Breaking and Entering

[Rocky]

Deep down, Rocky felt somewhat saddened for this hedgehog. He was bothered by raiding parties, and what did he ever do to them? It just proves that vermin are the lowest of the low.

"Aye, though most o' 'em know t'steer clear o' this place."

Rocky let a small laugh escape his lips, recalling the events of the day. He turned his head slightly at the door and could make out a body or two out there. He shook his head after his laughing died down, "They should've known t' steer clear o' here before. There's few things scarier or fiercer than a 'edgehog with a mace." He chuckled lightly, his sadness gone, replaced by another emotion: Amusement. Though there was nothing particularly amusing about death, it was just the fact they kep kept trying to come back whenever Seourd kicked their butts.

A sudden wind blew in from the open door, and Rocky found himself pulling his cloak hood up to protect his head from the wind. He was about to speak up, but Seourd beat him to the punch, nudging him with a shovel,

"Y'don't appear t'be hurt. Come with me, there's some work t'do."

"Well... Not much..." He said slowly, then allowed a light chuckle. He stood up, cracked his knuckles, then followed the hedgehog out the door.


Meko looked at Tirael with a puzzled look. Meko was raised around murder, blood, and harsh screams and pleas of mercy. Meko thought it was only natural to fight the way he fought, no matter how many times he saw others fight differently. Meko was a confusing otter. His past was harsh, and bloody, and it haunted him every day. "Tirael... Not a day goes by that I don't think of my past... The screams and the sound of blades going through flesh... It haunts me every day, and I only see it fit that I do what I do as a repayment for... my..." Tears came down the big otter's face as he recalled his past. Was he actually telling his past to someone else? "... losses..." He bit his lip and stopped the tears, and even grunted slightly as Tir tightened the bandage.

Meko looked up as Tirael left to sit by the fire. He wished he wouldn't go, for he felt alone with no one by him. He almost found himself shouting for Rocky. Meko wasn't one to act like this, but then again... Meko doesn't think this deeply a lot. He opened his mouth to say something, to call back his friend by the fire, but then stopped, deciding that it wouldn't be nice if he had one of his friends share his pain.

[Maxodis]

Stepping out once again into the cold, Seourd glanced briefly over the scattered bleeding corpses. The wind had already begun to blow the frozen white powder about the bodies, hiding their features, stripping them of their clear distinctions of 'vermin'. Lying there in the snow, as silent and unmoving as death had caused them to be, covered in their own splattered blood and gore, the bodies painfully reminded the hedgehog of his own family that fateful day. By a cruel twist of fate, it happened to be almost the same time of day as it had been before.

The burly hedgehog was rooted to the earth upon which he stood, suddenly overcome by memories of his deceased family, of the faint happiness that had pervaded the small clearing when they had inhabited it in refuge, the maleficent sensation of death that had haunted it for years after they had been put to their final rest...All these slipped free from the stubborn restraints put in place by the hedgehog. Emotions long forgotten threatened to rise to the surface of his being.

A sharp blast of wind brought the aging hedgehog back into the present. Blinking suddenly, he remembered his purpose for venturing back into the cold. Glancing back briefly to assure himself that the otter was following, Seourd pushed through the snow to a small corner of the clearing. With his shovel, he cleared an area of frozen earth seven feet in diameter. Appraising the ground briefly, he gave a grunt of satisfaction and with a hefty effort, drove the shovel into the ground. Staring straight ahead, yet addressing the otter, he spoke unusually softly.

"Get diggin'."

[Tirael]

"It haunts me every day, and I only see it fit that I do what I do as a repayment for... my...losses..."

Something in what Meko said actually set Tirael off. Standing up, he whirled to face Meko with a look of grim determination in his face. There was both anger and pain in his voice as he tried to keep from shouting. "Losses? Losses?" Walking quickly to the bedside, he looked hard at Meko as he continued in a softer voice, "Look, I'm sorry about what may have happened in your past, but keep in mind we have all lost something." The fire in his voice slowly crept back as he said, "I lost a third of my life. Anybeast I could have known, wherever I lived, I can't tell what I lost because I can't remember it! Everybeast at Camp Moss has lost something, family, a friend, a home; we've lost enough without losing you too!"

For a moment, he just stared at Meko, panting as the furious energy that had fueled his response faded. Within moments, he was back to normal, but intensely embarrassed and regretful about his outburst. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to..." Walking back to the fire, he sat down and placed his face in his paws. Never in his life had he acted like this.

[Treble Tiderunner]

"Alright then, after you." Holding the door open, he gestured for her to go in.

Enon gave Brush a slight smile, for for politeness than anything else. She’d already revealed most of what she let be public to this stranger. The black squirrel entered the house, looping the long tong of her sling around the end of her tail, easy to reach and use. Crossing to the fire, she sank into a cross-legged position and removed her quiver from her back.

Laying her bow on the floor next to it, she listened to Tirael converse with one of the fighting otters, Meko, he’d been called.

"Tirael... Not a day goes by that I don't think of my past... The screams and the sound of blades going through flesh... It haunts me every day, and I only see it fit that I do what I do as a repayment for... my..." Tears came down the big otter's face as he recalled his past. Was he actually telling his past to someone else? "... losses..."

Enon leaned against the big armchair from her seat on the floor. The otter seemed really torn up over his past. Enon closed her eyes and lay her head back, suddenly weary. Visions of her father and mother came to mind, one lost to sickness, the other to war.

The black squirrel stayed that way for many minutes, until Tirael erupted in his tirade. Enon lifted an eyelid, taking in the situation before closing it again and letting herself fall back into her doze.

[Rocky]

Meko stared at Tirael, no emotion showing in his eyes or his face. He would've erputed at Tir, but Tir was a friend, and he knew something was wrong with him."Have you had to see your mother cut down and hewn? Have you had to see your friends from birth die right in front of your eyes? What about seeing your dad defend you, then just get tied up and dragged away, never to be seen again?" Meko sat up with a groan, folded his hands, then stood up and caught Tirael's gaze. "When you understand my past, then you'll understand me fully." he sighed before continuing, "If you knew my whole past, all that bloodshed and screams ringing in your ears, then you'll know who I really am, and why I do what I do. I would give anything to forget that, and sometimes, the reason I fight so hard is to die, because I can't bear with it anymore."

Meko gave Tirael one last stare then walked away.


Rocky followed behind Seourd, and thus being greeted with the same chilling wind. He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but then Seourd explained... Well... More like commanded. Rocky cracked his neck, then his knuckles, grabbed the shovel with both hands, then drove it into the icy cold earth. He was greeted by a slight pain as the shovel hit rock hard ground, but then he scooped it up, and piled it on the side.

"How deep should it be?"

His gaze around the area soon answered his question. "Deep enough for all the bodies." He muttered to himself. "Nevermind." He said aloud.

Rocky lifted the shovel again, now taking a better position with it, then drove it again into the ground, and grunted as the same pain he felt before greeted him anew. After shoveling the ground five more times, the pain died down each time he started, whether it be from getting used to it, or the ground just getting softer, he didn't know.

[Tirael]

Brush sat near Enon, warming himself by the fire. Out of politeness he did his best to ignore the exchange between Meko and Tirael; conversations that personal weren't something he would want to eavesdrop on, even if they were being yelled right by his ear. To try to ignore it, he thought about Enon, whom he had just met. As he slowly fell into a doze himself, he made a mental note to get to know this squirrel.
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"If you knew my whole past, all that bloodshed and screams ringing in your ears, then you'll know who I really am, and why I do what I do. I would give anything to forget that, and sometimes, the reason I fight so hard is to die, because I can't bear with it anymore."

Tirael looked away from Meko; he couldn't meet his friend's gaze anymore. However, as Meko slowly walked away, he had to say one last thing:

"...if you let yourself die, you're doing to us what vermin did to you: you're taking away someone we care about." He sighed and closed his eyes, trying to figure out exactly what it was he was feeling right then. Sadness, about what he might have lost? Anger that Meko wanted to take something else away? He couldn't figure it out.