The leaves rustled above the heads of Shadow De Vulpes and Tayla Firehue.
They were walking, not particularly conscious of one another, towards the
main clearing of the newly strengthened Mossflower Sentinels until Tayla
spoke.
"Did you hear that?"
De Vulpes considered the options. "What? Oh, sorry. I was daydreaming. If
that was why I saw a fox with a rifle and in full battle armour standing in
front of me..." She trailed off into incoherent mumbling.
"Sorry?" Tayla asked, her face showing bewilderment.
"Jumping ahead on the conversation a little, aren't I?" grinned De Vulpes
sheepishly.
"Aye, you are! I couldn't make any sense of what you just said," Tayla
grinned back at her. "And I doubt you could either!"
"You're right," Shadow continued in her polished accent, "I don't know what
came over me... I just saw it! Sorry, I think 'it' was a he," They had
reached the clearing and were now continuing towards the leader's tent.
"Tell you what," confided the otter, breaking course and heading for an
obscure corner of the encampment, "If 'it' was a he then I'd better get
whatshisface, Silverstone, I think it is? Anyway, I'd better get him to do
some hypnotherapy on you. That is, if you'd like it?" she trailed off under
the vixen's stern gaze.
"Actually, that might be useful," the vixen mused, "He could get these
visions out of my system."
"Other visions?" asked Tayla, confused.
"Yes, other visions. Haven't I told anyone about them? I keep seeing the fox
standing there, always pointin' some way or the other..."
"We'd better get you to Silverstone right away."
"Oh no, I'm not going to the camp sanatorium yet," De Vulpes protested, "I'm
staying in the sane part of this world for now!"
"You silly old battleaxe!" laughed Tayla Firehue, "He won't stick you in a
loony bin! He'll just help you to focus your mind on the image of the fox
and then he'll tell you what the visions are all about!"
"Good." said the silly old battleaxe. "I haven't gone mad yet."
*� *� *
"People like us do know how to survive, Madam Stormdancer." The figure in
the chair scowled at her.
"The world ain't enough, eh?" Gale sneered back at the shady figure. Too
cowardly to show himself, she thought to herself.
"It isn't, no." The figure commented dryly. "You can put down the pistol
now." Two burly stoat guards rushed in at her from opposite sides and
dropped dead on the spot, bullet holes in their necks. "Well done, Madam
Stormdancer. However, I am not sure you will survive this attack from above
I have cooked up for you. Hahaa!"
Without a word, Gale rolled to one side as a huge iron bar crashed down
where she had just been, and levelled the Luger at the figure, cocking the
trigger as she came out of the roll. "That's the problem with you. You give
people hints. Really, that can be fatal." She pulled the trigger.
*� *� *
"What we have here is a case of spiritual intervention." Allinsor whispered
to Tayla. "Now, Shadow, I want you to delve deeper into the vision. Focus on
the fox's hand. Now, where was this vision of yours pointing?"
"Toward the mountain. Always toward the mountain." De Vulpes replied in a
faraway tone.
"Good!" Silverstone smiled. "Now, can you concentrate on the mountain now?"
"Yes." Shadow looked concerned.
"Okay. I want you to walk to the mountain now and tell us what you see on
the way there."
"I'm walking - no, it's almost as though I was running, I'm moving so fast.
The mountain's coming up in front of me now. I've just entered a huge cloud
of mist, and very thick mist at that. AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!" Suddenly, De Vulpes
collapsed in a sobbing heap on the floor of the tent. Allinsor dashed around
the table in the middle to help her up.
"What happened?" Tayla asked, concernedly. There was quite a commotion
building up outside now, and Silverstone had to shout to be heard.
"She's suffering from neural shock! We have to get her out of here now!"
Suddenly, a booming voice came from outside. "Make passage! Make way, you
irritating creatures, or I'll..." The threat of their friend and only other
survivor from the old days,� Lilac Blacktip, quietened the creatures outside
immediatley, til only a few murmurers and whisperers were left. She entered
the tent.
"We have to get her to a paramedic tent now," Allinsor spoke quietly. "or
she may die."
"What exactly happened, anyway?" Lilac asked as they carried Shadow out of
the hypnotherapist's tent and towards the centre of the camp.
"The hypnotherapy went wrong. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but it
involved the mist around the eastern mountain."
"The eastern mountain?"
"Yes," Allinsor answered as they came to the paramedic tent. "She keeps
having this vison of a fox - I fear it is Dylan Sablefur."
"He's dead!" Lilac looked puzzled.
"What about his other title?" asked Tayla. "'Spirit Runner', wasn't it?"
"That's the ground I was thinking along." Silverstone said,
matter-of-factly. "Why else would he have the title? In fact, I sometimes
suspect he has become our guardian spirit." They were in the tent now, and
had fixed the oxygen mask over Shadow's head.
"Are you serious?" Lilac thought what this would imply for the whole camp.
"Perfectly."
Shadow choked and spluttered. She coughed and sat up on the stretcher. The
surprisingly firm hand of Silverstone suppressed her from getting up. "You've just been in neural shock. Stay there for a while. And, keep the mask on.
You might go into it again if you haven't got enough oxygen. As I was
saying, I'm perfectly serious, yes."
"How is it possible?" Tayla pondered aloud.
"Sablefur met a peaceful end, after a lifetime of fighting and bloodshed,
did he not?"
"Aye, carry on." Tayla was impatient for a coherent answer.
"Well, the spirit which can conquer its inner feelings is the most valuable
part of the community, is that not true?"
"Yes..."
"Well then! Dylan's spirit was that of a noble warrior, and with extensions
into the ethereal world, well, he must have been the most powerful creature
imaginable in those days."
"Before the advent of gunpowder and the technological boom that followed
it." Tayla pointed out vehemently.
"True, but don't forget, his spirit did have a rifle. I think he's managed
to find a substitute for gunpowder in the ethereal world."
"It's possible..."
"I see him again!" De Vulpes looked astonished, as she stared at the back
wall of the tent. She gasped, as another familiar luminescent figure appeard
by the Spirit Runner. "Errrm... I think you should know that you've just
appeared by his side, Allin! You're handing him something... You've gone!
Just like that! Dylan's fading away... He's gone too!"
All present were staring at the back of the tent, when suddenly...
"Silverstone, I need you!"
With a gasp, the creatures in the tent whirled around, only to see the
Spirit Runner as clear as day, standing with his paw leaning on Shadow's
stretcher. His face was sombre, etched with worry and grief.
"Me? Why?"
"The logical squirrel as ever, Silverstone. It will take some explaining. I
shall start at the beginning. As I am now, I have not been given the secret
of gunpowder and automation yet by you. In time, you will bring this secret
to me using a process called the Kulik process, transmit your mind into the
ethereal realm along with a pouch of gunpowder and a trigger mechanism. The
device is to be found in the tombs of the house Canos from the Thorn wars.
There is , however, a problem..."
"What do we need to run this thing?" They stared at the device before them.
A slab of marble, above which hung a triple-faceted series of mirrors.
"Come through here! They've sent back the temporal focus device!"
"The temporal focus device?" Silverstone was doubtful.
"Yes," replied Sablefur. "It will be one of the greatest creations of
goodbeast kind. It focuses time from different periods into a small area,
giving the creature there more time to say, make a 'split-second decision'."
"How do we get it to work?" Tayla was inquisitive, as ever.
"We clean it. We must evict the grime of centuries from the hydroxylate
synthesis inverters, devices which effectively create energy from the air
around them."
"So all we need's this!" Tayla produced a cloth from some hidden pouch.
"Excellent." Dylan smiled.
A rustling noise came from the next chamber in the labyrinth. Gale
Stormdancer's head popped around the doorway, Luger at the ready. "Firehue?
Silverstone? My god, even Blacktip! I thought you were long dead!"
"We thought the same of you, my friend!" The Spirit Runner looked at her,
inquisitively.
"Oh, now I know you're dead. You're just a hallucination."
� "I assure you, I am not." Dylan grinned. "I've come back from the dead,
thanks to this old faithful." He patted the flatbed.
Tayla had finished
cleaning them now. "Lie on it, Silverstone!" Sablefur lay down on one of the
two flatbeds. Silverstone lay on the other. There was a hum, and the devices
started working. "Remember, if the other device starts humming, it's
overloading." The bodies on them looked vacant, almost dead. But not quite.
A huge commotion uprose in the other chamber, and a vast array of rats
entered.
"Protect them!" The wolf's and the squirrel's bodies lay on the benches
under the glowing blue lights, spirits somewhere beyond the veil. The
temporal focus device began humming. The rats in the chamber brandished
their weapons with evil grins.
Tayla was the first down, bullet wounds in the leg and shoulder. She met the
business end of a burly, swarthy, one-eyed rat's shotgun and with a look of
horror on her face, died.
The temporal focus device began to glow a deadly blue. It was going into
overload.
Lilac met her end next, bullet wounds all over. She slumped into a corner
and died with a smile on her face.
De Vulpes was the only one left. She reached the focus device with a grin on
her face. All that remained was to press the button marked 'Self-destruct'
to induce the self-inversion process... She never finished her thought. A
lance of pain shot through her as a bullet met its mark in her back. With a
final great effort, she slammed her paw down on the button.
A great flash of light.
"I see him again!" De Vulpes looked astonished, as she stared at the back
wall of the tent. She gasped, as another familiar luminescent figure appeard
by the Spirit Runner. "Errrm... I think you should know that you've just
appeared by his side, Allin! You're handing him something... You've gone!
Just like that! Dylan's fading away... He's gone too!"
All present were staring at the back of the tent.
Silverstone grinned.
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