::Matters of Revenge::

Disclaimer: I dis-the-claimer.

A/N: Whheeee! The first chapter of the war opens!

*

The colonel was in the infirmary, but the captain could not hang around for very much longer. As much as she was worried, she knew that the affair was out of her paws and up to Taremin. There was nothing she could do, as much as she hated to admit it. However, she had her mind kept off the topic when the news that the dispatched pincer team had reached Ruft's home and were ready to attack. They were to strike that night. Daleria had been awaiting this moment for a long time. Vaxial was one thing, Seppak was another. Either way, the fox was not going to be living very much longer after she was done with him. But sunset was still half an hour away, and the captain was still avoiding the lady Consellariel due to the affair of not letting her go, so she had gone up to the infirmary to check up on the colonel, as useless as it was that she did. Taremin had said that she had tried to extract as much of the poison as she could, but he wounds were deep, and there was no knowing whether Rapieratce was going to live until he woke up. The colonel was in a general very bad shape. The arrow wound was deep, four ribs were broken, and he had lost more blood than the medic felt was comfortable. His lung might have been punctured even, but Taremin had said that there was no sign of internal bleeding, which was incredibly fortunate. Daleria knew that if there were, hope would have slimmed beyond hope itself. It was all up to Rapieratce now. The captain sat next to the bed, rubbed her weary eyes, then stood and stretched before rising to arm up. Plodding her way silently past the corridors, she could hear the various sounds of sheaths being drawn up, blades being withdrawn for the last check, bows beings bent and staffs clacking together in preparation. The anticipation was horrible. Walking into her room, she slung on her sabre on the shoulder sheath as always, but withdrew something new. It was a double cross sheath meant to be slung across the hip, with two of her longer personal daggers. Daleria knew that, as good as she was with the sabre, there would come instances when she would need to utilize close combat, lest be cornered. The foxes would not be able to fend her off at close distance as well as they could with the longer blades. The daggers were slightly curved nearing the apex, but only very slightly. They were straight enough to stab without any extra angling or advanced handling, true to their owner's temperament. One stab would wipe the plate clean. Securing it around her hip, the captain slipped in a few smaller throwing daggers in a few convenient compartments for the occasional quick attack. Normally, Daleria would never had gone so heavily armed, but the captain was making an exception for this battle. For any normal occasion, Daleria would have considered herself ridiculously over armed, but the captain knew enough of sword foxes not to underestimate their skill and speed to go unprepared. Much better.

*

Cosenet was in a state of shock. The scene that had just took place had affected her the worst out of the five of them. The galloper had seen very little serious action before, only recently coming full into service. The affair with Seppak was not having a very good effect on her. Willow looked concerned.

'I say, you all right back there?'

Cosenet shook herself up slightly, her voice quavering slightly as she spoke.

'D'you think the colonel be? He looked pretty bally beat up. Horrible.'

Mealiney shrugged nonchalantly at the comment, turning uncomfortably against her bonds.

'Rapieratce? Knew him as a captain. He'll live, wot. I'd bet my blade on it.'

*

Daleria stood waiting orders. She was still distancing herself from the badger lady as much as possible though, taking orders from Glamoren instead of directly from Consellariel. She was incredibly upset over the skirmish in the forge. She knew somewhere in her heart that Consellariel did not have a choice, but her brain argued that she could have at least shown some form of compassion instead of her frank harshness. Daleria had sided with her brain and thus kept herself away from the lady. After all their disagreements, Daleria finally had enough. Too much was wrong with her life already, and she did not want to make it any worse than she could. The captain decided to put off any talks with Consellariel until after the war was over. Whether she would still be alive to see it was another thing. In line with a rank of hares in the front line, she saw the sun finally dip beyond the horizon, and a distant spark could be seen. In an instant, a flare went up over the other end, and burst in a signal in the sky, bright enough to light the area as if it were day, and the captain could see the fox army leaping up and arming in an instant. She herself lit the responding signal, and soon the sky was a smoking, writhing light to brighten the grounds as if the sun. Glamoren looked them over while Consellariel strode forward. leading the first ranks forward. They approached the foxes at a half run before the lady stopped and Glamoren yelled out a command.

'First rank! Archers load! Fire!'

At the lady's command, an arc of arrows dipped over them, crashing upon the running foxes, dealing out the first wreckage. The damage on their side was quite devastating. On the other end, a similar situation could be seen. Daleria brought herself back to her present by another command.

'First rank archers drop and load! First rank slings, first rank javelins, second rank archers! Load! Fire!'

An immense shower of javelins, sling shot stones and arrows showered over them again. The screams could be now heard as the enemy grew nearer. The foxes had by then split in two directions, one towards the second assault, and one towards them. Daleria gripped her sabre hilt over her shoulder in anticipation. Glamoren yelled out the last order.

'First rank archers! Forward! Second rank archers! Arc! Fire!'

The first rank of archers sent a direct a direct assault against the foxes, slaying at least a score, while the second rank sent an arc over them, attack from the top. By then, the foxes had sent over a desperate counter attack of their own, and Daleria saw a side flank beside her being taken down by a quick assault of barbed arrows. There was no time to worry about that matter, however, as Glamoren yelled out again.

'Ranks reform! Half run, forward now!'

The hares reformed back into a three deep rank, a single long line going against the foxes at a half run. Daleria could by then see into the eyes of the enemy. She pounded her way forward, anticipation ringing in every bone of her body, as she sighted her revenge.

'Steady! Steady! Full run now! Forward!'

Consellariel roared out a eulalia as the two sides broke against each other, and the fighting commenced. The badger lady was a terrifying sight, and all the hares kept out of her was as her pike reaped a war path of destruction as the bloodwrath took her. vermin flew as her pike came at them, while others were impaled in a quick stab. Glamoren gave the order, and all the hares in the ranks unsheathed, and Eulalias and battle cries flew thick in the air as the two sides clashed in a pincer attack. Daleria waited in anticipation until a fox was nearly upon her, ducking the blade before unsheathing her blade in mid duck before bringing it upward at a vicious speed, slicing forward and killing her opponent as she came up. Ducking again as another fox followed up, the captain swung her blade again, clashing against the fox in a loud crash as the two of them started parrying. Doing a double twist and rolling off her blade arm, she ducked as the foxes blade whistled overhead, but took the opening and stabbed forward again. Then, two foxes came after her, and the captain knew she was in trouble. Hastily sheathing her sabre in a fluid motion, she grabbed the two daggers at her hip and unsheathed them, stabbing two foxes fighting around her in the process before turning her wrist and catching the blow one fox was about to deal her and doing a rapid underpaw stab into the other's side. As the first fox was busy parrying with her on her right, the captain withdrew the other blade as the fox on her left slumped down, dead, and delivered a forceful thrust into the foxes ribcage. Wrenching free her blades as she felt another come upon her, she whirled to her left and sliced another foxes throat before crashing down onto another, stabbing down into the shoulder blades.

On the other side, Remora, who was leading the pincer attack team, gave the command to charge. Taking a fox down with a sabre strike, she yelled off an eulalia before plunging into the deep. Clashing with one fox, she did a figure of eight, slashing down another in the turn before coming back up and stabbing the fox she was fighting with in the heart. Her curved blade took down another, and she grabbed one of her own short swords in her left paw and thrust it into the left side of the neck of her opponent. Sabre in one paw and sword in the other, she plunged in deeper, before yelling out another order.

'Left flank! Dispatch! Right flank! Dispatch! Center flank! Forward! Eulalia!'

In a swift motion, her left flank pulled away from the center and caved in on the left side of the foxes in an effort to corner the swiftly moving fox forces in order not to swamp themselves in a pincer against them, as the right did the same, closing down on the foxes. Remora cut down another as she received a cut across the face, charging forward with her center flank beneath the fire brightened sky.

Back on the mountain, lieutenant Dallaw was in charge of the "lighting" crew. In order to be able to stun the vermin as well as fight properly, several flares were set up on the front windows of the mountain. Corporal Bueatrill and sergeant Mianent were aiding him. The lieutenant watched the left and right flanks dispatch off and knew it was his signal.

'Right ho chaps! Let them rip!'

Lighting their torches, the three of them gathered up various flares. The flares were curious objects, consisting of an explosive kind of herb mixed together with various kinds of fast burning fuels and a certain kind of plant that prolonged the burning and another that produced the sparkling effect. It was all coated in burning oil and another liquid that created a small explosion that increased the area the flare spread across. They were encased in a woven flax-reed casing made for a small torch design with a cage that was used for throwing. The torch was a small one, with a case of young sapling branches woven together into a casing that could be closed and opened. The torch was made up of a light wood that burnt easily, and itself was also coated with the explosive liquid. The small flare package was slipped into the cage, dipped into the mountain's supply of oil for the lamps, then, dripping, lighted by torches. That gave the thrower about five seconds to release the torch through throwing it, lest he wanted to be burnt to death. The explosion was incredibly bright, and if one looked directly at it, would be blinded for a good ten minutes. The flare lasted about that long in the sky before burning out. The fuels themselves burnt out in less than a minute, but the various substances in them made the light linger in the air for much longer, therefore erasing the chances of hurting anybeast down below. The explosion too, was very small. The package would burst into flame, which spanned about a meter across, then was sucked back into the torch at the force before exploding in a slightly startling noise, but would completely burn up in a radius of about a meter as well. Sparks would also fly.

Dallaw looked at Bueatrill, who looked at Mianent. Grinning, the lieutenant gave the command.

'One...'

The three hares dipped their torches into the oil and kept it at arms length.

'Two...'

The three dipped the dripping torch into the fire, where they flamed up. Dallaw hastily called out the last command.

'Three!'

The sergeant, lieutenant and corporal let the torches fly in a powerful throw that made the three burning constructions twisting into the night, round and round until they exploded into the night sky.

'Get down!'

The three of them ducked beneath the windows as they heard a slight boom from the sky outside and bright flashes appeared in the chamber as they avoided looking at the light. A minute later, they came up and looked in satisfaction as the illuminated sky.

'Well old chaps, another ten bally minutes or so and we can have a little bit more fun again.'

*

Glamoren heard and saw the flashes of light from the newly thrown flares knew it was his turn to dispatch the flanks.

'Left and right flanks! Dispatch! Center forward!'

His flanks heeded his yelled out command, and swiftly dispatched and dissolved into the night towards their respective areas. He knew that there was no turning back. Bending backwards to avoid a fast swipe at his neck, the major used the back of his lance to shove away an oncoming attacker before stabbing forward and jumping to the left, stabbing the fox before ripping his lance away and crashing it into the head of an oncoming attacker. The major had a sling across his back, which held his throwing daggers, and using his right paw, he grabbed one and sent it swiftly flying, killing a fox that was about to dispatch one of his flank. Ducking a sabre hack, the major felt something slash across his back, very nearly cutting him in two, but Glamoren threw himself forward just in time, evading his death but gaining a slash across his shoulder blades as he turned in mid air, crouched downwards and tripped up the opponent that nearly killed him before taking his lance and impaling the attacker. As he felt another creep up behind him, his paw automatically went up to another throwing dagger, and it flew before he had time to think, striking a fox dead between the eyes. An eulalia ripping out from his throat, the major threw himself further down into the fray.

*

Consellariel took down three vermin in a go in a massive circle of her majestic pike, sending them flying backwards. Her eyes were blood red, and the berserk badger lady had by then taken down at least a score in her name. Cutting down another three, she plunged deeper into the horde, a milestone in the writhing mass of fighting creatures, ploughing her own route through the enemy lines. The pincer attack had given them an incredible advantage, but the foxes had taken down as many of them as the hares had managed to take them down. The badger lady did not care, though, as only the bloodlust pounded through her crazed brain and the adrenaline coursed through her veins, giving her the energy to cut down all that stood before her.