Hello again, fellow fanfictioneers! I'm back and I've decided to put up another story based on Highwing's magnificent Urthblood Saga. This story will deal with a minor background character – the stoat captain Bandon and his fate after losing his leg at the end of The Crimson Badger, found here: s/6788438/1/The_Crimson_Badger_Book_I_The_Warlord. As should go without saying, this story contains plenty of spoilers for the ending, so I suggest you read Wing's magnificent story before you read mine.

A little background to this project is appropriate: for a couple of years Killy, another great fan of TUS and a member of this site, has been interested in finding out what happened to Bandon. However, Highwing was too busy to devote the time to write an entire story about it, so I recently decided to take it upon myself to do so. As such, this is a gift for you, Killy. I hope you enjoy!

As with the Wolfrum story, Wing has been a tremendous help in editing and providing critique for me. However, I'm happy to report that he has had to do less work this time, and that I've even started writing the accents myself, though Wing will probably have his talons full in correcting the mistakes I did doing so. In any event, thank you very much Ol' Featherbag – this story is for you as well!

One Leg To Stand On

"Hey, Korix, get over here! I think he's waking up."

Crawling his way up from the blissful peace of unconsciousness, Bandon the stoat captain slowly opened his eyes, letting the blurry images of his surroundings make their way into his mind. His upward gaze fell upon what appeared to be a rough-hewn cavern roof, flickering flames illuminating the craggy surface with a soft glow. Turning his head, he saw a pair of black-clad, red-furred figures approach to stand by his side, staring down at him.

Bandon's immediate thought was that he'd died and gone to Dark Forest, and the two phantoms above him were here to guide him to his proper place in the afterlife. Then, remembering that a dim, firelit cave wasn't part of the traditional image of Dark Forest, he worried for a moment that he'd arrived at Hellgates instead, the red-furred beings set to punish him for his life's misdeeds. This struck the stoat through his sluggish reasoning as somewhat unfair – while he'd hardly been a paragon of virtue throughout his life, surely he hadn't been that bad?

"Bandon?" One of the figures reached down to lay a paw on his shoulder. "It's me, Sappakit. How are you feeling?"

Sappakit, Sappakit… Ah, yes, from Lord Urthblood's swordfox brigade! Bandon had met him a few times – seemed a decent sort. One of the more accomplished healers in the brigade. That would explain this pair's red fur and black clothing.

Then it struck the stoat that perhaps he wasn't dead after all. Why would a healerbeast have followed him into the next world? Blinking his eyes a few times to try and focus on the chamber around him, his vision gradually became clearer and the world sharper. Yes, he indeed lay in a cavern, or a cavern-like room at any rate, the space illuminated by lanterns and candles. The familiar faces of Sappakit and another fox named Korix hovered over him, their features fraught with concern.

"Bandon, can you hear me?"

The voice seemed distant and far away. Drawing a deep, difficult breath and striving to gather his strength, he managed to groan, "A-aye, I can hear ye…"

"How are you feeling?" the fox asked, repeating his earlier question.

Turning his attention from his surroundings to focus on his own state, Bandon realized his tongue and throat were quite dry.

"Thirsty…"

Sappakit unclipped a canteen from his belt, uncorking it and placing it to the stoat's lips. Bandon gratefully accepted a few cool sips, coughing a little as a few droplets caught in his throat. The drink allowed him to further clear his mind as he took in more of the chamber. He lay in a bed, one of dozens in the cavernous hall, and every one looked to be occupied. Urthblood's foxes circulated among the resting creatures, their postures and motions betraying their exhaustion. Bandon thought their behavior a little odd – they normally only did this if they had a lot of sick or wounded beasts to attend to…

"Where are we…?" he inquired of the swordfoxes. Sappakit and Korix exchanged glances, as if surprised he'd pose such a question.

"Eh, we're at Salamandastron, Captain," Korix said. "In the infirmary we set up here in the lower levels ... "

"Salama-?" The name seemed strange to Bandon, then suddenly it all came flooding back to him. Of course - the mountain of the Badger Lords where their master Urthblood had led them. "Silly stoat," he thought to himself, "forgetting such an obvious thing." And, an infirmary? Yes, that would explain why all these foxes were making such rounds. But what were all these wounded creatures doing here? Had there been some kind of accident, or…?

The battle! Yes, there had been a battle between Urthblood and his mad brother Urthfist for rule of the mountain. And what a battle it had been, the famous Long Patrol and their overlord arrayed against the awesome might of the Crimson Badger and his Northland forces. But Bandon could not for the life of him remember which side had emerged victorious…

"Th'battle… did we win?"

"Indeed we did," Sappakit affirmed with a nod, encouraged that the stoat captain could now at least recall that there had been a battle recently. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be here right now. Lord Urthblood managed to slay his brother, and took the surrender of the surviving Long Patrol. But our victory came at a high cost, as I'm sure you yourself can appreciate…"

"'preciate?" Bandon looked confused. "T'be 'onest, I can't remember much of anythin' 'bout that battle."

Sappakit sighed. "Well, you've suffered a fair amount of trauma, so it's hardly surprising that your memory is a little patchy right now. We also gave you a rather strong pain medicine, which can muddle a beast up a bit."

Trauma?

Bandon tried to sit up, but Korix lay a firm paw upon his chest, keeping him recumbent. "Please, Captain, you must rest for now. You're not completely out of danger yet."

"Yes, you're very lucky to have survived at all," Sappakit added. "It's a miracle we managed to find you and pull you out from beneath the other corpses before you bled to death… and that you were able to stay hidden without Urthfist or his hares discovering you."

So he had been wounded in battle. That should have been obvious, seeing as how he was lying here in this makeshift infirmary. But just how had he been wounded?

And how badly...?

Focusing upon his body, and the physical sensations it was sending him, Bandon noticed a dull ache emanating from his left leg. Glancing down toward the foot of the bed, he noticed that that leg sat elevated upon a pillow. That was rather strange – they usually only did that if…

Gripped by sudden panic, he sat up ramrod straight before the foxes could react.

"Bandon, wait –" But Korix was too late; the stoat officer had already glimpsed his leg laying there upon the pillow, and in one horrible, terrible rush, everything came back to him.

In his mind, he again saw Urthfist smashing through the forward defensive lines that Lord Urthblood had established on the southern slope of Salamandastron. Again, he relived the terror of seeing rats, stoats and ferrets being slaughtered en masse by the mad badger, their ornate weapons and shields from the mountain treasury useless against his berserker wrath. The surviving vermin had regrouped and tried to surround Urthfist to overcome him by sheer numbers, but in the grip of the blind fury known as Bloodwrath, he'd become an unstoppable juggernaut. And when scores of his Long Patrol hares entered the fray as well, rallying to the aid of their master, it was too much for even Urthblood's seasoned campaigners to withstand.

In the midst of this unimaginable carnage, Bandon had desperately sought to hold together his shattered stoat squad, barking out battlefield commands that went largely unheard or ignored in the face of the terrifying onslaught by the rampaging Badger Lord. Frantically seeking some opening in the whirlwind of death that was Urthfist, he picked a moment when the badger's back was turned, racing forward in hopes of severing a heel tendon to cripple the unreasoning brute. As Bandon did so, however, Urthfist took an unexpected step backward, and the stoat captain's blade scored only a light scrape across the thigh. Roaring, the badger turned and swung his massive sword at his attacker's midsection with a stroke that would have cleaved Bandon in two. The stoat threw himself backward in time to avoid the worst of this counterstrike, but as he hit the ground he felt a sharp pain above his left ankle. Stunned by the fall, he was still trying to shift himself when the headless body of a rat fell across him. Satisfied that the stoat captain posed no further threat, Urthfist and his hares directed their attention elsewhere, moving on to butcher more of Bandon's conrades. Pinned to the ground by the corpse, Bandon was in no shape to free himself, and within moments had lost consciousness.

Looking down at his lower limbs, he saw just what the badger had done to him. On the pillow lay what remained of his leg, the footpaw missing midway up to his knee. All that was left was a stump covered by a heavy dressing of bandages, the tip dark red with dried blood.

His muddle-headedness was gone, his blood turning cold as he fully remembered exactly what had happened to him… and what it meant for his future.

"Bandon, please!" Korix implored. "You must remain calm and on your back until the bleeding has stopped completely." He gently but firmly pressed the stoat back onto his pillow.

Seeing the distress and shock on the stoat's face, Sappakit laid a comforting paw on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Captain. I'd hoped that you would still remember you'd lost your footpaw. I know this must be a terrible thing for you to go through, but you must rest now and regain some of your strength before we can do anything else. We'll find a way to get you back on your…" The fox caught himself, realizing he was about to say 'feet.' "We'll get you back up and active again soon enough. For now, just continue to rest and we'll sort things out later."

Bandon just stared at his vulpine caregiver for a few moments before acknowledging these encouraging words with a sad nod. Korix looked over his shoulder at the rest of the infirmary.

"Sapp, we still have a lot of other patients to see to."

"Yes, I know." Sappakit withdrew his paw from Bandon's shoulder. "Remember to just lie still, and don't strain yourself unnecessarily. We'll be back to change the bandages and dressing later."

The two foxes left his side to go tend the dozens of other creatures who'd been wounded in the battle of Salamandastron. Bandon, former stoat captain, just stared up at the ceiling in dismay, the implications of his maimed leg overwhelming him as his eyes started to well up with tears.