Defending - RP

The hare loped across the shores towards Salmandastron, the half-moon shone in the sky. It had to report back. A bolas wrapped around it's legs, with a cry of pain, it collapsed and a weasel grabbed it by the legs and began to drag it towards the woods. The hare kicked and struggled, but a fox and stoat came to help the weasel,

"Her ladyship will have many questions of this one." The weasel commented.

"Oh, just shut up and drag it!" The fox ordered.

"Aye cap'n Longears!"

The hare's eyes grew wide with fright as the vermin dragged it to a small camp, this was the camp for Hermine and her captains. The main horde was a fair distance off. "Did you bring me a hare from the mountain? Good." Hermine drew her sword and put it to the hare's throat, "I have a proposition to make to you. It might save your life."

"What is it?"

Hermine leaned close, putting a little extra weight on the sword, not enough to break skin, "I want you to help me conquer Salamandastron."

"For my life?"

She smiled, "For your life." She took her sword from his throat, "What I want you to do is..."


The hare ran to Salamandastron, Hermine's instructions ringing in it's ears.


The next morning...

"Lord Yewpaw sah! Our scouts 'ave 'ported vermin up the coast." Tila saluted.

OOC: Please place your attentions to the OOC thread.

Yepaw had been standing in one of the upper corridors of the mountain, staring out the window when Tia arrived. He turned at the sound of footsteps approaching and greeted the hare warmly.
"Ah! Hello Tia! Come to give me your report? Well what did the scouts say?"
He listened intently as Tia told him of the scouts findings, and when he heard them. A look of concern spread across his face and he turned back to the window.
"Vermin?! Oh no, this is bad, and from the north too! Lady Ferneye said they were tougher than ones from the other directions."
He turned back to Tia. "Did they say how many there were? How clean they were? What sort of weapons and armour they had? What species? I want to know every detail!"

"Ah'll ask, sah!" Tila saluted turned briskly and marched out of the room.

She came back a while later and made her report, "Tha verman are mainly stoats, wi' some weasels'n'ferrets s'well. There was 'bout 30 score (600), give o' tahke a score. Heavily weaponed, an' most o' them have light armor at tha least. It 'peared they were lead by a female stoat, sah! Should Ah get the troops ready?"

"Hmm, stoats, weasels and ferrets. No rats, no foxes.Wonder why? Rats are worse warriors than the three of the mustelid family, while the foxes better. Mabye the female dosent want to be shown up.Lighty armoured, easier to...um...dispose of.300 score. Far more than our hares here. Could be a problem."
"Lightly armoured and heavily weaponed. And advantage and disadvantage."
He went to the window and looked out. "Assemble every hare to me in the hall. We must have everybeast's input on this!"

"Yes sah!" Tila saluted again, then marched out.

The word spread quickly. Soon every hare down to the oldest veteran was gathered in the dining hall. They only numbered about 130 fighting fit hares, about 30 more hares not fit to fight, far less than the vermin. So many lives to lose. The hares talked among themselves, wondering why they were gathered. Only Yewpaw, Tila, and the scouts knew, but the threat was hanging, why else would they be called here?

Resset (he's part of scouting) decided to ask Tila since she was the one who knew the most, "Just how much are we going to be telling these hares about the imposing danger? Wot! Some of the newer ones might become downright unusable if informed of our predicament, and that could be disastrous. Wot wot!"

OOC: Ummm... Just how old is Tila? Because a Colonel is just one rank short of general, therefore meaning that she would have to be pretty old.

Tila eyed him severely, "Lord Yewpaw knows how to break the news, are you doubting him?"

Ellit was nervous-there was alot of vermin in that horde. He had never really done open fighting in the Long Patrol since he had joined recently. He wandered up to Resset and Tila, "When's Lord Yew gonna get here, wot?"
Gelloft overheard and snorted, "When he bally well gets here, that's when, wot!"
Ellit cringed-he was often looked down upon.

OOC: She's about 40-45.

Resset was responding to Tila just as Ellit approached, "Gracious me, no Marm. Wot! Mearly asking what you knew of the subject, anybeast'd be a fool to not have the jitters over this... Even those of us have have run with the Patrol since being leverets."

"When he bally well gets here, that's when, wot!"

The scouting Sargent had noticed Ellits' approach and had turned to reply when Gelloft had made her comment. Drawing the officers attention.

"Steady on there missie, he was asking a legitimate question to be asked, and shouldn't be down trodden for it."

Turning to Ellit he could only tell him that he had no clue about the badger lord, and that she would just need to wait for his appearance... Along with a kindly encouragement.

OOC: You got it backwards, Gelloft is female, Ellit is male.

BIC: Tilapia nodded, agreeing with Resset, "No need to be rude, you flop eared, backswabber! Be nice to the recruits! Being rude to them is a sergeant's job." She turned to Ellit, "Don't get down, Gelloft isn't the nicest."

"Thanks, marm."

Don't mention it."

Slatter watched the mountain from behind a rock. She wondered what the hares were thinking. Did they really think they could stand up to the mighty vermin horde?

Alfeos didn't like this, not one bit. Hardly three moons had passed since stationed here and already rumors were being spread about the older hares of an attack. The young hare clutched to his shield, trembling behind it. He wanted the wooden round shield to eclipse his entire body, perhaps they would forget he was present and let him stay behind in the fight? He ducked beneath his shield as much as he could in the back next to a wall, but the poor lad's ears stood above the shield and the wood edge rattled against the dinning hall floor like a earthquake's rumbling of a teaset.
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"A'roit y'varmin! Kip yar noises clean! Don' wan' no missus 'ermine finden us slackin'!" Brage growled at his fellow beasts.

"'Keep yar noisies clean!' Ha! Speak fer yerself ya bloke!" A weasel mocked Brage. "Wad's next? Keep a weathered eye?!" Several other vermin blasted, laughing their guts out at the weasel's jest.

Firlon didn't like being mocked for his disability, even after dealing with it his whole life. Though he despised it, the teasing in part made him strong. The ferret stepped up to the weasel and grabbed him by the color. The weasel's body left all contact with the earth as the ferret raised him high, "I don' wan'na ever hear ya talk 'bout me eye o'noise again, yah 'ear?" He threw the weasel to the ground, "I get by on m'own nicely, than'ya vurry much!" The weasel crawled and scrambled away from Brage and to his feet again, "Tha' goes fer all o'ya! 'Nder stan'?!" He drew his scimitar and held it out, pointing round the camp at each vermin who gathered to watch the brawl.

"Any problems?" Hermine arrived unexpectedly, like she always did. The vermin dispersed, muttering excuses of happening to be working nearby. She drew her daintily curved sword, "Leave the slaying of the horde to the enemy, one-eye. Get Slatter's report for me, but make sure she stays at her post."

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Gelloft snorted and walked off to take a place before Yewpaw arrived.

Ellit noticed Alfeos shaking and walked over, "I'm nervous, at least you grew up in the patrol. You don't have to worry about loyalty being questioned and being harassed by others. I wonder what fighting with the Long Patrol is like." He looked at Alfeos questingly.

"Aye, ma'am. Be roit onnit," The ferret said with a scowl. Hermine might have been his horde chief, but he still didn't like her. It didn't help that even she pointed out his differences. It may have been a simple gesture to single him out when giving orders to the general assembly of the horde, on account that not many knew each others' names. With brow lowered and teeth snarled he marched his way to find Slatter.

"Oi," Brage said softly as he came up behind the she-weasel, "Boss wan's yar report."

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Alfeos would too wonder what fighting with the patrol was like, if it weren't for his anxiety building up that he filtered out every word Ellit said into a garbled muttering of incoherent noises. He sat wide-eyed looking at the fellow hare in discomfort. "Er.... W-what...?" He shook his head to clear his mind out, "S-sorry, s-s-sir. I d-didn't catch w-what ye s-said." He offered a pathetic smile, though it couldn't help his case now.

Slatter kept her eyes on the mountain as she replied. 'Tell 'er I c'n see some hares movin' around inside, but they ain't comin' out yet. Haven't seen one outside since that one we captured.'

Brage nodded and snuck his way back to Hermine. "Ma'am, I brough' Sla'er's repor' fer ya!

Hermine listened to the report, "We will attack in lightning maneuvers, hard and quick. Hear that fox?"
Longear nodded, "Dat works ma'am. Wotever yew say 'cause yer da boss. Wot do yew wan't me to dew?"
"You get them ready to fight. Train them. Whip them. Whatever it takes."
"Yes marm." Longear waited to be excused.

OOC: No one post at Salamandastron until Gingivere posts. And Gingivere, if you're reading this, you can access the normal site and can post if you click the classic version button at the bottom of the mobile version. The postings with the vermin can keep on going, as well as postings anywhere else.

Lord Yepaw strood into the room. The big badger was trouble. Vermin, what was he going to do about those blasted vermin.
He walked to the head of the table, picked up a glass and spoon and hit it for silence.
"Silence please! Thank you. Now, there is something I would like to bring to your attention. Some of you may know already, that..." he sighed, "There are vermin in our midst, to the north west. Do not be alarmed, but there is a large group of them that the scouts spotted. All weasels, ferrets and stoats. No hare must leave the mountain alone. This goes for all, scouts, lerverts, warriors, the lot. If you must go at all leave in two's and three's. The bigger the group, the better. When do you do go out. Bring back any food, water or other woodlanders willing to fight. I hate to say this, but Salamandastron may go to war. That is all." he stood down from the head of the table, and walked to back of the hall. Where he leaned on the wall rubbing his forehead.

Tila followed Yewpaw, "Ah'll fight wi' ye tae death, sah."

Gelloft noticed and saluted to Yewpaw, "So will I, wot! Every hare on this mountain will fight with you to the bally death, wot wot!"

Tila nodded approvingly, "That's tha spirit!"

Ellit didn't notice, or if he did notice, he didn't come over.

Alfeos was nearly frozen stiff in horror. They were talking of war and death?! This couldn't be happening, he wished the wall behind him would open up, swallow him hole and lead him to a secret tunnel where he could hide in safety. Only problem with that fantasy was Alfeos was afraid of the dark, and such secret passages are famous for being dark and spooky.

The little hair hardly knew what to do, all he could think of was to curl up behind his shield. He felt tears in his eyes as he trembled and shook, rocking himself back and forth in hopelessness.

Resset nodded in satisfaction after the report from his Badger Lord, "This could get bally-well interesting what with all the new scouts and recruits..." The Sargent considered asking Tila about this, but decided to refrain.

OOC: I got the names right right? I haven't been here in awhile, lol.

Lord Yepaw gave a heavy sigh, "Gelloft, Tia. My trusty hares. I know you will fight for me to the death. I know every hare in this hall will. That's the problem. We may all die if the vermin mean buissness. Salamandastron has never once fell to an enemy. I'm worried this will be the first time. We don't have the number of fighting beasts they have. That's why I asked everybeast to bring back any woodlander they meet. The Gousim, any local otter-holts, even the creatures of Redwall if nessecary!"
He sighed and turned from them. "I just don't know what to do!"

"Then Ah'll go oot taeday! Though Ah may need a sergeant along tae knock 'em intae shape. Maybe another young beast s'well. Wi' yer permission, 'o course" Tila winked at Resset, thinking he may want to go as well. There was really no need for the sergeant since it was common knowledge that Tila had served many seasons as a sergeant before finally accepting the rank of a captain, then a colonel.

Tila rummaged through the extensive pocket of her coat for a bit, then found what she was looking for, a pair of worn 'leather' fighting gloves. She pulled them on and nodded approvingly, "Still fit!"

As the assembly broke, Alfeos found himself being pushed this ways and that as the group of larger hares moved throughout the hall. The lad couldn't hold his ground, and found himself pushed to the back of the hall. He was pushed and pulled by the tides of the bigger hares movement as they chatted on the subjects at hand or went to leave.

Finally, Alfeos found himself tripped out of the larger group, but fell nose first into the backs of one of the hares speaking to the badger lord. "Oh!" Alfeos cried as he scrambled to his feet. "So sorry sirs! I must've tripped on my shaft!" He answered for his mistakes meekly. He prayed they wouldn't punish him for his clumsy actions.

"Stan' oop strait! Et looks lahke ye have nae spine!" Tila had turned upon hearing Alfeos' excuses.

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"C'mon mates! Less git goin', Miz Rein says we're to practice." Longear kicked the rump of a slumbering weasel. As it was still morning and they weren't traveling, the vermin were sleeping in.
"'Ey, I wuz 'avin' a nice dream! An' wot are we 'posed to practice?" The weasel complained.
"We're 'posed to practice fightin'! Git up!"
By now every vermin present was watching.
"Later, I want to go back to dat dream."
It was a terrible mistake, it was also his last. Before Longear could blink, a dart grew out of the weasel's throat. Hermine strode from the trees, "Want to join him? Just say."
The vermin shook their in unison, "No, we're good." One said.

Resset let a smile creep up on the left when Tila winked at him. She seemed to know him pretty well.

"Stan' oop strait! Et looks lahke ye have nae spine!"

The Sargent intervened on the younger recruits behalf, "Steady on there Colonel, I'm certain it was an honest mistake," he then turned to have a say to Alfeos, "Now young sir, you must watch your step closely, as you must do that and much more on the battlefield, we can't have our beasts trippin' up in a dangerous time now can we? Wot! Wot!"