the Leslanders squirm, but now she had to admit it was getting creepy.
The patrol was walking in silence now. Even Ringtail and Condor had ceased with their jibes, for which Reefpaw looked grateful.
It was late afternoon when the ground suddenly got rocky. Outcrops jutted upwards like teeth, grey like the mountains and very sharp. The patrol wound among them through fields of bracken. Reefpaw pointed ahead. A ridge rose from the forest floor, stretching east and west as far as the eye could see. Sethral could not remember having seen such a thing before, and she thought she had explored this part of the forest.
