Tobiah and Clancy stayed as low to the ground as they could as they moved along. Clancy was larger than Tobiah, but not by much, so he was the only other rat that was ideal for this job. They shuffled along the ground with ease, their dark coats would hide them in this rain, and their scent and footsteps too. They tried scenting out any sentries in the trees, but if there were any, they weren't doing a very good job.
Clancy and Tobiah managed to make it to the edge of a clearing without being spotted by anyone, and it was here they discovered who the others were. Sitting around a now-struggling fire were six Tyrants, obvious by the many weapons and bones they possessed. They were talking, deeply. It was not a social event.

"Do you think they're tracking the party?" Clancy whispered to Tobiah.
Tobiah nodded, trying to catch anything the Tyrants were saying. "They might be just a rag-tag party."
The two rats stayed under the foliage for a while, trying to catch any sign of what the Tyrants intended to do.

"Should we leave and let Calamity know?" Clancy asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we should try and see who they are."

"I don't think that's a good idea. We've been here far too long. They might catch our-,"
Tobiah quickly had put his paw over Clancy's mouth. One of the Tyrants' ears had pricked up, and they had started to stand slowly. When the fire-light caught the Tyrant's face, Tobiah put all his energy into not gasping.

"It's Mace." Tobiah said almost as quietly as the hiss of rain around them. Clancy's black eyes widened.

"Okay, now we should definitely go back." Clancy said, and this time, Tobiah agreed. They waited until Mace had sat down again, seemingly satisfied with knowing there was no one there, then they turned slowly and shuffled away into the dark, back to Calamity to deliver the news.

Cal had told her father to call a halt for a few minutes, until she heard back from Tobiah. She was perched in the highest branches of a canopy when Tobiah returned, panting and shaking.

"Toby, what happened?" Cal asked, grabbing the small rodents' paw.

"We were…it's…it's ty…" the panicked rodent either had rain or tears in his eyes, Cal couldn't tell.

"Tyrants?" Cal asked quietly.
Tobiah nodded. "But they've got…they've got Mace. He almost saw us. We…we don't know what he's doing here." Toby shuddered once more. Calamity ignored the vault in her stomach, and swallowed her fear.

"I'm going down to tell my father. How many tyrants were there?"

"We could see six."

Cal nodded. "My father might be able to take them into custody. But we have to move fast. I'll tell Buck, you tell the guards and scouts."
The two mammals split ways. Calamity leaped and grabbed onto a vine, swinging and sliding down to the ground. She let go, and rolled when she landed, coming to her feet without any injury. She raced towards a group of ferrets and weasels she recognised. Buck was among them, all sitting silently in the rain, conserving their energy for the march ahead. Buck stood when he saw his daughter approaching.

"What's the news?" Buck asked, the ferrets and weasels around him standing as well.

"Toby spotted six Tyrants, one of them was Mace."
Buck made a fist and swore quietly.

"There was only six?" he asked. Cal nodded.

"We can take them, Buck." Adrian said. Buck's mouth twitched.

"If we take 'em in, their fellow's migh' be onto us. Then we'll be fightin' off Tyrants and leadin' the newbies through the jungle."
There was a silence.

"So…kill them?" asked one of the ferrets.

"No," Buck said immediately. Cal could tell he wanted to imprison the Tyrants, but she also knew he was right about the other a hundred or so Tyrants trying to claim Mace and Co. back.

"We could just knock them out, tie them up, and gag them." She said. "We could hoist them high into a tree, unconscious. If we make it back to the village fast enough, we could race back out and take them back, if the others haven't found them first."
Buck thought about it, then nodded with a sigh.

"It's no' ideal, but it'll have to do. Good thinkin' princess. What do ya think, Adrian?" Buck turned to the steel grey, who almost moulded into the grey around him.

"It's probably our only decent option." Adrian shrugged. "We'll go with it."

"Alrigh', we'll have Lucy on hand for medic, jus' incase. Now, ge' five more ferrets."
When they'd all grabbed weapons, rope, and gathered some more attackers, Buck, Jai, Adrian, Cal, six ferrets and the largest of the rats started following Tobiah through the undergrowth with Lucy following closely. The rain had started to fade, and the heavy scent of dirt and moisture hung in cool air. It only took a few minutes for them to reach the edge of the clearing, where the fire sat.
But no weasels.
Calamity swore, and Buck stood up, searching the trees for any movement. He managed to jump out of the way as a small knife came whizzing down from a nearby branch. Calamity leaped and pushed her brother out of the way before a thorned whip scraped the air where he'd been. All hell broke loose after that.
The Tyrants leaped out of the trees, yelling as they attacked. Ferrets, weasels and a rat screamed and yelled as knives scratched and swords scraped. Calamity kicked a gangly Tyrant ferret in the back, and sent him sprawling in the mud. She leaped at him, but he rolled out of the way. He tried swinging a crudely made club at her, but she crawled out of the way in time, and then rolled to her feet.

"Bitches think you could trick us." Growled the ferret.

"Bitches outnumber the bastards." Calamity responded, and swung her spear the block his club. Freeing a paw, she scratched at the ferrets eyes. He screamed and backed away, shaking his head.
Jai came up behind him and bashed at his head with a stone. The ferret dropped.
It didn't take long to take out the others. There was far more Under-grounders than Tyrants, and their surprise attack hadn't gone as planned.

Buck ordered for them to be tied up separately, and to clip their claws. He personally saw to Mace.

"We clearly underestimate you, Buck." The older weasel grumbled, just managing to stay conscious.

"The las' time you attacked me, you were worse off for a while after, if I recall." Buck said, doing a devils snare on the older weasels bonds. Buck stepped back and stared down at Mace disapprovingly.

"Yeah, well you were always truly vicious, ya just didn't want to admit it."

"Says the one who tried t' take someone else's children." Buck snorted.

"Regal's children." Mace said with a growl. Buck couldn't help but punch the old psycho. Mace spat out a tooth while Buck shook his paw to rid the feeling of contact.

"My children, thank you very much."

_ .Twelve hours later._

Coal was tired. His back and legs ached, his head swam with little sleep and lack of food, his feet were blistered and cracked, his fur musky and un-kept, his wits far gone. He couldn't understand how the Under-grounders could do it. The under-grounders had been swapping there raptors with above-grounders, and walking in their place, to make up for time. But they hadn't stopped. At all. If you need the toilet, you would have to quickly go, then catch up. If you needed food, you ran ahead to find some then wait for the party. Buck's children seemed to be doing this constantly, but they were the youngest travellers, and were excused because of their growing bodies. Coal noticed another thing that separated the Under-grounders from the above-grounders, and that was the body build. Coal himself and the other lords or higher ranked weasels were quite a lot larger around the middle, to say it lightly. He'd seen some of the ferret warriors and rat scout sniggering when some of Coal's lords were panting and wilting with the effort of walking do far, and the rats put their arms out to make the impression of a big belly, wobbling along, while the others laughed.
Coal watched the Under-grounders, who seemed to be much more used to travelling these distances, for they still walked with alert ears and eyes, straight backs and still had their wits about them. They were not groaning like Coal's people, did not complain, and did not call for a halt. Buck seemed determined to get them to the village as fast as possible. When Coal asked him why he would rather complaining, slow and hungry under-grounders, to a fair and restful trip to the village, Buck smiled and said,

"Because the longer we're out 'ere, the more risk there is o' bein' eaten."
Coal found that a fair point, and said nothing more of it. Buck himself was currently walking, and watching his girl child, Calamity, jumping across branches up high, or further on. He walked with confidence, and his knife slung over his shoulder.
Calamity dropped down next to Buck not long later, and passed him a large spotted fruit.

"Thanks kiddo." Buck said.

"I saw that shimmering stream again." Calamity told her father excitedly, walking backwards to face him. "One of the great eucalyptus has fallen over. That dead white one that had been standing there for ages. And there was a dried carcass not too far away."

"Anythin' no' dead?" Buck asked through a mouthful of fruit. Calamity shook her head. "Good," buck said, and swallowed. "We're no' too far away now."
Coal's ears pricked up at this, and he had a small bolt of energy, relieved that the trip would be over soon.

"Another day's walk, an' we'll be home." Buck said. Coal's ears dropped, and the energy dissipated. A day was a long time.
Jai suddenly appeared next to Coal, a far calmer weasel than his sister.

"Sir?" the young weasel asked, and Coal looked at him with a chuckle.

"Aren't you a polite fellow? What is it, boy?"

"Why do the other call you Lord Coal?" Jai asked.

"Because I'm head of the council. I hold a lot of weasels and lands."

"Wait, so you own other weasels?" Jai asked, a little horrified.

"Gods no, boy, I just have them working for me. Collecting food and cleaning my home."

"Why don't you just keep it clean?" Jai asked, and Coal frowned at the question. Before he could think of a decent answer, he was saved by a call from Buck.

"Jai, come 'ere kid."

"Sorry, I have to go." Jai said, running forward. Coal gave a sigh of relief. He wasn't sure what to say to that last question. He heard a dark chuckle behind him, and turned to find Adrian walking with a thin and angry looking raptor behind him.

"Jai bothering you, is he?" The steel asked.

"Not at all, but he is a curious fellow, isn't he?"

"Buck's the same, just in a less timid way. There will be no 'sir' at the start, just the question, and then a jape about it later. You can't see it, but he really is listening, and remembers almost everything you would have said. Calamity too. She'll ask you later why you hold lands, and then remember what you said." Adrian said, nodding towards the family. Jai and Calamity were listening to their father, then both children nodded, and ran off in opposite directions through the underbrush.

"That's a rare gift." Coal said with admiration.

"It's a pain in the ass. They'll use it against you if need be. You have to be careful what you say around them."
Adrian said this all light-heartedly, but Coal still frowned at the thought of having to watch his tongue.

"Do you not hold lands yourselves?" Coal asked, thinking back on what Adrian had said earlier.

"No. Why would we need to? We don't have lands because we find food ourselves, or trade our skills for others to find it. We don't hold them because most of the burrows are made in the same areas, and we don't steal someone else's burrow because the ground is soft enough to dig one for ourselves easily, or we ask help from others. We don't have lords, we just have council members who are chosen because of their wisdom and skill." Adrian explained easily. He seemed to have the answer to everything, like he'd thought about it before.

"So Buck is not a lord?" Coal asked, looking at the spotted wonder walking ahead of him quite a way away. It made sense. The weasel didn't seem lord material.
Adrian laughed quietly. "Gods no. Buck just has to much power."

"But why?" Coal asked, confused at everything. How could this place survive without order, without higher class, middle class and lower class? Adrian took a little longer trying to answer this one. Finally he grinned, and said,

"Because he's the craziest."

Finally seeing the gates was a huge relief. By this time, Coal could barely keep his feet going, and even the Under-grounders were drooping slightly. A call rang from the top of the gates, followed by the groaning and cracking sounds as the gates were opened before them. The party seemed to hurry more, a new energy of the end finally nearing throbbed through them and lifted their spirits. When they made their way past the gates and into the village, Coal was looking about in wonder. How did anyone manage to have a village among the tree and rocks? It wasn't like there was a line between outside the village and inside, if the gates weren't there. It wasn't crazy jungle and then *pop* cleared land with stores nestled in orderly rows. There was burrows, and stores made of wooden and stone huts, but they moulded into the jungle, making them hard to see. Coal even saw some huts, bridges and hammocks high in the tree tops. The scariest thing, however, was the way the weasels appeared. It was much like when Coal's party met buck's for the first time. They seemed to mould out of the shadows, appearing from behind trees, rocks and logs. But however it didn't look like a village, it sure sounded like one. The hustle and bustle sounded tremendous compared to the travellers' silence.
There was cries and clapping as they walked down the centre of what looked to be a miniature canyon. Coal was in awe as he turned around and around, seeing new things every time he looked. It was incredible. He'd been scared at first, but now he simply was taken away at the beauty of the place.
Buck was watching him, chuckling at his reaction.

"Welcome t' the village, Lord Coal." Buck said to him, steering his raptor down the centre of the village towards the south end. It only took a few minutes to get to the large council chamber that was built and carved into the
south part of the village, the very end of the canyon. Compared to the rest of the burrows or chambers, it was colossal. Three times the size of the East council chamber, made of both dirt and rock. It had huge opening in the top and along the north facing wall, to let in spectacular light that filtered through thin petrified tree roots that created window panes in the openings. The darkest spot was at the back of the chamber, where it was deeper in the back of the canyon. Up the stairs and onto the raised stage stood all the council members, major and minor, of the different skills and trades.

Calamity gave a small wave to Abu, the biggest of the council members. He sneakily gave her a wink back, and smiled. Cal then turned her attention to Coal and the other Above-grounders, who were gathering in the large chamber. The rat scouts and ferret warriors of the Under-grounders had already dispersed once they came through the gates, and were replaced with weasel, ferret, and rat village guards, who had escorted the party the rest of the way. You never know what could have jumped out of the shadows. The Under-grounders didn't have to guard Under-grounders, usually. But the Above-grounders, to Calamity, seemed useless in the knowledge of protecting themselves apart from the few that were guards or warriors. And even they were average.

"Welcome, our sister village members of the Above-ground world." Said Shanae, who stepped forward from the line. "We're glad to have you here. I hope our council member Buck treated you well. I'm not too concerned about Lucy and Adrian." She said, and the council room chuckled together, Buck pulling the rude finger at Shanae.

"Down boy." Said Lucy with a laugh.

"We're glad to be here, finally." Coal responded, and everyone laughed together again.

"We'll have some members show you to your accommodation. And then once you're rested and revived, we'll have a welcome party." Shanae said.

"That won't be necessary, miss." Coal said politely.

"Umm, but it is." Buck said.
Shanae shook her head with a smile. "If there's any excuse for these creatures to party, they'll party. Now, go have some rest."
With cheers and applause following them, the Above-grounders left the chamber.

Hope you guys enjoyed! I'm trying to catch the magic of the village from an outsiders perspective! ;P