Secrets, Lies, and Death By Plague

[Bellona Littlebrush]

"Cynic n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be."


"Leftenant," Sagaru said as they stepped out of the hut, "I understand you're not overly fond of vermin, but would it pain you so much to show a bit of kindness to a creature who's just birthed a litter? She's no harm to anybeast."

Bell clenched her jaw. "That thing tried to murder Birch, and from the look and smell of it, she succeeded at it with another beast in that hut." The dormouse shook her head. "I can sympathize with a new mother, but not one who...not that one. She's a dangerous thing, like as not to raise more dangerous things."

We'd be better to just put her and the entire pack down, Bell added silently. No doubt, Sagaru would not find such sentiments endearing and the warrior had no wish to quarrel further with the strong-minded mouse.

"Well, I think?"

"Mouse!" the enraged bellow cut through Sagaru's retort. Bell immediately drew her dirk and took up a defensive position in front of the Oasis leader, ignoring the other female's snort of annoyance.

"What do you want, fox?" Bell asked coolly. Matukhana, a lizard, two non-descript corsairs, and the hateful marten, Lacrimosa, halted their march toward the pair of woodlanders.

"What do you know about the sickness my creatures 'ave got?" Matukhana demanded, and then winced. The dormouse noted, with some satisfaction, that the fox looked the worse for wear and that the ragged wound on his mouth pulsed with blood and yellow-green pus.

"Why would we know anything about your flea-ridden hides and the diseases you court?" The warrior snorted.

"He said you knew something," Eliza piped up, pointing to the lizard.

"Oh, he did, did he?" Sagaru growled from behind. Bell could sense the mouse bristling.

"What's all this about, m'am?" she wondered aloud.

"I don't know." The dormouse didn't need to see her face to know that the Oasis leader was lying through her teeth. Bell turned head to glare back at the other mouse.

"Tell me what you know, m'am," she ordered, then gritted her teeth adding, "because some of our beasts have fallen ill, too." It was foolish to reveal a weakness in front of her enemies, but if Sagaru was hiding something...

The Oasis leader remained stubborn. "It's a bit of sunstroke after the caves," she reasoned. "They'll be just fine."

"No, they won't." Bell's hackles rose and she turned full around to face the mouse. "Sailpaw, my captain, wasn't. He started getting a cough, then a fever, then he attacked and tried to bite me. Tell me how that's 'just fine'! And tell me how it's 'just fine' when Rugger told us about the plague from seasons ago. It sounded like Sailpaw had exactly the same thing. Now speak!" The careworn wrinkles on Sagaru's aging features deepened as the dormouse finished her tirade.

"I didn't...I thought..." she trailed off.

"What's all the commotion out here?" Venril emerged from the hut that had become Revel's den and stared, nonplussed, at the scene before him. "Er...Liza?"

"Quiet!" a rat accompanying Matukhana hissed. "We was jist 'bout t'find out summat important."

"I really don't know too much," Sagaru explained, brows knitting together. "I thought it was just a story the elders told to keep us from wandering into the caves and getting lost. We weren't even sure if the vermin -- the Fritterik -- were still alive."

"What about the Fritterik?" Venril tried again.

"Well, now you know.? Eliza pursed her lips together and tapped her footpaw. A twisted kind of satisfaction arose in Bell from having 'the love of Venril's life' completely ignore him. If only she'd been so pitiless with Damask, the robin might not have wasted his time with her. The dormouse's satisfaction dissipated as swiftly as it had come at this thought. "What are you going to do about it, then, Winky?"

"There are scrolls with the history of the Oasis in Jurin's...in my hut," the mouse said, disregarding the marten's insulting nickname. "There might be something more about this in them. Maybe a cure?"

"A cure for what?" Venril shouted.

All eyes turned to the stoat, who looked away, ears falling back. "Everybeast who went into the caves is getting sick like Scarface's captain," Eliza explained briefly. "There might be a cure. We're going to find out."

After a minor battle of wills, Sagaru led the group, now composed of herself, Bell, Venril, Eliza, Matukhana, and the lizard, Medjool, over to one of the grander huts on the 'woodlander side' of the Oasis. The six beasts filed in, the warrior keeping a wary eye on the vermin as Sagaru shuffled through scrolls that had been flung about the hut.

"Did you idiots have to throw everything on the floor?" the mouse groused as she searched.

"Can't say I cared for the readin' material when I was bunkin' here," the fox commented, but quieted with a whimper after his leer became a pained grimace.

"I've got it!" the leader of the Oasis exclaimed several minutes later. "It's..." her voice lost its exuberance, "It's not much...

"The 45th day of the Fall of the Lost Souls, Laycee Sandsweep recording" Sagaru read. "Praise to the Fates! It is here -- an end to this sickness that has destroyed our families and friends. Rigstern and his crew found it whilst searching out more vermin in the tunnels in the hope that they might offer some insight to their kin's illness. I thank the spirits of creatures past that our good-hearted moles chanced upon that particular cave. I had worried so for Adeny's babes should we be too late in discovering a cure. I fear there can be no hope for the crops this season, but we are blessed with a winter that mirrors summer. There will be hunger, but we shall manage."

"That's it?" Venril asked, incredulous. "That's nothing! What are we supposed to do with that?"

"Mmm..." Medjool finally spoke. His self-satisfied hiss made Bell want to start removing other limbs to match his tail-less rump. "Maybe Medjool iz knowing a little about thiz cure for fuzzy creature zick." He grinned smugly, exposing two rows of sharp yellow teeth. "Maybe even iz knowing where to find if fuzzy creaturez azk Medjool nize."

In less than three seconds, the lizard was backed against the wall of the hut, five blades poking at whatever piece of scaly flesh they could reach. "You'll talk?" Matukhana breathed into Medjool's face.

"Or you'll die," Bell finished, glaring upward.

The lizard gulped and tried to cower away from the weapons. Bell hated that she was unified with the vermin in anything, but the added menace of the fox's grisly features did have its uses.

"Iz tell! Iz tell, of courze!" Medjool whinged. "Iz meeting verminz in cavez, yez. Not Fritterik. Theze verminz iz climb from zky down to find zlave and not able to get up again. Get lozt in cavez and I iz find. They zick bad with cough and hot bodiez. They mean to Medjool when azk I for help find way out. Zo, I iz run them round cavez. Not want bad verminz find Oaziz," he added with simpering smile directed at Sagaru.

"Get on with it," Bell growled, forcing her dirk between the scales on his midsection. She would have preferred his throat, but Eliza had a knife pressed there. So, the marten had a blade. That was a useful bit of information.

"I iz leave them bad zick by pool in cavez where light come in and muzzroomz grow," the lizard hurried on. "I iz not cruel to make verminz die from hunger and thirzt." This statement was accompanied by a pointed look at Matukhana, though he continued quickly when the fox narrowed his yellow eyes to impatient slits. "When walking in cavez zeazonz later, I iz find bad verminz again. They iz fine, not dead, and have more verminz with them that tazte like blood. I iz confuzed much. I iz wait until one verminz iz alone and then show I to him. He laugh and zay he kill I, but ztill want to know way out and have to thank I. I iz azk why and he tell I how he zurvive." A pregnant pause. "Iz muzzroomz, he zay! Muzzrooms iz make better."

"Do you know where to find this place, again?" Bell demanded.

"Yez!" Medjool bobbed his head up and down quickly. "I show now. All fuzzy creaturez better. But...er...may want get warriorz come. Iz plaze with many bad verminz...Medjool iz hear them called Zrechrrl."

"Well, that's decided," Matukhana withdrew his blade and sheathed it. "I'll go grab a few of my crew and we'll be off."

"We?" Bell quirked an eyebrow as she stepped back from the lizard, but kept her dirk in paw. "There's no we, Captain. Sagaru, the other woodlanders and I will be dealing with this. Go back to your ship and start building. We'll let you know when we have a cure."

"You ain't leavin' me behind to rot, mouse!" Matukhana snarled, taking an ominous step forward, but keeping just out of the dormouse's reach.

"Come closer, fox," Bell dared, flashing her teeth in a feral grin. "I'd love to even out that face of yours."

"So you'd rather we have the run of the Oasis while you're safely out of our fur in the caves instead of letting us help you?" Eliza snorted. "I didn't take you for a complete moron, Scarface."

"You want to help us," Bell deadpanned.

"What's good for me is good for you," the marten huffed. "It doesn't mean I care one bit about you."

She has a point, the voice of reason inside the dormouse allowed. And, it added, if it's just Matukhana... Those caves are lovely, dark, and deep. Cut off the adder's head and the rest of it won't know what to do.

"No, it doesn't," Bell agreed, ears jutted forward and eyes narrowed at the detestable wench. "Sagaru," she kept her voice level, not letting it betray her thoughts as her body did, "I think you should stay here, m'am."

"I'm comin?" the mouse began to protest.

"M'am," the dormouse interjected, "there's no sense in us both going into the caves. One of us needs to keep an eye on the vermin up here. Even if they are sick, they could still be troublesome."

Matukhana gave a short bark of humorless laughter. "Thanks for the compliment, mouse."

"I'll take Rugger, Birch, and Nona with me, then this fox..." she considered for a moment, "and the marten." Eliza would work nicely as a living shield, and if nothing else, Bell could dispose of her manipulative hide at the same time as Matukhana.

"You can't bring Liza," Venril protested. "It's too dangerous!"

"I want to go!" Eliza rejoined just a little too swiftly. "I mean... I'd rather help save everybeast."

And by 'everybeast' you mean 'myself'. Bell gave a mental snort. Vermin were entirely too predictable.

"If Liza is going, then I'm going, too," the stoat pressed. "I want to get the cure for my crew, anyway...just in case."

"And I ain't goin' anywhere with you without a some useful paws to back me, mouse," Matukhana added, glaring at Bell.

"Fine." The dormouse shrugged. "Stay here. I don't much care." She let an unfriendly smirk curl her lip up. "Have fun catching the plague... if you haven't already."

"You little?!" his next few words left Venril, Medjool, and Sagaru blushing while Eliza?s eyebrows shot to the top of her forehead. Bell just leered.

I love it when I win.