AN's Note: Thanks to Persarr and Jade Tealeaf for reviewing. Some info if you are confused about the last chapter.

Strawberries can be either red or golden, it depends on the area. Plus with the name of STRAW-berries, it can be inferred that when strawberries were first discovered, it was the color of straw or gold.

To Jade: I added a part where Kaiju and Azaira face the harshness of the North, may have added some fictitious devices and stuff, but it's all part of the story. Might be a filler chapter, but it builds later on in the story.

To Persarr: Here you go a nice long chapter xD

Chapter Three

The rat officer, Grange, was standing nervously to attention, fidgeting about and biting his grimy claws. As he expected, ten minutes after he returned to base with his trackers to report a "successful" mission to his superiors, then he was rushed to before higher ranking officers to be debriefed. What he didn't expect was a direct order coming from the members of the Tribunes for him to appear before them.

As with every other soldier in the army, he has heard of beasts going into the Tribunes chamber and coming out either dead or promoted to places of power. He hoped he wouldn't get the former, but didn't really wish to get the latter either.

The problem with being dead was he would cease to exist and have no life, but getting promoted meant that he would also have no life due to the obligations that came with power. Not only would he be working around the clock making things go smoothly, he would also have to watch for attempts on his being, as beasts in powerful positions were prime targets for assassination. Then again, a prolonged social death to physical death would be much preferred over a direct physical death; at least he would live to see his life pass before his eyes.

Grange's eyes shifted to the heavily armored and armed guards that stood at the exit to his room and the entrance to the Tribunes chamber, immediately any thought he had of escaping if things went badly in the chamber, escaped him. These guards were higher up than his commanding officer and were the best of the best fighters in the entire army. Such was the importance and stature of the Tribune.

A creak echoed in the small room, its sound reverberating from wall to wall, made Grange transfer his gaze from the guards to the entrance to the Tribune chamber. As gateway opened, the guards standing in front of it also moved, standing sideways with their backs to the wall, faces militaristically rigid as ever.

A reedy bespectacled stoat strode through from a dark hallway, walking with an air of almost haughty authority. He took one quick glance around the room and beckoned Grange over with an imperialistic curl of the paw. Gulping nervously, Grange straightened his back and went to the stoat.

Giving Grange an analyzing stare, the stoat gave a quick jerk of his head and turned on his footpaws, silently walking back into the gloomy hallway, a clear sign for Grange to follow him.

As Grange followed the odd stoat through the door, he heard the doors creaking again, looking back; he saw the doors shut with an ominous boom, sealing his fate to whatever powers lay ahead. Then it was quiet again and the stoat and rat continued to walk down the passage.

Fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, an hour they had walked, Grange felt like they were going nowhere. He had also noticed that the hallway they were walking in seemed like a natural tunnel, but on closer inspection, he realized it was stone blocks cunningly carved and joined together so perfectly that it seemed almost alien. Along with this discovery, he also realized that this fortress where his camp was housed in was probably older than anybeast had dared to guess and probably held a greater number than the hordes.

"We're here." Intoned a flat monotonous voice. Grange was startled, he was beginning to think that the stoat was a mute due to his lack of conservation or even noise since the stoat was completely silent the whole time, Grange couldn't even hear him breathe. They had arrived at another, but unguarded, door.

As the stoat opened the door and they proceeded inside, Grange first thought about the Tribune chamber was that it was very dark in here, being lit only by a few candles in the room, Grange had to strain his eyes to get a look at his surroundings. They were in a spherical room, with a curved ceiling and walls, only the floor was flat. The walls also seemed to be purple here, adorned with odd patterns that ran in an endless cycle, flowing into each other. There were also black veils hung on the walls in pairs that appeared to be translucent because Grange could see faintly that there were hallows on the other side.

A hushed whisper sounded out from the veils, coming so fast and so quietly that Grange had a hard time hearing the words. "Excuse me?" asked Grange, voice nervous and unnaturally loud in the enclosed chamber. The whisper came again, speaking in a slow and raspy manner, "You are Grange, species rat, leader of the tracking group G4, sent to terminate the mother and the prophesized squirrel, are you not?"

Grange nodded, fooling slightly foolish since he didn't know who he was nodding to, "Aye that is me, who's asking?" The whisper sounded out again, this time harsh and urgent, "Irrelevant. All we want to know is the status of the two. Are they terminated?"

The whisper emphasized the last three words.

Grange nodded again, anxiety alleviating slightly at what sounded like fear in the speaker's voice, "Yes, they are dead. Lost one of my best beasts, but I saw to it myself that both squirrels drowned in an icy pond. Last time I saw them, they were sinking like stones to the bottom."

A satisfied sigh coupled with a gurgling chuckle emanated from the veils, "Good, good, we shall see to that…ahh…you are well…rewarded." For some reason, Grange felt that this reward would be less than appealing. "You are dismissed, Stoat here will lead you back out."

Stoat appeared silently behind Grange, surprising him as Stoat spoke once again in his flat voice, "Come with me." A door opened, though Grange couldn't tell if it was the same door that admitted him in; as he and Stoat walked through, he noticed that this passage was much brighter, being lit by torches instead of candles. He also noticed that the air here was much fresher and surmised that this passage must be the emergency exit for the members of the Tribune. Which meant that the walk wouldn't be as long as last time.

Grange and Stoat reached the end of the passage where they came to yet another door. (AN's note: unsurprisingly, too many damn doors in this writer's opinion) Stoat turned to Grange and gave a "wait here" gesture and opened the door, temporarily blinding Grange with the bright afternoon sunlight after being enclosed in dimly lit corridors, and shut it with a soft click.

Grange began pacing back and forth, from wall to wall, wondering what the nature of this reward was going to be like. Judging by the tone of the Tribunes and his gut feeling, he wondered if they were setting up an execution squad for him. Seconds became minutes which became even more minutes and with every passing minute, Grange's anxiety grew. Finally he heard the soft tapping on the door that could only belonged to Stoat. Steeling himself up for the worst, he closed his eyes, opened the door, and stepped into the white light of the day.

Cringing almost immediately after he stepped through, Grange opened his eyes to a slightly confused face of a ferret and the blank stare of Stoat. "I take it that you are Grange?" The rat coughed and straightened up, "Yes that's me mate." He saw the dark cerulean stripe overlaid in a crimson leaf insignia on the ferret's lapel, flushed scarlet, and saluted, "Sorry Major, sir. Grange reporting." The ferret only grinned in amusement, "Thanks for the salute, but why are you saluting to me? I'm a lower rank than you sir."

Grange didn't understand the Major's words. "Yore a major right? Isn't that higher than me?" The ferret scoffed in beguilement, "Bah, since when does a lieutenant general salute a major for anything else but to another salute?" Grange was even more confused now, bewilderment written all over his face "Wait…what? Lieutenant general? What are you talking about? I'm a soldier, not a ranking officer."

The ferret major shrugged, "That's not what Stoat here says, orders directly from the Tribunes it seems. You are now the Lieutenant General of the Taber La Flesche battalions." Each word the ferret said seemed to strike down heavily upon Grange, like hammer blows

The now lieutenant general staggered away from the ferret, reeling from this sudden turn of events of expecting death to a sudden rise in ranks. It was too much for his mind to handle and he was unconsciously breathing faster than usual, dangerous in the cold northern air. His vision suddenly got blurry and he blinked rapidly, as if it would correct the vision problem he was having. The blinking only made it worse, not only was his vision blurry, but bright flashes of light were occurring every time he blinked.

The amount of information his mind could handle began to overload his brain, light flashes, sudden promotions, the Tribunes, proved too much to absorb and his brain effectively shut down and sent Grange into unconsciousness.

The ferret major and Stoat both looked over Grange's fainted heap, "Think we should wake him?" Stoat only shrugged nonchalantly and headed back to the door that led to the Tribunes chamber. As he went through the entrance to omnipotence, his head turned slightly back so that the ferret can see his left eye, and said two words, "Your decision."

***

That night a blizzard set in, a monster of a storm. The wind was blowing so harshly that the air seemed to crack and shafts of light froze and shattered. The snow was coming down so fiercely that land and sky seem to blend, and the horizon disappeared into a white nothingness. All sense of direction, depth perception and balance was lost.

Yet, Kaiju and Azaira had no choice but to walk on in the freezing blizzard. Kaiju, realizing it was death for them to stay in one place, since a blizzard can dump a massive amount of snow anywhere. With no visual objects or even the stars to guide them, Kaiju relied only on walking straight in the direction he assumed was south.

Azaira was no longer in her sling; it had proven too cold to put her back in the sling, especially since it was frozen to the ground. She was now clinging on the inside of Kaiju's tunic, close to the heat of his body; her bushy tail sticking out of his tunic, waving with the wind, the only indication that she was there. As he walked he could feel the cold weather biting at every inch of skin that was not covered. Parts that were covered didn't fair much better, the northern wind just whipped right through the layers of clothes and attacked him relentlessly.

He cursed his shortsightedness; a few hours before they started walking, winds had picked up and snow began falling heavily. Kaiju dismissed this as a remnant of the storm that was blowing when he was chasing after Azaira and her babe, but what a fool he was. The snow then began to come down like bricks, falling thick and fast, the wind increased its speed and made the wind howl in keen agony. Only after "complete whiteout" conditions were achieved that Kaiju realized it was a blizzard. He continued to mutter a stream of curses under his breath at the storm raging above, and then he switched his swearing to the fact that he had no haversack or any type of bag to hold food in.

His footpaw slipped on a bit of particular icy snow and he found a new object for his curses. He got flipped tail over head and landed on his back with a thump into a piling snowdrift. Azaira poked her head out of Kaiju's tunic where she was hiding and went into a fit of giggling at the snow covered ferret. But he was in no mood for laughter and it took all his will to suppress the vermin instinct of grabbing the insolent little squirrel by her little head and throwing her somewhere.

Kaiju heaved in a cold frustrated breath and somewhat roughly shoved little Zaira back into his tunic. Ignoring her wails of protest, he got up off the ground and began walking once more, then stopping. The fall had disoriented his sense of direction and the blizzard was rapidly covering up his tracks. Looking frantically around for any sign of paw tracks, he walked back and forth in an area of a square, trying hard to even see anything. As he searched, he heard a rhythmic tapping that coincided with his pawsteps, when he stopped the tapping stopped. Kaiju half closed his eyes in suspicion and glanced downward; underneath a thin layer of snow, he felt something hard and cold on the bottom of his footpaw. Bending down and brushing away the thin layer, Kaiju, to his shock, discovered that he was standing on crystal clear ice that covered the gaping maw of the entrance to a dark drop into the earth.

Breathing calmly and standing perfectly still, he slowly raised his head upright and began walking gently to the outside of the ice. As he raised his footpaw, the ice beneath groaned in objection to all the weight that was now being supported by Kaiju's standing leg. As he put down the footpaw and raised the other one slowly, an ominous sound rang out.

Crack!

As Kaiju looked down once more at the crystal clear ice, to his horror, he saw long line spreading across the ice, branching out, and growing larger. As he looked back up, he gave another curse,

"Aw sh…"

The ice gave away and broke explosively, ice shining like crystals and shooting off in all directions. Kaiju dropped into the hole in an instant and to his surprise began sliding instead of free falling to his death. Because it was in the ground, there was no light in wherever he was; Kaiju assumed that he was in an ice tunnel that formed naturally, besides his entire back felt almost frozen from sliding down the ice. He zoomed through a myriad of twists and turns, curving left, right, left, and little sudden drops as he slid onto a small ramp of new ice. It was a frightening experience, going at high speeds through a dark ice tunnel, feeling the wind rushing past your face as you zoom down further into the unknown; Kaiju's heart was going miles per second. Moreover, he was frightened for the babe, realizing that if he flipped in someway or landed on his stomach after all this was over, he would kill Azaira, which bothered him even more.

Looking ahead, he saw a white light that signified the end of the tunnel; he stiffened with fear as he didn't what was going to be on the other side. As the exit rapidly came and, as rapidly, went, Kaiju felt himself being shot off into empty space. It was a brief, but odd moment, at first he was sliding along solid ground, the next he was in the air as free as a wing-clipped bird, going down. In those few brief seconds in which he had to take stock of where he was, several things flashed through his mind. One was that the blizzard stopped and the other more important thing was that, below him, those pointy things looked a lot like trees with a lot of branches.

Kaiju instinctively, but idiotically, tried to flap, then realized that he was not a bird. He did the only logical thing that was available and straightened with his footpaws pointing down. He felt the sharp sting of pine needles first, then the numerous branches scraping at his body, but all that was overridden when he felt his foot hit a particularly thick branch of a solid pine tree. Kaiju's face screwed up in pain as he felt his limb break with an audible snap and sent a large bone fragment through his thigh. But the accident was also a blessing too as the branch had slowed him down enough to hit the floor with less force if he had went full speed. Nonetheless, Kaiju hit the ground with a heavy thud and felt several ribs crack within him.

Cold as it was outside, Kaiju suddenly felt warm, as if he was standing in front of a fire. He realized that he might not live anymore, but that thought gave him comfort as he would be reunited with his family from seasons ago. With a blissful smile on his face, he allowed the merciful darkness of unconsciousness to take him, unaware of the blood that seeped from his numerous wounds on his body and unaware of a dark shape creeping up on him, blade at the ready.

AN Note: I may not be able to update as often as I like since school and games occupy a lot of my time. Plus I get constant writer's block, so bear with me if the story is inching along.