Legends of the Saloli: Approaching Storm (18 page)

“
Yet?” Jasper asked, suspiciously.

“
You will know someday. Everyone will. But, for now, it is best kept secret.”

Jasper nodded, seemingly accepting this as the best answer he would receive at the moment, and turned towards the common’s tree. Before he set off, though, he turned back and said, “Tribes don’t keep secrets from each other. If we can’t trust each other, we can’t trust anyone.” Faith didn’t respond, only turning her head to look away. Blaze imagined he saw a pang of guilt in her eyes.

Chapter
Ten

Three weeks passed without further incident. Talons frightened the other saloli quite often, but that was to be expected. Rust kept to his chiefly duties, but always managed to steer clear of Blaze. Jasper wasn’t happy that secrets were being kept from him, especially ones that his best friend was in on, but managed to suppress the negative feelings for the sake of friendship. It turned out that Talons, though full grown, was still barely an adult. Because of this, he was very reckless and forever getting into trouble. Being used to living with other eagles, Talons went hunting three times a day, and would always drop whatever he caught into the center of the camp, next to the saloli’s acorn pile, much to the disgust of Blaze’s tribemates. Fearing the eagle so much, though, they never spoke up about it, except for Jasper. Jasper seemed to have no fear of the bird, and wouldn’t hesitate to shout at him. Blaze himself didn’t mind the dead animals as much as he feared that one day Talons would drop a saloli into the camp. His fears were proven groundless, however, as that day never came. Apparently, Talons’ encounter with Blaze had taught him that leaving saloli alone was the best option.

It was around mid afternoon, and Blaze and Jasper were just returning from a patrol around the Icefire borders. It had gone well, other than the scent borders there was no sign of the other tribes. Jasper went off to report to Rust, and Blaze made his way to the food pile. He hadn’t eaten since early that morning and was very hungry. He picked up an acorn and bit into it, splitting the shell with his strong, sharp teeth. Wrenching it apart, Blaze pulled out the delicious nut inside and put the whole thing into his mouth. Chewing slowly, he savored the sweet, succulent taste that he knew he wouldn’t have been able to appreciate as a human.

“
Food any good today?” another saloli asked, picking an acorn out of the pile. Blaze looked up, about to answer him when a loud
BANG
broke the peaceful atmosphere. The saloli who had spoken to Blaze flew backwards more than a foot, a large gaping hole in his chest. He was dead. Blaze whirled around just in time to see another saloli be killed as another
BANG
filled the air. Frantically scanning the surrounding area, Blaze soon found the source of the commotion. A large human, dressed in green camouflaged clothes, was resting on one knee, about ten feet outside the Icefire camp. A hunter, and he was quickly reloading his gun!

Blaze turned and quickly scurried up a tree, hoping it would be harder for the hunter to see him among the leaves and branches. He was lucky not to have been shot by the first bullet, and he wasn’t going to risk another. Settling on one of the middle branches, Blaze looked down and saw that most of the other saloli were following his lead. A small group, however, stayed on the ground, facing the hunter, ready to defend their camp. There couldn’t be more then ten of them. Blaze immediately felt like a coward. He had vowed to protect Icefire, no matter what the cost may be, and here he was hiding in a tree! Another glance at the group only furthered his feelings of embarrassment. Rust, Jasper, Sunbeam, Slicer and Chestnut were all down there without him! Without a second thought, Blaze dashed back to the ground, where he joined the small group of defenders.

“
What are we going to do?” he asked Jasper.

“
Ask Rust,” Jasper replied, fear shining in his eyes.

“
Attack!” Rust shouted before Blaze could ask. Doing as he said, Blaze charged! He made straight for the hunter, along with the others.
BANG!
A saloli on Blaze’s right fell down, dead. With that, the group scattered, trying to make it harder for the hunter to aim at them. Blaze swung to the right, Jasper by his side.

“
Let’s get behind him!” Blaze suggested as they raced through the forest.

“
Good idea!” Jasper agreed. The two friends circled around, going back towards the hunter. Blaze saw that the only spot that wasn’t covered on the man was a small gap between the collar of his jacket and the bottom of his hat, revealing his neck. When he got close enough, he leapt onto the man’s back and sunk his strong teeth into his skin! The man yelled and jumped up. Raising a hand, he swatted Blaze off of him. Blaze hit the ground hard and almost lost consciousness, but managed to regain his senses and stand back up. Not giving up, he sprang onto the man’s pant leg and dug his claws into the fabric. The hunter began to swing his leg around, trying to throw Blaze off. Blaze managed to hang on for almost five seconds before losing his grip, and was sent flying back ten feet into a tree. Through dimming vision, Blaze saw the hunter aim his gun at another saloli. Looking harder, he gasped. It was Chestnut!

Move! Move!
He thought desperately, but fear had rooted Chestnut’s feet to the ground. Blaze could only watch, helplessly, as the hunter slowly pulled the trigger.

BANG!

<><><><><>

“
Blaze? Blaze? Are you all right?” Someone asked.

Blaze slowly forced his eyes open, but shut them again when the sun’s rays blinded him. He waited a few seconds, and then opened them again. He saw Faith standing in front of him, a worried expression on her face.

“
Are you all right?” she asked again.

“
I have a headache,” Blaze said. His head throbbed painfully as he spoke.

“
I think you may have gotten a concussion. You hit that tree pretty hard.”

Remembering what he had seen just before passing out, Blaze desperately asked “Where’s Chestnut?”

“
Relax, she’s fine.” The prophet soothed him.

“
What? But how? The hunter was aiming right at her!”

“
It was quite a thing to see.” Faith smiled, “Your friend Jasper pushed her out of the way at the last second, saving her life.”

“
He did? He’s okay, though, right?”

“
Yes, he’s fine. Both of them came away uninjured.”

Blaze relaxed then, “But what about the hunter? Why did he leave?”

“
He fired his stick once at Chestnut, but when he tried to do it again it remained silent. He then simply put it over his shoulder and left.”

“
Oh,” Blaze said, feeling his head go light again, “Good.”

With that he closed his eyes again and slept.

<><><><><>

The next time Blaze awoke, he was lying on a branch in Faith’s personal tree. Both the chief and the prophet had trees to themselves. He found he had a leaf on his face, which was pressing some sort of salve against a large bump on his head that hurt when he turned his head. Looking around, Blaze spotted Faith down on the ground, speaking to Icefire. The tribe was gathered around her in a tight circle. Lying next to Faith were the three saloli who had died during the hunter’s attack, inside a ring of white flower petals. The prophet took a smoldering stick in her mouth and touched one end to the petals. Just as Blaze knew would happen, the fire leapt up around them and formed the flaming vortex. When it died down the saloli’s bodies were gone. Even knowing what was happening, the sight scared Blaze, not because of what he saw, but because he couldn’t help but think about what would have happened if he had jumped in like he had wanted.

He shook his head, clearing it of such thoughts and causing his head to throb. Now wasn’t the time to be thinking of himself, now was the time to mourn for his fallen comrades. Blaze closed his eyes and bowed his head in respect. He had never had anything against hunters when he was a human, but now that he was a saloli he found it hard to believe what he had told Faith three weeks ago. Seeing your friends and allies killed in cold blood could do that. After the bodies were taken care of, Faith said a few more words to Icefire, then left, signaling the rest of the tribe to disperse. She slowly made her way to the tree in which Blaze lay.

“
Ah, you’re awake,” she said as she reached him, “You’ve been asleep for almost two days.”

“
Two days?” Blaze asked, shocked, “What- how- why are you just now performing the ceremony?”

“
There were a lot of saloli injured besides the three who died.” Faith answered, “It took me up until now to take care of all of them.”

“
Who were the ones who died?”

“
Their names were Crystal, Leaf, and Speed. I saw you speaking to Speed just before he was killed. Would you mind telling me his last words?”

“
Um, he just asked how the food was that day, and then ate an acorn.” Blaze said, slightly confused as to why Faith would want to know something like that. Faith’s eyes welled up with tears, but she quickly blinked them away. “What’s wrong?”

“
Speed was my great nephew.” She responded, a slight whimper in her voice, “He was always a loyal saloli, and you couldn’t help but be happy when you were around him. And now he’s- he’s. . .” She obviously couldn’t finish the sentence without bursting into tears.

“
He’s with Valde Abbas in his castle beyond the sunrise,” Blaze put in, hoping it would make Faith feel better. It did, and a small smile appeared on Faith’s face.

“
Yes, you’re right,” she said, “I shouldn’t be so heartbroken over it. He’s in a better place now.”

A thought occurred to Blaze at that moment. “You said their names were Crystal, Leaf, and Speed, right? What about Razor?”

“
What about him?” Faith echoed, confused.

“
He wasn’t with the group who protected the camp.”

“
That’s nothing to be ashamed of. After all, you weren’t either to begin with.”

“
But the thing is,” Blaze persisted, “I didn’t see him at all during the attack. He wasn’t in the camp.”

“
So, what? He may have been on a patrol.”

“
No, Jasper and I had just got back from ours. There wouldn’t have been another for at least a half hour.”

“
What are you saying, Blaze?” Faith asked.

“
I’m saying that I think it was Razor who led the hunter here in the first place.” Blaze answered. He expected Faith to immediately reject this idea, but, to his surprise, a thoughtful look appeared on her face.

“
You may be right,” she mused, “That would make this his second attempt to destroy Icefire, or at least weaken it. The question is, what will he do next?”

“
We need to stop him before that happens.” Blaze said without hesitation, “Next time, he may succeed. Will you help me?”

“
I’m sorry Blaze, but I can’t. This is up to you. You alone must do it.”

Blaze clenched his eyes shut in frustration, “But nobody will listen to me! If you say something, they might at least consider it!”

“
You’ll have to find evidence.” Faith instructed him, “Good, strong, indisputable evidence. Then Rust will listen. I believe you can do it, Blaze. After all, you were chosen to help us by Valde Abbas himself.”

Blaze kept his mouth shut, but couldn’t stop from thinking that Valde Abbas could have done a lot better job in picking his chosen saloli.

Chapter Eleven

“
Attention, Icefire!” Rust called, “Gather around the Speaking Stone!” As Icefire congregated around their chief, Blaze wondered what was going on. “Today is a special occasion.” Rust continued, “Today a trainee has been chosen to perform her first patrol.” Icefire cheered. “Would Chestnut please come forward?”