They followed Blue into a tunnel. As they headed deeper into the warren, they expected to run into a guard or a Magia but found no one.
“Stop for a moment, the old borrows are around this corner.” Said Blue then peaked his head around.
“There’s two guards but maybe we can convince them to let Arrow out.” He said.
Rusty just snorted and shook his head. Comet wasn’t so optimistic either but decided to at least give it a try.
They followed Blue and immediately the guards braced themselves to attack them.
“Wait, we don’t want to fight you. The Magia isn’t in charge here anymore. We just want to get Arrow out and leave.” Explained Blue.
They couldn’t see Arrow at all, as he was behind a hastily constructed wall of dirt, with only a narrow gap at the top.
”Our orders were to not let any prisoner out.” Said a guard.
”Did you even hear what I said?” Asked Blue, coming closer to them.
A guard swiped at him, narrowly missing his nose.
“I knew we’d have to fight them.” Said Rusty and attacked the guard.
While the others were busy fighting, Comet tried digging at the wall and realised the dirt was actually covering a large stone. He needed more help to move it.
Then he realised, the guards were only attacking because they had been mind controlled by the Magia, but now the Porcelain emblem was damaged, maybe the effects could be undone.
He tried to reach out to their porcelain pendants with his mind, it was very difficult but he managed to do it, but only for one of them.
He seemed confused then a look of realisation came over him as he remembered what had happened.
”Cross, stop!” He said to the other guard who was still in a violent fight with Rusty.
They tried to get him away from Rusty but it was too late, Rusty killed him and he lay motionless.
“I’m sorry, but it was the only way.” Said Rusty coldly.
”He was under the control of the Magia, we weren’t able to think clearly.” He said angrily.
”Let’s not fight again, we just want to free a prisoner and then we’ll leave.” Said Blue.
”Arrow?” Asked the guard.
”Yes.”
The guard started digging at the wall and the others helped him move the stone out of the way. All the while Comet felt guilty. If he had better mastery over the resources, Cross would never have been killed.
Arrow practically burst out of the burrow as soon as they had made a big enough gap for him.
“We need to leave here now.” Said Arrow, taking charge.
”Wait a minute, we risked our lives trying to free you.” Said Blue.
”Thank you.” He said quickly, “Now let’s go.”
”I told you we should have left him here.” Whispered Blue to Comet.
Arrow glared at him.
”The fastest way out is the tunnel that leads out to near the Iron Colony border.” Said the guard.
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”That’s where we need to go anyway.” Said Arrow.
Blue thanked the guard for his help and they bolted out the tunnel again.
It was complete chaos and carnage in the main warren but they didn’t have time to wait and see what would happen.
When they got to the surface, they didn’t stop running. It was a cloudy night and there was hardly any light. Comet used his silver stone to create some light for them but it didn’t help much, every tree seemed to look the same.
”I think we should slow down so we know where we’re going.” He called but in their panic, they didn’t stop running until they were completely exhausted and were forced to stop.
”Where are we?” Asked Rusty, who seemed to be most exhausted of all.
”I’m not sure.” Said Arrow and began sniffing around the area.
“I think we’re outside the colony.”
”We ran all the way up the valley?” Asked Blue.
”We must have.” Said Arrow. “Well we can’t stay here, we need to get to Iron Colony.”
”Can’t that wait until the morning?” Asked Rusty.
”No way, even though the Magia can’t get us out here, there are foxes and rebels.”
Blue and Rusty groaned.
”Maybe we can find a safe place to sleep here for the night, I can set out some stones to protect it. Also, we know the rabbits who stole our stuff left the valley, so maybe we could find them.”
”Fine.” Grumbled Arrow. “It would be better to go to Iron Colony with everything we need to make the medallion.”
They searched for a while and found a secluded hollow tree, with no scent of danger. It was a tight fit with all four of them in there but at least it was cosy. Comet placed out diamond and silver stones which would alert him if they were disturbed during the night.
Comet woke up to a squawking sound. He jumped with fear at the sight of the huge black bird until he saw the diamond stone around its neck.
”Nightwing?” He asked.
The bird called back in response. Comet knew he could use the diamond stone to speak to him but it still unnerved him.
The others woke up and had the same scared reaction as him. Arrow recovered himself the fastest and started shouting at Nightwing.
”Get out of here. We’re too big for you to eat.”
”Calm down Arrow, he won’t hurt us. He’s Orion’s friend.”
”Orion’s friends with a crow? He’s even crazier than I thought.” Said Arrow.
”Can you speak to him?” Asked Blue.
”Well, I can but—“
“Then ask him to find Luxe and Cobalt, it’ll save us the trouble.” Said Blue.
Comet sighed then used his diamond pendant.
“Nightwing, we need your help to find two rabbits.” He said.
”Sure, what do they look like?” He asked, his voice was deep but it had a strange, static sort of quality to it.
They described them and he flew off.
“What do we do now?” Asked Blue.
”We just have to wait here so he can find us again.” Explained Comet.
”Where do you think you’re going?” Demanded Arrow, who was hidden from sight in a bush.
He came out, dragging a protesting Rusty with him.
”Where did you get all this stuff?” He demanded. He revealed that inside of his satchel was all sorts of precious resources, even copper stones.
“That explains why he was struggling to keep up with us.” Said Blue, snorting with amusement.
”I didn’t want the Magia having it.” He explained. “I was going to bury it when I had the chance.”
”But I could use some of this stuff.” Said Comet.
“Yes, and if you have enough silver, we mightn’t even need to get back our stuff from Luxe and Cobalt.” Said Arrow.
Rusty was for words for a moment.
“I don’t see why we should go to Iron Colony anyway. We all know the Magia isn’t who they say they are, why should we make this medallion for them?”
“I’ve been thinking about that myself.” Admitted Comet. “But we’re creating this Master-Medallion to stop a war between the colonies, not for the Magia.”
“The legend says that the Master-Medallion will give rabbits the ability to use magic again.” Said Blue. “But I don’t think the Magia would want other rabbits to use magic.”
”They’ll obviously just use it to make themselves more powerful and take over the whole valley.” Said Rusty.
”But if we don’t make it, the Golden Alliance will attack this side of the valley.” Said Arrow.
”I know, we’ll give to Orion.” Said Comet. They looked at him sceptically.
”He doesn’t like the Magia much and the Magia can’t touch him because they need him to power their emblems.” He explained excitedly.
”That could work.” Said Arrow thoughtfully.
”I think the valley was better without any magic, it only brings chaos and destruction.” Said Rusty.
Before they could argue further, Nightwing returned and perched on a low branch.
”I think I’ve spotted the rabbits you’re looking for but they were moving quickly.” He explained.
”We’ll follow you.” Said Comet.
“I think Rusty should give us some of his precious resources to carry, otherwise he’ll be too slow.”
He sighed and reluctantly agreed to let them take some of the items from his bag.
Comet was excited to have iron and copper stones and pendants now but he knew he’d have to practise a bit before he could use them properly.
They followed Nightwing into the bushes. They all became tenser as they went deeper and deeper, all very aware that they could run into wild rabbit or rebel here.
“I don’t think Nightwing would take us this way if he saw any wild rabbits.” Said Comet, trying to relax the others as well as himself.
Comet was right to trust Nightwing as they didn’t run into any other creature by the time they left the bushes and found themselves on the edge of the treeline, facing the fields.