A challenge at the gates [Open/Lorna]

[Grath]

Tension shattered as the white badger--previously pacing the length of the path; roared out her challenge to any in the great red Fort that would take up her challenge. She stood, mace and pike in either paw as her red eyes scrutinized the walltop and gate for any sign of a return challenger.

She was formidable sight, an enormous albino badger with her face and arms tattooed with strange designs and in partial armor. Sun glinted off her helm, breastplate and gauntlets.

"Cowardly vermin, enslaving weaker beasts! Come out and face a true warrior, Carwyn the Pike challenges you!"

[Arturo]

"Cowardly vermin, enslaving weaker beasts! Come out and face a true warrior, Carwyn the Pike challenges you!"

The guards on duty looked at each other uncertainly; aside from having their weapons at the ready, they had absolutely no idea how to react to a challenge like this. Whispers ran quickly along the walltops; soon, it had reached the ears of Riven.

"Bumbling idiots," she muttered as she trotted to the main gate. Shoving aside a very confused weasel, she called down to Carwyn, "Turn around, badger. We know better than to fall for a pathetic trap like that!" Trying to figure out a way to work this to advantage, she crossed her arms and smirked at Carwyn. "Now, are you going to go, or do we have to lose some arrows on you?" Not surprising; this badger wasn't smarter than anyone else.

[Treble Tiderunner]

“Whats all the ruckus at the gates?” Lorna barked, somehow striding sinuously as she took the rampart steps two at a time. She frowned around at the gathered group, and the assorted weasels, rats and ferrets raced for their positions. “That’s better.” The fox captain purred, continuing on in her interrupted walk. The late afternoon sun sifted down warmly, heating her shoulders and chest under her steel breastplate and warming her back under her leather and linen undershirt and silk short-sleeved shirt. She leaned casually on the wall, glancing briefly at the rat beside her before she looked to see the cause of the ruckus.

“Great blighting seasons!” She stumbled back from shock, her tail brushed and fur on end. She let loose a string of choicer words that streaked the air black and blue. Hellgates, the white badger! That damn hellbeast was still alive! She started to lick her lips nervously, but caught herself and forced herself to appear calm. She lowered her breathing rate, brushing her paws down her sides and then through her tail as she once again peered over the wall.

[Arturo]

Riven hid her disdain and stood to attention as Lorna strode up. She opened her mouth to explain when Lorna began reeling.

“Great blighting seasons!”

The rat could barely hide her contempt. Putting a paw on the rampart, she said in a slightly patronizing tone, "The badger's outside the wall. She can't do anything but yell. Captain." Keeping one paw relaxed but ready, she glanced at Carwyn. She couldn't help but feel a little leap of fear, but soon chided herself for being weak. Besides, she held the upper claw for now.

[Treble Tiderunner]

"The badger's outside the wall. She can't do anything but yell. Captain." [/i]

“Shut up!” Lorna dragged Riven back from the wall, away from the sightline of the badger. “That bloody creature’s not just any badger, you numbskull! That’s the Albino of the North! The Bloody Terror! She and her band of good-doers have wiped out every vermin horde, band or even family they come across! If she’s here, the rebellion may actually have a chance!” She dragged the hapless rat to the wall, where she peered down at the creature. “We’ve got to get rid of that badger… she’ll find a way in… nothing stops her for long. Not even miles of ocean or stone walls.”

[Arturo]

Riven's eyes widened in surprise as Lorna grabbed her. Wondering if maybe her sarcasm had gotten a little too far, she was rather confused when she only ended up a few feet from where they'd be standing. Was that even necessary!? she thought as the fox began babbling something.

“We’ve got to get rid of that badger… she’ll find a way in… nothing stops her for long. Not even miles of ocean or stone walls.”

Straightening her uniform and ignoring the fact that it was wrinkled anyways, Riven eyed Lorna. "Well, we have archers, don' we? Even they couldn't miss a creature that big!" This hype about the badger was getting a little disturbing. Staying low, she peeked over the battlements once more, before beckoning at a stoat. Technically, the decision was Lorna's, but she was pretty sure what the answer would be.

[Grath]

"Turn around, badger. We know better than to fall for a pathetic trap like that!"

“Just another way to say you are too cowardly to fight!” Carwyn called back, lifting her long heavy pike easily one-pawed and pointing it at the unkempt rat who’d poked her head over the wall.

"Now, are you going to go, or do we have to lose some arrows on you?"

The albino badger ignored this, standing footpaws planted securely in front of the gate, glowering darkly up, her posture speaking only of perilousness, her ruby eyes, red with more than lack of pigmentation, promising death. When she’d heard of the way things were here from the Skipper…

Suddenly a ruckus erupted up above, and Carwyn looked up just in time to note the vixen who had been peering over the wall retract her head. She snarled, her temper already hair-trigger and barely held in check, erupted as red completely filmed over her vision and she charged the gate, heedless of anything but the need to get inside and kill Lorna…

The pike thudded heavily into the gate, and she wrenched it out, striking again and again, roaring all the while. The pike slipped and dropped, and in her blindness she neglected to pick it up, instead charging bare-pawed and slamming into the now scarred wood.

[Treble Tiderunner]

"Well, we have archers, don' we? Even they couldn't miss a creature that big!"

Lorna seethed, clenching her teeth. She thrust her sharp muzzle in Riven’s face, smiling with her teeth. “That ‘big creature’ could stand right next to the gate and we’d never hit her, you craventailed, fleabitten, addle-tongued oaf!”

Thud.

The force rattled the gate, and Lorna blanched under her fur… really, meeting that white badger ONCE had been enough for her, and this was the THIRD time… she stood rooted to the spot for a moment before wheeling violently, stalking over to the ramparts and peering over. After a few moments of observing the attack, she turned to the archers as calm as if she’d never been upset. “Hit her when she’s in range. If you don’t, its your necks.”

[Arturo]

“That ‘big creature’ could stand right next to the gate and we’d never hit her, you craventailed, fleabitten, addle-tongued oaf!”

Riven glared at Lorna's back as the fox peered over the wall. What an idiot. Maybe she was too incompetent to get rid of a target three times her size and point-blank range with multiple archers, but Riven wasn't. Motioning at the archers to be at the ready, the ratess readied her most patronizing look for when Lorna came around and gave the order.

“Hit her when she’s in range. If you don’t, its your necks.”

Readying their bows, the archers leaned over the wall and waited for a good angle at Carwyn.
_________________________________

Arturo was headed back to his raft, having spent a few days wandering around Mossflower. The incident with the baby, the other ferret, the larger badger, the squirrels, the Skipper, his son, the other Skipper, and his crew had been the only interesting thing that had happened; since then, it had been standard foraging and subsisting. But now, he had all he needed, and it was time to move on to the next region.

Or, at least, wherever the river took him.

As he passed the Fort, Arturo switched over to stealth-mode. No sense in creating any unnecessary trouble for himself, especially when he wasn't certain about the status of his raft. For all he knew, it might need some sort of repair before he could get moving again. Any hopes for avoiding 'unnecessary trouble' vanished, however, when he saw Carwyn pounding on Fort N'tashi's gates.

"Hellsteeth, what's wrong with her!..." he thought aloud, observing from behind a tree. The ferret could plainly see archers atop the wall, and if the badger backed up any distance, they'd have a clear shot at her head. But he had no ranged weapons to distract them with...he'd have to get to Carwyn. Inching toward the treeline, he peered up at the walltop to make sure he was undetected before making a mad dash for the sliver of ground the arches couldn't aim at.

Flattening himself against the gatehouse wall, Arturo hissed loudly at Carwyn, "Hey! What are you doing!? You're going to get yourself killed!"

[[Haha...archers...and his last name is Archer...haha]]

[Grath]

"Hey! What are you doing!? You're going to get yourself killed!"

Carwyn turned her head, snarling at the intruder, who she saw filmed in red. She stood against the doors, her ribcage expanding and deflating as she panted from her insane charge. “Lorna Russetfur.” She snarled, less an answer than an automatic response. She growled, turning her face back to the wood a few inches from her snout and brought a massive white paw down heavily on the wood. “Slippery vixen. She’s supposed to be dead.” Bloodwrath was a terrible affliction, disguising enemy from friend and friend from enemy, and the only thing that saved Arturo from the insanity was he was standing out of the way of her chosen attack, and he did not seem to be interfering with her vendetta.

[Arturo]

Arturo's eyes widened slightly as he saw Carwyn's. He'd never actually seen Bloodwrath before, though he'd heard of it, and there was no doubt in his mind that this was it. That might complicate things...

“Lorna Russetfur.”

"Who? That's not an answer, Carwyn!" The ferret had to take a short break from berating her, however, as a spear thudded into the ground uncomfortably close in front of him. The safest place to stand should have been the impression the gate was set into; however, the berserk badger lady was busy pummeling it with her mace. Though he really didn't think it would matter to her, Arturo tried to talk her down. "You can't get through those gates with a mace. If it were that simple, it would have happened by now!" Glancing up at the walltop behind him (though it looked rather like he was just rolling his eyes), he kept talking. "You can get her...just...not this way. Wait until the Skipper makes some sort of plan or somethin'!"