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Steele seemed enthusiastic... why not play along? This may not have been the best place or time, but it was a gambit that, if executed correctly, could win the hearts of the townsfolk.
You first traversed the length of the tracks and tried to find a pattern to the tunnels. The only consistency in them that you could find was a marked push to your right. Across the length of the town, away from the mountain... you ignored the fact for now and reminded yourself. You were doing this partly to teach Steele.
You rose from your crouch and readied yourself, slowly approaching the first mole you'd seen, preparing for--
<span class="mu-s">"FIRE!"</span>
A--
<span class="mu-i">BANG, BANG, BANG</span>
A volley of shots were fired at a pair of moles further away from you that had popped out alarmingly close to a few men. The state militia had already gotten started.
The creatures were promptly alarmed, with various squeaks and woos following the moles back into their holes, the few that remained above surface popping out and aiming for the militia officers.
Of these moles, the original one that had tipped you off to their arrival was nowhere to be seen. It had popped back underground while you'd busied yourself with surveying the situation and procuring the three nutberries you had on hand. A frustrated huff escaped you and you shoved two of the three nutberries into Steele's open palm. "Follow me 'n don't get'n the way of the soldiers."
The sturdy stockbroker obeyed, his attention seemingly elsewhere, while your eyes fell upon a soldier mere feet away from assault. That was as good an opportunity as any. Now was when you had to strike!
You yelled something to the young man, neither of you making it out, distracting him long enough for him to miss his shot and hit some far-off tree instead. You gave a wayward glance at Steele, confirming that he was watching (indeed-- with rapt interest), before commanding Mary to your side and situating her between the soldier and his assailant.
When the mole moved to attack Mary, you instead rolled a nutberry down from your arm and let it sniff.
For a moment, the entire town seemed silent.
It wasn't, of course. The background of gunfire raged on, as did the various noises of the moles and the men they assaulted, with all the shouting and squeaking and rumbling blending together... but, for that single moment, you heard none of that.
Instead, all your senses devoted themselves to sight.
The sight of the mole's bewilderment, the sight of the townsfolk and soldiers alike turning to look at the man putting himself right in the way of the vicious bloodthirsty ground-dweller, the sight of Steele almost imitating the mole's own confusion...
...and the sight of the mole halting itself, sticking its enormous claws into the dirt so as not to hurt the soldier, sniffing the berry and gently plucking it from your palm...
...before digging underground, never to be seen again.