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Chapter 54. There Are Monsters in the Basement
by Nallmian (sub)

Wexul couldn't believe it. He just could not believe it! The whole time he had been held captive, the weasel had listened to the other males, mostly Evnakt natives who had lived on the island most of their lives, pass the time by telling lewd stories about the Oasis. The runty mustelid had been the newest on his ship's crew, and in time honored maritime tradition had spent most of his time in port doing work details so the older sailors could be free to carouse. After the storm, every able bodied crewbeast had been scrambling to try to repair the ship, and then simply to survive. As a result, the first time he had learned about the Oasis had been during his long detention by the Felldoh's Heirs. Now he was finally there, only to discover that its proprietor had chosen now, of all possible times, to have an existential crisis about her choice of vocation. As a result of this, he was now experiencing the unpleasant emotions associated with knowing that everybody else had gotten theirs and so there was nothing for you.

Oh, he had tried to catch the attention of the (very few) of Pearl's girls who were still around, but they were mostly very busy just keeping the place in operation for all of the beasts who were now using it as an inn rather than a brothel. The wildcat had completely ignored him, and the ratmaid was too busy hanging off some funny-smelling rat who didn't seem to even want her attention. His plans thwarted, Wexul chose the only logical response, namely going off to sulk in a part of the building with few other beasts present.

The sulking went quite well, and Wexul was considering throwing in some self pity or even a bit of sour grapes when suddenly he started a peculiar, whining screech that sent a shiver of primordial fear up his spine. Moments later, he heard it again.

"Uh, 'ello, is anyone there?" the weasel asked hesitantly, ignoring a sensible part of his mind that wanted to scamper back to the main lobby where everybody else was. A very musteline part of him couldn't help but be curious about what sort of thing would make a sound like that, and he nervously crept up towards the only door he could see in the area which seemed to lead anywhere he hadn't gone.

Wexul opened the door ever so quietly, and peeked down towards what turned out to be a flight of steps leading into the darkness. Tiptoeing down the stairs, the weasel froze as he saw movement in the darkness, and heard a wet, snarling hiss. Suddenly there was another loud screech, and then all of a sudden a tremendous commotion, with two distinct voices snarling and shrieking over the sound of claws against flesh.

"!!!!!!!!!!"

Wexul, far too frightened to feel any shame over the distinctly high pitched nature of this scream, raced up the stairs and burst into the parlor. "There's a monster in the basement!"

All conversation in the room stopped for a moment, and many different pairs of eyes turned in Wexul's direction. The weasel suddenly felt very warm, and very stupid. "I, uh was in the basement and I 'eard screaming."

A burly fox rolled his eyes. "Right. Because in the Oasis, the sound of screaming in an abandoned room could ONLY be a monster."

Wexul backed his ears as the rest of the room laughed and began to go back to its prior state. "I'm telling you, there's a monster in the basement!"

A grizzled looking searat shook his head at the weasel's stupidity. "Wexul, matey, yer gon' be a deckswab fer life if'n you keep this up." The rat stalked over and cuffed the weasel over the the head, then shoved him towards the bar. "Now go git me 'n ale, an' it—"

CRASH!

All of a sudden, a massive shape bashed through the door into the parlor and slammed the searat to the floor. There was a tearing sound and blood sprayed through the air, splattering Wexul and several others. There was a general panic in the room as some beasts rushed for the exits and others drew their weapons.

A side door burst open, and a prim-looking stoat ran into the room, weapon in paw. However, he stopped when he saw just who the monster actually was.

"Rekkua? Have you gone mad? Stop or—" The stoat was suddenly bowled over by a mob of panicked vermin who shoved through the door he had come in from, their bodies shoving him back through and out of the room.

Meanwhile, Rekkua had finished tearing into the searats neck, and looked up, glaring straight at Wexul, whose mouth went dry with fear. He had seen Martin's Madness before, but this seemed to be a particularly severe case. The reptilian creature's eyes were red, bloodshot, angry and confused. With most Marties, you coud see at least some comprehension in their faces, but Wexul knew without a doubt that before him was a creature left with only one instinct. The weasel froze in place, because once in a tavern somebeast had told him that reptiles ignored things that didn't move.

It didn't work. The monitor burst forward at him, and Wexul could barely throw himself to the side in time. The weasel righted himself and ran towards the bar, hoping to find either a hiding place or a glass bottle with which to defend himself. He dashed forward, barely avoiding another weasel in the mob of beasts trying to fit through the small door. This weasel was not as lucky the second time, and Rekkua ripped his chest open before bounding off of him and chasing Wexul. The runty weasel vaulted over the bar, displaying upper body strength he didn't know he had.

CRASH!

The impact of Rekkua's collision with the bar splintered it and caused bottles and tumblers to fall to the ground and shatter. It also prompted a sharp scream from a ratmaid who had been cowering in a corner next to a bar. Rekkua rose up slowly, shaking her head as if to clear it, and then turned towards the ratmaid, snarling. The monitor started to charge the ratmaid, but slipped, fell, and stumbled just barely out of range of the rodent. She began to rise again, teeth still bared.

"Leave Crystal alone!" The muscular but normally nervous looking rat that the ratmaid was always hanging off of ran up to Rekkua wielding a leg that he had broken off of a table. He swung it with both paws and hit the monitor over the head once, twice, thrice, and then one final time as the chair leg shattered.

Rekkua dropped to the ground with a shriek and lay there, momentarily stunned. The two rats both started running just as the monitor righted herself and charged towards them. Thinking quickly, Wexul grabbed a bottle of liquor that was still in one piece and threw it as hard as he could at Rekkua. The heavy bottle struck the lizard between the shoulder blade, and she stopped in mid stride and whirled around to rush back towards the bar.

"Hey, Uglysnout!" A pair of ferrets rushed up to the lizard, swords drawn, and once again Rekkua abandoned her previous target to pay attention to the new ones. Rushing forward, she bounded onto one of the ferrets. The mustelid's sword went straight through her side, but moments later she ripped his throat out. His companion rushed forward with a scream and managed to bury his own sword in her shoulder before her claws tore into his chest, followed by her fangs.

"Rekkua, STOP!" The voice was a young one, and Wexul was shocked to see an adolescent vixen standing in the doorway.

The lizard snarled and hissed, and lumbered over towards the vixen.

"Get out of the here, kit!" Wexul shouted, looking around for something else to throw. The monitor turned her attention back towards him, but before she could charge, the vixen called out again.

"Rekkua, STOP!" The young vixen still didn't run. "Rekkua, it's me. It's Zula! You let me ride on yer back so I wouldn't mess up m'clothes."

The lizard leaned in, towards her, but then leaned away, seeming torn by indecision. The entire room seemed to come to a standstill.

"Please, Rekkua. Don't be mad. Remember me?"

The lizard inhaled sharply and bared her teeth, but still didn't move. Her mouth struggled to form coherent sounds. "Z—zzzzzooolll…."

Zula's face lit up. "That's right, Rekkua! I'm Zula, and you're—"

THWAP! A crossbow bolt buried itself squarely in Rekkua's back, and the spell was broken. The monitor whirled around, heavy tail knocking Zula to the ground, and scrambled towards the other side of the room where a tall, handsome fox was dropping a crossbow and drawing a dagger. The fox sprung out of the way as Rekkua barreled into the wall, easily dodging the clumsy attack. Leaping gracefully onto a table, he whirled and threw his knife, sending it zinging down into Rekkua's chest as the younger fox, Zula, yelled for everyone to stop. The male vulpine leapt onto another table as Rekkua crashed headfirst into the one he had just occupied.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the premises." Rekkua reared up at the voice, only to be laid out flat when the head of the shoved crashed straight into the side of her head. While the monitor lizard had been preoccupied with the nimble fox, the male rat in had rushed up behind her with a shovel. Raising the shovel again, he hit the monitor in the head over and over and over again until the crunch of metal to bone was replaced by a wetter, softer sound as the monitor's skull collapsed.

The fox hopped off the table and walked over to the dead monitor, nudging it with his boot. 'Well, it looks like you have a bit more starch in you than meets the eye. You did a proper number on her skull." The fox looked up as several more beasts burst into the room with weapons. "Just in time, you lot! At least help us get cleaned up here. The rat here bashed the lizards skull in while you ladies were off getting your weapons in order. Meant nothing by that term, Tharissa," he added at a glare from a particularly tough looking weasel who was the only actual "lady" in the group.

A stoat came up and clapped a comradely paw around the rat's shoulder. "Sorry 'bout throwin' my boot at you the first night. Looks like you shaped up into a big damn 'ero, didn't ya?" More mustelids mobbed around the rat, only to leap back when the rodent proceeded to vomit on the floor, looking positively sickened by something.

The fox shooed the others away and left the room with the rat, leaving only the cleanup crew and Wexul, who was still behind the bar. Standing up, the weasel glowered at nobeast in particular.

"Now do you believe me about the monster?"