Its been a while... [open]

[Grath]

Enon swung her loaded sling idly as she reached the final approach to the mountain. She paused a moment and looked up, taking in the mountain. It had been a while since she had last seen it...five years. But before that she had spent seven years here, five of them fighting in the Patrol.

Striding up to the great gates, she took the loaded end of her sling and used it to pound the gate.

"Oy! Anybeast in their willing to let a bally starvin' patrolbeast in?" She called, imitating the hares' way of speaking.

[Ashstripe]

A pair of ears gradually appeared at the tip of the battlements, they eventually grew longer and longer until the old grizzled face of none other than Sarge made himself known. Leaning over the battlement warily, he squinted whilst adjusting his spectacles

"Well hullo there missy!" His grey moustache twitched with the slight grin that sent ripples of wrinkles through his features, there was a slight twinkle in the old hare's eyes that quite clearly expressed his glee at having an old comrade return to the Mountain.
"We were startin' t'think y'were too good for a bunch o' 'ares wot wot!" He chuckled lightly as he gave the signal for the gates to be opened.

[Grath]

"Well hullo there missy!"

Enon looked up into a familiar old face, and couldn't hold back a grin. Sarge had taught her how to use her bow, and while he had a tendency to break his bowstrings easily, he had taught her well enough that she could hit her target and not shoot herself in the foot.

"We were startin' t'think y'were too good for a bunch o' 'ares wot wot!"

"Ah, but I've been busy helping Redwall of late. I would never be too good for my friends here." She reverted to her old northern accent as she walked through the gate, reaching into a pouch at her belt and holding what looked like coiled twine up.

"I brought you new bowstrings. Grath insists they are the toughest she's ever made. Says even you shouldn't break them."

[Ashstripe]

The Gates creaked slowly, followed by another grunt by the hares tasked with operating the tedious machinery, little by little the doors eventually revealed the inner workings of Salamandastron. All the while, the old hare was still on the battlements, unnerved by the sudden ruckus of the grind of rusting metal against rusting metal.

His eyes immediately lit up with excitement and he leaned further over the battlements to inspect the coiled strings that had been brought for him, it would seem that of all things, Enon had failed to forget his long-standing battle against the bow-strings. But he quickly dismissed his life-time passion for a more business-related topic;

"Red-rock y'say? Huh, 'aven't 'eard much from those jolly mice in well over a season! Wot!" The brown hare eventually made his way to the stairs as he noticed the gates nearing the completion of their would be journey, his bones ached and creaked nearly as much as the chains did.


"Ha! We'll just 'ave t'see 'bout that! Won't we eh ol' gel?" Sarge chuckled good humouredly as he hobbled slowly towards Enon, the very notion of a bowstring being unbreakable, through Sarge's usage was impossible to the extent that it was laughable.

[Grath]

"Red-rock y'say? Huh, 'aven't 'eard much from those jolly mice in well over a season! Wot!"

Enon met her old instructor/friend just inside the gates. "Things have been peaceful there in the last few years, after they retrieved their dibbuns from the kidnappers. Or so I've been told."

"Ha! We'll just 'ave t'see 'bout that! Won't we eh ol' gel?"

Enon grinned wryly as Sarge chuckled. "Well, she did add that you might find a way, with your track record." They started walking into the mountain, and she continued talking. "Grath said you had a badger warlady at your door. What happened?"

[Ashstripe]

Again the old Hare chuckled good humouredly, the fact that Grath had the foresight to predict his likely reaction was a good indicator that it was high time he learnt to use the bow properly.

"Luna? A fine Badger-gel if'n I says so meself, bit violent though; she went off with 'is Lordship t'go fight up North! Wot!" He grimaced as he rubbed one of his paws ruefully, he had been dismissed, along with a number of other hares from the battle. Ashstripe had claimed that they needed real treatment back at Salamandastron and rest, something that the Northern camp couldn't provide.

He continued walking, or more accurately, hobbling down the halls with Enon, the flickering torch-light doing little to deter his step; even though they were most likely the cause for his poor sight,
"Kidnappers y'said? Huh, funny, we got wind that th' mice-chaps fought off th' WARR 'orde and lost their sword all in th' same season!" He grinned lightly at his sentiment, indeed, Redwall had things a lot more rough then Salmandastron at times. Contrary to popular belief.

[Grath]

"Luna? A fine Badger-gel if'n I says so meself, bit violent though; she went off with 'is Lordship t'go fight up North! Wot!"

Enon frowned. To let a enemy walk around loose, let alone ally oneself with them--suddenly she noticed the way her old friend was hobbling.

"Say, why aren't you with him to keep him and Breeze out of trouble?" She asked, instead of expounding on her theory of killing an enemy as soon as possible.

"Kidnappers y'said? Huh, funny, we got wind that th' mice-chaps fought off th' WARR 'orde and lost their sword all in th' same season!"

"They did." Enon started swinging her sling idly again. "Do you remember the time I almost pounded your head in because you opened the gates too quickly?" She'd been pounding on the gates with her sling, hurrying to gain access with an injured creature bleeding and unconscious at her footpaws.

[Ashstripe]

"Eh?" Sarge twisted his head suddenly, as if his new-found step hadn't existed until Enon had pointed out that he was here instead of fighting. And without his visual guidance, it quickly fumbled, causing him to stutter lightly in his step, after regaining his balance,

"Jus' takin' som' rest, doncha know? 'Is Lordship was rather stern 'bout me takin' some time out o' th' war...Went on sayin' that I could lead th' counter attack or somethin' wot? Huh, fancy that, ol' Sarge leadin' the Long Patrol! Wot wot!" He smiled and laughed at the thought, he was much too old for combat, let alone leading the legendary Long Patrol.


"Heh, pore chaps wot? Can't go one bally season wit'out gettin' assaulted doncha know? Worse then ol' Sala-thing." Sarge thought aloud whilst regaining his steady step, wincing only slightly when Enon begun swinging her sling - he could never be completely comfortable around those after training so many hares throughout the years.

The old hare burst out into a long wheezing laugh, how could he have not forgotten? Sarge had the right to boast very few near-death experiences in his life-time and that was probably right up there on his relatively short list,
"Oh that I do, not ver' nice of y'to bonk me o'er th' bloomin' 'ead doncha know? Never a good thing wot wot, leavin' me with a lump the size of some puddin'!"

[Grath]

"Eh? Jus' takin' som' rest, doncha know? 'Is Lordship was rather stern 'bout me takin' some time out o' th' war...Went on sayin' that I could lead th' counter attack or somethin' wot? Huh, fancy that, ol' Sarge leadin' the Long Patrol! Wot wot!"

"Yore not that old!" Enon protested. "Yore only a few years older than Cap'n Aidan, after all."

"Heh, pore chaps wot? Can't go one bally season wit'out gettin' assaulted doncha know? Worse then ol' Sala-thing."

Enon met this with silence, simply nodding.

"Oh that I do, not ver' nice of y'to bonk me o'er th' bloomin' 'ead doncha know? Never a good thing wot wot, leavin' me with a lump the size of some puddin'!"

Enon threw her arm around Sarge's shoulders, chuckling. "Well, at least ye still have yore brains, unlike a certain bad cook." She grimaced, she'd tried some of Breeze's infamous stew and been sick a week. Not the most pleasant time in the mountain for the young squirrel. Roseleaf hadn't been sympathetic, in her view it was your own fault if you ate Breeze's cooking.

[Ashstripe]

"Ha! Then I should start callin' young Aidan, ol' Aidan then eh? Wot wot!" Sarge curled his moustache with a somewhat reassured grin, truthfully, he couldn't care less about his age. No matter how old he got, he would continue service until he was forced out the Long Patrol - and then he would still try regardless.

He was taken off-guard slightly by the sudden contact, but never really dismissed it; it stood to reason, he was still a bit wary of that sling.
"M'dear gel, wot would I 'ave wit'out m'brains eh?" Again the old hare smiled and laughed at the reference to his would be partner in crime, that was a lesson each beast had to learn in Salamandastron; never, ever, trust Breeze with a ladle and a pot.

[Grath]

"Ha! Then I should start callin' young Aidan, ol' Aidan then eh? Wot wot!"
Enon giggled at the thought of Aidan’s face when he heard that. And when Roseleaf heard it, she’d never let him hear the end of it.

"M'dear gel, wot would I 'ave wit'out m'brains eh?"

“A bellyache?” Enon could not resist another dig at the absent Breeze. She schooled her face to seriousness then, releasing Sarge she caught her sling and unloaded it, storing it in her belt pouch. “What of this WARR? How is the fighting going?”

[Ashstripe]

((Mmm, I got your message off the CBox regarding off to War, I'll post there soon enough.))

The grin grew with another burst of self-assurance and confidence, he curled his moustache further, as if there were something stuck there that was quite irritating,
"A bellyache? That'd be a jolly start." Sarge laughed light-heartedly at the string of images that flowed through his mind at the thought of him being an old senile hare, truly, a bellyache would be a medal in comparison.

"None too well I'ma fearin', wot with 'is Lordship slippin' in'n'out o' insanity. Bloodwrath, insanity, I don't care wot it's called, all I knows is that 'e's off his rocker up there." The old hare paled somewhat at the thought, no matter how many times he saw it happen, he could never fully comprehend the phenomenon of a relatively stable Badger turning into that berserk juggernaut,
"Las' I checked, we were gainin' ground, least I hope we was wot?"