"AH right. Listen here, you're talking to Deatheye now, so watch yourself, you scruffy squirrel, moldy mole and hairless hog!"
The moldy mole picked up a hazel twig and took an angry pace forward. "Naow lookit yurr, bunnies, you'm moind yurr manners or oi'H tan *ee fur wi' this stick, hurr urr, so oi will!"
The two rabbits hugged each other and yelled aloud in panic. "Mummy, Mummy, the mole's going to beat us with a stick!"
A large fat female rabbit waddled out of the undergrowth some distance away and began berating the two rabbits. "Clarence, Clarissa, what have I told you about speaking to strange creatures? Get back to the burrow immediately!"
The rabbits stamped their paws petulantly. ' 'Oh, Mummy, we're Fangslayer and Deatheye, not Clarence and Clarissa."
She bustled over and seized them by their ears. "I'll give you Fangslayer and Deatheye, you naughty bunnies. Didn't I tell you to stop inside the burrow after being chased by that horrid fox and those smelly rats?" She tweaked their ears until they yelped. "Well, didn't I?"
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Spriggat made a courtly old-fashioned bow to her. "You'll excuse me, marm, but we won't harm your young uns. Did you say that a fox and six rats came by this way today?"
She turned on the hedgehog with a mixture of temper and impatience. "That's right, an evil-looking fox and six filthy rats. The fox had a sword too. Would you credit it, he tried to chop up my little Clarence and Clarissa, the ruffian! What are the woods coming to? As for you three, be off with you. Beating little bunnies with sticks! Have you nothing better to do with yourselves? Now clear off, go on! The other lot went that way, southwest. You tell that fox if you see him that I'll give him a piece of my mind when he passes this way again, verminous villain!"
She receded into the woodland, shaking the two rabbits by their ears and carrying on at them in a motherly way. "Straight to bed. That'll teach you two. And no lunch for either of you until you learn to behave properly. Fangeye and Deathslayer indeed. Behaving like two little savages!"
"Waaah, leggo my ears, Mummy!"
"Wahahaaah! Don't want to go to rotten ol' bed, Mummy!"
When they had stopped laughing, Spriggat ate a passing butterfly. "Huh, all wings an' no taste, those things. Well, yew tew, I 'opes all the enemies you meet be as 'armless as those, though if you stood lissenin' t' that mummy rabbit for long she'd wear you to bits wi1 'er tongue. Right, young uns. Let's press on."
As soon as darkness had fallen on the previous night, Ferahgo put his plan into operation. The horde went charging towards Salamandastron, chanting as they brandished their weapons. "Fer-ah-go! Kill! Kill! Kill! Ferahgoooooo!"
In the dining hall, Urthstripe sat with Sapwood and Oxeye taking supper. The sounds of the war chant reached their ears. Oxeye sighed wearily as he put down his beaker.
"Night attack, sah. Shall we just block all openin's an' sit doggo in here? They can't harm us, and all that's required is
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a score of defenders round the crater rim. We can relieve them through the night, wot?"
But Urthstripe was loath to sit still while there was the faintest chance of battle. He pushed aside his chair. "What? Sit in here while those scum crawl ail over my mountain? Never! This is the ideal time to set up a few surprises for Ferahgo. Follow me. We'll need long poles, archers, and oil too. Have that big barrel from my forge brought up to the crater top."
Ferahgo, perched upon a low rock with Klitch and Crabeyes, watched the masses climbing the outer rocks of the mountainous front face of Salamandastron. Doghead the stoat captain ignited a torch, and others began lighting their torches from it. Soon the mountain was ablaze with twinkling lights as the attackers sought to find openings in the rocks that would lead them into the mountain. Dewnose had led three ferrets ahead of the rest. They were almost halfway up when one of them yelled, "Over 'ere! There's an openin', a sorta window cut into the rocks!"
They scrambled to get in, Dewnose leading the way.
"Evening, chaps. Nice night to learn flyin', wot?"
Bart Thistledown and Pennybright thrust forward with their long poles. Dewnose saw what was happening too late. The poles hit him square in the chest and he shot outward with a scream.
"No, don't.. .. Yeeeaaaggghhh!"
Together with one of the ferrets who had squeezed in the window aperture with him, he went sailing into outer space. All over the mountain similar flying lessons were taking place.
Down below, Klitch roared up at the crowds of soldiers who were trying to scramble back down, "Up! Keep going. Get to the top, you worthless cowards!" He ran forward, climbing upward and belaboring all about him with his spear-butt. "Come on, follow me, I'm not scared!"
Ferahgo urged the attackers up, keeping the assault centered on the seaward side of the mountain. This way he hoped that Farran would have a clear path on the landward side.
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Crabeyes unslung his bow. "Shall I get the archers firm'. Master?"
"Addlebrain!" The Assassin pushed him aside scornfully. "They can't see anything to fire at. We'd be killing our own. Tell them to light more torches. Climb up there with 'em, and see if you can't fire some arrows from close range into those slits they're pushing the poles out of."
Sapwood clad himself in old rags and climbed out on lo the mountain face. The bold hare moved about freely in his disguise. A weasel carrying a torch and shaking a pike climbed level with him. The Sergeant dispatched him with a swinging left-paw uppercut, the weasel's lifeless body bouncing like a broken doll as it hit the ledges on its way down. Another weasel raised his spear at Sapwood as he balanced precariously.
"Hoi! You're not one of uAaaarrgghhhh!" The boxing hare merely banged his paws down on the weasel's footpaws and the unfortunate spear-carrier danced painfully on empty space for a second before plunging shoreward. Sapwood spat on his paws and went in search of others.
On the shoreward rim of the crater, Urthstripe and Oxeye were tipping the barrel of forge oil over a heap of large boulders. When the barrel was empty the badger Lord kicked away the wedge holding the boulders back. With a loud rumble they bounced off down the mountainside, and Urthstripe flung the empty barrel after them with a wild laugh.
Climbing nimbly, Klitch was almost halfway up the mountain.
A ferret named Frang grabbed his paw. "Sir, what's that noise?"
"Noise?" Klitch pushed him savagely away. "It's the sound of battle, you fool. Keep climbing!"
Farther up, a rat gave a half-scream as the first of the boulders ground him flat, the flames from his torch setting him ablaze as he rumbled downward. Now the boulders were smashing into the topmost attackers, killing them instantly and
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igniting into huge fireballs as they touched the blazing torches which they had carried on Ferahgo's orders.
Crabeyes and the troops who had just started their climb came dashing back down.
"Master, get out of the way!" the Captain yelled as he passed Ferahgo.
Ferahgo took one backward glance at the mountain as he fled. The front face of Salamandastron was lit up bright as day, and rocks roared with the wind fanning their flames as the blazing boulders cracked and burst, sending death and devastation widespread among the shrieking horde of the Assassin. Above it all could be heard the booming laughter and exultant warshout of Urthstripe, Lord of Salamandastron.