The Sun is Burning (Brooga Delfan)

[Substitute Author]

Now the sun has disappeared,
All is darkness, anger, pain and fear.



Brooga stood near Tassle during the execution, never saying a word though her velvety face was damp from tears shed for another lost friend. The mole wasn't sure she could have spoken even if she had wanted to. The lump in her throat was so thick. She chanced a glance towards the shrew and felt a chill run down through the end of her tail. The expression that lurked behind the tears on Tassle's face was coldly frightening.

Maybe the shrew had given a look like that in the tunnels, and it had just been too dark for the mole to see it. Maybe this was the first time something had made her quite that angry. Brooga looked down at the dirty floor.
?How... how could they, Brooga? What did Kelsey ever do to him??

Tassle's teeth were clenched as tightly as her fists and her eyes seemed to burn beneath her tears.
?Oi don' know, Tassle. Oi-? Brooga looked up at her friend again in time to see a strange, scared tremor shake her. ?Coom here.? She untied her grimy shawl and laid it over the shrew's shoulders before pulling her into a gentle hug. ?Thurr, 'ee'll be a'right.?

Tassle nodded quickly and then stood straighter, pushing Brooga's digging claws from her shoulders. Brooga let her, and slowly looked back towards the pole and the supposed murderer.

Were those tears on his face?
The question stopped the mole in her tracks, and she stood staring at the ferret's limp body for several moments. Pity came naturally, despite her anger over Kelsey's murder. Tornear's head hung low over his chest, blood discoloring everything from his drooping whiskers to his lifeless footpaws that soaked in the pooled blood. It seemed strange that the beast with Kelsey's blood on his paws was bound in such a way that his paws were clean. Brooga's eyes were caught by the bloody, tear-stained gag, and she wondered in passing what the ferret's last words would have been had he been given the chance to say them.

?Well, now that that's been dealt with, let's get back to important things, shall we??
Ashira strode out in front of the gathered crowd, paw resting on her sword.

?Like finding a certain monster. Who wants to come with me??

There was an uneasy silence, though Brooga thought she saw Silus grinning eerily behind the ferretess while he wiped Tornear's blood from his own paws.
?Oh come, now. No one at all??

?We just got out of those tunnels, ferret.? Tassle stepped bravely forwards before Brooga could stop her with a warning digging claw. ?No beast in their right mind would go back down there.?

Ashira turned and raised an eyebrow, looking the shrew up and down before giving a grin that sent shivers up and down Brooga's spine for the second time that day.
?Then it shouldn't be a problem for you, should it? You're a little small, but you'll certainly do.?

Tassle's fur spiked in rage, and Brooga watched as her paw twitched towards where her stolen cutlass had so recently hung.

?Mizz Tassle, doan' 'ee do that.? Her digging claw wrapped around Tassle's shoulder and the mole started to frantically pull the shrew back into the gathered crowd. ?Mizz ferret, Oi'll go with 'ee. Take Oi instead.?
Brooga pushed past Tassle, giving the shrew a hard glance that melted into a quiet smile as she stepped forward. She could only guess that picking a fight with the slaver ferret would end in a pool of spilt blood, and while descending into the tunnels again could hardly be better, there was still a chance of survival. They had gotten out once before, hadn't they?
?And what's to stop me from taking both of you? Ah, never mind. You'll likely be less trouble. Come, then, mole.? Ashira gestured towards the trapdoor entrance, and Brooga followed the ferret's motion.

She looked back towards the silenced crowd once before descending. A pale, rich stream of sunlight crept through one of the old Bladegirt windows, illuminating Tornear's bloody body as well as his executioner.

It was almost like the sun and open sky they had all longed to see was just another enemy, bringing death where the Big Evil couldn't, or didn't. The sun had been shining when Cricket sabotaged the raft. They had been free of the caves when Kelsey met her death at the paws of a beast who was supposed to be their ally. And now justice had come for Tornear.

?Mizz Tassle, 'ee make shur Mizz Kelsey gets a gud boorial.?

Brooga's face cracked into one of her old smiles, and she continued forward, down into the darkness that slowly fled away before Ashira's torch.

So, here she was again. A mole in a cave. It wasn't such a strange picture. She belonged under the ground, didn't she? That was what her digging claws were for. She had known how to use them since she had been a tiny Dibbun, at least to some extent. Her parents had taught her as well, of course, like the mother and father of any good mole family would have.
But these caverns were so horribly different from the tunnels she had been raised in, from the tunnels she had helped dig. Those tunnels had been warm and safe and small, alive with roots and friendly worms. These wide caves were filled with death and alive with monsters, and dove down, down, so far from the sun.

Mole and ferret padded their way through the darkness. Brooga went first, squinting into the deep shadows that their lone torch couldn't touch, and Ashira followed with sword drawn. They had not traveled all that far when the mole's gentle voice rolled out into the torchlight.

?Mizz ferret, if 'ee doan' moind moi askin', what are 'ee goin' t' do when 'ee foinds the monster??
Ashira only paused for a second or two before answering, and Brooga immediately found herself wishing she had never asked.

?I'll kill it, and send it screaming down to Dark Forest Gates.?

Brooga wished for the sunlight then. The sun wasn't the enemy. The worst the sun could do was to reveal horrible truths, and it could not possibly show her anything more terrifying than Ashira's bloodthirsty words.

Yet still, somehow, she was glad for the ferret's company. Who was to say that she wouldn't slay the beast?