Legends of the Saloli: Approaching Storm (22 page)

“
Get off of me you geezer!” Razor snarled, kicking his back legs up and running the claws down Slicer’s belly. The old fighter leapt back, giving Razor time to get to his feet, and then sprung forward again. His front paw lashed out, giving Razor a nasty cut along his cheek. Filled with rage, Razor pounced on Slicer, knocking him off his feet. Before he could get back up, Razor leaned in and sunk his teeth into Slicer’s throat.

“
No!” Blaze shouted. Without thinking, he leapt over his guards and sprinted across the camp towards the two fighting saloli. He jumped onto Razor’s back and dug all of his claws into the traitor’s body. Razor snarled in bloodlust and threw himself to the ground, belly up, squashing Blaze below him. Crushed under the traitor’s superior weight, Blaze felt the breath fly out of him. Razor got up and turned towards him, preparing to make the final strike. Just as he raised his paw, though, Slicer, once again, slammed into him, sending him skidding almost two feet before coming to a stop. Slicer leapt at him, claws and teeth bared, ready to kill him. Razor scrambled to his feet, and lashed out at the approaching saloli. His claws caught Slicer in the throat, tearing out even more flesh than he had to kill Seedpicker. A sickening sound filled the air, and Slicer crashed to the ground, bleeding profusely.

“
No!” Blaze shouted again, and charged towards his enemy. He head butted him at full speed, forcing the wind out of Razor and knocking him to the ground. Blaze leapt on top of him and began wildly scratching at his face, just as he had to Thunder. He didn’t care if the traitor died or not, he just wanted to make him suffer as much as possible. Just as he was about to make the final blow and end Razor’s life, Blaze felt himself rise up into the air! He rose almost three feet, and then stopped. Looking down, he saw a bony saloli, pointing a hairless tail at him. Behind him was the giant, Goliath. Behind Goliath was, seemingly, an entire tribe.

“
Goliath!” Rust shouted, shocked even more by this than Razor’s betrayal.

“
Hello, Rust,” Goliath said, contempt dripping from his voice.

“
What are you doing here? You know that you’re not allowed here!”

“
I just thought I’d show off my new tribe,” Goliath boasted, “The tribe of Darkcover!”

“
You’re supposed to be dead!” a saloli in the crowd shouted.

“
Silence!” Goliath shouted back.

“
Why have you come?” Rust repeated.

“
I came to watch you die, Rust. Unfortunately, my assassin was incapable of that task. Three times he has proved that. Get over here, Razor!”

The traitor scrambled to his feet and scurried across the camp to stand behind his real chief. Faith gave a derisive sniff.

“
How in the world did you become Darkcover’s new prophet, Ratty?” she asked.

“
Through good connections!” the hairless-tailed saloli answered, his voice high and annoying.

“
I don’t care if you’re a chief now or not!” Rust said, “Get out of my territory before we force you out!”

It was apparent that Goliath thought little of this threat, as he looked down his nose at Rust, “Oh, I’ll leave. I no longer have the element of surprise, so I’ll have to go back and come up with a new plan. But know this, I will have Icefire, you can be sure of that!” With that, Goliath turned and ran out of the camp, followed by Razor and Ratty, then the rest of Darkcover. Blaze felt whatever was holding him up let him go, and he fell back to the ground. He immediately got to his feet and raced over to where Slicer lay bleeding, “Are you alright?” He asked, though he already knew the answer.

Slicer gave a ragged gasp, and turned to look at him, “Blaze. . .” he said, his voice strained, “I’m sorry. I should have trusted you.”

“
It’s fine, I forgive you!” Blaze insisted, tears running down his face.

“
I see it now,” Slicer continued, eyes clouding, “I see the whole thing. You have much hardship ahead of you, Blaze, but you must not give up. Blaze, the Sword will win the war!” With that, his breath escaped from his lungs, and the old saloli spoke no more. Slicer, mentor to Blaze and Rust, and the best fighter in Icefire, was dead.

<><><><><>

Blaze placed his paw on top of Slicer’s corpse for a few moments before moving on. An entire day had passed since Razor’s betrayal, and they were now holding the funeral for both him and Seedpicker. He stood by Smallthorn and felt another tear run down his cheek. He knew he felt his friend’s pain. They both had lost the saloli who had been their mentors. It wasn’t a good feeling.

“
I’m sorry,” said Smallthorn, his voice hollow with dejection.

“
It’s not your fault,” Blaze comforted him.

“
No, I mean about thinking you killed Seedpicker. You’re my best friend, and I called you a murderer. I feel like fox dung.” He turned away, unable to look his friend in the eye.

“
It’s all right. You were only trusting what your chief told you. Any Icefire saloli worth his fur would do that.”

“
It was still wrong. I wish I could make it up to you.”

A grim determination rose up inside of Blaze, “You want to make it up to me? Help me find Razor. Then we can kill him together.”

Smallthorn nodded, “If any two saloli have the right to kill him, it’s us.”

It was then that Faith placed the smoldering stick on the flower petals, igniting them and beginning the miracle. The tribe was silent as they watched the fire do its hypnotic dance. Once it was over, they slowly departed.

“
Blaze, may I speak to you?” Blaze turned around to find Rust standing behind him, looking timid. Blaze nodded. “Come with me,” Rust led him away from the rest of the tribe before speaking again. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for not believing you. I should have listened from the beginning, but I didn’t, and now look: two of our most loyal saloli are dead. Well, Blaze, from this moment on you have my trust. My complete trust. Assuming you still want to have anything to do with a fool like me?”

“
Of course I do” Blaze insisted, “I’ll always be loyal to Icefire.”

Rust nodded, comforted, “Thank you, Blaze. You are going to do great things here, of that I’m sure.” With that Icefire’s chief walked off, leaving Blaze to think about what he had said, and how similar it was to what Slicer had said just before he died.

“
Blaze?” he looked up to see Faith standing before him.

“
Yes?” he asked, wondering what the prophet could want with him now.

“
Come with me,” was all she would say. He followed her into the forest until they came to a clearing. A clearing surrounded by white flower petals.

“
Faith, what’s going on?” Blaze asked, confused.

“
I’ve decided to give you a choice,” said Faith, “The choice of whether or not to return to the human world. You’ve kept your promise. By saving Rust, you saved Icefire. And now I intend to keep mine, but only if you wish to go back.”

Blaze closed his eyes to think. If he wanted to go back, this might be his last chance. Who knew what was coming now that Goliath had made his intentions clear? The same thought came to him now that he had thought when he had first been transformed: could he really abandon these creatures in their time of need? Especially now that he was one of them? Especially now that he had made friends with them, fought with them. . . maybe even fallen in love with one of them?

“
No,” he said finally.

Faith seemed surprised, “You don’t want to go back to your previous life?”

“
I do,” Blaze answered, “but I can’t do that with a clear conscience. Not yet. Not until I’m sure that Icefire is safe.”

“
How do you know that we are not?”

“
Didn’t you listen to Goliath? He isn’t done yet. He’s coming back, and I’m going to be here waiting for him.”

“
Is that all?” Faith asked suspiciously.

“
Okay, I also can’t leave while Razor is alive. He killed my mentor, and he’s going to pay for it.”

“
Revenge, then?” A disapproving gleam in her eye showed what she thought of this.

“
Part of it, yes. But mostly because I don’t want to see what happened to Slicer happen to...” again the image of Sunbeam with her throat torn open flashed into his mind, “other saloli.”

Faith nodded, “A worthy reason if I’ve ever heard one.” She approved.

As the two of them made their way back to camp, Blaze began to think about his mother. He had promised her that he would come back, but would he be able to keep that promise? Faith had been right, there was a war coming, and he had every intention of fighting in it. There was more than a possibility of death involved, but he found that he didn’t care. Anything to protect Icefire. And Sunbeam. Entering the camp, Blaze looked around at all the saloli doing their duties for the tribe. This was his family, at least for now. This was his home. This was his life.

And it wasn’t a bad one.

<><><><><>

Goliath stalked back and forth before his army. This was not how he had planned everything. Razor was supposed to kill Rust, and Icefire was supposed to be under his control right now. He glared at the pathetic failure. It was only because he was still of some use to him that he wasn’t dead. The coward cringed in fear when he saw the look in Goliath’s eyes.

“
Well,” the giant asked, “what do you have to say for yourself?”

“
Words can’t describe how sorry I am for my failure, my chief,” Razor spouted immediately, obviously having practiced his speech beforehand, “Please forgive me, allow me to live so that I might make up for my mistake!”

“
Oh, I’ll let you live, Razor. You know Icefire inside and out, and that is information I can use. You will remain alive, but for that purpose alone.”

“
Thank you, my chief! Thank you!”

“
And as for you,” Goliath snarled, turning on Ratty, “Why is it that you didn’t kill Faith like I had ordered you to do?”

“
W-well, it’s because I saw Razor in trouble, and I thought I should save him!” Ratty stuttered, trembling before his chief’s wrath.

“
Liar! You were simply too much of a coward to do what needed to be done. You were afraid of what she would do had you failed. Now answer me this, how am I going to achieve my goals, no,
our
goals, with such pathetic saloli like you under my command?”

“
Perhaps you need some more. . . competent help,” a voice said from behind him.

Goliath spun around to see who had managed to infiltrate his camp. A wicked smile crossed his face, “Mordred,” he growled happily.

Chapter Fourteen

Thunder crashed and lightning lit the night sky as bright as daytime. Rain pelted everything in sight with water that felt like pebbles falling out of the clouds. The army of Darkcover was massing around their chief’s personal tree like piranha around a bleeding corpse. Goliath stood on the uppermost branch, looking down at them. Razor, Ratty, and Mordred, whose eyes gleamed white and pupil-less, stood with him.

“
Silence!” Goliath’s voice boomed down at his tribe. Darkcover immediately became quiet. “Today, our victory has been put into our paws! I have here with me a new member of our great tribe. He is a saloli of great power, power that will give us a vast advantage in this war. Mordred, come forward!”

The white-eyed saloli made his way to Goliath’s side, his eyes seeing nothing. Mordred was completely blind, but that did not make him helpless. In fact, he was anything but, “Thank you, Goliath,” He said, his voice like sliding gravel, “It is my honor to fight beside Darkcover for so worthy a cause.”

“
What kind of power do you have?” A saloli on the ground challenged him, “Prove yourself!”