A completely black cat wearing a golden chestplate and cape walked confidently down the stone hallway of Bastian Keep, sword at his belt. Feline soldiers saluted as he passed, returning to their posts after a quick flick of his tail and an "as you were." His paws made no noise on the stone floor, only the faint clattering of his armor audible to the keen ears of his troops. The insignia of a crown and a cat's eye appeared emblazoned on his shoulder, the symbol of the General--for indeed, that's who he was. Geoffrey Carabas, General of the Marquise de Cat's Grand Army. Geoffrey's orange eyes narrowed as he approached a heavy oaken double door emblazoned with two golden crowns.

The two door guards, calico cats, snapped to attention, and he gave them each a nod. They each took one side of the door and swung it open, revealing a throne room with a huge, cushioned velvet seat. Light streamed in from two huge glass-paneled windows, bathing the velvet in a sunny beam so it shimmered with reddish light. Geoffrey's eyes, however, were more focused on what hung nailed to the wall above the throne. A pair of brown wings: those of Adler Eyrie, the previous ruler of the Wood. The Marquise had torn them off herself and placed them in her keep as a reminder of what happened to her enemies. He gulped, feeling like he might choke on a hairball. She would not like the news he brought.

The padded seat itself sat empty--unusual. It only took him a few seconds to see a tannish-brown cat pacing in the far corner, looking down at a miniature map of the Wood. "My lady?" Geoffrey called out. "I bring news from the latest constructions."

At once, her fur stood on end and she turned towards him, yellow eyes seeming to burn in the sunlight. Marie Felicia Bastian: the Marquise de Cat, de facto ruler of everything from the Whistling Trees to Silver Lake. She dragged a claw across the table, then motioned for him to join her. Geoffrey nodded and walked up, looking down at the map. Almost the entire Wood was marked in the gold and orange of the cats' empire.

"Do you remember," she meowed, "when we marched into the seat of the birds and found it defended by only a few sparrows and jays?"

Geoffrey thought back to the Eyrie capital, a stand of stately oak trees with nests on every branch and blue flags waving everywhere. It was springtime then, and little white flowers were blooming around the base of the trees. His cat soldiers had come with axes, prepared to chop the oaks down, but the birds surrendered before that was even necessary. "It's been many years since then," he agreed gamely. "The day the campaign ended. The day you claimed power over the Wood."

"The day all my problems started," the Marquise snapped. "Winning the war was easy. The Eyrie Dynasty had been falling for a long time, so we only hastened it to its grave. But now... remaking the Wood into a haven of industry has been much harder than I thought. We struggle to get enough lumber to build new outposts. Our sawmills are sluggish. And the rodents are beginning to seethe against us. Did you know they have a name for their little movement now? They call it the Woodland Alliance. A pack of bleeding hearts who scream "outrage" at every little improvement we make, with no real power or organization of their own, but they could be dangerous if they gathered enough sympathy."

"I'll call my soldiers in the eastern maple groves," Geoffrey suggested. "Have them spread more news to the nearby rabbit and mouse settlements, make sure they know they have nothing to fear from Your Excellency. They've been busy chasing down a raccoon thief."

"We need not waste our efforts on a lone vagabond," the Marquise meowed dismissively. "Send them to counter the propaganda of the mice. Have you anything else for me?"

Geoffrey gulped--he had almost forgotten. He looked from her dark brown snout to the eagle wings nailed on the wall, then flexed his claws a few times. "Yes, my lady. Bad news. The birds are gathering again in their old roosts."

"The birds have nothing anymore. Or have you forgotten we destroyed their precious oaks after their surrender? They have no capital, no army, and no leader to rally behind."

"That's the thing." He pointed to one of the few spots on the map uncovered by orange lines. "The birds have found a new ruler. One who claims to be the heir of Adler Eyrie himself and promises to take back his rightful land."

The Marquise's ears flattened against her head. Geoffrey knew she remembered Adler as the only one who had ever challenged her rule--the lord of the forest, descended from ancient blood, a golden eagle who commanded everything his sharp eyes could see.

"Impossible," she declared. "Adler had no heirs. Change of plans: gather a battalion of your most fearsome soldiers and send them beyond the Whistling Trees. Expose this new Eyrie Dynasty for the fraud it is."

Down in the old roots of the ancient forest, a flurry of wings was brewing. It was nothing like the grand oaks of old, all that remained was a tangle of hollow logs and bramble thickets deep enough that sunlight barely reached the forest floor. Here, dozens of birds had made their nests in secret: sparrows, jays, a few hardy owls, and older birds who carried the memory of the war deep in their bones. They spoke in hushed voices, wings tucked tight against the autumn chill, in waiting. But today, something was different. Somethign was brewing.

At the centre of the hollow stood a young golden eagle, barely out of his fledgling feathers, carrying with him a grace that was discordant with his age. His name was Corvin Eyrie, and though he had never known his father, he wore the old sigil, stitched into a leather band around his leg: two golden feather crossed across a nest full of eggs.

"They'll come for us," said the hawk, whose name was Ilsa her red feathers greying. "You've heard what Geoffrey Carabas does to nests he finds."

"Let them come," Corvin said. "We shall not surrender again."

A smaller bird, a jay named Pip, hopped forward from the crowd. "With respect, Your Highness, we don't even have a roost yet. What is it that we have to surrender?"

Corvin's talons flexed against the bark beneath him, but he didn't answer right away, his beady eyes watching the skies above him.

Ilsa stepped in before the silence could stretch too long. "The boy is right to be bold," she said, "but Pip isn't wrong either. We cannot rebuild a dynasty without allies."

"The Woodland Alliance," Corvin said suddenly, eyes snapping back to survey the small winged crowd around him . "The rodents, they already resist the cats. If we joined with them--"

"Joined with vermin?" A rasping voice cut in from the shadows. An old crow, missing feathers along one wing, stepped out from behind a root. "Your father would never have lowered himself to bargain with mice and squirrels."

"My father is dead," Corvin said, quieter now, but firm. "And so is his kingdom. If pride is what killed the Eyrie Dynasty the first time, I won't let it kill us a second."

The hollow fell silent. Even Ilsa seemed to consider this a long moment before dipping her head in a shallow bow. One by one, the other birds followed, wings folding low in respect. Corvin spread his wings and flapped once in assent. And Geoffrey Carabas lunged out from the underbrush.

The cats attacked from the shadows, striking as silently and swiftly as dusk falling. Before the circle of birds even knew what was happening, the Marquise's soldiers appeared en force and slashed through hapless feathers with their blades. The feline force only numbered about a dozen, but their speed and stealth made it seem like many more. Unprepared for an attack, the birds gathered were mostly civilians, noncombatants. They stood no chance.

"Fly!" Corvin crowed, seeing Pip already taking to the skies followed by a family of robins. Flying through the brambles was a slow and tricky affair, but much easier for small birds. And of course, the cats had no way of tracking their escape with the sky so distant.

He looked around for a weapon, but saw only frenzied chaos. His talons would have to do. "Ilsa, help me cover their escape!"

The hawk grunted and spread her red wings, lifting a few feet off the ground to swoop down and land hard on a cat. The cat struggled to escape, but she twisted her grip and grabbed his sword. Then she leaped into battle with a second cat, giving a group of sparrows time to escape. A group of owls, armed with makeshift spears, drove back another three cats.

Corvin's heart welled up with pride. His people were strong. He had always known they could resist the cats, and while he hadn't expected it to happen this soon, this was proof he was right.

He joined the fight, baring his talons to swipe at a gray cat. Sparks flew as his claws raked across the soldier's armor, and though the ensuing noise sounded horrible to Corvin, the cat's sensitive ears picked it up even louder. She winced, holding a paw to her forehead as Corvin smashed an outstretched claw into her face. She hissed in rage, clawing shallow gashes in the bare feathers on his chest. He staggered back in pain.

Ilsa appeared from the air, driving her sword into the cat's back. "Bold move, Young Majesty, but these are fully trained warriors and you are not. You need to leave this thicket with the others before Carabas gets to you."

He shook his head. "And what message would that send? We must prove the Eyrie is strong and determined. If the leader fled mid-battle, the cats would take that as submission."

"And if the leader was struck down?" Ilsa's eyes narrowed. "How much worse would that be?" She spun around, parrying a blow from another cat, then two more joining the fray. Corvin turned to survey the settlement, hoping to see all the civilians had escaped.

Instead, he saw a huge black shape looming behind him, framed by thorny shadows. The General's eyes glowed like twin embers, a sharp snarl on his face. Corvin had heard stories of Geoffrey Carabas, the Marquise's most feared warrior, from birds who had narrowly escaped him. They said he was a monster who destroyed their trees and turned them into sawmills for the cats' industrial empire. They said he and his soldiers destroyed eggs. The eagle prince had imagined many times what Geoffrey might look like and what he might say in the face of this cat. All he said now was a squawk of terror as he wondered how much room he would need to fly away.

"You must be the new Eyrie," the General meowed, venom in his voice as he brandished his blade. "The one they all gather around. But who are you really? I know you're not the old king's heir."

Corvin straightened up, looking him in the eyes. "I am the son of Adler Eyrie and rightful ruler of the forest."

Geoffrey threw his head back to laugh, but as he did, a stray beam of sunlight caught the fledgling's eye. His eyes were still mostly the dark brown of a young eagle, but Geoffrey saw specks of their true color in the light: an unusually deep amber, almost red. The exact same as Adler. He was telling the truth.

As the big black cat paused, Corvin took his chance. He ran and lifted off, disappearing into the canopy with a loud flapping noise.

Geoffrey cursed as his blade only grazed the tip of the tail feathers. "You may run," he hissed, "but the Marquise's reach is far in this forest. You are not the only one with sharp eyes." He turned to his cat soldiers, struggling with the last few remaining bird stragglers. "Circle back and rendezvous at camp. We've found what we came here to find."