Chapter 2
Badbang surveyed what remained of his vermin horde as they stood at attention under his sharp eyes. They were a sorry looking lot, he decided. Even his guinea pig captains hadn't even managed to clean the rust off their daggers for the inspection. As for the rest, half of them didn't even have decent weapons anymore. That would have to be dealt with. He wasn't stupid enough to go to battle with an army that didn't have a decently sharpened saber amongst themselves. His eyes ranged over the horde until he spotted the three stoats that had approached him the day before. He beckoned to them, and whole horde stood silently as they proceeded, trembling, to stand in front of Badbang. Badbang eyed them with intense dislike and then addressed the throng before him. "It seems that some of you think that you can get away with slovenly behavior. That may have been the case in the last horde you were in, but that is not the case here. Now, just this once, I am not going to bring my wrath down on the lot of you. Instead," here he gestured at the shaking stoats, "I am going to make a little example of these fellows here. Maybe it will remind you that the next time I inspect this horde you ought to look like an army, not a munch of rag tag bandits without a sharp dagger among them! You," he called to a nervous guinea pig in the front row, "come over here, and do me a small favor. You will dispose of these three in the usual manner - hanging will do I suppose. And you will do it where the rest of this sloppy horde can see it and remember!"
Leafwit chose two young leverets, just into the ranks. "You Seawit, and you, Cloudwit. We're going scouting."
"Great! Who's our leader?" the young Seawit asked.
"I am! Duh,"
"But you're just a private like us. Besides, why would we want to take orders from you?" the irrepressible Cloudwit piped up.
"Wrong, I'm a Captain now, and you're lucky I don't punish you for that. Now come on. I want to get an early start. Get your weapons and let's go."
And with that the domineering captain strode off to pack his own clothes.
Leafwit met the leverets at the front door and rolled away the stone. They set off at a fast lope towards Mossflower. He felt like he was forgetting something, but said nothing to the inferior privates.
"So where are we going?"
"That's for me to Know and you to find out, young Cloudwit."
"Hey that's not fair! You're only a season older than me!"
By the time they reached the dunes, it was evening, and the hares were hungry and exhausted. It was then that Leafwit realized what he had forgotton.
"So, what's for dinner?" Seawit asked cheerfully.
"Yeah, what is for dinner?" Cloudwit repeated, trying to get a look into Leafwit's pack. "You did bring the food, right? 'Cause we didn't!"
Leafwit suddenly remembered what it was he had forgotten – the food!
Back at the mountain, the cook, Foodwit, nervously called Spear Lady Gorse and explained what had happened.