The next chapter is here. It’s less depressing, honestly. Spoilers are, of course, contained for the first two parts. Enjoy!

~

Jo followed Heyna out of the door, wishing he knew what to say. The doe had lost everything in the past few days - her father, her brother and now her home. Jo knew what it was like to have lost a family, but he knew he had been lucky. He could only remember his father, and he had had time to learn to live without even him. Heyna’s tragedy had been so sudden.

“Captain Hindley is here,” he told Heyna. “He led the survivors of Kingston here. We only just managed to intercept them before they went to First Warren. They weren’t easy to find.” “Thank you,” she said.

“I-” Jo started.

“Don’t,” she said, a little snappishly. “I need time to think about this. You have no idea.” “I know,” Jo said, head down. “I just wish I could help.” “Cole would be giving you a meaningful glare right now,” Heyna observed, with a sad smile. “I don’t think he’d appreciate your kindness.” Jo smiled back. “I miss him already. I’d probably even let him insult me. Probably.” They walked together through the destroyed corridors of Harbone, passed waiting bucks and refugees of First Warren, all similarly battered and on edge.

“Heyna?” Jo asked eventually. “Do you reckon you’re Lord Blackstar now?” “Lady,” she replied. “And there doesn’t seem to be anything left to be Lady of.” “Halfwind?” he suggested. “After Ramnor - I don’t think anybody’s even thought about it. If you ask me, it ought to be Nate, but I doubt he’d ever take it.” “He’d be a good lord,” Heyna agreed. “We seem to have a lack of wise old bucks now, so we’ll have to make do with wise young ones.” “Helmer once said there were no wise young bucks,” Jo observed. “I reckon he was right.”

“Helmer said a lot of things. Cole filled me in on some of the more interesting ones.” “He was usually right, though. I wish he were here.” “So do I. There are so many rabbits I wish were here right now. I guess we can’t get them back, though. We just have to keep going. Hiding, it appears.” “Hiding?” asked Jo.

“That’s the plan, apparently. We stay here and dig, with a view to growing a community here and eventually getting through to the old First Warren. Then what, I don’t know, but it seems to be the only thing to do.” Jo frowned. “I agree that we need to recuperate a bit, but I’m not sure how long we’ll last here.” “Unfortunately, Shanks, you’re not important enough to have an opinion. It’s something to do with being born very low,” Heyna said, still grinning a little “Yeah, that’s why I’m at least a head taller than you. You’re far closer to the ground than me.” “Idiot. You know what I mean.” “Hey, at least you’re taller than Studge. He practically is the ground.” “Who’s Studge?” “My friend in the Bracers. You’d like him. His jokes are even worse than mine.” Heyna almost laughed. “I suppose that’s what we need now, more than anything. Bad jokes to keep us going.” “Maybe I should sit in on the councils and provide them when it gets too tense.” “That might help. Maybe you could replace Lokson.” “Our old friend?” “Friend might be putting it a little too strongly.” “Hold on,” Jo said, struck with sudden panic, “is Cheltam here? I certainly haven’t missed him.” Heyna shrugged, grinning. “Maybe. I’m sure you’re due a reunion. He’d love to hear how you killed Falcowit.” “Oh yeah, I did! Ha. That’ll show him.”

Heyna smirked, as they rounded a corner and came into the open space where a handful of Kingston bucks were gathered, talking in low voices. Immediately, Heyna stopped smiling. “Thank you, Jo,” she said. “You’ve been better help than you know.” “I’ll leave you lot alone,” Jo said cheerfully, making his exit.

He wandered through what remained of Harbone, not entirely sure where the Bracers were - or indeed where anybody that he knew was. It was by pure chance that, as he wandered, he suddenly heard his name. He turned in surprise to see Lund half-standing behind him, leaning on a wall and with a bandaged leg.

“Jo!” Lund repeated. “I’ve missed you. You’ve certainly gone up in the world since the last time we talked.” Jo looked down, acknowledging the truth of his words. It had been a long time since he had talked to the rabbit he had once called his best friend.

“I’m glad you made it,” Jo said eventually.

“So far. Where are you off to, then? Some sort of secret council? Fancy telling me what’s going on here?” Jo shrugged. “Nothing so grand, I’m afraid. I was trying to find the Bracers.” “Time was when you thought they were the height of grandeur. What are they like, anyway?” “Not very scary,” Jo admitted. “Still all better archers than me.” “They didn’t shoot Falcowit, though, did they?” “They were busy,” Jo said, shaking his head. “Anyway, I’m a Fowler now. Not that there seem to be many of us left. Just me and Pick, of the old gang.” Lund smirked at him. “You’ve got complacent, Shanks.”

“You haven’t changed a bit,” Jo retorted.

“Ah, well. Like I always said, somebody’s got to be like me. Quite a lot of somebodys, actually. We can’t all be heroes. It’s just a shame your name isn’t as heroic as Packslayer’s. There isn’t much you can do with Shanks.” “Good,” Jo said. “I don’t want anybody making a song about me. Captain Frye would never have got over the shock.” Lund grinned. “I’m not sure I would, either.”

“I’m a dashing hero. What are you talking about?” Jo demanded, with a mock flourish.

Lund snorted. “I bet Misty would go with you to the Summer Mingle now.”

Jo smirked. “I’m afraid you’ve missed a lot of the story of my love life.” “You’ve got a girlfriend?” “Well - no.” “Oh.” “Look, I’ll tell you the story sometime. How have you been, though?” “Fine. I left Halfwind with Wilfred Longtreader and arrived in time for everybody to nearly die in battle. I reckon you were there.”

“I may have performed heroics there too, now you mention it. With a certain Prince Kylen, including single-handedly convincing him to join the battle.” Jo sighed, looking at his feet. “He’s dead, now.” “Seems like a lot of rabbits are,” Lund agreed. “You’re pretty lucky to be alive.” “Don’t I know it.”

There was a short, awkward pause. Jo struggled desperately to find the words to tell Lund just how much he was glad he was still alive, but could think of nothing suitable. Lund looked down at his bandaged leg. “I reckon I won’t be much use in whatever comes next.” Jo gestured to his arm. “I can’t exactly shoot with this either. Hopefully it gets better.” “You can’t be a legendary archer with one arm,” Lund agreed. “Maybe don’t poke it or anything.” “It’s always getting hurt,” Jo said, with a shake of his head. “I wish I didn’t need it.” “That would be - odd.” “Positively difficult.” Lund laughed, then suddenly stopped. “Um - Jo, are you in the habit of being approached by large Terralain soldiers?”

“Not really, although it seems to be happening with alarming frequency these days. Why?” “Turn around.” Jo did so, and was faced with the slightly alarming sight of two large Terralain soldiers. “Hi,” he said. “Did you want me?” “Prince Naylen wishes to speak to you,” one of them said.

“Follow us,” said the other.

“Posh,” Lund whispered.

“Bye,” Jo whispered back. “I’ve got an appointment with a prince.” Lund snorted, as Jo followed the Terralain soldiers along the corridor, wondering what Naylen could possibly want.

They entered the room where Naylen had set up camp rather too quickly for Jo’s liking - too quickly for him to annoy any helpful advice out of the guards, despite his best and most itritating efforts. All he received for observing that the situation reminded him of Bleston’s occupation of Halfwind and that he hoped Naylen wasn’t confused in the head was one of the guards attempting to kick him.

Naylen looked up from some papers on a table beside him.

“Shanks?”

“Hi. Nice to see you again.”

“Nice to see you too,” he replied, dismissing the guards. “Look, Shanks, you seem pretty smart.”

“I mean, I’ll take that. I think you’re the first rabbit to think so, up to and including those who call themselves my friends, but I’ll take it.”

Naylen smirked slightly. “It was Kylen’s opinion, not mine. You convinced him to join your cause, right?”

“Yeah. With a nice note telling him he was stupid. Where is this heading? Also, why did it involve sending me armed guards?”

“Sorry about them. I had to send somebody. I needed to talk to you. I don’t want to bother Emma; I reckon my cousin has enough on her plate.”

“What did you want to talk to me about, then?”

Naylen sighed. “I guess I’m just not sure what to do.”

He had maintained an image of control and princeliness until this point, but now it seemed to slip away, leaving a young, confused buck in its place. Jo realised that Naylen was almost certainly younger than he was. “You seem to have convinced my incredibly stubborn brother that there was something in this cause of yours, and I believed it too. Now, I don’t know. I don’t know if I can make my bucks go through this when everybody hates them and me. A lot of them don’t even pay any attention to me. I was never meant to be their leader.”

Jo wondered what any of this had to do with him. “I guess - that’s a shame?” he tried, hesitantly.

Naylen laughed. “Isn’t it just. Look, if we stayed - what do you think we’d have to do to gain the trust of your lot? Preferably without dying.”

Jo shrugged. “Dunno. Sing some songs? It sort of worked when the citadels were divided. I reckon most rabbits’ll get over themselves pretty soon, if your lot don’t do anything stupid.”

“That’s the thing, isn’t it? At any rate, that’s not the biggest problem. The biggest problem is that the leaders of the citadels, Emma possibly excepted, have no intention of trusting me with anything.”

“I reckon Picket’s a bit of a point of contention?” Jo guessed.

“He killed my father. I know Father was wrong, I know he tried to do some dreadful things, but he was still my father. He loved Kylen and I, he really did. I can’t exactly just forgive Picket immediately for that, especially when he can’t even accept that he did kill him.”

“Doesn’t help much,” Jo agreed. “I mean, I guess you’re both right.” He thought, privately, about his father’s debts and wondered if he understood, just a little, how Naylen felt.

“I suppose. There is also, however, a reason why nobody has given my bucks anything to do yet.”

“Maybe tell them to stand around a bit less menacingly.”

“They’re a trained fighting force. They’ve been taught to do that. They’re trained for war, not hiding in a tunnel.”

“That sounded vaguely insulting. Nobody’s trained to hide in a tunnel. We’re not happy either.”

Naylen sighed. “I know. I almost wish we had all died. Then we wouldn’t be stuck in this awful situation, where it’s impossible to do anything but wait.”

“That’s not very cheerful.”

“I know. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be telling you this. It’s not your fault.”

Jo shrugged again. “I mean, mostly people tell me that things are. We could find a way to make it my fault.”

Naylen grinned. “I can see why Kylen liked you. I wish the rest of the army had the same high spirits.”

“Oddly, none of them see the funny side. Sometimes, neither do I. On the other hand, though, I’d rather be making fun of the misery than the other options.”

“Agreed. Thank you, Shanks.”

“Call me Jo. Anybody who calls me Shanks generally wants to yell at me.”

“Fine. Jo. I’ll go and talk to Emma now.”

Jo nodded. “See you around.”

He walked out a little cautiously, reflecting that his life had just become even odder. If only his younger self could see him now, advising whole armies and generally being important. This self-importance lasted about ten minutes, as Jo resumed his hunt for the Bracers, before a voice shattered it.

“Shanks! I almost thought you’d missed me here.”

Jo groaned.