The Evil Eagles of Doom.

Tarka:
 
Flakes wagged his tail and looked accross the small hut at his mom. "I'm 
going to the martket this afternoon for corn mine mother." He was only six
years old and his mother had entrusted him with six farthings for corn.
 
The old gray furred vixen looked up at her 'hopefully' last son. "That's 
fine Flakes. Be sure not to go into the woods for the evil eagles of doom
reside there."
 
Young Flakes fluffs out his tail and pushed brissles his fur. Making
himself look far larger then he really was. "I be afraid of no feathered
death. I be Flakes the brave!"
 
The old vixen just snorted. "Thou wouldth be Flakes the dead if thy find 
thineself in the woods. So stay out of the woods."
 
Without a word Flakes skipped out of the hut, following the trail past 
Darkwood Forest, and headed to town for corn.
 
Athalon:
 
With a skip brisk in his step, Flakes the Brave; Flakes the Fearless; Flakes 
the Adventurer! made his way along the forest path.  Indeed he was feeling 
cheerful, for it was spring, and the blossoms sprung, and the rose blown.  He 
carried his staff - much too big for somefur as young as he, but appropriate 
for an Adventurer - in his right paw, and jingled the silvern coins in his 
left.  It was to be an adventure beyond his wildest imaginations.
 
"Hullo there, and well met!" said a fox, popping suddenly from beyind a bush 
at the edge of the trail.  Now Flakes was no stranger to foxes, of course.  
But this fox was, well, a bit curious.  And not totally unknown to Flakes, 
either.
 
"Hi, Magenter," said Flakes to the fox, who tumbled over in fake surprise, 
grasping his odd necklace and grinning.
 
Terrycloth:
 
"Greetings, Flakes," said the other fox as he hopped to his feet, then 
'accidentally' tumbled forwards to land pressed up against Flakes' chest. 
"What brings you to market on a fine summer day?"
 
Flakes backed off and checked his pockets and money pouch, but all were 
intact. Magentor was his friend, and rarely stole from him, but you could 
never trust his type. "Oh, my mother said not to go to the forest, so I'm 
just buying corn."
 
"Oh, what doesn't she want you to find in the forest? A treasure? A glittering-
 jewel that she hid safe away from little fox eyes?"
 
"No, just feathery death. Although... I've heard they do like shinies."
 
Magentor rubbed his paws together, and clasped Flakes' shoulders. "Then let's 
go! Shinies await!"
 
Tarka:
 
Flakes the brave found himself plunging into woods behind his sometimes
friend Magentor. "Megentor... my mom told me to not go into the woods 
or the Evil Eagles of Doom are here!"
 
The other riff raffy fox just laughed. "That means just more shineies for us! 
No one will know that we... The marry band of foxes, will be all the richer!"
 
The young fox followed as fast has his short little legs could take him. 
Finally Magentor stopped in her tracks. "Hey Flakes. Do you know where we 
are?" The wind rustled the bushes around them both. The dark wood... was 
well... dark.
 
Athalon:
 
"N-n-n-no....," moaned Flakes, looking all about.  To be sure, he was still 
Flakes the Fearless.  Just, well, a bit out of himself.  Indeed the forest 
_was_ dark.  The brances above sighed and swayed.  Dry wood squealed and 
snapped.  Every momement in the brush around them seemed to draw his eye.  It 
was still well before noon, and the forest not at all that gloomy.  But when 
you're looking for adventure, adventure has a way of finding you.
 
"Well," replied Magentor, tossing her mane - she had grown a mane, after once 
meeting a lioness, another one of her odd affectations.  "We'll just have to 
keep on.  Straight... that-a-way!"  She gestured with paw outstretched.  The 
claws were lacquered a gaudy shade of violet.  Flakes forgot his anxiety, and 
giggled.
 
"Magentor, what in the world did you do to your paw?"  It was the funniest 
thing he'd ever seen.
 
"Oh, these?" she flirted, twiddling her painted nails before his nose.  "It's 
ALL the rage!  I just HAD to have 'em.  Aren't they cool?!"
 
Flakes nodded, still giggling a bit.  Magentor couldn't be serious if she 
tried.  And besides... If theforest _were_ really dangerous, Flakes the 
Fearless would protect them.
 
Terrycloth:
 
Suddenly, Magentor screamed and fell out of sight. With heroic reflexes 
Flakes pounced and grabber her paw as she fell, only to be dragged down after 
her.
 
Both of them screamed in terror as they fell down and down and down, and the 
dirt turned to rock turned to glittering shinies... as their eyes sparkled 
from the beauty, they splashed suddenly into a cold, deep pool, lit by a dim 
glow from the hole above and from moss lining the walls.
 
Magentor swam for the shore, but Flakes floundered, dragged down by the heavy 
purse his mother had given him, barely able to keep afloat with all his 
strength.
 
Magentor made the shore and looked back at her friend. "Throw me your money! 
Then you'll be able to swim!"
 
"But -- but ---" Flakes said, not trusting Megentor as far as he could throw 
his money. But he had no choice. He removed the purse from his belt and 
tossed it to her.
 
By the time he reached the shore, she was nowhere in sight.
 
Tarka:
 
"Hey! Come back here you theif! I need those farthings for corn!
 
The cavern echoed his voice all around... "CORN.... Corn... corn... c...o..r..-
.n..
 
A little while later... after Flake's runs off into a side passage following 
the sence of his Farthering and Magenter.... a little brown dragon comes out 
of the side of the cavern. He sniffles at the train and licks his lips... 
"Young Tastey foxes... So good... so wonderful... so very tastey..."
 
It waddles after the two foxes... its tummy rumbbling.... its mouth watting...-
 "Young foxes... young yummy foxes.
 
Athalon:
 
Now Magentor wasn't that far ahead.  You could even say, Magentor wasn't even 
thinking ahead.  For it had just popped into her foxy, flighty brain to trick 
Flakes out of his money.  She hadn't planned it, hadn't figured what to do 
next.  Some strange notion to flee had found her paws, and off she had dashed.
 
Which ended up, inevitably, in Magentor being now quite lost.  For indeed she 
wasn't all that bright, and the tunnel quite gloomy.  And Magentor never 
liked the undergrounds, anyway.  She leaned against the wall of the tunnel, 
the sack of coins in her paw quite forgotten, and sniffled a litt.e
 
Flakes pursued, of course.  He was sure he could smell her, still.  Smell the 
leathern purse, so heavy with coinage and now wet and stinking of cheap hide. 
 Not far to go, he thought.  She wouldn't *really* do this, he kept telling 
himself.
 
"It's just a trick.  Yeah.  She's just playing a trick on me.  This isn't 
going to turn out bad.  Anfter all, if ya look at it that way, this is all 
just a sort of adventure.  I like adventures!"  Flakes wasn't gloomy at all, 
as he chased Magentor down the twisty tunnel.  This was almost sort of fun!
 
And Scroph, the mumbley dragon (who had once been a hobbit), followed, in 
turn.
 
Terrycloth:
 
Magentor finally hit on an idea. The creatures that lived in the cave would 
have to know the way out, so she'd just follow their tracks. Her confidence 
restored, she pranced gaily down the twisty caverns and tunnels, looking for 
tracks in the slippery moss. Somewhat to her surprise, she found some, big 
reptilian tracks, and very fresh. For a while she sat and stared at them, 
certain that they were important somehow, but not remembering why.
 
"Oh yeah!" she said, just as Flakes ran up.
 
"Give me back my money, this isn't funny," the other fox whined. Magentor 
looked confused, then looked down at her hand, which still held the pouch. 
She tossed it back to him, leaving a shiny trail of coins. As Flakes caught 
it the last coin worked its way out.
 
Flakes whimpered. All his money was gone! He must have cut the purse while 
trying to work it loose. Looking down the cavern Magentor had come from, he 
saw a trail of coins leading into the dim phosphorescent gloom. It would take 
forever to pick them all back up!
 
"What am I going to do now?" he asked.
 
"Follow the monster tracks!" Magentor said, remembering her plan suddenly. 
"I'm sure it knows an exit. Oh, nevermind."
 
"Yeah, we can just follow the money back..."
 
"No no no, we can ask the monster himself. Hi monster!"
 
Tarka:
 
Flake turned around fast to find himself looking into the mouth of a huge 
dragon... with rows and rows of long shiney gold capped teeth. He ducked.. 
"Mag... mag... magenter.... th... th.. thats a dragon!"
 
Magenter leaped forward and pats the dragon on the know. "Hello there!"
 
Scroph the dragon frowned a little and sniffled at the small female fox. 
"Tasty...." With one snap he lopps one of her arms off and blood spews out 
onto the cavern wall.  
 
With a screem Magenter leaps back into Flake's arms... "My arm! My nails!"
 
Flakes grabs Magenter and runs!
 
Athalon:
 
Flakes was panting from the effort, half-carring and half-dragging Magentor 
by turn back up the twisty shaft.  Just how they were going to get out of 
this one, he didn't know.  He was scared, alright.  He had to wee so bad he 
was nearly busting.  But he ran and ran, trying to get Magentor to daylight.  
If he could just get her out of the tunnels, everything would be all right - 
he was sure.
 
Magentor moaned, and slumped against Flakes, hardly able to walk on her own.  
This was, like, ya know, like, such a bummer.  What a bad trip!  Like... 
totally!  Her diary was gonna BURN! baby - This was all... like... ya know...
 
And Scroph the Mighty, tasting a little of his old glory - or the glory that 
all the old tales said _should_ have been his - and tasting fox...  He had a 
thought.  One that never plagued his dark and dissipated thoughts for 
hundreds of years.
 
"I'll just go BACK up this ole tunnel the other way," he said to himself, 
somewhat stupidly.  "I've never been 'up' before."  And so leaving his morsel 
unfinished, and his hunger unassuaged, he roused himself and followed the 
fleeing foxes up the passageway to daylight.
 
Terrycloth:
 
The foxes, meanwhile, we very very lost. Flakes was lost in the maze of 
tunnels. He kept trying to work his way up, but only ending up farther down. 
Finally, he ended up in a large circular chamber, brightly lit with moss. He 
dropped Magentor and cried. The bright moss had tricked him, this was no exit.
 
Magentor, of course, had lost consciousness.
 
I'm a failure, Flakes thought. I lost the money, I disobeyed my mother, and 
now I'll be stuck in here forever, and probably lose my only friend as well. 
Adventure sucks.
 
"Huh," said the dragon, sticking its head into the chamber, snuffling at the 
trail of blood Magentor had left. "...not the exit... stupid foxes. Tasty, 
though."
 
Almost absently, it slurped up Magentor's body and gobbled it down in a 
series of horrible crunches. "Hey..." Flakes said weakly... then realized it 
was too late. "Nevermind."
 
"Take me, then," he said, "I have nothing left to live for, and my mother 
will kill me if she finds out anyway."
 
The dragon sat for a few seconds, trying to parse the long sentence of 
foxspeak. "Okay," it grunted, "Follow me." Then turned and trundled off into 
the twisty caverns.
 
Tarka:
 
Flakes followed the dragon quietly... rather gloomy about his soon to be 
rather short future. He followed and sighed softly..
 
Scroph led the tastey fox thorugh the passeges... past caverns and holes nad 
chambers of jewels. Down down deep into his lair and to his dinning room.
 
Flakes followed the dragon into a big room and then looked around at the 
shear size of the room... it was huge... it was massive... there was a small 
cage... fox sized... right before him. The dragon pushed him into it! "Hey!!"
 
The door slamed shut behind him and he was trapped. The Dragon laughed. 
"Oh.... a little fox like you would make such a good curry.
 
Athalon:
 
Flakes stared out at the dragon.  It didn't look like it was in a hurry to 
eat him.  It didn't look like it was in a hurry to do anything at all.  
Scroph  lumber-lilted to the far side of the cave, and flopped inelegantly on 
his side.   The snores, and other noises that a dragon might make right after 
a meal,  soon told Flakes that the dragon had better to do.
 
Which gave Flakes a moment to look about.  The cage was sturdy - there'd be 
no escaping.  And small.  There was a dirty shred of blanket in a corner, and 
a pile of filth half-covered with the straw which lined the floor of the 
cage.  Flakes moved disgustedly away from _that_ end, and found himself 
against the cage door.  Which he realized as it swung open.  
 
The fool of a dragon had forgotten to lock him in!
 
Terrycloth:
 
Flakes slipped out of the cave and followed the dragon's tracks back the way 
they'd come, suddenly having no desire whatsoever to be eaten. To his horror, 
the moss was so quick-growing that soon he lost track of the tracks! Ah, but 
there was the bright room, already.
 
From the bright room, he looked at the bloody splotch where Magentor had last 
lain. From it a trail ran off through the cavern, so he followed it back to 
where the dragon had attacked. And there were the coins!
 
Flakes picked up the gnawed remains of Magentor's arm, thinking that perhaps 
the chiurgeons back in town could heal her, and then picking up each coin as 
he went, followed the trail back to where they'd first fallen into the cavern.
 
Looking carefully around the room, Flakes saw a ladder leading back up to the 
surface, on the far side of the lake. Stupid Magentor! If she hadn't run off, 
they could have gotten out easily. He thought about leaving her down there, 
but no... she would help him float.
 
And so, holding Magentor's arm like a log, he waded out into the underground 
lake and swam strongly for the ladder. And sunk like a stone.
 
Frantically, he tried to remove the coins from the pockets and other places 
he'd hidden them, since his pouch was ruined, but he was too slow, and died a 
horrible strangling death at the bottom of the lake.
 
The dragon added vegatables and spices, and dined well on fox soup for many 
months.
 
Tarka:
 
Momma fox went to town and headed for the wizards cottage. She stepped into 
cottage and looked around. The old wizard looked up. "Ah... How are you doing 
miss fox?
 
"Ah... wizard. I need to you resurect my son and his friend again. They 
didn't come home. Again."
 
"Ah.. Six farthings!"