The Tunnels Far Underground

Erzvin the Scholar and Zeela the healer were sitting, backs to the rock wall, whimpering. Their son, gone! All were with them, except Ilia the squirrel, who had gone off to scout.

Rivertunnel otter put a paw on their shoulder. "'Tis not over yet. Mayhaps only the entrance caved in, not all of it."

Zeela's shoulders were shaking. "What about air? You can't live without it!"

The big otter shrugged. "Sometimes there's a little pocket of air you can hold on to."

Darrow and Tinsel were next to the foxes, comforting them. Sister Chamomile was shivering from the damp cold and of fear. Bungle the mole was digging at the rock wall, trying to get through.

"Hurr, Oi jus' moight make et! Dig a bit more..."

Ilia the squirrel returned, the only excited one. Holding a second torch up, she said, "Hey, hey! I just found a place where the floor keeps going upward, and it may be a way it!"

The fox parents looked up at her tears streaming down their faces, glaring at the squirrel, dampening her cheery attitude. However Sister Chamomile quickly got up and started running down the paths.

"Hurr, Oi made et!" came Bungle's voice from the other side of the rock wall.

Erzvin and Zeela's haste to get through the hole outmatched Chamomile's run. Scrambling through the hole, they breathed sighs of relief, glad that air was in the cave.

Rivertunnel followed them in, but Darrow and Tinsel got stuck. "Aaah, 'tis the curse of bein' Wiltud!" called Darrow. Climbing out, he said, "Mebbe we should foller Ilia and Chamomile, would that be good?" When Erzvin nodded, they ran off through the paths.

"Whew!" called Erzvin, relief running through his body. "Let's go find our son!"

oooooooooooooo

Mervo was running even faster than before, his legs a blur. Through the pathways, spurred on by the wisps of magic. During his run he tried to piece together what Arbor told him.

So he wanted to take down Iro's empire because it was corrupt, and then organize a new nation. Okay. He planned to make part of the empire against the rest. But he didn't know how to do anything, or who would be against the rest. Then a pine marten called Igeyorhm traveled from another world... what does that mean? Maybe we're one of a series of many worlds? Hmm... But in Igeyorhm's world vermin like her were evil... why did Arbor trust her, if he knew she was evil? Maybe she bended the truth a bit... But she could use mind control somehow. So they gave Iro an idea, then controlled Xeymar to bend the idea. Aaargh! Scummy badger! So then they used magic, and all us... vermin... became evil.

Bah! And the all-cure? What's that even supposed to mean? And Hodbar mine? What am I-"

"Aaaaaah!" Mervo tripped and fell in the pitch black cave, down a hole in the floor.

The young fox looked up. Just before he lost consciousness he saw four armor-clad moles walking slowly towards him.

oooooooooooooo

Chamomile kissed the ground as she surfaced. "Oh joy! Oh, we're free!"

Ilia chuckled. She was the more sensible cousin to Holly, and cheerier. "Whew! 'Tis good to be out of that dreary cave!"

Darrow chuckled. "Aye. But look around. We're in the middle of Mossflower, I have no clue where we are. Looks a bit like we're a while south."

Tinsel nodded. "Aye, the south. But what do we do? Head north, or..."

"Oooooooooooooooooooh,

We're free! We're free!

We're free from tyranny!

Oh, We've come a long way,

We've done many things,

We were once slaves,

But now look, we're free!

We're free! We're free!

We're free from tyranny!

The whip hits yer back!

Ye're carryin' somethin' heavy!

Yer gittin' food for another beast!

But now we don't have to endure these things...

Because we're free!

We're free! We're free!

We're free from tyranny!

Hundreds of woodlanders, with a few scatterings of vermin we're prancing through the woods, singing merrily. In front of them was a young otter and weasel. The weasel came up to the four and held out his paw. "Hello. My name is Bluenose, we're the Foufs. Freed Ones United For Southsward, y'see. Have you heard of a Vafir Silvertung? We've sworn revenge on him."

Redwall

The remains of Weaseltail's group returned to Redwall in a poor state. Griv failed to notice this, and called out, "Where's my food?"

A brawny ferret called Bludtail seemed to have taken control of the group. He threw a basket with the four fish they caught before the pike had attacked at Griv's feet.

The wolverine ravenously and messily devoured all four fish, blood over his face, then growled at the ferret. "Any more? An' wot 'appened to Weaseltail?"

"Weaseltail's dead," replied the ferret.

Griv shrugged. "Wot about food? That river should have been teemin' wid fish."

A rat behind Bludtail said, "Well ye could say dat..."

Griv growled at the rat, silencing him. Returning to Bludtail, he said, "Tomorrow I want ye to go back out an' git me sum more fish, an' birds, too."

The wolverine stalked off. Firak, who noticed the group's poor affair, walked up to Bludtail. "Wot's 'appened?"

The ferret sighed. "'Twas goin' good, then a monster pike attacked us! Killed poor Ragclaw an' Dedlug an' Weaseltail, and a bunch o' others."

Firak bit his lip. "Hmmm... An' Griv didn't even seem to notice, 'cept fer Weaseltail. We lost sum good mateys today. 'Ow big wuz dis pike?"

"Massive! He ate over a score of us, an' he's still 'ungry! An' we 'ave to go back tomorrow!"

Firak growled. He used to look up to the wolverine leader, but comparing him to Emperor Silvertung, he realized the fox was much better. "Hmmm... I t'ink we need to do sumthin' 'bout Griv Beastcrusher..."