The Battle for Mossflower River

[The Lady Shael]

The sun rose, the birds chirped, and the flowers and foliage seemed to sigh and bask in the welcome warm rays of the sun... it seemed like another peaceful day in Mossflower Country was about to dawn.

Yet somewhere beneath the surface of Mossflower River, the river that ran straight through Mossflower Country to the ocean, something stirred.

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"Ughhh," The Lady Shael groaned. "This had better be enormously important, Rayla." The weasel rubbed her eyes and yawned. She made it a point never to wake up before 6 AM unless something was threatening the good of verminkind, or someone was about to hand her a box full of candied fruits.

The former weasel princess sat up. Rayla had no box in her paws... only a grim expression on her face.

"We need to meet the others in the conference room, milady. I'll explain on the way."

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15 minutes later, the five staff members were seated around the conference table. Even though Retto had given up his position almost a year earlier, the large chair (more like a throne) at the head of the circular table was still there, without an occupant.

"Wait, this happened before?" "The river? Isn't the river saltwater?" "TJ, the river is freshwater. But still, how could they be alive after so long?" "

Wolf Bite's poor rat officer, who had discovered the mysterious disturbance in the woods, didn't know which staff member to address first.

Wolf noticed this and quieted everyone. "Explain again from the beginning. I'm still not sure what's going on."

The rat officer began his explanation again. "Some of us were walking by the stream and heard a commotion from the water. Lopear had the best eyes among us...he said two water creatures were fighting viciously, like a fight to the death." His tone was somewhere between fear and admiration, as the image came to his mind. "Apparently it was a pike and some kind of water rat. That water rat is a creature from the gates of the Dark Forest, to be sure."

Peace turned this information over in his mind. "But how does this affect us? This fight sounds more like entertainment than something to be afraid of." He smiled convincingly.

Before the rat officer could respond, Windhound spoke up. "Wait... a pike and a water rat... there's a battle just like that from ancient scrolls. During the time of Tsarmina of Kotir. They had names... Stormfin and, uh-"

"Ahh... Gloomer, I think. I remember that too." Shael picked up a candied fruit piece from the plate in front of her thoughtfully.

TJ was thinking along the same lines of Peace, and couldn't keep the impatient tone out of his voice. "But how is this a big deal?"

The rat officer went on, with a somewhat shaky voice. "We just stood there, watching them fight. But after awhile, they noticed us. Several weasels I didn't know went down to the river's edge to get a better look at the fight. Out of nowhere, the water rat zoomed up and snatched two of them in his jaws. They were screaming and struggling....it was horrible." He closed his eyes and shuddered, then went on. "He didn't kill them though, kind of just kidnapped them. Right after that, the pike came up and kidnapped several more. That fish swims like lightning, they had no chance. We tried to run after them, but both monsters swam in different directions. It almost seemed like they were gathering troops for a later battle."

Silence fell among the listeners. Wolf spoke. "This is definitely bad news. Gloomer and Stormfin are supposed to be long dead, but their hatred for each other must've kept them alive through all these seasons. And turned them into ruthless and formidable monsters, it seems."

Peace furrowed his brow, chin resting on his hand with his elbow on the table. "No vermin will be safe. Until we can defeat at least one of them, they will keep kidnapping warlords to fight for them. I think first of all, we need to call all warlords from Southsward and the Northlands to come here to Mossflower."

Shael nodded, and turned to Rayla, who was standing behind her. "Rayla, go see to it that every warlord is brought here to Mossflower, and let them know this is an urgent matter." Rayla nodded and left the room to do her commander's order.

Windhound had been deep in thought, and finally he spoke up. "To help with the battle, maybe we could bring in those troops that several warlords captured a while back..."

"The sea serpents?" TJ asked, a little skeptically. "I'm not sure... no one's ever used them before. Who knows what might happen."

"No, that sounds like a good idea," Peace said with a grim look on his face, but had a tone in his voice that suspiciously sounded like restrained enthusiasm. "We need all the help we can get."

Silence fell among the staff members once more. This was definitely going to be quite a battle.

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Note: Don't try to analyze every detail in this post in hopes it refers to game features or functions. That's just the way the storyline came out. >.<