From her trunk she withdrew a small, brown and lightweight pouch that one could sling over one's neck. Inside was all she needed to survive in the wild. A small and handy dagger, a few strips of cloth, some medicinal herbs, a length of rope among others. She slung it over her neck, letting it drop next to her side. Turning towards the wall, she took her sabre from the wall peg. Buckling it on, she touched the hilt gently for reassurance. Finally, she took up her oak quarterstaff.
Silently padding down the corridors and halls, she stepped out of the main entrance. Turning, she gave one final salute to Salamandastron, and then took off into the night.
The Next Morning
Daleria awoke near the fringe of Mossflower. After marching at a steady pace through much of the night, she had lain down and slept a very, very deep sleep.
Her paws were tightly bound, her pouch, sabre and staff missing. In front of her was a tall and lithe female ferret who had a sly, cruel look upon her.
'Well lookie here, yon rabbit has woken up.'
Staring at the lone vermin, Daleria snarled,
'Its hare, you scum. What do you want with me?'
An evil smile spread across the ferret's face.
'You. I have been specially, how would I put it, employed to attain a certain hare who seems to be you.'
***
Lady Consellariel entered the Mess Hall and sat at the head of the table. Seeing the badger lady arrive, Colonel Rapieratce got up stiffly and walked over to her. By the look on his face alone, Consellariel could tell something was terribly wrong.
'What is it, Colonel?'
'Lady Consellariel, Captain Daleria is missing from the mountain.'
Upon hearing this, Consellariel slammed her beaker onto the wooden table with such force that the other end of it shook and vibrated.
'I knew it! That tomfool of a captain has gone and literally sacrificed herself for her friends. I should have ordered a sentry at her door last night. Colonel, get a search party out. Now!'
Saluting, Rapieratce rapped out orders.
'Longrunn, Dallaw, Fitirel, Stargaze, form a search party and track her down. I will go with you.'
***
'What does your employer want from me?'
The answer was almost idle, as if the ferret had all the time in the world to answer her.
'The fox said something about wanting you alive for vengeance of some sort. He offered a high price for you, so I accepted.'
Daleria spat back a vicious reply.
'I would rather die than go with you, ferret!'
'That works quite all right with me.'
With surprising speed, the ferret grabbed a bow and let fly a black tipped arrow.
Only quick reflexes and seasons of training saved Daleria. Rolling away, she avoided the arrow striking her heart. The arrow did, however, enter her left shoulder. Wincing at the searing pain and trying not to cry out, she rolled upright.
'Give me back my sabre and I'll fight you blade to blade, ferret!'
The ferret toyed with Daleria's sabre.
'As you wish, and the name is Renalia, not ferret.'
With that, she shed the reed sheath and started whipping Daleria mercilessly with the flat of her own sabre, raining blows here and there. All Daleria could do was wriggled helplessly as the blade flayed her.
Suddenly, a cry rang out.
'Eulalia!!'
Colonel Rapieratce and the rest of the search party came crashing in. With a swift kick of his footpaw and a flash of his sabre, Renalia fell dead to the ground. A further two strokes of the blade cut away Daleria's bonds. He helped her into an upright sitting position. Red, black, blue lash marks were all over her body, with blood flowing from where her blade had been carelessly angled and bit in through skin. The black tipped arrow was still embedded deep in her shoulder, with blood flowing freely still. Her tunic was in shreds; Daleria was in generally very bad shape.
The colonel's voice was a mixture of anger, worry and fear.
'Wot on earth were you thinking, captain? Look at what you got your bally self into! Don't do such flippin foolish things next time wot! How are you feeling?'
A faint and weak answer came.
'My body is on fire, and my shoulder, well lets just say that I've been there and done that so I wont go into the details.'
Right then Longrunn came hurrying over with Daleria's pouch. He was a fairly good medic; having been through quite a few scrapes himself.
'Oh seasons of famine, old gel; you've got yourself into jolly bad form wot! Sabre slashes here there and everywhere, and I bally well won't be able to fix that jolly old shoulder of yours with the limited stuff you've got here. Let's just get the arrow out fix wot.'
With the colonel holding her still, Longrunn wrenched the arrow out in one vicious swipe of his paw. Daleria let out a violent shudder of pain and an anguished yell. Her shoulders buckled violently, then she went fairly limp.
'Ouch. That hurt, sergeant.'
'We need to get you back to Salamandastron, and quick wot!'
Daleria tried to stand up, but her knees gave way beneath her and she crumpled straight back onto the colonel, who caught her.
'What on Mossflower are you trying to do, me gel? You're the only living creature I know who tried to stand after being whipped by a blade and shot by a blinkin arrow!'
'My sabre and staff.'
Lieutenant Dallaw came up.
'I got those marm. And here's yore necklace.'
He gently placed the sapphire around her neck.
'Thank you...'
Anything else she tried to say was cut off by another violent shudder. The colonel chided her.
'Don't talk, old gel, Stargaze has just got a stretcher ready.
Daleria was lifted by willing paws onto the makeshift stretcher, and was slowly brought back to Salamandastron. When they made it, Lady Consellariel was waiting, and she rushed forth.
'Daleria! What happened? Why?'
All the ashamed hare captain could mutter was,
'I'm terribly sorry marm. I shouldn't have gone against your orders.'
Her face was turned away from Consellariel. Daleria knew she must have hurt Consellariel greatly, and more than anything else, failed as a hare captain. She didn't know how to face the shame.
A gentle paw turned her face, and Consellariel's soft brown eyes pierced through her own and bore through her mind.
'Captain Daleria, you have done only what a good and honourable friend would have done. You have placed you own life in the way of immense danger for your friends, comrades and officers alike, showing no fear. Such courage and loyalty is rare and hard to find. You have not failed in any way as a captain or as a good and faithful friend. You are truly one of the long patrol.'
'But I went against your orders.'
'You have not, in a way. You did only what your conscience made you do, and you cannot prevent yourself from doing that.'
'Thank -'
Suddenly a pained riddled yell escaped Daleria's lips, she could not withhold the searing pain that was throbbing viciously in her shoulder any longer. Fighting desperately to push away the familiar fog clouding her edges of her mind, she lay helplessly as she heard a distant, faraway yell for Taremin, the rapid patter of falling footpaws against rock floor, and the strange and awkward sensation of herself being brought up into the infirmary before the world closed in on her and her mind went blissfully blank.
*
When Daleria finally awoke , she felt a slight, numbed throbbing at her left shoulder, all four paws felt as heavy as lead, and a fiery burning blazed through the many gashes that she had received. Her head felt as if somebeast was pounding away with a rock hammer, yet everything seemed to be glazed over with a sweet numbness that she was not willing to break very soon. As she gazed absently around, she saw sunlight flowing through the rock hewn infirmary windows and a few blurry figures that turned out to be the colonel and her patrol, of which Longrunn, Dallaw, Reaprunn, Wellam and Fitirel had taken time off duty to come over. A bit confused, Daleria spoke up, hoping to orientate herself with the current the going ons.
'Wha --? What happened? Oh. Hello.'
The colonel answered her partially unspoken question evenly, filling her in on what had happened in the period of time that she had been dead to the world.
'You blacked out two days ago, m'gel. In that time Taremin has been working her ears off to patch you up. You're bally well injured everywhere.'
'It's been two whole days, sah? What has happened since then?'
'Lady Consellariel has been fixing your sabre, but besides that, nothing has really occurred in the time.'
'My sabre? What's wrong with my sabre sah?'
'That ferret chipped it that day. Lady Consellariel thought that you would appreciate it if she fixed it before you awoke.'
Daleria winced at the painful memory, the lash marks stinging fiercely on her skin as an annoying and stinging reminder of what had happened that day. Idly changing the subject, she switched to what she hoped would appear as a completely random topic. The captain mentally hoped the few there who knew her well would be careless enough so as not to notice any deeper meaning beneath her words.
'Have there been any sightings of black foxes or any other beasts of such?'
'No. Why should there be?'
The colonel raised a questioning eyebrow at her. Daleria dismissed it with a mental sigh of relief that was coupled with a mental groan at the same time, oddly enough, while waving the question away with a paw.
'Oh, nothing much sah, just asking.'
The colonel immediately exchanged glances with Sergeant Longrunn, as they were both pondered over the same thing. Daleria would never ask questions about specific things then dismiss it as lightly as she just had. There was always a deeper meaning. Daleria was hiding something, that he was sure of. Daleria could be very casual when it came to such affairs, which usually made others slip into her trap and dismiss it as any other sentence. But Rapieratce was not as easily fooled as any other beast, having known Daleria quite well over the seasons. The issue was the same with Longrunn, who also knew Daleria, practically inside out and upside down. The two knew they were going to have to corner the young captain's problem before she let it run loose and completely loose control of her own situation. The sergeant drew himself up to the bed and asked,
'Right ho Daleria, for some reason, I don't believe what you just said, wot. What are you hiding this time?'
The hare captain looked up with a carefully constructed blank face, and gave him her most innocent face that she could muster. One could almost see a halo over her head, as she feigned ignorance.
'What do you mean hiding something, sergeant?'
Rapieratce took his turn and looked Daleria straight in the eye from where he was sitting. Without blinking away his piercing glare, he said, as even and calm as he ever was. He was almost scary when he looked at her that way. Daleria badly wanted to break the contact, but she knew it would only be giving the game away if she did, so she had to bear it out, hard as it was.
'You know what the sergeant means, captain. We both know you are jolly well hiding something.'
'Hiding something, colonel?'
'You know verily well of what I speak.'
His bright, dark green eyes blazed directly into her own black ones as he spoke, and it was starting to make Daleria a little bit uneasy. It was as if he could read her mind, and the way he could outstare nearly anybeast was intimidating. Mentally, Daleria cursed, knowing full well that trying to pry this affair out of Rapieratce's grasp would be almost impossible after this. The colonel was not one to leave loose ends simply hanging there, even when it was a petty conversation. Her entire cover had just flown out the window and crash landed into the sea. She slumped back into her pillow, defeated. Sighing, she responded slowly and reluctantly.
'I suppose that you know me too well, sah. Very well, I shall tell you. It is not a pleasant story, however. It rarely is.'
Everybeast in company listened intently as she retold her story, of Seppak the Black and the affair that made him blame her for his sister's death, his swordfoxes and that night so long ago that she did not want to bring up. After she had finished her considerably lengthy tale, the colonel sat back in his chair and a faraway look glazed his green eyes over. There was a short silence, and then Rapieratce launched a surprising question after a few moments of silent thought.
'What do you plan on doing, captain?'
Though he asked, he already knew what the shocking answer would be. It was, after all, Daleria he was talking to. All he wanted was to make sure that the captain was not going to do anything foolhardy. Well, at least prevent her from doing so when the time came, at any rate. Daleria spoke without hesitation.
'Hunt the vermin down and slay him, sah.'
Sighing, sergeant Longrunn looked at Daleria experatedly.
'As I have told you before, you cannot throw yourself into a throng of vermin just like that, like before with Vaxial, be the numbers big or small. Furthermore, Swordfoxes are dangerous creatures, unpredictable, fast and extremely skilled in their trade as anybeast could possibly even hope to be.'
The captain shot back with an edge to her voice.
'As am I.'
The colonel looked at the captain again.
'So mayhap you are. But no matter how highly skilled, nobeast is invincible. You cannot do this alone.'
Daleria's head whipped over and made eye contact with Rapieratce once again. His clear, dark green eyes were afire with his normal pure, unnerving calmness as they always were, and his natural leadership ability to command. A sense of wisdom, that one, specific look of knowing that so few possessed were also embedded somewhere in those deep places. There was also that one, unnatural flare that was his alone, impossible for any other beast to possibly recreate, describe or explain, it was just... His. Daleria's were fierce and confident, as they always were, something that showed she would not give up any time soon, at least not without a fight to the last. There was a sense of some knowing that was gained purely through experience, a sadness and aurora of reminiscing and longing. It was glazed over with a hate that was directed towards all that had brought the evil upon her and her family, an undeniable wanting for revenge and the light of battle. Her fathomless black eyes were questioning his.
'What do you mean by I cannot go alone, sah? What are you trying to say?'
Heads turned towards the colonel for an explanation.
'What I am saying, captain, is that we try to get Lady Consellariel's consent, and go together and find this Seppak fellow.'
'We, sah?'
'Yes we. As I mentioned earlier, you cannot go alone wot. If m'lady approves, I will go with you, as will your patrol, and mayhap a few others.'
Consellariel strode in, to everybeast's slight shock. The hares sitting down all got up and saluted her, while Daleria struggled painfully to get up. The badger lady dismissed it with a nod.
'At ease, all of you, and Daleria, lie down before you hurt yourself more.'
Pulling over a chair, she sat down next to the colonel and motioned for the others to do likewise. Turning, she interrogated Rapieratce closely.
'Approve what, colonel?'
Exchanging a quick glance with both Longrunn and Daleria, the colonel started to explain. Finishing, everybeast in attendance looked keenly at Consellariel, waiting for an answer. There was violent doubt in her eyes, and it was clear she was debating whether to allow them, her colonel and one of her best captains and closest friends as well as an experienced hare patrol, plunge into a pack of swordfoxes of which return could be doubtful.
'No.'
An immediate outroar broke out from the side of the patrol. Rapieratce simply kept silent, knowing that the persuasion was not his to do. Daleria started to plead, as he had clearly anticipated in advance.
'But marm! Why not?! There are only a score of those foxes!'
A sharp, acute bark silenced them all.
'I will not allow my colonel to go without a substitute in his place, and if there is one, your patrol might not be enough to overcome the foxes. The score Daleria saw may only be a small part of a main pack. That is my say in this matter.'
The second Consellariel finished, Rapieratce sneaked quick a glance at Daleria, and even though he didn't make eye contact with her, he could see from her tensed up body and the fiery glint in her eyes that she was an emotional volcano waiting to happen. With or without Consellariel's consent, she would got to spare the lives of others, and finish what Vaxial had long ago started.
Turning his head to face the badger lady, his eyes clearly gave warning to her about what would come, and yet at the same time a glint of plead. The badger lady noted the look with her experienced eye, and sighed resignedly against the onslaught of complaints and warnings. She knew that Rapieratce would most definitely be correct in his judgement of the matter, he had, after all, known Daleria slightly longer than she, and knew her better as a friend than she could ever hope to be. She reluctantly gave leave.
'Very well, but you bring a further twenty hare patrol with you, and I insist if anybeast is heavily injured you must return.'
The hares nodded silently, satisfied.
'Fine. You shall leave when Daleria recovers sufficiently. In the mean time, find a replacement for Rapieratce and choose the twenty other hares.'
Consellariel slowly got up and left. Even though she had given consent, everybeast could see from her reluctance and worried frown that it was not given willingly.
*
A Week Later
*
Daleria had got up at dawn that day, healed and ready. Her pouch was slung across her neck, her sabre, newly repaired, buckled across her back. Her lightweight quarterstaff in paw, she marched out of Salamandastron, meeting up with Colonel Rapieratce, her patrol and the further twenty hares. Saluting the colonel, she walked over to the head of her patrol, and they made their way across the first sand dune.
Lady Consellariel stood at her forge window, with Brigadier Remora, standing in for Colonel Rapieratce at the moment, ready and waiting at her side. There was worry on her face, more than Remora had ever seen before. She decided to inquire about it.
'Wot's wrong, marm?'
'I've always been close to that captain, ever since she first arrived here. She's already been through so much, I don't know how much more she can take before she finally breaks...'
Remora looked out grimly at the slowly receding figures that were dissipitating gradually into the background at a steady pace.
'Daleria's a tough one, marm, and she has good friends and some of the best fighters by her side. She will pull through somehow, wot.'
*
Seppak the Black laughed out a cold bark as he watched Daleria and her team leave Salamandastron. At his side were three hares, bound and gagged. They were Tehora, Silecy and Mealiney, a captain and two Gallopers. They were all sisters, and very close friends of Daleria, having been training together for quite some time while Daleria was completing her basic training, and stayed fast friends after. They had been out on a scouting patrol when they had been overcome by Seppak and his six score swordfoxes, being swarmed was too much to handle, even though they took down a few with them. On his other side was a furred fox, who looked aged and an obvious veteran at his trade.
'Look, Analag, good things come to us!'
'Aye, lord, your sister will truly
be avenged and you shall rule over Salamandastron!'