The first sunrise of summer slowly crept across the Eastern Coast. The heralding of another season laden with peace, easy living, and joy in the hearts of young and old alike in the sea side fortress of Geltan. Inside the walls, two young creatures were already stirring.
Sarix stumbled, sleepy-eyed, at the shoulder of her best friend, Halverian. The young mouse stood barely at his elbow, and he turned his striped muzzle at her ill-stifled yawn.
"Sarix, I thought I told you to actually try sleeping last night!" he chided her.
"But Ha-" she yawned again, "I was just at the very end of the story about the Battle of Marshank!"
"This must be the fifty-millionth time you've read the book through!" his annoyance with her was growing slightly, "Just once would you learn to live in the real world?!"
"Oh, of course," she glanced at him slyly, "and who was it who was caught up on the wall tops acting out Martin the Warrior's battle with Badrang?" She caught his slight grimace and decided to press the point, "Hmm... it seems like it was just last week Master Tilom told some young badger to get down before he fell off the battlements..." she trailed off as Halverian suddenly lifted her up to eye level in one of his large, though not fully grown, paws. He growled menacingly for a brief moment.
"Sarix, I suggest you forget that story!" he said it pointedly, but she knew he was not serious, and stuck out her tongue.
"What was that Hal?" she gave him a confused look, "I could have sworn you just said that Master Tilom was a wonderful old squirrel and you admired his advice very much and made sure you got down right away."
Halverian realized, once again, that there was no way, short of throwing her against the wall, to win the argument.
"Never mind," he grumbled sullenly and set her back, though none too softly, on the floor of the great hall in which they stood.
The pair were standing inside of the Fort Geltan, once the fabled Fort Marshank, in the Feasting Room. A long oaken table stretched before them, lined by matching oaken benches, soft morning sunlight streaming through the high windows giving the room a golden tint. Just opposite of them, a massive archway lead into the kitchens. Mouth watering aromas filled the air and the bustle of early morning kitchen attendants could be heard plainly.
Halverian muttered something under his breath and pulled Sarix with him to the wall, then bent to whisper in her ear. "This is your fault you know," he began, "if you would learn how to actually get up in the morning we wouldn't have to sneak out of here!"
Sarix had begun another unstifled yawn but finished it quickly to stare at him in utter confusion, "What?! Out of here?! Who said we were leaving?!"
Halverian hung his head and shook it softly with one paw on his forehead, "Sarix, it was your idea, remember?"
"Oh, yeah..." she laughed forcedly and scuffed the floor tile with a footpaw, "Well, it was your father's fault really. He shouldn't have yelled at us and made us wash all the dishes last night." She looked back into Halverian's dark brown eyes, searching for some backing to her statement.
"Of course," he sighed, "he had no reason to yell at us." His voice took on a tone of mockery, "He should just realize that all 'young ones' like to play in the armory with his best knives," at this he rolled his eyes at Sarix. "Someday I'll figure out how you always manage to get me into trouble even when I'm not around."
Sarix's face grew soft and consoling, "Oh, Hal," she draped her arms about his neck, "I just can't see how it happens either. You must have horrible timing, walking up the stairs just before your father. But that doesn't matter anymore, because now we are going to go to the most peaceful place in the whole world, no one there will even think of shouting, or making us nearly full-grown creatures scrub pots and pans like naughty babes." The two 'nearly full-grown' ones despised the thought of being called little, or young, they were old enough to care for themselves, and they were going to prove it, for once and for all.
Halverian sighed again and detached his friend from his neck, "Someday Sarix, someday I'll figure you out. For now we need to get out of here without being seen, which would be much easier if someone hadn't insisted on finishing a certain book before we left."
Sarix stuck out her tongue at him again, although he ignored her.
"It's a good thing I made up our food packs before I tried to wake you up, or we'd have to wait until tomorrow."
"Well, where did you stuff them Lord Halverian the Food Packer?"
Halverian glared at her, "Just follow my lead for once."
"Lead on my Lord," Sarix drawled, making a mock curtsey with the sandy brown tunic that marked them denizens of Geltan.
He glared at her once again and turned towards the kitchen with her in his wake.
Halverian strode into the kitchen in a business like manner and cast about for a moment in the early morning rush to finish breakfast. He spotted the creature he was looking for and carefully picked his way across the crowded room to a gray-tipped hedgehog wearing a flowing yellow apron.
"Mistress Daen?" he asked politely.
Daen spun about holding a partially honey-covered scone in one paw and a jar of honey in the other. She regarded the speaker with a nod, then turned back to her tray of scones, speaking over her shoulder. "Well, if it isn't young Master Halverian, and Mistress Sarix, up at such an early hour," she clicked her tongue as if the thought was foreign to her, "Have you been sentenced to ruin the breakfast proceedings this fine morning? Or did you think you could get an early meal without your parents knowing?"
Sarix frowned deeply; she had just remembered a second reason why she wanted to leave.
Halverian knew his friend well and quickly stepped in front of her, as much to keep Daen from seeing her frown as to keep her from speaking her mind, again. "Actually, Mistress Daen," he had to work hard not to bite at the Mistress part, "I was just going to ask you if Master Ahjube was down in the cellars yet, my father asked me to bring up a small cask of..."
Daen cut him off smartly, "I don't really need to know exactly why you are disturbing the peace around my kitchens, Master Ahjube is not down in his cellars just yet, but he will be shortly, if you would kindly shift yourselves down there and try not to mess with things in his absence, I would be extremely gratified."
Halverian stepped smartly out of the way as Daen turned round with the tray of scones and bustled off. Sarix immediately began muttering to herself and Halverian grabbed her soundly in his paw and shoved her towards the cellar staircase before Daen overheard her.
Halverian followed Sarix down the staircase into the dim cellars, he grabbed one of the torches in a holder on the wall as he walked, knowing that the second part of their plan would require a light.
At the bottom of the steep staircase Sarix stopped short and wheeled on him, "What was the idea of that?" She was furious.
Halverian pushed her further from the staircase as he came down the last step and moved to a lit torch on the wall. "Daen was the best chance we had, she would never let us finish any excuse we made up, so she wouldn't have anything to tell our parents about. If we had tried to sneak to the cellars, you know she would have seen us, then we would have been in for more work." He sighed; it was hard living in a place where the head cook did not like you, even harder when your appetite was not easily satisfied.
Sarix grumbled for a little bit but quickly noticed the two food packs lying on some nearby casks of ale and snatched one up, tossing the other to Halverian. "Once we get out of here, we can finally breathe easy. I think that old hedgehog stunted my growth when I was little, I see she fed you well enough though." Sarix, for all her self-consciousness about her height, had managed to get a badger for a best friend, and she never let Halverian forget he was twice her height, usually emphasizing such by kicking him in the shin.
Halverian let out a deep sigh and turned toward the far wall of the cellar. He was looking for one of the original escape tunnels that his ancestor, Geltan, had created in the last days of his life. He felt slowly along the wall, stopping on a tile about half way up the wall, it was raised slightly, and he set his powerful claws into the small crack on one side of the large tile. It slid effortlessly out on well oiled hinges, exposing an earthen tunnel, just large enough to be used by a fully-grown male badger, crawling, with room to turn around, and plenty large enough for Sarix to walk comfortably in.
Halverian lifted her up and set her in the mouth of the tunnel, then handed her the lighted torch and his food pack. She turned and stalked into the tunnel while Halverian crammed himself into the opening and turned round to pull the tile back into place. Sarix started down the earthen shaft, holding the torch and Halverian had to scramble to not be left behind in the dark.
"Sarix, slow down!" he yelled after her.
She slowed, stopped, and turned around to face him. "What do you think I am, a mole?" she snapped. "I detest this tunnel and I will be helping myself to the exit promptly."
Halverian continued to scramble through the dirt towards the defiant figure holding the torch, "Well, I'll remember not to wake you up this early again," he paused, and then quickly added, "Shorty."
"Halverian," she half screamed, "If you ever call me short again, I'll singe you with this torch!" With that she turned away from him and began running down the tunnel.
As the light dimmed around him, Halverian reflected that being left in the dark was more than worth a chance to call her short. As the light faded, then died in his section of tunnel, Halverian's grin still beamed out a glow of triumph. The only reason I'm going is to make sure she doesn't get herself killed. If he had it his way, he would still be asleep in his bed, dreaming about food. Then he could wake up and dance around in a daydream, slaying vermin with anything that came to paw. But anything is better than hanging around here where Sarix has a reputation that encompasses me.
Sarix ran moodily ahead, determined to outrun Halverian. The only reason I'm going is to make sure he doesn't get himself killed. She had seen Halverian on kitchen duty, holding a ladle in his outstretched paw, thrusting and parrying with invisible foebeasts. But anything is better than hanging around a place where people think I'm insane because of him.
The pair were inseparable, even though they would never admit it to each other. They had grown up together, Halverian was actually half a season younger than she was, and they frequently annoyed each other to the point of screaming, but when there is no one else your age in an entire fortress, you learn to get along. It seemed to Sarix that all the other creatures close to her age were either many seasons younger, or even more seasons older.
As she rounded a slight bend she almost ran face first into a wall of earth. She stopped just short of the wall and still almost lost her balance in the process. She looked around at all the walls, carefully feeling along them like she had seen Halverian do with the tiles in the cellar, and abruptly concluded there was no way out. I'm going to die down here! I'll suffocate underground! A solid lump of panic rose into her throat, having already been eased there by the feeling of being alone. She turned to run, quickly spinning on her toe, and ran smack into Halverian's head.
After she was seated firmly on the ground she began an unintelligible slur of words. Halverian looked at her as if she was a maniac as she continued her narrative. "Sarix, what ever in the world is the matter?" he demanded.
She gulped air and stared at him, "We're trapped!"
"What?!" the surprise was evident in his face, there was no way this could happen after all he had went through to get this far.
"I'll show you," she picked herself up, suddenly calm after expending all her panic on Halverian, and walked around the bend with him scrambling behind her, she stopped just in front of the wall and pointed at it, his food pack dangling from her outstretched arm like a worm.
Suddenly Halverian flopped flat on his stomach behind her and buried his muzzle in the earth as if crawling was too much effort. Through the dirt he managed to choke out an exasperated, "Look up."
Sarix turned her head skyward and saw an opening above her, although no light came through, it was a recess in the wall at least. "Well? What good is that?"
Halverian raised himself on an elbow and muttered, "Push on the top."
She did as he commanded and was rewarded with fresh air and streaming sunlight, "We're alive!"
"Well, I wouldn't have figured that out," came Halverian's voice from under her, "Now would you get out of the way so I can get out of this hole?"
Sarix rubbed out the torch on the wall in front of her, tossed the food packs out of the hole, pulled herself over the rim of the trap door, and watched as Halverian straightened himself to his full height, half of him lost in the large tree stump so it looked like he was a new part of a tree. She giggled at him and he pulled his feet free from the stump and sat on the ground beside it, carefully replacing the false top of the hollowed tree stump.
They must have moved along the tunnel for longer than Sarix had thought, the tree signaled they were quite some way from Geltan. She turned herself in a full circle trying to get her bearings, and noticed Geltan in distance, the sandy-colored stone foundation blending in with the beach, but set out like an amber jewel against the blue of the ocean and sky.
She laughed with her new found freedom, just threw back her head and laughed, full of life and the joy of living. She pointed to Geltan and laughed some more, "Look Hal, that's Geltan over there! We're free! No more prying parents, no more pushy cooks, no more annoying little brothers and sisters!" She looked around, straight into his face, "Hal," she almost whispered, "we're free!"
(A/N: Finally, first chapter up! I'd love to hear from you all about the idea. Yes, there is more than this to the story, this is just the first chapter, and it will be more complex with a bad guy and a vermin horde later on.)