chapter 1[]
A young squirrel sat by his campfire in Northern Mossflower, lost and hungry.Only about two hours before he had been running for his life, fleeing from a small vermin band who apparently wanted to make him a slave.He was tired, so he doused his fire, spread his ragged cloak on the ground, and fell asleep, not noticing the evil reptilian eyes watching him.
Baliss the adder lay behind a buckthorn bush,watching the young squirrel peacefully snoring, oblivious to all about him. Baliss was the deadliest snake in all mossflower, and some even said that he was a descendant of Asmodeus. He was young,strong, and could see perfectly.
The young squirrel was dreaming.In his dreams he saw an armored mouse,which he knew to be Martin the Warrior, striding confidently through the corridors of his mind.The mouse then drew a wondrous sword and began to speak:
"wake up, Gorge.You are the descendant of Ranguvar Foeseeker, my fathers old warrior friend.Wake up, my friend.The greatest evil in mossflower is staring you in the face, and all you can do is sleep'?That is not the way of the warrior. Wake up, my friend, wake up".At this Martin prodded Gorge with his sword, and the young squirrel woke with a start and looked around.He had moved onto a sharp broken branch when Martin had stopped speaking, and had accidently jabbed himself in the side when Martin prodded him with the sword.But that was the least of his concerns now.He could see Baliss slithering slowly into the clearing, hissing at him."Ssstay ssstill young sssquirrel,and let me ssshow you eternal sssleep".thinking quickly, Gorge grabbed the branch and whacked out at Baliss with it.The snake reared up, catching the full force of the blow in the throat.He a strange gurgle and backed off, his serpentine tongue flicking in and out. "Back off, you slimy son of a greasy rope, or i'll slay you."Gorge shouted.