SALAMANDASTRON
Rockfur, Colonel Brewster, and Urthblaze had barely left the mountain when Brewser's ears shot up.
"I say, wot. Do you hear that?"
"You know I don't hear as well as you, Brewster, my ears aren't as big yours." Rockfur chuckled.
Cocking his ears in the direction of the noise, Brewster's face turn from puzzlement to outrage.
"Someone's fighting one of our patrols, sah. I hear them."
Rockfur instantly started barking out orders. "Brewster, run and go get reinforcements. And tell them to grab my sword. Honestly, the one time I'm without my sword vermin have to attack."
Seizing a large log that was lying in the sand, the badgerlord broke it in two. Handing one of the ends to Urthblaze he ordered, "Urthblaze, you come with me."
"Ha, just try stopping me," The young warrior replied, gritting his teeth.
The two badgers charged off in the direction where Brewster had pointed to, while the Colonel hared off toward the mountain.
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Sergeant One-ear gave a painful yelp as a cutlass grazed his left arm. Swinging up his rapier, he sliced open the vermin's leg. He finished of the white-furred ermine with a downward thrust.
"Aaaah!" A voice suddenly cried out from behind the sergeant.
One-ear whirled around to see the cadet Charlie fall to the ground as a white fox knocked him over with a mighty spear thrust.
Dashing over with a speed that only a hare of the Long Patrol could beat, The sergeant slashed through the fox's neck.
The fox merely made a gurgling sound and slowly fell to the ground, never to rise again.
"Come on, laddie buck," The Sergeant said, holding out a paw. "We need to get to the mountain before we all get slaughtered."
After One-ear was sure that the young hare was alright, he quickly glanced around to see how the rest of the patrol was holding out.
Once the hares had heard One-ear calling the retreat, the patrol (or what was left of it anyways) had quickly slashed and smashed their way through the vermin lines. But the vermin were relentless, Eight hares had already fallen to them so far, and One-ear wanted to make sure that nobeast else in his patrol would be added to that number.
One-ear had sent a group of five of the swiftest hares to try and get reinforcements, and now they were already so far ahead that One-ear couldn't see them anymore. Though he knew that might not be too comforting because anything could have happened to them in the thick fog.
One-ear barely managed to block a spear thrust from one of the ermine as he stumbled over a rock.
He felt pain shoot like white fire through his wounded arm as it slammed painfully on a hard rock. Gritting his teeth, he automatically started blocking blows with his rapier, as he struggled to regain his balance.
Suddenly, there was a mighty roar and the ermine who he had been fighting with was suddenly smashed aside with what appeared to be a large log.
"Eulaliaaaaaaaaa!"
One-ear gasped as he saw Rockfur's blood red eyes. The badgerlord wasn't the old, calm wise badger that One-ear had known only a day ago. Now, he was the legendary, battle crazed warrior that had made all vermin who had ever seen him tremble in their boots.
The badgerlord swung his battered log swiftly to his right and One-ear grimaced as he heard the sound of wood meeting flesh as a fox was hit full in the chest by the swinging weapon.
The sergeant suddenly turned to see if any vermin might have tried sneaking up on him while he had been watching Rockfur. Instead, One-ear saw the large shape of Urthblaze tearing through a small group of ermine who immediately took off running when they saw the two battle-hungry badgers.
"Help me!" A voice cried out close beside One-ear. The sergeant's eyes grazed the shore until he saw the shape of a young female hare writhing on the ground in pain.
Dashing up, the sergeant turned the wounded cadet over to see if he could stop the blood from flowing out of the wound. His heart almost stopped as he recognized the hare.
"Alright now, Amber, just hang on. I'll take care of you."
"Father, Is that you?" The cadet asked, squinting he eyes up at One-eye.
The worried sergeant ripped a piece off of one of his sleeves as he replied, "Yes, it's me, Amber. Just hold this cloth right there." He said, indicating where she should hold the cloth.
He anxiously looked around for somebeast who might be able to help his daughter. Seeing a group of hares not far away, he yelled, "Hey! Somebeast call for Doc!" He then turned his attention back to taking care of Amber, as he waited for Doc (the patrol's medic) to arrive.
He didn't have to wait long. Running up,the healer instantly dropped to the injured cadet's side.
"You two," he commanded, pointing to two hares, "Help me take her back to the mountain."
He grabbed One-ear's shoulder as the sergeant tried to follow them.
"I've got her," Doc said. "Now go and take charge of your patrol."
As One-ear opened his mouth to argue, Doc interrupted, "Listen, I'll take good care of her, but how do you think she'll feel if she knew good hares died because you were too busy getting in our way, instead of leading your patrol to safety?"
Realizing the wisdom in his words, One-ear gripped Doc by the shoulder.
"Take good care of her, Doc. Please."
"I will. Now let me do what I do best and then you should go an' do what you do best. Eh wot?"
"Okay." Picking his rapier up with his uninjured hand, he left to gather the rest of his patrol.
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Rockfur had felt the Bloodwrath seize him the moment he had seen a pair of vermin soldiers ganging up on one of his hares.
Charging forward with an unearthly roar, he crushed the two gray rats where they stood with one swipe of his broken log. He then charged off through the foggy battle ground, looking for fresh enemies.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Urthblaze wreaking havoc with his own weapon, a long iron spear that he had picked up from one of the fallen vermin.
His blood red eyes shot in front of him as he caught the sign of large fox charging toward him. He roared with pure fury as the fox's sword managed to graze his arm. Grabbing the fox's blade with one hand, not even feeling the sharp edge, he smashed the vermin's skull with his fist.
Ten gray rats led by an ermine suddenly materialized from the fog before him. He gave a mighty roar and charged, club raised.
The vermin backed off, terror clear in their eyes, as they saw the badgerlord thundering across the sand toward them. One of them, the leading ermine, slunk back and once Rockfur had charged through the rats, the ermine leapt on to the badgerlord's back, slashing and slicing with a long dirk.
Rockfur gritted his teeth as he tried to flip the ermine off his back, however, once his attention shifted to the vermin on his back the group of grey rats tried swamping him.
He gave a beserk cry of pain as one of the rat's blades struck home. His knees started to collapse as the weight of the vermin began pulling him to the ground. His blood red vision starting to go dim, then suddenly, he heard a savage roar as he felt the heavy bodies of the grey rats pulled of him, one by one.
Giving a grunt, he heaved upward with all of his might, tearing through the vermin piled on top of him with his mighty claws, fangs, and just plain brute strength.
As he finally managed to stand up, he came face to face with Urthblaze, the young badger's eyes burned with a furious flame similar to his own. Giving Urthblaze a thankful nod, he grabbed one of the grey rats by the arm and swung him straight into two other vermin.
They both stood there for a second, gasping for breath as their gazes swept over the shore, looking for new enemies. The only vermin that were in sight, however, were the still forms of the dead.
Rockfur noticed that Urthblaze's eyes had changed from the fiery red to a light pink, since it was obvious that there were no more enemies to fight. He also could feel the bloodwrath leaving him slowly, like the winter wind giving into the spring.
Without the bloodwrath coursing through his veins, Rockfur began to feel the pain from his wounds that, until now, had been easy to ignore.
He fell to his knees, gazing up into the morning sky. The fog had finally begun to clear, and the badgerlord could make out sea gulls flying high above them, oblivious so far to the fight that had taken place right beneath them.
"Lord Rockfur!" A voice called out not far from the badgerlord. The voice was quickly followed by the sound of Sergeant One-ear running up with a few other patrollers.
"I say. Are you two okay?"
Rockfur gave a weary glance at the sergeant. "Oh, never better, sergeant. Was that all the vermin?"
"As far as we could see there might be a whole lot more behind the rocks, sir. But we'll need to help escort the wounded back to Salamandastron."
Urthblaze gave the outcrop of rocks a glance that would've burned through a solid anvil. "Lord Rockfur, I think I recognize these savages. They might be the same ones that had ambushed and killed my grandfather not long ago. And as far as I know, they travel in fleets of massive white ships."
"So you mean this might only be the bally beginning," One-ear asked with disbelief.
Urthblaze didn't reply. He just stood there, staring at the rocks, his fingers gripping the handle of his weapon tightly.
"It sure looks that way, One-ear," Rockfur said. Noticing Urthblaze, he walked up to the young warrior and put a comforting paw on his shoulder. "Now listen, lad. I know you want to go over there right now and tear those heartless vermin that killed your grandfather to shreds, but like the sergeant said, we need to get the wounded back to the mountain. You'll get your chance to avenge your loved ones."
Urthblaze let out a sigh. "I guess you're right." And with one last glance toward the rocks, he followed the rest back toward the mountain.
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They ran into the reinforcements led by Colonel Brewster on their way back to the mountain. The troops of fresh hares helped the exhausted warriors by carrying the wounded, and giving them make-shift bandages until they made it to the fortress.
Once they had returned safely inside Salamandastron, Rockfur ordered all the wounded to report to the mountain's infirmary. Then, he called for all the head officers to meet in the main hall.
Rockfur sat at the head of the table. Sitting on either side of him were Colonel Brewster and Sergeant One-ear.
"So… What do we know so far about these new raiders?" Rockfur asked the assembled creatures.
"Well... I think I recognized the grey rats," One-ear said, "They were very similar to the ones that we were ambushed by not long ago, even though, technically, it could have been a different gang."
"Shouldn't you be in the infirmary with the rest, my lord?" Colonel Brewster asked. "You've barely had your wounds checked since you've gotten back."
"Oh balderdash, Colonel," Rockfur replied, waving a dismissive paw. "There are others who need the medical attention far more than I do."
"But you're our master," Brewster countered. "What would we do if you bally well fell over dead from your wounds when we needed you the most, wot?"
"I'm sure you'd do fine." The badgerlord replied. "Now, let's get back to the main topic. What to do about these vermin? Does anybeast have any idea how many vermin we might be dealing with?"
The room went silent as the hares glanced to and fro at each other, hoping that one of them might be able to answer the question.
One-ear raised a paw. "I had gone on a patrol once in the Northlands when we had come across this old crazed rabbit. He was a pretty strange creature (to say the bally least) and one of the things he wouldn't stop babbling about was that he had seen massive armies of white and grey that were powerful enough to cover the Northlands in war. At the time we had just thought it was another one of the poor fellow's ramblings. Because, after all, it was pretty clear that the chap wasn't all right in the head, but now I wonder if he might've been right about 'em. And if he was, that means that there could be quite a few of the flipping cads."
"Then we'll just have to start preparing the mountain for a siege then." Rockfur declared. He rose from his chair and began giving the officers of the Long Patrol their orders. "Colonel Brewster, I want you to double the guards and prepare the troops for battle! Sergeant One-ear, take ten of our best scouts and check the surrounding area and see if the rumors of this massive vermin army is true. Corporal Thistlepaw, tell the cook that we might be under a siege soon and to gather as much food as he can. And tell the new recruits to report to my forge room to select their weapons."
As the badgerlord turned to leave, One-ear came running up.
"My lord, I was wondering if it would be alright if I went alone to scout out for the vermin. Because I don't think five hares would make that much difference in a fight, and the extra numbers would only make it harder to slip in unnoticed."
Rockfur didn't look completely certain that it was a good idea to let the sergeant scout the vermin alone. Finally, after much thought, the badgerlord sighed, "Alright, you may go alone. But be careful."
"Of course, sah," One-ear replied. Before he left, he added with a wink, "After all, you know me. Careful is my middle name. Wot."
Rockfur merely gave the sergeant an amused grunt as he left to prepare his mountain for a siege.
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"I wonder how long we need to guard here?" Charlie asked. "I want to see how Amber is doing."
"I'm sure she's fine," Eric replied. "After all, we've only been up here for roughly ten minutes. Most of the time we have to stay for at least an hour or two."
"Hmp," Charlie grunted as he continued pacing back and forth.
When Colonel Brewster had told the young hare that he was going to be on guard duty, the young cadet had almost flat-out refused, he had said that he needed to watch over Amber until she had gotten better. But then, Amber had declared that she would be perfectly fine, and that he had better do what the colonel said or else she would crawl out of her bed and go do it herself.
So that was why he was pacing impatiently by one of the mountain's windows instead of pacing back and forth in the infirmary.
"Why are the cadets even on bloomin' guard duty anyway," Charlie grumbled. "We never jolly well had to before. Wot."
Eric rolled his eyes. "For the last time, Colonel said that all the green recruits had to start learning real quick how to be proper Long Patrollers, which means that if you weren't guarding then you'd be gathering food, training, or findin' rubble to block any of the entrances with, so relax."
Ha! Easy for you t' say. Your best friend isn't down in th' infirmary with a mortal wound, wot"
"Listen, while I was down there getting you I checked on her and she didn't have a 'mortal wound' as you put it. Why, Ben the healer said she'd be right as rain as long as she gets a lot of rest, and I don't think you pacing back and forth wouldn't be helping her any."
"I suppose," Charlie admitted. "Still, I hope our replacements hurry up and come."
Eric threw his hands up in defeat. "Why did I have to get stuck with you of all hares for a blooming hour of guard duty, wot?"
"I guess you were just lucky," Charlie replied, a ghost of a smile on his face.
Eric scoffed, then turned his head to peer out of the window. He squinted his eyes as he detected movement on the horizon.
"What is it?" Charlie asked once he noticed Eric's expression change.
"I'm not sure."
The two hares gazed out toward the movement, trying their best to decipher what it could be.
"It kinda looks like a cloud." Charlie declared, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to bring moister back to them.
"It's either a very large cloud that decided to kiss the earth, or…" Eric squinted once again, "It's the dust rising from a marching army." he stepped back from the window and began running. As he ran he called to Charlie from over shoulder, "Whatever it is we'd better tell Lord Rockfur right away."
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Author notes
Phew! This is the longest chapter I've written so far, hope you guys liked it. Once again, thank you to everyone who've reviewed, and for those of you who haven't, SHAME ON YOU! ;)( Just kidding) Thank you to all of you for taking your time and reading my book. (I hope you'll all enjoy it)
~Sebias of Redwall~