It was a fort in the woods north of Mossflower where the white ferret turned up. Scarcely thirteen seasons old, he had ran away from his father, the Warlord Lichobon Deathgrin, who held him captive. Now the ferret was fifteen, and now it was time for revenge. Revenge.
He was a large animal for his age, but you could see the youth in his eyes. He was tall and muscular, with sinew showing through the cut-off sleeves of his ragged black tunic. The ferret had odd features. Instead of having the brown fur and dark mask of normal ferrets, he was off-white with creme and gray swirls. One eye was sweet blue, while the other was steel gray.
"Let's see," he said, with his low voice. "My father, my wretched, hated father, had called me Kao Stotaly. If I am going to hunt him down I must change my identity." The ferret looked down at his odd fur. "If that'll be possible with this coat." The ferret plopped himself down on the ramparts of the fort. He started fondling the javelin that he carried. The weapon that won him his freedom. He had found it while gathering wood for his slave-driving father. The ferret thought back to the day he escaped.
Late in the morning, a hot morning, the ferret known then as Kao crept out of the slave barracks with his javelin. Over the wooden walls of the encampment he climbed. The ferret looked over his shoulder as he ran west to the forest. There were two rats and a stoat following him. Kao scowled and smiled at the same time. He must escape to kill his father and free the other slaves. These three creatures were impeding him.
Kao scrambled up a tree. Just when the vermin got under him, he leapt down. A quick swing of his weapon, and the smallest rat was finished. On the back swing he bought the other end of the javelin around and jabbed, leaving the stoat unconscious. All that was left was the big rat. She flexed her tattooed arms and charged the ferret. He fell to his back with the javelin up. The rat could not help falling onto the weapon.
Then Kao got up, flicked a drop of blood off of his tunic, and set off northwest to a cave he had seen on the cliffs surrounding Lichobon's Stronghold. He would camp there. Kao set off, but failed to see the six tracker foxes his father sent after him.
Soon after his reminiscing, the ferret fell asleep. His dreams were not pleasant. Over and over again he saw the pleading face of Nata, the female ferret slave who befriended him. His father constantly beat her because he knew that Kao liked her. Then, when that was over, he dreamed of a small gray and white stone. Next to it was a larger brown rock. Then he saw a huge black crystal drop and crush both rocks. The crystal vanished, and then it seemed that the shards of rock embraced each other. Then everything disappeared in an uproar of flame.
The beast woke up in a cold sweat. The dream scared him.
When the ferret was fully awake, he noticed his stomach growling, so he ran down to the fort's cellar. There must be something down here to eat, he thought. As the door slowly opened, he could smell the sweet scones and tart wine.
Once he had retrieved a large mushroom scone and a beaker of elderberry wine, the ferret threw himself down on the yards. As the basked in the late summer sun, he remembered his day in the cave.
A wheezing ferret heaved himself up onto the edge of the cave. He stood up on looked down and out at Lichobon's Stronghold. Free. Now to contemplate how to finish what I've started. He turned around and was face to face with an old, tan weasel. The weasel was a head taller than the younger ferret, and was very much all skin, fur, and bones.
"Who h'are you? Wha' are you t'oing 'ere?" The weasel spoke with a raspy voice and an odd accent. "I am te treasure keeper of te Lord Licho-" The weasel suddenly opened his eyes wide and leaned to the right stiffly. An arrow grew from his chest. The ferret whirled around a found himself cornered by six foxes.
"We have orders to bring you to Lord Lichobon. Dead or alive." The fox who had just spoke advanced and brandished his cutlass. The ferret swung his javelin and knocked him off the cliff. Two other foxes strung their bows and fired. One shaft buried itself in the ferret's shoulder. He pulled it out with his teeth and spat it out. Then he charged with his javelin out and shoved another fox over the cliff. He thwacked a third fox in the head and was swiped in the arm. Kao kicked one in the gut and circled around so the back of the cave was behind the foxes. The white beast leapt up to the ledge above the cave. The foxes ran out and saw a boulder rolling towards them. The foxes jumped off the cliff.
Once the ferret was sure the foxes were dead, he set off west.
The ferret was listening to a dove call as he finished the last of his wine. Then something disturbed him.
"How about Marblesque?"
"Huh?!" The ferret looked to his left and saw a small female woodrat dressed in a hazel cloak, the same color as her questioning eyes. She was lying on her back.
"Well?"
"Well what?"
The woodrat laughed daintily. "Hehehehe. Are you gonna answer me?"
"Ut. . . .What was that?"
"I heard someone in the fort and listened to you talking about your name, so I am suggesting one," she said.
"And that would be?" the ferret said.
"Marblesque."
"Hmm. I like it. Marblesque, because of my fur. Marblesque Longtale, because my tale is so long."
"I would like you to tell me that tale."
"First I must know your name."
"Oh, yeah. It's Neemava. I lived with my father and his family who guarded the woods in this fort. Then that horde took them to be slaves and sooth-sayers. Now tell me your story." So the pair went to the kitchens, started a fire, and ate dinner while Marble told Neemava of his journeys.
The storytelling took a day and a night. When it was done, the two creatures sat silently for a while. Marble broke that silence.
"And soon I will hunt down and pay back my father."
"I don't think you should. The dream you had caught my attention. I have my family's soothsaying abilities, and will interpret your dream . . . The white stone is you, while the brown rock is your father. The large crystal represents the hate between you two. It will destroy you both as the crushing of the rocks show, but the hate will disappear like the crystal. You will forgive your father."
"Never. I will never forgive my father for what he did to me, Nata, and the other slaves. He burnt the land, destroyed the country. He deserves to die. I will kill him."
Neemava took a pleading tone to her voice. "Please, please don't go. I want someone to talk to. I. . ."
"You know I must go."
"You know you shouldn't." Silence followed.
"I promise I will not kill my father." Neemava let her breath out, then made her way to the sleeping barracks. Marblesque looked out to the early rays of dawn near the horizon. He poured a bucket of water onto the fire. After a satisfying 'shhhhhhhhhs,' he made his way to the barracks. Finally, he took his crossed fingers out from behind his back.