Here’s chapter nine for you all! How are you liking it so far?

Nine

Strong brown arms wrenched Starwatcher back. She tried to squirm, fighting its grip, and squeaking in total furor. 

“Stop it!” Obsidian hissed, wrestling for grip and dragging the furious Kiwi away deeper into the forest.

“YOU STOP IT!!” Starwatcher screamed, stomping her feet and dragging them into the leafy carpet. “You don’t understand!! She’s a murderer! She’s going to hurt every bird in that clearing!! She KILLED MY MOTHERS!!!”

Obsidian used one paw and clamped the kiwi’s beak shut. “Shut up or I’ll tie your beak closed and strap you to a tree trunk,” she growled. “I know you’re angry, but marching out there blind with fury is the dumbest thing you could possibly do. You’re half her size, and you couldn’t fight off a concussed snail.”

Starwatcher gave a violent squirm, shouting muffled insults. Obsidian held her beak shut tighter. “Stop wriggling! I know, all right? I saw it all too. But right now, there’s nothing we can do. She’s embroiled in her own magnificence, and she’ll hurt you along with every other bird if you do anything.”

Carefully, the stoat let go of Star’s beak, still holding onto the kiwi’s wings.

“She’s getting what she wants!” Star spat angrily. “She’s scared all those birds into following her orders, and all she has to do is scare every other bird on Karioi, and she’ll have the whole tribe bowing to her and bringing her grapefruits!”

“Exactly,” the stoat responded calmly, which was very unusual, because usually she was the one threatening to flay overgrown kiwifruits alive.

“What?” Star looked incredulous, mixed with searing rage.

“She doesn’t need any of them to love her. She just needs to terrify them enough they believe there’s no alternative.”

The forest became hushed. A little way away, the clearing had suddenly become quiet, far from the yelling moments before.

“We have to find out what her goal is, and stop her from reaching it,” Star snapped, glancing over her shoulder, still trying to wriggle out of the stoat’s firm grip.

“Presicely,” Obsidian replied, wrinkling her whiskers. “But for the record, marching out there and slapping her in the face is not going to stop her from reaching anything.”

Starwatcher grunted and stared up through the canopy, suddenly becoming a little less furious. “I think we should go to Barbie,” she said quietly, shuffling her claws. “And his friend, Toadstool. They know about…her.”

She flicked her beak in the direction of the clearing.

Obsidian nodded. “You might want to tie my beak shut. I can stop myself from eating you, but it’s rather difficult to not want to go eat someone else.”

Starwatcher rolled her eyes. “Trust me, Toadstool is just feathers and bone, and Barbie could eat you if he felt like it.” 

She brushed aside a scraggly wild manuka and waddled deeper into the forest, which was slowly growing lighter. 

Obsidian glanced back at the clearing. Starwatcher had found the proof to back up her theory. Somehow, they had to stop Kowhai before it was too late.

“So,” Starwatcher explained, as they walked side-by-side through the undergrowth. “The ruler of the mob who was fighting Kowhai’s mob – the one who attacked her on Kowhai’s Stump – said that Dreamcatcher had a task of guarding Queen Moonstone’s last heir.”

Obsidian nodded. “I think that’s true. Silvertail said Dreamcatcher was guarding something when she attacked her.”

“Whoa, back the worms up – your mother attacked mine first?” Starwatcher felt her temper flaring again, and she thought about nice, squishy grubs to calm down. “You acted like my mum was evil and totally cruel and wicked!”

“Well…not exactly,” Obsidian admitted grumpily, scrunching up her nose. “But she did kill Silvertail which isn’t nice.”

“But it makes sense!” Star squeaked excitedly, hopping around the stoat in circles. “Queen Moonstone always said ‘your mother failed’ and I never understood it, but now I know what it means! She failed to protect Moonstone’s last egg!”

“I don’t know why you’re excited,” Obsidian muttered. “It’s tragic.”

Starwatcher sighed and hung her head, waddling slowly. “I’m not excited. It just makes sense.”

The chirping of crickets sang through the leaves.

“I’m tired,” the little Kiwi yawned, fluttering her feathers. The forest was lit by orange sunlight that bounced off the leaves and cast thin beams everywhere. “Can we stop?”

Obsidian nodded. “I’m tired too. I feel as though I’ve hardly slept.”
“Trust me, you have. Your snores said it all,” Star muttered with a smirk. 

The stoat bared her teeth and harrumphed, “Shut up. Let’s find a spot to snooze for a while, but then we have to continue and try to find Barbie and Toadstool.”

A nice thick Koru fern bush made a good snooze-spot, and, with her head resting on her claws, Star fell asleep, beside her brown furry companion. In a strange way, she felt like hope wasn’t all lost. She could figure out how to save her tribe, and banish Kowhai from the kingdom.

CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP. CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP. CHE-

Star was awoken by a trio of sparrows bellowing out their latest opera. She sprung up, got a beak full of ferns, and spat them out, fluttering her feathers in outrage.

Obsidian was awake, vigorously grooming her fur. “Good morning featherbucket,” she said sourly, not looking up from her fur.

“Good morning to you too, fuzzbucket,” Starwatcher responded smartly, flexing her claws which now ached.

When the stoat looked up to retort with another snippy comment, the little brown Kiwi was merrily waddling away from the koru bush out into the wild forest.

With a bitter expression on her nose, Obsidian followed, seemingly under duress as she griped about aching muscles and sore paws.

The forest was still light, but through the towering conifers the tawny brown Kiwi could see the sky fading to a dark black. The moon was already awake, a faint pearl ball high up in the blackening grey sky. The sparrows had finished their very loud song, and had fallen silent. Unlike the kiwis and stoats, they seemed to have an entirely different sleep schedule. 

“They should stop fluffing about and keep up with the rest of us,” Obsidian had snapped when Star expressed her curious observation.

The crunch-crunch of soggy leaves beneath her claws was becoming normal. She was used to the soft dirt of Root Circuit, and at first the dampness and…soggyness was like snails crawling through her feathers, but now it felt all right.

“What’s that noise?” Obsidian hissed suddenly, whirling round, her fur pricked up on end.

Starwatcher fluttered her feathers. “Nothing,” she replied calmly, trying not to freak out, when in truth, she wanted to run screaming into a hole and hide there until the noise had gone away.

“I swear I heard something,” the stoat growled, coiling herself up like a crooked spring. “Like…Kiwis squeaking.”

“It was nothing,” Star insisted, marching forward thinking peaceful zen thoughts. 

Her stoat-friend was spinning in circles, teeth bared, and hissing.

“Honestly, stop being so dramatic.”

“It’s getting louder,” the stoat spat. “SHOW YOURSELVES!! ARE YOU TOO AFRAID OF MY CLAWS AND VENOMOUS POISON??”

“You don’t have venomous poison,” Star pointed out, raising a wing. “I read about stoats. They have very sharp teeth and have a reputation for being bossy, sarcastic, shouty and-”

“They don’t need to know that!” Obsidian shot back, before screaming again, “TURN YOUR BOTTOMS IN!! I’LL SPRAY MY VENOM INTO YOUR EYES AND PLUCK OUT YOUR BELLY FEATHERS!!”

Now it was Star’s turn to clamp the stoat’s mouth shut. “We don’t want to get involved,” she snapped. 

Unfortunately, there was no hope of that. 

Before either of them could run into the depths of the forest and hide forever, fifty Kiwis poured over top of them, wrestling each other and squeaking and flapping. 

“Another mob fight,” Star muttered angrily, narrowly avoiding a giant black claw. She dragged Obsidian through the trees, furious with her own tribe.

Two birds tumbled in front of them, blocking her path, and when she turned to run in the other direction, another pair went at it, hissing and squeaking. In a frightened jump, she let go of Obsidian.

She and the stoat were trapped in the middle of a mob fight.

A bird lunged at her from behind, grabbed her small wing, and twisted it in his claws, hollering and squeaking.

“Let go of me!” Star snarled, jabbing him in the face with her beak. With a terrified squeak, her attacker grabbed at his face and reeled back, only to get sat on by a large bird who needed a break from fighting.

She looked wildly around for Obsidian, and spotted her biting a young female Kiwi who was trying to stab her underbelly.

“Obsidian!!” she cried, her voice drowned out by shrieking and flapping and stomping. She pushed through the bustle, snapping at birds who dared to come near her, and wrenched the stoat free of the other kiwi’s grip, hissing when she tried to follow.

Obsidian shot a ‘i’ll kill you another time you ugly turnip’ look at the Kiwi who’d tried to stab her, and swiftly followed after Star, who was darting through the other birds.

By the time they reached the tree-line, they were both covered in injuries. Obsidian was limping, maroon liquid oozing from a gash in her leg. Star’s shoulder was bald from feathers being tugged out, and her wing ached terribly. Her claws were stinging in cuts as they waddled as far away from the commotion as possible.

“Stupid featherheads,” Obsidian spat, droplets of blood rolling off her snout.

“Stop it,” Star growled. “I’m a Kiwi too. We’ve got to find Toadstool and Barbie. Barbie’s hole is close to mine. Just around Kowhai’s Stump Clearing.”

Obsidian spat some green saliva onto the leafy carpet and followed begrudgingly after the kiwi.

“Here’s my hole.”

Star looked around, peering through the leaves desperately for Barbie’s pink glasses. “He should be here somewhere,” she muttered.

Obsidian was sitting in a lump beside her tiny hole, licking her wounds and grumbling about ‘inchworm-clawed tortoises’ or something like that.

“There he is!” Star squeaked, dragging Obsidian by the tail through a particularly prickly manuka bush. 

Barbie was arranging his leaf-floor, cleaning it of worms and grubs. He looked up with a bitter expression. “Ah. You.”

“Barbie, we need your help,” the little Kiwi cried desperately. “We’ve got to stop Kowhai – she murdered the queen and Dreamcatcher. She’s the rightful queen, but she can’t be. She’s only rightful by blood!”

“Her blood is contaminated. She’s only a measly cousin. A snail is more suited to becoming your tribe’s next queen than her,” Obsidian remarked snottily, shaking her whole body and spraying blood onto Barbie’s neatly arranged leaves.

He flinched and adjusted his pink glasses, that common bitter expression smeared into his beak. “Well, I’m not a member of the Stoat Fan Club, and you irritate me, little kiwi chick, but I may know a few things that could help.”