Burrows and Badgers, A Bridge To The Far(m), a three way game.

Berry the Shew sat in his seat in the inn, his cloak again pulled down to hide his scars, maybe not as far as before, he was getting used to them, and he felt less customers staring at him now he was becoming a regular. This had not been the best week as far as adentures had gone, but it had some positives, he thought as he carefully sipped his bramble gin, savouring the warmth and knowing he would never be that cold, wet or miserable slave again. 

The rest of the gang was looking really positive, almost as if they had won, rather than lost, each of them had tales to tell, but Berry was not sure they should be celebrating so hard. Different sized recepticles were being used around the table, from himself and the mice using thimbles, to Bowie and L'Otter with flaggons and even fine crystal glasses, each creature had the right sized glass (or thing) for them, and were certainly emptyingg them with gusto.

L'Otter sat opposite, reclining on an battered arm-chair, patches of fur regrowing from her singed fur, she shot him a wry smile and shook her head as she sipped delicately from an expensive wine.

"Berry, we should have won that, what on Earth  happened? You are good at spotting patterns, what did you see?"

 

 

Still not quite used to being talked to as an equal, Berry gulped down his bramble liquer, and looked around at the faces of the gang. The two latest members had slotted in straight away, Abi Berry, his shrew cousin, who had secretly followed him back from his visit home, had settled right into the gang once she had been found out by Sneaker, and she was desperate for adventure. She was chatting gleefully to Lady Door, a dormouse they had freed from slavary. She who had only just been put under the yolk of slavery and was happily free, explaining how her life of privillage had been ruined by some lord or other she refused to marry. They were both tucking in to a large bowl of grains and nuts with relish (it looked like tomato relish).
Berry leaned forwards, steepled his wounded hands and tried to smile at the kindly face of the huge otter archmage.
"Well boss..."
"Berry my Sorex friend, you are a free Shrew, I am not your boss!"
"I know, boss!" That one was deliberate, and Berry tried a smile with it, it seemed to work.
"Itclooked good, we had the bridge early as you suggested, with Snappy and Sneaker in ambush from the off," he scratched the scars on his nose in thought. Out the corner of his eye he saw Bowie approach with a fresh jug of drink. "Lady Door moved straight down the road too as her sling skills would provide cover. Interesting the Royalist mole came in so far away from us, but I suppose he was guarding their wood pile. L'Ouseux and Bowie, being so quick on their feet grabbed the first plank, and I grabbed the second with Abi. We could see that Royalist cat came forwards quickly, and I knew our favourite fencer would have words to say about that!"
"My territory now!" purred Bowie, beguilingly.
"I like that Batty came forwards to help too, the volume of the throwing knives he can deploy is impressive!" Berry mused.
"Yeah, I might hit something one day too!" Came a voice from above them in the rafters.
"Wondered where you had got to Batty." L'Otter smiled.

"Us shrews took our plank cross country, as we knew it was going to get packed at the bridge, especially as that Royalist popgun was starting to target us straight down the road."

"The sun was setting quickly, we knew we had to get those planks in place."


"Sid the snake, that Royalist adder, was approaching fast, we knew he could be trouble with his fearsome strike. All our archers targetted him, but no one could hit him, I swear Sneaker was as blind as a..."
"Oi!" the bat swung a wing down to try and cuff the shrew around the hood, but Berry was expecting this and ducked.


"We are forgetting that the rogues were on the other side of the bridge were busily trying to steal our idea and build their own crossing, maybe we should have thought about how to deal with them" Berry thought aloud.
"You're only saying that because Big Yin and Co drink at the Stag's Head, you wouldn't say that if they were here!" Bowie interjected.
"No, you would be fighting them, and we would be paying for the repairs to the furniture afterwards!" The Otter shot Bowie a wink as she said this, and Bowie bowed theatrically.
"One does one's best to keep you entertained Ma'am!"

"They're a much smaller gang, so it would have been tougher to get all the planks up if we had taken a few of them down," Berry thought aloud, "they put their shooter in ambush and that squirrel with a clear line of sight to the bridge, anyone moving on there was getting zapped, clever."
"We had other fish to fry," L'Otter shook her head.
"Yeah," Bowie slapped her shoulder, causing her to wince, "you were the one getting fried out there!"

"Lady Door took to the wall line, and she and you teamed up on shooting or trying to zap that dratted mole, and she was lucky to dodge more popgun shots."


"You would think that our four shooters could hit something, especially after all the time they spend down the range?" Berry grinned.
"Oi, you do better!" Sneaker winked across the table sliding the shrew another thimble of gin "Especially after all those gins!"
"It's not that strong, better than the rot gut we used to brew as slaves." Berry raised his thimble in a silent toast to the mouse.

"Yeah, we could not hit a thing! Sid was almost supernatural in his ability to spot our ambush attempts. Poor Batty got taken down in one bite by that damned adder," Sneaker added. "Thought he was coming for me next."
"I've never felt any pain like it!" the bat muttered from above, helping himself to food from the table.
"Clever of you to knick his false teeth though Batty!" Sneaker laughed, "Well, not so much knicked as he left them attached to your wing when we picked you up after."
"Do they suit me?" the bat grind, showing even more fangs than usual.


Berry smiled slightly, even after a crippling bite, the bat had quickly recovered and was laughing about it all. These animals were tougher and madder than he thought!
"We were so occupied by those Royalists, we missed Big Yin's mob moving up with a whole pile of lumber."

"The Royalist came in in dribs and drabs, which allowed us to concentrate on a few individuals at a time," Berry muttered, "We are defintely getting better at our fights."
"If it had been Yin's gang on our side of the river it would have been a very different story, you know how good they are in a scrap, whereas these Royalists have only had a few fights."

"I don't like these gunpowder weapons they are using, that popgun and that foxes with two pistols stung a bit, as did that bunnies arrows!" Berry uttered.
"You did right by dropping that plank Bowie and charging that other cat." L'Otter nodded.
"Never let another cat on my patch." Bowie grinded, showing more teeth than the mice and shrews felt entirely comfortable about.

"The lightning across the bridge from Yin's spell caster was definately a statement of intent, they really wanted that bridge!" Berry shrugged.
"Yeah, that hurt!" Sneaker muttered into his beer, "we need so way of stopping those mages."

"The Big Yin got their first plank down, I was convinced they were going to come straight across and wade in." Berry said.
"Bovva would have fallen in drunk. I would have prefered that to that damned snake!" Bowie uttered, "his bite stings!"
"STINGS!" L'Ouseux chimed in from her perch at the other end of the table, throwing a few grains at Bowie's head, "You're five times my size, how do you think I felt?"


"The Royalist bunny got to the fence line, should hae slowed him down, but it was not a problem for that long eared fiend, we need to pick our sheltering terrain more carefully."
"Didn't bother me, I could freeze and hide." Snappy took a swig of his drink.
"L'Ouseux went into the fight with Sid the snake, his shield again proving miraculous vs that snakes massive strike."
"He did get me, but with Batty hanging onto his teeth, it did not sting that much." the brave sparrow now boasted from the end of the table. "Worth noting, once you hit him, he does not defend well."
"That fox with his pistols was a pain, we need a way to deal with that, maybe a rain spell Boss?" Berry winked.

"Rain spell, that would have soothed my singed fur, getting zapped hurts, especially on top of an arrow hit. I don't remember much after that." L'Otter complained.
"Maybe, next time, don't stand under a tree?" Sneaker quipped. "Did you see that fox vault the fence? He was a bit impressive."
"I thought he was coming after me, I was quite worried by that." Abi chipped in, than tucked into her chipped grains.

"I think the idea of dropping our planks and me piling in to help Bowie, while Sneaker hit the Catman in the back was sound, he took lots of damage from all of us. Pity he turned out to be fearless, I'm sure my face would have made him baulk, and I could have floored him"
"You look alright to me!" Abi whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, Berry felt himself blush under his hood and then had grab the table hard to stop himself falling off his stool as Bowie poked him in the ribs.
"Ohhh! You've got a fan!" Bowie laughed.
"I noticed Snappy was also having a go at that snake too." Berry said, desperately trying to distract from the giggles and winks coming down the table.

"Both foxes came in to attack, that was scary, big old beasts they were." Berry intoned.
"You weren't fighting them! L'Ouseux had a snake and a fox to deal with, good thing he had a healing potion, or he would have been completely out of it, meanwhile I had the Highwayfox to deal with." Sneaker groaned.
"Don't moan Sneaker, you took down the cat then ducked every blow that fox tried to land on you!"
"Their mouse tried to attack me through the fence," Snappy added, "think he might owe the farmer for a new one, he did way more damage to it than to me!"

The gang laughed at this, with the Mage and Batty down, they had needed something to lift their spirits.

"From here on in Boss, it just turned in to an all out brawl around the bridge end. Abi took on the fox and the mole, who despite his two handed sword, couldn't see her to hit! That lady fox tried to grab Sneaker, but missed again. Snappy landed a great blow on Sid, and he was out the fight."

"Meanwhile, Big Yin and his gang had their second plank across the gap, and were laughing at us all fighting. They even cast heal on Bowie to keep him in the fight! Think they were planning to watch us fight it out then pick off the winners." Berry took a small sip and realised he should move back to beer, this stuff was strong!
"Yeah, that drunkard Bovva started hurling his empties into the fight from across the gap too, he could have hurt someone! Wasn't even aiming, just chucking them in!" Sneaker shook his head.
"Littering, disgraceful!" Bowie tutted, tongue in cheek.
"Shooting at Big Yin and Her Ladyship with that popgun wasn't the Royalists best ever idea though." Berry added, "it drew attention from their shooter."
"Oi, while you lot were having a lovely time playing pat-a-cake, I had at least gone off to deal with that Cawlock the Warlock who had zapped L'Otter before he did any more damage," Lady Door announced, catching Sneaker on the end of the nose with a well aimed winberry, "I was taking on both him and that rabbit at the same time, where were you lot?"
"Obviously the lessons L'Ouseux gave you in using that shield worked though, you stopped every hit!" Bowie retorted, and passed her a bottle to top up her thimble.

"Their mouse was pretty well hidden, but the Lady Meowshchewwer was just standing their in the open, she was a sitting duck to that skilled archer" Berry quickly added, before the conversation could go back to Abi's comment.

 "She didn't last long out there, and her taking an arrow was enough to break the Royalists, thankfully. Their gang decided to high-tail it out of trouble, leaing us the southern end of the bridge" Berry continued.

"So why did we not take the bridge?" Abi asked.

"Well, you haven't fought Yin yet, they were undamaged, we were looking somewhat beaten up, so we decided that leaing them to have the bridge while we got you guys healed was more important. We were still able to collect on their boss going down, and a fair few extras while you and Batty recovered" Bowie purred, "you need to look outside, the guys built you a wonderful mage's garden, raised beds and all from all those planks lieing around. Abi has been helping out around the pub here, hence the good food we can afford, I spent some time on the toll road to the bridge, there's 12 pennies Big Yin won't see. Snappy has been off to see his flame the Postmistress again, while our Berry here (Bowie looked at Berry, fixing him with his mismatched eyes) has even 'helped out' a local moneylender. We, for once, are fairly flush, and instead of picking up anyone new, we decided we're picked up equipment, armour and ammo for the guys while you snoozed."

Berry leaned back in his chair, his eyes looking round his friends, as they chatted, boasted, ate and drank. Yeah, friends. We might have lost this one, but no one was actually seriously hurt, and they had come out with their pockets and bellies full. Life was, actually, good.