Clover Longear's Arc

Chapter 3 of 4

Inside Hollowburrow, the walls were dying. Clover felt it under her feet. The packed dirt shuddered as tunnels caved somewhere below. Roots hung loose where they should have held. The faceless shadow stood bound by the Elder's roots, and everywhere it looked, the ground softened and slid. It was not digging. It was feeding just by being here, pulling the warren apart the way a hole pulls water. Clover had found the hidden warren at last. She could not search a single tunnel while it collapsed around her. "Cut it loose," she told the Elder. "The roots hold it here. Here is where it feeds." He glared, coins for eyes. "Loose, it digs faster." "Loose, it follows the drum," Clover said. "I can walk it out." She pressed her paw to her chest and found the beat Tsuki had left inside her. The spirit's voice came up plain from memory. Rabbits are prey. Keep them moving. Do not stand and dig. Clover let the beat rise into her feet and struck the floor with her heel. One knock. Then another. Steady. The shadow's long ears turned toward her. "You feed on stillness," Clover said. "You stand and the ground gives way. So stop standing." "Lost my rabbit," it said. "No shadow moves. No rabbit." "Then move with mine." She knocked the beat again. "Follow." The Elder's roots hissed back into the dirt. The shadow swayed, caught by the rhythm, and took a step toward her. The floor under its old spot went quiet. No more sliding. Clover backed toward the burrow mouth, heel striking, heel striking, and the shadow came after the sound. Every step it took, the tunnels behind it held. She led it up and out into the open ground. Past the mound stood a garden of pale carrots, their roots faintly aglow in the dark. Firm earth. Nothing to unravel. Clover stopped there and let the beat slow. "This is not your warren," she said. "But it will hold you until you find yours." The shadow settled among the ghost carrots. For the first time it stood still and the ground did not sink. Here, alone in the dirt, it fed on nothing. Clover felt the warren steady beneath her feet. The shaking stopped. She had cleared the tunnels. Now she could search them. But when she turned back, the Elder blocked the door. His voice was flat. "You moved it. You did not mend what it broke." Behind him, three burrow mouths had caved to rubble. "Half my kin are sealed under the fall. You want to search this warren?" He stepped aside. "Search for them first. Dig them out, or the drum leaves with you tonight." Clover looked at the collapsed tunnels. Somewhere under that dirt, rabbit folk waited in the dark. Her kin, maybe. The ones she came to find. She knelt at the first fall and began to dig.