"So when is this going to happen?", Baldur asked, swinging his hammer down onto the rock.
"Tonight would be as good a time as any, provided you two can fire the barracks.", Renart said, looking at Aleu and Nivalis.
"This is crazy, we'll never succeed at this ludicrous endeavor.", the weasel said, his fingers clattering nervously on the handle of his mallet.
"Quiet, vermin!", one of the hare guards shouted, cracking a whip over their heads.
"If we succeed in setting the barracks on fire, then what?", Aleu asked, lowering her voice.
"You and Nivalis get over here and unlock our quarters, then we attempt to sneak to the fat one's office and retrieve our weapons.", Oro answered. "Then we fight until the last enemy is dead or we've all been slain."
"You two!", a black-eared hare shouted, gesturing towards Aleu and Nivalis with his javelin. "Corporal Lutra wants you!"
"Tonight then?", Oro whispered. Aleu nodded as she turned to face the hare.
"Pick up your paws lazy vermin!", the hare snapped, cracking a whip. The two followed after him quickly.
"Sit, please.", Lutra said gently, but firmly as the two prisoners enter the classroom. Aleu and Nivalis complied, sitting next to one another. "Now today…", she began, trailing off as she saw the commandant standing at the door, motioning for her. "I shall return shortly.", she told the two vermin, before walking over to the hare. After the two stepped out into the hallway and shut the door, Aleu leaned over to her weasel companion.
"So, are you ready for tonight?", she asked.
"No.", Nivalis answered nervously.
"Apologies for the delay.", Lutra said as she opened the door. "Now this is…", she began turning towards the chalkboard.
"So what do you suppose we'll do once we're out of here?", Baldur asked quietly.
"Not be here.", Oro answered bluntly.
"I'd go home, if it were still there.", Renart sighed sadly.
"Hopefully, if those two are successful, we'll be able to get some revenge soon.", Oro said, looking towards the hare's barracks, eyes glinting fiercely. He gripped his hammer tighter and swung downwards, cracking a piece of stone.
"Good.", Lutra said as she looked down the writing her two charges had produced. "Now, answer this.", she said, writing an equation on the chalkboard.
What are we going to do about her?, Aleu asked herself as she looked up at the otter. Suddenly yellow filled her vision and she closed her eyes. She breathed in sharply as her surroundings faded away, replaced by the bow of a ship, the sea spraying up around her as a cool breeze blew through her fur.
"Uh…Aleu?", Nivalis asked in a hushed whisper.
"Hm?", the she-wolf responded, snapping out of her trance. Noticing Lutra looking back at her, she hastily began scribbling on the parchment in front of her.
"Alright you lot, sun's going down, back to your cells!", a black-pelted hare bellowed, cracking his whip into the air.
Oh, how I shall enjoy killing that longear, Oro thought as he shouldered his mallet.
"Ah, moi pattes.", Renart groaned as the hares escorted them to their quarters. Setting their tools down beside the barred door, they entered the spartan shelter next to the pit where they worked. The door clanged closed behind them as the hares locked them in.
"Now I suppose we wait for our little friends to show up.", Baldur mused. Oro grunted in affirmation as he struck a stone against a piece of flint, grinning slightly as a blade slowly began to take shape.
"What do you plan to do, should you survive?", Oro asked, not looking up from his work.
"I would go back to my practice in the city, if were still there.", Renart replied, sighing sadly.
"And you?", the polecat asked, flaking more bits of flint from the edge of his knife.
"I'd return to my farm and village, had the woodlanders not burned them down.", Baldur growled, clenching his paw into a fist.
"Well I suppose we shall be able to avenge recent slights soon.", Oro said, running his thumb along the edge of his newly minted knife, grinning ever so slightly as blood appeared on the blade.
"Return them to their quarters.", Lutra ordered.
"Yes Ma'am!", Private Plumm said, saluting with his baton. "You heard the corporal, march!" Aleu and Nivalis stood up from their seats and followed the squirrel out of the room. The two vermin followed the bushy-tailed rodent as he whistled a merry tune. They arrived at their cell and waited as Plumm turned to the door to unlock it.
I could pounce on him right now, Aleu thought she stared at the squirrel's back as he fumble for the key. No, best stick to the plan.
"In you go.", Private Plumm said, pointing into the cell with his baton. Aleu and Nivalis walked into the cell. "Good night.", he said, before turning and walking out of sight.
"Well this simplifies matters.", Aleu said, gesturing to the shackles on the wall.
"When are w-we going?", Nivalis asked nerously.
"After it gets dark.", Aleu said, seating on her bunk.