Resting by the River (Free to all)

[Prankster101]

Renaud Wildroar sat comfortably on a rock dangling his right foot paw in the water. He had been walking all day and had paused to take a break. He ate some strawberries that he had passed while lounging on his Marlfox cloak he had draped across the rock. He took his paw out of the water and put them behind his head as he lay on his back, looking up into the leafy boughs.

The sun had passed high-noon and the beams gently filtered through the green leaves of the weeping willow that draped over the water's edge and over Renny's rock. Some robins chirped back and forth across the river fluttering over to the other and then away again. The churning waters of the River Moss whispered to itself was it rushed over the rocks on the riverbed.

All was calm and peaceful as Renny closed his eyes. It would be nice to take a noontime nap right here in the serenity of the moment. But...something was out of place. Renny opened his left eye, something or some beast was watching him from the other side of the river. How long the thing had been there, Renny did not know. He slid his left paw down the earthen side of the rock and gripped his sword tight. He camouflaged this motion by letting out a big yawn. "Ahhhhhhhh.......Tis not'ing like restin' on ur warm sunny day is dere mate?" Renny commented to the beast beyond the river, as he snuggled back down on the rock, his sword concealed comfortably by his side, unnoticeable by the other side of the river.

[Glavon]

(Sorry I've been inactive...I won't put Fang into the RP since Fang's already been in a post with Renny)

Bryce Stoneclaw, better known as Blade, watched the otter quietly. Why it actually bothered to put on the Marlfox cloak was a mystery to him; did an otter think a gray-green cloak was going to conceal it from his hawk keen eyes? He scowled briefly, and sat down among the bushes, hidden pretty well from the otter's eyes. A fox was sitting across from him, a gray and silvery-white furred one, with stony blue-gray eyes.

"Magus." Blade snarled. "Tell me you have good news for me this time, seer. I'm sick of bad omens."

The gray-white fox shrugged and reached into a pouch resting against his legs as three shadowy forms materialized behind him; Blade recognized them as his two captains, Claw the ferret and Rujn, the stoat. Then, after a quick heartbeat of silence, he heard a voice next to his ear.

"We heard you needed help."

Without looking, the rat warlord knew his Night Hawk Assassin Force had joined the party. Still, he turned to look into the face of his Night Hawk Captains, a wiry black female weasel called Likaru, who was holding a wooden sling limply in one strong paw, behind her, his other favorite captain besides Claw, called Dart, and also a ferret, held a yew bow, and standing next to the ferret was a cinnamon colored fox; Doolb, baring a blowgun with powerful needle darts.

"You'd be right then." Blade replied quietly, and motioned to Claw and Rujn to come closer, like the Night Hawks. Then he looked quietly to Magus, who had withdrawn his hand from the bag at his side and had a pawful of bones, which he casted across the dry earth. Blade examined the bones and nodded to Magus, then looked back at his captains.

Something rustled about thirty feet from him, and he saw one of his creatures, a rat, looking at the otter. With a curse, he signaled to Doolb, who moved closer into the shade of the trees and took a deep breath before he moved his blowgun to his mouth and huffed sharply. A small dart with gray feathers shot out, invisible against the trees, and slammed sharply into the neck of the rat, which gurgled and fell, but not before the otter noticed. As Doolb watched a small trickle of blood ooze from the neck of the dead rat, Blade realized that the otter had seen the now dead beast.

Ahhhhhhhh.......Tis not'ing like restin' on ur warm sunny day is dere mate. the otter said lesurely. Bryce Stoneclaw's horde knew the danger of the situation, and breathed silently as the Night Hawks readied their weapons.

[lorki]

(I love throwing Sleet in where she's _probably not wanted.)

Sleet was fully unaware of any drama going on in the forest that day. All her attention focused on her own awkward moments as she limped her way towards the river. Steadying herself with arms out wide she stepped tenderly along a slightly worn train she trail that she followed on occasion. The blood around her ankle had long since dried and it wasn't the cut that worried her, it was the tenderness and shooting pain of putting weight on it. A sprain, she hoped, rather than a break.

The small dove gray ferret raised her head only to glance down the path, where was that forsaken bloody river? She wanted to wrap her ankle, but that wasn't a good idea until it was cleaned and it couldn't be cleaned without some bloody water. Gritting her fangs together she moved purposefully, painfully, towards the river. Her focus so taken up that she didn't even notice the creatures stirring along the shore as she neared it. But her eyes were on the water and her full desire on rigging up some sort of support for her footpaw.

Injuries were regular for her, they came with the territory, particularly with her profession as a killer for hire. Still she always found that scrapes and cuts were much more manageable than sprains and breaks and popped out joints. Those things were painful. This was painful... and particularly annoying as well.

Mumbling a slew of unsavory words under her breath, Sleetfang reached the bank. Unknown to Sleet just a few yards away there was a resting otter behind a rock and a dieing rat. Thinking she had escaped chaos, rather than walked right into it, the dainty ferret hiked up her pant leg as gently washed away the blood from around her swollen ankle. Just as she had expected the cut was not bad, and certainly not the reason for all the pain. Cursing again she flung her bag sideways and began searching through it for some sort of wrapping.

[Glavon]

The otter hadn't appeared to have really...reacted to the death of the insignificant horderat. Blade chuckled quietly to himself and motioned to Doolb the fox, who obediently hunkered down so he would be less noticeable. Likaru, the Night Hawk weasel captain, pinched a round green stone out of the pouch on her belt and examined it critically before polishing it on her night black fur and placing it snugly in her sling as Dart, the Night Hawk ferret captain, selected an arrow from his quiver and placed it on the bowstring.

Blade's paw shot up swiftly to halt his Night Hawks from doing anything and peered out into the leafy green forest, spotting a small gray ferret limping toward the river. The rat captain shrugged to himself. It didn't matter why the ferret was here; more practice to his army. He looked at Likaru, who was spinning her sling in a wild blur and selecting more stones with the other. He nodded slightly to her and she let off a huge volley of stones.

If clouds could rain stones, that would be similar to what Likaru was doing. Blade imagined the confused looks on his enemy's faces as the stones hit, and motioned to Dart to also let a volley of arrows fly, and then Doolb to shoot darts. A rain of deadly projectiles showered the woodlands and then halted abruptly. Bryce Stoneclaw grinned at the captains. "Go."

And out of the forest and onto the bank of the river came five beasts; Ryju the stoat, Dart and Claw the ferrets, Likaru the weasel, and Doolb the fox.

[Sigurd]

Hmmmm, is that what I smell? Meat, marten Thought Torks, the crazy otter. Sailing on his poorly made raft, Torks' one good eye scanned for the Marten, "Oi, missy, you will do good for dinner!" Yes, he ate animals, he was hungry. His keen nose smelled more vermin, a stoat, two ferrets, a weasel and a fox. And, and, a.... a..... RAT! His razor sharp teeth slowly smiled, "Hah hah hah, rat, think you can outrun the Razortooth, think again!" The otter crazily dived into the water.

[Glavon]

(Sigurd, I don't know what you think, but Sleet isn't a marten, she's a ferret, and there are no martens RPing now.)

Blade's ears heard Likaru's soft laugh. So the weasel thought this would be easy; but he'd had enough practice to know this wasn't the case, because any beast could be a formidable adversary, from mice to rats like himself. He smirked quietly despite himself and heard noise from across the river. His eyes flicked around and spotted yet another otter; this was turning into quite a party.

Oi, missy, you will do good for dinner!

This was the new otter's voice, of course. He knew the otter was speaking to the ferret, so he kept quiet. Obviously this otter was crazy or something; imagine eating a ferret! It was at that precise moment that the new otter turned to look at Blade's captains, and it smiled widely.

Hah hah hah, rat, think you can outrun the Razortooth, think again!

It leapt into the stream; Blade frowned and watched the sleek form shooting through the waves. Still, he drew his saber and tested the tip with the pad of a finger, drawing a drop of crimson blood. He smiled, waiting for his prey to arrive.

(Short post, I have to go. >.<)

[Prankster101]

(WOW!! Hi everbody! Nice to see you all post, but wait for everyone to post before you post again!)

Renny had been listening to all that surrounded him. And things were not looking good for the otter casually laying on the rock....The beast that was watching him( a rat he now knew) was dead, and a ferret was now tending to itself down river. There were a whole lot more beasts then he first expected there to be. His compassionate heart was thinking about helping the ferret with it's wounds when he heard the sound of rocks come whizzing twards him. He knew his relaxing cover was blown and jumped up. He grabbed his things, along with his cloak and blade, and threw himself into the river.

SPLASH!!!The water rose up in waves around the point from when he went under as the slinging stones splashed against the water's surface and hit the rock that he was just on. A volley of arrows followed the stones as Renny swam suspended under the surface of the water. Holding he breath this long was not a problem for Renny being an otter, but he knew he had to change his position. Effortlessly, he turned around and swam down the river, looking for an overhang to surface in and get the bearings of the situation. Luckily, he found one shortly, and when he surfaced with no noise what's-so-ever, he realized that the VERY small overhang was just under the wounded ferret. The overhang was just large enough for him to stick his head out of the water and not be seen. Breathing quietly, the water coming to his shoulders he heard a craft coming down river.

"Oi, missy, you will do good for dinner!"
"Hah hah hah, rat, think you can outrun the Razortooth, think again!"

Renny watched as the other otter dove into the water from a little raft. He again went under the water to watch the otter's movements. This otter is defiantly not in his right mind..Renny thought to himself. The otter seems to just be preoccupied with finding the dead rat. So Renny popped his head back up and was able to catch a glimpse of the five armed vermin that had now walked onto the bank, where the crazed otter was headed. This was not going to turn out well.......

[lorki]

Just as she'd pressed a flat carved piece of wood to splint her ankle and begun to wrap it tightly something smacked quite painfully into her shoulder. Her senses snapped away from the discomfort and into the forest around her just as some otter in the River yelled out something that she didn't pay enough attention to to hear. What?

"What in Hellsteeth..." she growled as another rock flew out of nowhere and smacked her squarely in the head. How did she manage to do this? She made one more quick round with the bandage and tied it off, keeping her head low in case of any extra wayward pebbles. She crept to the large rock, her ears pointed forward, listening now to the movement of others, a few splashes in the river. Her face just barely peeked over it and her dark eyes widened.

Somehow she'd managed to miss a small band of... well it appeared to be a stupid band of... perhaps bandits? A wanna-be horde, maybe. Whatever they were they warranted a scowl from the lone ferret, she hated pointless acts of violence like this. At least she got paid for who she killed. These beasts just seemed to have a hankering to ruin a half-decent day with rocks and empty threats.

Throw in what appeared to be otter who had long since fallen off the sanity cliff and Sleet felt as if she'd already worn out her welcome. Part of her wanted to turn, drag out a few of her knives and make quick work of these creatures, the forest she wandered was better off without crazies, her temper was better off without crazies. But in all honesty she had no desire to get swept up in a mini war between the insane, it would only annoy her.

She turned back around just as a head popped out of the river directly in front of her. She hopped back, throwing up her paws, a knife suddenly held in each as her fur bristled in surprise. Upon seeing that the head was an otter (and, thankfully, not the one that may have escaped from a mental asylum) she calmed and lowered her paws. Staring at him with as much confusion and uneasiness as he seemed to have as well she couldn't find the words to form a correct question for the situation.

[Glavon]

(Sorry, I have absolutely nothing to do, so I post a lot.)

Bryce Stoneclaw's keen eyes had begun to watch the cloaked otter while he prepared for the crazy otter to come at him. As the cloaked otter realized the stones and arrows were coming it got up in an undignified scramble, grabbing its blade and cloak that it had threwn off, and made a running dive into the river. The rat warlord waited until Likaru the weasel's eyes shot under the overhang the gray ferret was next to before he finally spoke.

"You sure you want to be in the water with that insane otter?" he asked the previously cloaked otter coolly, whirling the saber around with his free paw in a complex pattern. Then Blade noticed Ryju's ears pricked as the stoat heard the gray ferret speak.

What in Hellsteeth... came the statement, inflectionless with the barest hint of a question in the words as two stones from Likaru's sling rammed into the gray ferret. His Night Hawks were accurate when focused on a target, but now they were just raining projectiles and he held up a paw to stop them from wasting the ammunition. He noticed Doolb fire off one dart, though, directed at the gray ferret's shoulder.

Bryce chuckled lowly and emerged from the trees, ten members of his horde following him.

[Abbot Vivian]

(I'm assuming this is still open because I would like to include Sweetfang.)

Two large ears twitched uncomfortably. A pair of orange eyes flitted open to reveal a fading sense of disorientation as though transitioning from a dream and into the waking world. The parched mouth beneath them curled into a frown. Its lips then smacked together repeatedly to relieve some of the dryness afflicting them.

One clawed paw reached up lazily and carefully scratched away an itch bothering the creature’s elongated golden-furred neck. Its other three paws remained securely clamped to the bark of a tree branch. Its long tail swayed over the branch’s edge and into empty air, completely at the mercy of the frigid breeze.

The beast turned its attention toward the wide trunk of the oak upon which he rested. He yawned and leaned his head downward to verify the sight beneath him. A few stray arrows struck the side of the tree, the vibrations caused by their impact was what had disturbed his far from restful sleep.

The pine marten immediately stood, his mind quickly registered the danger within which he found himself. Was someone trying to kill him? He examined the ground he fast approached in his agile and swift descent down the side of the tree. The ground was littered with random projectiles. This was no assassination attempt he realized, but he still felt as though his life was being threatened.

He continued moving with no amount of hesitation the instant his four paws greeted the ground. His blade, still contained within its scabbard, bounced wildly against his hip as he bounded off on all fours in what he thought was the direction of the attackers. His efforts brought him to the river moss in under ninety paces. It would have taken him less time had he not needed to weave his way toward the riverside to avoid the falling stones.

He stood up straight when he stopped and found himself in the presence of various creatures including a gathering of seemingly organized vermin. They had only just revealed themselves in the open. The pine marten smiled at them in acknowledgment. “You woke me up from a nice little nap and I was having such a good dream too. Can’t rightly recall what it was about, but I remember smiling like this, see?” He spoke, addressing the vermin. He held them, the most obvious suspects, responsible for coming close to hurting or even killing him “I think it was very rude of you to wake me up.” He carried on after a momentary pause. “I’d like you all to apologize.”

[redclaw]

(This thread might be dead. But if it is not I hope you will not mind interruption from the Redclaw.)

Zarek Redclaw strode through the woods in massive steps. He was hot and his face was covered with beads of sweat. He guessed that the rest of his army was in similar condition because of the pants and moans behind him. The only one who didn't seem phased be the long march was the shrew that Zarek held up bodily by the back of his shirt. The shrew just kept looking on, a bored expression on his face. He had been sitting in the woods, separate from the rest of his tribe because of a dispute when the Redclaw horde had lept on him and dragged him away.

"Where's this river you keep talking about?" said Zarek roughly while shaking his prisoner.

"Cold down big guy," said the shrew, a little to calmly, "right up ahead, the river Moss! You can't miss it."

"There it is!" yelled Valdis, captain of Zarek's personal guard, "I see it through trees!"

"Right," said Zarek, "you saved your life shrew, for a while." He glared at the shrew who for the first time seemed slightly frightened. "Come on!" Zarek shouted to the thirsty horde, "drink your fill!" With a cheer more than 50 score of vermin burst from the trees and charged down the bank to the river. All that reached it bent down an hands and knees to drink. Some fell in, splashing and shouting. The beasts who couldn't reach the river edge set about pushing those in front of them. More fell in.

"Look!" a sharp cry from Valdis Swiftsword brought them all to alert, "Across the river! There is other beasts!" The murmur came from the assembled Redclaw.

Zarek looked at the enemies on the bank. He saw a group vermin, well organized, which was strange for such beasts, gathered around a pine marten. A otter was going towards a ferret, laughing insanely. Another otter was near the ferret, pulling himself on the bank. "Don't kill them if you have to!" shouted Zarek, "Try to make them surrender! Charge!" His voice rose to a roar as he finished. He drew his scimitar, placed it in his teeth and started half wading and half swimming across. The rest of the Redclaw horde followed suit, yelling and screeching. Valdis called the guard to him, and the started across the river right behind Zarek. Their heavy armor weighed them down, and they struggled to stay standing with their using their spears as staffs.

The shrew prisoner had been dropped when Zarek started across the river. He looked for a way to escape, but Redclaw beasts were all around him. The pushed at him, and he soon found himself near the front lines. He drew his rapier and gave a half hearted yell with the horde. If you can't beat them he thought, join them.

[Glavon]

You woke me up from a nice little nap and I was having such a good dream too. Can’t rightly recall what it was about, but I remember smiling like this, see? I think it was very rude of you to wake me up. I’d like you all to apologize.

Likaru the weasel sneered, while the other captains merely looked bored, as though they were used to this. Bryce snickered. "Like that's going to happen. Tell you what, marten, why don't you go back to sleep before I send you to sleep permanently?"

Don't kill them if you have to! Try to make them surrender! Charge!

"Oh, great," Ryju said tiredly. "Another addition to the party. Just perfect."

Doolb grinned in reply, as did Claw. "More to kill," Doolb said. "I'd almost feel sorry for 'em, if they weren't enemies o' Blade and I wasn't the one doing the killing."

Claw nodded, while Dart picked up his bow. Almost lazily, he fitted an arrow to the string and pulled it back as far as it would go. The muscles in his arm straining, he released the arrow, which flew straight and true, going straight through a fox's throat and piercing a rat's windpipe, sending them both to their deaths. Likaru let out a demented laugh, twirling her sling and charging straight at the front row of the vermin. She whirled it crazily, and the noises of cracking skulls were easily audible to the other captains.

Doolb shrugged, picking up his blowgun and putting it to his lips. A ferret gurgled in surprise and sat down, tripping a fox which fell right into the path of Likaru's whirling sling.

Even Dart flinched at the noise that the sling made at it smashed the fox's skull, and the captains charged into battle. Bryce grinned and motioned 10 score of his army to him; they too charged at the enemy.

Bryce was right behind, his green eyes alight as he whirled his blade.

[Prankster101]

Staring at him with as much confusion and uneasiness as he seemed to have as well she couldn't find the words to form a correct question for the situation.

Renny looked back at the ferret with the same befuddled expression. This day was not going as planned. Renny whispered out of the corner of his mouth.." If ye ain't gonna attack me matey ah wan't attack ye, an' ye can be a hindin' under dis 'ere ledge too. Ah gots dis fealin' all ain't gonna turn out well..."

"You sure you want to be in the water with that insane otter?"

Renny, not wanting to tick off the apparent leader of the beasts that were shooting at him, replied with a courteous distaste in his voice. "Ah'd reat'er be in dis 'ere water wit' 'im den up dere wit' ye ugly mut!"

“You woke me up from a nice little nap and I was having such a good dream too. Can’t rightly recall what it was about, but I remember smiling like this, see?I think it was very rude of you to wake me up.I’d like you all to apologize.”

Hearing, but not seeing the speaker, Renny chose not to respond. The creature who spoke was either confident in their fighting skills enough to say that to a horde leader, or they were insane and preferably, he could care less who is was as long as they didn't see him....

"Charge!"

Renny looked down river and there was another vermin hoard charging into the water, apparently after the original horde on the opposite river bank. Still under the safety of his overhang Renny watched the other army fire back in retaliation. He decided that for the mean time, it would be safest to stay out of this battle. Why shed blood if you don't have too? However he did mumble to himself, "Dis stretc' o' river 'ave ta be cursed....And o' course ah 'ad ta be a stoppin' 'ere."

[Abbot Vivian]

Sweetfang’s left paw ventured near the hilt of his kilij in preparation to slay the weasel who had threatened his life. However, he did not unsheathe his blade and ran toward a tree instead when an immense horde of vermin revealed themselves and their intentions to take whatever they could and decimate everything else within their path. He climbed upward and reached a thick branch near the top of the tree where he took shelter from the battle. ‘Maybe they’ll wipe each other out.’ Sweetfang thought hopefully to himself as he watched Bryce’s faction immediately begin to slay numbers among the opposition.

He heard an otter speak from nearby and stared at the ground below. He spotted an otter positioned almost directly beneath him. He had difficulty understanding the otter with his thick accent. Fortunately he had visited many places during his days aboard a pirate ship and had learned how to piece together a coherent message from thickly accented statements. To Sweetfang it sounded as though the otter was cursing his luck for being at the wrong place at the worst possible time.

“Idle paws are the playthings of devils,” Sweetfang spoke from above. “When they’re finished fighting each other, they’ll have nothing better to do than head our way and try killing us for whatever valuables we’ve got. Unless you want to run away, otter, we should try coming up with a plan for solving such an upcoming challenge.”

[lorki]

" If ye ain't gonna attack me matey ah wan't attack ye, an' ye can be a hindin' under dis 'ere ledge too. Ah gots dis fealin' all ain't gonna turn out well..."

Sleet raised her brow, bright black eyes darting about, the situation was become stranger and... well increasingly violent. Sleet was not, and hopefully never would be, a warrior. She didn't fight massive numbers... well not unless she had an extremely good reason to. She was a meticulous killer, one with poise and purpose. This was not her game. "I don't like the water," she remarked calmly, her voice defying her true feelings of confusion and possible desperation.

Suddenly, the tree above her spoke.

“When they’re finished fighting each other, they’ll have nothing better to do than head our way and try killing us for whatever valuables we’ve got. Unless you want to run away, otter, we should try coming up with a plan for solving such an upcoming challenge.”

Her eyes darted to Sweetfang, uneasily sizing him up, she didn't like being surprised. Why did beasts so often have so many reservations about running away? Hell, running was practically in her job description. She took a few quick, unsteady steps to push herself back to hide better from the increasing violence.

"Really, now?" she growled, casting her eyes across the two beasts in front of her, "I was just going to hope they all managed to kill each other." Her voice drawled a bit with sarcasim, although in truth she doubted she needed a plan. Sleet could talk, deal or (if the situation was dire) fight her way out of almost any circumstance... or at least she'd been able to thus far.

[redclaw]

(Your Captains appear to be NPC's so I am taking a little liberty with them.)

Though the Redclaw outnumbered the enemy almost 2 to 1, but Bryce's horde had the higher ground and the Redclaw were in the water. They made no headway against Bryce's beasts, but floundered against their ranks.

This changed when the Guard reached the bank. Their armor had deflected most of the projectiles headed their way, drove into the ranks of Bryce's horde with their spears lowered. Valdis led the charge, his sword raised. The fight was bloody as both sides suffered losses.

Valdis saw Likaru charge him and deflected her attack with a flick of his rapier that wounded her paw. She back off, clutching the bleeding cut. Valdis then rushed at one of Bryce's archers, slicing his string and then his throat in swift succession. He saw on of the guard fall next to him, an arrow in his temple. Valdis kept fighting, slashing at every-thing before him.

Zarek had not done so well in the crossing of the river. He had fallen at one point, becoming completely submerged. Now he rose from the water like a juggernaut and charged. He hit the front ranks of Bryce's horde like thunder, scattering beasts left and right. He killed many with his claws and scimitar, even some of his own. He charged at Bryce yelling, "Death to the Redclaw's enemies!"

Trysta hadn't charged across the river like Valdis and Zarek had. She walked across more carefully so she wouldn't fall. Trysta climbed up the bank, felling herself all-over as if to make sure she was all there. A fox, one of Bryce's beasts, charged at her, his axe raised. Trysta sighed as if annoyed and drew her sword. She leaped to the side and slashed him across the stomach. He fell on the ground, dead. She winced as blood splashed on her face and chest. She would need to bath later.

[Glavon]

(I would prefer you not to automatically hit them, Redfang. Please refrain from doing it again; just attempt to attack. I think I may be writing profiles for a few of them, that is the reason I don't want them hurt. And you kind of made a bad mistake there. XD I'm feeling violent today, so my characters are too. And the Night Hawks are an assassin force that are not in play, so you can't kill them.)

The pain that coursed through Likaru's paw had just made her madder. A feral snarl exploding from her throat, she charged at the enemy on her own with only her bare paws; kicking, biting, and punching. She wasn't picky about how she killed, either; many of Zarek's horde suddenly found themselves with bite marks in their throats as they bled their lives out on the ground.

Likaru's muzzle was stained heavily with blood when a fox lashed out and stabbed her through the leg with a scimitar. The fox grinned triumphantly and moved to kill her, but ended up sinking his weapon into the back of a wiry black rat from the horde that had jumped in front of her. She kicked out, regardless of the injury and tripped the fox, which landed on its own blade.

Bryce laughed as the horde leader charged at him and leaped forward. The brown rat bared his sabre and slashed at the creature like living lightning, then, when he was done with that, attempted to punch the leader in the stomach and snapped at his throat.

Ryju leaped at Valdis Swiftsword. Drawing his rusted cutlass blade, he killed a few of Valdis' creatures, coloring the grass red, and slashed viciously at Valdis.

Doolb, Claw, and Dart had noticed Trysta. Claw charged forward, weapon at the ready; Doolb and Dart circled their opponent. Dart placed an arrow on his bow, aimed, and fired. Doolb placed the blowgun on his lips and blew.

While this was going on, one of the enemy had gotten into the bushes and was confronting Magus. Magus narrowed his eyes and looked at a spot beyond the vermin, who happened to be a rat. The rat turned to see what Magus was looking at, and the seer punched in in the nose with such force that he broke one of his fingers; the rat's nose was spurting blood, and Magus kicked the rat over onto the embers of the fire that had been created before. The smell of burned hair reached the fox's nose; Magus grinned wolfishly and grabbed a stick from the ground, stabbing it into the rat's stomach with vicious force. Blood spurted from that wound too.

With a wild howl, the seer leapt out into the open amid the screams of the slowly burning and dying rat. His eyes were insane as he snarled challengingly at Zarek's horde. Another 3 score of Bryce's vermin emerged from the trees.

[Prankster101]

"I don't like the water,"

Renny shrugged. "Yer loss mate." He peered over at the bloody battle on the other side of the river. "Ah'd rat'er not be a gettin' seen an' involved inta dat dere mess.."

“Idle paws are the playthings of devils.When they’re finished fighting each other, they’ll have nothing better to do than head our way and try killing us for whatever valuables we’ve got. Unless you want to run away, otter, we should try coming up with a plan for solving such an upcoming challenge.”

Renny actually ventured to look up into the boughs of the tree to see the pine martin speaking to him. It looked like a well seasoned warrior and Renny felt something shifty about the way the martin said "we".

"Really, now? I was just going to hope they all managed to kill each other."

The weasel responded before he could with a very sarcastic remark. He was actually hoping just that, or when the battle was over the two sides would just forget about the other creatures, but stared into the pine martin's eyes and calmly replied.

"Naw mate ah wauldn't ga a rus'in' inta t'ings. In dis sort o' situation, yer on a play-by-play basis. Da original vermin may turn back ta us w'en dere done because dey were first interested in us. 'Ow ever da attackin' varmints may just ferget. Nabeast is attackin' me naw, saw Ah'll wait an' go wit' w'at Ah be given. Ye be on yer own on descidin' on w'et'er to run er not. Last ah knew ye weren't wit' me."

[redclaw]

(Woops! Sorry mate! I thought the Night Hawks were your hordes name. I'll change that. Sorry, I didn't know you couldn't hurn named NPCs. I won't do that again.)

[shade]

Groans and hisses followed a very short and seemingly enraged figure. Lime Slicktongue, a yellow newt with colorful green splotches and a glossy white belly, had been marching his horde of a alrge mixture of lizards and newts far from the swamps. He had needed action for some time, and he wanted to see if he could meet up with a a hord eleade rhe met in the swamps.

" Mates, shuttup! I hear voicess up ahead! " he suddenly snapped, his red eyes suddenly wide with hiden excitment and the sounds of battle.

" Better be Redclaw, any more of dis I oi colapse! "

For once, Lime did not hit his second-in-command, Gurden. Leaving the comfort of the swamps and into the open turned many of his hordes stomachs. But, his members wer every slick, easily dodging and werling around swords and giving mainful counter attacks, making them much more powerful then they seemed.

" There! IN the water! "

No animal could miss the large horde of Redclaw ahead, but they were in hard battle with another. And it was bloody. Lime at first wanted to attack ful lspeed, but wasnt veyr frank about losing to many of his warriors. He pulled Gurdon and Snaketail form his group and signaled the rest to go behind the enemy horde. " Llissten, when they flee, cut dem down! Bu', fer noa, we three shall take down the harder onesss......" The gorup obeyed, making a wide circle and grouping behin the enemey hord,e hidden and ready to charge if the enemey happen to flee in that direction.

" Come, you two, Gurdon and Snaketail, work together to take down the more important, ill find a few......" Drawing his sword he slowly slunk forward, his yeelow scales shining brightly i nthe sun. He hoped to blend in a seem like another Redclaw horde member, until he hit a captai nor so, of course.

Dodging blows and only once or twice stabbing back, Lime finally managed to pull threw the yelling crowd and find a rat attacking..... Zarek. A smile peered on his newt lips as he drew his red tongue. Zarek needed to help, so he moved on. His red eyes caught site of a feisty femae killing many, so he bolted forward and lunged his sword forward, aiming to stab Likaru in the stomach from behind.