by Thomas Rowe
“Bravery is not something you can feel. It’s strength that is given when it is needed,” he added.
“What are we going to do to the traitors?” Hastings inquired.
“The cowardly snakes! This deception will be dealt with swiftly!” Michael stormed.
“Jeremiah is mine!!” Leana interrupted with a snarl, visibly surprising Michael. Up until now Michael had been accustomed to her being more timid and less assertive due to the newness of her work. Her newly gained confidence was a good thing; there was little room in the chain of command for timidity.
“You should put the Longclaw family under guard. We can draw out the others,” Cheshire added.
“Very well,” Michael agreed.
“She’s an Alpha after all,” Michael thought to himself as he and Hastings exited the chamber.
“Are you certain you can identify the lynx that you saw earlier?” Chesh inquired after he was sure that they were alone.
“Yes.”
“Then I think it’s time we paid him a visit, don’t you?”
****
Jasper Holly had been surprised when Joshua, the Duke of Lynx, had asked him to be a guide for some visiting guests that he was expecting. Upon getting over his surprise, Jasper agreed to help.
“What clan do your guests belong to Sir Lynx?” Jasper asked after being told that the animals whom he was supposed to guide were waiting inside the cave that he and Joshua were now standing in front of.
“Don’t be afraid. They are quite friendly. I would trust my cubs with them. They just did not like waiting in the heat. Why don’t you go in and introduce yourself?” Joshua answered reassuringly.
After a moment’s hesitation, Jasper ventured into the cave. Upon entering a few feet he found that the cave split into two dark tunnels. As far as Jasper could see, he was alone.
“Hello,” he called out.
“Hello, Jasper,” a male voice echoed from the tunnel on the right.
“Who’s there?”
“You haven’t forgotten ME, have you?” a female voice added. Jasper recognized THAT voice. It was the voice of the nurse. The nurse was hiding in the left tunnel. Jasper turned to run but was stopped by Cheshire, who had been hiding in the mouth of the right tunnel. Towering over the terrified lynx, Cheshire looked down on him with a glare.
“Come join my folly, Jasper. We’re having such fun,” he growled.
“I hear he likes to have his whiskers pulled,” Lea commented after joining Cheshire.
“No. No! I’d never hurt anyone. I’d never hurt the nurse,” Jasper babbled, terrified by the look that Cheshire was giving him.
“I suggest you redeem yourself by telling Lady Longclaw where Jeremiah is,” Cheshire hissed.
“He’s been hanging out down by Cold Brook,” Jasper whined.
“Thank you, Jasper. I’m certain that you feel better now,” Lea replied sarcastically and then started to leave.
“Can I go now?” Jasper called after Leana, who was about to step outside the mouth of the cave.
“No, you and I are going to have a chat,” Cheshire answered menacingly.
“What about?” Jasper gulped.
“Just this: this is something you can share with your friends. If I ever find out that you have so much as breathed wrong around Lady Longclaw, I will introduce you to a world of pain that you have yet to experience,” Cheshire informed Jasper with a vicious snarl.
CHAPTER 46
Thorson knew that if he did not act quickly he would lose his prey. Therefore, after covering his tell-tale scars with mud, he sprinted to Cold Brook, where he knew Jeremiah would be basking in the glory of his own ego and pondering what to do next.
“Thank goodness I found you! That half-bit has turned and made the female his dark priestess!” Thorson exclaimed frantically after finding Jeremiah.
“What?!” Jeremiah gasped in shock.
“I came upon them during one of their dark rituals. I tell you, the Dragon has them. I tried to stop them, but they marred me with their powers,” Thorson continued with a dramatic motion toward the scars on his muzzle. Jermiah gawked at the wounds too horrified to realize it was a lie.
Before Jeremiah had time to weigh Thorson’s false revelation against reality Leana burst into the clearing, sending him into a terror stricken panic.
“Jeremiah!!” she growled through her teeth.
Super charged by his deception, Thorson rammed Leana full force, knocking her backwards and causing her to land flat on her back with a painful thud.
“Run and get help; I’ll hold this one off!” Thorson continued his lie.
With a nod Jeremiah dashed off into the woods in search of help. With his vain pawn taken care of, Thorson now turned his full attention toward Leana. Before she could recover from her landing, Thorson quickly broke a tree branch off and dropped it onto her neck.
“Now I’m going to use your lifeless body to frame that idiotic cougar for murder,” he informed her with a sneer, and then he started to press down on the branch. Leana struggled valiantly against the demon’s strength, hoping for a miracle. “You should really be honored. It’s not every day that I choose a creature as low as you to help me lie,” he added.
Just as Leana’s strength was beginning to falter, a loud ripping sound made Thorson freeze, instinctively aware of the sound’s origin. Horrified he quickly spun around to find himself face to face with Cheshire, who had been using his claws to remove Thorson’s fake fur disguise from his side. Cheshire wanted the demon’s full attention and attacking his vanity seemed to be the best way to safely get him away from Leana.
“Mind if I cut in?” Cheshire taunted his victim with a grin and a flash of claws.
“You!!” Thorson roared after seeing the large section of fake fur that Cheshire had ripped off his side. This nakedness revealed his scales, which he had worked so hard to hide. Enraged, Thorson quickly abandoned Leana and lunged at Cheshire, who avoided and countered the blows aimed at him. All the while he was drawing Thorson deep into the forest. Being chased by a demon was not safe, but it was decidedly preferable to Leana being endangered.
Once Leana had recovered, she took off in pursuit of Jeremiah, overtaking him as he attempted to pause and catch his breath. Without slowing down Leana pounced on him, knocking him over and sending both of them rolling across the forest floor. She then sprang to her feet and turned to face Jeremiah.
“You threatened my family!”
“Back, Demon!” Jeremiah shouted in as authoritative a tone as he could muster.
“Demon?” Leana responded with a glare.
“Thorson told me all about you, Dark Priestess!” he stated in a self-righteous tone.
“How dare you!” Leana snarled indignantly and swung at him in blind fury.
Jeremiah narrowly dodged the cougaress’ blows and sprinted away frantically with her in hot pursuit.
CHAPTER 47
Jeremiah’s retreat from Leana’s wrath ended quickly when he found that the path he was traveling stopped at a brush-covered sandstone rock face. Knowing he was cornered, Jeremiah turned back and found himself almost nose to nose with Leana.
“I serve the Lamb!” she growled.
“Wretch, you lie!” With that all words between the two cougars ended and a stare down began.
With a loud crash Thorson staggered out onto the path between Jeremiah and Leana. With every step more and more of his false covering fell to the ground, revealing the serpent who lived beneath the lies. Both cougars watched in amazement as Cheshire burst out from the tree line and pounced on to Thorson, knocking him to the ground. No longer able to draw power from Leana’s earlier lie Thorson found his power diminishing in the presence of truth.
“Y-you?” Jeremiah stammered with an expression of disillusionment as he looked toward his one time ally.
“You have been deceived!” Leana commented with a look of disgust.
Jeremiah looked down in disgust and horror at
the exposed demon and then turned his gaze to Leana. After glancing down at Thorson again he foolishly lurched forward with a snarl. Not trusting Jeremiah to not attack her, Leana pounced on top of him, knocking him through the brush and through a hole in the stone wall. Jeremiah rolled across the stone threshold, eventually coming to rest on his right shoulder. After seeing what had happened, Leana sprinted into the chamber after him, leaving Cheshire to watch after Thorson.
“You won’t have to worry about me going in there,” Thorson gasped as he tried to wriggle out of Cheshire’s grip.
“ Your kind fear the Master that is why you don’t dare enter a place that is dedicated to him. The Council Chamber has been blessed. You dare not go in,” Cheshire commented. Thorson’s only response was a glare.
“After this your little friend will not be welcome there either. You know what happens if blood is shed,” Thorson commented hoping for one last chance to inflict pain. He did not want to let his captor have the last word, especially after what he had done to his perfect form. Thorson gleefully watched as his captor realized that he was telling the truth for once. The Covenant of Peace in Evermore required that if blood was shed in the Council Chamber, under any circumstances, the attacker would be banished to the Outlands forever. The Council Chamber was a place of refuge and the laws were enforced strictly.
“Use the Council rules against them for a change,” Thorson thought to himself smugly as he observed Cheshire anxiously watching the chamber entrance. However, Thorson’s joy was brought to an end abruptly as he watched in terror as Cheshire turned to the Master in prayer and he felt the searing pain of the Master’s Name.
Thorson’s feeling of agony quickly grew into dizziness and shaking as Cheshire continued praying. With the dizziness came a feeling of sinking. Suddenly the demon realized the truth. He had been defeated.
“ In the name of the Divine Master I bind your unholy powers and cast you out of this domain!” Cheshire prayed over his captive, who vanished with a screech, leaving Cheshire to wait and pray for his friend outside the chamber.
CHAPTER 48
Leana cautiously entered the chamber. Silently she surveyed her surroundings. After a moment’s study she discovered that she was inside the Council Chamber. Jeremiah lay on his side under one of the skylights making no effort to stand up. Instead he lay on his side squalling. Leana cautiously walked up to Jeremiah, all the while ready to jump back if he was attempting to trick her.
When Jeremiah had first landed on the chamber floor, he hit with enough force to dislocate his left front shoulder.
“M-my shoulder!” Jeremiah exclaimed in a voice that matched his throbbing shoulder. He looked helplessly up at Leana, who stood silently brooding over him.
“I-I’m s-sorry…Gah! I …des-erv th-this!” Jeremiah stammered between waves of pain.
At first Leana met his words with a glare, but something about his words stopped her. Looking down at Jeremiah she could see something that she could not before. It was in his eyes; they were no longer clouded over with self-importance. Instead they were filled with heart felt conviction.
“He’s being genuine!” Leana thought to herself as she watched Jeremiah toss and turn in agony.
When Jeremiah saw Leana lift her paw off the ground, he closed his eyes and waited for what he thought would be his execution. Seeing that her patient was as prepped as he would ever be, Leana used all her body weight to reset Jeremiah’s dislocated shoulder instead. Jeremiah squalled in pain momentarily and then looked up at Leana in a state of shock.
“Don’t move! I’ll get help,” Leana instructed her patient after finishing the work on his shoulder.
When Leana stepped out of the chamber, she found Cheshire waiting anxiously for news.
“Did you?” he asked, with a worried expression.
“I reset his shoulder,” she answered quietly.
“Thank you!” Cheshire exclaimed to the Master. Startled, Leana hopped backwards and. watched in amazement as Cheshire embraced a blessing that was understood only by him.
Joyfully Cheshire turned his attention toward Leana. Battered and bruised, Leana had not only survived, but she had maintained the self-discipline to conduct herself as the Lamb had taught.
“You!” Cheshire addressed her with a broad smile and a friendly pat on the shoulder. Battle-sore and weary, Leana toppled over under the weight of her friend’s paw resting on her shoulder. This made Cheshire realize that he must get help for both Jeremiah and for Leana, who was exhausted herself.
CHAPTER 49
Not trusting any battle that involved a demon, Michael had sent Hastings and his falcon brothers to watch over the area around the Falls of Accord. The Falls housed the Council Chamber and bordered Cougar territory. The falcons were to report what they saw directly to him. When Michael learned that the battle had ended, he sent in the cougar nurses and a group of warriors to take Jeremiah away. Cheshire met the group on the trail and led them back to the side entrance of the Council Chamber. The nurses quickly went to work on Leana, Jeremiah, and Cheshire, who reluctantly accepted treatment after the others were taken care of.
“What happened in there?” Cheshire asked Leana between muscle massages.
“When I first entered the Council Chamber in pursuit of Jeremiah, I wanted to beat every word he had said out of him; but when I saw him lying there, I was able to see that he realized that he had been lied to and used and was truly sorry even before he apologized. When he did apologize, I remembered what the Master said about forgiveness,” Leana answered.
“You have no idea how thankful I am for that small miracle. I like you far better not banished to the Outlands. I would have a hard time seeing you there,” Chesh admitted.
Bounding through the crowd with a grouping of wildflowers in his mouth, Paul Longclaw wasted no time reaching his big sister. Not far behind him followed the Duke of Jaguars, Maxwell Panther, who had been watching over the Longclaw family while Jeremiah was loose.
“I brought these for you,” Paul announced after he had dropped the grouping of wildflowers in front of Leana and looked to his sister for approval.
“Oh my! Thank you, Paul!” Leana thanked her brother in a tone which hid her anxiety about the lavender. After all, he was totally innocent of any knowledge of her recent encounter with Ebb and her tools of corruption. He only picked the flowers because he thought they would make a nice gift.
“Hey, Paul. Where did you find those flowers?” Cheshire distracted the cub just long enough to give the nurses time to remove the lavender from the bouquet of flowers which he had brought her. The grouping was equally beautiful without the lavender, and they needed to do some quick detective work to determine how the actual lavender plant would affect Leana after having been exposed to Ebb’s demonic mist which had taken control of her. Taking an object that was good and using it for evil was one of the Dragon’s oldest tricks.
“Mr. Max helped me. We hunted them down,” Paul explained proudly.
“Yeah. They are tough to track down,” the Duke of Jaguars added with a smile.
Cheshire had begun to chuckle at the thought of Max and Paul’s flower hunt, but he stopped abruptly when his nurse hit the sensitive bite mark on the back of his neck.
“Does it hurt?” Paul asked with a gesture toward the infamous scar on Cheshire’s neck.
“No. It just serves as a reminder.”
“A wound worthy of a hero!” Paul exclaimed after moving closer to examine the scar.
“Then we have another hero,” Leana’s nurse interrupted, grabbing the group’s attention. All eyes turned to her as she examined a small mark on the back of Leana’s neck.
“What?” Leana stammered in shock.
“You have a bite mark back here,” the nurse answered, bringing back partial half-bit fear to the group.
“I did that,” Cheshire said, drawing the anxious crowd’s attention. “I could not let her drown,” he added. Knowing that this type
of bite was harmless, the entire group calmed down, except for Paul. He quickly scooted away from both Cheshire and Leana.
“Now you both have big sister cooties!” Paul grumbled dismally, bringing laughter from the crowd.
“Ah, well. That’s the price of fame. Hero one minute and cootied the next,” Max commented with a chuckle.
“Yeah, but I am used to it at this point,” Cheshire smiled. He had no problem with being called that.
CHAPTER 50
The trial of Jeremiah Pineneedle captured the attention of the whole Cougar clan. The clan wanted to see how the Marquis would deal with the mutiny led by the misguided Jeremiah Pineneedle. It was also rumored that Lady Longclaw, the Marquis’ assistant, would take part in the proceedings. The trial promised to be an event that no cat wanted to miss.
The morning of the trial ashen gray clouds swept over the valley and threatened to soak all those below them. Wisely the Marquis had moved the trial to the community pavilion. As was the custom, a village crier was sent out to alert the citizens of the change. There would be no secret trials under the reign of the Cougar family.
The first rain drops began to fall as the Marquis entered the pavilion. All cats rose to their feet as the Marquis walked down a path that lead to the front of the pavilion. Lady Longclaw entered moments later, followed by Head Constable Cropper. Lady Longclaw walked up to the wood and vine platform that the Marquis sat on and took a seat. After conferring with a cougar that wore blue stripes on his muzzle, Head Constable Cropper approached the Marquis.
“ Sir Cougar, we are ready to begin,” he announced.
“ Very Good,” the Marquis replied. The Marquis then shifted his attention to the raccoon scribes who sat ready to record the trial on bark scrolls.
“ Bring in the accused,” The Marquis ordered in a serious tone.
Jeremiah walked up to the platform escorted by constables. Jeremiah was soaked, looked haggard, and broken. He wearily looked up at the Marquis and then followed his guards to the place where he was supposed to stand. The Marquis watched the accused closely, his green eyes following Jeremiah’s every move. Once satisfied with his appraisal, the Marquis turned his attention toward the Head Constable.
