As always the standard disclaimer applies: I do not own the Happy Tree Friends; they are the property of Mondo Media. I own only my own characters and this story.

80 – ON THE GROUND

Shifty appeared out of thin air on a mountain slope. He looked around. He was standing in a lightly wooded area on a very pronounced mountain slope that crested just above them. The air was cool but not cold. He took a sniff of it and could scent the pine trees quite easily. He knew at once that they were a couple of thousand meters above sea level, high up in the mountains indeed, maybe right near the top of a pass.

He took a few steps toward the nearest trees when he heard the crunch of footfalls behind him. Turning around he saw Lifty standing in the same place he had been a moment earlier. Lifty looked around, saw his brother, and came straight over to him.

"Well here we are" said Lifty, "wherever here is. What happens now?"

Before Shifty could answer they both heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the other side of the rise they were on. Both raccoons froze where they were and listened. The footsteps were many and were coming in rhythm.

"Marchers?" whispered Lifty.

"Must be" Shifty whispered back, "let's go see."

The two raccoons worked their way as stealthily as they could to the top of the rise and looked over to the other side. And there they saw a large column of Marauders marching past their location in the shallow valley below. It wasn't such a huge number that one might have thought the whole army was on the move but it was large enough that the raccoons knew at once that they must be very close to wherever the main camp was. The Marauder line was marching around a bend where the valley appeared to meet another valley and was lost to sight. It wasn't too long before the whole column had marched past and gone around the bend.

Shifty looked around carefully to see that they were alone and then he motioned to Lifty that they should follow after the Marauders. Carefully the two brothers did just that. Staying high up on the slope they kept behind the cover of various large rocks and pine bushes until they were able to look around the bend in the valley. On the other side of the bend the valley opened out into a wide plateau plain. There they saw the main encampment. It stretched as far as they could see.

"This whole area must be an elevated mountain plain" said Shifty, "which means that we're high up indeed."

"Probably near the top of a pass" murmured Lifty. Shifty nodded.

"Sniffles certainly wasn't kidding when he said they had a definite location for the camp" he said.

"Yes but it seems he put us nearer to it than he intended" said Lifty, "any nearer and we'd have materialized right in the middle of that."

"Never mind that" said Shifty, "since we didn't. Let's withdraw a bit. The camp doesn't seem to be moving at the moment."

They retreated around the bend back the way they had come and sought a temporary shelter inside a stand of low bushes.

"Okay" said Shifty "first we need to make a semi-permanent base, then we can decide upon our next move."

Making a base was done fairly quickly. The base would be entirely underground so the most important requirement would be that its entrance be concealed from sight. After a short survey of the slope they were on they chose another stand of bushes under which they dug a starting hole. Into this hole they placed an automatic excavator which, when turned on, vaporized a large amount of space underground making a hole large enough for the two of them to enter and stay in with reasonable comfort. Once inside this underground space they stowed the equipment they had brought, first setting up a communication center that linked back to the Mole's office in the Animal City. Then they set about making the hole reasonably comfortable for habitation, knowing that if things went well they would be there for a while. Once that was done they spent some time camouflaging the hideout's entrance so it couldn't be seen by anyone passing by. They arranged the entrance hole so that it could only be accessed by actually crawling under the bushes to reach it; in other words the entrance to the hideout was in the center of the stand of bushes and therefore quite invisible to anyone passing by. Only when all this was done did they take a moment to relax.

They sat inside the hole and activated a portable light. There was room enough inside the hole for them to eat, sleep, and do any needed preparatory work. There was also an extra space in which to store supplies.

"We'll need to make one of these dens whenever the Marauders have moved far enough to make using it impractical" said Lifty.

"Yes" said Shifty, "so let's see how much we can slow them down without arousing their suspicions of outside interference."

"A tough job" said Lifty, "with XL-Jack-3 out there."

"We'll manage" said Shifty, "we're born trouble-makers, right?"

"Hooray for us" said Lifty sourly.

"Let's get some rest" said Shifty, "then we can decide our next move."

Both raccoons lay down to get some sleep. Outside the hole everything was quiet on the mountain slope. For a long time nothing moved out there then, quietly, a figure appeared from behind a pile of rocks and cautiously approached the stand of bushes wherein the hole was concealed.

Lifty and Shifty didn't know it but they'd been seen. The figure who approached their hideout had been hiding on the slope the entire time. He had seen the raccoon brothers arrive, had watched them go look round the bend in the valley, had heard their conversation as they observed the Marauder army, and had watched them come back, choose their hideout spot, and create their hideout. He didn't hear their conversation in the hole but it didn't matter. When he reached the bushes he looked underneath and saw the entrance.

After a few minutes the intruder turned away and retreated. He didn't head toward the Marauder camp, however, but went in the opposite direction. Once he'd put some distance between himself and the hideout he activated a crude communicator.

"Hi, it's me" the figure said, "we have visitors from the Animal City..."

(To Be Continued)