‘The battle is won!’ jubilant calls burst from the smoky ruin that was the defences of the House of Bears.
‘The cowards have fled into the mountains,’ reports ran rampant as Star walked in through the bloody and sullied earth. Any snow had long melted away to be replaced by a pungent, sticky reddish-brown slime.
‘What are your orders?’
‘Shall we chase the Tigers?’
A barrage of questions assaulted Star as he wandered through the streets of Brunneis Ursa’s ruined capital. Thousands of Tigers lay dead on the ground but not as many as Star had hoped for, even wishing the death of Tigers hit him with a pang of guilt.
‘Give the poor Wolf a moment.’ The Night Badger cuffed the nearest Badger round the animal’s already bruised and bloodied head. ‘First things first fan out and find that idiot of a Bear, hopefully the fool is still alive. Without him we have no hope of navigating the tunnels, though I doubt he’d be much use anyway.’
‘Indeed, who knows what may lay in wait on that lake.’ The Red Lion was quite literally a red Lion, coated from mane to boots in gore. ‘Better to tread carefully and then post guards at the ends of the tunnels, in case we ourselves require an escape route. The Tiger’s retribution might be swift after all.’ he pointed to the sky.
‘Quite, right, first animal that finds Kodiak will be sent home tonight to bath in beer, for a month!’ the ringing in Star’s ears has dulled a little, though an ache resided in its place, ‘go on get to it!’
‘Nice.’ The Night Badger nodded.
Hundreds of animals in earshot bolted in every direction through the muddy and wooden streets. They darted in and out of shacks, townhouses, and the occasional pub, all coming out empty. Perhaps no one would find the Bear.
‘Of an equally pressing matter we need to find the jamming devices the Tigers were using and destroy them.’ Star noted the Band of Breeds forming up. ‘Scarlett, Bloodhound, Shadow and March please can you stick together and find them. Get word out of our victory as soon as you’ve destroyed them.’
The foursome nodded and exited without word.
Star figured keeping them all together would keep them out of trouble; he’d later learn that stopping warriors from wars gone by from getting into mischief was nigh on impossible.
As Star roamed the streets, he couldn’t help but note how many Bears had actually been inside the city walls. Kodiak had been right; the Bears weren’t worthy to join Star’s ranks. A pack of Wolves would’ve died before surrendering the House of Wolves, who knew such a great and monstrous species such as the Brown Bear were meek cowards.
Some had bruises and cuts, but the few hundred Bears inside appeared unscathed, though they all wore the same expression of shame as Star stalked past.
‘Did you know the Bears were cowards?’ Star found himself asking the Red Lion and the Night Badger as they walked with him.
‘Hmm.’ The Red Lion stopped, glancing at a female Bear nearly as big as him, ‘I always knew they were lazy but cowards...’ he gave his answer some thought. ‘That’s a new one on me, there’s something very troubling about the lack of fight they put up.’
‘What’s troubling is the lack of fight!’ the Night Badger chipped in. ‘Look at them.’ He pointed at a group of three dark brown Bears scurrying past them. ‘They’re fat and weak. The size of a creature isn’t important, it’s the size of the fight in the creature that matters.’
‘So, we move on without the Bears,’ Star couldn’t see another way, ‘including Kodiak if he’s alive.’
‘Yes, we leave the Bears behind,’ the Red Lion’s massive reddish-orange eyes flitted to every nearby creature, ‘we should not linger long. Once we know what’s happened up top I think it’d be prudent to return to Lupus and regroup.’
‘Agreed,’ Star didn’t like Brunneis Ursa one bit, the sooner they could leave the better but with night fast approaching another night on this snowy tomb seemed likely.
‘Kodiak’s dead,’ the Night Badger’s tone was grim. ‘No way the Tiger scum would’ve let him l—’ Before the grumpy Badger had finished his sentence murmurings erupted throughout the sodden streets. Snowfall had picked up again in the last fifteen minutes, which made Star assume that was the cause for the animated creatures that flitted all over. It was not. A huge sledge was being dragged through the street to the east of Star. Too many Wolves surrounded the thing for Star to see clearly what lay on the sledge a dozen Wolves struggled to drag; it was something big.
‘He’s alive!’
‘The Bear lives!’
‘It’s a miracle!’
Slumped across the makeshift sledge of multiple wooden planks, a barn door most likely, Kodiak lay lifeless. Star glared at his body, seeing no obvious signs of life, until a huge, laboured breath escaped the Bear. Star inspected him and could see no obvious wounds. ‘Have they poisoned him?’
‘Poison could well be a Tigers method, the treacherous scum.’ The Night Badger then skulked away from the commotion. Star couldn’t help but wonder why the Night Badger was so obviously disappointed that Kodiak lived.
‘I’d wager they sedated him.’ The Red Lion knelt, gently rubbing his paws over the brown fur of Kodiak’s shirtless back. ‘They probably planned on taking him back to Tigris and torturing him for information.’ The Lion’s fiery eyes turned to Star. ‘Assuming they haven’t gleaned anything from him already?’
Star had a difficult decision to make and with night well and truly gripping Brunneis Ursa now and the jamming devices still unaccounted for he had no choice but to weather the snowstorm in their recently acquired fortress.
Not that it felt particularly secure.
19. The Sting of Winter
‘Everything has panned out as you said it would.’ Dalfang stood at the opposite end of the war room table to the Winter Tiger, who remained seated in his imposing Lion skull chair. ‘I knew from the legend of you from the Apex Wars that you were an astute warrior, adept with blade and brain but sir,’ Dalfang clasped his paws together and shook them, ‘this is genius of a different level. They are there for the taking.’
‘Quite.’ The Winter Tiger allowed himself a slight smile. ‘Sacrifices are a necessary evil when it comes to winning wars. What do our losses stand at?’ He knew it would be extensive and that Star Wolf and his merry band of rogue breeds would be celebrating their victory.
Dalfang cleared his throat. ‘Last count fifteen ships and all who crewed them during the battle in space.’ He paused. ‘On the ground another three thousand Tigers and another ten ships, I suppose they h—’
‘They had to detonate any ships they left behind,’ Winter stood up, tapping his razor-sharp claws on the beautiful, smooth table, ‘as per my instructions our ships are never to fall into enemy hands.’
‘But if we descend on the planet tonight couldn’t we recover them?’
‘That’s a twenty-four-hour window I’m not willing to leave to chance.’ Winter strolled closer to Dalfang, all the while clicking his claws on the backs of the bone chairs. ‘Leave nothing to chance in war Dalfang. If their forces pursued ours through the tunnels beneath the mountain our floundering forces couldn’t have hoped to have crewed all fifteen ships.’ He stopped a yard in front Dalfang and breathed in the slightly younger Tiger’s pleasant woody scent. ‘They did the right thing.’
‘Understood, sir.’ Dalfang lowered his head and eyes. ‘My apologies for questioning you.’
‘Not at all.’ Winter turned Dalfang’s chin up to ensure their eyes met. ‘Stay close to me, I’ll have need of you soon.’
‘Anything, my lord.’ Dalfang’s eyes were wide, wild and alive. ‘So, to confirm your question it was twenty-five ships and near eight thousand Tigers.’
‘And as such the Wolf pup believes he has wiped out nearly a third of our forces and at a cost of a fraction of his forces. What a delightful treat he is in for when we descend upon him.’ The Winter Tiger always had a façade to maintain, not that he minded the next task on
his list it was just that he found the act so pointless and a waste of his precious time. At the doorway to the war room he stopped, the faintly lit corridor was empty in both directions, ‘Have the survivors been put in chains?’
‘Yes, General Winter.’ Dalfang had named the Winter Tiger nearly every title under the sun in the past five minutes, he was loyal; perhaps a little too loyal. ‘They are all waiting in hangar thirteen.’
As with humans the Tigers regarded the number thirteen to be unlucky, though that was purely coincidence, for the Tigers the thirteenth hangar, furthest from Tigrefell, was known purely as the “Chamber of Failure”. If troops were hauled up in there they had failed in some shape or form and awaited punishment. In Blackfire’s time that punishment nearly always ended in death, via a slow and painful process. That’d provided the Winter Tiger the opportunity to rule with a gentler paw.
‘Excellent.’ He began the descent down the flight of steel steps into the heart of hangar one where a shuttle craft was waiting to escort him. ‘Snap to it, Tiger.’ The driver obeyed without word and they hurtled off. ‘This’ll have to be a quick session.
We have more pressing matters to attend to.’
After fifteen minutes of driving, across the back walls of hangars one to twelve, which were all full to bursting with spaceships and Tigers ready and waiting to make the jump to Brunneis Ursa. They needed to move quick or the window would surely close on them. Star Wolf wouldn’t linger long but at the same time he wouldn’t be able to leave until he knew for sure they’d won the space battle, which would’ve taken time. The Tiger’s jamming devices were hidden well, if the reports back to Winter were to be believed, which meant Star’s search for them would be long and stressful. Winter could just picture the young pup now sprinting from one rat-infested-Bear-home to another. What a putrid race the Bears were, such a waste of raw power.
‘Right,’ the Winter Tiger boomed into the podium speaker that had been placed out for him. He stood at the front of just over a thousand Tigers, they looked wearied, sweat drenched and bloodied but most of all scared. They knew something unpleasant was coming. He had them in the palm of his hands. By all accounts this battle had produced zero deserters, something the Winter Tiger abhorred with a vengeance. Die fighting. Never run. Never surrender.
‘It would seem that none of you died fighting.’ Winter Tiger swept his paws across the crowd, who sat chained to one another by collars around their throats. ‘Instead you ran.’ He licked his lips and raised his eyebrows at a petrified Tiger sat ten yards in front of the podium. A trickle of urine slipped down the Tiger’s black leather trousers and out onto the concrete floor, confirming Winter’s suspicions. ‘The question is...’ he let the drama develop via silence, revelling in the moment. ‘Does that count as a surrender?’
‘We never sur—’ a stocky, block-headed Tiger, began shouting and moved to stand before Winter pulled out a six-shooter gun, feeling theatrical, and fired into the outspoken Tiger’s face. The echo rattled up into the metal rafters and along the tin roof sheets. To emphasise his point, he proceeded to sweep the crowd with the barrel of his gun and at random shot another five Tigers who he decided were either weak or untrustworthy. A little trimming of the herd from time to time always worked well; a not so subtle reminder to the masses that insubordination and failure wouldn’t be tolerated. It worked wonders for productivity, and right now the only productivity the Winter Tiger wanted was the destruction of Star Wolf’s forces.
‘Shall we say one night?’ the Winter Tiger scanned for anymore cowardice. He found none, the Tigers before him had clenched their jaws and re-found that infamous Tiger resolve. ‘I am a firm but fair leader of this army. One night, make it through that and you shall re-join our ranks without question. After all, I will concede on this occasion the odds were severely stacked against you but that’s no excuse. You fled from lesser species, even the Leopards in bulk are no match for us.’
‘All hail General Winter,’ a voice from the crowd, Winter didn’t catch who.
‘Winter, Winter, Winter, Winter,’ the ambush of Tigers roared in unison, even when the Winter Tiger departed and ordered the lights turned off and the overhead sprinklers turned on. As the Winter Tiger was driven away the chant dragged on, not a single whimper of discontent from the Tigers chained in the darkness enduring the ice-cold water from above. Come morning some would be dead, it was inevitable, but the survivors would be stronger for the experience.’
THE BUZZ AND THRILLING anticipation aboard Darkchurch were palpable, the Winter Tiger could feel the very ship humming with excitement about the work she was about to carry out. As he strolled the long corridor of the Tigers private bunks he was greeted with numerous grins from his veteran warriors as they armoured themselves and prepared for the siege down on Brunneis Ursa.
Once seated back in his captain’s chair, on the flight deck, Winter turned on the ship’s communications channel, it was time. ‘Tigers, this is it, with one swift attack we can decimate half of our enemy’s forces and eradicated their leader and his band of freaks. After today we shall leave the Wolves, and those foolish enough to join them, on their knees.’ Everywhere he looked he found an older, battle-hardened Tiger oozing with confidence. ‘Now the more astute members aboard Darkchurch, which is all of you I’m sure,’ he took on a playful tone, ‘will have noticed my right-paw Tiger, Hitback, isn’t here.’ A few murmurs brought out across the flight deck. ‘Since the first attack on Brunneis Ursa our esteemed Tiger friend Hitback has been on a secret mission, which moments ago he completed. He will be waiting for us down on the planet.’ Winter soaked in the confused faces, delighting at noting even Dalfang had a queer visage at present. ‘With a secret operative of mine.’
A few Tigers gasped; Winter couldn’t help but grin.
‘Forty thousand remaining troops of the enemy are currently penned into the House of Bears and they have no idea we’re coming for them.’ Winter leapt up from his seat, to stand before all on the flight deck. ‘And worst still they have no idea that one within their midst is going to escort us right through the door.’
‘Bravo,’ Dalfang said. ‘Another masterstroke!’
‘All hail Winter! All hail Winter! All hail Winter!’ the flight deck burst into cheers. The lights on a nearby workstation lit up.
‘We’re ready to land, sir, stealth shields are at full capacity,’ informed the Tiger working the station.
‘And that goes for the entire fleet?’ asked the Winter Tiger.
‘It does,’ the Tiger confirmed.
‘Excellent, well then, to victory and let no Tiger come back aboard this ship without at least fifty kills to his name.’
The roars were deafening as the Winter Tiger climbed the stairs at the back of the room to his private quarters. It was time for him to put his armour on. It was time to put all of his years of training and planning to good use. Time to drench his Serpent’s Blade in the blood of his enemies. A thought popped into his head as he began strapping his golden armour on above his black leather tunic. From the digital panel, halfway up the wall beside the door, he flicked open the ship’s communication line once more.
‘One final thing, no one is to touch Star Wolf. He’s mine.’
20. The Victory of Brunneis Ursa
‘Out in the forest, deep in the mist and snow, a Wolf stalks proud and low. For here comes the break of day, but not for the prey, for the Wolf doth slay.’ And so, the songs of praise and victory floated along, the celebrations in full flow. Star had allowed the troops the one night to enjoy the victory, for they couldn’t travel anyway.
Much as he had wanted to.
The foursome of Leopard, Hare, Dog and Fox that he’d sent to find the jamming devices had been gone hours and when they returned, with darkness on their backs, they did so individually, and at differing times. It maddened Star that they couldn’t adhere to the simplest of instructions. ‘It was quicker to split up,’ said the March Hare, his eyes twitched with every word and his
boot permanently bounced on the snow.
‘Evidently not given how long you all took,’ snapped Star Wolf.
‘It is done now,’ Shadowfang had replied in an aloof manner, he’d been too distracted at watching what was going on around Star rather than addressing Star directly. ‘We’re here for the night. We may as well enjoy it as if it were our last night in the galaxy.’
‘I’ll be honest,’ Bloodhound hadn’t been as cocksure as the rest of them, ‘with so many Tiger scents it was near impossible for me to find the devices. These Tigers are a damn impressive race, they hid them well.’
‘Let’s not remain glum.’ The Scarlett Fox had already changed into a fresh uniform, still sporting armour plating. ‘We’ve contacted our respective fleets. The battles of land and air have been won, and the Tigers have turned tail and run. I doubt we’ll be seeing them for a while given their losses and now that they know the measure of our force. Enjoy your victory Star Wolf.’
‘Very well.’ Star had found suitable accommodation for the night, which was meagre at best on account of every room stinking of wet Bear and a hint of Tiger. Star changed and went to the great hall where he’d met Kodiak for the first time. Beer flowed and the music blared along at a merry pace. The half of the fleet that had won the battle of space had ventured down to join the celebrations, and every creature was making the most of the shore leave. The great hall housed near five hundred creatures, made up of the Band of Breeds and the captains of the Leopards, Foxes, Wolves and Badgers.
Throughout the streets the taverns were filled.
Marquees erected to house further celebrations.
The entire capital was alive with a party, brought about through death and destruction. A nagging sense of unease had left Star insisting on the tunnels, at least those they had found, be guarded by at least one hundred troops much to their displeasure. Once Kodiak had been found Star had asked him about the tunnels and the Bear had confessed he had little use for the tunnels and didn’t know the location of all of them. The massive Bear didn’t have a scratch on him, claiming the Tigers kept him locked up in his own dungeons.
The Winter Tiger Page 17