Bravelands: Thunder on the Plains #1: The Shattered Horn by Erin Hunter

Author:Erin Hunter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2023-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Flicker’s paws kicked out more little clouds of dust and dry grass as she stomped across the plain. Stride was happy to be swept along in her wake, it was better than anywhere else he could think of to be, but he was struggling to keep up with her furious pace. The tooth that had cracked under Jinks’s blow had finally fallen out, and his jaw felt much better for it, but still, the ground under him tilted and swayed more than it used to.

“I won’t just lie down and be exiled from my own life,” Flicker was muttering. “Who does he think he is? He doesn’t get to tell my family whether to speak to me or not. I won’t just accept this. And you won’t either. You’re my family now, I’m not going to let them bully you.”

For a moment, Stride’s real vision was overtaken by a flash of an imagined future: Flicker defending their cubs against anything that could threaten them in Bravelands.

He felt a little guilty for the thought. It was a nice thing to imagine, but it wasn’t real. They had to face what was real first.

He sighed and cleared his throat. “I still can’t believe Pace betrayed me like that.”

Flicker stopped pacing, and her tail drooped between her legs. “I . . . don’t think you have anything to worry about. I don’t think it was Pace, whatever Jinks claimed. I told my litter-mate, Softpaw, and she . . . well, she wasn’t supportive.”

“Neither was Pace,” admitted Stride. “He said if I didn’t stop seeing you, it was all going to go horribly wrong and we’d get hurt. And he was right,” he muttered.

“It sounds like he was just worried about you,” Flicker said. Her expression darkened. “Trust me. This is something Softpaw would do. Pace is probably innocent.”

Stride nodded. He was relieved, but the feeling was muted, when Flicker’s family hung over their heads like a dark cloud. He realized that he knew they hadn’t treated her well, in an abstract way: encouraging Jinks even when she said she didn’t want him. But he hadn’t quite realized that her own litter-sister would turn on her. He hoped never to meet this badly named Softpaw.

“Even if Pace didn’t do it, I can’t go back to the coalition,” he said. “That’d be putting him in danger as much as me. We’re on our own.” He paused. “I want to go back for Fleet. Without our help, he’ll die.”

“Stride . . . ,” Flicker said. Stride felt a prickle of unease.

“What?”

“It’s just that . . . I like Fleet, and I want him to live, but . . . if we have to run, go far away, how are we going to bring him with us? We can’t carry him. You know we can’t.”

Stride shook his head. “I—I don’t know. We’ll think of something. We always have before. I’ll think of something.”

Flicker nodded, but Stride could see that there was something more she wanted to say.

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