~Secret~

“Someone has the infection!”

“Get him to the Medics’ Camp!”

“Hurry—before you get bitten!”

Echo woke up a few days later as cerriens outside squawked like hungry birds.

He scrambled to his paws. A few leaps away, just outside, were three cerriens pinning a fourth to the leaf litter. Their target thrashed, throwing up leaves with swinging paws. Echo stiffened when he saw the dark mist clouding the cerrien’s bottom eye.

Another one!

“The infection is spreading!” A howl swept from the distant trees.

Echo strained his ears to listen.

“The guards watching the first have been infected!”

What? Echo swung around to recheck his supplies.

“Don’t panic!” the voice yowled. “Scouting parties have been sent to capture them! Keep away from the northern Medics’ Camp! That is where the infected cerriens are tended to!”

Prey stash for food, water-soaked moss, medicine for anxiety, extra moss for bedding…I have all the supplies I need. I’ll be safe—for now I think.

But the sudden ache in his stomach didn’t fade. He hurried to his medicine bottle and lapped up a few droplets, then took a moment to gaze outside. The sky had cleared of overcast by now. A bright sun filtered through the treetops, flaring the forest floor and making the fallen red and orange leaves glow. Birds sang in the trees, and Echo could hear the babbling of the stream as it flowed nearby. A steady breeze, crisp with the promise of an upcoming winter, weaved through the bramble thicket.

I wanted to make the most of the fish in the stream. Before long, the stream will be frozen. But how can I when the tribe might be crawling with enemies?

Claws brushed against tree bark.

Echo started, snapping his head up towards the roof.

Violet eyes and horns gleamed back at him. A dark, purplish-gray cerrien was watching him from above, crouched upon a steep branch of a large oak tree.

“Spire! You scared me!”

“Did you hear that?” Spire squeaked. “It’s spreading! Get up here or they could spot you!”

“It’d be safer in my den. It’s more hidden under all the branches.”

“But the sick cerriens couldn’t be good climbers right now if they’ve suddenly lost sight in one eye. They’d need time to adapt. I bet they could pick up your scent from under the brambles!”

They have a point. Echo rushed outside and leaped up the trunk of the tree, settling himself on Spire’s branch, though lower and closer to the trunk.

Spire’s eyes were taut with worry. “What are we going to do? The Leaders said this infection won’t spread, and it did! If thoroughly-trained guards can get sick, what about cerriens like us?”

Echo spared a worried glance at the thicket below him. “We’ll just have to keep in our dens. There’s little we can do.”

“You’re worried, too! Your tail is twitching!”

Echo slapped his tail around his paws. “I’m fine.” One of us has to be, right?

“I hope any sick cerriens don’t get too close to Inferno!” Spire fretted. “You know how he is. If he sees one, he’ll try attacking it himself, and then where would he be?”

Echo flinched.

Spire watched the ground below. “I’m…honestly worried. I just can’t believe he thinks Feather’s the murderer.”

Echo’s shoulders sagged. “Me neither.”

“It’s scary, though. Did you see the look in his eyes?”

Echo’s ears drooped a little. “I think his anger is being fueled by grief.”

“He wants to blame someone for Coal’s death so bad,” Spire said. “It’s like saying it was that savage cerrien just wouldn’t be satisfying enough.”

“I thought Tumbleweed getting caught would’ve settled his mind. After all, he directly helped to get her captured. If Tumbleweed actually killed Coal, he’s avenged him—in a way.”

“I think he wants any excuse possible to go after Feather.”

The tip of Echo’s tail twitched once more. Was that true?

“It just scares me. He’s so…passionate. I want to get rid of Feather too, but yelling at her and throwing baseless accusations around is just the worst possible way to do it.”

Echo nodded. “He just wants to help, but he doesn’t understand what he’s doing.”

“Try talking to him.”

“Do you think he’d listen? Remember the last time you asked me to do something?”

“That’s something totally different!” Spire’s voice flashed with hurt.

“Sorry,” Echo sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that, but I don’t have much hope that it would work.”

“You’re someone he would listen to,” Spire insisted. “Sometimes its like his tail is tied to yours!”

Echo fidgeted, his claws digging into the rough gray bark beneath him. “I wouldn’t say that…”

“It’s true!” Amusement bubbled in their words. “You’re practically inseparable!”

“So we’re best friends, but that doesn’t mean he would always listen—”

“You know what I think?” Infuriating amusement was creeping into Spire’s mew. “I think that after all of this blows over, Inferno’s gonna say he likes you!”

“What?” Echo shook his head, wondering if he had heard his friend right. “Why?”

Spire snorted. “Why? Because there’s no way he doesn’t feel either pink or yellow feelings towards you! He’s constantly throwing threats at Feather to protect you! He’s almost overprotective of you!”

“That’s stupid!” Echo snapped. Did he tell you anything?

“Well—I wouldn’t be surprised if something happens. How long have you two been friends again? Your whole lives?”

“He’s my friend! Nothing different!”

“But does he see it that way?”

“You’re overthinking things again!” Echo lashed his tail. “Inferno doesn’t like me, and I certainly don’t like him, in case you were wondering!”

“You’re being pretty defensive.”

Spire, I will knock you down from this tree! “And you’re pulling nonsense out of your—”

“Oh, come on! You seriously don’t ever think of even just sharing a den with him? He stayed at your thicket just the other day!”

Echo’s conversation with Inferno about the distance between their dens attempted to push itself into his mind, but he forced it away. “Oh, silly me! I didn’t realize walking into a cerrien’s den and staying for a bit automatically implied a pink or yellow connection!”

“Well—he certainly cares about you.”

“Yeah, like a friend would! Because friends care about each other, too! Even friends that aren’t yellow-partners!”

“I course, but it feels different between you two.”

“How would you know? You’re not in either of our heads!” Thank Fintaria for that!

“Why are you so mad? I didn’t realize this was such a…touchy subject.”

“You wouldn’t like it if someone came to you and declared that your relationship with another cerrien is actually completely different than what you believe it to be!”

“But it’s not completely different. We aren’t just talking about pink-partners, you know. It doesn’t have to be romantic. Yellow-partners exist.”

“Still. Do you seriously think I would even have time for that kind of stuff right now? Pink or yellow, dealing with that mushy stuff would only get in the way.”

“But in the future…”

“No!”

“Okay—okay! I’ll stop talking if that’s what you want so bad! I just wanted to help you.”

“Well, this is not how you do that!” Echo stared out into the distance. That was a close one. Though his stomach churned at the idea that Spire was forming theories in their head. I didn’t particularly want to be reminded of this when so much is going on. And anyway, my feelings are none of their business!

A heavy silence fell between the cerriens, a welcomed yet dreaded silence. What kind of ideas is Spire forming in their head?

But when the silence was finally broken, Spire mewed, “I think I want to formally train to be a Medic.” Pride rung clearly in their words, and their sudden change of posture noted it.

Echo shoved away his irritation. “So you’re enjoying the class?”

“A lot, actually! I found it interesting how all our medicines and remedies worked. Besides, the Medics need all the help they can get right now. I want to do something important for our tribe in a crisis like this. There’s so much going on, and I hate feeling so powerless.”

Fun? How could spending your whole day with cerriens suffering and in pain possibly be fun?

Echo shoved away his earlier misgivings. “I’m happy for you. If you want to be a Medic, then you should try it. They could need you, after all. I hope you enjoy it.”

Spire nodded down at him, their violet eyes and horns bright as day. “Thanks.”

That silence again. Echo’s pelt burned. Great going, Spire! Now every time we don’t talk it’s going to feel awkward! He planted his forepaws onto his tail, kneading it like it were the lining of his nest. He didn’t dare catch Spire’s gaze.

Were those pawsteps at the foot of the tree? Echo’s head lowered. Sure enough, a brown and white-pelted cerrien was sniffing the leaves, then the roots of the tree.

Is it infected? Echo squinted his eyes, but it was impossible to tell when its gaze was fixed on the ground. But I guess that’s a good thing.

At last he glanced at Spire. If I warn them, they’ll flip out! And then they might give us away!

Echo repositioned himself into a crouched, tucking in his tail and making himself as small as possible. He deactivated the glow in his horns and tail-tip. Perhaps the angle of the tree will hide us.

“What are you doing?” Spire asked.

“Shh!” Echo hissed. “There’s a cerrien down there and I don’t know if it’s infected—”

“What?”

“I said shh!”

A single yellow eye blinked hungrily up at them.

“Fish droppings!” Echo cursed under his breath.

Spire whimpered and slithered down the branch, nearly knocking Echo from his paws as they barged past to reach the trunk. "Come on! We've got to get out of here!" They leaped upward, barely managing to control the movements of their paws as they scrambled clumsily towards a higher branch.

“Hurry!” Echo followed suit, heart lurching. Rough bark brushed against his soft pelt, and a twig attempted to tug at his ear.

“I’m trying!”

Echo didn’t dare to look down. Had the infected cerrien even begun to follow them?

Spire paused and barely managed to haul themselves up onto a much thinner branch far above. They scuttled along it’s length, taking in deep, rattling breaths.

“Be careful,” Echo warned. One false movement and Spire would be sent plummeting to the ground. He secured himself on another branch just to the side of Spire’s.

Bark ripped from below. The infected cerrien was following them!

“What do we do?” Spire pressed their belly to the branch

“If it reaches us, we’ll have to try and knock it from the tree.” Echo, his body flattened to his own branch, eyed the cerrien as it clambered up the trunk. Occasionally one paw would flail at thin air, and with each clumsy heartbeat Echo longed for the cerrien to lose balance and tumble to the earth. Maybe it would even hit a few branches on its way down.

Then Echo stopped himself. Why was he thinking like this? It wasn’t the cerrien’s fault it had gotten infected! The cerrien going after them now was merely a victim of this strange illness, previously a living cerrien with his own thoughts and emotions and feelings of the world. A cerrien who probably had a role to play in Moorest and other cerriens who cared about him. This cerrien would need a body to return to. If that will even be possible.

He blinked again. Why was he being soft? The cerrien attacking us now is not that same cerrien. That cerrien, as of now, is gone. He might even be dead, never to return from wherever the souls and hearts of these monsters end up.

Then why did wishing harm on this cerrien still seem so cruel?

Echo resisted the urge to poke himself with a claw. There wasn’t time to be thinking about that! The infected cerrien was getting closer. And if we’re lucky, it might not even come to a fight. Perhaps the infected cerrien would descend the tree if it was deemed too hard to climb. If they even have that ability to think.

But the yellow eye gleamed with determination. The brown cerrien let out a growl, his voice bouncing up and down with each paw movement.

Something dark materialized further down the tree. Echo held in a gasp as two identical white lights watched the infected cerrien with a blank stare.

Don't just sit there! Help us! Echo willed the shadowy cerrien. Perhaps it would finally be urged into action.

Echo's tail quivered. "Can you see it?"

"See what?" Spire asked.

He shivered as the two white eyes, tiny as stars from below, trained themselves on Echo. "Nothing."

I'm really the one one that can see this thing. Echo blinked, then blinked again. What? Am I seeing a ghost?

Again that harsh scraping of claws against wood.

Attack it! Echo stared bluntly into the piercing white eyes. He's right above you!

The figure remained utterly still.

Forcing away a wave of disappointment, Echo refocused his attention on the brown infected cerrien slowly becoming larger and larger against the gray-brown bark.

A blink, and the figure was gone.

“Go away!” Spire shrieked.

Shut up!

The infected cerrien’s eye had lit up with exhilaration. He weaved even faster around the trunk while his pelt rippled.

Echo’s ears pinned back to his head. We’re like sitting birds up here! He swung his head from side to side, but there wasn’t a tree close enough that he could make a leap to.

The threatening growl of the infected cerrien was getting louder.

“Echo, up here!” Spire squeaked.

“No way! That branch isn’t wide enough for both of us!” Echo shifted his paws. The only option is to get him out of the tree somehow.

“But you’re going to be infected!”

“Keep your mouth shut!” Echo couldn’t suppress a tremor in his voice. He unsheathed his claws, tensing his body so it wouldn’t rock. I have to keep my movements controlled. That’s what I have over this cerrien. Control.

Echo lashed out a paw as swift as a snake, barely catching the infected cerrien’s ear. Long, stained fang protruded from the infected cerrien’s mouth. His dark, clouded eye glared vacantly at him, as though he were half-dead. Just the sight of this cerrien was something Echo thought he could only previously see in some sort of horrific nightmare. But previously, something like this might have been too disturbing and bizarre to be of his own mind’s creation.

But now maybe I will see this in my dreams tonight!

He lashed out again, this time extending his forepaws out a little farther. His claws met fur, ripping it while the infected cerrien let out an ear-splitting howl. Immediately Echo withdrew his paw, pinning his ringing ears to his head.

The infected cerrien’s head thrust itself towards Echo with bared teeth. The latter shifted his body, and teeth clacked as they met empty air.

Echo spread himself out, extending his limbs from his flanks and outwards to either side. If he could block the cerrien’s ability to mount his branch, he would hold an advantage.

Bare branches rattled above him.

For a moment Echo was tempted to hiss at Spire to keep still and not give themselves away, but the infected cerrien flung his head back to survey the space above.

He’s distracted! Echo struck again, this time tearing a larger clump of fur. Red liquid dribbled from the creature’s face.

Echo forced himself not to recoil with a squeak. Blood. I’ve drawn blood.

For one terrible moment his froze entirely.

I’ve hurt another cerrien! A Moorestian, too! He shivered. My claws weren’t given to meet another cerrien’s flesh.

The creaking of wood flung him back into the fray. The infected cerrien swerved to the side, aiming another branch. His hind legs dangled loosely for a few heartbeats before he managed to haul himself up.

Echo turned his weight, leaning forward to lash at the cerrien’s back, but his claws flailed uselessly against the air.

Stupid cerrien! You could’ve knocked him off the branch!

The infected cerrien lifted his speckled white muzzle.

Spire! He’s going for Spire!

Echo unleashed a wordless yowl. Maybe the infected cerrien would turn around and he could attempt to push him off. Can Spire fight? He turned towards the trunk and gripped the rough wood. He climbed, faster than the infected cerrien, until he could overlook his brown and white pelt.

Spire was trembling just above him, causing their branch to quiver unnaturally.

Echo turned his head down at the infected cerrien.

I can’t attack him from here. He shuddered as he imagined himself being the cerrien plummeting from the trunk, hitting branch after branch after branch…

His grip on the trunk released. He suppressed a wail as his limbs thrashed. At some point he hit a wall of fur.

He righted himself at last, coming face-to-face with the infected cerrien. Echo’s tail folded between his legs.

The rattling returned just above them, and the infected cerrien’s gaze lifted.

Thank you, Spire!

Echo leaned forward, this time delivering more of a push than a swipe. The infected cerrien rocked on his branch, but his whipping tail allowed him to regain balance. He lashed again, but his opponent had ducked, adding in a blow of his own that caught Echo’s leg. The hit had just barely been light enough to keep Echo from teetering sideways. He crouched low, bunching his hind legs and pushing off, lunging forward and giving the infected cerrien a hard shove. He fell backwards, tail whipping to and fro, but it was no use. The infected cerrien rolled ungracefully from the branch, thrashing in midair as he dropped onto a lower branch.

Echo gave a soft growl of triumph to himself. Yeah! Take that! Leave us alone, mange-pelt!

Violet light cast from above. “Is it safe to come down?” Spire whispered.

“Wait a moment.” Echo fixed his gaze on the tiny brown and white shape catching its breath much farther down the tree. Great Fintaria, we’re high up. At last the infected cerrien gave a loud, indignant huff, and descended its way back down to the ground.

Echo took in a deep breath of his own. “Do you think someone will find him and capture him?”

“I hope so!”

“This tribe better be crawling with scouts trying to round them up,” Echo muttered.

“That was terrifying! I thought we were both about to become a couple of ravaging monsters!”

Echo sighed. I’ve never had to fight before, but suddenly this is the second fight I’ve been in in just a couple of days!

“I think we’d both better go home,” he mumbled.

“But it isn’t safe!”

“It isn’t safe anywhere! At least you’d be somewhere you’re most familiar with, right?”

“I—guess.” Claws scraped against tree bark as Spire slowly made the climb down.

“Can you go down first?” Spire squeak.

Echo bristled, but started for the ground below. A flash of relief fell upon his paws as they finally hit solid ground and leaves.

“Bye,” Echo watched Spire carefully plant their paws into the pile of leaves shrouding the tree’s roots.

“Take care, Echo!” Spire gave him one last uneasy look before they turned tail and dashed for a clump of bushes.

Echo turned for his den, but a hauntingly familiar scent wafted from his den.

I should’ve noticed it earlier!

“Feather,” he called in, pelt spiking along his back.

I can’t run away this time.

“Took you long enough!” Feather was inside his den by his nest, eyes narrowed in disapproval. Thistle and Thorn flanked her, their matching green gazes flickering with tension.

“How long have you been waiting here?”

“Long enough!” Feather rolled her eyes.

So you heard the attack and didn’t lift a claw to help, I presume?

“I have to go somewhere. Watch these two for me while I’m gone. Don’t think you got off easy last time. If anything goes wrong at all, you’re coming with me. For real this time.”

“Where are you going?” But after the words were out of his mouth, Echo wondered if there was any point in asking.

“That’s none of your concern.” Feather got to her paws and barged past him.

Where could she need to be so quickly? And when all these infected cerriens are hanging around? But I guess, with her attitude with my time-traveling powers, it doesn’t seem too far-fetched to assume she doesn’t believe in that, either!

“So what are we gonna do?” Thistle asked.

“I don’t know,” Echo mumbled. “Whatever doesn’t get any of us in trouble.”

“We heard a bunch of noises!” Thorn’s eyes widened like moons. “Were you being attacked? Are you okay?”

“It was nothing.” Echo dug up his prey-hole in the ground and grasped a mouse in his teeth. Once the mouse was in his nest he reapplied the earth to conceal his stash once more.

“But I heard that meeting! About these scary, evil cerriens that attack everyone and make them sick!”

Echo sighed. Was there any point in trying to hide it from them now? “There are scary, evil cerriens around, but there are even more sentries and scouts out there making sure everyone is safe. It’s nothing to worry about.”

“Then why did you get attacked?”

“I’m sure scouts are after that attacker now, and neither Spire or I got hurt. Trust me.”

Thorn lowered his gaze. “Okay, Echo. I trust you.”

“Did Feather mention where she was going?” Echo ripped a morsel from his mouse and chewed.

“No.” Thistle mewed. “She wouldn’t let us come, either!”

“I like that she sends us to you,” Thorn said. “But this is all very confusing. She’s really mean to you, so why does she insist you watch us?”

Echo swallowed his bite. “I’m as confused as you are.”

“I heard her mutter something as we were leaving,” Thorn added. “She sounded super odd. Like how Thistle sounded when he got caught splashing in the pool in our den.”

“Guilty?” Echo queried.

Thorn nodded thoughtfully. “Sort of. Why would she feel guilty, Echo? Maybe she felt bad for yelling at you the other day.”

Echo sighed. “I doubt it,” he mumbled. Guilty. Why would she feel guilty? “If she does anything else weird, be sure to tell me. Okay?”

“Okay.” Thorn nodded seriously.

“Thistle?” Echo felt claws tug at his tail. “Are you paying attention?”

“I caught your tail!” Thistle boasted. “Whereever Feather is, she should let me come with her! Maybe she’s on a super secret mission!”

A super secret mission is exactly what I’m afraid of. Echo whisked his tail away from Thistle’s grasp and wrapped it tightly around himself. “Listen, this is seriously, alright? I don’t know what Feather’s up to, and I hate to say this to you both, but something’s telling me that it isn’t good.”

“I guess she’s acting a little weird,” Thistle admitted. “Even weirder than when she was taking us to you but told us not to listen to you.”

“She said that?” What is she saying to these kittens?

Thistle’s huge ears twitched. “Yeah.”

“If she says anything to you about me, then it’s best that you don’t believe it. Okay?”

Both kittens nodded.

After his meal, Echo settled into his nest and began to wash his pelt.

I drew blood attacking that cerrien. What’s wrong with me? Was it really right to be inflicting harm on these cerriens?

He could imagine Inferno’s answer as though his friend were sitting right beside him: Of course it is! Those cerriens are evil! They attacked us first!

But still, it doesn’t feel right. Those cerriens had lives before being infected. What if they can be cured? No cerrien should have face the pain that cerriens like Coal did, even if they’re like Feather!

If that cerrien took care of Feather, it would save us from having to deal with her.

No cerrien deserves to die! it’s cruel! If a cerrien murdered a murder, for instance, it would make that cerrien no better than the murderer! And it’s certainly not smart to run off attacking other cerriens and accuse without proper evidence!

Echo closed his eyes. Why had Inferno felt the need to mess things up?

No. It wasn’t Inferno’s fault. It was Coal’s death. It was the murderer’s fault. Coal’s death has changed him. Sadness shrouded his heart. Poor Inferno. He used to be so happy and carefree before. Now Coal’s murder has erupted some sort of passionate anger within him that had previously been dormant, at least when Feather wasn’t involved. Maybe he could check up on him if this infection calmed down.

That is, if Spire doesn't find out and decide being a considerate friend means I have a crush on him! I can’t believe Spire is forming these rumors in their head! I can’t waste my time getting excited over stuff like that. If I ever told Inferno I wanted to be yellow-partners with him, he’d think I’m weak and soft! Anger boiled beneath his pelt. I’m already probably the most anxious cerrien in Fintaria! I don’t need this, either!