meant. “At the old colony, we buried our dead in the gardens. But here… The histories said that there’s a place down in the roots of the tree for burials of Arbora and warriors. They used to put the royal Aeriat inside the wood itself, somehow, and made the tree grow over them. I don’t think we know how to make that happen anymore.”
Stone had said something about that, when they had found the urn in Ardan’s collection. That thought made Moon remember just how much he wanted to return to the tree. “I don’t care how crazy Pearl is going to be, I can’t wait to get back.”
Jade smiled at him. “Then wake the warriors and let’s go.”
They still took it easy on the warriors, finding a place to camp before dark and sleeping past dawn. One evening, they stopped on a mountain-tree platform to rest and hunt the herd of furry grasseaters grazing on one of the stretches of open meadow. They weren’t too hungry, so Jade told Balm, River, and Floret to only take three kills, while the others got a camp ready.
Moon flew up to a branch to keep watch over them, so had a good view of it when River tried to slam Balm out of the way and take the buck she was stooping on. Balm, who had either been expecting something like this or just had lightning-fast reflexes, rolled up and away from the blow, twisted to come down on top of River, and flung him out of her way. River righted himself with a couple of wild flaps, Balm took her kill, and Floret circled away to make it clear she wasn’t involved.
When the warriors returned to the camp, no one mentioned the incident. Moon just smiled to himself. Balm obviously had no intention of allowing River to push her around anymore.
They traveled steadily for six days with no trouble, then ran into a heavy rain that lasted a day and a night. It was too heavy to fly through, so they took shelter in a hollow in an ancient, dying mountain-tree. The tree was crumbling and the hollow had leaks, something they didn’t discover until it was raining hard enough that no one wanted to venture out to look for a better shelter.
It didn’t make for a good night’s sleep, and they all emerged early the next morning wet and cranky. To make up for it, Jade decided they would make camp on a small forest platform nearby, with the idea that full stomachs would make up for the lack of sleep.
Jade, Balm, and Song stayed at the campsite, and the others broke up into groups for hunting. Moon went with Chime, with Root tagging along, and they flew some distance from the camp before they found a platform big enough for a grasseater herd.
They took a big buck, and Moon bled the carcass by draping it over the branch, while Chime and Root kept a lookout for predators. “You think Stone’s had time to get there yet?” Chime asked. He sat nearby, and Root was above them, exploring the knobs and hollows on an upper branch.
Moon thought about it, gauging time and distance and Stone’s superior speed. “No, not yet.” They were taking the direct route from the coast to Indigo Cloud, but Stone had planned to stop at Emerald Twilight. He should have reached it two or three days ago, and he would have stayed the night at least, both for the meal and the chance to sleep. He would have also told them about the seed and how they had gotten it back, in order to make sure Emerald Twilight knew Indigo Cloud was no longer a weak court at the verge of disaster. Jade had thought this would make for a better chance of good future relations between the two courts. “It’ll probably take him another day or so.”
“The others will be so relieved that we got the seed back.” Chime frowned. “Until he tells them about Flower.” He shook his head. “At least by the time we get there…”
Moon hesitated, but Root was still on the branch above them, occupied with poking a stick into a hole, and wasn’t listening. He said, “It’s still going to be hard. They’re all going to want to talk to you about her.”
“I know.” Chime shrugged his spines uneasily. “It’s not that I don’t want to talk about her, but it’s just… hard right now. We knew she was dying