Amber and her squirrels were hiding in the trees outside of Kotir, bows and arrows at the ready. (Pepe le Pew had left to make his way back to Brockhall.)

All of a sudden, the Tasmanian Devil came roaring out of the gate, still dragging Fortunata behind him. Tsarmina and the soldiers were close on their heels.

"That's the ugliest looking rat I've ever seen," a squirrel named Brad whispered, looking down at Taz.

"Fire!" Lady Amber ordered.

The squirrels rained down a volley of arrows onto the Kotir soldiers. The vermin were taken by surprise at this attack from above.

With her catlike reflexes, Tsarmina grabbed the nearest soldier to her, a ferret. She felt the impact as the luckless soldier took the arrow to the head that was intended for her. "Down, get down and return fire!" she yelled.

Soon the vermin were sending a rain of arrows and spears back up at the squirrels. In the confusion, Fortunata lost her grip on Taz's leash, and he took off. He started leaping into the air, trying to catch and eat the squirrels. When he couldn't jump high enough to reach them, he started attacking the trees the squirrels were sitting in. His teeth were so powerful that he could actually gnaw right through the tree trunks and make holes in them.

Amber felt her tree shaking. She looked down and saw Taz biting the base of it. She didn't know if he could actually send the tree crashing to the ground, but the tide of battle was starting to turn in the enemy's favor and things weren't looking good. "We're losing troops! Retreat!"

The squirrels took off through the forest canopy. Amber brought up the rear. As the leader, she felt it was her duty to be the last to retreat.

But Tsarmina had an arrow notched to a bow, and as the squirrels withdrew, she fired off a shot that hit the departing Amber in the footpaw. The squirrel queen didn't even have time to cry out as she fell from the treetops and disappeared from sight.

Taz was still trying to eat trees. Fortunata approached him cautiously and took hold of his leash again. This time she tied it to her belt, thinking he wouldn't get away from her that way. Mistake.

She waved a paw at Ashleg. "Hey, look what I'm doing- AIEEE!" Taz had taken off again, and this time the fox had no way of controlling his movements. As Taz whirled around like a miniature tornado, Fortunata lost her balance and found herself being dragged on the ground in his wake.

Tsarmina ran after them as fast as she could. She wished she could stop to make sure Amber was really dead, but there was no time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Martin and Bugs were given rough bark cloths to dry themselves. They sat upon the bank of the underground stream with the otters, eating thick wedges of carrot and parsley bread, which they dunked in a streaming bowl of river shrimp and bulrush soup, seasoned with fiery hotroot pepper.

"A little hot, isn't it?" Martin commented.

Skipper winked. "Haha, don't taste no 'otter to an otter, matey!"

Bugs imitated Skipper's voice. "That's right, matey. The more 'otter it is, the more 'otter otters likes it."

"Hey, that's pretty good," Martin said. "You sounded just like him."

"Want me to do a mole, Doc? Ground be noice an' soft fur diggin', Oi'm a-thinkin'!"

Martin was holding his sides with laughter. "How do you do that? I could always understand molespeech, but I never learned to speak it!"

"I'm just naturally gifted, Doc."

The banter was cut short as a group of squirrels emerged from one of the underground tunnels that led up to the surface. They looked like they were in distress.

"Tsarmina's coming for you," a female named Tammy panted. "We held them off as long as we could, but there were too many of them. And they've got somethin' called a Tasmanian Devil with them."

Skipper wrinkled his brow. "What in jib booms is a Tasmanian Devil?"

"I know what it is." Bugs' voice was uncharacteristically serious. "It's a foul little monster from the land down under. They call him the Tasmanian Devil because he's got a devil of an appetite."

"What sorts of things does he eat?" Martin asked.

Bugs started counting on his fingers. "Mice. Rats. Bats. Dogs. Hogs. Elephants. Antelopes. Pheasants. Ferrets. Goats. Rabbits." Somehow, he had grown an eleventh finger. "It'd be easier to list the things he doesn't eat."

"Where's Lady Amber?" Skipper demanded.

"We don't know. She's disappeared," Tammy said.

"That's not good."

"This is all my fault for coming here and causing trouble for you," Martin said.

Skipper gave Martin a hearty clap on the back that nearly sent him head over tail. "Listen, mate, that big pussycat may 'ave a Tasmanian Devil, but us otters got a Stormfin."

"Stormfin?"

"Aye, Stormfin, matey. You come with me."