The Waterpine Chipmunk, Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Captain Jaskuqinghuoren, the Co-slave master loved to bully the puny slaves. He was one of the only rats in Satama’s whole army that was as big as or bigger than Satama. He wasn’t the chief slave master because Satama had found him too stubborn and unintelligent. Jaskuqinghuoren dreamed that he could be the chief slave master more than the other slave masters because he thought that Satama was being too nice to the slaves. Satama would order Chief Njazi, chief of the slave masters to only strike them if they need to be struck. Jaskuqinghuoren had such a tiny mind that he didn’t realize that whipping too much would weaken the slaves and Satama needed the fort completed as quickly as possible. Jaskuqinghuoren wanted to be Chief of the Slave Masters so badly that he had already tried to assassinate the current chief twice. He had been caught trying to poison Nazi’s wine but they thought that he had put in a seasoning. The slave cook had tasted it and found that it was bad so he threw it out. Three hours later, the slave had died. It was dark, every body was asleep. Jaskuqinghuoren snuck through the halls and passages of Fort Blackmore. He may not have been smart but his fur was so black that he could easily sneak through shadows. He snuck around slaves who were getting things for the other officers. Jaskuqinghuoren went up the stairs to the fifth floor where the high officers and Satama slept. He took a poisoned knife out of his belt as he entered Nazi’s room.

Martha, the slave who was in charge of serving Njazi, was sleeping by the door. She heard the door open.

As Jaskuqinghuoren entered the room he stopped and looked around carefully to see if there was any movement by Njazi.

Martha had heard from the other slaves that there was a badger named Sedu who would visit the slaves in the officer’s rooms one by one to tell them of the latest news in the courtyard. It must be my turn, thought Martha. Martha, careful not to wake up Njazi, rose to meet what she thought, was Sedu.

Jaskuqinghuoren saw somebody rise from the floor. He realized that he would get in big trouble if she shouted an alarm. He quickly raised his knife!

Martha saw that it was not a badger when she saw the knife. As the knife came down, she lept to one side. The knife dug into the floor. Martha grabbed a quarter full jug of wine and threw it at the intruder’s head. He ducked, grabbed Martha, and threw her out the open window as Njazi awakened.

Chaos was everywhere! The vermin on the giant dragonflies had not only dropped bombs on the woodlanders and gophers, but they had made holes in the week spots on the stronghold. Tark was standing at the front of eight ranks of archers. Even though the woodlanders heavily outnumbered the vermin, the vermin had an aerial advantage. The archers, lead by Tark, were firing at Tark’s commands. Otto had accurately thrown a rock at a rider and hit the dragonfly he was riding. The dragonfly had crashed to the ground. The dragonfly was unhurt but the rider had died of impact. Otto leapt upon the dragonfly and was able to ride, but was unable to steer. The dragonfly apparently, was able to understand commands so when Govmam sounded his horn to retreat, Otto was forced to go with them.