Cam's Connection

Bellmount Wood ~Chapter 4 The paws of a score of rats and one raccoon crunched through the autumn leaves that had fallen onto the forest floor. The paws upturned the fertile earth, stepped on beetles and kicked over toadstools. Autumn was almost over. The trees bare skeletons reached up into the sky and the ground was littered with branches and brown, shriveled leaves. Soon winter would come and the snow would blanket the ground and all the creatures of Bellmount Wood would retreat into the homes for a long hibernation. "Pick up your feet! Move those fat bottoms!" Arizona, the rat's raccoon commander screamed hysterically. Since the group had left Salsa Springs he had been very angry. Just when he thought he could stay and live his life of comfort and power in Salsa Springs, Cairo had chosen him to lead an elite force of rats on a mission to Bellmount Wood to take hostages. Arizona didn't want to, but to disobey Cairo was certain death. "Besides" he told himself "Cairo will be so pleased after I come back with some influential Rowanbrooke Hall hostages, that he'll make me his commander-in-chief!" At first, the rats had thought Arizona would go easy on them because he was too wrapped up in his own misery; but they were quickly proven wrong. Arizona was a strict military commander who didn't tolerate any nonsense form his rats. He put them through a challenging boot camp before they left on their mission and they made excellent progress. They were responsible for finding their own food and they marched in complete silence every day to mask their presence. They had walked for a score of days when the lead rat gave a shout and pointed ahead. "There it is Master! Rowanbrooke Hall!" And there it was. Far ahead of the bare trees of Bellmount Wood were the rolling fields surrounding the massive rowan. Little creatures scurried about busily, tending to some task. Arizona gave a huge sigh of relief. The trek there had been back-breaking, although they completed it in record time. Cairo would be pleased. Now all they had to was capture half a score of hostages and get back to sunny Salsa Springs. Chapter 5