Ciara-Determination

	Five days of hard travel brought Connor’s little army to the tree-dotted plain south of Oseille.  When they stopped to set up camp near a circle of oak trees, Ciara left them  behind and rode on to the city.
	Her spirits sank when she saw the wall, but she was pleased that the rabbits had been able to prepare that much of a defense.  She was not surprised by the Blackpool soldiers that were already camped in a loose arc around the north side of the city.  For all their talk of wanting to help, the lynxes were just as eager for war as her father was.
	As she got closer to the city, the Blackpool soldiers began to stir.  She slowed Embarr to a walk, but kept moving and tried to guess the distance to the trees. If they spotted her, they would shoot, and even Embarr couldn't outrun arrows.  They would die, and so would Oseille.  She set her shoulders, and tried to drive that thought out of her head.  If she turned back, they would just die more slowly.
	There were no shouts, and no-one came her way.  Instead, they all went south.  Weapons were drawn, and when she turned to look, Connor was racing his yellow mare up and down his lines, waving his sword.  Trumpets hummed on both sides of the field, and both armies melted and flowed towards each other.
	She barked in Embarr's ear, and in three steps he was running, too.  There were shouts, and a few arrows flew over her head.  None of them were for her, so she kept low, and ignored them.
	She rode up the narrowing alley between the soldiers.  All around her, fighters came together with screams and the squeal of tearing metal.  In the middle of all of if, she saw her father sitting perfectly still on his mare, ears flat.  He was flanked by the same three lieutenants he'd had with him before, and a ring of foxes in heavy armor to keep the enemy away.
	“I told you to go home,” he said.
	“I am home,” she said.
	“Don't be stupid.  You know what I mean,” he said.
	“I don't think I do.  You forgot about me, Mom never wanted me.  Niamh and her family took me in, they fed and clothed me.”
	“Then why did you come back?”
	Connor's mare tossed her head and snorted, when an arrow struck the ground by her feet.  Embarr moved up, against everything Ciara could do, to nuzzle and comfort his daughter.  Connor turned his head away, so he wouldn't have to see.
	“You used to listen to me,” said Ciara.
	“Everything was so much easier, when you were twelve,” said Connor.
	The drums grew louder as the soldiers got closer, and the smell of horse-sweat and armor polish clogged her nose.  Embarr jiggled nervously under her, and she could feel him tensing to run.  A line of archers behind Connor raised their bows, and their captain raised her hand, barking orders.
	“We don’t want any help from you, or from Blackpool.  All we want is to be left alone,” she said “You’ve ignored me all of my life.  Why can’t you do that now?  Why can’t you give me just one thing that I’ve asked you for?”
	The captain dropped her hand, and the sky filled with shouts, and arrows from both sides of the field.  Most of the arrows flew over Ciara’s head, but one fell short, and grazed Embarr’s shoulder.  The pain made him flinch, and he wheeled and bolted, right into the path of the Blackpool cavalry.  Ciara yelped and yanked on his mane, trying to get him to turn, while the cavalry riders split and flowed around them.  When they were past, she grabbed both of his ears and screamed at him to stay put.  But he put his head down and ran.  By now, though, they were surrounded by cavalry, and by large knots of fighting infantry.  He dodged erratically between them, but they were cut off from the city, and from the trees that flanked the field.
	When the arrow hit her in the shoulder, it didn’t hurt much.  But it made her arm go numb, and she lost her balance.  She fell to the ground, under Embarr’s hooves.