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Waycaster, you are right. I'll have to do something with Tharius, and probably change a lot of things about the villains.

Book II! I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. Kidding, I didn't even enjoy writing that. Well I did enjoy writing it until the very end. Shout your War-Cries begins...

Now!

Salamandastron

General Tenac arrived at the infirmary, clutching his stomach.

"Eeeergh. I don't feel so great," said the hare, vomiting into a trash can.

The hare healer, Madame Rhys, wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, what a pong! Here lay down on that bed and tell me wot's been happening."

The hare obediently followed her instructions. "I've been feeling like this since last night, a bit after I came to that fox- oh, no! The fiend's poisoned me!"

Rhys looked at him. "Didn't his lordship say the fox tried the stuff himself?"

Tenac put his hand on his forehead. "Oooh! He tried some of Brawblade's! Not mine! Aargh!"

Rhys dabbed his sweating forehead and asked, "Why? I mean, he should have gone after the badger. Maybe it's a different kind of poison. What if it spreads to the rest of us. What if he gave you a sickness?"

"Oh, if that's true you're in trouble. But how in the name of Brock did you figure that out so fast?"

Rhys shrugged. "I always believe the worst, that way I'm prepared. I may be wrong, but it definitely looks like you got a right terrible fever, wot!"

Tenac groaned as she put some yarrow tincture across forehead. "Wot if it's a disease, and the whole mountain- Eeeergh!" The hare leaned over the bed and vomited again into the trash can.

Rhys sighed. "I told you, I'm always prepared. I have plenty of herbs for this. The only things I couldn't cure would be Dryditch, Mortifer's, or Norvis, and it would be impossible for that fox to get one of those."

Tenac sighed, feeling a bit better, then more thoughts came to his head. "Well, wot if it's some new disease, or maybe it's just poison, wot wot!"

Rhys shrugged. "I don't know. Anything could go wrong. Mayhaps it's just an unlikely and strong fever that you got at the wrong time."

"Well, I need to do somethin'! Wot if I don't survive! Wot if it is Dry Pit, or Morty's fur, or Novice."

"Then, my friend we are in trouble." Rhys said it so calmly that the hardened General felt fear run through him.

Tenac looked at the older hare. He had been in scores of battles against vicious searats, corsair vermin that would kill their comrades. Slaves dead from exhaustion. Comrades with their guts ripped out. He always assumed the healers were the weak ones. But now he realized they were the strongest of all the hares on the mountain.

Then he vomited again.

ooooooooooooooo

Branos Tuffqwill was a very strong hedgehog. Powerful and sturdy, and with high morale, the slavemasters whole-heartedly enjoyed that he would do whatever they asked, no questions. The result was they built a cage to keep a starved, weak prisoner in, not a strong one. But as Branos seemed loyal to them, they didn't care, not realizing the hedgehog would help the other slaves if they asked.

Dedclaw Slavemaster realized this too late. He found a gaping hole in the prison cage, and all the slaves were missing. Fear on his face, he turned to his weasel goons. "Traz, Alca, yer the best trackers. Find them!"

The two weasels nodded obediently and began pointing out tracks. "'Ere they're a bit deeper, coz they were carryin' the otters. It looks like they were on their way seaward, then would travel 'till they reached the mountain."

The rat growled. "Well, catch 'em, or the queen'll 'ave our 'eads!" The weasels ran off on his orders. Realizing it was dangerous to stay at the crime scene, Dedclaw ran after them. They walked along the shore, Traz and Alca in front. Dedclaw held his whip at the ready. "The slaves can't've gone too far. We'll catch'em soon. There, do you see that mob?"

Alca had the keenest eyes of any of the weasels. He squinted, "Aye, those're the sla-"

The rat and weasels ran hard, stampeding Alca. The weasel rolled to the side and got up, following them.

Two otter slaves holding Verane between them began running faster, as did the ones holding Marko. Branos easily out ran the others, many meters ahead. Though the hedgehog had short legs, he ran swiftly, almost to Salamandastron.

A score of arrows came from in front of them, killing three slaves and two weasels. A third force, that of vermin that were not blue, something that Branos had never seen except with Grimfur's crew, were coming towards them.

Voices came: "Silvertung! Silvertung! Victory's in sight! Silvertung! Silvertung! We will win this fight!"

"Aaaah! They've got us cornered!" shouted a mouse slave, then an arrow pierced her throat.

Marko turned his head. Dedclaw and his goons were running the opposite direction now, though Alca was far behind, with a limp.

The vermin surrounded them and killed a few, though most refrained from it. Two grabbed Alca and lifted him up.

The leader of the vermin, a pine marten, took out a rope. Tying it to their paws, he said, "Ye are prisoners of the Silvertung Empire. Ye will do as ye are ordered, or ye shall die."

The slaves, with the exception of Branos, and Alca gave a groan of dispair. It looked like they were on their way to freedom, but so quickly they had been recaptured.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire," sighed Marko.

ooooooooooooooooo

Two young hares, Trav and Miran had came to Rhys with the same symptoms of General Tenac, confirming Rhys's theory of a disease. The mountain was in a state of turmoil. A disease!

Rhys was worried it was Mortifer's or Dryditch. They were very similar, at least at the very beginning. Unless they are given immediate care, Mortifer's would kill them by the end of the day, and if they got proper care, then at maximum three days. They both had one cure, Icetor Flowers, which Rhys did not have, and they could not journey to the North Mountains in time.

A hare, Captain X. Fabian, poked his head in the infirmary. "Dirgy feels funny, so do the De Mayne twins. Should I send 'em?"

Stressed, Rhys replied, "Yes! We need to contain it so it doesn't spread!"

"Yes, madame! Fingers crossed it's not Dry Pit or Morty's fur, wot!"

The usually calm hare madame had an angry look on her face. "Captain, by now I'm hoping it is Dryditch, because it's one of the two and Mortifer's is much, much worse!"

The color drained from Fabian's face. "Yes, yes, Madame. I'll go get Dirgy, and the twins as well."

"Go, then! NOW!"

Nodding, the hare ran off. Shaking her head, Rhys went about dabbing foreheads with Yarrow tincture. "Oh, no. What will happen to us?"

ooooooooooooooooo

Brawblade paced around his chamber, biting his pawnails. What were they to do? As much as he hated it, that fox was right. No doubt he had something to do with this sickness, yes, they had never seen vermin like him.

The badger picked up a chair in his anger and threw it, smashing it against the rock wall. This sickness was spreading fast. Tenac, Trav, Miran, Dirgy, the De Mayne twins, Albert, Benedict. Rhys could keep them alive, at least that's what it seemed at the moment. But what about when she got sick? It was bound to happen, and then what would happen? And if it was Mortifer's, and not Dryditch?

They need a solution, they needed one fast. Wordlessly he walked through Salamandastron to the chamber where many badger lords had been before him. Going through ancient carvings made long ago, he felt worried about many things.