Gonff could not resist a rendition of his latest song.

At last the weary travelers
Have reached their hearts’ desire.
We quested overland to reach
The mountain of the fire.
To meet with Boar the Fighter,
Who knows secrets dark and deep—

Gonff sat upright scratching his whiskers. “What rhymes with deep, mateys?”

Three wet towels knocked him flat.

“You’m moight troi sleep!”

The woodlanders were caught completely unawares in the early morning.

Led by Bane and Tsarmina, the joint forces hit swiftly. Luckily the little ones were still abed at Brockhall and the Loamhedge mice were preparing breakfasts. The only creatures at the diggings were moles, otters and a few squirrels.

Bane’s mercenaries dashed in, hacking madly, backed by Tsarmina’s spears. Urthclaw, Billum and Soilflyer were deep underground. The rest were caught in the open.

It was chaos!

Skipper took an arrow in his side. Lady Amber lost an ear to a fox’s sword. The woodlands were alive with yelling, slashing animals. There was only one thing to do: retreat with all speed. Disregarding his wound, Skipper stood fast with a small band of otters, hurling stones as he roared aloud, “Get away, quickly!”

Amber and her squirrels managed to escape through the treetops, leaving two slain on the ground. Skipper and his otters saw to it that the few moles were safely carried off across the river, before vanishing into the water themselves.

Tsarmina gave out howls of victory across the now silent woods.

Bane leaned on his curved sword breathing heavily. “See, I told you they’re no match for us. Phew! But they can put up a tidy fight, even when they’re outnumbered.”

Brogg swaggered up and saluted.

“Two squirrels, three otters and a mole slain, Milady,” he reported.

He was about to turn away when Bane tugged on his cloak.

“How many of ours lost?” he asked tersely.

“Three ferrets, a stoat and a weasel, four rats and a fox.”

Bane shook his head in amazement. “Good job, we outnumbered them. No prisoners?”

“No, sir, not a one.”

“Hmm, pity.”

Ratflank limped up, nursing a cracked paw.

“We’ve found three big holes over there by the river,” he said.

The commanders strode across to the spot. Bane bent down and sniffed the earth around each hole, while Tsarmina stood watching.

“What d’you suppose they were up to?” she wondered.

Bane spat into one of the holes. “Your guess is as good as mine. We didn’t get time to chop the trees or fire the woodland. Maybe there’s some of ’em still down these holes.”

“Then we can fill them in.” Tsarmina grinned wickedly. “Brogg, get some big rocks, fetch that timber lying about there, use the spears, fill them in well and press the earth down hard. They’ll be imprisoned down there until the air runs out.”

Bane wiped his sword and sheathed it.

“Well, that’s that. There’s not much my band can do around here. We’ll head back to Kotir and try another dawn raid tomorrow.”