Courage (My Word)

[Thrayjen]

Lady Eve?s voice caught and kept the attention of the rebels, inspiring the rabble into a mostly cohesive, goal-oriented troupe. Amongst rebellions there shall always be rebels, and not even Eve?s grand promises could convince everybeast. Thrayjen?s heavy muzzle turned towards a particular group who continued their rumblings. Their threat was not lost upon the rat; as beasts in blue and beasts with chafed necks poured from the bowyery yard at Eve?s command, Thrayjen held an arm out to stop the mice and ferret behind him from proceeding.

?Rinam,? Thrayjen began, looking to the tallest of the white ladies. ?The kitchens you worked in before forced into the pits. It had a loading bay somewhere for bulk supplies, I assume??

Rinam nodded and gripped her rondel tighter. ?You wish us to flee while you press on.?

?Never!? Foxglove Aera spat.

?It?s not such a bad idea, aye,? Blue said as she hopped from foot to foot.

?Coward,? Foxglove snarled back.

?I won?t be there to protect you,? Thrayjen patiently said, waiting for the young mouse. Her face scrunched as her front teeth ran along her lip.

?You actually mean to go after Nire? Now? Somebeast else can get the cat, there?s enough after him already!?

?And they all mean to kill him on sight, not ensure Northvale is held accountable.?

?That?s?not such a bad idea, aye.? Blue winced slightly at Thrayjen?s angry glare. ?Him livin? is going to just further divide the beasts in Northvale. There are so many in town whose lives depend on the Crater. My brother?even my pa, back in the day, we all work here. The schools, the library, the harbour, everythin? came about because of Nire?s Crater.? Blue swallowed, running both her paws over her head and pinning her ears down. ?Lettin? Nire live would be to encourage all of those beasts who don?t understand. I?I don?t even know what I?m doin?. I know it?s right, but I thought I had it all figured out before. There?s goin? to be so many beasts like me who just?don?t know anythin? else!?

Dryly, the ferret added, ?Beasts like what they know. It?s comfortable??

Thrayjen gently shook his head. ?And yet with Nire dead, Northvale won?t have the chance to recognize what they did as wrong. It?ll always just be ?the tyrant Nire did this?, but they did this. They helped him.?

?You?re saying he deserves to live? He, of all beasts??

Thrayjen sighed, his disappointment heavy. ?Truth is, Miss Aera, I don?t rightly know what he deserves. As a former tyrant myself, it?s not my choice.?

Foxglove?s mouth closed with a click of teeth as she looked at the ground. Her mother placed a paw upon her shoulder.

?If we can get out safely, then we should take that opportunity. I don?t want you to risk-?

?It?s my choice!? Aera interrupted the older mouse. ?My friends are out in this horrid place, fighting for their lives and for ours, and I will not run. I will not abandon them when they need every paw they can get.?

The white mouse launched herself forward, lurching past the group of bewildered creatures. Her mother called desperately after her, shock and fear filling every crease in Marigold?s usually relaxed face. Her paws carried her forward but Blue held the mouse back as she sought after her daughter.

?Easy now, Mrs A. She?s got her mind made up.?

?Now?s the time to find your brother, if he?s still inside the Crater,? Thrayjen said to Blue. ?The kitchens won?t be the guards? priority. If you?re lucky, you won?t have to fight any uniformed friends.?

Blue winced at his comment but nodded, looking sick at the prospect of fighting her peers. She guided Marigold by the arm, picking their way towards the Drag.

?Nire may no longer be in the Crater,? Rinam quietly said, following beside Thrayjen.

?The king won?t leave his castle,? Thrayjen promptly answered.

?We don?t know that. He is a coward, like most beasts of coin.? Rinam pointed out. Her eyes narrowed. ?He may have fled.?

?He may not have,? Thrayjen insisted. ?If they kill Nire, they?ll justify killing me. There?s so many here who I?ve terrorized. If they can just wait for him to see justice done proper?perhaps not murdering me won?t be so impossible.?

?You fear them yet you give them choice. Curious traits for a king.? The white mouse eyed him sidelong, the corner of her mouth lifting slightly.

?I?m not a king,? Thrayjen said insistently, shoving the heavy bowyery door open and leading the group into the damp corridor. ?I?m a farmer.?

The hallway was eerily empty. Beasts had moved under Eve?s guidance to the main gate whereas many still in uniform had tried to salvage other areas of the Crater.

?I bet most of us, er, them,? Blue quietly said, timid against the quiet of the hallway and the shouts and screams that lurked beyond, ?have gone to secure areas of importance. Can?t have another armory incident; the crematorium might be a swell of activity. Mad Muda keeps a lot of loud potions down there that the guards will be interested in protecting, if she hasn?t been flooded out.?

?Most will be at the main gates,? Thrayjen added. He scratched his chin with a claw, eyes flickering down both ends of the corridor. ?That?s where most slaves will be trying to get out. Most of Nire?s forces will be trying to stop the hail of armed, angry beasts who remember what a naked neck feels like. Find Plockette as quick as you can. How?re you going to get the loading doors open, Rinam??

The curly furred mouse simply flexed an arm and shrugged. ?I shall burn it down if the lock will not yield, though I suppose a nutpick and a knife will suffice.? She turned to the large rat and held his gaze for but a moment before her paws flexed into a foreign symbol.

?If we lose the tyrant today, than the world shall be twice as good. If we lose you, a good soul will be mourned. Be safe.?

?Is that what that means?? the rat asked, looking at Rinam?s paws.

?No.? She smiled, a rare sight that Thrayjen found himself mimicking. ?Return to me and I?ll show you more.?

Blue burst into a choking fit, her ragged laughter betraying her anxieties. She threw her arms around Thrayjen?s neck and gave him a rough pat. The tension in the smaller ferret?s body moved the rat to return her embrace.

?Rotten searat,? the ferret said, strained voice nearly a gasp. She blinked profusely, blue eyes wide and worried. ?Imagine if I hadn?t been assigned as your trainer, aye?  I?d still have a job! This is all your fault, you great hulkin? shadow, so if you don?t find me after you get out, I?ll box your ears until they fly off.?

?Then I best be quick,? Thrayjen said, and they held each other for a minute longer. Blue then pushed him away, galloping ahead and ushering Marigold and Rinam towards the winners? lounge where Thrayjen hoped Plockette was safe.

Thrayjen watched them go until their footsteps were lost, heart pounding in his chest as he grappled with his decision to seek out Nire. He could run after the girls, simply take them out to freedom, or insist on finding Plockette himself rather than the lynx. He could join Foxglove and fight in the hoard of desperate beasts at the main gate. Thrayjen?s paw rested on the cutlass sheathed in his belt.

Northvale will simply kill you in the end, Thrayjen thought.You?re wasting precious seconds. Go after Rinam. Get out. Leave. Northvale will hate you regardless of how you?ve changed. What you?ve done will never leave them?just like the Crater will never leave them?this is a mistake?

?I made a choice,? Thrayjen barked into the empty hallway. He took off, marching through the Drag towards familiar corners and posts.

I saw my own evil. They can too.

One turn led the rat past a grisly scene of three dead Bluebacks and four perished slaves. One beast had tried to drag themselves away, but the corpse at the end of a long blood trail proved the swiftness of death.

I changed. They can too.

He passed the courtyard that led to the barns. Black smoke filled the hallways and the rat choked and gasped as he crawled. His paws slid along slick and sticky gore, the taste of blood on his lips as his pawsteps inadvertently sent droplets splattering. The rat stumbled, tripping over the tail of a squirrel who had met the hooves of a boar. Her stomach spilled from her split flesh and Thrayjen hurried his pace, fleeing past several more bodies that had fallen prey to boar or revolt.

They have too.

On the ground floor of the Crater, the devastation was worse. Beasts occasionally would run by the rat, their pelts slick with blood or blackened with smoke. Guards fended off crowds of slaves, and beasts everywhere were screaming. Thrayjen scoured the crowd for the flash of white fur, but nowhere could he see Foxglove.

The dark rat slunk along the walls, heading for the one door he knew led up. The several times Nire had called him to his office had been enough for Thrayjen to memorize the route, and he moved hastily despite the pockets of fighting. The door itself barely hung in its frame, wood cracked at the hinges and a broken hole where the lock had once rested. He wasn?t the first to try this way.

Fear clenched him as Thrayjen worried he was already too late. He pushed aside the broken barricade and thundered up the stone steps. Yet, as he made his way towards the large wooden doors of Nire?s office, the hallways were empty save for dead. Guards lay in pools of their own blood, and for each blue uniform there was at least one slave whose life had ended in the pursuit of freedom.

Nire?s office loomed before the giant rat as he forced himself into a steady pace. Dread united with his fear as he simply pushed on one of the heavy doors and it opened. Stepping over the body of a blue uniformed guard, Thrayjen let himself into the lynx?s lair.

Furniture was turned over and books had been emptied from the shelves. Chairs had been thrown and shattered against the stone walls. Nire?s desk had been looted and the drawers, ripped from their tracks, lay ruined in piles of board and shredded papers. The lynx?s chair sat vandalized, hacked at crudely with varying blades.

It was the only time Thrayjen had ever seen the fireplace cold, yet the greatrat wore an enormous, cocky smile.

?They didn?t find you, did they?? he called sarcastically to no one. ?They would have just grabbed you and dragged you out and killed you if they did?but no, here lays your throne in pieces.? The rat leapt onto Nire?s desk, kicking papers into the air and watching them spiral back down to the ground. ?So where are you, my Lord?? He snidely spoke to himself, whiskers twitching. ?Come out, come out??

Thrayjen squinted as he searched about the room from his perch, tail lashing excitedly behind him. His fear turned into exhilaration as the Blackwhiskers realized he would have the feline lord to himself. His cutlass was in his paw, tongue running over his lips as he imagined in detail what he would do to the lynx. A wrinkle in the curtains; a simple fold where there should have been none. Fabric that did not dance in the breeze as its partner did.

There.

The Blackwhiskers eagerly followed the curtain to where it tucked into the shelving next to the window, and the greatrat?s paws etched slowly along the crevices and nails until one particular bump clicked. A door barely opened, cleverly disguised as a functioning bookcase, and the Rapscallion whistled despite himself.

Stairs lay beyond the secret door. A passage, narrow and unlit, comprised mostly of stairs lead upwards. Without knowing where he was heading, the rat tripped and stumbled his way up, getting stuck twice and having to wrench his tail with a paw until he could wriggle free. At last, a flash of light found his eyes and the Blackwhiskers hurled himself through the hall, scratching at the walls and biting the air as his body moved too slow for his craving.

Grey sky above his head, the black rat galloped along the topmost tier of the Crater?s rounded levels. No bulwark kept wayward spectators safe from the edge and the long way down paused the Blackwhiskers for a moment as he contemplated how long it would take to reach the bottom. An owl flew above him, screeching as it disappeared into a plume of smoke. The Blackwhisker?s eyes locked onto the lone figure across the platform.

?Nire,? he growled, salivating and clenching his sword. His paws launched him forward and he dodged ropes and enormous fire cages that had once glowed with coloured flames. His imagination took off as quickly as his paws and his teeth would snip that shaggy cat?s flesh from muscle very neatly.

The Blackwhiskers drew near, and for a moment he saw only red. Then, with paws patiently clasped behind his back, Nire turned towards him. His chin up in quiet dignity, the lynx stood a portrait of calm acceptance. The claymore in his paw was leaned upon like a cane, its desire for blood and flesh unconsummated.

Thrayjen slowed, and rose to his feet. He sheathed the cutlass in his belt and stopped pawsteps away from his former master.

?Come to kill me, Blackwhiskers?? Nire asked, nodding at the rat?s sword and pointedly looking at Thrayjen?s bare neck. ?Not much room up here for theatrics.? A quick glance down, down into the fighting pit below.

?Long way down,? Thrayjen answered, unable to disguise the hunger in his voice.

?Seven seconds.?

?Fair enough, but who would want to clean up that kind of mess??

They stared at each other in silence. Nire broke into a broad smile, chuckling as he lowered himself to the stone and sitting with his longs legs dangling over the edge.

?So you?re not going to kill me. Yet. Why then are you here??

Thrayjen eased himself down beside the lynx, squinting through his toes at the distant ground. He wrapped his lengthy tail around a rope hitch, swallowing the unease in his stomach as he thought about the long seven seconds down.

?It would be rather hypocritical, wouldn?t you say? The Blackwhiskers killing a great lord simply for doing what the Rapscallions have been doing for generations. Kidnapping, enslavement, blackmail, torture and abuse??

?And murder,? Nire added helpfully.

?Right. And murder. The whole package. The difference between you and I, Lord Nire, is that my people never had a choice. They lived in our lands, they lived by our way. They grew up knowing only Rapscallion reign, and they became we. Your people?Northvale. They let you in and accepted you. They chose your way.?

?And yet I am labelled a tyrant,? the lynx sighed, disappointment weighing heavily upon his brow.

?By those who didn?t chose you.?

Thrayjen looked down across Northvale. Smoke was thick in the air as the barn fire had spread, Northvale shrouded in grey smog. From the top of the Crater, the town and the beasts below seemed so tiny, so unimportant. Beside him, the lynx shifted and Thrayjen watched him carefully, noting how the cat?s eyes flickered from fire to fight to searching for the source of every scream.

??We?, you said. My people.? The lynx grinned. ?I tried to make them that. I had a people once, and I was happy. War took everything from me. I lost my home, my culture. I tried again, to find happiness, and I found Northvale.?

The lynx shifted, bobbed tail lashing against the ground as Nire ground his teeth in frustration. ?They loved me. I made them what they are! I gave them everything!?

?Which I why I won?t let anyone kill you today. It?s not right for Northvale to raise you up and then simply murder you.?

The lynx?s head snapped towards Thrayjen and the rat calmly stared back into Nire?s widened eyes.

?You?ll?you?ll let them decide my fate? Those turncoats, those simpletons?!?

?Aye,? Thrayjen answered. ?When they put you on trial, the whole town will be put on trial. They?ll be forced to see what they?ve become.?

?Why do you even care?? Nire demanded, his high-pitched voice hiking in indignation. The rat smirked ironically.

?I care because I was you, once. Long time ago, but the history was written. I faced myself down and I when I realized how disgusting I was, I tried to change.?

?Yet you still fight like a savage,? Nire sneered. ?So really, have you changed all that much? Do you think Northvale would change? They love bloodsport now, and that will always nag at them. I scratched an itch they couldn?t reach! They?ll shred me to pieces and still that won?t satiate their appetites; I?ll always be a part of them, and you, Prince Thrayjen, will be forgotten by all save those who remember the Blackwhiskers.?

The lynx narrowed his eyes, running a claw through his whiskers contemplatively.

?We can flee,? Nire hissed. ?We can go south, to Muskroarka. I can set up a new arena, a new life. You can have your royal status back. Together, we can topple your brother. We?d be powerful, you and I. I?ll even give you that mouse you?re always eyeing. The one with the curly fur; the Pearl Dawn.?

Thrayjen smiled patiently, tilting his head as he regarded Nire much the same way he?d often look at Helix when a pie went missing.

?I?m not the Blackwhiskers, Lord Nire. I can?t help you find happiness or somewhere to belong.? The rat stood and offered Nire a paw up. ?I can only help you find fairness.?

?It isn?t fair, though,? Nire growled, nudging the forgotten claymore. He planted it tip to stone and hoisted himself up. ?You say you?re not the Blackwhiskers, but I don?t believe you. You?ve the same bloodlust as the town. They?ll kill me, and remember you, and then you?ll tear each other to bits.?

Thrayjen shrugged, unable to argue with Nire?s logic. The cat spoke the truth; Northvale would never forget its dark chapters, and never let him forget his. The rat glanced down and found himself staring at the sword clasped in Nire?s claws. The lynx looked from him to his blade, a slow smile spreading across his features.

?It was MacRaffs. I found it near Timberfell?s body. In my Hall of Greats?? Teeth poked out from behind the lynx?s stretched lips. ?He wasn?t very great, though, was he? Murdered by a drunk bowyer. Forgotten by his partner. Here.?

Nire offered the claymore forth. ?I admit, I almost missed it when I hid behind a statue, but?it is a pretty decoration, don?t you think??

Thrayjen?s whiskers twitched. The sword had killed many and righted wrongs and created new grudges. It was no trinket. The hare that had wielded it had been a fierce warrior. Nire dishonoured them both by greasing the hilt with his paws.

?Take it,? the lynx offered again, and Thrayjen reached his paw out.

The cat was fast, and while not a warrior himself he wasted no time. Nire brought the hilt up and slammed the pommel into Thrayjen?s swollen face, his eye exploding into a fiercer pain than before. Thrayjen fell back, clutching his face and screaming a thousand curses as he felt fresh blood trickle down his cheek.

?Take it, then!? Nire shrieked, turning the sword and, gripping it tightly with both paws, slashing down at the floored rat.

Thrayjen barely rolled to the side in time to evade the frantic cat?s attack, his legs and hips sliding off the stone platform. His caws barely found enough purchase to cling to safety as his tail, still curled about the hitch, set his roll further off balance. He scrambled from the edge, kicking wildly as Nire tried to come in close.

Nire launched himself forward, landing on top of Thrayjen and grappling with his claws and teeth as Kentigern?s sword skittered across the stones. Thrayjen grabbed at the lynx?s clenched fists, holding the larger cat?s blows back. Screams of rage cried in a foreign tongue bellowed forth from the lynx.

?TAKE THE SWORD! SLAY ME! I?M RIGHT! I?M RIGHT! BLACKWHISKERS! KILL YOU ALL! I?M RIGHT!?

Spitting, hissing, Nire yelled enraged nonsense, his muscles weakening as Thrayjen dug his knee into Nire?s stomach and flipped him over. The lynx growled and let loose a terrible, high-pitched roar as the muscles in his legs bunched up. Thrayjen drew his cutlass and pointed it calmly at Nire, heaving heavy breaths as his tail edged the claymore even further away from the deranged cat.

?You KNOW I?m RIGHT!? the cat shrieked, hunkering down onto four paws as his back arched and tail lashed. ?They?ll KILL ALL OF US! Me, you! Without me, this town is NOTHING BUT CHAOS!?

?Chaos breeds more chaos,? Thrayjen answered, squaring his shoulders. ?So I?ll see peace return if it kills me.?