“I do,” said Thunder, his gaze cold, angry, and focused entirely on Blaze.
“I do,” Blaze repeated, sizing up his opponent. Just like he had surmised, Thunder was larger than him, and more heavily muscled.
“Good,” Rust raised a leaf off the stone. “I will climb to the top of the nearest tree and drop this leaf. When it reaches the ground, the fight will begin. Understand?”
Blaze and Thunder nodded. Without another word, Rust leapt down from the Speaking Stone, and raced up the closest tree. Arriving at the top branch, he scurried to the end of it, which was just above the center of the ring. He waited a few seconds, and then dropped the leaf. It slowly floated downwards. Five seconds. Six seconds. Blaze fixed his gaze on Thunder, just as the other trainee did the same. Ten seconds. It was almost to the ground. Twelve seconds. Three feet from the ground. Fourteen seconds. Almost there. Sixteen seconds. One foot from the ground. At eighteen seconds, it finally touched down.
Without warning, Thunder charged straight across the circle at Blaze. When he was only a foot away, he sprang into the air, claws extended. Not allowing himself time to think, Blaze dodged to the left. Thunder streaked past him, missing Blaze only by inches. Before the bully could turn to face him, Blaze sprung forward and lashed out with his claws, giving Thunder a good scratch in his side. Thunder spun around and tried to scratch Blaze back, but he was so close that he ended up only striking Blaze with his paw, knocking him off his feet. Taking advantage of Blaze being on his back, Thunder jumped on top of him. Holding Blaze down just with his weight, Thunder slashed at his opponent’s face with his claws. Blaze felt blood trickling down his face. Relying on his instincts, Blaze raised his back legs, and ran their claws down Thunder’s stomach. This hurt the older trainee enough for Blaze to push him off. Jumping to his paws, Blaze gave Thunder another wicked scratch, this time on the side of his face, leaving a red slice. Blaze realized, then, what the difference was between their fighting styles. While Thunder was stronger, his strikes also came slower. Blaze, on the other hand was slightly faster, but his strikes were lighter. He decided to use that to his advantage.
He took a step backwards to avoid another slash from Thunder, then jumped forward again to lash at Thunder’s face again. It caught the trainee on his cheek, leaving another bloody mark behind. This one seemed to stun Thunder, as he put a paw to his cheek, and drew it away to see the blood. Suddenly his face contorted with fury, and he jumped at Blaze, bowling him over onto his back. Unsheathing his claws all the way, Thunder swiped them down Blaze’s face again. Sharp, stabbing pain lanced through Blaze’s face, blinding him momentarily. When he regained his sight, he saw that Thunder was raising his paw, about to ravage his face again. Before he had the chance, though, Blaze shifted his weight, throwing the other trainee off of him. Scrambling to his paws again, Blaze jumped on top of Thunder. The fiery pelted saloli raised his paws, extended his claws, and began swiping them across his opponent’s face in long, fast swings. Bloody scratches appeared all over Thunder’s face. Part of Blaze was shocked that he could ever be this brutal, but that part was buried by the animalistic rage that consumed the rest of him. All that mattered was to make sure Thunder never had the chance to harm him again. For almost half a minute Blaze continued to rend Thunder’s face, then the brown trainee copied Blaze’s earlier move, and raked his back claws down his opponent’s stomach. Leaping off to escape Thunder’s claws, Blaze glanced down to inspect his newest wounds, but jerked his head back up again as he saw Thunder come charging straight at him again, his face bleeding all over. The brown saloli leapt into the air, once again, claws outstretched. Thinking quick, Blaze fell onto his back and, when Thunder was just about to land on top of him, thrust upwards with his back legs. They connected with Thunder’s stomach, making him “oof” in pain, and continued upwards, in an arc, until Thunder was thrown into the air, over Blaze, and into the crowd of watching saloli. Icefire gasped, and parted to allow Thunder to make his way back into the ring, but Rust didn’t give him the chance. “That’s enough!” he shouted, quickly making his way back down the tree, “That’s enough!”
Razor pushed his way through the crowd until he stood in front of his chief, “What are you doing?” he demanded, “Don’t interfere!”
“The fight is over,” said Rust, moving to stand in front of Razor, “Blaze has won.”
“What do you mean he’s won? Thunder’s still standing!” Razor shouted. It was true, the brown trainee came limping back into the ring just as his trainer spoke those words. His face bled from over a dozen face wounds, many of them obviously going to leave scars, and he held his front left paw awkwardly, as if it pained him to put weight on it.
“Thunder is no fit condition to continue fighting,” Rust decreed, “Besides, the rules of the Challenge of Determination state that if a trainee leaves the ring, he automatically loses. Blaze threw Thunder into the crowd. Blaze wins.”
For a moment, Razor stood still, too shocked to move. Then he turned to face Blaze, his eyes shining with fury. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then thought better of it. Instead he turned to Thunder and shouted, “I hope you enjoy your life as a failure, Thunder, because you just blew your chances at ever being anything else!”
“That’s enough!” Rust said angrily, claws bared, “How dare you speak to your own trainee that way?”
“He’s no trainee!” Razor shouted, “Not anymore! Now he might as well be an outsider for all the good he’ll ever do for us! I want nothing more to do with him!” With that, he turned and stormed away, leaving over two hundred shocked saloli behind him. Looking over at Thunder, Blaze saw tears begin to seep out of his opponent’s eyes, making him wince when the salty water ran into his facial wounds.
“It’s okay, Thunder,” Rust said consolingly, “There will always be a place for you here in Icefire.”
“He’s right,” Thunder whimpered, “There’s no point in my being alive anymore.”
“Of course there is,” Rust admonished him, “As long as you remain loyal, Icefire will always fight to keep anything from happening to you.”
“I don’t want Icefire to fight for me!” Thunder shouted at his chief, “I want to fight for Icefire!” Not able to stand every saloli staring at him in his failure any longer, Thunder turned tail and ran, limping, back to the trainee’s tree.
The tree he’s condemned to sleep in for the rest of his life. Blaze thought, actually feeling sorry for the bully. His sympathy was short lived however, as Rust then gave him something else to think about. Turning to face the red trainee, he said, “Congratulations, Blaze. You have not only earned the right to take your first patrol, but you have also proved your competence in fighting. You should be proud.” Thunder forgotten for the moment, Blaze beamed. He had actually won! He was going to become a full member of Icefire! “Jasper will take his patrol first,” Rust continued, “And you will follow, after Seedpicker and I have evaluated him.”
“Yes, sir!” Blaze said, not knowing if he could wait that long. He had learned from Slicer that a patrol took you all the way around Icefire’s four borders, which were almost a mile long each.
Having no more to say, Rust turned away and walked over to Jasper, where he began explaining what would happen now. This not being any of Blaze’s business, he turned around and started walking across the camp. The fight being over and the winner proclaimed, the crowd of saloli had dissipated, every saloli chatting amiably. Faith came to him only long enough to press a leaf against his face to stop the bleeding. “Leave it there,” she told him before scurrying off. Blaze wondered where he ought to go. He obviously wasn’t welcome back at in the trainee’s tree, with Thunder sulking up there, so he just wandered around, watching as Jasper left the camp for his patrol, followed, at a distance, by Rust and another saloli that Blaze guessed was Seedpicker.
“Hi!” someone said behind him. Caught off guard, Blaze whipped around in surprise. The first thought that had entered his head when he had hear
d it was Chestnut, but this saloli, although obviously female, looked nothing like Chestnut. For one thing, she was bigger, closer to Blaze’s size than Chestnut’s. Her fur was also white, with a very small hint of yellow in it. She was very pretty.
Um, hi,” Blaze said back, feeling ridiculous with a leaf stuck to his face.
“I saw your fight.” the white saloli said, obviously not caring about the leaf. “You were really good!”
“Thanks,” Blaze responded, wondering is she could see him blush under his fur.
“I only became a full tribe member two months ago, so I know how good a fighter you must be to have beat Thunder. I’ve fought him before, but never won.”
“Um, thanks,” Blaze said again. He wasn’t used to receiving praise from anyone besides Slicer.
“Oh, where are my manners? My name’s Sunbeam!” she said, introducing herself. Blaze could see why she was called that. Her fur looked almost like a ray of sunlight.
“I’m Blaze,” He responded. He had gotten over how weird it was to introduce himself with a false name long ago. He had decided that it wasn’t a false name. It was his real name, at least while he was a saloli. Blaze had become a completely different being from Jeremy.
“I know, everyone knows who you are. Rust did name you in front of the whole tribe, after all. Anyway, I was wondering, would you like to sleep next to me in the Common’s tree?”
Blaze blinked in surprise. Had this pretty saloli just offered to sleep next to him? In saloli culture, that qualified you as the other saloli’s friend. “Yeah, sure!” Blaze agreed, “But Jasper will be able to as well, won’t he?”
“Of course!” Sunbeam approved, “I think it’s so unfair how nobody thinks he’s capable of anything just because he’s so small!”
“Well, he certainly proved them all wrong two nights ago,” Blaze said, feeling pride for his friend.
“Yeah, but he still didn’t do what you did.” Sunbeam pointed out, “If it weren’t for you, he wouldn’t have jumped down in the first place, and Rust would be dead.”
“But I’d be dead if it weren’t for Jasper,” Blaze argued.
“I know, I’m not saying what he did wasn’t very brave, I’m just saying that you were the star of the show that night. All Jasper did was play a backup roll.” As much as he didn’t like what Sunbeam was saying, he couldn’t deny that it sounded like the truth. Blaze didn’t want to take all the credit for what happened that night for himself, quite the contrary. He wanted Jasper to share in the praise too, but what Sunbeam said still made sense. “Hey,” Sunbeam said, jerking Blaze out of his thoughts, “Let’s go over there.” She motioned to the far edge of camp, opposite the Speaking Stone, “We can sit in the shade under the common’s tree until Jasper gets back.”
“Good idea.” Blaze agreed. As he and Sunbeam crossed the camp, his heart began fluttering the same way it did when he was around Chestnut. He had determined that those feelings were ones of attraction, but he felt guilty about directing them towards Sunbeam. He knew he was attracted to Chestnut, so did that mean he was cheating on her? On the other hand, he and Chestnut weren’t together, so did that make it all right? All the confusion he had felt when he had first met Chestnut came flooding back to him now. Should he, would he, can he, could he? Arriving in the shade under the Common’s tree, Blaze and Sunbeam both laid down in the cool grass. It was still early summer, so the weather was hot and the shade was crowded with saloli.
“So,” Sunbeam asked, “what was it like being an outsider?”
Luckily, Blaze had decided it was probably best to make up a story about being an outsider, so he wouldn’t raise suspicion when saloli asked him, “Well,” Blaze began, “it was a lot harder than living in Icefire. We don’t know all your techniques for fighting or finding food, so we just have to take what our luck brings us.”
“Oh, we don’t believe in luck here in Icefire.” Sunbeam informed him, “We believe that every acorn we find and every battle we win is a blessing from Valde Abbas. Is it true that outsiders don’t believe in him?” Sunbeam asked.
“Um, well,” Blaze stuttered. This was not a question he had been expecting. “It’s not that we don’t believe in him,” he explained, “It’s more that we just haven’t heard of him.”
Sunbeam gasped. “You’d never heard of Valde Abbas before you joined Icefire? That’s terrible! Valde Abbas is the only reason us forest creatures have to live! How much do you know now?”
“Um, not much,” Blaze admitted, “All I know is that Icefire pretty much worships him, and that he gives the prophets special powers.”
“That is unacceptable!” Sunbeam declared. “An Icefire saloli needs to know who it is that keeps him alive and healthy! Listen, I’ll tell you about him.” Blaze had a feeling that this was going to be a pretty long story, so he settled himself in the cool, shady grass, and hoped that Jasper would not get back until it was finished.
“In the beginning,” said Sunbeam, “there was only Valde Abbas. For reasons unknown to us, he created this earth we live on today. At first, everything was good. All the earth was a forest, and there was no need for any creatures to eat meat. All the earth’s inhabitants lived together in harmony. For many years, it remained this way. Then, a single creature became dissatisfied. It was a saloli named Sol. He’d had a mate, whom he loved more than anything. Unfortunately, she died from an unknown cause. Death was a completely foreign concept to these creatures, who had only ever known life. Utterly confused, Sol went to Valde Abbas, and asked what had happened. Valde Abbas looked at his subject with love, and answered that his mate had lost her life, and was now living with him in his enormous castle. When Sol requested that she be returned to him, Valde Abbas refused, because that was not the plan he had made. He promised that Sol could see her again when he died as well, but not a moment before. Dejected, Sol left.
“That night, an entity unknown to the earth came to Sol. It called itself the Dragon, and claimed to know more about Valde Abbas than anyone else on earth. It told Sol many lies, saying that Valde Abbas was a terrible, wicked person. It said that Sol would never see his mate again, unless he was to take her by force. As it spoke, Sol began to feel an emotion that was completely new to him. It was anger. Still, he was hesitant. How could any creature take something from the father of everything? Surely he was too powerful! The Dragon promised Sol that it would provide him with all the power he required to do the deed. All he needed to do was pledge his loyalty to the Dragon for all eternity. The idea pleased Sol, and he obliged, shouting his pledge at the top of his voice.
“What Sol did not know, though, was that the Dragon was not a good creature. Many years ago, even before the earth had been created, the Dragon had been a servant to Valde Abbas. But it had not been content to simply serve him, it wanted to rule. The Dragon had revolted against Valde Abbas, but could not match his power. In the end, Valde Abbas had cast the Dragon out of his castle forever. Since that day, it had stalked the earth, waiting for the chance to strike at one of Valde Abbas’ creatures, because there was nothing more important to him than his subjects. When it saw Sol, it knew that he was the one to carry out its plans.
“The Dragon gave Sol amazing powers, powers that allowed him to destroy any creature that got into his way. At first, Sol was hesitant to use them, but he eventually began to enjoy them. With his new powers, he could take whatever he wanted, and give nothing in return. The only thing he could not take was the one thing he desired most, his mate. When he asked the Dragon what he was to do, it told him to gather more creatures, and it would increase Sol’s strength. The saloli did as it commanded, and brought a dozen creatures to meet the Dragon. It immediately offered them the same power that it had given Sol. Ten of the creatures refused, but the darkness in the hearts of the last two had been awakened. They, too, pledged their loyalty to the Dragon and received powers. With the aid of his new allies, Sol continued to bring creatures to his wicked master. Every time, some would refuse, but the number that
accepted would grow each time. Some came out of fear, others from lust for power. It didn’t matter so long as they came. Soon, Sol had an entire army at his command, and they called themselves the Black Legion.
“Finally, the Dragon decided that it was time to attack. It commanded Sol to take his Legion and march against Valde Abbas’ castle. By sunset, the Black Legion was poised to attack. When their general sounded the charge, they swarmed to the castle walls, but were unable to break through. Valde Abbas’ power was more than a match for theirs, but he could not bring himself to harm the creatures he loved. From his tallest tower, Valde Abbas cast his gaze across the world he had created. The Dragon’s lies had spread far and wide, and even those creatures that had not turned against him had been corrupted. His heart broken by the devastation that had claimed all his creation, Valde Abbas took his castle and placed it beyond the sunrise, where the Dragon’s vileness could not reach him.
“The Dragon was upset that Valde Abbas had not truly been defeated, but was satisfied to have the earth to itself. With his new powers, Sol had completely forgotten about his lost mate. The Black Legion now held claim over the earth, and there was no creature who dared to stand against them. Valde Abbas looked down at his world, and made a decision. He could not stand to watch everything he had made fall to ruin, so he would rally a mighty force to fight back. It was a saloli that started this, he reasoned, so the saloli would be the ones to end it.
Legends of the Saloli: Approaching Storm Page 9
