Chapter Two

Grange, the senior rat officer was shivering by a fire at where he and his trackers entered the pines. He cupped his paws and blew into them, warming them with his breath. As he sat by the fire, he cursed his misfortune of having to chase after runaways in this ice-ridden snowbound hell. A shuffling sound cause him to look up, it was the other three vermin returning back to this position. He gritted his teeth as snow from the pine branches fell on his neck from their disturbances and demanded a report.

"Well? Did ye find anything? I sent four soldiers, but only three came back, what happened to Kaiju?"

He gave them a hard look which had an opposite effect of what he expected. The three rats shifted uncomfortably, fidgeting and scratching their heads in reluctance.

"Well…er…um…he…the babe…er…ran?"

Grange whipped his head around hard to the one that had spoken,

"What d'ye mean he ran?"

"Er…er…we picked the direction where he was supposed to search?"

"And…?"

"And…um…we found the body of the mother?"

Grange kept giving the rat a hard look until the rat took it as a sign to continue, "We found the body, but the babe was nowhere in sight. But there were a lot of ferret tracks between an 'arf frozen pool of blood, the mother's I think, and a pine tree. From the looks of it, one of the trees's exploded and the squirrel was caught by a tree piece."

The rat captain kept up his stare as he questioned the rat subordinate about one piece of information he neglected to say. "Good for 'er, but, ye still haven't mentioned what happened to Kaiju and the babe Flarn." The rat soldier felt a sweat break out upon his brow despite the cold, "We're guessing that he took the babe and…ran…south?

Grange felt and the soldier saw a vein twitch running from Grange's neck to his forehead, a sign that Grange was dangerously close to slaying the unfortunate rat with his bare paws. Flarn took a hesitant step backwards as Grange's face turned beet-red and unleashed a tirade of curses into the night air. Taking a deep breath, which he regretted as he felt the cold air sting his lungs, he calmed somewhat and started yelling at Flarn, "WHY DIDN'T YE CHASE ARFTER HIM NUMBSKULL? INSTEAD YE COME BACK AND CHEW ON YE WORDS LIKE AN OLD RAT HAG WHILE HE GETS FURTHER AND FURTHER! AGGGHHHHH!"

Grange's chest was heaving with breathlessness while Flarn quivered in place. Taking another deep breath, Grange ran a paw through his headfur and let it hang on his neck with exasperation. Finally speaking in a reasonable tone and speaking more to himself than his group, he made up a quick mission report in which to give his superiors. "I am going to say that both squirrels are dead. We broke the ice over one of the ponds nearby and drowned them both, but unfortunately, the squirrel mother pulled Kaiju in and drowned him along with her." He glanced sideways at the rats behind him, "Now, none of ye even breathe a single word of this incident or, not only will it be my hide, but ye as well." The three rats nodded in accord, as if their lives depended on the lie, which it did.

***

Kaiju trudged steadily southward; by now, he was out of the frozen tundra's of the north but it was still cold enough that all but the trees and hardiest bushes grew in the tough soil. He had traveled nonstop for two days and a night, trying to put as much distance between him and the horde of Taber La Flesche and was feeling quite hungry since he gave almost every bit of food he could find to the squirrelbabe to keep her warm and satisfied.

Giving in to hunger as his stomach gave another thundering rumble; he looked back at his tracks and decided that he had gone far enough to allow a break. Changing direction, he headed over to an area that was full of stunted bushes. To his delight, he found a thriving flora of golden strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, and cranberries which he immediately began picking and shoving them into his mouth, eating like there was no tomorrow; he was so hungry after traveling for two days with no food.

The squirrelbabe on his back gave a small noise of annoyance; being woken up from her nap by Kaiju's noisy eating. But he only grinned, took the sling off his back, and lifted the babe out of it so she can work her little legs. Giving a cry of delight and surprise as the juvenile squirrel felt snow for the first time, she immediately began rolling around in it until she was covered from head to tail in snow. Shaking off the snow like a soaked otter, she gave a small sneeze from the cold air, Kaiju realized the need to build a fire so the both of them won't freeze to death.

Soon, a cheery fire was burning; being fed by the dead remains of nearby fruit bushes. Burning scarlet to orange to faint green, it snapped and crackled like an angry being, but it warmed the ferret and squirrel up considerably.

After playing around a bit more, the young squirrel finally realized that she was hungry; plopping down in front of a small pile of fruit, the squirrelbabe began to eat the berries that Kaiju had picked for her earlier, eating rather ravenously, she cleared the entire pile set forth before her and gave satisfied burp common to babes after a large meal.

Deciding to have some fun with her, Kaiju looked around from where he was sitting and picked the biggest strawberry he could find. Dangling the golden fruit before her and pulling it of her reach every time she made a swipe at, the squirrelbabe laughed as its infant mind became wrapped at obtaining the gold colored thing waving in front of its eyes.

Kaiju mused to himself and to her as he played with the squirrel. "Hmm, some tough warrior you are turning out to be, being distracted by a simple strawberry. You don't even have a name since your mother didn't have…the time to tell me. She said her name was Azaira and it's a nice name, it would be fitting that you should be named after your mother since she saved your life. I'll think I will call you Azaira, Zaira for short, the A seems a bit unnecessary. Now something of my own creation."

He relented and allowed the babe to catch the golden strawberry, which she took from his paw and promptly shoved into her mouth, chewing with a look of great relish.

He thought for a bit, having extensive knowledge of woodland lore, he soon came up with a decent addition to the squirrelbabe's name. Smiling happily in triumph, he said to her, "Your new name is now Azaira Litavis, named after the legendary squirrel warrior of the old, how does that sound Zaira?"

The now named Azaira only giggled and looked up into the compassionate face of the ferret, too young to know what had just transpired.