Clover Wanderpaw's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

By morning the freed rabbits had cleaned themselves and gathered in the earthen mound. Fourteen faces watched Clover, gentle and grateful, some still trembling. She should have felt done. The debt was paid. But the dark mouth beyond the mound pulled at her, and Tsuki's paths hummed under her paws, pointing past it toward the warren she had lost as a kit. She gathered the moon-faced drum and turned to leave. The Elder blocked the tunnel. He was old and tall, his robe knotted with living twigs and green leaves, his eyes lit like small lamps. Roots curled around his feet where he stood. He had brought Clover into Hollowburrow, but he blamed her drum for drawing the shadow that broke the walls. He did not move. "You are leaving," he said. "I kept my end," Clover said. "Your folk are safe." "They are safe because you stayed." He looked at the huddled rabbits, then back at her. "Three tunnels fell. More will fall. The warren still shakes." His voice dropped, quieter, stiller. "I felt the old digger die under the east root. I feel every heartbeat in here. I cannot lose more." "Then let me go before I draw worse to you." Clover held up the drum. Its pale face caught the light. "You said this sound brought the shadow. Every day I stay, I risk them again." The Elder went silent. His eyes flicked to the drum, then to the frightened folk pressed against the walls. "Stay," he said. "Help us shore the tunnels. Then talk of leaving." "There is no then." Clover stepped closer. "The paths I carry lead to my warren. They pass through the Shadow Cavern. If I wait, I forget the way. Tsuki gave it to me before she faded. It goes quiet if I don't walk it." One of the freed rabbits, a small one in a red scarf, tugged the Elder's sleeve. "Let them find their own," she whispered. "Like they found us." The Elder looked down at her a long moment. Something in his shoulders gave. When the warren chose him, he had told Clover, the choosing stripped away his fear. Now Clover saw what was left underneath it. Not anger. Grief. "The cavern changes what walks in," he said. "You know this." "I know." He reached into his robe and drew out a folded strip of bark, marked with old scratches. "The last of us who went east carved this. It is little. It is all I have." He pressed it into her paw. "Do not sound the drum near soft ground. The shadow listens for stillness. Keep moving." He stepped aside. The tunnel opened before her, and past it the dark mouth of the cavern waited. Clover tied the drum to her back and took the bark. The freed rabbits called her name as she passed. She did not look back. The Elder had let her go, but the cavern would take something from her before it gave the warren back.