The mouse stood under the warm noonday sun, his overtly long war-blade weighing heavily upon his shoulder.
"I suggest you leave now, Enoch." The mouse said, his voice monotonous and directed at a weasel.
"I think you should give me your food, mouse." Replied the weasel; his voice was sharp and tight. He had a right to speak such ways though, namely the short-ax in his hand and the five henchmen behind him allowed it.
"I have a name, Enoch, and you know it." The mouse called back to Enoch, unshouldering his blade, which was as long as his shoulders were tall. He held it out from his body, the tip buried into the ground.
Sweat was pouring from all creatures' bodies, but it wasn't all just from heat for Enoch. The mouse could do serious damage with that blade. But still, Enoch needed the food the mouse had. Enoch looked behind the mouse at the small rounded door that adorned the bottom of the rock cliff behind the mouse. "I know your name Serin, and I also know you have food, a lot of it. You know I need it."
Serin's heart was breaking now, Enoch and him had been friends a long time, a long time. Fellow warriors in the Great Revolt, fighting for the freedom of their land and families. Enoch, like Serin, had a family. Enoch had two children, Serin only had one. "Enoch, don't do this, you know I don't have enough to spare. My crops are all but failed, I need the food we have in storage. Don't do this, look at the example your setting for your boys, is this what we fought for all those years ago?" Enoch and Serin both looked back to two of the weasels, they were younger, their muscular arms crossed with a stout stance, trying to seem intimidating but a look of slight confusion and deep thought on their face. "Is this what you've been teaching your boys all these years?"
Enoch's face lost all expression for a moment, then tears began forming in his eyes as he dropped his ax and covered his face and bellowed out to Serin, "N-no! It's not...! What am I doing Serin, my friend…"
Serin left his sword impaled in the ground and walked up to his friend, taking Enoch's paws from his face, Serin held them in his own, "I cannot give you food, but I can give you help. Jerro and I can help you."
Warm tears streaking down his face, Enoch smiled and gave Serin's paws an affectionate squeeze, "Thank you my friend, what was I about to do..?"
Smiling lightly and shaking his head, Serin simply replied, "All is forgiven."

~

"That look good?" whispered Serin, crouching low on a large hill under the cover of thorny bushes.
"Looks good to me." Replied Enoch, his voice just as quiet.
"Who are they again?" piped up a younger mouse, he looked a lot like Serin, like a mini-Serin.
"They as in who we're about to raid?" asked Enoch, slightly turning his head but still eyeing the large structure that was about fifty yards from them. It was as said, large, made of wood and mud and clay. Inside was housed food, a lot of food. It belonged to the Wrengal family. A large group of hedgehogs that refused to fight in the Great Revolt. They didn't support either side, neither the Revoters or the Clansou. So they remained relatively unscathed from the effects of the Revolt. Their foodstuffs were great, nearly 100 creatures all related someway or another lived together in a sort of colony and grew all their food together, and never shared. They felt they were too good for other creatures, they were the aristocrats of the land.
"Yeah, I want to know who we're stealing-"
"Don't call it stealing my boy," said Serin, cutting into Jerro's sentence and giving him a playful smile and wink, "it's more…forced borrowing."
"We going to do this today folks?" asked Enoch, smiling and a little anxious.
Serin smiled back and replied, "Ready as rain. Jerro, you wait here and watch, keep a paw on your blade too."
"I will father."
"Good, let's be off then my friend." Smiled Serin, stalking off carefully through the thorny weed, making not a sound. Enoch followed shortly.
The fifty yards to the storehouse was nothing but open plains, however those two were going to steal the food was beyond Jerro. Until he realized, it was one of his father's plans. The two creatures reached the bottom of the hill, emerged from the bush, gave each other a smile than let out a loud shriek as they both charged the compound. Jerro couldn't help but smile a little and shake his head, a paw over his forehead and face bent down a little, definitely one of his father's plans. A few guards heard the scream and ran to engage the warriors, but were decimated easily, Enoch and Serin both knew how to fight and could just as easily wound someone as kill them. The real skill, Serin would tell Jerro, is not killing them but making them wish they were dead. Exhausted from the sprint, Enoch and Serin took a moment, leaning with their backs to catch their breaths, then Enoch began his work of hacking away at the wood and mud wall. It was short work for his ax and soon grains and seed of all kind began pouring from the wall.
The duo put out their haversacks and let them fill up, then placed another under. Serin couldn't help but smile and shout out, "Jackpot!!!" as sack after filled with vittles. Soon all of their sacks were filled, and they did their best to shoulder them all and as they waddled off smiling and laughing at their catch Serin asked with a roguish smile, looking back at the grain continuing to fall from the wall, "Shouldn't we do something about that?"
"Why?" replied Enoch, smiling just as roguish.
"Good enough answer for me." Commented Serin, content. "Wait…"
"What is-"
"Shh! I think I hear some..thing……get down!" shouted Serin as he dropped his sacks and tackled Enoch to the ground just as arrows zipped over their heads.
"What do we have here? Some scummy thieves trying to steal our grain?"
Enoch and Serin stood up, they were encircled by about twenty hedgehogs, each brandishing a club of some sort. "Scummy thieves my hide, you're the greedy ones." Said Enoch, brushing the dust off his clothes and picking up his large hand ax.
"If I were you I'd shut your mouth, weasel, now toss us those sacks and just maybe I'll let you live."
Serin recognized this one, he was second generation, a child of the original Clansou's that refused to take action. "I suggest you let us leave with these sacks and maybe we'll let YOU live." Serin called to the main hedgehog.
"Oh just kill them." With a wave of the paw the hedgehog said, turning his back and walking away.
Slowly, the small army of hogs inched in towards the duo, closing the circle on them.
Jerro was watching it all, but smiling. He was trying to figure out if his father and Enoch were going to use fatal force or not.
Enoch leaned over slightly, whispering, "Fatal force or not?"
Serin pondered this in his mind, taking no great amount of time, "Mmm….non-fatal, let's show these guys just how incredibly rough we are."
Enoch smiled at this as the two took up fighting stances and waited for the creatures to enter striking range…

~

"Oh ow!" cried out Serin as Enoch lifted the side of his tunic.
"Whoa ho! That guy scuffed off some of your fur and skin!" called out Enoch, smiling with amusement.
"Glad to know it amuses you, ah EE!"
"Hold still, I'll patch it up good 'n' proper." Said Enoch a little more serious, but not by much with a smile still plastered to his face.
The trio of creatures were far from the compound now, each one carrying at least one sack filled with grain and seed. They were resting beside a small creek, large tree limbs over their heads shadowing them, "Yeah, can't believe I even let him graze me though with that club of his. He shouldn't of even touched-AH!"
Enoch was slapping the large bandage placed on Serin's waist and laughing, "Well, it's not your fault you backpedaled into a haversack and fell over onto your butt! Oh wait, it is!"
Jerro and Enoch kept the laughing fresh as Serin sat up, "Oh shut up the lot of you." He then flung large chunks of mud at the two of them, smiling.
Being too much of a warrior to be hit, Enoch ducked but Jerro took the mud ball straight up in the face.
SPLAT! The mud flew all over; dotting everyone's clothes mainly Jerro's.
"Oh your gonna get it old man." Said Jerro as he wiped the mud from his face, a sinister grin on his face.
"Bring it young 'n." Serin grinned back, reading himself for whatever his son was about to try…

~

"Oh what were you two doing??" cried out Kathryn as she watched her husband and son slump through the arched doorway, dripping wet with water and mud. Silly smiles glued to their lips.
Serin smiled to his wife and wrapped an arm 'round his son, then took him in a headlock as he said, "Just your boy and me got into a little scuffle, nothing to worry 'bout ma'am."
Jerro latched onto his father's arm then slipped from his hold and gave him a push from behind, "Yeah, the old man here was being an outright dibbun."
"Oh I'm the dibbun!?" Serin cried out, smiling open mouthed as he whirled around and crossed his arms, his voice very amused.
"Your both dibbuns now stop before you muddy the whole place up!" Kathryn scolded the two, brandishing her kitchen knife like a weapon. The two then hung their heads again, still smiling as they slunk to the back of the cave to wash up. Though as soon as they rounded the corner, she could hear rushing pawsteps then a crash of glass. She simply shook her head with a small smile and continued cutting vegetables.

***