Chapter Three
"OPEN THE GATES! OPEN THE GATES! VICTORY! VICTORYYY!!!"
Horty opened the main gates and a few hares came bounding in, whooping and cartwheeling. The young and old hares gathered around anxiously, asking them what had happened outside. The fighting hares were babbling joyfully like idiots, and with everybeast talking at the same time, it was impossible to tell what was going on.
Horty, too impatient to try to get anything out of those foolish hares, raced out of the gates to find out what happened.
And there he was met by the most unexpected sight!
Not only were there Salamandastron hares cheering loudly, but also a whole army of woodlanders!
The young hare felt his eyes grow round as he surveyed the scene. There were mice, squirrels, otters, shrews and hedgehogs all around, mingling with the hares, all of them bearing weapons, chanting, "Victory! Victory!"
Where did they all come from?
Horty made his way down the stairs to the crowd of cheering woodlanders.
He saw some of the young hares waved over at him, shouting, "Horty! Horty! We won! The vermin are beat! We won!"
Horty walked over to them so that he could hear them better. "What happened?" he shouted over the cheering. "Where did all these woodlanders come from?"
"You won't believe this Horty," shouted one of the hares over the din, "but just as the vermin got off their ships and started charging at us, right behind them from the hills sprang all these woodlanders! Almost as if they popped out of the jolly blinkin' sand! So the vermin were bein' attacked from the front and back, y'see. The vermin were so surprised by this that they didn't have time to fight back! None from our side died!"
Horty was, to say the least, surprised, but greatly pleased, but then his face crumbled. "It seems as though my staying inside the mountain was a waste of time, then. I could have been out here fighting alongside you all."
The other hares exchanged glances; rather nervous glances. "Um, well, yes, well, I suppose. . . ."
"Say you know something strange?" blurted one of the hares. "We were all surprised by the woodlander's arrival but Lord Windblade looked as though he had been expecting them. Strange, wot?"
Horty fixed the hare with his piercing stare. "He was expecting them?"
The hare looked as though he wished he hadn't spoken. "Well, er. . . ."
Horty looked sharply at the other hares, who shuffled their feet and avoided his gaze. "Where's Windblade? I want to speak with him."
"Uh, he's over there with the woodlander's leader . . . Wait!"
Horty had headed over to where the Badger Lord was. The other hares followed him closely. "Horty, wait! We've got something to tell you!"
But the young hare was not listening.
He was watching Windblade shaking paws with the leader of the woodlanders. Horty could only see the leader from the back; and judging by the big, hefty, brown-furred tail, it was an otter.
The Bagder Lord looked up to see the young hare.
His eyes widened momentarily.
The woodlander leader turned to look at Horty.
Horty's eyes widened.
It wasn't an otter.
It wasn't any kind of woodlander.
It was a vermin.
It was a ferret.
Horty turned on his heel and headed back into the mountain.
