The big badger smiled and swelled out his chest. He was a simple creature and enjoyed the adulation of the shrews.
Loambudd brought him back to earth with a bump as she commented to Nordo, "Aye, my grandson has strength that he has not used yet, but he also has an appetite to match. He could eat your tribe out of house and home. You should try feeding him for a seasonhe's a bottomless pit, that one."
Log-a-log knew all there was to know about boats. Pikkle sat watching him as he deftly set about repairing the damaged craft. Taking a saw-edged dagger, the shrew leader cut away the damp splintered wood from the boat's side. Working with wet clay and pine pegs, he fitted a neatly cut piece of oak into the space, bedding it with clay and boring the wood with a red-hot rapier until the pegs secured the new piece firmly. Taking a bubbling pan of pine resin from the fire, he brushed on several thick coats, rendering the whole job waterproof.
Pikkle stood back to admire the repair. "I say, good show, wot! I'll bet the old boat'11 go as fast as the day it was built now, Log-a-thing."
Log-a-log dipped his brush in the resin pan. "She certainly will, Pikkle my friend. This pine resin is a marvelous glue they say that two coats of this around the mouth of a hare will slop him chattering and eating too much. Hold still now while I try it on you!"
The entire camp roared with laughter as Log-a-log chased Pikkle round the boat, brandishing the resin brush.
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"Gerraway, you moldy ol' shrewfeller," the young hare whooped as he ducked and weaved. "Go an' try that stuff out on old Tubbguts. He needs it more than me!"
Ashnin leaped about, cackling. "Get him, Log-a-log. That Pikkle eats more than Urthwyte an' Tubgutt put together. 1 should knowit was me who served them lunch today."
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Through the drenching curtains of storm-blown rain, Alfoh and Arula watched the battle from the logboat as it bucked and pitched on the heaving surface of the Great Lake. Only Samkim's nimbleness of paw was saving him from Deth-brush; the fox was an experienced fighter and used Martin's sword efficiently. Samkim was on the defensive, seeking desperately to parry each slashing blow with his light shrew rapier. The remaining tracker rats clung grimly to the side of the boat, silent spectators to the duel. Steel clashed upon steel. Bobbing up and down with the storm-tossed craft, Samkim held his weapon in both paws, frantically trying to turn the ever-seeking point and edges of the glittering sword. Deth-brush pursued him along the boat's length, hacking and thrusting until the young squirrel was trapped up on the bow with nowhere left to go. Showing his teeth viciously, the fox battered away forcefully at the puny rapier which stood in the way of a death-thrust from the sword. With a sweeping blow he struck at the outstretched weaponand the rapier snapped off at the hilt with a metallic ping.
"Paddle 'ee boats over," Arula yelled aloud. " 'Elp San-ken!"
The three logboats nosed their way across as the Guosssom
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paddled wildly against the mounting waves.
Reaching instinctively as Dethbrush raised the sword above his head, Samkim kicked out with both footpaws. He caught the fox low in his stomach, sending him sprawling into the bottom of the boat.
Dethbrush pulled himself quickly upright, snarling, "I'll use your tail as a he ad plume after I've slain you!"
The prow of Alfoh's logboat struck the fox's craft amidships. He tottered, struggling for balance as the other two vessels closed in. Samkim saw his chance. Leaping up, he punched Dethbrush on the jaw, still holding the rapier handle in his paw. A look of surprise crossed the fox's face as he plunged overboard into the rain-lashed waters, still holding the sword.
The Deepcoiler came suddenly, surging up from the depths like a juggernaut into the midst of the maelstrom. The fearsome head crashed through the surface, water rushing from it as the horrible mouth yawned agape.
Dethbrush gave vent to a gurgling wail as the monster's jaws closed across the middle of his body, and the sword fell from his lifeless paws into the water. Without thinking, Samkim flung himself headlong into the water, grabbing the sword as the fox let it go. Arula was only inches from the Deep-coiler's head. Swinging her paddle with both paws, she struck with the strength of panic, belting it in the eye. Immediately the gigantic reptile shot back under the water, Spriggat and Alfoh grabbed Samkim by the ears and heaved him scrabbling back into the logboat.
Without warning the Deepcoiler exploded back to the surface. The four logboats stood upright on their sterns as the mighty beast cleaved the water between them. Every creature aboard the boats was flung into the lake. Amid the driving gales of wind and rain the Deepcoiler began its killing in the crests and valleys of the sweeping waves.
Samkim clung grimly onto the sword. For the second time in as many moments he found himself pulled to safety as Arula dragged him onto the hull of an overturned boat. Screeching and yelling creatures hung on to capsized logboats
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as the Deepcoiler wreaked its savagery upon them. Coils of awesome thickness lashed and crashed everywhere, and the gray and white foamed lake was tinged with red as rows of razorlike teeth ripped and tore at any moving thing, the thrashing tail stunning, killing and drowning as it whipped about in random savagery.
Spriggat roared in pain as the deadly jaws closed on his back. Samkim cut a chunk from the rearing neck in front of him. The creature hissed, opening its mouth and releasing the hedgehog as it turned its attentions to the young squirrel. Samkim caught one glance of the glittering eyes as the lake monster came at him with open mouth, then recklessly he drove his blade beyond the teeth and into the roof of Deepcoiler's mouth.
' 'Redwaaaaaalllllll!"
Arula and Alfoh threw themselves upon Samkim, dragging him back as the fearsome jaws closed with a stunning clash of teeth. AH three creatures fell back onto the hull in a bundle as with its customary unexpectedness the Deepcoiler submerged.
Samkim fought madly to free himself from the paws of his rescuers, roaring above the storm, "The sword! That thing has taken Martin's sword! Let me go!"
Arula and Alfoh dug their paws into his sodden fur. "Hurr, yon beastie near got 'ee, too, Sanken, but yore safe naow!"
Out of his mind with frustration and battle lust, Samkim bit fiercely at the paws of his friends. "Let me go, I've got to get the sword! Stupid shrew, blundering mole, let go of
me!"
Samkim did not see the paddle that Arula swung at his head until too late. Stars burst inside his brain, then suddenly he was falling through rushing darkness.
It was nighttime when Samkim regained consciousness. The rain had stopped but northeast winds were still sweeping across the lake. He lay on his back at the bottom of a logboat, watching wind-driven columns of cloud scudding across the
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face of a pale moon. A cool damp cloth was pressed to his head. It lessened the nagging pain which pounded in his temple. Samkim groaned and tried to sit upright.
Alfoh pushed him none too gently back down. "Be still, you wild squirrel. I'm trying to reduce the size of this bump on your skull. How do you feel?"
Samkim closed his eyes, and the throbbing receded slightly. "Ooh! A massive headache, that's all I can feel. What happened, Alfoh? I can't remember much of what went on."