Chapter 93 - 94: The Forest Begins Moving
The first warning line rattled before dawn.
Bone pieces struck one another beyond Riverbone’s eastern barrier.
Clack.
Clack.
Clack.
Swanly’s eyes opened.
The second line sounded from the north.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
Within ten breaths, every warning trap surrounding Riverbone began screaming at once.
Stones knocked together.
Dry shells rattled.
Tied branches snapped violently against tree trunks.
The sound circled the settlement from every direction.
Swanly shot upright.
Kael was already standing.
His black ears were raised, his claws fully extended.
The three cubs woke beneath the furs.
Miko blinked sleepily.
"Morning noisy."
A terrible cracking sound rolled through the forest.
Not one tree falling.
Many.
Moving closer.
Kael grabbed Swanly around the waist and pulled her behind him.
"Kairo, Nilo, Miko. Get up."
The seriousness in his voice woke them completely.
The cubs scrambled from the bedding.
Outside, someone screamed.
"Warning lines!"
"All of them!"
"Something is surrounding us!"
Riverbone exploded into motion.
Beastmen rushed from sleeping caves carrying stone weapons, bone spears, axes, and hunting bows.
Females grabbed cubs.
The injured struggled to stand.
Someone dropped a water vessel.
It shattered across the ground.
Then a child’s voice floated from the forest.
"Mama?"
Several females froze.
The voice came again.
"Mama, help me."
Tilla rushed from the next sleeping hollow with Tavi clutched against her chest.
Every cub in Riverbone had already been accounted for.
That voice belonged to none of them.
Thalara appeared near the central roots.
Her forehead eye opened wide.
"Do not answer it."
Another child began crying from the western trees.
Then another.
"Mama."
"Cold."
"Come find me."
The voices overlapped.
Some sounded young.
Some sounded almost right.
Others stretched the words too long.
Thalara’s black claws sank into the soil.
"Do not answer any voice coming from beyond the barrier."
Soren entered the central hollow.
His long white hair moved behind him as his tail struck the stone once.
The sound cut through the panic.
"Silence!"
Riverbone obeyed.
Even the crying cubs quieted.
Soren’s silver eyes swept across the settlement.
"Raku, take the guards to the northern and eastern paths. No one crosses the barrier."
Raku lifted his weapon.
"Move!"
The guards followed him.
"Kael, take the hunters to the main entrance."
Kael did not move.
His arm remained locked around Swanly.
"My female and cubs come first."
"They will remain with the protected group."
"No."
Swanly pushed against his chest.
"Kael."
His golden eyes snapped toward her.
"I am not hiding in a cave while everyone runs around without knowing where the food, medicine, or children are."
"You nearly lost the cubs yesterday."
"And that is exactly why I am making sure nobody loses one today."
Another warning line snapped outside.
Something heavy dragged across stone beyond the barrier.
Scrape.
Pause.
Scrape.
The sound was slow.
Patient.
Kael’s grip tightened.
Swanly caught his face between her hands.
"Help keep whatever is outside from reaching us. I will keep the families moving."
His jaw hardened.
"Swanly."
"I will remain inside the barrier."
"Beside Tilla."
"Yes."
"With the cubs."
"Yes."
"And if the wall breaks?"
"I run toward you while screaming very loudly."
"That is not funny."
"I am not joking."
Kael pulled her close and pressed his forehead against hers.
For one breath, everything around them disappeared.
His claws trembled against her waist.
"Do not make me search for you again."
Swanly’s heart tightened.
"I won’t."
He kissed her forehead once, hard enough to feel like a claim.
Then he turned toward the cubs.
"Kairo."
The eldest straightened.
"Stay with Mama."
"Yes, Papa."
"Keep your brothers beside you."
Kairo grabbed Nilo’s hand.
Nilo grabbed Miko.
Miko grabbed Swanly’s tail.
"Everybody hold."
Kael looked at the chain.
His face twisted for one painful second.
Then he shifted.
A massive black panther landed on the stone and raced toward the entrance.
Soren watched him leave.
Then he looked at Swanly.
"You heard him."
"I heard you giving orders too."
"Then follow one."
"I am."
She turned toward the tribe.
"Tilla, bring every cub family to the western storage hollow. Count them when they enter and again when they leave."
Tilla tightened her grip on Tavi.
"Come with me!"
Several females followed her immediately.
"Mora, carry any cub too small to keep up."
The young brown bear guard lifted two frightened cubs, one beneath each arm.
"Sari, help Nahla move the medicine."
Nahla was already striking people away from her herb bundles.
"Do not throw that! Those roots took three moons to dry!"
Swanly pointed toward the food stores.
"Tovan, separate what can travel from what must be abandoned. Meat, dried roots, clean water, medicine first."
The beaver male nodded and began directing the carriers.
Someone rushed toward Swanly.
"Should we take sleeping furs?"
"Ask your leader."
The male looked toward Soren.
Soren stared at Swanly.
She stared back.
He said, "Only enough for the cubs, injured, and recovering females."
The male ran.
Swanly moved toward the storage hollow.
Another survivor caught her arm.
"What about the clay vessels?"
"Your leader."
Soren’s tail twitched.
"Fill the strongest ones. Leave anything cracked."
Swanly continued walking.
Soren looked at Raku’s departing back.
"She is enjoying this."
Raku did not turn.
"Yes."
Inside Swanly’s vision, the system flashed.
{Warning trap network activated successfully.}
{Task completed.}
{Reward: Five hundred points.}
{Current balance: Five hundred and fourteen points.}
Not now!
{System agrees that celebration would be poorly timed.}
A violent impact struck the northern barrier.
Boom!
The roots shook.
Dust fell from the cave roofs.
A cub began screaming.
Swanly grabbed a sack of dried meat and threw it toward a carrier.
"Move! Nobody stands beneath loose stone!"
Another impact followed.
This time, something clicked beyond the wall.
Dozens of hard objects struck one another.
Bone against bone.
The sound travelled along the barrier.
Nerin stood near the center of Riverbone with his head lowered.
His broken silver antler trembled.
Swanly saw him and rushed over.
"What do you feel?"
"Too much movement."
"Outside?"
He swallowed.
"Mostly."
Swanly froze.
"Mostly?"
"The ground is shaking in different places. Some steps are heavy. Others barely touch the earth."
His antler shuddered harder.
"And the roots are moving."
A branch snapped above them.
Everyone looked up.
Nothing crossed the open sky.
Still, slow wingbeats moved from tree to tree beyond the barrier.
Flap.
Silence.
Flap.
Then Swanly heard her own voice calling from the forest.
"Kairo?"
The eldest cub turned.
"Mama?"
Swanly’s blood went cold.
Her false voice came again.
"Nilo, Miko, come outside."
Miko’s fingers tightened around her tail.
"Bad Mama."
Swanly pulled all three cubs against her.
"Yes. That is not me."
The voice beyond the barrier laughed.
It sounded exactly like her.
Kael roared from the entrance.
The false laughter stopped.
Thalara moved toward the northern wall.
Her long white hair dragged across the roots.
"Do not stand beneath the trees," she said.
One of the guards stared at her.
"Why?"
"Because the voices come from above."
The guard immediately stepped away from the roots.
Thalara turned toward Raku.
"If something covered in hard pieces reaches the barrier, strike beneath the covering. Do not waste weapons on its back."
Raku’s eyes narrowed.
"How do you know that?"
Thalara became still.
Selka’s voice cut through the chaos.
"Because she knows them!"
Everyone turned.
...
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