"What? No it's too soon, Daddy's not even back y-"

  "And where did he go? Huh!? The diggers say the darklings are gathering, and your gremlin friend-"

  "Surrender!" Toni snapped. "Her name is Surrender and she's my girlfriend not my friend." Toni crossed her arms fearless as she stared into the eyes of the towering Nasai.

  "Apologies." Nasai bowed, much to Toni's surprise. "Your girlfriend has confirmed, the darklings are gathering today. Everything is prepared, Sgoinneil?"

  "Yes yes, I can break the wards easily enough, and the new wards are already in pce." The elderly bear smiled as she leaned on her cane. "And I'm sorry Lady Toni but Nasai is right, having Master Mate would be good, but this pn does not rely on him. We cannot miss this opportunity."

  "I- but-" Toni spluttered and looked to Malkus and Surrender next to her for support.

  "We are ready." Malkus nodded grimly, putting one hand on her arm in an attempt to be comforting.

  "No we're not- Pip?" Toni turned over to Pipuck sitting away from the group.

  "Hmmm, we're shor' a few potions, so some bears won't 'ave-" Pip started.

  "Take the potions from the nameless! They're expendable." Nasai cut in.

  "Oh yeah? See how quick we bury you lot under stone as well as water! Don't matter if you can breathe it if your bones are crushed and you're stuck in it do it!" Malkus snapped back and Nasai reared onto his hind legs.

  "No can do Nasai, every member of the Nameless goin' down there is doin' so to earn their freedom. Mate's rules, if you wan' their 'elp you 'ave to guarantee their safety." Pipuck grinned as Nasai turned to snarl at him. "Wha'? 'Ave Mayuk's descendants lost all spine? It's your 'ome ain't it?" Pipuck's prodded.

  The sound Nasai made in response chilled Toni to the bones. The snarling ughter which the massive bear emitted was unearthly. He looked around to everyone as his ughter settled.

  "Fine. We bears are sturdy, we will be fine. Let the nameless cowards have their safety net." Nasai growled with a sneering look cast towards Malkus. "We move in an hour, they're gathering in two we must be in position." Nasai said and marched out of the meeting chamber.

  "I must say, I'm quite worried about this pn of yours Toni." Sgoinneil said softly as Toni turned to leave herself.

  "R-really, why?" Toni asked.

  "It seems unnecessarily risky." Sgoinneil hummed thoughtfully as she looked Toni over.

  "Well I assure you it's the best way to go about it." Toni forced herself to answer.

  "Yes, tell me again why we can't just seal every entrance, and must engage the darklings in the tunnel out?" Sgoinneil asked.

  "Oh, that-" Toni rexed and turned back to Sgoinneil, at least this wasn't wholly a lie. "-is pretty simple. Sure, we could seal them all, and maybe it works, but what happens if they do something we can't predict? Create their own barrier or something, y'know?" Toni began to expin and Sgoinneil nodded along.

  "Like with the spiders." She added helpfully.

  "Yes! The spiders were just animals, beasts. Who knows what tricks the darklings have up their sleeves y'know? Sooooo, we force them to fight us so they're focused on us until it's too te. Then we pull out when there's no chance of them escaping." Toni babbled excitedly, she loved a good pn.

  "And what happens if the Mayuk can't pull out in time? Or pull out too early?" Sgoinneil asked prompting Toni to frown.

  "If they don't pull out in time they might be buried with the darklings. Too early and the darklings may escape and return." Toni said coldly.

  "And if the nameless seal the bears in with them?" Sgoinneil asked with an expression that put Toni on edge again.

  "T-then Timbear can get them out right? He'll be there too, so it's not a problem." Toni answered carefully.

  "Yes. Timbear can get them out that's true. His ability to move earth is second to none." Sgoinneil nodded.

  "Right." Toni grinned as nonchantly as she could at the wise old bear who's eyes seemed to bore into Toni's soul.

  "Someone would have to colpse the whole tunnel behind him, and rob him of his senses to stop him from doing so." Sgoinneil said.

  Toni froze. "Y-yeah?" Surely Sgoinneil didn't-

  "And of course no one would do that, why would anyone want to rob us of our greatest defender." Sgoinneil added.

  "Yeah, it's crazy." Toni ughed, Ren jabbing an arm into her side to stop her. It had been so obviously strained.

  "Unless they were trying to put to right some ancient wrongs." Sgoinneil hummed thoughtfully, looking up above her head. "I would not begrudge someone that, nor do I think would Timbear."

  "Oh... Yeah?" Toni's tension faded to curiosity.

  "Of course, there are many a problem that could be fixed, but for some reason when it comes to the errors of the past we grizzled folk go ignored for the young cubs justice." Sgoinneil smiled at Toni and stood up with a groan.

  "Ooooh, but enough of that, it's all what ifs after all! I must be off, otherwise how I won't make it to the wards in time!" Sgoinneil cackled like an old hag as she tottered her way, far too fast for her age, out of the room.

  Toni looked toward Pip who started ughing. She ughed herself, awkwardly at first but growing comfortable very quickly. Pip pced a hand on her shoulder and wiped a tear from their eye.

  "Tha' crazy ol' dy I never woulda guessed!" They said, taking deep breaths to stabilize themselves.

  "Sh-she knows! And she's okay with it?" Toni was incredulous at the thought.

  "She at least suspects, an' yeah! Crazy ol' crone of a bear thinks it's wrong an' want's change?!" Pipuck spped their stomach. Surrender sat off to the side tilting her head at the two.

  "Why funny?" She asked. Which only caused the two to burst out into another bout of hysteric ughter.

  Nearly two hours ter Toni stood in a sleuth of bears numbering maybe 100 in total. Among their number were primarily the Mayuk. The name for the big, brown grizzly bears who serve as guardians and protecters of Bearbhaile. The Mayuk numbered nearly 70 all told and were gathered around Nasai and Craobh.

  "Remember, we hold them as long as we can. To die here is to die in service to your home, to protect it that no other must suffer as we have these past weeks." Nasai paced, growling quietly so as not to echo downward toward the gathering darklings.

  Why they were gathering, the bears did not know. Though Surrender had heard, she told only Toni. Apparently the death of one of the leaders champions, not the leader himself apparently, had shaken confidence. Some sort of affirmation of leadership was being held down below. The sounds of which echoed all the way here.

  At an estimate they were a 5 minute jog from each other, which doesn't seem like much, until you understand how quick bears and darklings can jog. Toni gulped at the violent, raucous noises echoing up from the tunnel beyond. Thankfully a bear came up to distract her.

  This was a young bck bear, barely in his fifth year of life. That set Toni's stomach roiling as she handed the bear an actual water breathing potion. After all, he was a civilian, not one of the Mayuk who got the 'special' water breathing potions. Though the pn gone right would likely kill all of the bears down there.

  Toni tried not to think about that.

  Instead she handed out the st of the potions from Pipucks basket and turned to Craobh as she approached. The bck bear was practically bouncing with excitement.

  "Like I said Craobh, all out. Sorry." Toni apologized to the bear, one of the ones electing not to take a potion.

  "Ahhh it's alright, I'm quick, I'll get out before I need air for sure!" Craobh grinned wildly at Toni who smiled awkwardly back.

  "Still, I wish there were something I could do." Toni said with a sigh. She had grown to like Craobh, she was young and full of fire and guts. Kinda like Toni, so once again Toni buried the image that her mind tried to conjure. Of a bck bear's scarred muzzle, bnk eyes as it floats dead in dark waters.

  "You'll be down fightin with us! You're already doin a lot in my opinion. I uh... I wanted to say by the way... Um." Now Craobh shifted uncomfortably on her paws. "Thank you." Craobh spat the words out and tilted her head down.

  "O-oh" Toni's eyes widened. "No it's okay, you don't have to-"

  "No I do! When you and Mate came here I- I made some assumptions that were wrong. I was rude, and you guys have done nothing but fight to help us. I can't ignore that. And for what it's worth..." Craobh looked carefully around for Nasai, then leaned into Toni as she watched him.

  "I agree with you guys." Craobh muttered.

  "Y-you do? About what?" Toni spluttered.

  "About the... y'know the nameless. I mean sure they tried to attack and kill me, but after seeing them in those cages again and again... Not fighting back because some bear at some point was afraid they'd get attacked?" Craobh shook her head.

  Toni started to panic. "O-oh, that's awesome Craobh! M-maybe you should sit this out y'know? Go tell some others what you think now, help change thi-"

  "No!" Craobh cut her off, putting one heavy paw on Toni's chest. "This is my duty. I am Mayuk, and I am Nasai's most trusted. I will not retreat. I will earn honor here and use that honor to spread that hope." Craobh's hair stood on end around her cheeks as she blushed and scratched at her muzzle. "Maybe things can change ya know? For the better?"

  "Y-yy-yy-yyeahhhhh, I hope so too!" Toni gabbled.

  "You alright?" Craobh asked her. "You're not sick are you? You been workin awfully hard and I know humans aren't as resilient as us bears." Craobh moved to lift a paw to Toni's forehead which Toni batted down. A little too hard in her opinion.

  "NO I'M FINE." Toni screeched. "Craobh I really really think you shouldn't go, it's gonna be dangerous and what if you're the only one who thinks like you do?! We don't want to lose that!" Toni tried to encourage Craobh away from the cavern.

  "Oh, I'm not the only one. There's not a lot of us, but a lot of us cubs here feel the same way. That's why they came, so no one, not even nameless would have to suffer if they didn't have to." Craobh said, smiling broadly to Toni. She put one paw up on her forehead and mimicked the salute Toni had given Temate several times before. "Anyway, just wanted to say thanks and good luck down there!"

  Then she was gone.

  Trotting off to Nasai's side where she reset her stoic expression onto her face. Toni looked around again at all the young bears here. The ones who weren't Mayuk. It wasn't a lot, but...

  "If they feel tha' way, so do others. We know Sgoinneil does. We've made our choice, if we try an' change i' up now..." Pipuck hissed to her.

  "Well what if- what if we just do the pn right y'know? Instead of dipping out early we-" Toni started to change her pn on the fly, something she'd never been good at.

  "An' 'ow do we expin the faulty potions?!" Pipuck hissed again.

  "We say- we say- we say- ah! We say we rushed a bunch the night before and it... it... must've been a bad batch?" Toni whispered as she grimaced. It was barely believable even to her. Pipuck sighed and looked up to her.

  "It's your choice, in the en' you're the one who's settin' i' into motion. I woul' if I coul' bu' I can't move tha' much earth quick enough." Pipuck said.

  Toni clenched her teeth and tried to remember why she was doing this. Not just to force change, but because Temate needed to see justice. Her hands balled up and she felt fire lick across her. She stabilized and shook her head.

  "No. No we'll still do it. Barring circumstances where it is no longer a good pn, we will do it." Toni clenched her body and forced herself to look away from all the young, excited bears in the chamber. Then she moved to gather her gear up, handing any extra's to a young brown cub girl who would carry them back up to their little cavern.

  With a grunt Nasai began to lead the bears down into the tunnel. To his left Craobh marched proudly, and behind them all was Timbear. Toni stopped before him, bowing and handing him a thick sb of meat from her pouch. This had been prepared very carefully by Pipuck mere hours ago.

  She said nothing, knowing she could not without risking his enchantments wrath. He said nothing to her, simply nodding and accepting the offered meat. He plopped it all into his mouth and swallowed at once. A habit of bears with snack sized chunks of meat. Toni's stomach churned as she imagined swallowing what Timbear just had.

  She turned and followed Nasai and the bears as they marched into the dark of the cavern. Marching towards the thundering sounds of the darklings in whatever gruesome celebration or trial they were holding. Thundering drums and warbling horns sounded throughout the space, setting Toni's senses on fire.

  Then they reached the end of the tunnel, and they waited. Waited for the signal.

  Waited for the water.

  They waited and watched the gathered darklings quietly, their front ranks [Enshadow]ed by Surrender's [Power]. They sat in chairs like normal people Toni noted. Gathered around tables which were likely dragged here from the same diners the chairs had been stolen.

  Food was piled across most of the tables surface, ranging from bck charred to rotten mush. Toni had to keep a fire going in her cupped hands around her nose to burn away the putrid scent. Her [Keen Eye] let her pick out more details.

  Dozens of those darklings with bck, chitinous protrusions were scattered around the chamber. Some with the same spiderlike spines. Some had long curved bde like protrusions. Some still had rge ponderous shells which warded creatures off.

  In the center of the room, on a dais of rubble formed from whatever structure originally stood there, was the leader. A towering, disturbing creature, much like the darklings around it. What parts of it's body Toni could see were covered in deep bck gleaming chitin which was a part of itself not armor.

  Not like what it wore.

  A set of pted white melr armor. Formed from the white chitinous pieces of a long dead spider. Toni could swear the edges of the armor shook as if still alive. She even swore she heard the hissing of the long dead thing as it shook at them.

  The armor was finely crafted, from a distance it appeared to be thick pted bone with a pattern akin to damascus steel. It was her [Keen Eye] which let her pick out the thick spiny bits that stood along it's surface giving it that appearance. It was tied with thick chords of bck dyed spider silk. The same silk, with no dye to darken it's shimmering white, surfaced a padded tunic beneath.

  Toni took a deep breath and poked Surrender and Pip next to her.

  "The leader has Daddy's armor." Toni hissed.

  Both nodded back to her in acknowledgement. No words were needed, if at all possible, they would get that armor. As Toni plotted their path to the leader she felt cool wetness slip beneath her feet.

  Water.

  A second ter Nasai roared.

  Then Timbear roared.

  Then all the bears roared.

  And then they were charging into hell.

  Force2reckon