Chapter 4:

If you missed Chapter 3 you can find the complete version here.

Vorcinerex paced atop the ridge of the knoll, looking down at their warriors as they attempted to fend off the scourge. He motioned wildly with his good arm and waved Elder Horak over to him, his red eye keeping watch of the lines. It was not going well for them, thought that was to be expected, they had not had a victory against the Humans in close to ten years. Still knowing this the tribes fought against the scourge. Horak reached the top of the knoll, his gray fur running to white  his tongue lolling the short trip exhausting him. The journey had been good for him, he'd shrunk to half his size since they started this migration, the humans dogged on their trail. They hadn't had appropriate time for gathering supplies or hunting, and so many had to do with far less to eat than they were accustomed too, the Elders more so than the rest.

"We're not going to be able to hold them at the edge of the woods much longer, have the Elders reconsidered letting the child fight them?" Vorcinerex growled.

Horak shied from Vorcinerex's wrath, when he spoke it was in a whine ."I'm sorry my Chief, the Elders have been clear on this, the child is too divine to be risked in confrontation."

"What good is the child divinity if the entire tribe is dead before she's matured!" the Chief loomed over the Elder and for a moment Fella thought he meant to strike Horak down.

Her mate steeled himself and dismissed the Elder with a snarl. She hunters positioned around her grew smaller, their tails growing stiff as they looked to escape the notice of Vorcinerex's wrath. He stalked down the hill to where she waited with their hunters a growl still sounding in his throat.

"Fools." He huffed as he took his place by her side.

"They merely seek to protect the child my Chief." Fella soothed.

He huffed in that tempered way of his, "I should send them to the front lines if its defending her they seek."

She eyed him coolly, Violet eyes piercing into the one good eye of his. He seemed himself then, the rage calming and he shook his head at her. "Hunters leave us."

They hesitated, knowing they were here to guard them, but unwilling to disobey. The sulked deeper into the woods just ahead of the pair, leaving them at the bottom of the hill alone. Well as alone as one could be while in the midst of a battle.

"These are our kin Fella, just as much as any pup. Why should her life mean more than all of theirs." He was hers again, the Vulk she'd joined herself too, not Vorcinerex the Vicious Chief of Chiefs. Their hunters, Vulk she'd known her entire life gave them room and pretended not to hear.

"You know why, even if we cannot understand it." she said in her gruff voice, the one that had won Vor to her. "She is a gift from our Mother, to lead our people to their rightful place."

His eye sought hers out, he spoke to her hushed then. "I fear that we may not have any people left to lead. I may have no choice but to send the Elders away with her, and try to lead Bloodlust away."

"The tribes will not be willing to leave her, you know this." They had discussed this very thing on several sleepless nights.

"There might not be many of them left after tonight, and regardless I don't plan on giving them a choice, too many of our kin have been lost already to their deliberations. You'll take the girl and the Elders by force with the hunters and steal into the Everwood. In such small numbers their Ships won't be able to seek you like they will this army. You'll be able to lose yourselves, and the tribes will lead them away." He sounded so sure, so sure of their defeat. This wasn't the Vor that had joined the tribes.

"The tribes will not stay together without the child Vor, they'll fracture just like they always have." She cautioned.

"Then that should help us further, forcing Bloodlust to chase several directions instead of one. He won't know that the child has slipped him until he's caught every one. Yes the more I speak of this the more I know it must be done. Tonight, tonight you steal the child and slip off into the dark." He stood taller now, the assured air returning to him. It would have been comforting to her if she did not find his plan so disastrous.

Just then a middling pup burst through the underbrush despite protestations from their ring of hunters. His longer fur and reddish tint placed him from tribe LongWood, which meant he was bringing information from their right flank.

"Chief of Chiefs! The RedMoons have been beaten back, they said there is an Immortal fighting with the Humans on that side. What's more Chief Hortavious says Bloodlust is with them."

Vorcinerex roared then, lost to his temper once more. Bloodlust, the Chief of the scourge, the man Vor blamed for the deaths of so many of their kin. He would seek Bloodlust out, try to end this war Chief to Chief. Hortavious was Chief RedMoon now, his brother had fallen then.

"Hunters, to me!" Vorcinenrex barked, while beginning in the direction the pup had come.

"My Chief, there was more. Chief Hortavious said that the Immortal and some humans broke through his warriors and continued on into the woods. He said they were headed towards the Elders." The Pup looked confused but it made too much sense, they knew, the Immortal knew exactly where to find the child. She looked to Vor but he was already loping up the hill, hunters gathered themselves and took off after him.

Would they be too late? Fella prayed to The Mother that they would not be, the child was their weapon even if she could not fight. She had unified the tribes the way no chief had been able to before. She would not let Vorcinerex break them, even if he was the Chief of Chiefs, even if he was her mate.