Next morning Skalrag made his way down to Gingivere's cell. "My name's Skalrag," he said. "The Corim sent me to free you. Are the hedgehogs with you?"

Gingivere nodded. He had heard about Skalrag from Tweety and knew he could be trusted.

"Good. Then be ready tonight."

"Tonight?" Gingivere asked incredulously.

"Yeah, if I can swing it. I always like to get a job done as quick as possible. I've got to go now. Be ready tonight." He strode off.

Coggs poked his head out from under the straw. "Who was that, Mr. Gingivere? Was it a fox? Looked pretty evil, didn't he?"

"Aye, but apparently he's a friend of Martin the Warrior."

Ferdy poked his head up too. "Look at me, Mr. Gingivere. Do I look evil? I can, you know. All I do is shut one eye and pull my snout to the left, like this."

"By the fur, you're frightening the life out of me, Ferdy. Best leave your snout alone or it'll stick like that."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Martin, Bugs, and Gonff were walking through a desert filled with sand and cactuses.

"Are you sure we're still going the right way, matey?" Gonff asked, pausing to mop his brow. "The poem never mentioned a desert."

Martin gestured at the mountains in the distance. "Well, we're still headed toward the teeth of land that rise up to bite the wool of sheep. As long as we can see them, I think we're on the right track."

"But I'm so hot 'n' dry you could make a blanket of me tongue," Gonff grumbled. "Hey Bugs, how can you stand this heat?"

Bugs wasn't bothered by the hot sun at all. "My long ears are protectin' me, doc. It's just like havin' a built-in hat."

"We need water."

"Okay, I'll show ya how to get water in the desert," Bugs said. He went up to a cactus and broke off one of the arms. Water came pouring out.

Martin and Gonff rushed to fill their flasks. "Wow, you are amazing, Bugs!" Martin said.

"All in a day's woik."

They set off again, but soon the sun was just too much for them.

"I can't… continue," Martin panted.

"Those mountains look like they're a thousand miles away," Gonff agreed.

Just then they heard a strange noise. Martin had never seen a truck, but that was what it sounded like. "Beep-beep!"

A funny looking blue bird was coming toward them. Instead of flying, he was running along the road. He made the noise again. "Beep-beep!" He screeched to a stop in front of the travelers and held out his claw to shake.

"Road Runner!" Bugs exclaimed, grasping the creature's hand in his. "What's up, Doc?"

"You sure do know a lot of birds, Bugs," said Gonff.

The Road Runner made more beeping sounds. Bugs was nodding his head as if he understood the bird's language. He turned back to his friends. "He says he's got a cave around here an' we can stay in there for the rest of the day. When night falls, it'll be cooler an' we can set out on our way again."

"Sounds good to me!" said Gonff.

"Okay, thanks, Road Runner!" said Martin.

Road Runner showed them to his cave, which was not far away. Then he raced off into the desert. The heat didn't bother him because he was used to it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The three vermin had also found the desert. Blacktooth and Splitnose were running ahead of Scratch after a particularly nasty bout of name calling. The stoat and ferret had called Scratch a frogwalloper, and this seemed to touch some hidden nerve in the weasel. The pair ran off, cackling gleefully as the weasel threw pebbles and sand after them.

"Come back here and say that, you cowardly custards. I'll give you frogwallopers when I get you!"

Just then Road Runner came out of nowhere and ran over all three of them. "Beep-beep!" he cried.

Blacktooth sat up. "Oh man, what was that?"

Scratch pointed. "Look, it's a bird. I bet he'd be mighty tasty!"

Splitnose was not so sure. "Er, don't you think he looks a bit big, Scratch?"

"So what?" the weasel snorted. "There's three of us and we've got spears. Plus, this bird can't fly away like others can."

As he spoke, Road Runner was headed back in their direction. Blacktooth flung his spear, but it fell far short.

Splitnose laughed scornfully. "Huh, you couldn't throw a frozen worm and hit the earth!" He threw his own spear, but Road Runner stepped to the side and stuck his tongue out at them.

"This isn't working," said Scratch. "We need to try something else." He saw a cliff a little way away with a boulder perched on top of it, and this gave him an idea. "Come on!"

The others recovered their spears and followed.

When they got to the top of the cliff, Scratch explained his plan. "When that bird comes this way, we'll push this rock down on him and crush him!" He jabbed the butt of his spear into the sand at the base of the boulder, loosening it.

Road Runner ran around in random directions for another hour, but finally he passed beneath the cliff.

Scratch rubbed his paws together. "All right, let's let 'im have it!" And he pulled his spear out of the ground.

But instead of falling over the cliff, the boulder rolled the opposite direction, down the slope, taking Scratch with it.

Splitnose and Blacktooth ran down after him. When they reached the bottom, they found the weasel stretched out flat as a piece of paper.

"Scratch! Scratch! Are you okay?"

"Come on, Scratchy-watchy, you old frogwalloper. Get up."

Slowly it dawned on them that Scratch wasn't going to get up.

"Argh! He's dead as a doornail."

"What are we gonna do now?" Splitnose asked. "I don't know the way back to Kotir, do you?"

"No."

They wandered aimlessly around the desert for the rest of the day, hungry, tired, and thirsty. Finally, as the sun set, they stumbled upon Road Runner's cave, where they found Martin, Bugs, and Gonff sleeping inside.

Blacktooth rubbed his paws together. "Splittie, I think our luck is finally changing."