Author note
Waycaster: Yeah, I decided to try to put a few more of the storyline chapters side by side so that the readers would have a chance to wrap their heads around what's going on without it suddenly jumping someplace else. XD
The Grey Coincidence: I know, I can't resist putting at least a little *action* in there every now and then. XD Yeah, as for Lord Nightwrath, we shall wait and see… Thanks! I had a lot of fun creating IronDeep in my mind. Hopefully I managed to show a piece of it to you guys in a way that you all thought was cool.
If Lord Nightwrath did decide to kill them I- Actually wait! Maybe I'll let you read and find out for yourself… ;-D
Yup! While Tragg was gone I was hoping to squeeze in a bit more of Flugg and Rosebud. I might want to give Elmblade and Rones their own chapter sometime… *Shrugs* Whenever it fits I guess. :-D
Firestar the Warrior: Thanks! I was hoping to give all of my awesome readers an idea of how I myself imagine some of *my* little world. So I'm glad that you found IronDeep interesting.
Seakard: Thank you, Seakard!
Abrahem: Wow! Three reviews at once! I'm honored! Yup, Martin fading will impact the story a bit more down the road. Great guess by the way about Dunagan being Abe's dad. However, the two are roughly the same age (Dunagan being a little bit older) so it might not be completely accurate. (Though chances aregood that they might be related somehow….Or not. Who knows? XD
Another good guess for Lord Nightwrath. We'll just have to wait and see…
JP fanfic: Thanks! I'm glad that you like them!
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IRONDEEP
"Psst! Hey, Rosebud, could ye open up?"
Flugg stood next to Rosebud's door as he continued to knock on it lightly with one paw and a lighted torch in the other.
The young shrew was taking by surprise when the door was suddenly swung open by Rosebud. She now stood with paws on her hips and gave Flugg an irritated glance. "What do ye want?"
"Err…I can't seem tae find mae rapier anywhere." Flugg said, glancing down at the stone floor. The small pebble by his footpaw was suddenly looking very interesting indeed.
Rosebud sighed and was just about to roll her eyes and ask him why in the world would she know where his rapier was? Wasn't he supposed to take care of it? But before she did, she paused. Flugg was probably worried sick that his dad would find out that he had lost his only weapon. So instead, she asked, "Where do ye remember havin' it last?"
"Well…I know I 'ad it when we entered IronDeep, but then I can't really remember if I had it or not after that. I'm pretty sure that I wasn't stupid enough tae take it out o' mae belt 'n' leave it lying some place, but I jus' can't find it anywhere!"
"Maybe Rones or Elmblade have seen it and picked it up for ye already. Did ye leave it in th' Trainin' Hall?"
"I…don't know… I might've," Flugg said, shrugging his shoulders. "I was going tae try retrace our steps down tae th' Dining Hall. If I'm not back by th' time Dad and Elmblade come back, would ye mind tellin' 'em where I went?"
Rosebud looked rather skeptic. "I don't think ye should jus' wander around 'ere lookin' until your rapier jumps out at ye, Flugg. Maybe ye should wait for the others tae come back."
Flugg shook his head. "They've been gone for a half 'n hour! Who knows when they'll be finished?! Besides, I want tae find it afore they get back."
Rosebud still wasn't sure if it was a great idea, but she gave her cousin a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Alright. But ye better 'urry. Rones won't be too pleased if he finds out ye're gone."
"Okay." Flugg said, clearly relieved. "Thanks, Rose. I owe ye one."
"Hmm…Ye bet ye do," she grinned, shaking her head. "Do ye think ye kin remember th' way back?"
"O' course," Flugg replied, giving her a wink. "I ne'er get lost."
When Rosebud fixed him with another skeptic look, Flugg shrugged. "Okay," he grinned, "I might get lost every now 'n' then. But even if I get lost, this mountain seems tae 'ave lots o' moles running about so I'll jus' ask one o' them for 'elp."
"Okay, I'll guess I'll see ye soon then. – Hopefully with your rapier as well."
Flugg gave her a quick wave then darted down the tunnel.
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Okay, I'm definitely lost, Flugg thought to himself as he walked down yet another of the long dark tunnels.
How are there even so many bloody tunnels in this mountain in the first place?!
He had been wandering for what felt like hours already and he hadn't found anything that looked familiar in any way. (Though all of the tunnels did look the same in the first place)
He had already been exhausted from walking all day, but now, he almost had to drag himself along.
Did these moles have to make ten new tunnels every day or something?
Flugg was getting extremely annoyed. His rapier was missing, he was dead tired, and it looked like his torch was beginning to flicker out. And out here in the silence, he couldn't help but wonder how Tragg was doing. A tear slowly made its way down his cheek. Would he ever see Tragg again?
"Enough!" Flugg growled to himself. "Tragg is fine! Ye're fine! Everything is fine! Ye'll find your way out, Flugg. Ye ju's 'ave tae use your brain that's all."
Any hope that he had left was suddenly crushed as his torch's flame gave one final flicker and died out, leaving the young shrew in complete darkness.
"Oh great," Flugg grumbled aloud. "Hello? Kin anybeast 'ear me?!" …HELLO!?"
He began to panic and started to run as fast as he could through the pitch black tunnel.
"HELLOOOO!? Stupid tunnels! Stupid torch! Stupid rapier! Is fate going out o' its way jus' tae make mae life miserable!?"
He continued running forward until the inevitable happened; he ran face first into a hard wall.
"HELLOOO– Ow!" Falling over backwards, he clutched his nose and forehead. Both had been smashed quite painfully against the hard surface of whatever it was that he had just run into.
Mumbling under his breath, he stood up and felt the wall that he had crashed into. He was shocked to find out that it wasn't a wall at all! It was a door!
"Well finally!"
After a good deal of grasping and feeling around, he lifted the long board that was kept the door locked.
As he walked out, he blinked his eyes as the sunlight suddenly hit him. Flugg had never loved the smell of fresh air as much as he did now.
"Ach! I wonder why Lord Nightwrath didnae 'ave any guards around keeping watch 'round 'ere." Flugg thought aloud to himself.
Flugg didn't know it, but IronDeep was such a large place that whole sections of tunnels and caverns were lost or abandoned by the warrior moles. As fate would have it, the young shrew had accidently stumbled in one of these old tunnels, which explained why he hadn't run into any moles as he wandered through the corridors.
Flugg looked about and realized that he was somewhere in the same valley that they had first arrived in. Following the sound of the running water he spotted the swift flowing river, he ran up to it and started drinking as much of the cool fresh water in loud gulps.
"Now what do we 'ave 'ere?"
Flugg was instantly grabbed by the back of the neck by a pair of strong claws, fighting desperately for air, he managed to spin around and came face to face with his attacker.
The creature holding him with the iron grip was a large rat. Behind him was a small group of vermin, armed with a wide variety of weapons and different sized whips.
The young shrew remembered one of Rones' lessons and he immediately went as limp as possible.
Once the rat had relaxed his hold on his neck, Flugg brought both of his paws up and smashed them in both of the vermin's eyes.
"EEEHAARG!" The rat let go of him and stumbled backward, pawing at his eyes. "Th' scum scratched me eyes out! Grunner, get th' piece o' filth!"
As the weasel Grunner jumped forward at Flugg with a growl, the shrew dived off into the stream and started to swim as fast as he could. He desperately hoped that none of the vermin would be able to swim.
His head suddenly was smashed under water as Grunner dove in after him and tackled him, making them both go under.
Flugg tried his best to push the weasel away, but apparently Grunner was quite experienced at fighting in the water and held the shrew tight to him with one arm, while he used the other to keep himself afloat.
"Give up, shrew!" The vermin spat as the shrews head bobbed up out of the water.
"Over mae dead body!" Flugg yelled back, trying to break out of the vermin's hold.
Two of the other vermin leapt in the water and dragged them both out of the river.
"This one's a born fighter. I'll give 'im that," the rat that Flugg had punched growled, still rubbing one of his swollen eyes.
"Keep a weary eye on 'im, Grunner, or yew might take 'is place among th' slaves.
Flugg let his head fall forward in defeat. He was captured by slavers and it appeared that he wasn't going to be able to get away any time soon.
This day could not get any worse!
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BERTVAR'S UNDERGROUND CAMP
Could this get any worse? Tragg thought angrily to himself. He and Dunagan had tried several times already to lure a guard over so that they could try to steal a weapon, but every time they tried, another vermin guard walked over with him.
Tragg was losing his patience very fast. Why couldn't the stupid guards leave each other alone for three minutes? Glancing over at Dunagan, the shrew whispered, "Dunagan, should we jus' call this plan off and wait for later? It doesn't seem tae be workin' very well."
The hedgehog slave shook his head. "No. I heard one of the guards say something about not having to worry about most of the slaves for long because a boat or something is supposed to come soon to pick us up."
After glancing around and checking that none of the beasts around them were spying on them, Tragg said, "I guess we'll jus' 'ave tae try extra 'ard now. Any more ideas on 'ow tae lure one o' th' stinking guards over? Or 'ow tae distract th' rest o' 'em when we do get out o' our ropes?"
Dunagan shook his head. "No, I haven't th- Hey!" The hedgehog suddenly pointed at something on Tragg's belt. "What is that?"
"Oh this?" Tragg glanced down and untied the small tinderbox from his belt. "This is mae tinderbox. Mae father gave it tae me. He said I would need it if I ever 'ad tae start a fire. Why do ye ask?"
For the first time in a long time, Dunagan felt a sliver of hope that they both just might be able to escape the slavers. "I think I might have an idea." The hedgehog replied. "It might just be crazy enough to work."
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Bertvar the Slavemaster was calmly eating a nice lunch of roasted sparrow when one of his ferret guards burst in.
"Fire! There's a fire!"
Bertvar swiftly jumped out of his seat, knocking his chair backwards. "Where's the fire at? What blundering idiot started it?!"
"W-we don't know 'ow it got started, somebeast must've dropped a candle or something by th' tents 'cause that's where th' fire is. It's not that big but th' others said t' tell yew."
The wolf pushed the ferret aside and barged out of the tent. By the time he made it to his guards' tents the fire had already been mostly put out. He scanned the underground cavern to take full stock of any damage that might've already been done. That was when he noticed the burnt ropes lying where Tragg and Dunagan were supposed to be tied.
"Did anybeast move the shrew and the hedgehog from where they were tied?" Bertvar asked a couple of guards who were still beating out the remains of the flames with wet blankets.
"No, sir," one of the rats said as all of the vermin shook their heads. "We 'aven't seen 'em since th' fire started."
It instantly dawned on Bertvar just how a fire would randomly start in the middle of his camp: Some of the slaves were trying to escape!
"Migro! Kelpfur! Gather a score of beasts and secure the rest of the slaves! Five of you stay here and beat on the last bits of the fire. The rest of you come with me. We have some slave hunting to do."
The wolf dropped down to the ground and started sniffing for a scent trail. The smells were a bit jumbled up because of all the beasts that had been running about minutes before, yet Bertvar tracking skills were legendary among the Northern slaver bands.
Bertvar suddenly lifted his head and gave a loud howl that echo throughout the underground caverns.
"ARH-WOOOOOOOO!"
The hunt had begun.
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"I think ye're plan is working so far, Dunagan," Tragg gasped as he and the hedgehog slave ran as fast as they could through the tunnels. "I jus' 'ope we kin find an exit afore Bertvar catches wind o' what we did."
Dunagan managed to smile as he panted, "Yeah, I don't think that scumbag will be too pleased. I wonder if they put out the fire that we started yet."
"I don't know. I 'ope th' vermin won't ever catch up tae us tae tell us whether they did or not."
The tunnels that the two escapers were running through had been designed to confuse creatures that didn't know their way around. Thus, Tragg and Dunagan could have been going around in circles for all they knew. The only thing they had to guide them was a small torch that Dunagan had made.
Tragg's ears suddenly picked up the faint sound of Bertvar's howl rippling through the underground caverns. "Ach," The young shrew groaned. "I think they figured out tha' we left."
Dunagan gave a glance backward down the tunnel. "I think you're right, my friend. Let's make those scoundrels choke on our dust!"
Pausing only to gasp for air, the two creatures ran.
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Grunner commanded for Flugg's paws to be tied and to blindfold him with a smelly rag as he led the band of slavers back to their master's camp.
Flugg gave a surprised grunt as he was shoved roughly through – what he guessed to be a tunnel since he could feel the warm sunlight above him getting cut off.
All I wanted was to find my rapier, he thought glumly. I wonder if Rones has gotten a search party to look for me yet. I hope they're not too worried about me.
He was suddenly jerked back as the whole vermin group stopped dead in their tracks.
"What's that?" One of the vermin asked. – Flugg recognized the voice as the rat who had first attacked him. "It kinda sounds like Bert's howling, is th' camp under attack 'r something?"
Grunner shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. But whatever it is, we should probably 'urry back 'n' see what's th' problem, or Bert will 'ave our guts 'n' eyeballs fer decorations."
They shoved Flugg along as they continued their fast pace through the tunnels. Just as they went around a bend, the first two vermin slammed into Tragg and Dunagan as the came charging from around the corner.
It was hard to say who was more surprised, the vermin or the escaping slaves.
"'Ey! What are yew two doing out of yer ropes?" One of the weasels growled, nursing his bruised jaw. "I think I know why Bert's howlin'. These scum must be tryin' t' escape!"
The weasel gave a painful squeal as Dunagan bashed his fist into his nose. Tragg leapt forward and knocked over the rat who was holding the vermin group's one and only torch. The whole tunnel exploded in chaos as it went completely dark.
"Where did those slaves go? Don't let 'em get away, boys!"
"Aye! Bert will probably give us extra rations if we capture 'em."
"I got one!"
"That's me, yew block-'ead! Let go o' me foot!"
"AARGH," a vermin squealed, "somebeast just stabbed me in th' footpaw!"
"Where are those dang woodlanders!?"
In all of the darkness and confusion, Flugg managed to crawl right up to his cousin.
"Tragg? Is that really ye?" Flugg asked, feeling Tragg's face with his tied paws. "We weren't sure if ye were even alive!"
"Flugg!" Tragg cried, wrapping his cousin in a bear hug, "I missed ye! Where's my sister 'n' th' others? Are they still lookin' for me?"
"Enough!" Dunagan's voice hissed as he punched somebeasts face in the dark. "You lads can both talk later. We all need to go now while all these vermin are busy!"
Tragg cut the ropes holding Flugg's paws together with a knife that he found on the floor. Then, holding paws so that they wouldn't get separated, the trio pushed themselves back through the tunnel, as far away from jumbling mess of vermin punching and screaming at each other as they tried desperately to find them.
Grunner finally managed to find the torch and lit it, the flickering flame finally lighting up the tunnel.
Vermin who had moments before mistaken each other for the enemy and fought tooth and nail got off each other and rubbed their wounds, glancing around for any sight of their prisoners.
"Where'd those slaves go?" A stoat asked, spitting out a broken fang.
Grunner was just about to whack the stoat on the head for asking such an obvious question, when he suddenly heard the sound of many creatures charging toward them.
"Quick!" Grunner growled urgently. "Get rid o' that light, it might be more slaves tryin' t' escape."
Holding his spear at ready, Grunner crept forward. He was knocked head over tail as Bertvar the Slavemaster crashed into him. Since he was four times the size of normal beasts, the wolf had been running down the tunnel with his head down. Thus, he didn't see Grunner until he knocked him flying.
Bertvar reached down and helped the weasel onto his footpaws. The wolf's eyes narrowed as he asked, "Grunner, weren't you supposed to collect more slaves?"
"Ye-y-yes, sir. I did. B-b-but I lost them when two of th' escapin' slaves put out our torch-"
"So the slaves did pass this way." The wolf stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Hmm…" Pointing at one of the ferrets, he snapped, "Go back to camp and fetch any other of the spare soldiers. Grunner, you and your group shall come with me. And remember; I have a reputation that none of my slaves have ever escaped. So it would be very bad for you if I thought that any of you were slacking at all."
All of the vermin shook their heads nervously.
"We won't slack on th' job, Bertvar."
"Yeah, we'll fetch th' slaves fer yew."
"Just lead th' way 'n' we'll follow!"
Bertvar gave them a cold, yet half-amused looking smile. "I know you will," the wolf declared, "Because if you don't, I'll kill the lot of you."
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Footnote
This chapter's mood kinda swung up and down a bit, going from light-hearted to peril then to an even deeper peril XD but it was fun to write. As always, please read and review! And I shall *see* you next chapter!