‘Why’ve you never said that before?’ Star couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
‘I have.’ Sky scuffed at the wet mud with her boot, refusing to meet Star’s gaze. ‘You just haven’t been listening of late.’
A chill ran over Star’s spine, partly because of Sky’s omission but mostly at the excited howls, distinctively Dog, that emanated from all around.
‘They’re here.’ Star had his laser aimed in the direction he was sure one of the howls came from. In truth, he pointed the weapon out into the pitch-black of night. Then the howling stopped, the only sound the gentle breeze rustling the bushes and thick grass. ‘What are they waiting for? They must be able to smell us, unless the bodies are masking our scent.’
Light replaced darkness with a multitude of flashes, neon green laser fire, from all directions chaos ensued, illuminating the marshland. In those brief flashes of light Star could make out twenty-odd Wolves firing at will from a bank in the direction of Lupenroad and the rest of the fleet. On the other side, which Sky and Star were closer to and pinned in the middle of, was a group of ragtag Dogs.
‘Pirates!’ Star couldn’t believe it; he’d heard the tales and rumours but never actually seen space pirates before but staring at the group it was all too obvious what they were. No uniting uniform, instead random bits of armour and clothing of all manner of colours. Likewise, their weapons were a jumble, some shot lasers of blue, green, gold or red and others were pumping shotguns or unloading pistols. They were scattered throughout the bushes and pressing the Wolves back with their chaotic brand of warring.
‘Screw this.’ Sky opened fire and Star heard a whimper from the bushes and a constant flash of red laser from the vicinity ceased.
Star began firing too but at the same time yanked Sky behind him and started edging her back to the Wolves, who were pressing home their more organised fighting style. ‘Stay close to me and the skip, in fact,’ Star pushed Sky up and over into the empty cargo bed of the hover skip and leapt over with her. Sky kicked him in the stomach as they rolled, knocking the wind out of Star with an agonised yelp.
‘Sorry.’ Sky had already rolled onto all fours. ‘Natural instinct and all.’ She didn’t wait for a reply and padded along the cargo bed toward the Wolves. Her eyes and weapon were still pinned in the direction of the Dogs. Star followed suit and soon they’d shuffled back down the entire length of the hover skip. Still the battle raged but at least they were closer to their own kind now.
‘Grenade!’ howled a Wolf from the darkness and the thing bounced into the cargo bed and exploded on impact. The force snapped the hover skip in two and vaulted Sky and Star up into the air and crashing down into the wet mud. If they’d have been twenty yards further into the skip the explosion would’ve killed them both.
Fire blazed now, illuminating the fifty odd Dogs still firing at will. Tears streamed down Star’s blazing hot muzzle and he couldn’t stop hacking and coughing violently. Sky was first to her hind legs, dragging Star away and howling as she did so. To Star’s relief four Wolves responded and bolted forward to provide covering fire and get Sky and Star down the side of the bank and away from the gunfight.
‘There you two are!’ said the Night Badger in between unleashing laser fire from a small, yet chunky, emerald green laser gun. ‘We were beginning to think you’d got lost!’
‘Or found a nice hot pool in one of the caves.’ Bloodhound had come up behind them, teasing as he moved. The Dog must’ve read Star’s furious visage and moved onto more important matters. ‘Damn Dog pirates I’m afraid. A stain on my fine planet’s name.’
‘Who sent them!’ Sky trained her laser at Bloodhound.
The Night Badger, grinned revealing shiny metal teeth. ‘She’s got a point, Bloodmutt!’
Bloodhound’s bulbous eyes went wider still, and in the occasional flashes of light Star saw the proud Dog straighten his frame and naval attire. ‘How dare you! I am no pirate, nor the type to summon them to destroy Star Wolf.’
‘Who said anything about them being after Star?’ pressed Sky, still pointing her laser at Bloodhound’s muzzle.
A couple of neon laser shots from the ongoing battle flew past Bloodhound,
causing him to flinch and duck down. ‘That’s obvious isn’t it! They’ve most likely been sent by the Winter Tiger, it’s a smart play for him to get others to do his dirty work.’
‘It’s alright, Miss.’ The Night Badger looked to Sky. ‘He’s a lot of things but a traitor isn’t one of them.’ He turned his gaze to Bloodhound; all the while Star’s head rung from the explosion. ‘It’s most likely pirates doing what they do best,’ he began scrambling up the bank, ‘and it’ll only get worse once the war kicks in.’ The Night Badger vanished into the battle before calling back, ‘So we’d better put a stop to it while we can!’
Bloodhound grinned, drawing his sword, and followed the Night Badger up the slippery bank on all fours. ‘To war!’ he screamed as he disappeared into the near-permanent darkness.
Star and Sky spent the next five minutes listening to the yelps and cries for help from numerous Dogs before the Night Badger and Bloodhound returned to confirm the Dogs had been vanquished.
Once aboard Lupenroad, supplies loaded to every vessel, they set off for home once more.
‘Now we wait for Winter and hunt him down when he surfaces,’ said Star Wolf.
13. The Ice of Winter
‘Have my concubines readied and brought to my dining hall,’ Winter instructed two of his house slaves, now back in his home on Tigris. They were weak old Tigresses whose mating years had long passed. The Tiger race put such creatures to good use. All Tigers served the greater good of Tigris.
‘At once, my lord.’ The wrinkly old, near-total white-haired, Tiger curtsied, and her knees cracked. She hobbled away and Winter knew it’d take her a good hour to have the three young Tigresses cleaned, perfumed and robed for dinner. Pampered young Tigresses, from highly thought of bloodlines, were often used in this way. The Tiger’s high society version of broodmares. Winter had avoided such nonsense for his entire life. In his youth down to his seclusion in the northern reaches of Tigris, hidden amongst ice and snow and as a grown Tiger on account of his escapades keeping him busy.
Time and the Elder Three’s will had caught up with the Winter Tiger. If only his secret plans to secure forces and overthrow them had come to fruition sooner. Instead, he had been forced to mate, and the Tigresses had been forced to pretend they weren’t terrified and disgusted by his black and white fur. Their own bodies were sleek, smooth feminine lines of orange and black. Winter represented difference to them. He didn’t conform to the Tigers normality and he would never forget their fearful expressions as he de-robed to perform his duties for the Tiger cause.
Your seed is too valuable, the Elder Three’s words rang in his mind like a church bell, not that he had ever visited the churches within the capital. Each location in Tigrefell merely housed another set of fanatics, Tigris-bent on blindly supporting the Elder Three. When Winter was done with all of this, he planned to knock down every single place of worship, finishing with the Elder Temple.
Even the lavish settings and array of perfumes and garments the Winter Tiger had bestowed upon his concubines hadn’t seen them warm to him. None had broached the subject of marriage, nor would Winter and likely the Elder Three would forbid such an arrangement. Winter should mate with a White Tiger, and yet he was the only known White Tiger on the planet.
The Elders had ordered the icy conditions of the north be scoured for suitable mates for their general but had come up blank. They searched in all the wrong places and Winter wasn’t going to aid them by looking in the right areas. Not that he knew if any of his own kind still existed, he buried that memory back on Earth and never looked back.
Sat at the end of his long, ebony dining table, he heard the gentle padded footsteps of his three reluctant partners. They entered from the opposite end of the high-ceilinged room, each moved slowly to t
heir designated seat. Winter couldn’t deny their beauty, and yet their glorious orange held no interest for him. Especially as it had been brought and forced, this wasn’t love. It wasn’t even close.
‘Good evening.’ Winter stood and strolled around to each chair, pulling them back for each finely dressed Tigress. ‘Thank you for joining me on this auspicious evening.’ Winter himself wore a black tunic with hundreds of Tiger heads sewn into the fabric in a gold thread. ‘You all look stunning.’
The three Tigresses nodded their gratitude but kept quiet.
Winter returned to his golden, high-backed chair at the head of the table and let the silence devour all of his guests. His butlers and waiters stood to attention in plain
black, woollen uniforms. No one in the gorgeously decorated room moved an inch.
Winter enjoyed the ballet and pretence of death but no one in the room realised theirs were the deaths he savoured and lined up before them that very night.
‘Shall we have our starters brought out?’ Winter nodded, and his servants responded, departing for the kitchen to return moments later with golden platters. Once placed before the four diners the lids were removed to reveal steaming hot soup underneath, the delicious smell of cooked fish caught Winter’s nose and his stomach grumbled. This was going to hurt him too.
He clicked his middle thumb and paw.
Four Tigers, all skinny and weak, stepped forward spoons in hand. Each one of them gingerly plunged the golden spoons into the fish soup and took a sip before retreating to their positions in the wings.
‘Fantastic.’ The Winter Tiger glared at the four tasters. ‘It looks like our soup is edible for another night,’ he picked up the golden spoon before him, ‘one can never be too careful. Dig in, I think you’ll enjoy today’s catch.’
The privileged never notice what was right before them, blindly moving forward thinking that status and wealth will always shield them; death doesn’t care about birthright or money and comes for everyone. Killing his concubines was too easy, and yet one of his subtlest kills, a stroke of genius that wrenched his guts raw.
‘THEY’RE ALL DEAD, GENERAL,’ the beautiful words uttered by Winter’s physician sat at the side of his bed, ‘I’m afraid they all perished on the second night, mother and unborn child alike. They weren’t far enough along for me to induce the cubs. I am so sorry, Winter.’
‘And the poison? How long have I been out?’ Winter already knew the answers. Since the fateful evening, two nights prior, he’d had to endure the harsh effects of the poison he’d administered to everyone’s soup, including his own. He was made of stronger stuff than a normal Tiger. I am made from ice.
‘Two days. I have found no traces of any poison but,’ the doctor shuffled in his seat, ‘that isn’t to say there aren’t poisons out there that are untraceable.’
‘So, it was poison.’
‘Most definitely but you’ll never know what, and I suppose by who.’ The doctor stood. ‘I’ll leave you to rest.’
‘Thank you, Doctor.’ Winter rolled onto his side, snuggling into his luxurious black silk sheets, atop his king-sized bed. ‘I will.’ He fell into a deep sleep, safe in the knowledge that he would father no children; no half-breed abominations would be presented to the Elders. He’d brought himself time.
‘THERE IS A SPY OR A traitor within our midst!’ The Winter Tiger paced the inner pyramid of the Elder Temple. He’d feigned injury for a week before emerging from his bed.
The rectangular pool, usually full to bursting with blood and gore housed no such things today. Instead, water trickled in from the rivulets carved into the stone floor that led into the room from the walls. Outside, there had been a thunderous storm. That water seeped into the pool, rainwater another substance revered amongst the Tigers for its mystical and restorative powers.
What the Elder Three intended to do with it the Winter Tiger had no idea. Today
the trio of fat Tigers had opted to wear the formal attire of the House of Tigers. Their
black and gold tunics were fluffy and bulged in all the wrong places. To Winter they looked more like clown Tigers than the rulers of all of Tigris. That’s all they are dancing Tigers!
And yet through his blinding rage and repulsion for them he still had to concede they were the most powerful Tigers in the galaxy.
‘Indeed,’ the central Elder, largest of the three Tigers, spoke first. ‘It would appear your own household was infiltrated. To have your own food poisoned no less, how foolish of you.’
‘You’re lucky to be alive!’ the other two Elders in unison.
The central Tiger growled at the pair of them and they returned to silence, allowing him to start up again. ‘Do you have any suspects?’
They were leading Winter, he’d played this game with them a thousand times before, they must have a suspect, or suspects, in custody waiting to be brought into this room. If they condemned someone as guilty and executed them all the better to solidify Winter’s lie.
‘As of yet,’ Winter hung his head low, faking shame, removing the aggression from his voice and doing his best to not smirk. Too many perfumed pet Tigers of the Elder Three stood at the edges of the rooms for him to risk a grin, ‘I do not. I must confess it’s taken me a good week to recover from the poison.’
‘Curious that?’ one of the Elders said, Winter did not see which one, they all merged into one grotesque Tiger in his mind.
‘What is?’
‘That you should survive, and your partners and tasters did not, seven Tigers dead and yet here you stand the eighth and sole survivor.’ The central Elder who spoke. He leaned forward in his chair, his belly sagged over his belt as he did, to fix Winter with a glare that flickered in the torch-lit temple. ‘Why is that?’
A perfect question for Winter, one they thought would spark fear and perhaps cause him to slip up. They must suspect he had a hand in the killings. Instead, he could use it to strike fear into their decrepit old hearts. ‘Because,’ he puffed out his chest and ensured all in the room heard his reply, ‘White Tigers cannot be killed so easily by poison. Ice runs through my veins, powerful enough to put out any fire. You of all Tigers should know this.’
The trio, sat on their thrones, grunted.
Winter also noted a few of the fearful glances sent his way from the loin-clothed Tigers positioned evenly around the room, their wet eyes glistened in the firelight, everyone of them a coward that Winter could tear apart in seconds should he choose to do so. His every fibre twitched with the desire to shred them all, he was the Winter Tiger what did he care of prophecy and ill fortune for spilling blood on sacred ground. The Elders did so at will, hiding behind religious beliefs and their mindless zealots lapping up their dated decrees.
‘A pity the ice within your seed couldn’t save your unborn children.’
For the first time since the death of the Tigresses a wave of anger, almost a protective instinct surged through Winter. How dare they talk about his children in that way. He closed his eyes and breathed deep, that wasn’t his path and no insult could truly send him that way. He wasn’t inclined to be a father.
‘Such a pity,’ added the smallest of three. His somehow sinuous yet grossly overweight features twisted into a knotted snarl before coughed, so violently he spat up blood and lost a tooth, which rattled as it fell down the steps and into the pool. Winter gazed into the water and watched with grim fascination as it dissolved into
nothingness.
Winter moved to the water’s edge and knelt down on one knee. He put the tip of the little claw on his left paw in, the water did nothing and so he proceeded to put his entire fist into the water. As he brought it up, he splashed the water in the direction of the steps to the Elders. Nowhere near hitting them but close enough for them to all glare at the wet stone beneath them with wide eyes and terror as the damp sizzled.
‘My unborn children weren’t pure ice.’ Winter scooped up more water and walked closer still, splashing the stone as he did so. ‘As
I have told you numerous times before. I am a White Tiger, not meant to breed with normal Tigers. I was sent to you to crush your enemies and see the Tigers rule the galaxy and nothing more. When I am done with the galaxy the Tigers will rule unchallenged for thousands of years. Now, if it please the Elders I will be departing for war.’
The Elder Three nodded as they cowered back into their thrones.
14. The Alliance of Worlds
With word of Tiger stealth ships hovering through the black abyss of space in between Lupus and Tigris the Wolves were getting twitchy. Several planets lay in between the two, with Tigris much closer to the sun, which meant an imminent attack seemed unlikely. All the planets in between the Wolves and Tigers had been warned, some even supporting the Wolves cause, namely the Leopards who had arrived in great numbers alongside a jubilant Shadowfang.
A hundred Leopard ships, a hundred less than Shadowfang had promised, was a great boon for the war effort and when Shadowfang had explained that Pardus wouldn’t commit too much without ensuring its own world was safe first. Understandable at face value but given they had their own World Cannons Star Wolf couldn’t help but wonder why they had opted to leave the bulk of their forces at home. Does the Leopard have another agenda? Another plan?
Questions Star needed to ask Shadowfang.
At present, Star Wolf was busy roaming the landing bays out in the forests on Lupus. The volume of spacecrafts had turned the tarmac surfaces into a slippery blackish slush, that plus the thirty thousand Badgers wandering around. They were a diminutive, stocky race and every Badger Star Wolf met carried themselves with a steely determination. They weren’t quite as grizzly or scarred as the Night Badger, but many did sport wounds, presumably from battle. These were fighting Badgers, no doubt and the bulk of the Badger forces by Star’s reckoning.
‘We’re all in with you, Star,’ said one Badger, with a lazy, milky eye that followed Star as he walked by.
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