World 1-2: START!

[Venril]

They?re not mine.  They can?t possibly be mine.Venril couldn?t stop thinking about Revel?s kits, even as he, Liza and Medjool walked with Bellona and Matukhana and Bellona's bodyguards to find the cave system that Medjool had described.  I?d never even met Revel before the shipwreck, let alone...

So why did her kits smell so familiar?  As much as Venril didn?t want to admit it, he really couldn?t deny that they really did have a scent similar to his.  Maybe I need to have a talk with Revel about exactly where these kits came from.

Any further reflections were pre-empted as the unlikely companions arrived at their location.  Venril found himself staring down a steep, narrow shaft that went almost straight down into the earth.  Unlike the entrance that the Fritterik had helped find, this one looked liked it would be totally impassable without the aid of a rope.  Luckily, the corsairs had salvaged a large coil of sturdy rope from their ship, which Matukhana was now tying around the trunk of a scraggly tree close to the edge of the cave shaft.  The fox?s paws quickly formed a complex knot as he divided his attention between the rope and Bellona.  After tying the knot, the rat tossed the rope down the shaft.  Venril heard a faint impact as the bottom of the coil hit the floor of the cave.

?In you go, Mousey, and mind ye, don?t slip,?  Matukhana leered at Bellona. 

Bellona opened her mouth to make a reply, but Venril cut her off.  ?Can you two stop fighting each other for long enough for us to get these stupid mushrooms and get out of here safely?  Remember, these caves are full of the same things that attacked us when we were with the Fritterik.?

?I have not forgotten those things, stoat, but that?s no reason to neglect the the threats that are closer at paw,? Bellona replied curtly.  ?I?ll go first, fox.  I don?t trust you, but I don?t think you?re suicidal.?

The dormouse grabbed the rope and began to shimmy down it with surprising speed.  Matukhana?s grip on his scimitar tightened, and Venril could tell he was fantasizing about chopping the rope and letting Bellona fall into the cave, to lay injured and helpless until the Srecchrrl arrived.  Can?t say that idea doesn?t have its appeal, but I don?t fancy my odds against Matukhana without Bellona to act as a counterweight.

?I?ll go next,? the stoat volunteered.  He wasn?t looking forward to the climb, but figured he might as well get it out of the way.  Taking hold of the rope, he began to climb down, much more slowly than Bellona.  He climbed and climbed, but it was not long before Venril began to wonder just how far down this cave shaft went.  His thin arms were beginning to burn, and under his fur the skin was beginning to get irritated from the friction. 

?Bellona?  Where?s the ground?  It?s taking a really long time to get down.?  The stoat chanced a look down, but couldn?t see Bellona or the cave floor clearly.

The dormouse stepped into the small ray of light that came in from the entrance, and now Venril could see her a little bit.  It was still hard to see the floor independent of Bellona standing on it, though.  ?What?s wrong now, st??

Venril was so busy trying to locate Bellona and the cave floor that in a moment of inattention he failed to grip the rope tightly enough and slid down much faster than he had intended.  He managed to arrest his descent just a bit abve the ground, but then lost his grip again, and Bellona had to leap out of the way to prevent him from hitting her on the way down.

Owwww?  The stoat?s left paw burned from the rope sliding across it so quickly, and it felt like he had bruises or cuts all over his body.  Still, it could have been worse, and it did not take more than a few moments to establish that all of his limbs were intact and he was not seriously injured.

Looking up he saw Bellona looking scornfully at him as he rose.  The stoat bristled at her unspoken condemnation.  ?Don?t look at me like that!  Some beasts don?t spend their whole lives learning to fight!  I?m doing the best I can.?

?I never said otherwise, but a beast who can barely take care of himself has no business leading others, Captain,?  Bellona said tartly.  ?I?m not sure who decided to promote you, but I have a hard time believing merit had much to do with it.  Are you somebody?s son? Did you catch your superior doing something he shouldn?t have?  Did they just feel sorry for you??

?I don?t KNOW!?  Venril practically shouted the last word.  He was sick and tired of this self-righteous little rodent with her condescending wisecracks and her smug superiority.  ?I didn?t ask for this job!  I?m not related to anybody and they sure weren?t doing me any favors.  I?m a clerk.  A clerk!  I sit around writing down what beasts say and keep records of how many barrels of ale are in the storehouse and write letters and do all sorts of things that are probably really boring to Leftenant Bellona the great big hero but that have to get done so the horde doesn?t fall apart!?

?Are you quite done ranting?  We have work to do.?  Bellona did not look at all moved or impressed.  But at least she did not look quite as scornful as she had before.  Any further chance that Venril had of a reply was cut off  because it was just then that one of Bellona?s companions, a young female squirrel, came down the rope, followed very closely by a Medjool, whose scales protected him as he slid down the rope faster than any of the others.  The rest began to arrive more quickly after this.  Venril was sure he caught Bellona glaring daggers at him out of the corner of his eye when he went to make sure Liza was alright after she came down the rope, but he shoved this incident aside as Matukhana and the female squirrel each unrolled a bundle of torches. 

It had been decided by unspoken consensus that neither side would ever hold all of the torches, because Medjool had said that these caves were much darker than the Fritterik caves, and nobeast was willing to trust the other side with such a vital lifeline.  Flint was put to tinder, and soon there were two bright beacons of light filling the cave, one held by Matukhana and one by Bellona, who accepted hers from the female squirrel.

Looking around, Venril was startled to see that this cavern appeared to have been used recently.  The bottom of the rope was actually sitting in the middle of a pile of...

?Skulls!?  Liza looked vaguely disgusted.

Normally Venril would have responded, but he was much too puzzled by what this new object was.  There was nothing random about the skulls.  They belonged to various types of mustelid, from what Venril could tell, and had been kept meticulously clean.  They were arranged in a pefect circle with the spot of light from above directly in the middle, alternating between skulls pointed towards the center and skulls pointed out. 

?Crazy cavebeasts!?  Matukhana pulled his leg back to kick one of the skulls away, but stopped as Venril shouted.

?Don?t!?

?What're ye on about now?"

?Don?t touch it, fox!?  Venril spoke harshly, but kept his voice down.   It was hard to explain, but something just felt wrong about disturbing what was clearly something the Srecchrrl very much valued.

?Iz right!  Beazts get very angry, will kill if zhrine iz harmed.?  The lizard, Medjool, had already almost started off down the tunnel out of the chamber, restrained only by Bellona?s watchful gaze. 

?Could we please move along??  The dormouse looked impatient.  Venril imagined that she was not at all curious about the artifact. 

Because evil, nasty vermin made it.  That?s why.  Venril thought acidly.

The band walked down the tunnel for what felt like a long time before finally coming to a divide in the passage.  There were two tunnels up ahead, none of them marked in any discernible way.  The party paused.

?Which way, Medjool??  Bellona asked the lizard.

The reptile did not give an immediate answer, but instead began to hem and haw in a way that did not inspire much confidence in his navigational abilities.  ?Iz?iz difficult.  Waz long time ago, difficult for I to remember.?

There was a collective groan of exasperation.  Matukhana slammed the lizard against the wall, his blade against Medjool?s throat.  ?Then just gimme one good reason why we shouldna? chop ye right ?ere and now.?

It was actuallyBellona who prevailed upon Matukhana to spare the Lizard.  ?Hold on, Captain.  He might be useful later on.  Don?t kill him yet.? 

"Which way do we go?  They both look the same,"  Venril remarked.

Bellona shrugged.  ?Oh well.  I guess we?ll just have to search both.  My group?ll take??

?They?ll take whichever one my crew doesn?t want.?

?How can I know you won?t grab the mushrooms, run back and climb out of the caves and leave us to die??

?Heh, yer one to talk about trustin?, mouse!?

Venril watched this argument go back and forth.  Finally, he lost his temper.  ?Both of you, quiet!?  he hissed angrily.  ?Look, none of us trust each other, so we?ll just have to mix up the groups.  Bellona, you can have one of your beasts.  Matukhana, you can have Bellona?s other two beasts and Medjool.  With the groups mixed up, nobody can double cross each other.  Bellona's beasts will stop you from doublecrossing her, and they'll also stop her from doublecrossing you because then they'd both die."

"Guard 'n' 'ostages at once, eh, Venril?"  Matukhana seemed amenable enough to the idea.

?For once, you?re actually making sense, stoat.?  Bellona said.  ?What about you and??  The dormouse didn?t even say Liza?s name, merely jerking her head in the marten?s direction.

?We?ll go??

?I can decide that on my own.?  Liza walked over to Matukhana?s side as the two groups separated.  Venril frowned at her, surprised at the marten?s behavior, and a little hurt at how eager she had been, but he shrugged and walked over to Bellona.  Out of the corner of his eye, Venril caught Bellona staring daggers at Liza again.

?Now.  Do we have to draw straws for this, or can we just pick our tunnels and go??  Eventually, it was decided that Bellona, Venril, and the female squirrel, whose name Venril learned to be Birch, would take the left-paw tunnel, while Matukhana, Liza, Bellona?s other two woodlanders and Medjool would take the other tunnel.

Venril padded along behind Bellona and her torch.  The silence among the group was dense and heavy.  Finally, Venril decided to broach the topic he had been wondering about.  ?Why do you hate her so much??

?What??

?Eliza.  What did she do to you?  You seem to hate her more than anybeast else except Matukhana.  You?re always spending time with Damask.  Hasn?t he said anything about her??

Bellona stopped suddenly, and wheeled around to face Venril.  ?I?m only going to say this once, stoat.  Lacrimosa uses beasts.  I know the type.  She took and took from Damask until he was completely exhausted and heartbroken and couldn?t?couldn?t deal with it anymore.  She?ll probably do the same to you, after stringing you along and pretending she cares.  Although I notice that with you she doesn?t seem to even be making much of an effort to pretend anymore.  And you know what?  I don?t care.  It?s what vermin do, she just does it better than most."  The dormouse turned around and continued walking.

Venril opened his mouth to respond, then opened his mouth again, but he couldn?t think of anything to say in response to that.  Where?s the comeback, Venril?  Maybe you don?t have one because you?ve been starting to wonder about Liza yourself.  About how she?s never glad to see you except when there?s an emergency.  About how she never talks to you, or touches you, or even looks at you except when something needs to be done?  Venril tried very hard to shove these thoughts out of his head.  It was easier to talk than think, so he asked the other obvious question.

?Why are you so bitter?  You won?t even use my name, and we?ve been stuck in this desert together for well over a week.  Every chance you get you?re always sneering or acting superior.  I?m just a clerk.  I?ve never conquered or enslaved anyone.?

?Yes. You were a clerk. You needn't remind me every other hour just to wallow in your own self-pity.  I know this wasn?t how you planned for life to turn out, Ve?stoat, but bare this in mind: Sometimes life just doesn?t happen the way it?s supposed to.?  The dormouse?s voice was still externally condescending, but there was an undertone of tension to it that Venril hadn?t heard before.

"Well, that's no reason to be so hostile all the time.  You never miss an opportunity to say that you think I'm incompetent, so obviously you don't think I'm actually a threat to you.  Besides, I don't like Matukhana any more than you do.  I just don't feel like I have to remind everybeast of it several times a day."


"Oh?  You didn't seem in a hurry to help us when an actual fight broke.  As I recall, you fled and hid while everybeast else who 'doesn't like' Matukhana was doing something about it,"  Bellona retorted.

"Because it's not about you.  I don't care about whatever vendetta you two have against each other.  I just don't want them to enslave the Fritterik,"  Venril said.

"Why?  You're part of a horde, Venril.  I know you're just a clerk, but as you said, you help them.  What do you think hordes do?  How do you think your leader became a 'baron' in the first place?  By conquering and enslaving other beasts."

"That's different!"  Venril objected.

"I didn't take you for the delusional sort."

"But it is!  Baron Proklyan does take a tax from all the woodlanders and make them spend a part of the year working on his forts and such, but the rest of the time they're free to do what they want, and he keeps them safe from corsairs and bandits and everybeast else."

"You've asked these woodlanders whether they like this system, then?"  Bellona asked.

"No.  Have you ever stopped thinking about killing vermin long enough to think about what comes next?"  Venril retorted.

"What?"

"You're smart enough to know you can't just keep fighting forever.  Haven't you ever wondered about what comes afterwards?  What the new ruler is supposed to be once the vermin are gone?  Or even just what you want your life to be afterwards?  Why do you even bother fighting?  You don't seem to have a mate or kits.  You don't seem to really have any reason for hating vermin.  Sometimes I wonder if you even know what it is you're fighting about."

Bellona wheeled around again, glaring at him.  "You assume quite a lot, Captain.  You know absolutely nothing about me.  I had a mate once -- a husband I loved whose paws were colored red with paint, not blood.  I fought everyday to keep him safe and the one time that I trusted vermin...the one time I hoped you weren't all the same, Freyr was murdered!  I know exactly what I want and what I'm fighting for: to protect creatures from evil snakes like Matukhana and Nashald and Lacrimosa.  But I couldn't protect Sailpaw or Giddy or Damask, and now..."  The dormouse's voice trailed off at this point.  She didn't seem angry any more, just upset.  Venril almost felt sorry for her.  Almost.

"I guess you're right.  I don't think either one of us really wants to be here."

"But we are."

They both were quiet for a while after that, alone with their own thoughts in the darkness and silence of the cavern.  However, all three beasts started as they heard the sound of several beasts rushing towards them from behind.  Swords drawn, the prepared to defend themselves.  However, it was only Matukhana, Medjool, Liza and the other two woodlanders, their running footsteps and heightened breathing seeming very loud

"Wait a second, it's just us!"  Liza said.  "We walked for a while and then ran into a blank wall, so we were hoping to catch you before you went anywhere."

"Well, give us some warning next time so we don't almost skewer you when we hear running footpaws coming after us,"  Birch said in annoyance.

"Iz thiz tunnel!  I remember now!"  Medjool hissed. 

Matukhana cuffed him sharply over the head. "This is the only tunnel, you dumb pile of scales!"

The newly reunited group continued.  After some more walking, the cave began to get a little less pitch dark, and Venril began to feel an air current.

?Look!  Up ahead!?  The squirrelmaid Birch suddenly said, pointing animatedly at the light at the end of the tunnel.  All of them increased their speed, giving a collective gasp as they entered the cave.  It was a wide, open cavern with a high ceiling that included a long slit through which a surprisingly bright amount of light came through.  There was a large lake in the middle, and the area was ringed with different colors of quartz and other crystals.  The light reflected off the water and the rock walls in strange and diverse ways.  This cave was far more pleasant than the domain of the Fritterik.  One could even think of it was beautiful.  If Venril hadn?t seen the Srechrrl himself, he might have had a hard time believing that such a place could house such terrible creatures.

There were no Srechrrl in evidence at the moment, however, and although everybeast kept their guard up, the were able to quickly set to work finding what they were looking for.  There were several types of mushroom growing in the cave, including bright red caps and bioluminescent ones that seemed to have a glow of their own.  The vast cave took a considerable amount of searching, but finally?

?Over here!  I think I found them!?  Bellona waved the others over to a large cluster of small, drab mushrooms with light blue spots on them.  They matched the description that Medjool had given them.

Before the group could take any further action, however, there was a loud chittering sound.  Venril looked up, and saw an undersized, heavily painted weasel staring at them from just out of reach.  It had gotten surprisingly close to them without anybeast noticing.

There was a scramble as everybeast went for their weapons, but the the weasel did nothing exce[t continue to watch them, looking more curious than threatening. It was soon joined by several others, who climbed down rapidly from surrounding ledges.  The group soon grew to seven, but none of them did anything threatening.

Venril noticed that though the dark-painted mustelids were undersized by normal standards, they seemed to be bigger and stronger than the Fritterik.  Their fur was glossy and healthy, and overall they seemed much better nourished than the other cavedwellers.

Oh.  Venril felt a way of disgust as he remembered why they seemed to healthy.  While Bellona, Birch and Matukhana kept their guards up and continued watching the group, Venril began to look around.  Something wasn't right here. The Srecchrrl weren't doing anything at all.  Venril remembered how they had used the fire as a distraction before.

The stoat chanced a glance back towards the exit.  His eyes widened as he saw that several Srecchrrl had gathered over or near the tunnel.  And these ones had spears.

"GET DOWN!"  the stoat shouted.  the fighters among the group instinctively complied.  Liza was slower to respond, but Venril yanked her down as he ducked. Medjool did nothing at all, merely standing there, but he was not the main target.  The small volley of spears flew over the groups heads or landed amongst them.

All at once all of the Srecchrrl in the cave began chittering loudly as more of the beasts began to block the exit. 

Bellona hastily moved all three of them over so that their backs were to a rock column that afforded them some cover against the now constant stream of spears being thrown from near the entrances.  The spear throwing tapered off as the Srecchrl in front of them began to move forward. 

Bellona looked at the others.  "They've cut off our escape.  I see another tunnel across the cavern, but I'm not sure where it goes."

Venril spoke up.  "Well, we know they have some means of getting to the Fritterik to attack them.   Maybe if we get far enough into the tunnels we can get to where the Fritterik live."

"But what if we get lost?  Those tunnels could go on forever!"  Liza objected.

Matukhana gripped his blade tighter.  "Well, less'n ye got another way, guess this'll have to do."

The surfacedwellers suddenly broke cover and dashed towards the group of Srecchrrl approaching them, blades swinging.  They cut down several, and managed to break through the group.  Venril wished he still had his chainmail as a stone spear came perilously close to him, but quickly changed his mind as the group ran across the cavern.

Birch did not have time to light another torch, and Matukhana had apparently lost his during the fighting, so they ran in the dark.  Finally, they chanced stopping and lighting another one of Birch's torches.

"What happened?  Did we lose them?  Liza asked."

Venril frowned, a disturbing thought donning on him.  "No...they're not attacking us because they don't have to.  Not right now, anyways.  We're lost in the dark without any real supplies.  They don't need to fight us fairly.  They just need to wait for us to get separated or weaken, and then pick us off one by one."

They were trapped.