Chapter 1
Rukkar the Wrecker was a name feared by allbeasts, even his own horde. The Greatrat commanded over a thousand vermin, and if he was in one of his moods, he would slay hordebeasts without noticing. His Seer, Greyfang, was a smart and loyal vixen, but when Rukkar slayed her mate Tragg, she became disobedient, and she had come close to being slain by Rukkar many times, but the Greatrat knew she was an important part of his horde. His captains, three rats and a ferret, were quite stupid, but had been always obedient, until now, when the rat captain Arril began causing his group of vermin to turn away from Rukkar, and Rukkar killed many of them, until Arril's vermin group only numbered seven score. Arril began to get smarter, and lately Arril and his vermin had run away and formed a new group, the Gorvim, which means Group of Runaway Vermin in Mossflower. Rukkar's trackers were always watching, and this particular morning the scouts had brought back very unpleasant news.
"You say more vermin are joining up with Arril?" growled Rukkar at the two unlucky trackers.
"Aye, Chief, the Gorvim number almost tenscore now," replied the tracker Kagget.
Rukkar was getting angry, and the two weasel trackers were noticing. They began edging toward the tent flap.
"Set one claw out of my tent an' yer dead!" thundered Rukkar. The weasels froze.
"Scum! I want good news, that Arril is dead. Take fourteen score vermin, and destroy every one of them. If you come back without that traitor Arril's head, then you will be slaves," said Rukkar dangerously. "Now get out of my tent!"
The weasels dashed out.
Later that day, the two weasel trackers Kagget and Cudder were having trouble. They were having a hard time finding tracks, as Arril had taken the track expert Blueback the stoat. Meanwhile, Blueback had been having great success in covering the Gorvim tracks, and cleverly suggested hiding out in a nearby cave, which Blueback did not notice had several grass snakes in it. The vermin fled from the cave, the snakes were left alone, and Blueback was whipped several times by Arril.
The vermin under the command of Kagget and Cudder were getting annoyed. They had been tracking all day and had made barely any progress.
"Hoi, Cudder, can't we go any faster?" said a ferret named Fattooth.
"Rukkar's orders, ferret, are to bring back Arril's head or else me an' Kagget are slaves fer the rest o' our lives. Meanwhile, shuttup!"
"Yes, Captain," grumbled Fattooth impatiently.
"Look, tracks!" said Kagget excitedly.
"Wot tracks? I don't see any," said Cudder. "Oh, there. Looks like…" Cudder's face went white with fright, and Kagget immediately knew something was wrong. "Wot is it, mate?" he asked.
"A-a... adder," said Cudder.
Back at Rukkar's camp, things were going smoothly. Greyfang predicted that there would be plenty of fish in the nearby stream, so Rukkar ordered two rats to go fishing. The rats returned with a hefty trout, and Rukkar sent them back with two other rats and a fox for more. After a while, night fell, and the four rats and the fox returned with three more trout. Rukkar lay in his tent, thinking about the two weasels Kagget and Cudder, and if they were any good. In Greyfang's tent, she lay thinking about if she should keep following Rukkar or if she should run away and join the Gorvim. Both Greatrat and fox lay in sleep.
Kagget and Cudder and their fourteen score vermin were not asleep. Instead, they were running from the adder that lived nearby, and they knew it was best to stay silent. When they were a safe distance away, Kagget and Cudder began conversing quietly.
"Where d'you reckon that adder lives?" said Kagget as quietly as he could.
"I don't know, maybe that weird sinkhole we passed?" replied Cudder.
"Sinkhole? Wot sinkhole?"
"Ye didn't see it? I should know, I almost fell into it," said Cudder.
"Wait, wot's that sound?"
A moment later the two weasels wished they had been paying attention, because they had accidentally ran away from the two hundred and eighty other vermin. Kagget and Cudder were lost.
Blueback's sleep was terrible. He stayed up half the night tossing and turning and thinking about the two weasels on the other side of the sinkhole, who he recognized as Kagget and Cudder from Rukkar's camp, and those adder tracks. Blueback was certainly living up to his name from the many blue-black welts from the whipping done to him by Arril, which pained him constantly when he moved. Finally, Blueback was able to fall asleep, with his mind full of thoughts of mutiny.
The next day, the two weasels Kagget and Cudder huddled in a small underground hole which they had dug overnight, both of them completely frightened, and they stayed in the hole until the weasels began to get hungry. The weasels came out and began foraging. Kagget found several ripe apples, while Cudder found some white tubers and a few hard strawberries. The weasels ate messily. Cudder ate two of the apples and a tuber, and Kagget ate the same, except one less apple and three more tubers. The two vermin huddled back in the hole.
Arril was searching busily for water, and had found a small pond, but not enough for all two hundred vermin to have their fill. The ferret Fattooth had found Gorvim and joined up with Arril and his gang, and was proving a big help, having found almost twenty raspberry bushes and wood for baskets. The vermin snacked on raspberries and drank freshwater for lunch, and the only bad thing was that Blueback the stoat was missing.
Blueback, meanwhile, still had mutinous thoughts, and had gone over several plans before settling on one; he would capture a woodlander and use them to lure Arril into the sinkhole they had passed, settle any disputes for who would be leader, and then take over himself. Blueback took a nap, happy with his plan.