This chapter will tell you what happened to Silverlake right after Star left. Enjoy!

Silverlake hugged Star for the last time, and then she looked at him and he walked away, then broke into a canter. He did not look back. When Star was out of sight, she cried and curled up on the grass, with her wings covering her. She laid there for a long while, thinking. Did I do the right thing? She would keep asking herself. It would be so easy to tell Star to come back. . . No! She thought. Star must leave Anok, so he could come back and free the future pegasi. Overwhelmed by tears and feeling nothing but sadness, she drifted into sleep. When she woke up, she stood up. It had been a few hours. With Star’s unnatural speed, he’d be long gone by now. Silverlake wondered which sea he would cross. But she couldn’t worry about that right now. She needed to prepare for Frostfire’s and Petalcloud’s armies, and start thinking about what she’d tell Morningleaf when she finally returned. Silverlake trotted toward Redfire’s training lessons. She saw that they were over. Bumblewind and Dewberry saw her and cantered to her side. Their eyes were curious.

“Have you seen Star?” Bumblewind asked.

“Have you?” Silverlake countered, wanting to avoid the question.

“We saw him coming out of there,” Dewberry pointed with her wing, the place Silverlake had come out of. “We greeted him but he paid no attention to us. We haven’t seen him since.”

“No, I haven’t seen him either.” Silverlake wasn’t lying. She’d seen him go, but she hasn’t seen him since, as intended.

“Oh, all right. Well, that’s ok. Come on Dewberry, let’s ask Ashrain if she’s seen him.” Bumblewind walked away. But Dewberry wasn’t so easily going to believe her. She gave Silverlake a skeptical look.

“What?” Silverlake asked her.

“You must know where Star is.” Dewberry said.

“All you and Bumblewind asked me is if I’ve seen him. No, I haven’t, and that’s the truth.”

“If you haven’t seen Star, do you at least know where he is and what he’s doing?”

“No, I don’t.” Now this was a lie. Silverlake may not have seen Star, but she knows what he’s doing, flying across a long and distant ocean, his hooves glowing gold. . .

“Tell the truth,” Dewberry huffed. “I can smell a lie from a mile away.”

Silverlake sighed. “Fine. I sent him away.”

“What do you mean?”

“I told him that he should leave Anok and come back when he’s stronger,” Silverlake clarified.

“You what?!” Dewberry panicked, fluttering her emerald feathers. “Now we have no defense against Nightwing!”

“I know. But this is to save the future pegasi of Anok,” Silverlake nickered. “Not us.”

Dewberry snorted. “Star could’ve saved both us and future pegasi if you hadn’t told him to leave.”

“Well, I disagree. I think it would be a lot easier for him to defeat Nightwing if he became stronger than him. Perhaps there’s powers Star doesn’t know he has yet.”

“Morningleaf won’t react well to this. How will you tell her?”

Silverlake hesitated for a second, then met Dewberry in the eye.

“Think about that for a second.” Dewberry then trotted away to find where Bumblewind had gone.

“Don’t tell Bumblewind!” Silverlake reminded her. Dewberry did not look back but she swished her tail. Silverlake wasn’t sure if that counted as an ‘ok’ or a ‘no, I’m telling him’. But if she knew her, she would tell him.

Silverlake turned the other way and snorted. Who was Dewberry to question her decisions regarding her milk son?

Annoyed but not wanting to think about it any longer, she forced her thoughts over to how she would explain all this to the rest of the herds, and, more tragically, how Morningleaf would feel about it. Just then she realized the forest had gotten quieter. Dewberry, Bumblewind, Redfire, and all the yearlings had gone back to their herd camps. Silverlake was alone. I should get back to River Herd, she thought, but then she heard a rustle in the bushes. Silverlake backed away nervously, tensing.

Then, the thing in the bushes jumped out, looking vicious.

It was an ice tiger!

Silverlake sprang into action, spreading her wings as much as she could in this tightly-packed forest. The ice tiger tried to pin her down and bite her, but she dodged it. She landed on the ice tiger’s back, and tore into it with her hooves, trying to balance herself. But the ice tiger threw her off and scratched her on the flank, drawing blood.

Silverlake reared, and her strong wings flapped, blowing wind in the ice tiger’s direction. When Silverlake was done rearing, her front hooves landed hardly on the ice tiger’s paw. Silverlake heard a snap. The ice tiger roared in pain and took a second to look it. Infuriated, the ice tiger bit into Silverlake’s neck. Silverlake tried to dodge it, but she was too late. Her neck bled, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Desperate, Silverlake made a loud call to battle. Hopefully someone would hear it and come to help her. Then, Silverlake clubbed the ice tiger in the head, stunning it for a split second. That was enough for Silverlake, despite being hurt. She quickly darted over to one of the ice tiger’s hind legs and bit into it. She tasted blood. The ice tiger then whipped around fast, and Silverlake was thrown onto the ground, just missing a tree. She had landed on her injured flank, and it took her longer than usual to get up. At that time, the ice tiger ran to her, showing teeth. Seeing its upper-hand, the ice tiger towered over her. Silverlake closed her eyes. Was this it? Was she almost in the Golden Meadow? The ice tiger pinned her to the ground. Everything was moving so fast, yet to Silverlake, it was in slow motion. Silverlake’s eyesight blurred. Silverlake knew she was going to lose too much blood. The ice tiger leaned down, opened its mouth, and the edge of its sharp tooth sparkled as a small ray of sunshine escaped through the interlocking trees. All Silverlake could see was the ice tiger’s nasty expression inches away from her face. She couldn’t see past it. Then, just when the tooth was about to take one final bite, she heard loud hoofbeats. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a streak of emerald, golden-brown, yellow-green, and jade. Startled, the ice tiger paused its attack on her to see what the sudden noise was. That gave Silverlake time to clear her vision and see what was going on. She gasped with relief when Dewberry, Bumblewind, Ashrain, and Hazelwind all galloped together, ready to help her. Dewberry instantly tumbled into the ice tiger, throwing it off of Silverlake. The ice tiger landed on its back, and Dewberry spread her wings as far as she could to look more intimidating. Dewberry battled the ice tiger close up, with her on top. Bumblewind quickly came to her aide. He pounced on the ice tiger’s back too, and the ice tiger couldn’t move much anymore. It had to focus all of its energy on getting the two pegasi off. But it couldn’t. Dewberry and Bumblewind were too heavy, and they held all four of the tiger’s paws to the ground. Meanwhile, Ashrain gathered several leaves, and carried them to Silverlake. Silverlake’s vision blurred again and she felt like she was going to pass out. Ashrain turned Silverlake over to where most of the bleeding was, and held the blood in with the leaves. Silverlake wanted to thank her, but she had forgotten how to. Her mouth refused to form the right words. While Ashrain did this, Dewberry and Bumblewind were still holding the thrashing ice tiger down. But their weight was too much for the animal. Hazelwind briskly walked to the ice tiger, examining it threateningly. Then, he reared, spreading his colorful jade wings, and when his hooves landed, the ice tiger was dead. Dewberry and Bumblewind leaped off of the tiger, taking a breather. Hazelwind spread his wings again and trumpeted victory, and then the three pegasi gathered flexible sticks. When they were done, they trotted to Ashrain and the four pegasi used the sticks to secure the leaves onto Silverlake’s wounds. Terrified of what had happened and exhausted, her vision blackened despite her being awake. She could feel the pegasi drag her back to River Herd’s camp, where they would tell Sweetroot what had happened.

When they were finally there, Silverlake heard a gasp and Sweetroot galloped to Silverlake.

“Silverlake was attacked by an ice tiger,” Ashrain neighed.

“Oh, I already know. These look like ice tiger bites,” She heard Sweetroot say, analyzing Silverlake’s wounds. “Gather water in the stream. Lots of it,” She told Dewberry and Bumblewind. The two pegasi nodded and galloped off. Lots of River Herd pegasi crowded around Silverlake, curious about what had happened. “Hazelwind! Shoo off those pegasi,” She told him. Hazelwind obeyed and told the pegasi to give Silverlake some space.

“What do you want me to do?” Ashrain asked, tapping her hoof against the ground.

“Watch Silverlake. Make sure she doesn’t fall too much asleep; just let her lay down,” Sweetroot whinnied. “I’m going to gather roots to soothe the pain and help her heal.”

Ashrain nodded. Hazelwind was still making sure no pegasi got too close to Silverlake.

It was then that she noticed the intense pain on the wounds the leaves covered. She could tell they weren’t bleeding as much, but in their place was a sharp pain that didn’t go away.

After a bit of Ashrain sitting next to her and watching, Sweetroot returned with the roots. Silverlake’s vision began to return to normal, and when Sweetroot dropped some roots next to her mouth, she was glad to eat them.

“These will soothe the pain,” Sweetroot nickered. “Finish that quickly, because you also need to eat these,” Sweetroot dropped another set of roots next to her mouth. “These won’t soothe the pain, but they will help your wounds heal.”

Silverlake chewed the painkiller plants fast; they were tasty. But then she tasted the medicine. It was horrible! But. . . She’d endured much famine, many droughts, and many predators in her life, yet she was afraid of none; she wasn’t about to start now with medicine. So, she told her taste buds that they were wrong and that this medicine was tasty, just in a different way. Finally, she was done eating them all. Dewberry and Bumblewind returned with the water. She peered up at the green leaves on the trees while they swished in the wind. The sound calmed her.

“Open Silverlake’s mouth, and give her some. But do it gradually.” Sweetroot neighed.

“Okay,” Dewberry and Bumblewind nickered. They walked over to Silverlake.

“Hello,” Silverlake whinnied, her breathing normal enough now to speak.

“Hi,” Bumblewind said, and Silverlake could tell he knew about what had happened to Star by the tone of his voice, and the look in his eyes. It was sad, and for just a minute, Silverlake wondered if she’d did the right thing. Silverlake opened her mouth, and Dewberry slowly poured her water in. Silverlake swallowed the water, and as it went down her throat, the water was refreshing and cold. Then, Bumblewind did the same thing to her, and Silverlake swallowed, again savoring how it felt as it went down her throat.

“Get some sleep. You need rest, to give your wounds some time to heal,” Sweetroot said to Silverlake.

“All right,” Silverlake said as she closed her eyes. As she drifted off to sleep, she imagined Star, and what he might be doing right now. . .