The Obelisk

-Chapter 29-

The sun was halfway in the sky. Litters of small fluffy clouds floated high up, and Forest wondered what they were made of.

Needles lifted a small sack from his shoulder—one Forest had not realized was there—and began to dig through it with his claws. “Everyone,” he called, getting their attention, “come here, come here.” He pulled out a small weathered scroll from the sack, and gently unrolled it on the grass below him.

Everyone leaned closer, trying to get a better look. It was map—the one Forest had only ever seen drawn with charcoal on the rock floor, when his parents tough him about the outside world.

“What is it?” Rust asked.

“This is Fjordur,” Needles explained. “We are here, right outside Runheimr. Forest must have come from here, where lost carnivores had claimed to see a Basilisk.” He tapped a part of the scroll where a few rocks were drawn, in between the Broken Meadows and the Bay. “Do you recognize it, Forest?”

Forest drew his head close. “Maybe?”

Needled chuckled. “Alright then.”

“I do!” Spark said. “Look, there’s few human ruins near it—that’s where me and my brother lived. Then I went that way”—she swished the top of her tail over the rock pile drawing—“ and found—ahem—saved Forest.”

“Then I was right,” Needles said. “That’s where I will be going next. To the Drake caves, to find Peeri.”

“What? Why?” Crimson asked.

“I want to meet Peeri in person,” Needles said with a sigh. “Hear the prophecy from her own mouth. Maybe get some clues.”

“But—“ Forest tried.

“I wish you could come along, too, friends. But we must go out separate ways. We are almost at Runheimr, and then you will no longer need me.”

Rust yelped and whirled around.

“What is it?” Spark asked him.

“A ground squirrel or something just trodded over my tail!” Rust snarled. “I’ll go teach him a lesson.” He stomped off to a nearby bush.

“I a m hungry,” Spark said. “If you get it, save some for me!”

“Got it!”

Needled turned back to the map. “Tomorrow, you will go here,” he pointed to a strange drawing of a building right by the Dark Forest. “The Terror Birds rarely go there. That’s where you will sneak in.”

“OK,” Spark mused, nodding.

“Rrrrraargh!” Rust was roaring, pounding into a briar bush. “You stupid, stinky, son of a Fenrir! Get OUT ALREADY SO I CAN KILL YOU!”

Forest laughed and turned to help him, but then Rust froze, making Forest pause.

Rust barely moved. He squinted, swished a few leaves aside, and reached into the bush with one talon.

“I found something,” Rust yelled.

“What is it?” The carnivores all turned to walk over.

“I—“ Rust looked up to them, his face a mask of confusion. “I don’t know.”