The Obelisk

-Chapter 86-

Laughs echoed acrossed the oceans’ shore, small Shadowmane kits wrestling and chasing after each other, water splashing everywhere.

The golden forest of the Shadowmane camp met its end at this small rocky beach, leading out to miles and miles of dark blue water as far as the eye could see. It was morning, and according to Orbit, they had no training today. Forest had himself sitting on a giant fallen tree, scraping his dangling claws acrossed the pebbles littering the ground. He could hear Rust nearby, and when he looked up he spotted the fluffy Deinonychus playing around with some small Shadowmanes about his size. He couldn’t see Spark anywhere, and he didn’t see Crimson either, until he turned his head and noticed her sitting alone, a bit farther away, where the forest met the beach.

“How you doing?” Spark asked from his other side. Forest screeched and topped right off the log, landing painfully on the rocks. Spark stretched her head over the log to look down at him.

“Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” She said.

“I’m fine,” He said, popping up from the ground. “What about you?”

“Mostly stressed,” Spark sighed.

“About Nyx?”

“Yes,” Spark said, quicker than she needed to. “I mean, it has been two days. But I’m really just wondering what all this… Shadowmane stuff is leading to. Like, what are we gonna do, just stay here?”

Forest paused to think about that. It’d never really occurred to him whether or not they should do something about being kept in the camp. It was safe here, wasn’t it? A picture of home flashed through his head, and he looked up at Spark. “I don’t know,” he said. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“But yes, I am also worried about Nyx.” She said.

“Me too.” Forest said.

Spark met his eyes. “You like her a lot?”

Forest tried to interpret the strange tone in her voice. “She’s a really good carnivore,” He said, slowly. “I do like her. I want to be friends with her… Rust doesn’t really talk to her, Crimson hates her, as far as I know, and I’ve just been trying to— give her some comfort.”

“She must have been so overwhelmed,” Spark pondered. “So excited and lively when we first met her, but secretive. Hey, don’t look at me like that, she did hide the whole truth about the rune from us when she could have said something. That kind of tipped her vibe though, I think, judging by how quiet and tense she was after that. And then… what. She just— poof. Runs away from the problem.”

“I hope she comes back.” Forest said.

They went silent for a bit, and Spark quietly jumped up on the log to settle herself down in a scrunchy sitting position that looked a lot like a funny little dove. Forest took a moment to look around again, at all of the talking and sitting and playing Shadowmanes around him. Adults were teaching their kits to swim in the small pools, diving in and tossing their muzzles to flick the water off their faces. He looked up and saw Moonbeam coming down from the camp, where she padded right up to Crimson and asked her something. Crimson said something back, and Moonbeam sat down next to her.

He turned around to see that Rust was now laughing as a dull blue and green Shadowmane fumbled to get their claws on a grey fish, flapping wildly acrossed the rocks. Rust jumped forward to help her and nearly stumbled acrossed another Shadowmane as he grabbed it.

But then a terrified scream split acrossed the rocks, and Forest jumped and whirled around to the noise.

“Riverbed?” A female Shadowmane called. “RIVERBED?”

“He was just here,” someone yelled.

There was another panicked cry, and the Shadowmanes pivoted their heads to the shore.

“He’s in the water!” Another snarled.

Everyone was up now, alert and scanning the waves. Forest saw the tiny kit almost instantly. He was rather far out, being sucked farther and farther away no matter how much he scrambled to swim back. Forest stepped forward and hesitated, unsure of what to do.

And then there was a flash of red to Forests’ right, and in an instant, before the Shadowmanes could do anything, Crimson leapt into the waves.