Chapter Eleven: Sombeast's Enemy is Anotherbeast's Friend
Beechtail was trying to figure out how to explain the previous night's events to Maplefur, when the raft stopped abruptly. "What is it?" He asked.
Lutran pointed farther downriver. A crude dam stretched across the stream. "Some blighter has built a bally dam on the jolly old river."
As if on cue, a dozen rats, armed with everything from slings to sticks to axes popped up from behind bushes and trees. One of them stepped forward. "Dis is our river, yew got ta pay to pass us, riverdog."
Lutran stood up indignantly, "I am a hare, sah, not a bally otter, and even if I was an otter, I would not take kindly to being called a "riverdog". Just for that we're not going to pay. Eulaliaaaa!" Lutran shoved hard with the pole sending the raft flying towards the dam.
CRAAASSSHHH!
The raft smashed through the dam, Beechtail and Maplefur were almost thrown from the raft. The dam collapsed, releasing a flood of water that carried them downstream quickly. The trees moved by in a blur as the swell of water carried them through the rapids. After what seemed like an eternity, the raft finally came to a stop in a large pool. The waterfall entered at the other end.
"That was awesome; too bad we can't do it again." Maplefur laughed.
"Augh, I feel dizzy." Beechtail moaned.
They tied the raft up behind a large rotten log at the edge of the pool. Lutran sighed, "Enough traveling for today. This will be as good a spot to camp as any."
Even though it was only early afternoon the three friends slept.
Towards early evening, Blackskull and his trackers were on the move again, when they heard somebeast waling through the bushes towards them. Immediately the trackers dropped out of sight behind bushes and trees. Blackskull signaled them to take whoever was coming alive, and then leapt out in the creature's path. The trackers all leapt on it before Blackskull could see who it was.
"Yaagh! Chief, it's me, Sludgenose. Ouch, get off."
"Get off, you fools, can't you see it's one of ours?" Blackskull pushed them aside, and pulled the rat to his feet. "Where have you been all this time?"
"Sorry, chief, I got thrown in the river. But more importantly, I just saw the squirrels and that strange creature go off down a side stream."
Blackskull and his remaining trackers lost no time in reaching the stream. Suddenly rats appeared from all around them. One stepped forward, holding an ax, "Dis is our woods. Yew got ta pay us to go threw here."
Blackskull remained calm. "We are tracking two squirrels that passed this way. How long ago was that?"
The ax wielding rat beckoned to another. They held a whispered conference, and then turned back to Blackskull. "Ya, they passed this way. I be called Chukka. If yew wants to kill 'em, we help ya.
Blackskull smiled inwardly. Three against twenty were good odds, for him.