The Collar of Honour by P.W. Jacob

Author:P.W. Jacob
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

The High Priestess’s Tale

“This is not good,” Maxhel said eventually. He had been silent for a while, his face buried in his paws. “Not good at all,” he continued.

As if to further underline his point his voice echoed around the empty barn he and his staff stood in.

“Err.”

A high-pitched voice tried to speak but was silenced when Maxhel raised a paw and made a cutting gesture. The silence continued for an uncountable amount of time until eventually Maxhel spoke again.

“What happened to our food supplies?”

When Maxhel and team had locked the barn the previous day it was packed from ceiling to floor with various wheats and grains. The cold period was fast approaching and they had been given the task of finding and looking after grain supplies for the entire mole community. It had been a task that Maxhel had taken very seriously indeed. He was one of five team leaders tasked with ensuring the continued survival of the moles. The other four were in charge of: tending the worm farm so that there would always be a supply of fresh juicy worms; the fur store, ensuring blankets and fur-lined coats would be available throughout the cold time; the hospital wing, making sure that a bountiful supply of healing herbs and plant-based balms were in stock and ready to be used in emergencies; and finally (and secretly the team Maxhel had really wanted to lead) the treasure store – often while digging the moles would unearth various treasures which, while useless to them, they knew they could trade with the other species for more supplies.

It had been a tough season and they had lost many moles to exhaustion and accidents, not to mention those who had been picked off by the various birds of prey who seemed to swoop down from out of nowhere. It had been worth it, though, when all five barns were finally filled and the doors locked and bolted. Now, however, Maxhel was surrounded by emptiness. He felt a hot prickly sensation run down his neck as he realised that he would have to explain why there was no longer any grain. He was just mentally calculating how long he would survive if he ran away when he was distracted by a member of his team (whose name he had never bothered to learn) shouting for attention.

Rationalising that his day couldn’t possibly get any worse Maxhel dragged himself towards his anonymous team member. The young mole was very excited, jumping up and down, waving his paws around. As Maxhel approached he spotted the cause of the younger mole’s agitation. There was a deep hole in the far corner of the barn. Maxhel started to run towards it, eventually dropping to all fours so that he could cover the distance more quickly. As he approached the hole he spotted a line of grain leading from where the large pile had once stood right up to the newly formed hole. By the time he arrived he knew what

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