The Ballad of Bessie

[Kali]

"Where have you been?" The chubby bat threw her wings around Baxter, hugging him tight. The blue garbs of the fox made the bard easy to find in the crowd of slaves, and when he proved missing Kali began to panic. "I thought you got trampled!"

"Ha!" Baxter laughed, "Almost. It's like navigating a river of beasts down here. But no, I was-"

"Or you got eaten by snakes!"

"Y-yeah, I guess that is possible now."

"Or scorpions!"

"Kali." The fox scrunched his nose.

"Or Thunder swooped down to take you away! Or the guards got you! Or Nire! Or..."

Grabbing the bat by the shoulder with one paw, Baxter shoved something into her chest with the other to shut her up.

"What is this? Is this..." Kali blinked in confusion before her eyes lit up with recognition. It couldn't be, thought the bat as she ran a wing tip over the wood. She strummed at the strings experimentally. "Where did you get this?"

"Behind someone's desk in the bowery. I went back to grab it before we left." The fox smirked. "It reminded me of the lute you broke over that assassins head a few months back."

"Silas." Kali held the lute tighter, eyes closed, "It's the same one. Luthier Droven was fixing it for me before Nire..." The bat choked back a sob. "I guess I forgot all about it, what with all that has happened." With a chuckle she said, "All my life I just wanted to play my songs for some rich noble somewhere, ya know? I wanted that so much that I traveled the world looking for it. But, looking back, it all seemed to silly. All these beasts, being kept as slaves, watching their families die around them and all I could think about was..."

"And look at you now, Helping to inspire a slave rebellion."

Kali chirped with laughter, ?Yeah, life is funny like that.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Baxter seemed to have a hard time staring Kali in the eyes. "Kali. Do think... do you think that after all this is over, after we are free and everyone is safe. Do you think you and me..." Baxter gulped, "Do you think we could ever..."

"Nope."

Baxter nearly fell flat on his face. The bat's answer was quick and simple and in the most friendly tone he had ever heard.

"R-really? I mean, but... you know..." The fox's fur seemed to fluster, "Surely the idea of us getting together after all this is over isn't THAT far fetched." His voice turned to a whimper. "Is it?"

Kali shrugged, "It?s not anything personal but, I I'm just more into fox-bats than foxes." A mischievous smile connected one ear to the other as she slung the lute over her shoulder. "But I'm not opposed to the idea." She leaned forward, kissing him on the cheek. "Thank you for finding my lute."

Baxter's eyes widened. And then he looked confused. ?I, was going to ask if you wanted to team up and form a duet. After all is said and done.?

Kali came to a pause. ?You mean you were not suggestion we? ahem? oh.? The bat laughed, burying her head in her wings to hide her burning cheeks. ?Excuse me while I go throw myself at a scorpion now.?

The fox glanced sideways, then back to the bat with a smile of his own. ?You want to grab a drink after all this is over??

?Yeah, I would like that. I would like that a lot??

Coming up behind them, Inkpaw glanced at one beast and then another. Drawing a deep breath through gritted teeth the chubby marten said loudly, "You do both realize we are all about to drown in a giant death arena, yes? That we will all DIE if we do not leave right this second, yes?"

"Oh, give it a rest, chubby cheeks, danger is always the best time for romance." Walking up behind the marten, Rose slapped him across the rump. He jumped, giving the weasel a most horrific glance as she blew him a kiss.

Kali buried her head in her wings in embarrassment. Baxter just laughed.

Face beet red, Inkpaw shook his head. Rubbing his eyes, he said, "So much for looking forward to surviving." He sighed, "Can we please just get going?"

The sudden rumble and shifting of the floor ended what ever reply the others might have had. The ground lurched below their feet, cracks rapidly appearing in the floor before them,  The entire room shuddered, nearly tripping the beasts as the floor lurched upward rather than crumbled below them.

Kali glanced down as the stone crumbled away to reveal a face emerging from the floor, all eight eyes reflecting the bat's own terror.

Bessie rose through the floor, squeezing herself out of the hole she created and scattering the beasts around her.

Letting out a terrible wail, Kali found herself clinging to Bessie?s head she rose to her full height.

"Fates alive," Inkpaw managed to gasp as the spider glanced to left then right. It wasn't clear what the spider was searching for. Escape? It's captor? A snack? "Everyone, j-just stay calm. Don't make any sudden movements and it may just go away on its own."

?Inkpaw! Run!? The bat cried while still hanging on the monster.

The baker blinked, finding himself suddenly alone as the rest of the slaves fled down the hallway. He cursed, falling into a run behind them and struggling to catch up.

The spider however, had a much easier time catching up to the beasts.

Slaves tripped over each other to get away from the monster as it lurched forward with terrifying speed, all the while Kali wailed desperately for help. For some reason, Thrayjen's name came up more than once in her panicked cries.

A ferret screamed as Bessie trampled him to paste. The sound of crunching bones only gave the others more motivation to move faster. Others leapt to the side and got ready to fight, instead the monster brushed passed them. In fact, it seemed devoted to one target.

It didn't take much imagination to guess which of the beasts Bessie might be after. Inkpaw was, after all, the heftiest creature in the room, next to Kali herself. Despite this, the marten moved quickly, putting all his energy into fleeing from the beast.

A pity it was not enough.

With a kick of her foreleg, the spider sent Inkpaw flying forward. He rolled over twice before skidding across the floor.

The breath knocked out of him, Inkpaw struggled to get back to his feet. The marten rolled onto his haunches, looking up into the looming figure of Bessie as she closed the distance.

Suddenly, Rose was there, standing in front of Inkpaw. The weasel flailed her staff about, hissing at the spider to drive it away.

Bessie...

Bessie did not like that.

Not. One. Bit.

The spider came to a halt right before Rose, it leaned downward like a feral beast, hissing back at the weasel.

Rearing backward, Bessie prepared to stomp the offending beast between her and her prey flat.

Kali did everything she could do to prevent her friends from being torn to pieces. Still clinging desperately to the monster's back, she reached forward, covered its eyes with her wings and hoping it would be enough to save Inkpaw and Rose.".

The spider would lurch forward to crush them regardless, smashing the ground with its claws a moment after Inkpaw pulled Rose out of the way. The two beasts were nearly crushed again as the spider danced about furiously.

Seeing the spider distracted, the other slaves came to help.

Spears were thrown and blades were swung as slaves surrounded the spider. A stalwart fox hacked away at the spider?s leg with a short sword. The spider didn't so much scream, as let out a seething hiss, turning quickly and kicking the fox onto his back. Her free leg came down like a spear, impaling him through the belly. The spider hoisted the fox high before kicking his corpse free.

She then turned against her other attackers, slashing at them with her legs, scraping stone where she missed, splattering blood against the walls where she didn't.

"Legs! Go for the legs!" Someone shouted over Baxters frightened yelps.

The spider skittered around once again, still blinded by the bat.

It attacked wildly at a beast. A rat was saved only because Rose was there to ram her staff into Bessie's throat. The spider gagged, backing up into a wall, sending tremors through the hallway.

Kali watched as beasts pressed the attack. She saw Baxter stoop low over Inkpaw, helping him to his feet while Rose helped bash away at the spider?s legs.

"Kali! Get off of the bloody spider and out of the-" Rose began to shout. She was cut off as the spider launched a counterattack against them, bowling over beasts left and right. The spider?s leg shot out like a spear, striking the weasel in the side where her hip met her stomach.

Rose spun as she fell into a small pool of her own blood. Bessie buckled under the bat and Kali could not tell if Rose was alive or dead.

Finally having enough of these beasts and their terrible weapons, Bessie chose a direction and ran.

That direction happened to be a blocked by a wall, which was rather unfortunate for Kali... and for the wall.

Kali closed her eyes, her hide assaulted by rocks and dirt as Bessie simply crashed through the already weakened wall. Not stopping there, the spider then climbed upward, crashing through the ceiling and into the level above them.

They arrived somewhere in the office section of the arena, as far as Kali could guess as she was flung off the spider. She landed against the floor, the wind driven out of her. All she could do was lay there. Everything hurt, from her head to the bottom of her rump, and especially her wing. If the spider wanted to eat her, Kali figured she would just let her.

?Just, get it over with,? thought the bat. She was tired of being tossed from one danger to the other. Why couldn?t the spider just finish her off finally? Just stomp her flat and suck the juices out of her tasty bat meats. Surely she must taste good, why else would everything in the universe be trying to eat her?

Slowly, the image of the gruesome creature drifted into view and loomed over the bat, clacking its hairy mandibles together. Kali whimpered. On second thought, the idea of having her juices sucked out of her body was about as terrifying as being devoured by hawks. But she could only lay there, winded and in shock.

However, the spider retreated, quickly finding herself another wall to plow through at the end of the hallway, and leaving behind another gaping hole, this one  with a wide view of the sun setting over Northvale beyond.

"Great, now I helped unleash a deadly snake AND a giant spider upon the city." Kali laughed to herself. Why was it she could only save bandits and monsters?

Slowly the realization dawned on Kali that she was staring at the city. The city outside. The city they were trying to escape to.

"F-freedom. Freedom guys! H-hey! I found a way out!" Kali's heart began to race, she got to her feet, glancing over her shoulder, but her friends were not there.

Only the rapidly collapsing hallway behind her.

Kali's jaw dropped. Why couldn?t she ever get a break? The bat began half limping, half running from the collapsing building behind her. Panic filled her heart. She couldn?t die here, Inkpaw owed her so many sweet treats for all that she has gone through! But bats were not made for running! That's why nature gave them wings!

"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!" the bat chirped over and over again, cringing as parts of the ceiling began collapsing around her. Debris quickly grew in size from mere pebbles to large slabs of stone.

Kali wasn't going to make it. Not like this. But could she still fly? Did it matter if she didn't at least try?

She stretched out her wing, biting back the pain that shot through her arm. Pain was a good thing here, it meant she was still alive.

One experimental flap turned into another. The pain was intense at first, but gradually evened out into a dull throb. It was still preferred to the pain being splattered by rocks would bring.

Kali picked up speed, leaping into the air once, and then twice to escape debris. "Come on. You big, fat, loud mouthed bard. Is this all you got?" she hissed to herself. "Is this how you are going to die? After all you have done? Are you going to let your friends down now?" Her mind drifted to her friends. She didn't even know if they were alive now. Were they being buried in rubble?

Who would save them if they were?

Who would care enough to dig out a couple of escaped slaves?

Letting out a yell, Kali put in one last surge of energy into her wings and she took flight, leaping into the air and shooting across the hallway. With the building collapsing on her heels, Kali glided through the opening and into the night.

The bat shot out of the building, trailing a cloud of dirt behind her. Kali's flight was however short lived. Her wound caused her to spiral out of control and she landed ungracefully on her rump before rolling head over heels across the concourse surrounding the arena.

"Ow,? she finally managed to gasp. Her head was swimming now, adding to her already sore body. She wanted to just rest here but so far experience had taught her that standing still was a bad idea. Her eyes opened wide however when she realized where she was.

"I'm on the outside..." Kali's voice trembled.

"I... I'm outside the arena." The bat threw her wings into the air. "I'm FREE! Free I tell you! Freeeeeeeee-"

And then reality ensued as half a dozen guards swarmed around her, leveling their spears at her face.