Strong River's knuckles cracked loudly enough to startle Blue Ripple. His hands balled up into fists, the joints white with the tension. Rivulets of blood dripped out from where his fingernails scored the flesh of the heels of his palms. His entire body trembled in barely bridled fury.

Blue Ripple looked around and noticed a couple of neighbors had come out to see who would be visiting this place of all places. Keeping an eye on River, he flagged one of these -- an older man, a laborer of some sort -- and approached.

"What happened here?" he asked quietly, fishing out a silver coin -- a hefty wage for a laborer -- from a pocket. "I'll make it worth your while if you have an answer."

The old man darted a look around and licked his lips before responding in a voice trying to be a conspiratorial whisper. "It was that Elder Wave. Him and his servants, they came over couple days ago, tore apart the thing like madmen. Was Elder Ripple who showed up and made him leave, else he looked right ready to dig until he hit water or something."

"Thanks, friend." Blue Ripple patted the man on the shoulder and offered the coin to him. The laborer snatched it and hid it in a pocket before scuttling back into his abode.

Blue Ripple returned to River, who was no longer trembling.

"I heard," River said in a flat monotone.

"I figured you did, Brother River. Let's go see my uncle and get those hands looked at, shall we?"

"They're okay, Blue. See?" River raised his hands to show that the flesh was already healed.

"Phew. That's... a nice trick there." Blue Ripple at this point no longer had surprise left to express whenever his strange new brother had a new ability to pull out. "Let's go then."

Weaving through the dirt paths of the compound, the pair approached the well-appointed cabin of Blue Ripple's uncle, the influential Elder Ripple. Knocking his customary knock at the door, Blue Ripple was surprised to see his uncle answer the door himself.

"Blue, my boy, I heard you were back already? What happened?" Elder Ripple then noticed River and examined him with narrowed eyes, "And who is this new friend of yours?"

"Uncle, this is River. You already know him. A lot has happened in that short time we were gone. You're going to want to call for the council to meet in full session immediately. Send the servants away so I can tell you what you need to know before I speak with the council."

Elder Ripple blinked but then nodded, inviting the pair inside while he rushed to get the servants to leave the house. Blue Ripple led River to a room with cushioned fur-lined chairs arranged around a table, where they sat and waited while the elder made his arrangements.

Looking around to confirm that his orders had been carried out and no others remained, Elder Ripple entered the room a couple of minutes later and closed the door behind him. Without preface or ceremony, he thumped into a chair of his own. "Okay, boy, out with it."

Blue Ripple took a deep breath. "Okay, uncle. There are a couple of essential things that the council needs to hear, and they might even be related. First, Soaring Wave is dead."

Elder Ripple gave a low whistle at that terse announcement. "And the second thing?"

"A sixth-grade beast -- a Moon-striped Sabermaw -- was rampaging near the forest's outer edge." Blue Ripple replied.

"Hm." Elder Ripple's brows furrowed in thought. "You should've been able to take care of that without losing Soaring Wave, my boy. What went wrong?"

"Yes, as I said they might be related, but they're separate incidents. I was able to handle the beast with a team, but during that fight, Soaring Wave ran off and got himself killed by something that might even be worse."

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Elder Ripple's eyebrows raised. "Something worse, you say? What kind of worse?"

"A shadowy black devil of some sort, sir," River interjected at that moment. "Uh, begging your pardon for interrupting, sir. I was there with Soaring Wave when it happened. I didn't get a very good look at it, but it killed a man as easily as one may draw breath. I ran after that."

"Smart boy," Elder Ripple congratulated him. "Is that related to your very sudden change in appearance?"

"Not directly, sir, but yes. I ran away from the devil and into a ravine, where in my hunger I ate a fruit that changed me."

Elder Ripple nodded, frowning. "Smart and lucky, then. So then, Blue, you said you think these might be related somehow?"

"Yes, uncle. What that devil did to Soaring Wave and a couple of others was... very gruesome and very quick. That thing running around leads me to believe its hunting is driving some of the stronger beasts out of the deep forest. That's why we came back. We may need the chief to come out and take a look himself. Something that scares a sabermaw that bad and can mess up warriors with that kind of ease isn't something we can ignore."

"I agree, my boy. The Primeval Forest is far too important for us to be cut off from it. The council needs to discuss this immediately."

Blue Ripple took a deep breath. "So then I'll go with you and give my full report. Now can you tell me what happened with Elder Wave while we were gone?"

"I see you boys saw that already." Elder Ripple sighed. "I don't know, exactly. When I came across him, he was... maddened. He'd brought all his servants out with axes and shovels and had torn that thing apart. I was able to make him back off, but by then it was far too late."

"Well," Blue Ripple gave his friend a quick glance, "given the thought that the feeling is now very mutual and that Elder Wave will want a hide to tan and blood to drink for what happened with his nephew, I think Strong River should stay here while we go to the meeting. He can give his report to old man Cloud here afterward."

Elder Ripple's lips narrowed into a frown. "Yes, it'll be rough, but I'd rather not have an open brawl in the lodge. Sorry, my boy," the elder turned to River, "but until we get to the bottom of Wave's madness, it's best you two don't enter each other's sight. You can help yourself to anything here in my home."

Blue Ripple coughed. "We also need to get him situated with a new home of his own. One befitting a warrior of the fifth grade."

Elder Ripple's eyebrows shot up. "That advanced now? Well then..."

"Oh, uncle, that's another thing. They know about my actual grade now."

"Hmph," the elder grunted. "Well, I told you it wouldn't last long. With Soaring Wave -- may his soul rest in peace -- out of the picture, there wasn't much point in keeping that secret anymore either, I guess."

"I suppose not. Brother River, are you going to be okay staying here?"

River had been even more taciturn than usual throughout the discussion, concerning Blue Ripple enough to ask.

The red-maned young man nodded in the affirmative. "Yeah, I should be fine, as long as that man stays away. We can have our own reckoning in time."

"Okay, then." Blue Ripple rose, and his uncle followed suit. "This might take a while. Don't get too cozy, though, because when we get back, you'll have to talk with the old battle-axe Cloud since he's the one in charge of us."

The two Ripple family men double-checked that everything in the house was in place as they left together.

---

"You think he's holding something back, Blue?" Elder Ripple asked after they left the cabin and were out of earshot.

"Probably, but I won't dig into it." Blue Ripple sighed. "No matter how exactly it went down, Soaring Wave got exactly what was coming to him, uncle. The very first night he tried to take his liberties with River, just like... some rumors say about someone. Everybody in the camp heard and saw that. He also was trying to kill River at the time he himself got offed, probably to wash away the shame of getting caught."

"That puts a new dimension on it all," Elder Ripple nodded.

"I agreed to make him my brother, uncle. You could say it was part of a crass bit of political theatre, setting up the pretense of restoring the River family to the council, but now it's for real. If he had more to do with Soaring Wave's death than he let on and he thinks he needs to hide it to stay safe... I'm okay with letting him take his time to tell the whole tale."

"Ah, so you brought out the old story of Lake, Ripple, Cloud, and River, did you..." Elder Ripple chuckled and shook his head. "What a shame, what happened to his family line over the years."

"What a shame that we instead tolerate people like Wave and Pearl," Blue Ripple rebutted.

"I won't disagree, my boy. I won't at all disagree with that. But at least Wave might be on its way down by the end of tonight. A pity the kid had to go, though, even if he was starting to pick up some of his uncle's bad habits."

Blue Ripple shook his head in silence at that. The talk with River during their return trek through the grasslands had affected him, more than he let on to his fellow warrior. Hearing that kind of talk from his uncle, the kind that so casually accepted what Elder Wave was doing as a mere "bad habit," he was coming around to the idea that the clan may indeed be rotten to the core and may need to be saved from itself.

A couple of hours later, leaving the elder's lodge feeling like a wrung out dishrag after all the questioning, Blue Ripple mentally upgraded that "may".