Once! Twice!
Still bent double, Bucko carried on another three paces, staggering crazily. Then he crumpled and fell.
A deathly hush fell upon the crowd. Dotti walked across and stood over the fallen king. A voice from the crowd split the silence.
"Finish him off!"
Dotti turned and glared in the direction of the shout. "Why don't you try it yourself? Come on! This hare is a brave fighter. He could still finish you off from where he lies, whoever you are!"
Bending wearily, she tried to lift Bucko, but she collapsed with fatigue alongside him. The mountain hare opened one eye and gave her a battered smile.
"Mah thanks to ye for that, lassie. 'Twas weel said!"
Lord Brocktree and Ruff supported Bucko back to the log ring. Dotti followed, limping as she leaned heavily on Grenn and Jukka. They sat sharing a pail of water from a ladle, the victor and the vanquished. Brocktree and Ruff positioned themselves behind the pair, stopping the numerous paws trying to pat their backs.
"Well done! What a sooper dooper scrap, wot!"
"Och, 'twas wan tae tell yer bairns aboot in seasons tae come!"
"Bravely fought! Never seen anythin' like it in me bally life. What courage!"
"Staaaand baaaack there, h'everybeast, give these two h'animals room t'breathe. Staaaaaand baaaack, h'l say!" The bankvole referee pushed his way through, bearing the crown and scepter.
Bucko placed a paw about Dotti's shoulder. "Ah'd take et if I were ye, Dorothea. Ye beat me fair'n'square, lassie. Ah couldnae think o' anybeast more deservin' of mah title than ye. Och, yer a fatal beauty, so y'are!"
"And you, sah, are a valiant an' brave warrior!" She passed the crown and scepter to Lord Brocktree. "Here y'are, sah, crown an' thingummy. Don't rightly know what I'm supposed to do with the confounded things."
Bucko was taken aback. "Ach, ye mean ye don't want mah croon an' scepter?"
Dotti shook her head. "No, not really. The plan wasn't for me to become queen or kingess or anythin' like that. No, we had a bigger idea, and one which we think will appeal to a great perilous warrior like y'self, sah! Don't you realize you've practically got a blinkin' great army here at your court, Buck?"
The former king shrugged ruefully. "Aye, 'twas mah intention that one day ah'd knock 'em intae shape as an army. Then ah could've found mah enemy an' marched against him with these braw beasts at mah back."
Brocktree patted Bucko's shoulder. "Well, your time has come, sir. You can help us rally this crew into a great fighting force to follow us to Salamandastron and face Ungatt Trunn."
"Ungatt Trunn the wildcat? Haud on there, Brock, yon's the very foe ah'm bound tae find an' slay!"
Dotti gaped in surprise at the mountain hare. "You're jokin', of course, sah?"
"Ach, 'tis nae joke, lassie. Feel mah back!"
The haremaid ran her paw across the welted ridges of flesh beneath the fur of Bucko's back. "He did this?"
For the first time since she had known the tough hare, Dotti saw a single tear course down his cheek.
"Flogged me with the flat o' mah own sword 'til it breakit o'er mah back, an' drove mah hares from oor hame in the North Mountains. That's the beastie they call Ungatt Trunn for ye. Aye, the whippin' was carried oot by a fox called Karangool, on Trunn's orders. Karangool, och, there's a vermin wouldnae sleep easy if he knew Bucko Bigbones was still alive an' drawin' breath. The rogue thought he'd left me fer dead, ye ken!"
Dotti felt a wave of pity sweep over her. She squeezed the mountain hare's big scarred paw. "Let's go somewhere more private an' discuss this. Would you care to take a bite o' supper with us, 'neath the jolly old willows, cheer you up, sah, wot?"
Bucko swiftly regained his composure and jauntiness. "Och, ah'm fair famished frae all that fightin'. Lead on, Brock mah friend, auld Bucko can vittle wi' the best o' 'em!"
"Haharr, I'll wager 'e can, too," Ruff murmured to the badger as they set off for the bank. "Never knew a hare who couldn't. We'll let ole Fleetscut defend Dotti's Feasting title for 'er!"
"I say, top hole, wot. That's jolly decent of you, sah!"
Ruff tweaked the old hare's ear. "You wasn't supposed to 'ear that, faminechops."
It turned out to be anything but a private supper on the streambank. Colored lanterns and torches decked the trees in the soft summer night. A celebration feast for Dotti's victory had been secretly prepared by the Guosim, Gurth and some moles he had met, and Bucko's cooks, who were determined to give their old master a good send-off and welcome the new mistress. Dotti was so pleased that she rummaged through her worn bag and whipped out the harecordion.
"I couldn't sleep last night, so I composed a ditty, in the hope that I'd win the challenge today. Good job I did, wot. Right, my good subjects, gather 'round an' I'll sing it to you. I know you'll jolly well like it!"
Brocktree clapped a paw to his brow. "I'm sure we will."
The terrible twins Southpaw and Bobweave rubbed their paws in anticipation.
"I say, we didn't know y'could warble, miss."
"Spiffin', wot. I'll bet you're rather good at it."
Brocktree viewed the eager pair with a jaundiced eye. "I guarantee 'tis something you won't forget lightly!"
Dotti forestalled any further chatter by launching into her ditty with a wobbly falsetto.
"Ho whack folly doodle oh Duckfontein,
Dillworthy is my family name!
A fatal beauty have I, goodbeasts,
I'm completely unrehearsed,
Havin' never been, kingess or queen,
Woe to me I'm doubly curs'd,
Oh the crown lies heavy on the ears,
Of a simple maid like me,
Now everybeast must scrape an' bow,
An' bend a jolly ole knee ... heeheeheeheeheeeeee!
Ho whack folly doodle oh Duckfontein,
Dillworthy is my family name!
What a royally difficult life I've got,
But I regally say to m'self wot wot,
A Duckfontein must show no pain,
'Tis fame an' fortune's lot,
My super subjects will adore,
My spiffin' sweet young voice,
An' loyally cry out, more more more!
Each night they'll all rejoice . . . joy hoi hoi hoi hoice!
Ho whack folly doodle oh Duckfontein,
Dillworthy is my family name!
Affairs of state that just can't wait,
An' decisions of high degree,
The balance of a pudden's fate,
Rests hard 'twixt lunch an' tea,
Let anybeast yell, 'Come let's feast!'
Whilst the royal beauty doth sleep,
They'll rue the day that they met me,
Dorothea . . . Du .. . huck .. . fontein ... Dill... worth ... eeeeeeeee!"
As Dotti's ears quivered on the last off-key note, the harecordion groaned as it discharged a deafened gnat. A mole hurled himself into the stream to escape the discord. The streambank was empty, everybeast having fled during the second painstaking verse. Only Southpaw and Bobweave sat adoringly in front of her, applauding wildly.
"Bravo, miss, put a blinkin' nightingale to shame, wot?"
"Rather! Are you goin' to give another rendition, Dotti? Sing us another of your charmin' ditties, wot!"
Dotti looked slightly baffled. It was the first time anybeast had actually sat through her singing and requested more.
"Jolly decent of you, chaps, but the old vocal cords need feedin'I'm rather peckish right now. You could do me a favor, though, an' see if y'can clean out my harecordion. Confounded thing's full of gnats an' such. Must still be some old pale cider in there attractin' the blighters."
She tossed the harecordion to the twins and wandered off to see if she could find some food. Southpaw and Bobweave set about boxing each other for the privilege of cleaning out their idol's instrument.
"Give it here, Southie. She was lookin' at me when she chucked the thing over!"
"Rats t'you, old chap, but I'll give you a swift right!"
"Oof! Here, have some o' this, chum! Now will y'let me clean it? Yowch, that does it. Get those paws up!"
Away from the main merriment, three shrewboats, lashed together, floated gently on the stream. Sipping shrewbeer and dining on pasties, salad and cheese, Brocktree, Fleetscut and Bucko sat with the tribal chiefs Ruff, Grenn, Drucco and Jukka to confer on important matters. The former king had formed an alliance with the others.