The Brightforest's Law

Baboons Featured
Wisteria (Brightforest Troop)

Glenwing (Brightforest Troop)

Chapter One
Glenwing flicked her tail with anxiety as she loped through the Talltrees. Clutched in her mouth were various herbs, and their taste was sour on her tongue as she whipped her head around. She thought that she could hear...

It - no, she - was a baboon, and she was lying in a steadily growing pool of blood, which gleamed crismon in the fading light. Now that she drew nearer, Glenwing could see that there were gouges along the other baboon's flank, obviously from some sort of vicious animal.

The baboon's eyes flew open. "Glenwing?" Her voice was weak and quavering.

Glenwing sucked in a breath. It was Wisteria, the fiercest Middleleaf in the entire troop. She could already see the fresh scars from when Wisteria had tried - and succeeded - at the Second Feat.

"Are you okay? Wait, stupid question." Glenwing hastily sorted through her herbs while she made a vain stab of humour. "I mean, what's wrong?"

"I'm bleeding to death, you useless Goodleaf," Wisteria hissed at her.

Glenwing thought that Wisteria's ego was more bruised and battered than her body, but she decided to ignore this as she set about to cleaning the wounds. What had caused these? What kind of creature would do that to another animal, anyways?

A raucus, earsplitting shriek made her head shoot upwards. An ugly, withered vulture, with wilting black feathers and a fleshy, wrinkled pink head eyed them beadily from its perch in a tree, and Glenwing could see that fresh blood dripped from its gleaming black talons.

"That's it," Wisteria gasped, clutching at her wounds. "That the vulture...have you come back for round two?" she taunted at it.

"You're hurt," Glenwing hissed, thrusting her back into the ground. Her gaze scanned the treetops.

"You're only a Goodleaf," Wisteria said, looking offended. "I'm a Middleleaf...almost a Highleaf."

"I don't care." Glenwing flicked her tail and eyed the vulture. It glared back at her.

"Wait - you're not seriously going to fight it?"

Glenwing answered by rushing towards a tree.

She hadn't known that that was what she was planning to do until she was climbing nimbly up the bark, brushing aside leaves and twigs as she made her way towards the thinner branches near the top. She could feel the steady panic that was billowing up inside of her, and though she tried to fight it she looked at the ground, to where Wisteria was lying. Sickened, she turned her eyes towards the vulture, and she saw that it had already seen her.

Launching herself off the branch, Glenwing sank her teeth into the its wing, wincing at the vile taste of its feathers. The bird screeched in agony and raked its talons across her neck, before beating its other wing across her face in a vain attempt of flight.

"Oh, no you don't," Glenwing hissed at it through the mouthful of feathers. She grabbed at its talons and yanked it back to the branch, ignoring the pain that was blossoming in her neck. She was still panicking, and she could hear her heartbeat in her ears. She was acting on instinct alone as she clawed its chest, losing her balance in the process...something that a baboon hardly ever did.

Smacking into branches, whipping through leaves, Glenwing hit the ground with an ominous thud.

Chapter Two
Glenwing eyed the vulture as she clutched at her freshly treated wounds. She was supporting Wisteria on her shoulder.

While the vulture hadn't been killed, it had certainly been wounded. One of its wings were bent awkwardly as it clambered onto a tree