The pitmaster heard the creak of bowstrings pulling taut as he scrambled up the edge of the shallow pit. Earth crumbled beneath his weight, slowing him and making the short trip feel like it took an eternity. At any moment, Martin’s men would fire off another salvo of arrows. Bloodwhisker was fast, but Bo didn’t like the jackalope’s odds against so many arrows.

“Don’t shoot!” He shouted as he crested the ridge and waved his arms over his head.

“I’ve got the stupid rabbit!” Jenny exclaimed as she emerged from the shadows with a bow drawn and ready to fire. “Get down, Bo!”

“Stop!” the pitmaster roared. His thoughts raced as he tried to put the brakes on the disaster barreling down on him.

The pitmaster was not normally an angry man. He’d lived his whole life in the shadow of his father’s often drunken temper and had worked hard to keep his own anger in check. Because when he didn’t, Bo’s impressive physical size and loud voice made even a minor angry outburst terrifying to those who witnessed it.

While the pitmaster didn’t want to scare his friend and allies, just then he was very, very angry. He’d worked hard to establish a tentative alliance with Bloodwhisker. The fragile agreement had cost Bo an arrow wound, a day in captivity, and an expert deck. There was a very good chance that the archers had just blown that agreement to splinters. If they actually shot Bloodwhisker, there’d be no salvaging it.

Bo knew his people needed the jackalopes in the coming battle. If Martin’s men had cost him an important ally, Bo would…

No, that wasn’t fair. The archers weren’t wrong to shoot at Bloodwhisker. As much as Bo hated to admit it, they’d done the right thing.

Because he’d been missing for more than a day, and Jenny and these men had probably been searching for him that entire time. Not to mention that the last time his friends had seen the jackalopes, the murder bunnies had taken him prisoner and killed Martin. Bo couldn’t blame them for wanting revenge.

He might’ve done the same thing in their shoes.

Bo took a deep breath, then let out a long, slow sigh. He finished just in time for Jenny to storm up and demand to know why the Hell he was blocking her shot.

“He’s not a bad guy,” Bo said.

“Not a bad guy?” Jenny asked, the wind whipping her hair across her face. “Are you kidding me? He killed Martin and captured you! We thought you were dead, Bo. Lydia said she couldn’t find you.”

That was a bit of bad news the pitmaster could’ve done without. He furrowed his brow at the implications of what Jenny had told him. If Lydia couldn’t “see” him while he was captive, that meant either the jackalope’s warren was concealed from her senses, or the Crimson Forest had blocked her. Bo would have bet on the second option, but needed more information to confirm his suspicion.

“If you thought I was dead, why did you come looking for me?” he asked.

“Because you popped back up on her radar earlier.” Jenny raked her fingers through her hair, and Bo swore her freckles glowed with anger. “We could’ve killed him, Bo. We could’ve ended the jackalope threat right here, right now.”

Martin’s men had gathered around while Jenny railed at Bo. They held their weapons at the ready and scanned the surroundings for enemies. The pitmaster wasn’t sure they did that because they thought they might be attacked, or because they wanted a distraction from Jenny’s argument with him. Even when her anger wasn’t directed at you, the former YouTube star’s wrath was almost as frightening as Bo’s.

“Listen to me,” Bo insisted. “The reason Lydia couldn’t see me was because of the Crimson Forest. It’s all over the place out here. It infested the jackalope’s warren and promised to turn them back into rabbits if they killed me.”

“Then why did you defend their leader!” Jenny demanded. She raised both of her small fists as if she wanted to pound some sense into Bo, but wasn’t sure she was strong enough to drive it through his thick skull.

Bo gently took hold of Jenny’s wrists and pulled her close. “Because Bloodwhisker killed part of the Crimson Forest to save my life. And he’d agreed, sort of, to help us fight the grunge elves.”

Martin’s men tensed at Bo’s words, and the pitmaster knew a fight was brewing about this alliance. The pitmaster couldn’t blame the men. They’d seen their friend murdered by jackalopes. Now Bo had returned from captivity on the rabbits’ side. That was a bitter pill that wouldn’t go down easy.

“We didn’t know,” Jenny said flatly. “And even if we did, I’m not sure it would’ve made a difference. You can’t just go off making alliances with our enemies, Bo. We need to all agree on big decisions—”

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Bo shook his head. He wasn’t mad at Jenny, and he didn’t want to fight with her. But there was something that needed to get straight, and it needed to be straight right now.

“There wasn’t time,” the pitmaster explained. “The Crimson Forest wanted Bloodwhisker to execute me. The only chance I had of getting out of there in one piece was to convince that jackalope it was a safer bet to be on my side than against me.”

“How’d you pull that off?” one of Martin’s men asked. He had a baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes, and a pair of sunglasses that hid them from the outside world. There was a hard set to his mouth, though, and his jaw was clenched in anger.

“Busted his arm,” Bo said, flashing a grin. “That seemed to get through to him.”

The man with the sunglasses almost cracked a smile before he remembered how pissed he was that Bo hadn’t let him kill the jackalope.

“Look,” Bo said, and explained the logic of the jackalope alliance. “We’re outnumbered, and we’ve got a terrible problem in our hex. We need allies, not enemies, and the jackalopes were on our side. They might still be, but we need to give them time to cool off before I show up, and ask them to fight for us. I’m not sure we’ve got enough slack in our schedule to wait, though.”

Jenny slipped her hands out of Bo’s grip. She was still mad, but her eyes had softened, and the rosy glow of her cheeks faded away to a faint, pink flush.

“We’ve still got the dogs and the gnomes on our side,” she said. “I hope. Guess we’ll find out how that shakes out in a few days.”

“And the Knights of the Holy Roast,” Sunglasses replied. “That should be enough. We don’t need the stupid jackalopes.”

Bo pursed his lips and stroked his beard for a moment as he considered his response. He didn’t have any idea what the grunge elves were up to or how many of them there were. He was more worried about the Crimson Forest, and its army of sensor trees scattered across the hex. They were surrounded, and unless he came up with a good plan, soon, the tree might choke them all out before the grunge elves took their shot.

Do not be so certain. The grunge elves have a nasty reputation, and they are a wealthy faction. They no doubt have a large force here, and they are nothing if not driven. That happens when your leadership will lop off heads to keep productivity high. It will not be long before a small army of elves shows up on your doorstep.

“I honestly don’t know if we’re strong enough,” Bo admitted. “With the allies we have, we could probably fight a decent battle on one front. If we convince the Thunder Bison to work with us, that gives us a much bigger hammer. With that, I think we could beat the grunge elves.”

Jenny fixed Bo with a piercing gaze. She knew there was another shoe to drop. “But then we have to turn around and fight the Crimson Forest. We’ll be weakened from our battle, and that big stupid tree will be fresh and spoiling for a fight.”

Bo nodded. “That’s why I wanted jackalopes. They can sense the Crimson Forest and the little saplings it uses to spy on people—”

Martin’s men tensed and raised their bows as if trees might suddenly burst from the ground and attack them.

“—and they’re fast. The jackalopes would make a powerful forward team to soften up our enemies before we get into the thick of a fight.”

Jenny’s shoulders slumped, and she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I didn’t know, Bo. I thought you were still their captive. I couldn’t pass up a shot that might save your hide.”

Bo nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t blame any of you,” he insisted. “It sucks that it happened, but that’s just how things go. I’m sure more will go wrong before everything turns right. But I wouldn’t undo the decision I made even knowing how it turned out.”

“Even though the rabbit probably thinks you set a trap for him?” Jenny asked.

“That might be true,” Bo admitted. “But I can’t second-guess every decision I make. Like it or not, I’m the leader of this dog and pony show. That means the tough decisions land on my shoulders. I have to get used to the idea that sometimes the choices I make don’t work out the way I want them to.”

“That’s how it goes,” Sunglasses replied. “Some days, nothing you do turns out the way you planned.”

Jenny squared up to Bo and tapped a finger in the middle of his chest. “That’s why shouldn’t make all the decisions on your own. Ask us. We can help guide you—”

Bo took Jenny’s hand and bonked the tip of her nose with his index finger. “As much as I would like to decide by committee, that won’t work. I’m the guy with the champion deck. I don’t want to be in charge, but I need to be when the hard choices must be made. I’ll ask for advice when I can, but the choice has to be mine. And it’s important that the rest of you understand my decisions are final. I can’t have everybody second-guessing me.”

Jenny chewed on the inside of her lip as she weighed Bo’s words. The pitmaster watched as the cold uncertainty in her eyes was replaced by a warm glow. He realized that this was the decision she’d wanted him to make.

“Nobody will doubt you,” she said softly. “Not me, not Slick, and not anyone else.. You’re right. We need a leader, and you’re the man for the job.”

Bo was surprised by how those words made him feel. He hadn’t known he needed that kind of validation, but the way that Jenny looked at him made his heart swell with pride and worry. Taking the reins of this little group gave him authority, but also a lot of responsibility. These were his people, and he had to lead them to safety.

“You two want us to mosey on back to camp?” Sunglasses asked. “Give you some privacy.”

“Want me to kick your balls up between your ears?” Jenny asked. “We’re all headed back to camp. Sounds like there’s a lot of work to do, and not much time left to do it.”

Without a word, Jenny started hiking back to the casino. Martin’s men fell in behind her, and Bo realized that if she had bucked his authority, this conversation would have ended differently. Jenny had earned the respect of these men, and probably most of the camp. She could have made his life very difficult if she’d decided she wanted to be in charge. In the days since everything went to hell, Jenny had proved she was more than just a pretty face and a fat bank account.

She might have split the camp. Then you’d have had to kill her. Or at least try. As much as that would amuse me, I’m not sure you could have done it.

Bo worried Barbie might just be right.