© 2002-2024 Roleplay by Rochelle, Ruth, and Heidi
Part 5

Darkrider winced again, as if he were hit. **It... you can't.......** He decided to follow silently, what could he say? It was beyond cowardice to 'hide behind Tobin', but he wasn't! Tobin knew! He had helped Tobin heal that night... worn himself down along side the cub. **He knows.... Tobin knows. I told him... that night, I wasn't just following him around... I was helping him heal... so don't label me like that, my parents and me are in a different category all together- keep it that way.**

****

**You are not like your father, that is plain,** Snapjaw sent at Darkrider as he followed Wren out of the Great Tree. **He would have never shirked his duty to the tribe and laid such a burden on a cub.** Snapjaw couldn't help but think that Darkrider's magic wasn't a new thing. It couldn't have appeared just as Tobin's own magic manifested. And he wondered, before Tobin's talent was found, how many tribesmates held dying loved ones as they breathed their last, silent with anguish with the belief that there was no help to be had because the tribe was without a healer. Could Dizzy's parents or Quill's or even Tobin's have had a chance with that simple knowledge, could a call have been sent out for a healer if only someone had only known?

****

**And what of this morning, tonight?** Wren paused for a moment, trying to compose herself. Too many times had she witnessed Wildlight become angry, upset at a situation. She was angry, yes, but Wildlight's way wasn't her way. There was often little to be accomplished by not thinking things through before saying them.

**What of those who had been victims of the beasts who waited to come to the Hurst for treatment, of those Wildlight had told to lay low and find a herbalist until Tobin had strength? Tobin was with me, in the clearing, healing one who was near death. He is spent. Stormsong is still waiting to be mended, as are others.**

Inwardly, she growled. She knew Darkrider's secret. And how she wished she didn't know. How in the High Ones' name could she keep the fact that there was a healer among them when there were so many who were still in pain? Her brow furrowed as she agonized over what she knew.

****

Snapjaw agreed with Wren, only her word were much kinder than the ones the elder would have used. Coward came to mind, traitor, hiding behind a child not even eight turns old. And still Darkrider claimed to love Tobin more than life. He certainly did not show it well. The boy, Snapjaw thought, would be better off with Goldstar, or Traildust and Softstar, someone who had children and showed they were capable parents.

Wren had given him leave. Threats to the Hurst or not, Snapjaw wasn't going to stay to chide Darkrider when all the griffin-rider did was make excuses to explain his inexcusable selfishness. **I am going on watch. I will ask Hawkeye or Goldstar to pair with me,** he sent to the songstress.

****

Wren nodded at the eldest elder. **Keep us safe, and send alarm at the first sign of any trouble you encounter. I will keep some on guard here, as well.** After a moment, she added, **Hawkeye was limping when he returned earlier. Goldstar may be a better companion.** She had almost forgotten that Snapjaw hadn't been in the village when the scouting party returned.

And she was growing angrier with the newly-discovered healer by the minute. If suffering was an issue, why didn't he want to use his powers to keep others from pain? It made no sense, and there was no excuse.

She wondered why Snapjaw hadn't told Wildlight. She knew, even though he was a bit too grouchy for her tastes at times, that he had the same respect and concern for the tribe that she did. Any accusations claiming otherwise were grossly untrue.

**I'm going to have to tell the chief,** she finally stated. **I can't live with myself if I don't.**

And the other burning question, the one she couldn't understand, blurted out, as well, in locksend. **Snapjaw, you knew, didn't you? Why didn't you tell the chief?**

****

Darkrider glared at Snapjaw. **Think you knew my father so well did you? Did you know how each night I stared at the moons praying for him and my mother to die... for one of you, ONE of you to notice? Where were your bleeding hearts then!? My mother and father were right, you are all sheep! You make calls of judgment based on the lies you call truth!** He breathed in and out to calm himself.