Special Battle Tactic: Tunneling
Tale of the Lost Tunneler
Shadowstone: Okay, one story; then it's bedtime for all of you. I will tell you about a distant relative of mine, a young tunneler named Rabbitfoot, who lived in the very early time of the Clans, before the Humans created the road that cuts CloudClan off from the rest of the forest. Without the stinking trail of cars to divide them, and a few clear territory markers on the empty hillside, SunClan and CloudClan were forever bickering and squabbling about where the boundary should lie. Finally, after you another CloudClan patrol ignored SunClan's border marks, the two great Clans confronted each other on the moor for a deciding battle, Beechstar, the SunClan Leader, signaled to his Clanmates that they should use the feigned retreat and ambush against their squirrel-eating foes. Rabbitfoot, who was pale gray with a bushy white tail like a rabbit's, was one of the tunneling cats who crawled into a burrow, ready to attack the enemy as they crossed over his head. He figured that if hr followed the tunnels farther down the hillside, he could come up on the far side of the enemy and attack them from behind at the same time his Clanmates appeared in the middle of their ranks.
As Rabbitfoot tunneled, he heard the SunClan Warriors begin to charge and retreat above him, their paw steps echoing like thunder through the ground. However, CloudClan held steady, ignoring the insults hurled at them. Rabbitfoot kept going, right underneath the line of CloudClan Warriors. All at once, the ground shuddered above him! The enemy had finally taken the bait and was charging after the retreating SunClan Warriors. Rabbitfoot twisted and turned along narrow black tunnels, looking for one that would take him back to the surface so that he can launch his own attack. However, he had never burrowed this deep before, and the pawsteps thudding aboveground confused him until he knew he was continuously walking in circle. He was utterly lost.
Rabbitfoot forced himself to stand still in the cold, empty dark, and waited until his senses told him the way to go. He felt a cool breeze hit his flank, carrying a faint scent of rabbit. A breeze on its own can signify nothing more than a long, steep, non-climbable tunnel reaching further underground; but combined with the rabbit scent, it suggested that Rabbitfoot was close to the surface. He headed back in the direction that he came, staying quiet and scenting the air at every few pawsteps. The breeze on his face led him down a small side tunnel, where the darkness began to fade to a light gray. He was nearly aboveground again!
Suddenly, there was a scrabbling noise behind him and an earsplitting yelp bounced off the rocky walls. There was a dog in the dark tunnels! Peering over his right shoulder, Rabbitfoot caught glimpse of gray and white fur, a blunted muzzle, and glistening brown eyes before he pushed off with his hindlegs and ran as fast as he could. The tunnel twisted and turned, making him lose his balance more than once as he scrambled to change direction. He could feel the dog's hot breath on his haunches and flecks of saliva splattered his back. However, the gray light was growing brighter ahead of him, pulling him on, and giving him extra speed to his tired paws.
The sky burst open in front of him and Rabbitfoot hurled himself out of the mouth of the tunnel, springing with all four paws off the ground.
However, Rabbitfoot didn't land with familiar prickly grass under his paws. Instead, he hung in midair, trapped in a mesh net that smelled strongly of Humans and rabbits. A Human face appeared beside him, shouting so loud that Rabbitfoot tried to shrink through the holes until he was swinging on his belly with his head twisted up at an angel. Behind him, to his horror, he saw a pile of dead rabbits, their necks broken. This was no tempting pile of prey; the Human must have killed them when his dog chased them into the net.
Rabbitfoot was not used to giving up. He rolled onto his side and wrenched his paws clear of the net. Then he sank his claws into the course brown threads and ripped hard. One of his claws was torn out and blood sprang from his left paw, making the dog circle madly on the ground below him.
The Human bellowed and shook the net; Rabbitfoot clung with his claws and hauled at the net until he felt it start to give way. He thrust down with his hindlegs as hard as he could, and the net split open beneath him, spilling him onto the grass.
The dog pounced, but Rabbitfoot had already leaped up and was racing across the grass. He was on the far side of the moor from the camp, but there was a ditch beyond the next hill rise that would lead him around the peak of the hill to just below the circle of gorse bushes that sheltered the dens.
For several heartbeats, the dog chased him; Rabbitfoot considered whether he should find a burrow to hide in, but decided that he might get lost again – and besides, the dog was rather small enough to follow him, as he had already found out. Just as he thought his legs would give way due to exhaustion, the Human shouted and Rabbitfoot heard the dog slide to a halt behind him. With a reluctant whine, it spun around and trotted back to the Human.
Rabbitfoot's thoughts: Mouse-brained, fox-hearted, badger-breathed, useless dog!
"Rabbitfoot skidded over the top of the rise and down into the ditch. Gathering his paws beneath him, he headed to the camp, still running flat out," said Shadowstone.
Rabbitfoot's thoughts: You'd better hope that Human lets you share his kill, because you're too dumb to catch your own prey.
Shadowstone: Well, I think that's enough. Bed, all of you! Moreover, when you wake up tomorrow, practice those battle skills. As the story proves, our battle skills serve us equally well in times of peace, giving us strength and cunning to outwit Humans and dogs, and other creatures too dumb to know the skill of their enemies. Rabbitfoot never surrendered, and didn't let courage abandon him even when he was corned by a dog in a place where dogs weren't supposed to be. Aboveground or belowground, SunClan cats don't give up as easily as the other Clans think. There have been no easy victories against SunClan Warriors, nor will there ever be.