Daybreak came fast and early the next day, with light sunbeams playfully chasing off the night sky, the sun bathed the dawn with bright flashes of quivering gold and flaming orange, some reflecting off the thick white clouds, it was a kaleidoscope of colors. Larks and woodpigeons huffily trilled the first notes of their morning songs unleashing a rapture of noise in the surrounding area.
Foremole Redlin commented,
"Gurt noisy burdbags, hurr"
Squirrels were on the path in front of the abbey, checking bows and quivers while a few of them made sure that the canteens of oil some squirrels were carrying were secure. In a joint mission between Weoflun and Shade, both had decided that for the a more quicker and less deadly, for them, attack, only squirrels will be part of the strike. Both knew what to do and were experienced in coordinating joint forces. Abbot Taegan was also there, making sure there was an ample supply of whatever they needed. When all was done and packed, he spoke to Weoflun and Shade,
"Good luck and give them something to think about."
The squirrel leaders tipped their heads in acknowledgment and bounded off into the trees along with their commands. All that could be heard was the rustling of leaves as the squirrels bounded from tree to tree in the direction of Saint Ninians.
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The camp at Saint Ninians was quiet with horde beasts snuffling in their sleep, with campfires at ember stages, it was the perfect time for a surprise attack. In the background, outlines of the battering trunks and the siege ladder were clearly visible in the early morning sky. As the squirrel strike force arrived at the camp, they saw that all was silent, taking a quick time to revise their plans slightly, Lady Weoflun and Commander Shade was discussing quietly on how this should be approached,
"We should slip quietly deep into the camp and kill the Zan and his captains, the horde will be leaderless and disorganized by the time they wake up."
"Nay, ve should go to de siege veapons and soak dem mitt oil as it vas our original plan, ve vill take care of de leaders after."
"Ok, how about this we split the squad into two and we each take care of our objectives."
"Gutt, lets do it nov b'vore de horde vakes up."
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Lady Weoflun slowly crept her way between the soldiers, as did the rest of her command, treading quietly they reached the siege weapons. As the squirrels with the oil flasks unpacked their cargo, Lady Weoflun nodded for them to continue with their work, the rest stood guard, bows at the ready. The others started to soak the rams and ladder with oil, making sure they get multiple layers of grease into the wooden frames.
Commander Shade was with his command, also tip pawing quietly between hordebeasts, he signaled to the others
Take out daggers, slice the throat of any captain you see, be careful
They all responded with a wave of their paws and went slowly to take out their targets. Throughout the area, muffled sounds of metal slicing flesh and choked sounds of death.
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Zan was twitching in his bed, from a fevered dream he was having. Screams of agonized pain echoed throughout his mind, his captains rising from the ground, hides decaying, fur matting off, flesh extruding a rotten odor. Their throats were slit deeply yet they were making a moaning sound that was unnatural. Then bodies of all the woodlanders he killed had also risen up and just stared at him with deathly intensity. Never have felt this type of panic in the longest time, he tried to throw his daggers at them, but all it did was just pierce their body with no signs of even noticing the attack. They just kept staring at him with those dead eyes, the chilling dead stare. Suddenly he was facing himself, except it was like a color negative and his clone was armed with a bow. As he raised his bow up, Zan saw that there was an arrow on it, panic flashed in his eyes, as the clone paws let go of the string with a ominous twang.
Zan shot up from his bed like a rocket breathing heavily, sweat drenching his brow and the covers. As he got up, he noticed a beats holding a dagger ready to kill, but Zan was faster, he whipped out his dagger and gored his assailant in the eye. The squirrel screamed aloud in pain as his eye was destroyed by the dagger, blood was leaking from the socket in rivers. Zan snarled and brandished the dagger at the squirrel's heart. He died instantly without a sound more.
The squirrel's scream had wakened the entire camp and the hordebeasts noticed the squirrels in their midst, both sides froze. The Zan came rushing out of his tent shouting,
"GET THEM!!!"
As the vermin flourished their blades, Commander Shade's command ran out towards the siege weapons. A voice shouted,
"FIRE!"
A dozen vermin went down, but the rest of the horde continued irregardless, brave by numbers. Lady Weoflun had her squirrels fire again before deciding to make a tactical retreat. As she signaled to back off, the squirrels vaulted into the trees and retreated. Most of the vermin stopped after the squirrels had retreated, but a score of so, seeking to become captains continued on into the woods.
They ran for a little while before stopping. Suddenly several screams rang out, as the vermin ran to investigate, more screams were heard. As they stopped to look, they were then confronted with a gruesome scene; several of the vermin had fallen to the woodland traps.
A dead stoat was caught in the embrace of a wooden trap with spikes facing inward, he was pierced from both sides at chest height with blood leaking from his gaping wounds, a pool of blood filling up the pit he was in. Another victim was a ferret whose head was hiding under a hefty log that had bloody white bond shards scattered about. Then there was the rat who's face got smashed in by a rock after stepping on a tripwire and another victim was a weasel who got impaled by a sharpened stake, blood from him was seeping around the shaft and rolling down his body in fat drops.
Now the vermin were afraid to take one step more as half their number had already died from the traps. A squirrel asked Lady Weoflun,
"Marm, should we put them out of their misery?"
Weoflun looked down at the vermin from her position, making her decision,
"No, let dem stay dere, dey have no vhere to go, if dey try to step a pav in eider direction dey vill be dead anyvays. Let dem put deir ovn misery out."
She made her way through the tree limbs back in the direction of the abbey and her squirrels followed suit, none of them feeling pity or sorrow for the trapped vermin.