Chapter Thirteen: The Limbrunners
Lutran gestured for him to be silent, and then moved his paw off Beechtail's mouth. He pointed at Maplefur, who was still asleep. Beechtail woke her up in the same manner that Lutran had woken him, and the crawled back to where Lutran was staring into the woods. Even in the near dark, Beechtail could make out the dozen or so figures coming down the stream bank. There were about twenty of them, too many to fight. Beechtail recognized Blackskull, and the rat that they had encountered earlier. Maplefur joined them, and the friends crawled back into the shadow of the rotten log. Maplefur tapped Beechtail's shoulder. He turned, and she pointed at a small space under the log, hidden in darkness, a few feet away. Beechtail tapped Lutran, and gestured towards the hollow. Lutran nodded. Maplefur began to creep into the hollow, but then, when she was just climbing into it, a cloud moved. A beam of moonlight illuminated the space so that Maplefur could see what was in the hole. A bleached white skull was staring back at her.
"Aaaiiieee!"
Maplefur shot back out of the hole, and cannoned into Beechtail. The sudden noise was like a clap of thunder in the silence of the spring night.
"There they are! Get them." The vermin and rats, with Sludgenose in the lead ran towards the noise.
Lutran groaned, "So much for hiding chaps. We're going to have to stand and fight, wot."
Maplefur had her bow out in an instant. Beechtail drew his sword. Lutran grabbed the pole from the raft. As the vermin ran towards them, Maplefur let fly with an arrow. Sludgenose toppled backwards with two arrows in his chest. Beechtail was confused, "Where did that other arrow come from?"
"Liiiimbrunner!"
Suddenly squirrels were swinging down out of the trees, shooting arrows.
"Haha, Aspen Limbrunner, come to join the jolly old party?" Lutran laughed.
"Lutran!" A grey squirrel landed in front of them, "so nice of you to bring Chukka's lot down here. We were just going to go and drive them off. Ha, you saved us a trip." The squirrel ran to the side, and shot a rat that was trying to run.
Beechtail was just about to charge into the fray, when he saw Blackskull standing off to the side, holding a throwing knife. The black fox threw the knife as the squirrel ran at him, then turned and fled. Beechtail flinched as the knife whizzed past him, but it missed far to his right. His relief was instantly replaced by dread as he realized that, to miss by that much, the fox couldn't have been aiming at him.
A squirrel's scream drowned out the sound's of the battle. It was Maplefur! Beechtail hesitated for a second, and then plunged into the bushes after the fox. They ran for a minute or two, until Beechtail caught up with the fox. Blackskull turned and drew his sword, a falchion.
Beechtail struck with all his might, smashing the sword from the fox's grip. However, the force of the blow caused Beechtail to lose his hold on his sword. Beechtail was more surprised than Blackskull.
The fox recovered first, and punched the squirrel hard. Beechtail staggered, and then tackled Blackskull to the ground. They rolled over and over, and came to a stop with the fox on top. Blackskull wrapped his hands around the squirrel's neck. Beechtail tried to break free, but the fox was too strong. The fox's sword was lying a few feet away, but he couldn't reach it. Beechtail started to black out. He felt something fuzzy touch his footpaw; it was the fox's tail!
Beechtail grabbed the tail as best he could with his footpaws, and tugged hard. Blackskull released his grip a fraction, and turned to look behind him.
That was all that Beechtail needed. He punched the fox, and then lunged for the sword. His fingers closed around the hilt. He swung, and Blackskull toppled to the ground, minus his head.