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OOC: Boo!

IC: War had indeed
ravaged the fort, but now there were beasts walking about,
identifying corpses and bearing them away on stretchers. Arrows, many
charred by fire, lay scattered about, stuck in the ground or imbedded
in bodies and buildings. The moat had turned even darker than its
former hue, literally black with blood and ashes. Suddenly, its
waters stirred. Some huge beast, smaller than a badger but larger
than most others, was swimming to the bank, thrashing about. Where it
had come from was any beast’s guess; a beast who didn’t
know better would say it came from under the walls.

At last, the huge
creature reached the bank, half of its body lying in the mud while
its lower body and legs disappeared into the murky shallows. A
throaty, hoarse groan reached the otter’s small, rounded ears
as she climbed up the wall. The beast dragged itself all the way onto
the slimy bank after a few moments’ rest. He was a large
hedgehog, but with a lean, withered look about him. The strength had
faded slightly from his massive muscles, and his once portly girth
was now sunken and scrawny.

The hog had a pale look
about him like one who has been underground for a long time. He was
clad only in a ragged tunic, once green but now faded and dull, which
clung to him only because it was soaking wet and was bound at the
waist by a loose, woven belt, which had also lost its color.

It had started several
days before, when the battle was still raging. A weasel’s
arrow, crafted of pinewood with black flights and a flint tip, had
shot up at Erinac while he stood on the walls, leading the soldiers
of Fort Ruddler in Teltoli’s absence. It had pierced his side,
going into his stomach partway, and, unconscious, the Major General
had fallen into the moat. There the water had awakened him, and he
thrashed about, trying to reach land. But by mistake, Erinac had
discovered and entered a tiny cavern deep under the walls, made by
who knew what. There he had lain for all these days, eating lichen
and luminous mushrooms and regaining his strength. Today he had
decided: he would try to find his way to the open air.

Now Erinac lay there,
mind shattered by the cruelty of vermin. He wanted one thing: to kill
them.