“Does it. . .” Blaze stopped, not wanting to embarrass Specter.
“Do anything to me? Not really. I can get burnt by the sun easier, but that’s it.”
“Who is this?” a female voice asked from behind Blaze. He turned around to see another saloli standing before him. She was dark gray, but had one distinct attribute that would make her easy to remember. On her face, right around her eyes, the fur suddenly turned black, almost giving her the appearance of a raccoon.
“This is Blaze,” Specter introduced, “Blaze, this is Mask. She is my most trusted ally.”
Mask. A fitting name.
“Is he a tribe saloli?” Mask asked, her interest sparked.
“Yes, he says he’s from NorthTribe.”
“Icefire,” Blaze corrected.
“What brings you here?” the female saloli asked. Taking his first close look at her, Blaze realized that Mask was very beautiful, and that her spot gave her an aura of mystery.
“The river.” he answered.
“Crag and Quarry found him on the riverbank and rescued him.” Specter explained.
“Ah, it seems you owe us, then.” Mask said.
“What?” Blaze asked.
“She’s right,” Specter agreed, “we saved your life, now you owe us.”
“Owe you what?”
“Whatever we want,” the two saloli said together, smiling.
Blaze didn’t like the sound of that, but he hid his unease.
“What is it you want?” he asked.
Specter stopped to think, “I don’t know, yet.” he decided, “But, in the mean time, you will have to stay here with us until we choose.”
“I can’t stay here!” Blaze protested, “I’ve got to get back to my tribe!”
“You never know,” Mask told him, “you may decide you want to remain here, and forget your old tribe!”
“I’m not staying,” Blaze repeated, “my tribe needs me!”
“They won’t miss a single saloli,” Specter disagreed, “In fact, they might even be better off without you. One less mouth to feed.”
“We could definitely use you.” Mask chimed in, “With your knowledge of the tribe territories, you could show us the best places to get food!”
“I. . . what?” Blaze sputtered, offended, “I am not going to help you steal from Icefire!”
“I don’t think we’re giving you a choice!” Mask growled, unsheathing her claws.
“No, Mask,” Specter ordered, “If he wishes to return to his tribe, then we will let him. But,” he turned to face Blaze, “we will not forget that he owes us. When we have decided on what we want, we will find him, and we will get it. One way or the other.”
Mask didn’t seem pleased by this, but honored her chief’s will, “Very well, Specter.” she relented.
“Blaze,” Specter said, “I believe you have worn out your welcome here. You will leave and return to your tribe. Now.”
“But I don’t know the way.” Blaze told him, “I don’t even know where I am.”
“Then Mask will escort you.” Mask nodded, reluctantly.
“Come on, then.” She said, turning and walking away. Blaze followed her.
They left the camp and walked for almost ten minutes in silence. Then Mask spoke up, “So, what’s going on in the tribelands?”
Blaze debated what would be safe to tell her. He decided, in the end, that there was no harm in warning her about Darkcover, “The tribe in the south, Darkcover,” he told her, “is trying to take over the forest. Icefire is about to go to war with them.”
“Take over the entire forest?” Mask repeated, “that’s a good idea.”
“What? Why?”
“Because four tribes are three too many. With only one tribe, things would be much more orderly and easy to control.”
“Goliath doesn’t care about order,” Blaze argued, “He only wants power.”
“Who’s Goliath?”
“Darkcover’s chief. He’s evil.”
Mask turned to look at Blaze, an angry look in her eyes, “And why is he evil? Because he does things differently than you? His priorities don’t match yours? I swear, you idiots and your ideas of good and evil. If anyone is the least bit different, you stamp him as bad.”
“Goliath kills innocent creatures for his own gain.”
“Don’t you? You just said you’re in a war. Isn’t killing creatures for your own gain what war is all about?”
“Goliath even kills the ones that do not pose a threat to him.”
“Look, Blaze,” Mask snapped, “There is no such thing as good or evil. There is only what needs to be done, and the creatures that do it.”
“The histories say that Valde Abbas is the epitome of good, and the Dragon is evil personified.” Blaze argued.
Mask closed her eyes in frustration, “Don’t tell me you actually believe those stories,” she grumbled.
“You mean you don’t?”
“Of course not! They’re nothing but stories to tell young saloli. You’d better be good, or the Dragon will get you! Be a nice little saloli and Valde Abbas will be happy with you. It’s sickening!”
“If you don’t believe in them, then what do you believe?”
“I don’t believe, I know that the earth was formed over millions of years, and that life didn’t appear for another few million. We started out as tiny creatures, far smaller than you can see, and evolved into what we are today after even more millions of years. It’s a far more realistic theory then ‘an all powerful god created everything.’”
“That’s not how it happened.” Blaze insisted.
“Really? Then give me proof of your god. Show me undeniable evidence that they exist.”
“Prove that they don’t.”
“Okay, look around you. Can you see them? Can you hear them or feel them? No, you can’t. That’s enough proof for me. I only believe in things I can see, hear, or touch.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Well, you’re an idiot then. I can’t convince you, and you can’t convince me, so I say we get you back to where you belong so that I won’t have to put up with you anymore.”
“Fine with me.”
The two saloli walked the rest of the way in silence, even trying to avoid eye contact. After almost an hour, Blaze began to notice the scent of Icefire saloli. Finally, Mask stopped.
“Here’s the entrance to your territory” she said, “get going.”
“Thank you.” Blaze said, not really feeling grateful at all.
“Whatever. Just do one thing for me. We’re going to see each other again once Specter decides what it is he wants from you. Until then, I want you to try to come up with a convincing argument for your god. In all the fights I’ve gotten into about them, I have never heard one argument that made me rethink my position. I’d like to hear one, just so I could shut it down with an even better one.”
Ignoring the insult, Blaze turned away and bounded back into his territory. Finally recognizing where he was, he made directly for the camp.
“Halt!” someone yelled. Blaze froze and looked in the direction the voice had come from. Gnaw came running up to him, a patrol directly behind him. “Blaze!” the old saloli exclaimed when he recognized him, “You’re back! Where have you been?”
“I need to speak with Rus. . .” he stopped himself. He was about to say Rust, but then remembered what he had seen. “I need to see Faith.” he said instead.
“Come with me,” Gnaw said, “the rest of you finish the patrol.” Turning tail, he began running back towards camp. Blaze followed. Within minutes they were there. Blaze looked around for the prophet, and spotted her about to climb up into her tree.
“Faith!” he called, catching her attention. She hurried over.
“Blaze, where have you been?” she demanded, “Everyone was so worried about you!”
“I need to speak with you.” Blaze said, “In private.”
Seeing the concern in his eyes, Fa
ith nodded and turned to lead him somewhere they could be alone. When there were no other saloli around to overhear, she asked him again “Where were you?”
“Faith, I don’t think there’s a good way to say this, so I’m just going to do it.” Blaze breathed in, knowing that this was not going to go well, “Rust has betrayed us.”
A confused look crossed Faith’s face, “What are you talking about?” she asked.
“After Rust took me away to talk,” Blaze continued, “I followed him, and his scent went straight over the Cyclone border. I went after him, and the scent led me straight to the Cyclone camp. He was talking to their chief, Goldenrod. He told her that Icefire could not defeat Darkcover, so he had come to them. Faith, Rust is trying to abandon us for Cyclone!”
Faith looked away, concern shining in her eyes, “How did Goldenrod respond?” she asked.
“She turned him down and told him that if he ever comes back that she will kill him.”
“I see. But how does that explain why you’ve been gone for three days?”
“Three days?” Blaze exclaimed, “I’ve been gone for three days?”
“Yes,” Faith answered, “We sent out search parties for you, but you were nowhere to be found. We assumed the worst.”
“You thought I was dead?”
“That, or you had abandoned us for your life as an outsider. But tell me what really happened.”
“After Rust left,” Blaze explained, “I was about to follow him, but a saloli named Freckle caught me. He and a few others chased me across their territory, and I fell into the river. You probably don’t know this, Faith, but Cyclone has a river on their territory that turns into a whirlpool.”
“I suppose you got sucked in?”
“Yes. I lost consciousness. When I woke back up, I was on the riverbank. Two saloli rescued me and brought me to their camp.”
“What tribe were they?” Faith asked, “Wait, the river in Cyclone doesn’t go into any other territories!”
“Exactly. I met their chief, Specter, and asked what this was. He told me it was called NoTribe, a place where outsiders could go to band together.”
“NoTribe.” Faith mused, “There are stories about tribes of outsiders, but I never believed them. It seems, though, that they are true. What happened next?”
“Specter informed me that he was an albino, then introduced me to his right hand saloli, Mask. She told Specter that he should make me pay for saving my life. They wanted me to stay with them until they decided on something, but I convinced them to allow me to return home.”
“And you did, Gnaw found you, and that’s the end of it? NoTribe wants nothing more to do with you?”
“Well, Specter did say, before I left, that they would find me when they had decided on something, and take it.”
Faith’s eyes lit up with alarm, “Blaze, that’s bad! Very bad! Please tell me that you found your way here on your own, or at least kept your mouth shut about which tribe you came from!”
“No, I told them that I was from Icefire, and Mask led me back here.”
“Blaze!” Faith shouted, “Do you realize what you’ve done? You've just shown a potentially hostile saloli where our camp is!”
“But she already knew! She led me here.”
“But if you hadn’t told them what tribe you were in, they wouldn’t have known! Now we’re all in danger!”
Blaze, realizing that Faith was telling the truth, hung his head and tail in shame.
“We need to tell Rust so that he can prepare the tribe.” The prophet said.
“No!” Blaze responded, “Didn’t you hear what I just told you about him? He isn’t on our side any more!”
Faith turned to face him, a flash of anger lighting her eyes, “Blaze, do you really have so little faith in your own chief? Rust will never betray Icefire. I know this for a fact.”
“How can you know that?”
“It’s not my place to tell you. You will have to ask Rust. Now come, we need to speak with him.”
This was the second time Blaze had heard that, “But how do you explain what he was talking about to Goldenrod?”
“I don’t know. I’m sure he has good intentions, though.”
“Wait. At the very least, please don’t tell him what I was doing.”
Faith thought about it, then nodded, “Very well. I will tell him that you were chasing an outsider off of our territory, and were captured by NoTribe.”
“What about why they know where the camp is?”
“Because you escaped, but they chased you here.” Not waiting for him to ask another question, Faith turned and ran towards Rust, who was organizing a patrol. His eyes brightened when he saw Blaze.
“Blaze!” he exclaimed, “You’re back!”
Filthy traitor, Blaze thought.
“Rust, I’m afraid I have bad news,” Faith spoke up, “Blaze tells me that he went missing because he saw an outsider on Icefire territory, and chased him away. However, when he reached the north border, he was ambushed and captured by an entire gang of outsiders. They took him to their camp, where he learned that they called themselves NoTribe. They claim that they are a home for saloli with no tribe. They tried to keep Blaze captive, but he escaped and returned here, and in doing so led them straight to our camp.”
“I’ll send out a defensive patrol immediately.” Rust said without hesitation, turning and running away.
“He isn’t going to find anyone.” Blaze insisted, “They won’t be back until they decide what they want from me.”
“Maybe so, but it never hurts to be too careful.”
“But what about Rust? I’m telling you, Faith, he’s not loyal to Icefire anymore!”
“Blaze, I’m done talking about this. Rust is completely loyal to his tribe, and that’s the end of it!”
Chapter Twenty Two
Over the next three days, Blaze didn’t forget what he had thought while hiding in Cyclone territory. Since it was obvious, at least to him, that Rust had betrayed them, the best option could be to kill him when they were alone, then blame it on another tribe. Darkcover would be the most convincing. It wouldn’t be easy, physically or mentally. Now that Slicer was dead, Rust was officially the best fighter in Icefire. Rust was also the saloli Blaze had always looked up to more than any other. Killing him would be like killing his own father, even if it was necessary. But how to get Rust alone? Having just returned from a patrol, Blaze lay down in the shade of the common’s tree to think. Before five minutes had passed, he sensed another saloli lay down next to him. Looking over, he saw that it was Newthorn.
“Hey, Blaze.” she greeted him.
“Hi.” He said back.
“You look troubled. Is everything all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Are you sure? You’ve been acting strange ever since Slicer died.”
The dream. Blaze hadn’t had the dream for so long that he’d almost forgotten it. But there was the new one now, the one he had had while unconscious. He still couldn’t make sense of it. Find it within? Within what? He couldn’t even begin to decipher what the voice meant by “become.”
“I’m fine.” he repeated.
The two were quiet for a few minutes, then Newthorn spoke up again, “You know,” she told him, “you’re breaking Sunbeam’s heart.”
“What?” Blaze exclaimed, “How?”
“She wants to spend her life with you,” Newthorn answered, “but you never take any notice of her. She thinks you don’t like her.”
“Of course I like her!” Blaze insisted, “How do you even know this?”
“She told me. She also told me that she’d ask you for marriage herself, like I did with Smallthorn, but won’t, because she thinks it would embarrass you.”
“Embarrass me?” Blaze gasped. How low a saloli did Sunbeam think he was?
“She says that it’s natural. A big hero like you would never take an interest in a common saloli like her.”
Hearing th
is, Blaze’s heart sank into his stomach, leaving him feeling lower than dirt. Did Sunbeam really think that way about him? How could he fix it? Should he fix it?
“If you want my advice,” Newthorn said, “I’d run over there and ask her to marry you right now.”
“But I. . .”
Legends of the Saloli: Approaching Storm Page 24
