Chieftess Pride
Joyleaf couldn’t sleep. Every time she began to drift off, the nightmares woke her up. She saw Woodhue lying broken on the ground, his empty eye socket filled with clotting blood and cinders. She saw Farsong, that beautiful she-wolf, mutilated alongside her dead wolf pups. And she saw the humans dancing around their Pillar of Sacrifice, hooting and screaming their guttural war songs.
The blond elf woke up with a start. Only yesterday the humans had attacked Woodhue and gouged out his eye with a fiery poker. Now he was One-Eye, and he would bear the mark of the round-ears’ torments forever.
“You must leave the humans alone,” Joyleaf had shouted at Bearclaw. “If we hide ourselves completely, they will forget about us.”
“You’re usually the wiser head, my Joyleaf, but not this time. Humans don’t live in the Now. They dwell too much on the past. And they don’t forget.”
“But Bearclaw –” she began.
He didn’t listen. He had only wanted joinings and lovemaking. He treated every moment as though it was the last – and the first – in his life. He lived too much in the Now.
Joyleaf glanced down at her lifemate, fast asleep in the furs. His arm was thrown heedlessly over his head. His lip was curled back in a feral grin, and he was growling in his dreams.
Joyleaf felt... dirty. How had she let herself be seduced by him again? One-Eye was moaning in pain in his den, the agony of his torture only barely relieved by Rain’s skills, and she had coupled with Bearclaw as if nothing had happened.
The old badger did that to her. He seemed to cast a spell of forgetfulness over her.
**Tomorrow is nothing,** he had sent to her. **Taste the sweetness of Now!**
But she didn’t want to be in the Now. There was too much at stake. If the humans truly didn’t forget, then neither could the Wolfriders. Wolves learned from their mistakes and changed their tactics. The elves could do nothing less – if they wanted to survive.
She felt ashamed that she had not resisted. She should not have taken pleasure during a time of such sorrow.
You can’t live only in the Now, beloved, she thought. You must think of tomorrow. Or we won’t last to see it become today.
Bearclaw was right. The humans did not forget. They laid low for an eight of days, and then struck again. Crescent was gone. Joyleaf wrung her hands as she watched Moonshade and Strongbow gasp and moan in their misery. The mad grief had overtaken them and they could barely speak, let alone send. Strongbow lay against the root of Father Tree, struggling to keep conscious. Moonshade was hunched over her knees, sobbing quietly.
Everyone wept. Rillfisher clung to Treestump desperately. Rainsong wiped at her eyes, but fresh tears sprang up. Strongbow’s half-brother Grayling sat by himself, staring dully at the ground, as though in a trance.
Bearclaw drew New Moon. “Rainsong, Woodlock – take care of them. All of you, do not let them go from here!”
Bearclaw began to hike into the woods, into the twisted thorn patch where his wolf-friend Snapper was waiting impatiently. Joyleaf felt her breath catch in her throat. No! He couldn’t be thinking –
“Bearclaw...”
“The humans have to pay!”
“No! It will only bring more loss, more grief!”
Bearclaw turned on her with a wild growl. He swung New Moon in a wide arc and fixed its point on the grieving archer and tanner. “Tell that to them!”
Joyleaf couldn’t move. She could only watch as Bearclaw mounted Snapper and rode off through the briar patch, towards the humans’ camp.
I have to do something, Joyleaf thought. I can’t let this go on. Bearclaw will not respect anything but violence. He never thinks of healing anymore, only of pain. But can’t he remember... the way his own father died at humans’ hands. He was there, but no he’s forgotten, even as Longbranch and the dreamberries keeps the memory alive in us.
Sometimes... sometimes my badger is as mad as the humans. He needs a healing. Or... or something else.
But Joyleaf couldn’t move.
I love him. I know how he grieves... I can feel his breaking heart. But... oh, Bearclaw, can’t you ever learn?
Joyleaf sat down on a root and waited.
**Joyleaf?** Rain’s sending pierced her mind.
**Bearclaw needs a healing,** she sent back. **He cannot lead us like this. Hatred, anger – he will only trap us in a cycle of pain as long as the humans endure. He must be made to see.**
**Sight cannot be forced, Joyleaf.**
Joyleaf balled her fists tight. **Then he must be made to stop!**
Toward morning Bearclaw returned. He carried a bundle of fur in his arms. As Strongbow and Moonshade stared at the ground, lost in their grief, Bearclaw tossed the lump of fur at their feet. Joyleaf recoiled. It was a severed human head, inside the skin of a brown bear.
**I got their chief,** Bearclaw sent, both to Strongbow, and for all the tribe to hear. **It’s done.**
Moonshade turned away and sobbed. Strongbow sprang to his feet and threw the head away. His face was a mask of uncontrollable rage. **Done? It won’t be done ‘til they’ve all been slaughtered!**
The head hit the ground at Joyleaf’s feet. She wrinkled her nose at the smell of dried blood.
“Is this your answer?” she pointed at the mutilated flesh. “Bring more hatred and rage down on us? Did it bring Crescent back? You’ve only made things worse!”
Bearclaw wheeled around at her. “You question me? Even YOU?! If this is the thanks I get, I’ll take my company elsewhere!”
“Go!” Joyleaf screamed at his retreating back. “Go and don’t come back! This tribe is better off without you!”
Bearclaw disappeared into the forest. Joyleaf fled back to her den and wept. Strongbow and Moonshade continued to cling to each other at the foot of the Holt’s steps. And the rest of the tribe kept an uneasy vigil around the edges of Father Tree.
Joyleaf waited anxiously for Bearclaw’s return. Now that he was gone she was overcome with regret. I should have been kinder to him. I should have been gentle and loving. I didn’t think of his own grief, his own pain. I am a terrible lifemate to drive him away.
What if he doesn’t come home? What if he leaves forever as I told him to? Oh Bearclaw, please come home.
Joyleaf waited up all morning, hoping to see him familiar silhouette come through the briar patch. Finally she drifted off into an exhausted sleep. But the nightmares returned. She saw countless memories as clear as day. Dreams were like dreamberry juice to her. They brought back the past in perfect clarity.
She sat on the roots of Father Tree and watched as Bearclaw struck Strongbow across the cheek. The poor boy had only been two eights and four, and Bearclaw had hit him with a savagery that startled them all.
And Joyleaf had defended him. She had agreed with Trueflight that they were in no place to question him.
She listened as Bearclaw plotted his first raid on the humans. She knew in her heart then that it was dangerous, that these humans were not weak creatures waiting to be driven off.
But she had not protested loud enough.
She sat in the tree as Bearclaw had charged the humans astride Snapper. Now they had seen the Wolfriders – now they knew the face of their enemies. She shouted at him afterwards, and he laughed it off.
And she had done nothing more.
Countless visions, sometimes real and remembered, sometimes imagined. Each time something worse happened. Bearclaw attacked a tribe member. He dared the humans to invade the Holt. Each time, Joyleaf stood by and did nothing.
Fire rose around her. And she simply stood, watching it overwhelm her.
When she awoke from her dreams, it was late afternoon. Bearclaw still hadn’t returned. It took three more nights before he staggered back, reeking of dreamberry wine and his own vomit. He collapsed into the furs and started to snore without a word to her.
Joyleaf watched him sleep off his hangover. And she said nothing.
Three uneasy years passed. Bearclaw continued to run raids on the humans, stealing the prey from their traps and cutting their fishing nets late at night. Strongbow became colder and even more fanatical in his desire to see all the round ears dead. He never mentioned Crescent’s again. Neither did Moonshade. But Crescent’s name was always on the lips of her uncle Grayling, and her lovemate Pike. The two young elves grieved together and lost themselves in the dreamberries as Bearclaw urged the rest of the tribe, through words and action, to forget and move on. The Now was, as always, Bearclaw’s only comfort. The Now, and Old Maggoty’s dreamberry wine.
After another absence in the troll caves, Bearclaw staggered back into his den. The stench of trolls hung over him, but he was still sober enough to grin ferally at his lifemate.
“Where were you when we needed you?” Joyleaf demanded. “The humans are growing bolder again."
“Awww... forget about the humans...” he slurred, and caught her about her waist. His sharp canines nip at her throat in his standard foreplay. The smell of troll sweat nauseated her, and she pushed him away.
“I won’t join with an elf whose honour lies at the bottom of a troll’s jug.”
“Aww... come, little Joyleaf...” he tried to cover her mouth with his. She recoiled from his touch and turned her head away.
“Stop, Bearclaw. I don’t want to.”
“I know what you want...” he pressed her down against the furs.
“No!” Joyleaf pushed him off her. “Stop it, Bearclaw. I said ‘no.’”
He rolled over miserably. “Cold fish...”
“Look at yourself! Where’s Bearclaw, Blood of Nine Chiefs?”
A soft belch escaped his lips.
“You are disgusting,” Joyleaf pronounced.
“Ahhh... that’s my Joyleaf,” he said drowsily. “Growl for me, wildcat.”
Joyleaf pulled her tunic over her fawnskin jumpsuit. “You can sleep alone tonight, Bearclaw.”
“Ohhh... you’ll come home to me, Joyleaf...” he called as she climbed out of the den.
Joyleaf stalked off to the stream and sat herself down on the grassy bank. She began to throw little sticks and pebbles into the water, and watch the current carry them downstream.
“Sister?” Treestump asked.
She looked over her shoulder. The burly Wolfrider was standing behind her. He was clad in only his large furred vest, tugged down to mid-thigh.
“Won’t Rillfisher miss you?”
“She can do without my company for a moment.” He sat down next to her. “What’s wrong, sister? I heard your row with Bearclaw. What was he doing that you wanted him to stop, eh?”
“He wanted... sport.”
“Hah. And what’s so bad about that, suddenly?”
“He’s stinking drunk. I couldn’t stand to let him touch me.”
“Oh, come now, Joyleaf. You know you love him.”
“Not when he’s like this.”
Treestump patted her shoulder. “You’ll make up with him by tomorrow night.” When Joyleaf didn’t answer, Treestump shrugged, then started back towards his den.
“Tell me, Treestump,” Joyleaf called to his back. “Why do you always take Bearclaw’s side?”
Bearclaw was up and about by sunset, but Joyleaf was in no mood to forgive him just yet. She was still annoyed. And frustrated.
As it neared morning, Bearclaw’s wolf Snapper hadn’t come back from his evening hunt. Bearclaw went looking for him, while Joyleaf sat on the steps of Father Tree, braiding a new headband out of the soft ivy that grew near the Holt.
A wild sending pierced her mind. **RAIN! JOYLEAF! I NEED YOU!!**
Rain was already on his wolf-friend as Joyleaf called desperately for Shadowsheen. The silver-white wolf leapt to her side, and Joyleaf scrambled onto her back. She spurred her wolf down the game trail, following the receding figure of the healer and his mount. They cut through the weeds and brambles as Bearclaw’s sending continued to tear through their thoughts. **Faster Rain! I need you!!**
Rain dismounted from his wolf as they entered the little grove. Snapper was lying in Bearclaw’s arms, twitching and moaning. As Joyleaf drew up behind them, she could see that the old one-eyed wolf was dying.
Rain had his hands on Snapper’s gray belly, but he hesitated. Bearclaw screamed at him. “What are you waiting for? Heal him now!”
“Bearclaw... I... it is too late!”
As he spoke, Snapper breathed a final, ragged gasp, then sagged to the ground. Rain got up, his face in his hands. Joyleaf began to tiptoe closer. She knew instantly when the wolf’s heart stopped beating. Bearclaw collapsed against his wolf-friend, and the shudder that ran through his body was almost enough to stop his own heart.
“Oh no!” Joyleaf sobbed. She felt the bile rise in her throat convulsively. Oh... Bearclaw had loved Snapper with such intensity. That old wolf had been closer to the elf than any other. Losing him now was like losing a part of himself.
By now Foxfur, Strongbow and Moonshade were approaching on their own wolves. They saw the dead wolf, and kept a respectful distance. Rain was now recovering from his sorrow. “I’m... so sorry, my chief,” he stammered. “The poison had too long to work.”
“Poison?” Bearclaw’s head snapped up. “He has no bites, no cuts...”
Then it struck him.
“Human poison!” he roared. His hand darted to his side and drew New Moon. “Filthy, treacherous humans!”
Joyleaf turned to the other elves. She knew all the signs. She had to stop Bearclaw’s rage before it built up and overflowed in another fit of violence. “Listen everyone! There may be more of this poison about.”
Then she turned back to Bearclaw and touched his shoulders lightly. He was even now inspected the sharp edge of his sword. Joyleaf made her voice sweet as honey. “Bearclaw...” she whispered. “Beloved.... come with me. We’ll ride my Shadowsheen and search out the deadly bait. If more there be–”
“No!” Bearclaw whirled about, and Joyleaf staggered back. He held New Moon high. “I’ll hunt for HUMAN BLOOD!”
“Wait!” Joyleaf caught his shoulders again. “Listen – I beg you! For once, no matter how your heart hurts, use your head! We attack them, they attack us – on and on it foes! Only we can end it. You must not seek revenge for Snapper.”
He shoved her aside. “Out of my way!” he raged. He was sprinting, pumping his arms. Joyleaf glanced back at the elves. They remained passive on their wolves.
With each stride, Bearclaw descended further into madness. Joyleaf could see the wildness of the bloodlust overcome him. He was losing himself to the wolfsong, to the Hunt. He would be gone in a few more strides, and the Wolfriders would be destroyed with him.
She saw the nightmares flash before her eyes. She saw One-Eye lying drenched in blood. She saw Crescent being dragged away. She saw the humans dancing around their pillar of sacrifice. Fire burned in the background. Fire and blood. She saw the bright flames surround them all and burn the Holt itself to the ground.
“No!” she cried. “Shadowsheen! Stop him!”
Her wolf obeyed without hesitation and flung herself atop of Bearclaw. Her tackle shoved him to the ground and pinned him under her weight.
“Joyleaf! What are–” Bearclaw began.
“I’ve stood by and let you run off like a maddened boar once too often!” Joyleaf shouted as she tore off her overtunic. “I’ve seen blood and fire and pain and I won’t stand for it! No more! This is it, Bearclaw! It has to stop. And if you won’t stop it, then I will!” She tapped Shadowsheen and the wolf eased off Bearclaw’s body. But before the chief could get up, Joyleaf seized the back of his tunic and lifted him to his feet. She slammed Bearclaw against a nearby tree.
**Have you gone MAD?!** Strongbow’s sent. **How dare you treat your lifemate – our chief – that way?**
Joyleaf turned on him. **You may love his as much as I do, Strongbow, but this is between him and me!**
“Let me go, you backstabbing viper–” Bearclaw began. But Joyleaf picked him and slammed his back against the tree again.
“Not this time! I’ve tried words, I’ve tried love. I’ve given you every part of me for years, my body, my soul – I’ve given you compassion, understanding, and every bit of patience I have in me. No more! Your madness will destroy the tribe if I let you. I claim the right of challenge!”
**You cannot!** Strongbow sent. He, Moonshade, Foxfur and Rain hovered uncertainly at the edge of the glade. **You are his lifemate!**
Bearclaw shoved Joyleaf off him. She staggered back, but did not fall. “You won’t go beyond this glen, Bearclaw! Not until you listen to me.”
“Out of my way!”
She stood tall. “Never. You’ll have to kill me. I claimed the right of challenge, Bearclaw! You have to face me! And if the only way you can ease your rage is through combat, then by the High Ones, I’ll give you a fight!”
Something changed in Bearclaw’s eyes. A glimmer of red bloodlust returned. “Go!” he yelled at Strongbow and the others. “Back to the Holt, all of you!”
Strongbow retreated slowly. Rain touched Moonshade’s shoulder, gently bidding her to turn away from the horrifying sight of the two lifemates squaring off for what could prove a lethal combat.
“Rrrrrr.... Joyleaf...” Bearclaw growled. “Don’t do this. You cannot defeat me... and if you press this... I will answer this challenge.”
“Unarmed combat!” Joyleaf snapped. “Now – if violence and pain is all you will understand.”
Bearclaw charged at her, his fists clenched together in a double-fist. He swung at her, but Joyleaf ducked the blow and caught his arm. She pivoted about and flipped him over her shoulder. Bearclaw landed hard on the ground. As Joyleaf hesitated, he grabbed her ankle and toppled her to the dirt. He leapt at her and shook her shoulders, then pounded the back of her head against the ground.
“Stop this now!” he raged.
Joyleaf forced her hands up around the back of his head and pulled his forehead to his. Their skin touched, and suddenly the fight turned from a physical one into a mental one – no less fierce, and no less deadly.
The Wolf growled at Joyleaf. Bearclaw’s soul had become a snarling, slavering beast, like the most feral brother of Timmorn Yellow-Eyes. He lashed out at Joyleaf’s soul with claws and fangs, forcing his will against hers.
**Timmain joined with wolves to make us strong, not to make us mad!** Joyleaf shouted.
**And gave us the Way, the Now of Wolf-thought!** Bearclaw shot back. **A true Wolfrider lives in the Now – and does what must be done!**
**True enough – old badger!** she snarled back. **And this must be done!**
The Wolf tore at her spirit, lost beyond all words, all coherent thoughts. Rage overwhelmed her. Bearclaw’s weapon was his fiery nature. Anger, resentment, wild wanderlust, deadly passion, all these were now focussed directly at his lifemate. The nightmare images assaulted her. She saw One-Eye lying in his own blood. She saw the murdered wolves. She saw Crescent’s skull against the Pillar of Sacrifice. She heard the wardrums pound out a deadly rhythm. They were not simply her own memories now. They were Bearclaw’s, and Mantricker’s, and Goodtree’s and all the chiefs’ stretching back to Timmain herself. The bloodlust in Bearclaw’s heart called forth countless images of blood and violence. **This is all humans will ever understand!** the Wolf shouted. **This is all the world will ever understand! This is the Now!**
Faces of the dead and dying flashed before her. She saw ten generations of elves murdered and brutalized in a war with no beginning and no end.
Joyleaf almost swooned under the weight of his anger. She felt his betrayal. How could she turn on him? She was his Joyleaf, his lifemate, the woman he one day hoped to Recognize. They had loved and lain together for centuries, and now she was seeking to destroy him, to make into something he could never be.
She was his Joyleaf. His Joyleaf was supposed to obey him, to understand him, to stand by him and support him through everything. His Joyleaf was supposed to bear him a son – a fine young elf who would one day take up New Moon and lead the Wolfriders.
Lead the Wolfriders into the fire, into the grinning maw of the Hunt.
No!
Joyleaf shot back, fighting for her very soul. **No! I am not your Joyleaf! I am not the one who will stand by you unquestioningly! That is not love! That is possession. That is madness. That is... that is something repulsive. I do not exist to satisfy you!**
**Joyleaf!**
**It is my love for you which makes me fight you! It is my love for the tribe!**
She sent the images of the living to him now. Strongbow, Moonshade, Grayling, Pike, Rain, Rainsong, Shale, Eyes High, Treestump, Foxfur – every living Wolfrider appeared in their locked minds. **This is what I fight for! Life! What can you give us, Bearclaw?**
More anger at her. More resentment. Bearclaw was gone. Only the Hunt remained. Rage and bloodlust and blood and fire. The fire burned her, threatened to extinguish her.
**Life!** Joyleaf screamed back.
Cool water washed over them, drowning out the fire, washing away the blood.
The Wolf growled.
**Don’t fight me, Bearclaw!**
The Wolf began to retreat. The floodwaters rose around them both.
**Joyleaf... lifemate...** he begged.
**Surrender, lifemate.**
**No!** the Wolf screamed.
**Then it must end.**
The Wolf sprang at her. The nightmare enveloped her.
Blood and fire and wardrums. More death, more war.
And at the heart of it all, a screaming child.
**I will not bear that child! I will not be mother to death!**
Joyleaf summoned all her strength. Pure cool light washed over them both. The Wolf tossed and raged in its death throes.
**She’s wrong!** Strongbow sent. **No one should question Bearclaw at such a time of loss, let alone heap indignities on him!**
“Yes,” Moonshade nodded. “To challenge him like that... what... what if Joyleaf follows the path of Huntress Skyfire who ousted her chief-brother Two-Spear?”
“Hmph,” Longbranch sniffed. “Sometimes Bearclaw acts as Mad as they say Two-Spear was.”
Pike chuckled.
Clearbrook protested. “Joyleaf would never tear the tribe apart that way.”
“Aye!” Treestump said. “My sister is already as much our chieftess as Bearclaw is chief. I’ve never known her to act without reasoning first.”
**I’m glad to hear you say that, Treestump...**
All heads turned as Joyleaf strode into the Holt’s clearing.
**Where is Bearclaw?** Strongbow demanded. **What have you done with h–**
And Strongbow fell silent. Joyleaf was carrying New Moon in her right hand. And her ivy headband had been twisted up to hold a lock of hair above the crown of her head.
“The chief’s lock...” Treestump whispered.
“What have you done?” Moonshade gasped.
“I challenged him. He lost. It’s over now.”
**No!** Strongbow leapt up. **How dare you overthrow our chief?**
“Is it my right, archer. Or have you forgotten that? We’ve lived too long under the rule of one elf. And his time is over now. I am chieftess now. Bearclaw is gone.”
**Where is he? What did you do to him? Answer me.**
“I left him where he fell. He can return to the tribe if he wills, or he can leave it. But if he challenges me again, I will drive him out.”
“Sister, what has come over you?” Treestump asked. “These words are so cold. You say them without... without any feeling. This isn’t you.”
Joyleaf rocked on her feet unsteadily. “I have been in a sending match for over an hour, brother. I’m tired.”
“How could you?” Moonshade demanded. “He is our chief.”
“Wolves will challenge for leadership when the chief wolf is too weak, or is mad with the foaming sickness.”
**How dare you?** Strongbow thundered.
Joyleaf turned her eyes on him. **No! How dare you, Strongbow? I am your chief now, not Bearclaw. Do you challenge me? Do you? If so then step forward. If not then keep quiet. Or go and join Bearclaw.**
Strongbow recoiled. Joyleaf had returned a stranger. There was a fierceness in her eyes that he had never seen before. The gentle archer had turned into a snarling she-wolf... or some sort of mountain lion. The set line of her jaw and the intensity of her stare told him not to press for a challenge.
“I claimed the right of any packmate,” Joyleaf said calmly. “As Huntress Skyfire did when she cast out Two-Spear’s madness.”
“Two-Spear won that challenge,” Moonshade said.
“But he left. He knew he could not remain a Wolfrider.”
“Joyleaf – this isn’t like you,” Clearbrook said. “Why? Why did you do this?”
“For your lifemate, Clearbook. For One-Eye, who escaped the human’s hatred. And for you, Shale, and you Pike, and even you, Strongbow. I did it so we could all survive. Bearclaw would have run headlong into the human camp and brought their wrath down on us. Fear, fighting, blood and fire – that is not the Way. Do you not all remember? Two-Spear would have taken us into a deadly battle with the humans – and that’s why Huntress Skyfire challenged him. But Bearclaw kept to the Now too blindly. He forgot that even wolves remember their past wounds and grow beyond them. He was trapped in a cycle – he still is! Don’t think I didn’t try to ease him free. I tried kindness, I tried reason, I tried patience. But I refused to stand by and let his destroy us.”
Strongbow began to stride away. “Where are you going, archer?” Joyleaf asked.
**To find Bearclaw.**
“Strongbow – that isn’t the Way!” Moonshade cried.
“No, let him go. You go with him, if it suits you, Moonshade. Return after you have found him, or stay with him forever. I will not force anyone to follow me. But if you follow Bearclaw, then there will be two tribes, not one. Remember that.”
Strongbow and Moonshade silently sought out their wolf-friends.
“Sister...” Treestump came up behind Joyleaf and touched her shoulders. “You’re tired. Go to your den and rest. Later... when your mind is at ease, you and Bearclaw can make amends.”
“No. It is over.”
“Don’t say that, Joyleaf. He is your lifemate.”
“No longer.”
“You can’t just cast away a lifemate.”
“I have. I have cut him from my heart.”
“Joyleaf!” he spun her around. “What has happened to you? You love that old badger. Every eights or years you two spat. But it will pass.”
“Not this time.”
“You can’t just... Joyleaf, what is wrong with you?”
Her eyes darkened. “If you touched his mind as I have, Treestump, you would not have to ask. I saw his deepest fears. I saw his true nature. High Ones help me, I almost touched his soulname.”
“But that’s wonderful. See – it’s proof you two –”
“No. It’s proof that he is no longer fit to lead us. I have been his lifemate for many eights of eights. I have loved him and stood by him through so many trials. But I saw his soul, brother, and I was horrified. He is... he is wrong. He has become twisted by hate.”
“Ah, he’s a mean son of a she-wolf all right–”
**No, Treestump. Hear my thoughts. In sending there is only truth. It is over. For good. Can you understand that?**
Treestump’s eyes widened. “Aye,” he whispered. “Aye, sister...”
He turned away and walked back to Rillfisher. Clearbrook looked up Joyleaf pleadingly, then glanced away. No one would meet her eyes. At length they began to slowly retreat into the shadows.
**Rain,** Joyleaf called.
**Yes, chieftess?**
**Go after Strongbow and Moonshade. Heal Bearclaw, if you can. He was... injured.**
**Yes, chieftess.**
Rain found Bearclaw lying on the ground, curling in a semi-fetal position. His clothing was torn, and deep scratched laced his torso and arms. Strongbow and Moonshade hovered over him, begging him in sendings to rise.
**Look what she did to him, Rain!** Strongbow raged. He pointed to the bloody scratches.
Rain knelt down and touched the wounds. The instant he made contact with the flesh, he understood. “This wasn’t Joyleaf,” he said calmly. “These are self-inflicted.”
Moonshade’s hand rose to her mouth.
“Bearclaw?” Rain said. **Bearclaw – can you hear me? I am going to heal you now. Do you understand?**
Bearclaw made no answer, but as Rain touched the first gash to seal it, the former chief caught his hand. **No.**
“Bearclaw, these wounds could become infected.”
Bearclaw shook his head.
**You are still our chief, Bearclaw,** Strongbow urged. **Come back with us.**
Bearclaw shook his head.
“Please, Bearclaw. Let us help you.”
He curled up into a tighter ball, hugging his knees to his chest. He began to whimper, and Rain leaned in close to hear the words.
“Gone... lost... Joyleaf... gone... no... over... over...”
“Bearclaw!”
“No... gone....” His hands flew to his face and he began to claw his flesh anew.
Rain slapped him hard across the face. The blow brought him around, and Bearclaw blinked weakly. He slowly got to his knees. He looked up at Strongbow. And he shook his head.
“I can’t go back with you.”
**Bearclaw–**
“No... Strongbow. No more. I have lost my Way.”
“Joyleaf will take you back as a tribemate,” Rain said. “Though... not as a lifemate. But you can still be a part of the Wolfriders. Even wolves that lose their challenges will run with the pack. Come on, let us help you.”
“No.” Bearclaw got to his feet. “It is over. I am leaving.”
“Where will you go?” Moonshade asked.
“Into the wood. To the wolves.”
**You can’t just leave us! High Ones, Bearclaw – what did she do to you?**
Bearclaw glanced over his shoulder. “She... uncovered something... something I didn’t want to see. I have to go... I’m sorry... I have... I have to go.”
“Let me heal you,” Rain begged. But Bearclaw limped away without a backward glance. Strongbow started to follow him, but Rain held out his arm and stopped him.
Silently, the three elves watched his former chief disappear into the lengthened shadows of dawn.
“What are we going to do?” Moonshade finally asked.
“We’ll go back to the Holt,” Rain said.
**With Joyleaf as chief?**
“Do you want to challenge her, Strongbow?
The archer did not reply. The elves hesitated a moment longer, then mounted their wolf-friends and slowly began the trip back to the Holt.
“There are some new rules now,” Joyleaf announced to the gathering of elves. “First: no one is to leave the Holt’s boundaries without my permission. Second: anyone who is allowed to leave the Holt’s borders must be in a party no less than three elves and their wolves. Third: no one is to ever initiate contact with humans. No more tricks. No more cut snares. No more stolen food. We will not hesitate to defend ourselves if it comes to that, but we will not go into battle – not even to avenge the death of one of our own! Understand?”
There were some murmurs, but no more.
“I refuse to believe the humans will never forget a grudge. Humans die. They re-seed their lands. And gradually they forget. We will not lose another elf to their Pillar of Sacrifice. This I promise you. And I also promise you this – the moment another one of us falls to the humans, I will step down as chief.”
Joyleaf licked her lips. “Now, I know many do not trust me now. You cannot believe that I would turn against my own lifemate. And I admit, I can’t really believe it either. But it has happened. It is over. Now I do not tell you to forget what happened and move on. Far from it. We cannot survive if we think only of the moment – Bearclaw proved that to me. We can only grow if we look beyond the Now, so that know what we are growing towards. I know this will be hard. I know you can’t believe this is the same Joyleaf. But believe me when I tell you that I saw the future in my battle with Bearclaw, and I did not like what I saw. And I pledge myself to create a new future for us.
“I am Joyleaf, Blood of Nine Chiefs.”
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.