Applebloomed

by StormDancer

To Play Dead

I don't know what terrible thing must have befallen my alpha, but whatever it was was clearly requiring more of her than ever before.

The magic that kept the tunnel from the whelping den had failed, the side was open, but there was nowhere to go. Second was upon me before I could even root myself and hope to prevent the invasion. My pack would return to the den, having suffered whatever injuries they might, only to find our territory violated by Second... and likely Ambercrown next.

Ambercrown does seem the most active of the other pack, despite The Predator being the most powerful. Perhaps that is how Yellow Red has been controlling them? Tricking them with her magics to play upon each others weaknesses and strengths? Slowly working fear and distrust into their ranks until they can't help but to cede authority to her superior skills?

It is beyond me, I admit, but that is why my alpha is my alpha.

Musings aside, Second wasted no time in charging me, biting around my trunk and branches with the strength of a wolf barely feeling the illness she so clearly was afflicted with. Her bark was soft, her roots a sickly warmth, but her thorns and barbs were no less vicious. Oddly, despite her sickness, those parts of her seemed to be completely intact... in a way I simply could not hope to compete with.

Feeling my bark splinter, I threw myself from side to side, thrashing as I tried to find some way to flee, to hide, to survive Second's attack until my pack returned.

I could not fail them.

I would not fail them again.

And so I made a sacrifice to serve the pack.

I bit off my branch and let Second hurl me across the den all the way to the side.

The feeling was cold and strange, but I knew I could heal if only I had enough time. Yellow Red's magic would protect us, if only I could keep Second from damaging too much of the den. Second, despite her ferocity, seemed distracted, and it gave me the time I needed to plan.

Yellow Red would arrive wounded, but alive. Dirty Sap and Whiteflower would likely be with her. Ambercrown would arrive shortly thereafter to taunt and challenge for position as she always did, and Evil would howl her sap-chilling howl to demand her share of the kills. Between now and then, The Predator may or may not come to challenge... it was a rare thing, but one that must be accounted for. But through it all, Second was the most immediate threat. I needed to distract Second and get her out of the Whelping Den before Yellow Red returned.

If Yellow Red was too injured to show dominance, even one as lowly as Second could send us all into a fight that my pack may not survive.

Yellow Red's magic was great, but even defeating the other pack would mean nothing if the battle alerted the Unmoving Tribe to our collective weakness.

Second was tearing through my sacrificed branch. I could feel the stick breaking, feel her thorns and barbs splintering my wood, but she ~was~ distracted. I slunk along the side on three limbs as I let my roots feel out the cracks in the Unmoving corpses. Here and there, I sank tiny roots in, tearing them off as I paced, leaving little bits of me in case my plan was to fail.

I had nearly circled the den when she looked up from her vicious feast, my branch little more than slivers and splinters across the corpses. Her eyes met mine, and the growl she uttered, distorted or not, was pristinely clear.

I was near the tunnel... the side had just enough room for me to slink through if I could avoid Second.

It would be easy. Dodge the pounce, slam Second into the corpses, and flee before she could rise. I could be down the tunnel before the other pack would ever know.

But then, the whelping den would be unguarded. Yellow Red would return, injured, and unaware... walking into a trap with no way to defend herself. Dirty Sap would try to save her. Whiteflower would make a last stand. Yellow Red would dig in and root herself to the den with all the wrath of Poisonglade. And all of it would mean nothing before an ambush when they were so ill.

So, I could not flee. I would have to strike back at Second's weakened bark, sink my thorns into her trunk and shake until her stem broke and wait until my pack returned.

Of course, Ambercrown would notice. Evil would notice. The Predator would notice. Second was too much a part of their pack to not be missed.

I looked back at the tunnel and summoned every bit of memory of Yellow Red's teachings. I pushed back a root and watched as the tunnel slid away behind the side.

I blinked. If I wasn't about to die at the barbs of Second, I would have reveled in learning some small part of my alpha's magic.

And then Second was upon me.

---

Our battle was brutal. Second would bite and tear, shearing away bark and twig while I would thrash and dodge, fearful of drawing the other pack's ire.

By the time I heard it, I could barely stand. A whomping, pounding, banging clatter as one of them came racing to the howls and barks of Second.

Too late I realized where I was. Too late I tried to leap clear with my remaining branches. The corpse smashing tread of The Predator sent tremors through my trunk as I scrambled to find purchase on the whelping den's floor. He would be there any second.

I didn't stand a chance.

The Predator overpowered Yellow Red's magic, smashing me aside and tumbling across the den in pieces.

Second shook a severed branch in her maw and growled.

The Predator looked around, barked a few times, and then picked up a few parts of me in his muzzle... deformed briars holding me as tightly as granite grips roots. Second trotted out, my battered branch carried as a trophy as she followed.

I was scattered. Hurled and retrieved. Thrown and lost. Beaten and found time and again as the Phoenix's eye gazed from above.

Time and again, taunting the Unmoving legion as Second played with my branches and twigs... my bark wearing thin or even being pulled free in places. I felt pain. I felt sorrow. I felt loss and remorse for failing my pack yet again.

And then, in my distraction, I heard them... my pack, back in the whelping den.

Ambercrown was howling and before long Second and The Predator had left me, scattered and near death, to be as nothing but an offering to the Unmoving.

But they didn't know how clever my alpha was. She had taught me to be silent, to be stealthy. I could wait until the Unmoving were distracted, and because of Whiteflower's hunting, I had left roots to listen, to scout. Dirty Sap had taught me that staying out of reach could mean not having to fight, and I was certainly out of reach now.

I might not have come out of the battle unharmed, but I did come out of the battle.

And my pack had returned while I had distracted the ambushers.

I had not failed my pack after all.

Still, I could barely see or feel, so injured was I. The sounds from the den were muffled and the part of my eye I had lost had been ground into the corpses there. It was blurry, as sap-stained and splintered as I was, no doubt, but when I saw them, my seed would have wilted had it not already been torn free.

There was my pack, Yellow Red barely standing as they drug themselves through the den. Whiteflower could have been better named Pink, and Dirty Sap was nearly as bad off. Their bark was split in multiple places, and though they weathered it well, I knew resin would take time to dry and heal their bark.

And then, as if to add insult to injury, Ambercrown and The Predator burst in, baying and howling as they rushed Yellow Red, nearly bowling the others aside.

They were so weak, they didn't even try to save her.

And Yellow Red? Yellow Red was leaking dew, even though it hadn't rained.

Author's Note:

I received an alert, informing me that someone who had been watching this story had moved it into their KIA folder... I assume that stands for "Killed in Action"... and it made me realize that it had, indeed, been a heck of a long time since an update.

Sad, because this is one of the only stories I'm working on that has been fully roughed out.

I will fix that problem.

Comments

[Fernin]

Hah XD

Appropriate chapter title for a suddenly revived story. Glad to see it was only playing dead.

[StormDancer]

7671352
<blinks and re-reads the chapter title> Well... I'll be damned. Didn't even notice that.
Seriously though, that was a happy coincidence.
The remaining chapters are (in order):
To Slink
Taproot
Graft
Broken Branches
To Appear Healthy
Scouting
To Fell the Unmoving
Thick Bark
Territory

[Buckwood]

This is an interesting thing, thank you for making it.