Mission:
The dark brown furred marlvixen stood in the dark, damp room, kneeling before her emperor as he outlined her duty. The sinister voice coming from the shadows told her of the missing provisions and the cuts on the ships, of the hunch about Brocktwig and Starblade’s forces and of the death that must be dealt to both of them.

“Leave their bodies tied to and rotting on the piers within three suns, Zeniva Fanggblood, or your body will be in their place,” Emperor Ublaz hissed.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, the marlvixen lowered her head. “It will be done, milord.”

Zeniva crept into her room at the Bloodclaw Inn with a lot on her mind. She would have to work fast, for she only had two full days to complete her task. If, on the dawn of the third day, Starblade and Brocktwig were not tied to the dock, she would cease to exist. She shivered at the thought. Needless to say, she did not sleep a wink that night. She spent the sleepless hours making a plan.

The daylight of the first day was spent gathering up a crew of willing beasts to attack the goodbeast forces once she found out where they were hiding. Zeniva found two score willing beasts, all hand-picked and among them one of her dearest mateys Nightskar, a black fox whom she always trusted to watch her back. Even so, she hoped it would be enough.

Night came quickly. Regular sentries had been posted on each boat, but Zeniva knew they were unreliable. She snuck aboard the biggest ship, which was loaded with supplies, and found the guard sound asleep. Zeniva decided not to wake the guard, and she hid behind a barrel, instead. It was not long before she was rewarded by footsteps and quiet whispers.

“Shhh! The guard’s out so we won’t need to deal with him,” a rough voice said quietly.

“I’ll try to sink this one,” another, younger-sounding voice pierced the silence from below, in the water. The voice was followed by a scratching sound as it’s the owner of the young voice tried cutting a hole with his dagger.

Thinking quickly, Zeniva threw an arrow from her quiver down at the water. It made a quiet splash, but it was loud enough to be heard by the beast down below.

Zeniva saw the barrel in front of her rising into the air, and, instinctively, she grabbed the railing that encircled the ship and that was just behind her. She used the railing to flip herself over the side and held fast to it until she heard the footsteps moving away.

“This is a heavy load. Should be full of good supplies,” the heavy voice mumbled quietly, fading away as the goodbeast with the barrel walked past the sleeping guard and toward the shore.

It was half an hours walk to the northeast side of Sampetra where the goodbeasts had hidden their forces. The two that Zeniva was following, a large hedgehog and a small other, led her right to the hidden path that led to the mouth of the cave where they were hiding. Taking note of the place where the path began, Zeniva hurried back to the Bloodclaw Inn, where her force was waiting for her.

Vermin poured into the cave mouth, Zeniva in the lead, catching the goodbeasts by surprise. They were nearly evenly matched in numbers, but the vermin had the element of surprise on their side. Zeniva carved a path towards Starblad, one of the leaders of the ragtag group.

“Come, Starblade. Hear me axeblades singin’? Yeh, they sing th’ sound o’ yer death, bushtail!” the marlvixen advanced, only to see her enemy turning and running into the depths of the cave, five other squirrels in tow. Zeniva rushed after him, but Brocktwig the badger stepped up and blocked her way.

“Hah! Your coward friend Starblade has run off. Your ‘army’ is falling to my superior forces. And you are facing me, the last beast you will ever see.” With that, Zeniva clenched her axe tighter in her paws and swung mightily at Brocktwig.

The badger moved his own axe to his side to stop Zeniva’s swing, but he did not see her furious kick, and he fell to the ground. He landed hard on his back but was up in a moment, angrily swinging at Zeniva with his large axe. The marlvixen blocked one swing after another, smiling and jeering the badger with the expression on her face. She conserved her energy by simply blocking his furious attacks, and she saw him getting weaker and sloppier with each swing of his axe. Finally, she saw her opening. She brought her axe up to stop Brocktwig’s axe from splitting her in half and, at the same time, kicked him in his unprotected stomach with one of her feet. Moving quickly and taking advantage of her adversary’s winded state, she g! rabbed the shaft of Brocktwig’s axe with one paw and held her axe like a spear in her other, thrusting it into Brocktwig’s belly. The badger fell backwards, doubling up in pain, trying to stop the flow of blood with his paws. Zeniva watched quietly, smiling, as he slowly, ever so slowly, died from the wound. Brocktwig’s body lay among all the other goodbeasts that Zeniva’s small horde had slain. Only a score of Zneiva’s own had been killed, but all except Starblade and his five squirrels lay dead in the cave, largely due to the heroic fighting of Nightskar the Deadly. The cave that had once meant safety to the goodbeasts know was simply a mass grave for their own bodies.

“You can run, Starblade, but you can’t hide!” Zeniva’s voice echoed down the passages that went in from the cave to the very heart of Sampetra.

Zeniva awoke well past the sunrise of the second day; she only had this one last day to find and eliminate Starblade. She looked around. All were still sleeping, exhausted from the night’s fight, except for the five sentries on duty. Zeniva’s attack party had stayed and slept in the cave that night, since they were all too tired to go back to the taverns or to hunt down Starblade.

Zeniva decided to let them sleep. She roused five of her group, those that she trusted most, Nightskar among them, and took them down the passage at the back of the cave where she had seen Starblade escape earlier.

A little ways down the passage, it branched off in three different directions. Zeniva went down one with Nightskar and assigned two each to the other tunnels. Zeniva and Nightskar then padded softly down the dim, narrow path, their way lit by a torch they had found earlier in the cave. About a half mile’s walk later, they found the sleeping bodies of Starblade and the five squirrels where they had apparently collapsed after a long run. Zeniva and Nightskar cut the throats of all five squirrels, leaving only Starblade. The marlvixen nudged the sleeping squirrel, waking him, and smiled into his frightened eyes.

“Nighty night,” Zeniva sneered, and she hit Starblade on the head with the flat of her axeblade, rendering him unconscious.

On the dawn of the third day, when Zeniva and her crew had finished tying the dead Brocktwig and the unconscious Starblade to the piers, the marlvixen set off to report to Ublaz. She didn’t regret not killing Starblade herself. She felt that letting the gulls get him would be a slower, more painful, and more fitting death for the likes of him.