Legends of the Saloli: Approaching Storm (8 page)

This was where he belonged.

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That night at the Icefire camp, everything was quiet and peaceful. Blaze was sleeping soundly in the trainee’s tree. The branches rustled softly as the wind shook them, creating a soothing forest lullaby.

“
Attack! Attack! We’re being attacked!”

Blaze immediately jumped up, completely alert, along with all the other trainees. Following the others, he raced down the tree to stand in their normal line. A single saloli came running into the camp, breathing hard. He had a large gash in his side, bleeding profusely. Rust ran up to meet him.

“
What happened?” he demanded.

“
It’s Flame!” the saloli gasped. Obviously it hurt for him to even talk.

Icefire gasped. “Where?” Rust asked urgently.

“
Heading towards the camp!” the saloli said, “Brought his whole pack!” Having said that, he collapsed in front of Rust.

Rust turned to face Icefire. “You heard him! Flame is coming to Icefire, and he’s brought his pack with him! Prepare to defend our camp!” The saloli immediately scattered, except for the trainees, who lined up. They were soon joined by Gnaw.

“
Everyone get back onto your branch! Stay there until I say to come down!” he shouted. All the trainees hurried to obey, running back to the trainee’s tree. Once they were safely on top of it, Blaze sought out Jasper and stood beside him. He noticed that the saloli who had reported was still lying where he had fallen.

“
What about him? Why doesn’t anyone help him?” he asked.

Sadness filled Jasper’s eyes. “Because he’s dead, Blaze.”

There was now an ominous silence in the camp as everyone waited for the impending attack. It reminded Blaze of the proverbial calm before the storm.

Crunch.

As one, everyone’s eyes turned to look in the direction from which the noise had come. Slowly, a single fox walked towards them, eerily coming into focus from the thick forest darkness. Another one came into view too, and then another. Soon, five foxes were standing at the edge of the camp.

“
Attack!” Rust yelled. At his order, saloli began to leap out of the trees, onto the hungry foxes. They bit into the foxes hide, causing them to yip in pain. The foxes reacted, shaking themselves as if they were wet, throwing the defenders off of them. They then darted forward and sank their teeth into the saloli’s bodies. More saloli leapt onto them, doing the same as the first wave did. Four more foxes ran into the camp then, and began picking saloli off of their brothers and sisters with their sharp teeth. Even more saloli leapt onto these foxes, but this only caused them to stop for a couple of seconds, before they rolled over on top of them. Some saloli fell off after that, but many managed to stay on. Some of the foxes began slamming their bodies against the trees, jarring the saloli lose. Those that fell off were immediately set upon by the hungry carnivores. Blaze found this hard to watch. All his friends and allies were being eaten! With a start, Blaze realized that he had actually become loyal in the past few days, loyal enough to become extremely nauseous watching these saloli being snapped up by the fox’s canine jaws. There were at least ten foxes in the camp by now. It seemed that defeat was inevitable. But where was Flame? Blaze hadn’t seen him for the entire battle. Blaze scanned the fight for the evil fox. There he was! He was standing by himself, scabs over his eyelids, near the edge of the camp, near the ditch.

What a coward
, Blaze thought,
I bet if we could take him out, the others would probably retreat!

As he watched, another saloli apparently had the same idea, rushing up to the fox, leaping to make contact with his face. Flame lashed out with his claws, knocking the saloli out of the air. The saloli flew into a nearby tree with a
thud
, but jumped immediately back up and sprinted at the fox once again. This time Flame put his front paw on top of the saloli, pressing him into the ground. Blaze squinted his eyes to try and recognize the poor saloli. No, it couldn’t be! It was Rust! And he was about to die! Without thinking, Blaze immediately leapt down from the branch and raced towards his leader.

“
Blaze, no!” he heard Jasper call after him, followed by another crunch, signaling that the small saloli was coming after him. Flame was lowering his jaws to Rust’s neck, spurring Blaze to run faster. When he was only a foot away, Blaze made a flying leap at Flame, and swiped his claws across the fox’s nose. The carnivore leapt back with a yelp, blood seeping from the scratch. He glared at Blaze.

“
You!” he growled. Flame put himself into a pouncing position, ready to end Blaze’s life. Before he could pounce, though, a small brown blur dashed forward and sunk its teeth into Flame’s shin. The fox took an involuntary step backwards, before flicking his front leg, sending Jasper flying. But the step back had taken Flame closer to the ditch. This gave Blaze an idea. He charged once more at Flame, leaping into the air at the last second, as if he were going for Flame’s nose again. The fox, thinking he was smart, took another step back to dodge it. Doing this, however, put his left rear leg directly on the slope. Thrown off balance, Flame scrambled to right himself again. Blaze took this opportunity to give Flame another wicked scratch in his right front paw.

That was all it took. When Flame flinched, bringing his paw off the ground, he lost his balance and was sent rolling head over paws down the ditch, to the rocky bottom twenty feet below. As the fox came to a stop, Blaze could see that his neck had been twisted at a gruesome angle. A single fox came barreling past Blaze, knocking him aside, to gaze at Flame’s broken form.

“
Flame!” she shouted, despairingly. This got the other foxes’ attention. They all dropped what they were doing to crowd around the ditch and see their dead leader.

“
Father!” one shouted, obviously one of his pups. For a minute, they all just stood there, not knowing what to do. Then the first fox turned to where Rust was standing, every bit as shocked as the foxes were.

“
Who did this?” she demanded. As she had called Flame by his name, Blaze guessed that she was his mate. Rust was actually lost for words and just stood there, mouth hanging open. “I said who did this?” the fox demanded again.

Blaze mustered up his courage, and called out, “I did!”

Icefire gasped at his boldness. The vixen narrowed her eyes and slowly made her way over to Blaze, “How dare you?” She hissed when she was face to face with Blaze, “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“
Uh . . .” Blaze stuttered, very much intimidated by the vixen.

“
I’ll kill you!” she shouted, and opened her jaws to deliver a fatal bite. Before she could, though, Rust darted in front of Blaze and swiped his claws across the she-fox’s nose. She jerked her head back.

“
You will not touch him!” Rust shouted.

A maniacal rage came into the vixen’s eyes. “You haven’t heard the last of me!” she shouted, outraged, “I will have revenge!” With that, she raised her head to look at the other foxes and shouted, “Come! We’re leaving!” Without another word, the pack of foxes quickly left the camp. The vixen gave Blaze one last venomous glare before following them. Once she was out of sight, Rust turned to look at Blaze.

“
You. . .” he said slowly, eyes wide with disbelief. “You saved me.”

“
Um, yeah, I guess.” Blaze said warily.

Rust quickly gathered his wits, putting a more professional face on, “And you disobeyed a direct order to do it.”

Blaze could see where this was going now, “I’m sorry.” he said, “I couldn’t stop myself.”

Rust just stood there, studying Blaze for another few seconds, then asked, “And where’s the other one, the one who helped you?”

“
Jasper? He’s uh. . .”

“
I’m right here.” Jasper said, coming forward to stand beside Blaze.

For a moment, Rust studied Jasper, too. Then he said, “Here in Icefire, we value bravery and loyalty. Any saloli who has enough of both to disobey a direct order to save their chief is a saloli who is welcome here.”

Blaze couldn’t believe this! Had he head him correctly? He had been sure that he was going to be chewed out, at the very least, but he was being congratulated for what he had done, alongside his best friend.

“
In tribal life,” Rust continued, “there is only one thing a saloli places before obeying his chief, and that’s doing what he thinks is right. You two obviously have that capability. I think you are going to be valuable additions to Icefire. If you weren’t so young, I’d make you full members of the tribe right now.”

Jasper beamed. Blaze swelled with pride. Rust turned to look directly at Blaze, “I want you to know what you have done for us.” he said, “You have rid us of a very dangerous enemy. Icefire will never forget this. Thank you.”

Turning back to Icefire now, Rust shouted, “All right, we have wounded to take care of, and I want to know how many we have dead. Let’s go!”

For a few minutes, Blaze and Jasper just stood there, not sure what to do, while the other saloli hurried back and forth to fulfill Rust’s orders.

“
You two can go back to your branch, now.” Someone said. They turned around to see that it was Faith. “You’ve had a big night.”

“
Thank you.” Jasper said, sounding relieved. He immediately turned to head back to the trainee’s tree. Blaze, however, stayed behind.

“
Could I talk to you, Faith?” he asked. The old saloli nodded sadly.

“
Yes, I think I know what this is about. Come with me.”

Together, the two saloli left the camp, unnoticed, and went inside a small shrub where they could be alone. Blaze got straight to the point, “You said that when I’d helped your tribe you would change me back.”

“
Yes.” said Faith, “That I did.”

“
Well, I kept my end of the bargain. I helped Icefire. Now it’s your turn.”

Faith sighed heavily, “I’m sorry, Blaze. This isn’t what you want to hear, but no.”

Blaze couldn’t believe his ears! This saloli had given her word as an Icefire prophet to do this, and now she was refusing?

“
Why not?” Blaze demanded.

“
I’m sorry.” Faith apologized again, “I know this must be hard for you, but Icefire still needs you. When I asked you for help, this wasn’t what I meant. I didn’t even know this was going to happen.”

“
I just want to go home!” he insisted, tears welling up in his eyes.

“
I’m sorry.” Faith said for the third time, “But like Rust said, I have to do what I think is right.”

“
How can separating me from my family, my own species, against my will be the right thing to do?” Blaze demanded.

“
I know you feel out of place here, and I understand that. All that I ask is that you stay a while longer.”

“
I just want to go home!” Blaze said, “To my mother!”

Now tears were coming out of Faith’s eyes, too.

“
Why don’t you go back to your branch and get some sleep? You’ll feel better in the morning.”

Not being able to think of anything better to do, Blaze turned and left the shrub and headed back to camp. Making his way over to the trainee’s tree, he slowly climbed up to his branch and went to the place far enough out on the branch where he knew he and Jasper would be alone. Jasper soon joined him.

“
Hey, what’s wrong?” Jasper asked, noticing the tears that came out of his friend’s eyes.

“
Nothing.” Said Blaze. “I’m just homesick.”

“
For when you were an outsider?” asked Jasper, confused.

“
I still remember my mother. I miss her so much!” Blaze sobbed.

Jasper’s eyes softened. “I know how you feel. I don’t have a family either.”