Chapter 19
Martin the Warrior strode through Dannflor's dream. He pricked the young squirrel's footpaw with his swordtip, uttering only one word. "Awake!"
Dannflor woke and sat up. The sword he had been holding loosely in his sleep had slipped free and nicked his footpaw. The first thing he saw was a big scraggy ferret, with a raven's feather braided to his tail, brandishing a scimitar, as he and a band of about twenty other ferrets crept up on the four friends. Dann shouted a warning to his companions. "Look out, ambush!"
Dann had never been so frightened in his life. The ferrets had them outnumbered by five to one. Moreover, they were a savage, murderous-looking bunch, yellow-fanged, heavily armed and red-eyed with blood lust. He heard Song yelling, "Run for it!"
Dann plunged off into the trees, pounding along as fast as his paws would go. He briefly saw the others begin to run. Song was fleet of paw. She ducked two of the vermin and fled into the thickets, but Dippler and Burble were not so lucky. Still sleepy-eyed, they were cut off and brought down by a group of the fastest ferret runners. Sobbing with fear, Dann ran as he had never run before, dodging around trees, dashing through nettlebeds, stumbling and tripping through roots hidden beneath deep, damp loam. Behind him he could hear the wild barbarous screeches of the ferrets, and their swords slashing at the undergrowth as they came after him. Chest burning, heart pounding, breath torn from him in ragged gasps, Dann blundered onward, still clutching the sword of Martin. They were getting closer, shouting now.
"Roundaround tharraway, we's gorrim nowsoon. Kye arrrrr!"
Desperately Dann looked about as he ran, then he saw it. A four-topped oak with thick limbs and an impenetrable profusion of leaves. Dann shinned up it, scraping his paws and barking his shins. Thrusting the sword between his teeth, he swung up through the thick boughs and stowed himself amid a clump of leafy twigs. Moments later his pursuers grouped below the oak, brandishing an ugly array of bladed weapons. They slashed at the bushes, hunting this way and that.
"Whereda squirl gotoo, you'va seed 'im?"
"Karrabah! Twoda squirls gerraway. Quickyquick, dose squirlers!"
"Gorra voler ander shrewbeast. Key arr, goodyerr!"
Scarcely daring to breathe, Dann lay flat on a limb, surrounded by oak foliage. He watched the jabbering ferrets, arguing and thrashing at fern and bush alike with their curved scimitars. When they had searched around awhile, one of them bared his stained fangs and pointed in the direction of the creekbank. "Wego backnow back-now, lotsafun, voler, shrewbeast. Rabbagakk!" Screeching and whooping excitedly, they dashed off.
Half sliding, half scrambling, Dann came down from the oak onto the ground. Burying the sword deep in the soft earth, the young squirrel sank into a crouch, lowering his head into both paws and letting hot tears of shame flood down his face. Coward! His father had been right. He had run like a frightened Dibbun, leaving his friends to the enemy.
It was the sound of his fitful sobbing that led Song to find Dann. Rounding the trunk of the massive oak, she sat down beside him. "Dann, are you hurt? What's the matter?"
Still weeping, he shook his head. "I was frightened, Song, so frightened!"
Song angled her head so that she was looking upward into Dann's face. "Goodness, so was I. I nearly jumped out of my skin."
Dann thrust the swordpoint deeper into the soil. "You don't understand. I've proved my father right. He called me a coward and I am. I deserted Dippler an' Burble, left 'em t'be captured by those ferrets. I was terrified, and I ran!"
Song gave him a hearty shove and sent him sprawling. "Oh, I never. I stayed and got killed defendin' 'em!"
Dann shook tears from his eyes angrily. "Oh, stop talkin' stupid!"
The pretty squirrelmaid smiled and clasped her friend's paw. "I will if you will, Dann. We did the only thing we could do, we escaped. Imagine if we'd stayed and got gallantly slain, now that would've been a great help to Dipp and Burb, wouldn't it?"
Dann wiped his eyes with the back of a paw and sniffed. "Didn't take much bravery to run away, though, did it?"
Song was beginning to lose her temper. She emphasized her words by prodding Dann in the chest with her Leafwood stick. "No, it just took a bit of common sense, mate. We're still alive, y'see, and now we're going back there to be brave when we rescue our two friends from those dirty vermin. Come on, Reguba, there's other things to do with that warrior's sword than stab the earth!"
Dann stood up then, and pulled his sword from the ground. He wiped it clean on his tunic front, gritting his teeth. "I'm glad I've got you for a friend, Song Swifteye.
Let's go an' deal with some vermin!"
Dippler and Burble were hanging upside down by their footpaws from a thick willow bough, swathed practically from neck to tail in vine ropes. Raventail stood in the Swallow, flicking his scimitar in front of their faces.
"Wellawell, likkle frien's, you likin' da drinkmore?"
At his signal, four grinning ferrets leaned down on the bough, causing it to bend so that Dippler and Burble's heads were forced down under the water, which amused the ferrets greatly.
"Givem lotsalotsa drink for longertime!"
"Kye arr, volers an' shrewbeasts be's much thirstynow!"
After a while they released the branch, and the two captives' heads came clear of the murky water. Both were coughing and gagging. Raventail flicked the scimitar closer to their faces.
"Tellame now when youbeasts got 'nuff drinkdrink, den Raventail cutcha loose . . . from you necks, from you necks!"
Burble spat out creekmud and wrinkled his nose at Dippler. "Don't give us much choice, do 'e, mate?"
One of the ferrets by the bough suddenly sighed and flopped down for no apparent reason. Raventail cocked his head quizzically. "Wotmarra wirra dat'n?"
Before he could inquire further, another ferret went down. This time the thud of the slingstone was loud and obvious.
"Redwaaaaaalll! Regubaaaaaa!"
Even as the piercing war cries rang out from the cover of the trees, another two ferrets were laid flat by paw-sized river pebbles. Slingstones began thwacking in, hard and heavy, and the undisciplined remnants of the ragged ferret horde fled. Scrabbling and biting at one another, they clambered over the fallen trees that blocked the inlet and dashed off into the thick forest. Raventail stood swaying in the friends' boat, waving his scimitar and yelling at them, "Kye arr! Getcherback, back 'ere, Raventail norrafraid!"
Then Dann came thundering across the bank, swinging his sword and bellowing like a badger in full Bloodwrath.
"Regubaaaaaa!"
There was no stopping the young squirrel. Like a bolt of lightning he flung himself on Raventail. The force of the impact was so great that both Dann and the ferret lost their swords and crashed into the water. Still hanging upside down, Dippler and Burble watched in awed silence as the warrior blood of Reguba rose in their companion's eyes. Spitting water and roaring, his weapon forgotten, Dann hauled Raventail almost clear of the creek and dealt him a fierce blow. Flinging the screaming ferret from him, Dann dived after his enemy, pummeling with all four paws, kicking, punching and baring his teeth as he thrashed the vermin unmercifully.
"Regubaaaa! Regubaaaaa! Regubaaaaaaaa!"
Song ran out to the bankside to watch the spectacle. She had never seen another creature take such a ferocious beating.
"Dann, leave him alone! He's had enough!"
But Dann was past listening. Grabbing Raventail, he hauled him over his head and flung him bodily into the marshy border of the creek's far side. Black with sludge and unable to stand, the ferret crawled away up the bank. Dann went after him, but he stumbled and fell in the mud among clumps of blue-flowering plants. Swiftly Song untied the boat and leapt in, giving a hard shove against the willow trunk with her paddle. The Swallow shot smoothly out across the dark surface, slowing neatly as it nosed into the blue flowers surrounding Dann. Song passed him the mooring rope. "Here, mate, grab this!"