Later that evening, Bugs, Gonff, and Billum were making their way home when they saw a wounded creature lying on the ground. Gonff was the first to recognize her. "Tis Goody Stickle. She's hurt. What happened?" The hedgehog had a long, jagged wound running from the back of her ear to the tip of her paw.

"I dunno," Bugs said. "Look, she ain't even twitchin'. She's not rolled up in a ball."

"We'm must take 'er back to Brock'all," said Billum.

Gingerly they picked Goody up and carried her to the Corim headquarters, careful not to get pricked by her quills.

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"Who did this to her?" Ben Stickle demanded. Goody was propped up on a bed, with Brenda the squirrel healer ministering to her.

"We don't know," said Bugs. "We just found her like this."

Gonff was very upset. "Goody took me in after my parents were slain by Verdauga's soldiers. I've come to think of her as my mother."

"And what happened to Foghorn Leghorn and Pepe le Pew?" Martin wondered. "They were with her."

"And we still don't know where Ferdy and Coggs are," said Ben. He put his paw on Brenda's shoulder. "D'you think she'll live, Brenda?"

Brenda chuckled quietly. She cleaned the long ugly wound and applied a poultice of herbs. "No cause for alarm, Ben. Your wife is made of leather and needles."

"Made of leather and needles?" Ben exclaimed in alarm.

"It's an expression," the squirrel reassured him. "It means she's tough as a boulder. Look, she's beginning to come around already."

Sure enough, after some peculiar grunts and much curling and uncurling, Goody opened her eyes and looked about. "Oh, Ben. Ferdy and Coggs have been captured, and Pepe and Foghorn are dead!"

"What happened?" Ben cried.

"Well, I was out searching for the boys with Foghorn and Pepe. We finally found them tied up and surrounded by vermin. We tried to fight, but they sprayed something at the rooster and the skunk and killed them! I saw 'em go meself. It was 'orrible, screamin' an' kickin' they were! There was so many of the vermin that I couldn't do anything, I had to curl up. Then one of them had a go at me with a spear. Stabbed away at me, the devil did. They reckoned I was dead. Said I was too spiky to eat, so they dragged our sons off to Kotir and left me lying on the ground. By now Ferdy and Coggs are probably dead too!" She broke off into a sob.

Bugs tried to comfort her. "Hey, it may not be so bad. Maybe they're just holdin' 'em as prisoners. Shame about ol' Foggy an' Pepe, though."

"You said they sprayed something at them to kill them?" Bella asked Goody. "What could that have been?"

"I bet I know what it was," said Bugs. "Dip. I hoid about that stuff back when I lived in Toontown. It was invented by an evil guy named Judge Doom, and it's pretty much the only thing that can kill a Toon."

"So it could kill you," Martin said.

"Yeah, an' it could kill Tweety too. Now I wish I hadn't sent him over there to be a spy. But the Dip doesn't hurt non-Toons, so the rest of you will be fine." Bugs put on a brave face, but inwardly he was terrified.

Martin and Bella left the room together. Martin turned to her. "Bella, I have decided. I want to find Boar the Fighter and bring him back here."

Bella took hold of his paws. "Are you sure, Martin?"

"Yes. I will do it for you, and Bugs Bunny, and all my friends in Mossflower. Now, where did Boar the Fighter go questing?"

Bella answered with a single word: "Salamandastron!"