Luffy and Ludo's Arc

Chapter 10 of 11

Bruno's ears snapped up. He raised one paw for silence. Luffy and Ludo froze on the gravel. Max held the scroll tight against his chest. Then they all heard it. Bird calls, but wrong. Sharp, spaced, moving through the trees. Bruno tapped the bridge with his nose. "Minnie's trackers," he said. "They found the road's end. If you stay, they'll pin you against the pond." Luffy scanned the garden. Stone lanterns. Raked gravel that would hold a paw print. Trimmed pines too thin to climb. The bridge was the only crossing, and beyond it lay open ground. "We run, they follow the tracks," Luffy said. "We fight here, they surround us." "Then we make them chase nothing," Ludo said. She pointed at the pond. "The blind monk hid this place. There's a way out he hasn't shown us." Bruno's white eyes turned toward her. He almost smiled. "Under the bridge," he said. "A drain runs beneath the water. It leads to the forest wall. But it floods. You'll cross in the dark, blind as me." The bird calls grew louder. Shapes moved past the far pines. Max stepped forward. "Give me a lantern," he said. He grabbed a stone lantern from the gravel and set it on the bridge rail, lit. "They'll think we crossed. I'll drag branches over the far path. Fresh tracks going out." "You'll be alone out there," Luffy said. "I know the keep," Max said. "I know how they read a trail." He shoved the scroll into Ludo's paws. "Take it. If I fall, it can't fall with me." Luffy caught his shoulder. For a breath they held each other's eyes. The rival was gone. This was a brother now. "Meet us at the forest wall," Luffy said. "North side. Don't be late." Max bolted across the bridge, dragging a pine branch behind him. The dragged trail cut into the far gravel. Then he vanished into the trees. Luffy and Ludo dropped into the pond. Cold water closed over their fur. Bruno slid in behind them and found the drain lip with his paw. "Follow my tail," he said. He went under. They swam blind through the stone throat. Water pressed their ears. Ludo held the scroll high above the surface. Luffy counted his own heartbeats to keep from panic. Then air. They broke through at the forest wall, coughing, alive. Behind them, the bird calls swarmed the garden. The trackers had reached the bridge. They found the lit lantern and the dragged trail. Their calls turned and chased Max's false path into the deep woods. Luffy pulled himself onto the mossy bank. Ludo set the scroll down, safe and dry. But Max was gone into the trees, the trackers on his trail. The garden was behind them. The forest wall was crossed. And the warlord still waited past the last line of trees, closer now than ever.