Chapter 9: Brawl in Paris
"Over there! The gates of Paris!"
"Aye, girl. These ruins mark the end of our time together"
"Hey, are you crying?"
"I'm sorry. I'm too old to go against cap'n Desiree and her gang. To be honest, I'm scared! Curse my failing body and my age! I'm forced to stand and watch Oliver's daughter being delivered to the wolves"
"No, Sugar Ray! You've helped me plenty! Don't worry, I already have a plan to free myself and my friends, one that will make you hold your breath in awe!"
The dreadful hour came, when the river hulk entered Paris. The human captain had followed the schedule to the letter, his old ship plied the Sienne trade route all the way from Le Havre and now expected to dock at the riverfront with the first morning lights just like he had done it every week for the last ten years of his life. His very boring life.
Desiree D'allure, in a totally opposite mood, blew a kiss on the direction of that reliable human. "According to plan, everything goes according to plan!" She happily sang as she turned around and made her way back to the rodent compartments.
The human crew navigated through the jam-packed waters with steel nerves and great skill. An accident so close to the goal line would be devastating. Devastating to other ships, of course, as this river hulk was as slow and sturdy as a siege ram. Some caution wasn't out of order, though, as that morning more than a dozen other merchant ships were racing to the market harbor to secure a good spot to unload their cargo.
But this captain wasn't in a hurry. Years ago, his father - and previous captain - had come to an arrangement with the riverfront officials to secure a nice and permanent spot there. A spot so close to the market the ship could almost be considered as just another stand of farm products from the north.
Desiree found her gang packing up their gear and tomb raiding tools: ropes, hammers and chisels. Everything one would need to crack open the lid of a coffin. Meanwhile, another pair of goons were tying up the prisoners – an easy task since two of said prisoners were succumbing to the curse of daytime slumber-.
"Roldan, Absolom!" The fearsome captain of the expedition called on the rats that were shaking Gadget and Foxglove in an effort to wake them up. "What do you think you are doing? That's no way to treat a lady!"
"Uhh, but then, how are we going to take them outside?" The bulky Absolom – Desiree's most trusted 'enforcer'- scratched his head.
"Just hold them by the waist and make everyone outside believe they are your seasick girlfriends! Isn't that difficult. Oh, I know what you are thinking… but just to be clear, I won't tolerate any wickedness towards a female like me. So be careful where you place these paws, gentlemen. I'll be watching you the whole time, understood?"
"Aye, boss!" Both rats saluted and went back to find a way to conceal the shackles and ropes the best way they could without being accused of harassment by their leader. In the end, they decided to play safe and just dress Foxy and Gadget with their own, rat sized, pirate coats.
With that matter settled, Desiree then walked towards Tammy and Dale, who were very much awake and displaying different, almost opposite, demeanors. While the red nosed chipmunk kept kicking back and forth at his captors in an obtuse effort to escape right there and right now, the squirrel cook just sat leg-crossed and watched at the show her friend and the crew were putting on. Just watched in fearful, silent submission. Or so Desiree believed.
"Oh my, what seems to be the problem, monsieur minstrel?" The tall mouse in leather armor asked with a clearly fake concerned expression.
"Hell no!" Dale struggled against his captors one more time. "I refuse to make my debut in Paris as a common criminal! Either you release me now or leave me here in this boat!"
"Oh, so that's the reason of your outburst? And here I thought your girlfriend would be your main concern"
After a pause of realization, the chipmunk sheepishly added. "Uhm, sure. I mean, release 'us'… And could you give me my lute back?"
The pirate silently cut the distance between her and the bard, cocked her head with a thoughtful expression, and then threw a sweeping kick at him out of the blue, making him fall hard on the plank. Next, she dug the heel of her boot on the poor chipmunk's chest, effectively pinning him down on the wooden floor.
"Ouch ouch ouch!" Dale cried out.
"No deal, monsieur minstrel. Now be a good boy and get ready to disembark on my command. The road to the inquisitorial palace will be a long one, and I prefer if you stay as quiet and obedient as your friend here the whole time, lest bad things happen to you, understood?"
The red nosed chipmunk nodded amid a wave of pain.
"Excellent! Pietro, secure this bounty tightly. Sugar Ray, do the same with your assistant. I'll go out and see if the way is clear enough."
"Aye aye, captain!" Both scavenger and sailor saluted as the cunning pirate stepped out the rodent quarters.
A full hour later, Tammy, Dale, Gadget and Foxglove were greeted by the sun at the river docks in Paris and by the bustling crowds of humans and animals enjoying the day at the markets. Those who were awake couldn't help but take a deep breath in and relish on the gentle wind of September that blown on their furry faces that morning. The city's riverfront indisputably left Tammy overwhelmed. Sure, she expected it to be a busy place, but not once in her life had she seen crowds so large and so cramped like these right in front of her, with noisy, towering humans occupying the whole width of the street, turning any attempt to escape between them and their heavy feet into a suicidal task.
So plan 'B' was discarded, then. Fortunately, plan 'A' was boiling up on that same moment.
Just a quick glance at Dale and anyone could attest the poor chipmunk was growing anxious by every step he took forward and into the enveloping crowd. Despite the precautions taken by the pirates, the chipmunk bard still stood out like a rainbow in the dark. Obviously, his high charisma was the one to blame, as it made everybody's eyes naturally focus on him whether they desired it or not. On that moment, Dale Oakmont wished he was invisible.
From the right, from the left. At his back and ahead of him. The bard felt the people's judging eyes all over him, these inquiring gazes which invariably fell on his shackles as he was dragged away from the pier by the contingent of armed pirates. Even worse, they were taking him in the direction of an alley, right across the populated market. Such a dark place ought to be a den brimming with rodents and insects, future witnesses of Dale's downfall parade.
An earthquake-like tremor took over the street, but barely a scream or two was yelled. It was a common occurrence, after all, the arrival of merchant horse carts, sometimes a dozen of them in a single line. Rodents and humans had to make a halt and step aside as fast as they could to prevent being trampled by a greedy merchant's caravan. As result, both populations always ended up cramped shoulder to shoulder with the river at their backs. Such was the uncomfortable situation Tammy was looking forward to. The time to escape had come.
Sugar Ray Lizard, upon Tammy's signal, lurched forward and bumped over Dale's guardian, Pietro. "Sorry matey!"
"Whoa, watch it!" The mouse with the lute gave him a one-eyed killing stare.
"It's so crowded here!" The old sailor excused himself while leaning a bit too much over his handicapped companion's shoulder. "And my knees hurt, let me rest on you for a minute, aye?"
"Like hell I would" The scavenger pushed him back, causing Sugar Ray to stumble into a pair of middle aged mice, who happened to be sailors just like him.
"Hey!" One of them confronted Desiree's aide, while the other helped the lizard to stand up. "That's no way to treat a senior sailor!"
"But… He started it! Pietro stuttered. His response, however, wasn't enough to quench the sailor's thirst for a fight. A quick jab to the muzzle took the scavenger by surprise and made him fall over another pair of innocent bystanders.
The screams of alarm that followed added a nice bonus to Tammy's plan. Now the entire pier was in a ruckus, with mice and insects running away from the brawl. Panic threatened to spread by the whole market like an out-of-control fire.
The cleric then got rid of her previously unlocked shackles and made her way through the scrambling crowd until he reached her bard friend, which was strangely quiet and unmoving, pretty much like a statue. "Dale!" She shook him out. "Are you all right?"
"I can't take it anymore…" The chipmunk whispered back with an agitated expression, but barely aware of the turmoil around him. "Everybody here looks at me like I'm a lowlife criminal! Me, the great and gifted Dale Oakmont, genius artist! If only, if only…"
"If only you were free?"
"Free, yes" Dale nodded sourly, only to be witness of a wave or radiance that came from Tammy's paws. "What are you doing? Wait, where are your chains?" The chipmunk exclaimed almost too loudly.
"Quiet! I'm casting a spell on you!" The cleric whispered a bit more alarmed, glancing sideways. There she found Desiree, not far away, pushing commoners left and right, struggling to reach her troops and bounties again. The cleric only had a few seconds to act.
However, and according to the grimoire's instructions, this spell's last motion demanded the arms of the caster to be flexed out toward the target. Undoubtedly, doing that would blow her cover, but there was no turn back now. The girl made a pause and looked for courage in the memories of her brave handsome Chipper, only then she dared to extend her arms out and pronounce the last word of the spell: "Strength!"
Sure enough, Desiree caught on and scrambled towards them, but it was too late. A fountain of power bathed and overwhelmed the red nosed chipmunk: his muscles grew in size; his posture corrected itself, with shoulders pushed back, chest out and chin high. Indeed, Dale looked now like one of these greek statues of centuries old, if said statues depicted chipmunks instead of humans. Tammy was left speechless, to say the least, by the results of her spell. For a brief moment, her imagination replaced Dale with Chip. What would have happen if she had used this same spell on her crush instead?
A paw twisting her wrist painfully sent Tammy back to reality. Pietro had just caught her again. "What do you think you are doing? How did you get free?"
"Gah!" The girl jerked her arm back. "Let me go!"
"Not a chance, cook! You are coming with me and… Whoa!"
The one-eyed pirate suddenly lost the ground – and the grip over Tammy- as he was lifted effortlessly by an angered Dale. "Give. Back. My. Lute!" The herculean chipmunk demanded outraged.
The now dismayed squirrel stepped back, and just in time, because on that moment another pirate threw himself at Dale determined to tackle him down. His flying form passed next to Tammy like an arrow…
And, like an arrow that ends up hitting a brick, so ended the flight of the pirate. He crashed off Dale's body and landed at the chipmunk's feet almost unconscious. The bard barely noticed, as he was busy twirling Pietro over the head like a helicopter, if people from XVII century France knew what a helicopter was.
The pirate captain stopped to better grasp the scene unfolding in her eyes. Yes, common folk were fleeing terrorized in her general direction, away from the crazed red nosed chipmunk at the center of the storm. However, pirates and scavengers were already closing distance with him, no doubt that crazy chipmunk would lose his nerves the moment he saw himself surrounded and…
"I won't come back to jail!" Dale roared like a lion, wielding poor Pietro as some kind of hammer, gripping him tightly from the ankles, and smashing him against his comrades left and right without any apparent effort. His enemies had no choice but to turn around and flee.
Desiree was left perplexed, obviously. "Sacre bleu! Why is that chipmunk so strong and violent out of a sudden!? What kind of witchcraft is this?"
But the only witch she could think of was right next to her, placidly asleep on Absolom's arms. A quick negation motion from her subordinate confirmed the blonde mouse wasn't the culprit this time. "Who is to blame for this disorder? Wait, where is that squirrel?"
Tammy was easy to spot. She was crouched right next to Dale, begging him to stop acting like a maniac, dodging the screaming form of Pietro as he was swung over her head. From the pirate's point of view, the girl looked more like a bystander caught in the line of fire than the mastermind behind this ruckus.
"Boss!" Roldan tapped on Desiree's shoulder with urgency. Once he got her attention then pointed upwards with his free arm. "The humans are becoming aware of us!"
Just as the burly rat made that statement, a lady screamed at the top of her lungs; an action that was soon echoed by many others upon finally catching on the swarm of rodents that were running wild at their feet.
Some pedestrians ran away abhorred, some others jumped over the market stands as if the floor was made of lava. The bravest, however, took their broomsticks out and got ready to make a stand against humankind's natural enemies, mice.
And with that, Desiree's last hope for an orderly, surreptitious march to the inquisition's palace evaporated. With rodents now escaping from the sweeping and crushing tools, the whole street fell into chaos. Into a maelstrom of rodents and humans with that damned red nosed chipmunk at the very core - which had already finished with Pietro and was now strapping that old lute at his back-.
Anger boiled up inside the female thief's body. "Absolom!" The enraged Desiree pulled the rat by his coat, her gaze fixed on the prey ahead. "Take your prisoners to our hideout in Les Halles. Hide and wait for us there, understood?"
"Aye, captain!" Absolom saluted, followed by Roldan, both still holding in their arms the slumbering blonde witch and her bat friend.
By mere chance, Tammy caught eye of the thieves leaving Desiree's side. Faster than wind, she grabbed Dale by the wrist. "You finished here, bully? Come on, these rats are running away with your girlfriend!"
"As if! Point me at them, I'll give them the beating of their lives!"
"Ugh, I've created a monster" The girl muttered to herself.
However, as soon as the pair of companions took a step forward, in came Desiree D'allure, slashing her way right between them with murdering intentions.
"Watch out!" Tammy screamed jumping away from the blade. Only her superb reflects prevented a tragedy, as she could have lost one finger or two on that flashing moment. However, those same skills made her crash against a pair of bystanders, bounce aside and land ungracefully on the cobblestone road. Even worse, as the cleric struggled to regain her senses, the shadow of a broomstick loomed over the rodent crowd. Its elderly owner sent hateful glares as she raised the tool threatening to crush many of them mice right on that spot. Tammy, stunned with fear of the falling object and its gigantic owner, only managed to curl, cover her head and shut her eyes closed. "Oh God!"
A cacophony of terrified screams was heard as this merciless human stomped the broomstick on the ground and swooped rodents left and right cursing them with a mask of hate and disgust. Soon he was joined by people armed with blades, sticks and even torches. The market quarter became a battlefield.
But Tammy wouldn't be one of them. The next time the squirrel opened her eyes, she found herself safe under one of the market stands, in the company of other mammals and insects hiding for their lives. Confused as she was, she got to hear a somewhat familiar voice on the distance, one that barely raised above the screams of terror and pain of the smallfolk coming her way. That voice send a clear command: "Save Gadget!"
"To save Gadget…" The cleric made an effort to settle down and remember. "Right, I was going to save her… these rats, where did they go?"
As she looked around for the pirates, the corner of her eye caught for a fleeting moment the silhouette of another rodent making his way through the terrorized crowd. In fact, while others were fleeing to the safety of the sewers and back alleys, this one was running in the opposite direction: right towards the extermination squad. Also, right where Dale had been seen last.
The same old lady that almost killed Tammy also put Desiree in a compromised situation. The female pirate had to use every ounce of her extraordinary dexterity in order to dodge the group of rodent citizens that damned broomstick sent flying towards her. "Hell no!" She exclaimed loudly as she rolled to one side. A pair of scavengers from her gang weren't so nimble, and they ended up cushioning the falling victims unwillingly.
In the middle of this chaos, Desiree lost sight of Dale and Tammy. Cursing the gods, the bard and everyone in between, she escaped towards the safety of the back alley, rounding up whatever comrade she could find in her way. By the moment she reached sanctuary behind some crates, seven rodents were at her disposal. Less than half of the members in the original expedition.
"Goddamit!" The enraged captain smashed her fist against the wall, then turned to address her companions. "Where are my prisoners!? Where are the squirrel and the chipmunk!?"
The gang of scavengers just shook their heads in a servile manner.
"Mon dieu, I'm surrounded by…" As she turned around to face the wall again, her sentence was cut short in the air. Because, pasted on that same wall, were the familiar bounty notices of Chip Maplewood, Tammy Squirrel, Dale Oakmont and the blonde witch. No, that wasn't quite correct. Dale's poster had been torn to pieces, with many scraps laying on the ground right under the pirate's heels. "What the…?"
"Uh, is everything all right, boss?" A still dazed Pietro leaned on that wall, dividing his attention between his leader and the street brawl at their backs which was finally winding down.
Desiree looked over at the distance, further deep into the alley, and smiled wickedly. "A-ha! Everyone, follow me!" Then she broke into a run with the same urgency of a hunter that just spotted her prey. Her astonished underlings had no choice but to follow her pace, with at least half of them cursing under their breath, still reeling from the trashing the overpowered bard gave them minutes ago.
The female thief slowed down, if only for a second, to take a glimpse at the bounty posters pinned to that wall. Again, only Dale's poster had been torn to shreds, which in turn pointed out in the direction of the rodent neighborhood at the darkest corner of the alley.
Another detail her keen eyes caught on was that half of the poster was still glued to the wall, unlike the first one which had been ripped down with such excessive strength it took bits of plaster with it. "Good. Whatever spell this annoying bard used on himself, must be fading down" Desiree concluded.
The thief's confidence in her tracking skills soon granted a prize. The bard himself, frantic and loud, ripping yet another bounty poster with his picture from a column. Needless to say, all eyes around were on him. Dale had arrived at the most populated corner of the alley, where a mixed community of rodents and insects thrived among rotten crates, repugnant odors coming from exposed sewers and a semi-permanent darkness. The tall buildings around only allowed to sun to fall over the narrow street for a couple of hours each day.
Time was around noon, with the sunlight running down the walls towards the filthy ground at the feet of Dale and Desiree.
"Dumb piece of paper!" The chipmunk yelled at the poster after his last failed attempt to destroy it. "It's all your fault! You ugly poster printed with the dark ink of falsehood and untruth!"
So engrossed was Dale telling off his own picture that he never realized he'd been encircled by Desiree and the gang. Instead, he angrily attempted to bite and chomp down the poster. "My herculean strength may be gone, but I can still conquer you! With my teeth!"
"You heard that guys!?" Pietro announced a bit too loudly. "The chipmunk is a weakling again! Let's make him pay!"
Dale turned around, heart thumbing with fear, at the sound of the familiar voice. "Gah! You guys again?"
Following Desiree's lead, the pirates drew out their blades and stepped forward to close the circle. The pale, trembling Dale soon found himself with his back against the column as if replacing his own bounty notice. "Wait, we can… we can sort this out! Help? Someone?"
The bard looked left and right with pleading eyes, but got only cold indifference in return. The people around didn't want no part of this. Instead, they quickly turned their backs on him and walked away, leaving thugs and victim alone. A behavior that made the thieves laugh wryly.
"Oh, you poor child" Desiree's murderous grin crept across her face. "This is not a little town in the woods where everybody helps each other. This is the big city! A place where people like me can steal, stab and outright murder in plain sight with nobody daring to move a finger! Paris is a paradise for us criminals!"
"That's exactly why I prefer to stay in the woods" Said a calm and composed voice at the thief's back.
"Who is there?" A vexed Desiree turned around, towards the crowd that promptly lowered their gaze submissively. Suddenly, her eyes caught on the only rodent who did the opposite: to meet her eyes with a defiant and kindled stare.
At first sight this chipmunk was no match to the seasoned group of scavengers and pirates, despite the bold attitude. He was a skinny shorty rodent; red fur, black nose and dark eyes; dressed only in a filthy muddy shirt with a torn rag of a cloak on top. Sure, he had two swords fastened at his waist but…
"C-Chip?" Dale mumbled with great relief, a palm pressed against his chest, realizing it was indeed his lost friend the one walking towards him. "Omigosh, Chip, it's you! It's really you!"
"Chip Maplewood? The ranger of Saint Pierre?" Desiree, incredulous, glanced back and forth from the poster in the wall to the chipmunk standing in front of her.
"The one and only!" The black nosed ranged declared as he advanced forward, only to cause the female thief and company to raise their guards and blades menacingly. In response, he staggered his feet and reached for the dual sword's pommels. On this position, He dared to send an inquisitive look to the tall female mouse threatening his friend. "And who you might be?"
"I'm Desiree D'Allure" She answered with a courteous bow, followed by a slow and flirtatious lick up down the blade of her wicked shortsword. With a devilish smile that darkened her otherwise beautiful face, she also added: "And today is my lucky day, mister five hundred gold nuggets! You are going to make me a very rich mouse!"
The crazed female thief rushed at the ranger in a sequence of flashing zigzags that ended up rewarding the opponent's open left flank, the blade just a breath away from reaching vital organs. Chip gritted his teeth and jumped aside, losing his balance in a desperate effort to avoid being stabbed by the lightning fast criminal. "Her speed is insane" He admitted quite alarmed. As the sharp knife graced his skin, the ranger fell to the ground in a roll. A pair of Desiree's companions saw this as an opportunity to cut the meddling chipmunk in pieces, but Chip read their intentions and ended his movement with a quick draw of swords and a upside down slashing twirl that put some distance again between him and the murderous pirates.
Everybody around let out gasps of surprise at the sight of the ranger's blades: longswords glowing purple with ethereal feather-shaped motes dripping off from the edges. They were truly a marvel to behold, with their owner brandishing them left and right with ease, as if the swords weighted nothing at all and were an extension of the chipmunk's claws. Soon the ranger got surrounded by a whirlwind of ghostly raven feathers.
"M-magic swords!" The panicked Pietro stumbled back, only to be shoved up again by his enraged boss.
"Oui, magic swords! A nice addition to our treasure!" Desiree pushed his comrade to the front line again. "Scavengers, we've dealt with magic before! Now bring me that chipmunk and his swords at once!"
"Aye, Captain!" The thieves and cutthroats engaged the dual-welding ranger among screams of panic from the people around. Chip met their charge with stoic courage, holding back any negative feelings that could arise in the heat of the battle: hatred, fear, panic. For these thoughts would stir up the raven's thirst for blood and, by extension, the ranger's own thirst for blood. He swore, for the hundredth time perhaps, that he wouldn't become a murderer again.
The first minutes of the battle passed by fast. The chipmunk in rags managed to hold the line against the eight thieves who pressed on with furious, albeit uncoordinated, attacks. On close inspection, it wasn't such an impressive feat, to be honest. Some of Chip's opponents were limping, others didn't have enough strength to keep their guard up and at least a pair winced just by clashing swords with him. The ranger blamed the humans and their cleaning tools. Little he could know, that the minstrel was the real culprit behind these handicapped opponents.
And Desiree? She hadn't move from the same spot, almost emulating a field marshal, commanding and supervising the development of a battle from afar. Except she wasn't as much as a marshal as she was a cunning devious evildoer. "She is using these guys as meat shields" The ranger reasoned. "She wants to tire me out!"
"Chip, look out!" Dale warned his friend just in time for him to turn and dodge the tackle from a sneaky thief. A thief that had no backup plan and end up at the mercy of Chip's slashing right sword. Everybody around prepared themselves to witness the first casualty of the battle, but the ranger astonished them and perhaps Odin himself by moving in and landing a cross punch right on the solar plexus, driving all the air out of the lungs and effectively putting him out of combat.
Of course, Huggin and Munnin cried foul. "Boring! Boring!" Their squeaky voices resounded all over Chip's mind. "Where is the blood? Why do you let him live?"
"No more deaths…" Chip answered inwardly to his companions. "No more blood for you!"
"You stupid mortal! If you don't kill him now, he will raise and will try to kill you again!"
"Let him try, then!" Chip raised his voice, much to the bewilderment of everybody around him. "I'll knock him out again!"
"Oh, you hear that, comrades?" The teasing female rallied her gang together. "This sweet chipmunk doesn't believe in killing! Not even on self-defense!" Then, she sent the coldest sneer at the ranger. "Isn't he the lamest excuse of a male you've ever seen?"
Very few things in life surpass the embarrassment of being mocked by a female right where it counts most: one's masculinity. However, Chip not only managed to swallow the biting remark, but even challenged it with a smug smirk. "If only you know" He whispered narrowing his eyes down to slits. "The kind of murderer I became"
Chip's tough guy behavior didn't sit well with the remaining scavengers, who had expected him to break and exchange insults, scream and threaten with violence. Instead they found themselves facing the personification of an ice wall. He truly was an obnoxious chipmunk, refusing to take the female's emotional bait. On Desiree's silent nodding command, they lashed out again roaring and brandishing their blades in the air menacingly.
And they fell, one by one, victims of their own rage and stubbornness. They would live to learn from their mistakes, though, as Chip kept true to his word and inflicted upon them only non-lethal wounds. Once the dust settled down there stood him, panting exhausted but still keeping his guard up, surrounded by writhing, aching and sobbing thieves. Dale couldn't be more relieved; the ravens couldn't be hungrier and Desiree… she couldn't be more embarrassed.
"You useless bastards!" The female shook her fist, lips curling back to bare her fangs. "He is just one spineless chipmunk, why can't you bring him down? Enough, I'll just kill you and be done with this. Your bounty says 'live or dead' anyway!" For the first time in the whole battle, she took a slight step back and reached for her belt, for her collection of magic scrolls and a wand of lightning with a few charges left. "One scroll of 'cure minor wounds' and another of 'comprehend languages'… Ugh, these won't do against him! I better use the wand and fry him on the spot!"
The sudden gleam on the thief's green eyes wasn't lost to Chip, much less the way she hesitantly motioned to reach for a strange-looking carved stick on the belt. The ranger's sharp instincts told him that stick was bad news.
"Indeed! Stop her!" Munnin urged.
"I'm on it!" Chip lashed out at Desiree, which got stunned for a moment by the chipmunk's sudden change of tactics. No more waiting and countering, now Chip was actively looking to cut her down. Or so it seemed at first. In reality, her opponent was just aiming to disable her before she could summon any nasty tricks, magical or otherwise, as thieves were famous for.
The clash of blades began again with renewed energies. If Desiree was amazed by Chip's sudden offensive, Chip was as amazed by the way Desiree held her ground armed only with one shortsword. A single weapon which the female mouse used with such skill it was able to stop and deflect every blow sent her way. Also, the height difference had no effect in her. Chip was supposed to have an advantage with his short stature, which in theory would let him sneak inside the tall mouse's defenses. Not this time, though. Desiree expertly deflected and countered every blow and slash. The ranger had never seen such proficiency before. "This mouse, Desiree, is in a whole different level than her subordinates. I can't… she is too fast!" The chipmunk finally admitted.
"Speed is not your problem, hero"
"Nor your solution"
"What's my problem and the solution then?"
Chip's inner discussion was halted for a moment when the thief sprung to action following an opening in his defenses. Reacting just in the nick of time, the ranger saved his throat from being stabbed conceding instead his left cheek to the cold edge of Desiree's weapon. "Hggn!" The chipmunk grimaced barely resisting the urge to place his paw over the open wound. Instead, he managed to keep enough presence of mind to dodge the murdering thrust that followed and answer it with a double retaliatory slash, one that didn't hit the mark but sent Desiree back a pair of strides.
"Chip!" The bard blurted out.
"What's my problem? What's the solution?" The ranger raised the questions again, as he and the thief engaged in a high-speed back and forth play of blades that surrounded them with a cloud of sparkling feathers and left the witnesses breathless.
"Your problem is you don't try hard enough to kill her!"
On that moment of realization Desiree won the upper hand again, lunging by surprise right at the chipmunk's eyes in a gliding fencing move that caught Chip off-guard. The poor chipmunk sprung aside with a nasty cut on his muzzle and a frightful look on his face.
"See?" Huggin lectured its host. "She is giving it her all, both heart and soul, for a single purpose… to kill you, hero"
"If you had the opportunity, would you lash out at her with the same intention? Would you go and try to gouge her eyes out with your sword?"
"I…" Deep inside, Chip knew they were right. His attacks and counter attacks were too cautious, too concerned about his opponent's wellbeing. Too worried about… adding another victim to his red-stained path. "No! I said I won't kill anybody else!"
"Then you unavoidably be killed here!" Munnin declared ominously. "Dale, Foxglove and Tammy will be locked away for life; Your witch Gadget… she will burn at the stake for a whole day, all because you won't kill this single person!"
"Arrgghh!" Chip jumped forth recklessly, the images of his friend's fates dancing in front of him. Again he jumped to strike at Desiree with a double vertical cut, one that Desiree read quite easily. She in turn stepped aside, let the blades smash the ground and then countered with a well-timed, lightning-fast kick to the chipmunk's head. The force of the blow made him go and slam his body hard against the ground, even bounce and roll a couple of times. The concussion caused him to drop his magical longswords, which ended up laying on the ground close to the encircling crowd of rodents.
"Chip! Are you all right? Answer me!" The dismayed bard promptly went to his aid.
"I can't kill her…" The ranger - thoughts spinning, nose and mouth bleeding profusely - dourly admitted. For the first time, He was going to lose a fight, because deep inside… he was only a good, decent person.
"Huh? You don't have to…" Dale meekly whispered, believing Chip's confession had been addressed to him.
But no, it was then when Chip's inner voices chided in like a thunder. "Enough already! Let us help you!"
"No…" Chip squirmed, barely acknowledging his blood spilling down to the cobblestone alley. "Wait, I'll find a way myself. I'll save my friends, I'll save Gadget!"
"There is only one way" The ravens insisted. "Let us free, if only for a minute"
"We will win this fight for you. Come on, give us just one minute"
Chip painfully rose up to his knees and gazed at his opponent, who was there standing unscathed, licking her shortsword with a wolfish grin, ready to give the last fatal blow and collect his corpse. Her whole body exuded an aura of murder and violence like Chip had never felt before. No, actually, he had felt something like that once. "One minute, you say…" The ranger swallowed hard. "One minute and we can walk away free?"
"One little minute and everything will be right again"
"Please, I… I don't want you to kill her"
"We won't kill her, mortal" Huggin mocked at the idea. "You will, and you'll enjoy it"
"Raawwrgh!" Out of the blue Chip bolted upright, nostrils flaring, lips pulling back and baring the fangs out. He then glanced over at Desiree with an expression that could only be described as one of thirst, thirst for blood and violence. Drawing long breaths, he slowly stepped forward, fists clenching and unclenching.
"Oh, what's this?" The thief folded her arms and adopted a teasing stance. "You want another round with me? I'm afraid you don't have what it takes… you are unarmed"
Then, for Desiree and everybody's absolute shock, the purple longswords vanished away, leaving a trail of feathers, only to materialize again in Chip's paws.
"Mon Dieu…" Desiree gasped in awe, her heart skipping a beat. "You, stay where you are!" She quickly reached for the aforementioned wand of lightning, and aimed it right at the enraged chipmunk. "I was right, you are too dangerous to live. Die now!"
A crackling surge of electricity came from the wand's tip, illuminating the whole alleyway and startling everybody in the vicinity. Even the caster, who had made sure to cover her eyes before activating the wand, had to blink twice before she could make the silhouette of her scorched target again.
Except that her target wasn't scorched at all. Not even injured. Chip had withstood the magical attack somehow and now was charging out of the cloud with leading blades, even more furious than before, aiming to gouge out her left green eye. The thief let go a yelp of surprise and barely managed to jerk her head aside.
In her hurry to parry the flashing cross slash that followed she gripped the wand as a make-up sword, which resulted on the magical artifact being tossed away from her hand quite easily. "No!" She recoiled her hurt paw, cursing both her opponent and her own blunder.
Chip didn't relent, instead he kept up aiming for the thief's throat, roaring like a rabid animal. "Just what got him?" Desiree wondered with alarm as she deflected yet another thrust.
"E-enough with you!" She yelled out loud, fear overcoming her. "I'll kill you now, you hear me!" Then, she quickly stepped back one stride, if only to get room to pull a special item from her pouch. Chip, of course, lounged at her one more, but this time he found a trap waiting for him, a trap in the form of a dirty bomb to the face. It exploded and covered the whole battleground with a powerful, disabling, cringe-inducing yellow cloud of skunk scent. Chip flinched away coughing and wrinkling his nose, a bodily urge not even the ravens were able to suppress.
That was the moment Desiree chose to come out of the cloud as silent as death, right at the ranger's back, with the to stab him through the spine. Victory -together with blood- were finally at hand.
In the split second that took the shorts word's tip to cut through Chip's skin, a whole conversation was held in his mind. "This mouse thinks she can sneak up on us" The voice of Huggin echoed.
"Useless" Munnin pointed out. "Doesn't she know we are Odin's eyes in this land of Midgard?"
"She only knows she is about to kill our chipmunk, brother"
"I'm tempted to let her do it, but then who would kill the serpent that roams our father's garden?"
"You speak the truth. No other choice but to save our mortal partner again"
"Rejoice, because our vengeance will be swift and will be bloody!"
Both ravens commanded Chip's body to fall down in a roll right before the stabbing blade had any chance to pierce his organs, leaving only a nasty flesh wound. That and a shocked, incredulous thief behind.
"I-impossible!" Desiree stuttered witnessing the unnatural reflects of her opponent. "I stabbed you! You were supposed to be dead! I… never fail" Little by little, she grasped the reality in front of her: The trap had been set perfectly, the execution was flawless, the victim unaware death was just a breath away…
And yet there he was, standing up into a guard stance, grinding his teeth and sending a hateful glare down her way. Desiree froze in fear as an unexpected and disconcerting thought entered her mind. "This chipmunk… is he possessed by these magical swords?"
"Who… are you?" The thief asked disturbed. "Who the hell are you!?"
"I'm Chip Maplewood" he answered, but the voice that came out wasn't exactly his own. It had a strange, ghostly echo; one that sent shivers down the spine of everybody who listened him . Even Dale, loyal Dale, couldn't help but gulp down his breath and take a step back at the frightful way his friend spoke.
"Sacre…" Desiree's prayer was cut short by the sudden charge of the ranger. He came at her low and fast, very much like a snake, lashing the blades at his opponent below the knees. A dirty trick, no doubt, that took advantage of the height difference and the unnatural speed of the possessed chipmunk. The female thief came to realize she couldn't bend over to parry and deflect with the sword as fast as the ranger was pushing her to. The ferocity of the attacks didn't leave her room to do anything more than dodging.
To dodge or get maimed.
Finally, a right slash to the knee forced Desiree to raise her left leg up in a hurry. "You bastard!" She yelled out and jumped back to avoid a chained attack. One that never came. For her surprise, Chip dropped his swords and sprinted to grab her by the ankles right in mid-air. The thief lost her balance and fell to the ground with a loud thud. "Ugnh!"
Not even a second later, the raging mad ranger landed heavily on top of her. Then, to everybody's astonishment, the magical longswords materialized again in his paws, leaving trails of purple feathers on their wake. Once the blades were firmly in his grip, he crossed them like some scissors, threatening to cut the head of his foe off right there and without any ounce of mercy. In fact, he seemed to relish on the horrified look Desiree gave.
"Mercy, mercy!" Desiree managed to implore, but the wicked smile of her opponent told her none would be given.
As the swords shrieked against the cobblestones, the witnesses of the execution held their breath in anticipation.
"Chip, no!" Dale begged half covering his eyes.
On the opposite side, Pietro and the rest of the gang got ready for the inevitable and violent outcome. "Boss!"
Chip's victim closed her eyes the moment the cold edges grazed her neck. "Oh God!"
However, that was as far as the swords got to taste blood. And for a second, a very long second, everything and everyone fell silent. Desiree dared to open her big green eyes again, and found that Chip was staring back at her not with a mask of hate anymore, but with a smug victorious grin.
Inside the chipmunk's mind another battle -one far more important- had come to an end as well. "What are you doing? Kill her now!" The raven ordered, to no avail. Chip kept his stance, motionless as a statue, in whole control of his body.
"The game is over" He coldly stated. "Your minute has just passed. Now If you excuse me, 'll take it from here"
"It… It can't be!"
"Give us more time, 5 seconds more! No, 2 seconds more!"
"Heh! No deal, Munnin. Now go back to the shadows and wait there"
"Don't let her live, chipmunk! You must kill her!"
"Do it, do it now!"
Chip came to hear these and other desperate demands in the depths of his conscience as he slowly stood up. Despite the dissonant barrage of squeaky voices, the chipmunk managed to maintain enough self-control, at least enough to remember to disarm his downed foe before anything else. A quick swing sent the shortsword many steps away.
The pale and daunted Desiree didn't dare to move a muscle. Judging by the enigmatic grin of her opponent, he could just be looking for an excuse to finish the job. No, she wasn't ready to die yet, she still had to marry her Scottish aristocrat and leave France for good; she still had to… find the treasure buried in Adelaide Revenot's crypt. "I- I surrender, all right?" Her voice broke in a weep. "I surrender…"
Chip bent over to meet Desiree's eyes one last time, keeping the edge of the bloodthirsty sword a mere millimeter away from the delicate throat. "Where is Gadget?" He asked as slowly and composed as he could, lest his true feelings were used against him by the thief in a last moment ruse.
"You mean…"
"Yes, the witch!" He insisted baring his fangs out. An action that stirred up the ravens clinging to his soul. It didn't matter to him, he desperately needed that answer. "Where is she?"
"Les Halles!" She promptly confessed, as she witnessed the eyes of Chip igniting with a ghostly purple glow. "D'Allure Store!"
That glow, by the way, wasn't exactly a conscious action from Chip. It was a side effect of Huggin and Munnin's last futile effort to take control of their host and finish the job. Either way, it worked perfectly as a fright-inducing tongue loosener.
Quite satisfied with the answer, the ranger backed down and slowly joined his friend the bard. "We are leaving now" He declared glancing incensed not only at Desiree and her gang, but at all the people gathered around. "If you follow us, you'll end up the same… or worst"
Suddenly from way deep in the crowd, a shaky voice belonging to an elderly mouse raised over the heads of the alley citizens. "You demon! Leave this place at once!"
Chip paid her little mind, but softened his expression once he turned to his dearest friend. "Dale… come on, let's go" He said sheathing the maligned swords back in their scabbards. Only then he noticed the genuinely scared expression on the bard's face.
"Are you… Are you really Chip?"
That question hurt the ranger more than any cut or blow, but he sure as hell wouldn't show it. "Hmpf! And who else would I be?" He asked back with a cynical snort. "I swear it's me, Chip Maplewood! Come on, we still have to rescue Gadget, Tammy and Foxglove. I'll explain everything on the way"
Curiously, the order in which Chip named his female friends was proof enough for Dale. "All right" He nodded a bit more relieved. "But don't do that crazy glowing eyes trick on me, ok? It gives me the creeps. And… what happened to sir Monterey Jack?"
The crowd quickly parted ways to let the pair of cursed chipmunks flee away from their homes and their lives, leaving only the band of scavengers behind, collapsed with fear, pain and hopelessness. Not only their dreams of fame and fortune had fled away together with these two bounties, but their king wouldn't take this failure lightly. "Might as well never return to Stone Coffer" Each one of them presaged. "Rat Capone will execute me the moment I stepped in his courtyard"
"The crypt" Desiree mumbled holding her head with the paws. "Forget these chipmunks and their witches. Let's just go to Revenot's crypt. Fortune will smile on us again!"