Somewhere far away from Lillian and the clan, a great leader lay dying in his bed,

“Gerard! Where is my son Gerard?” he called. His left arm was almost totally separated from his body, and he had lost too much blood, aside from that his lung had been pierced and he was slowly suffocating.

“I am here.” Gerard said as he knelt beside his father.

“My son, it is our custom to grant the wish of the dying. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“My last wish is to have peace. I have had a revelation while lying here bleeding to death. We,” he stopped for a ragged breath, “are not so different from them.” Gerard just stared for a moment in utter disbelief,

“No, no! How can you say that? They killed Mother and Brian, and Melissa is probably lying in some field like the trash they see us as. They kill us every chance they get, they have killed hundreds of us.”

“And we have killed hundreds of them! Aside from physical appearance, we are alike. They bleed the same blood as we do, they cry, they hate just like us, they…”

“Feel no possible remorse for attacking us, murdering us, I can only imagine what they do to their prisoners! They are animals!”

“SO ARE WE! What difference is there? I have made my request. Will you at least try to make peace with them?” he coughed harshly and took his last breath, ”Please son.” The time for decision was upon him, and his mind raced to the only conclusion he could imagine,

“No father. We will slaughter them until they are annihilated. They would do the same to us as they have been for my entire life.”

“Then God help us if they truly feel the same… way.” His son watched him die right before his eyes,

“I would try to make peace with them if I thought there was even the tiniest possibility of that effort coming to fruit. But as I have seen with my own eyes there is far more hate, and violence, than reason in their minds. No there will be no talk of peace. Father,” Gerard said, his eyes hardening, ”you shall be avenged.”

The young leader arose from his kneeling position next to his dead father. He went to his officers and introduced his plans,

“Organize our remaining warriors. In the same way we are short on people, so are they. They will be exhausted and careless with their new victory. We will strike tonight while they sleep and kill them all.”

Gerard was armed with a short spear and knife but unarmored as he chose to be. He preferred to have his mobility. As opposed to being able to take the hits he preferred to be able to dodge them. He carefully snuck up on one of the three guards sent to watch over the camp. Gerard noted happily that all the guards were asleep, as he cut the guard’s throat. He then waited for the sounds of two other bodies to hit the ground. *Thud* *Thud* Gerard then signaled for the rest of his strike force to silently engage any living opponent. Gerard himself headed toward the largest tent, ‘Their leader must be in there.’ He reasoned.

Gerard silently slipped into the tent and up to the sleeping form lying on the pile of sleeping skins. He took one good look at his victim and felt the most distinguished and piercing disgust at what he saw. He felt sickened. Gerard’s own sister was lying on the pile of sleeping skins next to her former captor. She was free. Free from worry, free from sorrow, free from life. Her corpse shown signs of being strangled after being raped. Gerard could barely contain his scream of rage at what he saw. He simply began stabbing his sister’s former captor. He was so overcome with anger and rage he didn’t even notice his own officers walking up behind him and observing him,

“Commander Gerard?” a voice broke his hatred for a moment. He realized the corpse he had been stabbing was beyond the point of recognition. He composed himself and turned around covered in the blood of his victim,

“What?” he asked. The speaking officer stuttered for a moment,

“Sir we have found sleeping females and infants sir. What should we do with them?” Gerard had an idea in mind,

“Bring them all to me.” The officers dashed out the tent-flap to do his bidding. Minutes later Gerard faced nine shaking females cradling at least one infant each. He strode out in front of them and began speaking,

“I have no idea what hell spawned any of you, but I need you to carry a message for me to your … species. Tell any you see that we will no longer be bullied, raped, murdered … anything! We will exterminate any who oppose us. This land is ours and we are willing to leave them be if they are willing for the same thing. Make no mistakes though, we will do whatever is necessary to preserve ourselves. My sister was raped and murdered, and my mother was killed while shielding my baby brother with her body, but he was killed anyway. I will have justice for them now. You!” he pointed to a whimpering wolfess holding two wailing infants, “Which one is to live?” he asked pointing toward her pups. The terrified mother looked mortified beyond words,

“No! You cannot ask such a thing! How can I choose?” she sobbed, “Kill me and let them live! I beg you! If you have any mercy, let them live!” Gerard was calm and determined,

“Then you will all die!”

“No! Please! I’ll do anything! Please! Don’t make me do this!” she was hysterical almost beyond reason.

“You choose now! It was easy to choose to massacre my people when you had the advantage! Choose!”

“I CANT!” she screamed.

“Then die.” He said it with such certainty as to make the femme’s mind choose without her will. She involuntarily held out the pup in her right paw. Gerard threw his head back and laughed triumphantly,

“You see! They are not us! My mother could never have made such a choice. If this beast truly loved its whelps she could not have made the choice.” He said as he stepped up and cut the young mother’s throat, then proceeded to stab each of her pups, killing them. The other females could not believe such absolute hate existed, and one young rabbit mother collapsed dead from the fear. Gerard looked at each of the remaining femmes,

“You will be spared. Go and tell every other demonic one of your species that we mean business. Go!”

The females sprang to their feet and ran as fast as they could in every direction away from Gerard. One of his officers stooped and picked up the crying rabbit kitten,

“Should I kill this one sir?” he asked. Gerard could hardly believe his ears,

“No! I’ve spilled enough blood. Bring it to me.” The officer handed the crying kitten to his commander. Gerard spoke to the kitten,

“I have no way of ever paying for what has been done here tonight. But I will raise you as my own. Your mother was not to be killed. I am so sorry…” he began weeping on the infant cradling it in his arms. His officers could hardly understand his behavior,

“Sir? I thought we were to kill them all?” Gerard looked up from the orphan,

“I was wrong!” he screamed at the height of his voice, ”They are like us. I can never forgive myself for doing such a thing! What kind of monster am I?” he asked. One of his officers laid a steady hand on Gerard’s shoulder,

“You were the embodiment of your hate and you let it control you.” The words came from Gerard’s father’s closest friend, Cain, a man Gerard considered to be his second father, “What is your mind?”

Gerard couldn’t think clearly so just spoke from his heart,

“I don’t want any more killing. I just want my people to live, but how can we when we are hunted by those things everywhere we go?” Gerard had no answers for his own questions. All he could do was mourn. He mourned his sister, mother, and baby-brother. He mourned the young mother he had just killed, he mourned her two children, and he mourned for the rabbit kitten’s mother. He mourned for the whole situation and saw little but death in his future. Gerard stood up and said solemnly,

“I have done more damage than I can repair. I don’t know what to do now.” Cain gently took the kitten from Gerard,

“You can live and keep your promise to this little one.” He said holding up the baby for Gerard to see. Gerard knew Cain was right,

“I swear to never kill like that ever again. I will obey my father’s final command. I will talk of peace.” Gerard gently took the kitten from Cain and held it close to his body.

Far away one of the young mothers had already found some other furrs,

“STOP!” she screamed at passing caravan wagons, “Don’t go that way!” she warned. The furr steering the wagon stopped and inquired,

“Why not? What is the problem?”

“Humans just killed my whole clan! Stay away or they will kill you too!”

“Humans?” his mate asked poking her head out from the back of the wagon, “Are you sure?”

“Yes! I just saw one murder a mother and her two pups!”

“I had heard they might actually exist around here.” The driver warned, “Make a notice! No furr goes near this place! If humans really are here we must rally our brethren and destroy them once and for all.”

Far away Ruth’s ancient eyes glazed over as she received a word from the Great Spirit,

“War is coming! The keys are Lillian and the human. There must be peace!” the light in Ruth’s eyes faded and she fell into a deep sleep. Elsa had heard her words and knew the source,

“Thank You Great Spirit! May you help us find Lillian.”