It had been twenty seasons since the day King Lennox Foxtrotter arrived at Loamhedge Abby. The restoration had taken longer then expected, seven seasons to be exact, but finally the old abbey was restored and Lennox appointed himself king. Since then King Lennox's command had grown from eight others to over five hundred other vermin. For some reason vermin from all over Mossflower flocked to Loamhedge. His horde was now made up of every type of vermin you could imagine, including a handful of reptiles. Lennox welcomed all the vermin with open arms, glad to have them in his army.

A couple of seasons after his arrival at Loamhedge, Vixy gave birth to two fox cubs named Morfin and Redbone Foxtrotter. Morfin, being the first born, would be Lennox's replacement when he died. Morfin, however, somehow didn't inherit Lennox's cunning. All that went to Redbone. Obviously Lennox's favorite cub was Redbone for this reason. Also, Morfin was Vixy's favorite and had turned into a spoiled little brat. Redbone however was exactly how a fox should be, In Lennox's mind, strong of body and cunning of mind, not to mention completely ruthless. It was a pity he wasn't born first.

Lennox, however, was satisfied. He had everything he had always wanted. Power, a kingdom, a family, he even had his father's, and now his, most prized treasure hung on his wall over the fireplace. King Lennox, however, was restless. Twenty seasons of peace had passed since he arrived there. Twenty seasons of not having to think of cunning plans to survive and win a battle against either another creature or nature, twenty seasons with no bloodshed. King Lennox was restless, King Lennox want a reason to go to war.

King Lennox looked around his study at the magnificent sword hanging above his fireplace. "It's a pity that I've got such a beautiful sword and never got a chance to use it." He said to no one in particular

The sword was indeed beautiful. It had a steel blade that was so shiny that you could see yourself in it. The hilt was made of brass with the same quality as the blade. At the end of the hilt was a carving of a fox's head with two tiny rubies for eyes. I'll take a walk King Lennox decided.

King Lennox walked down to the courtyard and up onto the wall. There he met General Deadum patrolling the wall.

"Anything to report, Deadum?" he asked the ferret.

"Nope" Deadum reported "Not a sign of any beast except for our own."

"That's good" Lennox said dismally.

"Open the gates for General Smaug" a voice called from the front gates.

Lennox and Deadum ran to the front gates and saw the weasel Smaug. Smaug was a mess. He was cut up all over, He had a javelin stuck into his shoulder, and he looked like he had generally been a scrap that he barely escaped with his life. Lennox envied him.

"Open the gates" Lennox called "Let him in."

Two solider rats opened the gates and Smaug led his vermin patrol inside. Lennox walked down to meet him.

What happened to you?" he asked his general

"I was attacked sir" Smaug replied.

"I realize that" Lennox replied angrily "Who attacked you?"

"The rats of the abyss" Smaug replied "The rats of Malkariss"

"Go get yerself patched up" Lennox told Smaug "Yer excused form your duty for the time being."

A few miles to the north of Loamhedge was a huge abyss a couple of miles wide and hundred's of miles deep. Inside this abyss was the Kingdom of Malkariss. The ruler of Malkariss was a rat named Toletum. Toletum was the latest in a long line of rat rulers to rule Malkariss. The rats of Malkariss hadn't bothered King Lennox for some seasons. Then all of a sudden their attacks had started. King Lennox had lost five patrols to the rats and four more had been attacked. It's about time someone did something about Malkariss Lennox thought happily. This was the excuse he was looking for. King Lennox turned around to address his vermin

"Vermin of Loamhedge" He announced "The rats of Malkariss have hurt us for too long. It is high time something was done to repay them for attacking the Kingdom of Loamhedge. I'm going to give you a week to prepare; Smaug should be healed by then. After a week the Kingdom of Loamhedge marches to war."

King Lennox finished his speech and walked back up to the abbey to get his stuff ready amid wild cheering from his vermin army.