As I rode the unicorn back through the winding paths of the forest, Moonlightgrowl's words echoed in my head.
"Why should he bow to me? I rammed the unicorn into the log to save my life. All I did was release him - I haven't really done anything to help this army at all." I kept thinking furiously to myself. Beneath me, the black unicorn kept plodding on through the tall pines, still annoyed at me but too tired to try fighting. I felt tired too. After fighting all day, fatigue was really getting to me. Even so though, I willed myself to keep riding until I got back to camp. After a long time, I finally returned to Snowdrop Army, riding down the sloped path of bare earth that led to the heart of camp. To my surprise, there were several animals there already, working busily. Pulling the reins gently to stop the unicorn, I tied the reins to a nearby silver birch tree. When I dismounted I nearly fell over, as I was exhausted. Thankfully, one of the bears rushed over to help me. She stood on her hind legs to stop herself feeling dwarfed by me.
"Skye!" The bear exclaimed. "Oh goodness, you must be knackered! Have you had any food or water?" I shook my head.
"When you're fighting dangerous creatures constantly you've no time to hunt." I explained.
The bear nodded her head understandably.
"No need to worry, human. If you go to your bush I'll bring you some deer I caught and some water in a leaf bowl."
I thanked the bear and lay down in my heather bush, glad to finally be able to relax. A few minutes later, the bear plopped some deer meat down beside me, and some water in a bowl made from leaves, grass and mud. She then informed me,
"There's a few animals here right now but a lot of our animals have already died. More bodies will be brought back later. Thankfully, a messenger bat told us that we've killed a lot of Nightstar animals too. However, the battle is still going on, so everyone else won't be back for quite some time. I'd say the battle will take some days to finish. Until then, rest here and recover."
The bear turned around and walked over to another animals bush on all four paws. I ate the meat hungrily, savouring every mouthful and drank the water in the leaf bowl. Hunger is the best sauce. Sighing and turning over in my heather bush, I brushed my jet black hair out of the way. Finally, I settled down and fell asleep.
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A twittering of birds broke the morning silence. The golden sun rose steadily, like helium-filled baloon. Sunlight filled the forest. It was morning time. I walked out of my heather bush and went to the centre of camp to see if I could help in any way. I was given a list of jobs to do and set to work immediately. I was working hard with the other black cats and bears, chopping logs, when a messenger bat circled above us.
"Growler's sent a message." Squeaked the bat, flying in a figure-of-eight expertly. "The battle will end in the afternoon. Be prepared to treat a lot of injuries." the bat then squeaked again and flew away. This message left us all confused and we stopped chopping wood.
"How'd they know it's gonna end at that time?" A black cat meowed questioningly. No one knew the answer. All we could do was wait and hope they were returning early for a good reason.
***************************
A little while into the afternoon, I was picking some wild herbs when I heard footsteps. Lots of animal footsteps. I heard a commotion of hoots and howls and sounds too, cheering a victory chant. I ran back to camp to see Snowdrop army arrive back, cheering.
"We've defended the forest! We've won!" they all cried, leaping and flying down into camp. We all cheered too, smiling. (well, I smiled - the other animals wagged their tails or purred or did the thing they did when they were full of joy.) All of the Snowdrop Army warriors went over to rest in their sleeping quarters, as they were very tired after fighting all day. But in amongst all the celebrations, one Snowdrop army warrior didn't join in. Standing at the top of the path leading to the centre, Fanfare barked seriously,
"There's been casualties."
An eagle muttered "Well that's a conversation stopper." and was met by a lot of growls and snarls. Then, everyone went silent. Fanfare disapeered for a while, then started coming and going with dead warriors. Some of the animals knelt down beside their dead friends in silence, being respectful. That's one thing about animals. Animals only cry when they're hurt, they never cry when they're sad. But soon that would be exactly what I'd be doing. Fanfare emerged from the thicket of bushes, dragging an animal behind her. Fanfare placed the body in the centre of Snowdrop Army camp. I stared at the body, feeling a wave of grief crash over me. The body was a wolf with a brown, brindle patch on his front left leg. Brindlemark was dead.

My eyes went all watery and I felt an immense feeling of sadness. This didn't feel real.

I ran over to Brindlemarks crumpled, dead body and burst into tears.