Boy Beaver hurled his handmade wooden javelin up at the winged beast as it came in low. It missed, like the others before it, and landed in the ground whilst the screeching Big Moth ascended further into the air.

“Damn it, I keep missing George!” yelled Boy Beaver to the bear.

“Keep trying!” he called back.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense that Nova fights him? You know, being a bird and all that.”

“We need him up in the air looking for those missing campers first. They could be injured. And they will certainly have lost their minds through fear if they got too close to Big Moth.”

They had been going up against Big Moth for the best part of two hours after reports had come in that it was seen in the area and five campers were missing from their camp. One of the camper’s wives returned from the toilet block to find everyone had gone missing.

Boy Beaver looked up into the clear night sky and scanned it for signs of the flying beast. Had it flown away? “I think it’s gone! Perhaps I just scared it off.”

“Maybe,” George said as he came to Boy Beaver’s side. “But we have other things to worry about as well.” George picked the boy up and put him on his shoulders, standing to full height to give B-B a better view.

The boy swore under his breath. “Don’t tell Ulrika I said that please.” Through the trees and out in the distance where the town sat, a huge raging fire glowed brilliant orange with a plume of smoke darker than the night billowing from it. “Do we go and help?”

“No, the Fire Department will be there. We can’t leave until these campers have been found.”

Bao came bounding through the woods towards the pair. Nova has found them. They are safe, but fearful, she said.

“Great news. But yes, those campers will be like that for a while Bao. Big Moth has a habit of instilling fear in its prey which can last for hours.”

Nova flew into view and landed, morphing into human form. “I returned the campers to their campsite. But have you seen that fire?”

“Yeah, we ought to go over and see what we can do,” George said.

“Do you think that’s why Big Moth was around? Warning of the impending disaster of the hotel fire?” asked Nova.

“And what, just fancied a tasty snack whilst he was at it?” Boy Beaver asked.

“Regardless, let’s load up and head into town. See how we can help,” George decided.

***

Vulture-One descended through the opening in the lake doors just as the sun was rising from the tree line of the forest.

“Wake up Tobias, we’re here now,” Grizzly George softly announced, nudging at him with a paw.

After their tussle with the Big Moth and finding the missing campers, the team headed over to the hotel fire in the town. Not much could be done though as fifty of the guests perished very early on, but they helped secure the scene and tend to the survivors until the early hours of the morning. They were all physically and emotionally drained.

Tobias stirred awake and groaned a thank you. He was desperate for a proper lie down in his bed.

But Ulrika Dahlberg had other ideas. She was there waiting for their arrival.

“Urghh, God. She’s there waiting again,” groaned the beaver boy hybrid.

“Do you know why this time?” Nova asked.

“I didn’t hand in my history assignment which was due yesterday.”

The doors to the jet opened and Nova flew straight out, followed by Bao who ran up to Ulrika for some petting. George ushered a reluctant and sleepy Tobias out first.

“Welcome back everyone,” she said, almost curtly. “Tobias, it would’ve been nice to have had that assignment completed and waiting for me yesterday before you went out.”

“Well it would have been nice to have not been stuck in a freezing foggy forest fighting Big Moth. Looks like both our days have not gone to plan,” he snapped back, walking past her and not even making eye contact.

“Excuse me, don’t talk to me like that!”

“I’m going to bed, we’ll talk about it later,” Tobias called out as he continued walking off.

“No, come here now!” the Swede barked.

Tobias stopped dead and turned around. “I’m exhausted and I am not in the mood to hear you whine on about some assignment.”

“This is unbelievable! I will not be spoken to like that by a thirteen year old child,” she fumed.

“Then leave me alone Ulrika. You have no idea how hard it was out there. Cut me some slack.”

“I.. I want you out of my sight, but this is not over young boy. You will not get away with this,” Ulrika stammered through her rage.

The emergency alarm went off, signalling the Woodland Warriors attendance. Tobias stopped, huffed, and turned back to go to the jet.

“I don’t think you have earned the right to be going out Tobias Torres,” Ulrika warned. He ignored her, and walked past her to the doors of Vulture-One.

Once all on board, Tobias slumped in his seat and buckled in.

George sympathetically looked at him. “I think she’s right though, little man. We’ll go out now because we need to go, but you were very rude to her.”

“She’s just so annoying, George. Always on at me about school stuff.”

“That’s her job. She’s The Caretaker here. She looks after us, she looks after you, she has to teach you, make sure we’re all safe. You are still a thirteen year old kid.”

Tobias didn’t reply and just stared out of the cockpit window.

George shifted the thrusters in the general direction of where they needed to go and turned to the screen to read the information.

“Ermm, so we’re heading to Colville National Park, Washington. It says the forest is dying.”

“Dying? Isn’t that how nature works?” queried Nova.

“It’s what the reporting Ranger states.”

“Whatever gets me out of Ulrika’s way, I’m happy,” Tobias grumbled.

“What the-?” muttered Nova, stood in human spirit form behind George’s chair.

They were coming into the area with Colville National Park ahead of them. The snow-capped Selkirk Mountain Range set against the clear blue skies, loomed over the forest area. The lush green stretched out for miles and flanked the Kettle River which snaked through it.

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But within the green, and what caused Nova, George and Tobias to lean forward and marvel at, was an area with a two mile radius of death drenched darkness that seemed to be spreading.

“That’ll be what the Ranger meant as dying then,” muttered George.

Bao urgently came from her spot at the back of the jet to stick her head past George and looked for herself. She started growling in anxiety and empathically projecting her dread to the rest of the group.

I have a bad feeling about this, Bear.

“I know Bao, it doesn’t look great, but whatever it is, we’ll get to the bottom of it.”

“Land in that clearing near the black,” Tobias suggested. As George descended the jet, Tobias slid his helmet over his head and waited by the door ready to jump out.

“Keep your wits about you until we know what’s causing the black!” George called out as Boy Beaver immediately jumped out.

The Warriors convened at the boundary line of the black. Everything within the darkened area was black and dead. The trees were nothing but trunks and branches. No flowers or plants on the ground existed anymore. The earth was cracked and dry, all moisture sucked out. Everything looked charred, like a fire had spread. But there was no smoke, no burning. Just death.

“Watch out, step back,” advised Grizzly George putting out a protective paw. Boy Beaver looked down. The boundary of the death circle was slowly and gradually pushing out. “Don’t step in until we know the cause, ok. Let’s walk around it. Nova, can you give us an aerial?”

“I’m on it,” and he morphed into crow form and took off, heading through the darkened area, careful not to touch anything.

The Warrior’s communicators buzzed, notifying them of an incoming transmission. It was Ulrika. “Warriors, we’re receiving reports of the same thing happening in forests all over America. It’s being described as wild fires, without the fire.”

“We can’t be all over America at once,” George stressed.

“It started where you are, so stay there,” The Caretaker advised. The transmission disconnected.

Whatever had happened in this forest was starting a chain reaction across the country.

“I’m going to check the rivers,” Boy Beaver decided. “Check on the colonies round here.”

“Ok, be careful and keep an eye out for the black. It could creep up on you.”

Shall I come with you boy?

“It’s ok Bao,” Boy Beaver assured giving her a rub under her chin. “You stay with Grizzers.” With that the boy hybrid ran off instinctively in the direction of the water.

***

Boy Beaver struggled to find any beaver in and around their usual habitats. This area should have had loads nearby. He tracked and followed a range of scents that all seemed to be going in the same direction. Away from the black.

“Is anyone there?!” he called out desperately after a while. “I just want to help!”

Pushing on, the scent he was following became stronger. He had caught up, and it kept getting stronger. But still no visible sign.

He stepped into the water, and with his tail, communicated his presence, whacking the water in a way only beavers would understand. Nothing. He tried again. Made it feel more reassuring. He waited.

Within moments, a squeak from the banks of the river. Then another, and another, as beaver after beaver came out of their hiding spot and running into the river towards Boy Beaver.

“What’s happening? Why are you running?”

“The Life has gone from the forest, so we must too,” said a wise and elder member of one of the colonies who fled from their homes.

“The Life? Are you talking about the Magôlibo?”

“It’s dead, and now so all life will die with it. And we need to go, before we die.”

“Oh God, ok, go. Be safe! I’m going to try and solve this.”

“You can’t. It’s dead, the heart of The Life slows, and when it stops, the forest and all the life within will be gone,” the wise beaver repeated.

Tobias looked up river, and back to the beavers, but they had already gone. “Grizzly, Nova. It’s the Magôlibo. It’s dead. This is what happens when it dies,” he explained through his communicator.

“I think I can see it,” suggested Nova. “Can you get back to us?”

“I’m gonna swim back up the river. I won’t be long.”

***

Boy Beaver joined Grizzly George and Bao at the edge of the black. Nova swooped down and shifted into human spirit form.

He looked at them gravely, the severity of the situation weighing on him. “The Magôlibo’s in there.”

“How did this happen? Can you tell from what you saw Nova?”

The Life was slain by man.

“And you know that how, Bao?” Grizzly George asked.

The dying moments reverberate through the wind.

“Hmm, the cat’s poetic,” muttered B-B. “Well I think I’m going in there, I’ll have a look.”

“No way! You can’t! It might not be safe,” warned George. “We’re all connected to the forest in some way. It’s a risk I can’t let you take.”

I will go in. I have no connection to these lands and the life that grows on it.

“And I shall fly over head with you.”

Waiting around no longer, Bao purposefully walked over the boundary of the black, deep into the affected area.

Boy Beaver and George watched on as Nova flew into the sky to provide surveillance like an eye in the sky.

From a far, the body of the Magôlibo was obvious. A block of white on a void of black. As Nova circled the white Magôlibo, the severity of the situation dawned on him. The animal’s underbelly was cut open, and stained with red.

Bao approached and gave the wound a sniff.

“What is it Bao?” Nova asked.

It's the heart. It’s been removed.

Ulrika came through on the communicators “Warriors, I need Tobias to come back to The Lodge. The Secretary’s here.”

To be continued...