Eagle’s Pass
The greyhounds skidded to a halt, sending a shower of gravel raining down after Ruby. Chatterbeak tucked in his wings and dropped from the sky like a bullet.
Ruby’s body was light and she spread her arms wide to slow her fall. Above her, the freefalling parrot and his petrified passengers were moving at a blistering pace.
For one heart-stopping moment, Whisker thought they would all end up as smears on the rock. But as the ground rushed towards them, Chatterbeak stretched out his claws and plucked Ruby’s body from the air. The moment he had her in his talons, he spread out his wings and fanned his tail feathers wide, attempting to halt his rapid descent.
It wasn’t enough.
Still moving at a tremendous pace, Chatterbeak flapped his wings frantically, trying to gain altitude. In the moment before impact, he propelled his body forward, skimming low over the surface of the rock. There was a loud SCREECH of metal as Ruby’s scissor swords scraped over the rock.
Chatterbeak rose into the air. The screeching ceased.
The next thing Whisker knew, he was surrounded by the deep blue water of the river and the rocky shore was far behind him. Feeling safe at last, he let out a sigh of relief.
Horace let out a sigh of relief and a bad smell.
‘Poooheee!’ Chatterbeak squawked, swooping towards a patch of sand on the opposite bank. ‘I pulled off the aerobatic impossible and look at my reward!’
‘Sorry, Chatterbeak,’ Horace apologised. ‘I get gas when I’m about to die.’
Chatterbeak lowered Ruby onto the soft sand and perched himself on a nearby rock. Eager to escape the lingering smell, Whisker clambered off Chatterbeak and rushed over to his injured friend.
Ruby was sitting in the sand next to her longbow, breathing easily and calmly massaging her left ankle. She wore her trademark crimson eyepatch over her right eye, but her pirate bandanna was gone. The cherry-red hood of her newly-acquired snow coat hung low over her head, its striking colour perfectly harmonised by the two scarlet scissor swords dangling from her belt. She threw back her hood and looked up at Whisker as he approached.
‘Hi there, apprentice,’ she said casually, as if their cliff top ordeal had never happened. ‘Thanks for dropping in on me.’
‘Sure,’ Whisker said, sitting down beside her. He was never quite sure what to say around her and it didn’t help that he was still trembling, while she looked as cool as a cucumber in an ice bath. He hoped his embarrassing habit of blushing in her presence was a thing of the past.
‘How’s your ankle?’ he asked.
‘Oh, it’s fine,’ she said dismissing the injury lightly. ‘A little swollen, that’s all – but with half a day’s rest I’ll be running rings around those dogs.’ She gave Whisker a cheeky wink.
Whisker wondered how Ruby could be taking things so well. Despite some discomfort in her ankle, she appeared to be her usual self – confident and energetic, without the slightest trace of fear in her emerald green eye.
‘Doesn’t anything scare you?’ he asked.
‘Oh, yeah,’ she said, ‘heaps of things – falling off cliffs; being eaten by dogs – stuff like that.’ She shrugged. ‘But there’s no use worrying about them now, is there?’
‘I guess not,’ he said, staring across the wide expanse of water, ‘but, Ruby –’
‘I know,’ she cut in, ‘you want me to stop gallivanting around the countryside on my own.’
Whisker sighed. ‘Was it that obvious?’
Ruby gave him one of her cryptic smiles. ‘Don’t worry. Without Pete and his book of rules, someone has to keep us on the straight and narrow.’ She gestured to Chatterbeak and Horace, calming down with a game of Pull My Feather. ‘I somehow doubt those two are up to the task.’
‘So you’re saying I’m the boring one,’ Whisker muttered.
‘No,’ Ruby said, stabbing the end of the longbow in the sand. ‘I never said that. You’re more like the … the leader.’
‘The leader?’ Whisker said shocked. ‘But I’m just a –’
‘And before you give me that I’m-just-an-apprentice spiel,’ Ruby said, speaking over the top of him, ‘think about this. We’re not on the ocean anymore and there is no Apple Pie. Out here, rank means nothing and survival means everything. And when it comes to survival, you’re the right rat for the job.’
Whisker resisted. ‘But what if I’m not ready to be the leader? With Anna’s life at stake, surely someone with more experience should be leading the rescue.’
‘It’s not about experience,’ Ruby said flatly. ‘It’s about who you are. Listen, do you think I chose to be the tomboy with the temper? Or Horace the clumsy little clown? No. We were born that way. And the same applies to you, too. When you first joined the crew, the Captain didn’t make you peel potatoes or polish his shoes like most apprentices. He gave you important responsibilities. Was it because he felt sorry for you? No. It was because you had potential. You weren’t born to be a deckhand, Whisker – you were born to be a leader.’
She went back to massaging her ankle.
‘So that’s it?’ Whisker said. ‘You say I’m the leader, and just like that I’m the leader.’
Ruby nodded. ‘Smart lad.’
‘But don’t we have to vote on it?’ Whisker argued.
‘Why bother?’ Ruby said with a shrug. ‘Everyone knows I always get my way.’
Whisker threw his paws in the air. ‘Hooray for democracy …’
‘Look,’ Ruby said, ‘if it makes you feel any better, we all have our roles to play. I infuriate the bad guys, you come up with the plans, Chatterbeak flies us out of trouble and Horace keeps everyone entertained. I’d say we’re a perfect team.’
‘Alright,’ Whisker conceded, aware that any further protests would be in vain. ‘But as the leader, I want all of us out of here, pronto.’ He pointed to the distant cliff top to where a dozen dogs were pacing back and forth. ‘The Highland Hounds will find a path down here sooner or later and I doubt a few rapids will stand in their way.’
Ruby picked up the massive yew-wood longbow and rose unsteadily to her feet. Balancing on one foot, she drew back the silk string, aiming the empty bow in the direction of the dogs. She released the string with a loud TWANG, almost toppling over.
Whisker wondered if her injury was far more serious than she was admitting.
‘This old beauty has twice the range of my Pirate Cup bow,’ she mused, grinning through her pain. ‘Those mutts are lucky the arrows were locked in the archery cupboard.’
‘Yet another reason for requiring my skeleton key,’ Horace said, walking over to them.
‘We’ll
