Uneasy Alliances

This arc follows the end of Militia Dungeon Part 3, from the perspective of Raziel and Luco. After being washed away by the underground river, the beasts find themselves wounded and lost, far below the earth...

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Everything has a beginning and everything has an end. The underground river is no exception. All though this is neither. This is a cave. Not every large one at that. The river becomes shallow as it rushes through the cave on the left, filling that entire side with paw deep water before disappearing back down into a large hole leading on into the depths of the earth. Stalagmites and stalactites file out along side the dark earthy walls, highlighted by the light of a small fire set up on the right side of the cave near the wall. A small tailless brown mouse is there, armor cast off to the side. Luco cringes as he ties what is left of his tunic into a makeshift bandage that wraps around his middle.

The first thing Raziel realizes when he comes to is that it's dark. Very dark. As in, dark, even to his well-adjusted feline night vision. But that, he can deal with later. The second thing he realizes is that his lungs are full of water. He's less fine with that. The feline, having washed up on his back, immediately rolls over, and hacks up a considerable amount of water, gasping for air. His sword is, miraculously, still in his paw - though his spear is not in his immediate line of sight... And, delirious as he is, it takes him a moment to notice that the only reason he can see /at all/ is because of a small fire on the other side of this underground space...

The mouse looks up at the hacking and coughing. He sighs, "Took you long enough to wake up. You would think someone called the Mossflower Butcher would have a little more endurance than that..." Luco cringes one last time as he tightens the bandage. He is currently sitting cross legged, the cherished spear is sitting in front of him stained with his life blood. "You do have good choice in weaponry I must say." Luco says before coughing into his paws.

Raziel's sight is still to bleary to make out the mouse, but he'd recognize that smug voice a mile away. The wildcat growls, and gets to his paws - only to hiss in anguish as pain shoots up his right leg. The cat looks down, and catches sight of the gash on his thigh, red splitting the grey fur in a nearly straight line - probably caused by his own sword in all of the churning of the water. Glorious. His eyes catch the light of the fire as he glares hatefully at the mouse, but he does his best to ignore the rodent as he uses a strip of cloth from his shirt to bind the injury.

The mouse doesn't seemed too phased by the wild cats injury. He regards him with a neutral expression. Leaning forward a little Luco says to the Wildcat, "That's two scars Ive got while battlin you Butcher, you and your friends." He chuckles dryly and coughs again. He looks at his paw and scowls, wiping the blood that he spit out onto his pants.

Raziel scowls. "I can't say I'm sorry. In fact, hopefully they'll remind you of your blunders - one for attacking innocent vermin, one for thinking you could keep me caged." The wildcat grunts as he ties the cloth tight, and shakily gets to his footpaws. Slowly, perhaps foolishly, he slides his sword back into its sheath on his back; he doesn't expect Luco to be in much better shape for a fight. He limps over, closer to the fire, but still out of the rodent's range. "I suppose it would have been too much to ask for that armor to drown you like a rat..."

The look of hate and anger the mouse shoots the Wildcat makes it plain how he feels about him. Luco doesn't reply to Raziel at first but instead stares off into the fire. "You're words would have more meaning..." he says finely, almost accusatory, "If they didn't come from a paid killer." The mouse flinches, clutching at his side. One thing the cat is right about, neither of them are up for another fight just yet.

Raziel brushes off the comment - no use getting offended if it's true. "So what if I am? It's more noble - and rewarding - a profession than being a murdering zealot for free." The wildcat staggers over to the opposite side of the fire, dropping himself into a sitting position a little less gently than intended due to his wounded leg. "Ah, but I suppose my word doesn't mean anything to you, does it? I'm just 'vermin scum', to you. Worse, I'm the 'Mossflower Butcher'! You think I go around tearing beasts to shreds for the fun of it."

Luco narrows his eyes at the Wildcat, "Your not the moss flower butcher...I've seen the actual Mossflower Butcher once. But since I don't know or really care to know your name thats what Ive decided to keep calling you." The mouse leans forward again, "I wont deny that some who have joined the cause only want to kill vermin. That is however just an end to a means, our purpose goes beyond that. I am trying to bring balance back to the woods..." The mouse says with out hesitation. It sounds as if he has repeated this many times in the past, both to others and himself.

Raziel isn't quite sure how to take this news. "So...you know that I'm not a savage...yet you still let your troops believe so? And why go through the trouble of capturing /me/ if you knew the butcher was still out there? And my name is /Raziel/," he adds, simply because the mouse doesn't want to know. "And how can you bring about balance while killing innocent beasts?!"

The mouse smirks, "I only found out after the last time I met you. I decided the troops needed some kind of conduit to focus their anger and hatred on...rather than some unstoppable monster of death and dismemberment. There is a fine line between a villain that you are afraid of...and one that spurns you to fighting harder." The mouse rips off a piece of excess garment and tosses it into the flame, "In the past two months we have see two warlords rise and fall from power, even slavers, giant snakes, bandits...there is some new rat army to the south now as well...why is all this? Everything is connected /Raziel/. You, me, the forest. Everything. When one side gets to strong everything goes to chaos. Why is there so much hate and strife in the land. Simple answer...too many vermin. Oh sure Redwall might gussy them up, make friends with Ferravale, but in the end how friendly do you think all these vermin are when there is a shortage of food...lack of gold? So what do they do? They band together and form hordes," the mouse looks up at the cat, his eyes very much serious as he breaks out into a grin, "Do you think you wouldn't be any different if you belly was hungry and your were in need of shelter for the winter? Its not really your fault, its in your nature, going back to the old days when predators hunted and ate prey, before we became civilized and killed each other with spears and arrows." He chuckles to himself, returning to looking at the fire, "My job is to lessen the vermin numbers, prevent them from forming the vast armies you see trampling Mossflower..."

Raziel stares at the mouse for a long moment. Perhaps...he's not /quite/ as mad as he thought. But still, there are flaws. "Armies are not the same thing as innocent vermin. I make no claim that I /am/ innocent; far from it, in fact. I killed two beasts just today, and I certainly wasn't trying to spare your life. But my work, my entire profession is based upon protecting people who cannot protect themselves. /Non/combatants, who simply want to live out their lives, not see it end with a knife to the back, or a claw in the night. What you say about vermin, about...predators...I can't refute. But if you try to kill beasts who simply want to be left alone, then how are you any better than the Butcher, killing innocent woodlanders? It's not balance, it's genocide!"

The mouses eyes bulge with anger, apparently the cat struck a nerve somewhere along the line, "History is written by the victors /cat/. We will see who is regarded in the end as a butcher or savior...." he tosses his head to the side, "You sound just like..." The mouse sighs. He begins to chuckle, "In the end it doesn't matter. We are both going to die here."

Raziel furrows his stripy brow. The mouse raises too many questions, and does not provide enough answers. But the wildcat intends to get some. "Will yout /stop/ talking in riddles? Who is the Mossflower Butcher, really? Who do I sound like? Why did you call that weasel Hershel 'father'?" The cat's curiosity has indeed got the best of him, and he asks the questions all at once. And from his tone, he expects an answer. The cat adds, "And I don't know about you, but I /am not/ dying in some forgotten cave."

The mouse stares blankly at the cat. His chuckle turns into a laugh, "Really? You want to know all this here? Now? Heh...wow." He shakes his head, "The Mossflower Butcher is ...the Mossflower butcher. I'm not quite sure what he is, I've never seen a beast of his species before. Tall mean, brown and black fur and full of enough spite he doesn't need weapons like us...as for Hershel..." the mouse grits his teeth, "He's my adoptive father. Other than that, you don't need to know."

Raziel frowns. "You seem to have missed a question, in there. Who do I sound like? Someone has tried to reason with you before?" The cat assumes he won't really get anywhere in this conversation, but he has to at least try. "Avoiding the question will only make the silence louder, Luco."

Luco snarls at Raziel, "You remind me of Hershel!" The mouse rubs at his eyes, "Dolt of an idiot said the exact same thing...He actually came to 'me' to say it too."

Raziel folds his ears back, and sits in silence for a moment. "Is that why you had him locked in your dungeon? Because he didn't agree with you? Or...because he is a weasel?" The question is not accusatory - the cat simply wants to know the truth.

Luco searches the cats eyes for any hint of accusation or insult. When finding none he looks away, "Both....there was little else I could do though. He got in and just appeared here one day. coming up for a reason to not kill him was...less than easy, " The mouse laughs, "Is this a feline curiosity of yours? To ask so many questions here at the end of your life? Or does it just not sit well with you to die with out knowing the truth?

Raziel frowns at the mouse, "It does not sit well with me to /live/ without knowing the truth. I have no plans to die down here in this light-forsaken pit, and the fact that you've given up so easily disturbs me, frankly. I did not escape from your cell simply to die in a cave. I planned to escape, and I still do." How...? The wildcat is still working on that. "Of course, a tenacious will to live may be a more /vermin/ trait," the cat adds with a scowl.

Luco thinks about this, "I suppose it is." The mouse then narrows his eyes and smirks at Raziel, "I never said I gave up though. I found a way out." He uses his paws to gesture first at the flames, then up to the wall behind him where there is a small, beast wide crevasse, "See how the flames flicker but don't die out? There is a fresh air supply here coming from the hole up there. Its too high for either of us to reach though, too slick of a wall to climb. I figure with the both of us we could manage to make it up there..." The smirk becomes a full on smile, "But we are both still going to die here...not because we cant get out, but because I won't help you!"

Raziel stares at the rodent in disbelief. "Then you are a fool. To idiotically sacrifice your own life, just to prevent another from living his...? I have never met a more stubborn bull-headed creature!!" The cat half stands to storm off into the cave - but he falls right back down. Besides, there's nowhere to go. The cat growls, and lowers his voice. "Go ahead. Grin at death. Look it in the eye, so that it may find you first." He considers adding that once the mouse is gone, he will have a meal, simply to intimidate the mouse...but the wildcat would really rather it didn't come to that, and does not want to prove the stubborn beast's point.

The mouse leans back, crossing his paws across his head, "I die with a purpose Raziel. I take comfort in knowing that if I die the Militia will live on. I will even inspire them to fight onward when they learn I died to defeat the legendary Mossflower butcher!" He smirks while closing his eyes, "So yes...I grin at death. Can you say you will be missed Raz?"

Raziel considers mauling the smug mouse to death right now - to heck with waiting! It would be easy! The darned fool mouse doesn't even bother to open his eyes! But, he holds back, for now, in the interest of hurting the rodent even deeper. You know, before tearing him to shreds. "Will I be missed?" He laughs dryly. "Not by many, no. But a few, yes. I have made friends during my time here in Mossflower, and they would notice my absence." The wildcat pauses, looking into the fire. "You, however," he begins slowly, "You would not be missed. Not really. Sure, you would become a martyr, but that is no one would shed a tear at your passing. You would be a means to an end, nothing more than fuel to the fire of the sycophantic cult you have created. They don't like you. They're your minions. They're /intimidated/ by you, not your companions, not even your brothers-in-arms. Yours will be an empty death, one no more meaningful than the loss of a artifact or symbol. That is all you are to your precious Militia."

The mouses eyes shoot open as he listen to this. A long breathless moment passes, the cats words take time but eventually they sink deeper into him than any spear ever could. Luco growls something about murdering a whole village of cats but picks himself up, "Fine...if I died here Tavis would probably have taken over and that mouse is too soft on vermin in my opinion..."The mouse picks up the cats spear, and then his war hammer, "Alright then, if we can tie these together maybe we can use it to hook the hole....unless you want to try your paw at swimmin down river some more..." he looks at the hole where the water flows, wish he knew how long it was before the river opened up in the forest again.

Raziel frowns. "I have no desire to be plunged back into that water, and there's no guarantee it /does/ open back up. I've heard stories about...nevermind. Point is, the air is coming from up there, so there must be an opening, somewhere. He takes a look at the hammer, and the spear. "Yes, the hammer's pick could probably get us up there. Do you have a belt or cloth we could use to lash them together?"

Luco nods. He undoes the fox skin belt about his waist before tossing it at the wild cat. "Blast is all...I'm going to have to leave most of my armor behind...."

Raziel looks over at the mouse, and sighs. "It cannot be helped. You can come back for it later, if you wish, but I'd rather get out of here alive." The cat takes the belt, and wraps it tightly to the bladed end of his spear, keeping all the weight on one end, the tip of the hammer facing outward. "This...should do."

Luco claps his paws together. "Now for the next hurtle. Who is is going to be the person supporting the other and risk them making it to the hole and leaving their companion to die?" The mouse asks with a smile. He must admit, this is actually rather fun, the uncertainty of it all. It has the same thrill as battle, only with less blood shed.

Raziel blinks a few times. "Well, I don't really trust you, and my leg is injured, so I'm not sure if I can support you. However, I weigh more than you do, so I'm not sure you can lift me..." This is not an easy decision. "First things first. /Do/ you think you can lift me?"

The mouse rolls his shoulders then cracks his neck, "If you were the weasel you came with, I would say no." he shrugs. Placing his foot paws against the base of the wall he cups his hands, "I think my armor weighs about as much as you do so...let's give it a shot."

Raziel sighs. "...Alright. Here goes nothing." The wildcat hefts the hammer-hooked spear above his head, and places his good paw, and his weight, on the rodent's hands. As soon as Luco lifts, he needs to get the hook over the end of the opening...

Through clenched teeth Luco snarls, "It...seems...I was wrong..." His arms strain to support the wildcat, "Will you...hurry it up?"

Raziel ignores the rodent's complaints, focusing on the task at paw. Probably for the best, given what Luco's complaints are about. The wildcat swings the spear, and though he can't clearly see up there, when he pulls back on the spear, is doesn't slide free. The wildcat pulls on it harder, taking some of his weight off of the mouse, and begins trying to pull himself up - slowly, so as not to come loose...

Feeling the weight lighten up on his paws Luco finely looks up, "Did it work?" The mouse is weighing his options. If the cat goes up too quickly it will be easier to leave Luco behind, if Luco rushes too quickly himself he will risk breaking the make shift spear and doom them both.

Raziel growls "Yes, it's working!" as he struggles to pull himself up. His arms are bruised from the fight, his leg is hurt, and he doesn't want to brace his feet against the wall for fear of pulling the hook off. "Just...give me a moment, OK?!"

"Hurry up cat! My arms are slipping!" Luco's shout echo's across the caves. "If I ever ...get out of this...I'll have to leave this part out of the story...my son HATES caves..."

Raziel takes the last of his weight off the rodent's arms, scaling his way up his spear, hand over hand. After an agonizing minute of slow, arduous climbing, the wildcat finally gets his fingers onto the ledge. "I...I'm up...kind of," he pants.

Luco takes a moment to collect his breath. He turns himself around then starts pushing Raz up by his feet. "So help me cat, if you leave me behind..."

Raziel pulls himself the rest of the way up, laying on the edge of the ledge and breathing heavily for a moment. He doesn't respond to Luco's idle threat - what can he do, really? Instead, after a moment, he asks, "You have a son? Is that who I heard when your cronies dragged me in?" The cat rolls over, and takes a hold of the hammerhead tied to the spear; then lowers it, and his arm over the edge, so that Luco can grab it. If he jumps, probably.

The spear dips lower as he grabs hold of it, he climbs up easily enough, grabbing the ledge when he is close enough the mouse pulls himself into the tight quarters of the hole. He gives his armor one last forlorn look before replying, "A son and a daughter actually..." He turns back to Raz. He absolutely refuses to thank Raz for not leaving him behind. Instead he replies, "You have more honor than I gave you credit for Raziel. FOr the record I wouldn't have let you perish down here here either...no beast deserves that." The mouse begins to move off towards the other end of the tunnel, "Once we get get out of here I promise to give you an honorable death by combat..."

Raziel scoffs, and smirks at the mouse as he follows along, leaving the spear and hammer together. He's not sure he believes the mouse, but...he appreciates the sentiment. "Aye. And I promise I won't throw you into a pit of scorpions. That's /worse/." The cat gives a soft, but genuine chuckle as he tries to make his way through the dark passage. He doesn't fit as well as the mouse... "So, uh...how'd you lose your tail, Luco?" The wildcat can't help but notice it's not hitting him in the face...

The mouse turns and stares at the cat for a long moment, his beady green eyes simply regard the cat as an annoyance then continue on with out answering. The path they take twists and turns left and right in complete darkness, the sounds of running water gradually leave them behind are are replaced by the welcome breeze of fresh air. The source however never comes. The small passage comes to an end finally into another series of tunnels. Even in the dark it is easy to see that they are different from the others. The only light is from the small hole in the roof high above. The chamber is large and seems to branch off into two smaller hallways, each rounded, and made from dirt.

Raziel sighs. Apparently the mouse is only willing to provide so many answers. The cat is bothered by this, but there's not much he can do... "Oh, wonderful. A fork in the road. But...at least the paths are made of dirt. Perhaps we're not as far underground as I thought..." The cat looks up at the hole, trying to gauge the distance. "And I think we know where the air is coming from. Which means we can't follow the flow through these tunnels to the exit..."

"I'll be glad to finely get out of..." the mouse begins to lose his footing as the ground beneath him moves. The ground literally uncoils and slide out from under Luco depositing himself on the floor on his back. He looks up in time to see the tail end of a creature disappear into the darkness to the right side of the room. The silhouette of a massive head raises from the floor and looks in their direction, "Who bravessssss....deathssssss...." it hisses.

Raziel stares at the shadow. He breathlessly says, "Oh, just what we needed. Large, murderous serpents..." The wildcat stands stunned for a moment, then realizes he's carrying the other beast's weapon, as well as his own, though in a much less functional form. He rapidly removes the belt, stuffing it into a pocket, handing the rodent his hammer back; he might need it. As for the snake's question...Raziel thinks it best not to answer.

The serpent sniffs the air around them with his tongue, "Mousssssse...feeliiiiine..." the sound of scales against dirt fills the air as Ageless uncoils to the ceiling, and even then not his full height. Hunched over the snake continues to 'sniff' the air, "Militia...Mousssss...." The snakes only 'good' eye widens. From here it can be seen that the snakes back is littered with broken spears, arrows, bent blades all clinging to the back of his dark green scales. "Luco..." The following roar echoes down the halls, "LUUUUUUUUUUCOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Luco takes the hammer with out taking his eyes off the beast, "Ah blast...he remembers me..."

Raziel watches with evident concern as the snake rises, the broken armaments of countless fallen warriors glinting in the dim light. "Oh...dear..." Somehow, an entire room filled with a hundred small reptiles is not as terrifying as a room filled by one /single/ reptile. "Remembers you? What did you do to it?!" The cat whispers urgently, trying to decide upon the best way out...

"The mouse takes a step backwards. "We kind of imprisoned it in a small hole because we...heh...we couldn't kill it. If we work together though maybe we can..." The massive snake bares it fangs at them, "I will let the terrified sssscreamss of your demisssse lull me back to sssssleeep Luco." The mouse considers this, "New plan. Run like heck." And then dashes off into the left tunnel, leaving the wild cat there to deal with the snake.

Raziel groans, and runs off after the mouse. Splitting up would mean that the snake could decide to chase the mouse...or decide to chase him, and force him to fight it alone. Yeah...better to be stuck with Luco. The wildcat hisses in pain as he runs on his injured leg, but adrenaline helps a lot in situations like this!

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Will our morally ambiguous heroes escape? Will the giant snake claim the hides of two more beasts? TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO FIND OUT!