Burrum the hedgehog was leisurely making his way down the beach at the edge of Mossflower Woods collecting his slingstones. Every season, he left a collection of rough stones at the edge of the water. By the time the season ended, every stone would have been worn smooth by the constant tides and could fly faster and truer than any other in Mossflower. Hanging from Burrum's grass-woven belt was an eelskin sling, skinned off of a river eel during a visit to the pygmy shrews annual elver feast. Burrum could hit a midge from twenty feet with his sling, and everybeast in the forest admired his talent and accuracy.

Burrum picked up one of his slingstones off of the beach. Smooth as glass, and as round as could be. Letting out a small grunt of satisfaction, he dropped the stone into the small pouch that kept his sling company on his belt. He was trudging through the sand to the next stash of stones when he heard a faint moan.

Burrum looked to the right and froze. His first thought was that a shark had washed up on the beach, but his mind dismissed it out of hand- sharks couldn't moan. However, the dark figure lying sprawled over the sand could easily have been as big as a shark- it would've been taller than a badger had it been standing up.

If it could stand up, that is. Burrum still had no idea what the dark figure was.

"Hello?" Burrum called, his voice quavering. Cautiously edging closer to the prone figure, Burrum pulled out his sling and slid one of his best slingstones inside the pouch. Slowly tip-toeing closer, he gently nudged the beast with his footpaw.

There was a profound lack of movement.

Spikes bristling in fear, Burrum nudged the mysterious beast again, this time noticing the strange-looking belt around its waist and the gargantuan war axe attached to it.

The beast refused to move.

Mustering all of his courage, Burrum leaned over and pressed his ear to the gaunt creature's ribs, determined to find out whether this mysterious beast was alive or not.

Suddenly, the beast planted his paws into the sand, rising up on his footpaws. Burrum let out a squeak of fear as he scrambled backwards, his trembling paws dropping his sling.

Burrum could see now that this beast was a male otter- though he was massive, more than twice the size of any otter Burrum had ever seen. Though Burrum could easily count the giant otter's ribs through his fur, he had no doubt that this huge beast could pound him into the ground like a nail. Or chop him in half with the massive war axe at his waist, whichever thought occurred to him first.

The huge otter drew in a massive breath, his gaunt ribs expanding. Then, louder than anything Burrum had ever heard, he roared, "ANDOOOOOOOOR!"

Then with that, he collapsed back into the sand. Burrum swore he could feel a tremor running through the ground as the giant otter fell.

Burrum, trembling from eartip to footpaw, shakily slid closer to the giant otter. Sliding a worn water skin out of his pouch, he made his way over to the otter. Terrified as he was, he had never known any otter to be bad, and wanted to help despite his fear.

"Yur a great warrior, aren't yeh?" Burrum spoke as he tilted the otter's head to face the sky. He carefully dribbled some water into the otter's slightly open mouth. The otter, Burrum noticed, did have his own water skin on his scaly-looking belt, but it was flatter than a sheet of parchment and obviously didn't have any moisture in it.

After the otter had swallowed the water, Burrum sat down next to the strange beast. While he looked more than capable of defending himself, Burrum didn't like the thought of leaving him alone, despite his initial terror. He didn't trust some band of vermin to come across the unconscious otter or drag him to their camp for their own uses, or, worse, kill him on the spot.

"It's jus' you and me now, ain't it?" Burrum muttered, more to himself than the unconscious otter. Pulling a lump of greensap cheese out of his pouch, he watched the rippling water turn a gentle shade of sunset orange as he waited for the otter to wake.