Chapter 96: We are trapped!
A rabbit cub began crying.
"I want Mama."
"Your mama there."
Kairo pointed toward the female only a few steps ahead.
"Do not run. Hold hide."
The rabbit cub nodded.
Another little cub tripped.
Kairo helped him up.
"No fall. Bad things eat slow cubs."
Tilla stared at him.
"Kairo."
He looked up.
"That is not comforting."
Kairo thought about it.
Then he patted the crying cub’s head.
"Bad things not eat. Kairo here."
The cub stopped crying.
Nilo suddenly froze.
His ears turned toward a pile of dead leaves beside the path.
Nothing moved.
Everyone rushed past.
Nilo stared harder.
The leaves rose once.
Then settled.
His face changed.
"Something hiding."
The nearest guard did not hear him.
Nilo pointed.
"There!"
A pale bone-backed crawler burst from beneath the leaves.
It lunged toward the cub line.
Miko screamed.
It was not a normal scream.
It ripped from his entire tiny body and blasted through the western passage.
Every guard turned.
Mora slammed into the crawler in bear form.
Raku’s rear guards drove three spears beneath its shell.
A wolf hunter crushed its throat with a stone club.
The creature collapsed less than one body-length from the cubs.
Silence held for one second.
Miko’s chest puffed.
"Miko scream save everybody."
Nilo stared at him.
"I found it."
"Yes," Miko said. "But Miko louder."
Kairo nodded solemnly.
"Both save."
Miko looked pleased.
"Mostly Miko."
Tilla grabbed all three brothers and shoved them forward.
"Hero cubs move now."
Behind them, Selka screamed at Brann and Varek.
"Take these!"
She pointed toward several carrying hides packed with her clothing, ornaments, and personal furs.
Brann stared at the belongings.
Varek looked toward an injured female struggling beneath a medicine bundle.
"We cannot carry all of this," Brann said.
"You are my males."
"We were ordered to move wounded people."
"I do not care!"
Selka shoved another hide at Varek.
"My things come with me."
A small goat cub stumbled near them.
Her mother was bleeding heavily from one leg and could not reach her.
Nerin dropped his pack.
He ran back, scooped the cub into his arms, then lifted her mother’s burden onto his shoulder.
The discarded pack split open.
Dried meat scattered across the ground.
Selka stared at him.
"You abandoned food for that?"
Nerin did not answer.
The cub wrapped both arms around his neck.
Arion saw everything.
He saw Nerin carrying a child who was not his.
He saw the bleeding female leaning against his side.
He saw the gentle male give up his own supplies without hesitation.
For years, Arion had watched Swanly suffer.
He had called himself trapped.
He had told himself he could not challenge his parents, his tribe, or Selka’s cruelty.
Nerin had been weaker than all of them.
Nerin had still tried.
Shame struck Arion harder than any claw.
He threw his own pack at Brann.
"Carry the food."
Brann caught it.
Arion lifted the injured female onto his back.
"Give me the cub."
Nerin hesitated.
"I have her."
"Then lead. I will carry the mother."
They moved together.
Garran stared after his son.
"Arion!"
Arion did not turn.
Selka pushed toward the front.
"Move aside!"
She shoved past a pregnant female.
Mora shifted into human form behind her.
The young bear guard grabbed the back of Selka’s hide dress.
Selka’s feet left the ground.
"What are you doing?"
Mora carried her backward.
"Strong people protect center."
"I am a female!"
"You are also walking."
Mora threw her toward the rear group.
Selka landed in the dirt beside two wounded males.
She screamed.
Mora pointed at her.
"Help them."
"I will not!"
"Then stay near creatures."
Selka looked toward the broken barrier.
A Root-Eater crawled over the wall.
She grabbed one injured male beneath the arm.
"Stand up!"
Mora smiled.
The tribe reached the western stone riverbed.
Then the ground ahead collapsed.
Stone dropped into a deep hollow.
The safest path disappeared beneath dust and broken roots.
The front group stopped.
The rear continued pushing toward them.
Panic spread instantly.
"We are trapped!"
"Turn back!"
"There is no other path!"
Soren climbed onto a fallen stone.
"No one turns around!"
A hollow bird screamed from above.
Raku’s guards raised their shields of wood and hide.
Nerin dropped to his knees.
His palms pressed against the ground.
Swanly reached him.
"Can you find another way?"
His antlers trembled.
The broken silver point began vibrating so hard that his entire body shook.
"There is empty ground beneath the western wall."
"How deep?"
"I cannot tell."
Behind them, the creatures struck Riverbone’s remaining barrier.
Boom!
Stone cracked.
Nerin pressed harder.
Blood appeared at the base of his broken antler.
Swanly grabbed his shoulder.
"Stop. You are bleeding."
"There is a buried passage."
"Nerin."
"Cubs are behind us."
His green eyes lifted toward her.
"If I stop, they cannot leave."
The blood ran down his temple.
Kael arrived beside them.
He looked at Swanly’s hand on Nerin’s shoulder.
His jaw tightened.
Then he looked at the trapped cub families.
He crouched beside Nerin.
"Where?"
Nerin pointed toward a wall of stone and packed roots.
"Behind that section. The earth sounds hollow."
Kael shifted.
His black panther claws tore into the wall.
Raku joined him with his stone weapon.
Tovan shouted at the builders.
"Dig around them! Do not break the top!"
Boars, badgers, and bears shifted into beast form and attacked the packed earth.
Their claws moved faster than human hands ever could.
Stone rolled away.
Roots snapped.
A narrow black opening appeared.
Air rushed through it.
Nerin nearly collapsed.
Kael shifted back and caught him before he struck the ground.
Nerin blinked at the arm around his waist.
Kael looked deeply displeased.
"You are walking."
"I can walk."
"You are falling."
"I am not."
Kael dragged one of Nerin’s arms over his shoulder.
"This is not friendship."
Nerin swallowed.
"I did not think it was."
"Good."
They moved toward the opening together.
Swanly stared after them.
Miko pointed.
"Papa carrying deer."
Kael’s ears flattened.
"I am helping him walk."
Kairo nodded.
"Papa nice."
"I am not."
Nilo looked at Nerin’s bleeding antler.
"Papa very nice."
Kael growled.
The cubs smiled.
The buried route opened into the dry riverbed.
Gray stone stretched west beneath sparse dead trees.
No living roots crossed it.
Thalara looked toward the forest.
"This path will slow them."
Soren heard her.
"Why?"
"The Root-Eaters move through living soil. The stone will force them above ground."
"And the voices?"
Thalara looked toward the empty sky over the riverbed.
"The hollow birds prefer branches."
Soren turned to Swanly.
"Your fire pit."
She understood immediately.
The rot-burn pit still smoldered near Riverbone’s center.
Animal blood, infected remains, old fat, and resin bark remained beside it.
"We make the settlement smell more alive than we do."
Soren nodded.
"Do it."