Eels lounged in their torpor. Freya had never seen their large jaws before and shuddered. They were each larger around than most doorways that she would normally pass through, and looked to be as long as a snake if not more.

Freya shuddered thinking about how much each one would have to eat in order to maintain such a mass. Bears are plants as well as other beasts but the teeth she saw made her think that there only ate meat. She didn't know how long they had been there but it was clearly not long. If the rangers and druids had come this way previously then surely they would have noticed.

She could see River landing back before the column to speak with Sam. The lead otter shook her head and then began signaling the group.

Next to Freya one of the rangers flew within speaking distance. They both flew into a thermal and held themselves steady to speak. He was a Sparra and looked to be only slightly older than she was.

"Ranger Simone," she said.

"Druid Freya, it appears that we need to make some decision."

"Indeed."

"Druid, are you familiar with how we treat with beasts like this?"

"I am not, please enlighten me."

"Certainly," he said flapping, "We can drive it off, which would be what we do if it threatened a nearby populace, but the beavers here will know how to deal with it, we can avoid it which will be my suggestion, though it will take us time to go around."

"Or we could kill it."

Freya understood the problem, but knowing that she could avoid a fight was always preferable.

"I suspect one of the rangers will want to fight it, but Sam will disallow that. We are not here to fight, just to bring all of our charges back. It would be different if this was closer to the valley."

"To be completely honest, every fight that I've partaken in has been a bit of a mess. What do you think we'll do about these?"

The sparra stayed aloft with her as they watched the line of walkers and chickens divert. She preferred to not fight, but River had prepared her for many eventualities.

It wasn't until five rangers brought out shovels that River began to take off the ground to brief them. The other two birds, one a ranger and the other a druid began to move in a wide circle. The druid, she knew was Simones druid though she hadn't the faintest of the druids name. To add to her discomfort, she knew that she had been told it at one point of time. That was what husbands were for, though and she was ready to allow him the honor of reminding her of something she really should have remembered.

"We're going around, but the rangers want t try something first. Since we were going to stay here tonight, they're going to see if this is something we can salvage or not," River said, her black wings flapping against the wind.

Below them, one giant eel stirred, it's jaws snapping the air.

"There might be a problem with that," Freya said, her shoulders pointing back down.

"They're aware of the problems. They want to teach the candidates."

Simone floated around the two of them, their long familiarity placing them close.

"They want us to use this as a teaching moment? There will be plenty of them outside of the warren," he said," And there isn't much here for the druids to eat, even if they require little."

Stolen story; please report.

"I believe that they'll be taking a vote. You should join the other rangers. I'll keep Freya company."

Simone nodded and then made a direct flight straight to Sam and Spring.

---

Ben, the experienced mole ranger had put forth a cunning plan that Muk was almost jealous of. The problem was the amount of work that it required.

"It's simple," he said to the assembled rangers and candidates, "we change the flow rivers flow. The eels need it."

"Still, you're asking for a lot of effort. This might extend the length of our journey by what, a day and a half?" Sam said.

"We have several beavers and three otter rangers, that should be enough Riverfolk with experience in water engineering?" Ben asked.

Sam looked at her two husbands and sighed. Muk remembered the classic sweet pastries that Chip had made for them, as well as how good Sela was with a sword. He shuddered, thinking of how he would be able to catch up with the larger creature. Someday, he might; though Sela had quite a lead on him.

"My husbands are great at manual labor and our two beaver rangers?" Sam shot a look at them, "Flynn? Jerry?"

The two beavers nodded, but it was Jerry, the larger who spoke. Besides the fact that Jerry was the male ranger, Muk couldn't tell much of a difference between the two. He worried that he might offend one by saying so, but since they were always together he never got a chance to take one aside.

"The problem, you see," he said in the Riverfolk brogue, "Is that we lack the infrastructure to build up a dam. The water wants to go the way that it wants to go, and we can't do much about that."

"You want us to dig something, great, but we need to shore it up," Flynn said, "Trenches and tunnels are inherently dangerous at the best of times. We don't have anything to shore up a temporary channel. At best we could raise the water table here and turn this clearing into a pond, but then we'll lose the tunnel system which we've built up over years."

"The tunnels are already a loss. We need to ask the druids if they can do something," Sam said, "Druid Spring?"

The mouse behind her stirred, standing up as if she had been deeply in thought. She looked around to the assembled group before taking a swig of her water.

"There is precious little that we can do that won't leave us without recourse if a larger predator finds itself in our path. I believe that we can find a way to deal with this in the short term, and I think I know the druid who can solve this particular issue."

Spring waved up to the circling overwatch team, then shot a gout of black flame up into the air. Before long a familiar black Raven flapped down to join the group.

---

"You want me to do what?" The raven squealed.

"It's preventative. We do this and they'll have trouble catching anything in the river," Spring said, "Even Sam agrees. Thankfully they're sleeping with their heads above ground. We'll back you up with the wind. How many are there?"

Muk was beginning to think that Sam and Spring were a little off their rocker the first time that they had explained the plan, but with some help explaining how it would work, he began to prepare some of the volatile payloads that he had kept divided up between two of the chickens.

"You're going to need to coat it with something," Flynn said, handling the round half of one ball with her paws, "or you would if we wanted to light it. It's insane to think that River can light them as she drops them. Or that she can light all five as they fall."

As it turned out, both Jerry and Flynn were skilled in underwater demolition, a fact that Spring had unfortunately known. The eels, though lying mostly in the water had their eyes above ground and those were the targets, as well as their sensitive noses. If they could blind the eels, then it would be a matter of time before they were unable to feed themselves and the next group of rangers and druids could finish the job. It just would take a bit of extra work from the flyers.

"We have to make sure that they're light enough for the flyers," Jerry grumbled, "Though Spring herself understands that we only have precious few of them."

Muk delicately tied the cussers back together before passing them to Jerry for the final touches. Jerry expertly tied them to some of Mike favorite string, giving enough of a loop for the avians to grab with both talons.

"There's five," Muk said reporting to Sam before they had packed up. Chickens were shuttling groups of ten back and forth to the fallback location a short walk away and they were among the last. Freya had been leading them back and this was the final group to depart. They wanted room away from the event. The initiates had complained about not being able see what was going on, but Sam shut them down easily.

Muk tugged twice on his bond with Freya, their sign that it was time. He smiled when he felt her approach.

"Rangers, let's move," Sam said as Gear arrived.

Muk mounted Gear, adjusting his saddlebags. Beside him, Flynn, Jerry and Sam did their final check and then they ran.