Unconventional Arrival

[lindy]

Life had been interesting for Lindy during the last week. She had been traveling south through Mossflower Wood, and had unfortunately camped a little too close to a small band of ferrets whose purpose in life appeared to be harassing and capturing innocent travelers. Lindy had been their latest victim, and as the harvest mouse was hardly a warrior, she found herself bound, gagged, and watching the vermin dig through her possessions in a matter of moments.
This, however, was probably the worst off she had been since her time as a vermin captive. The ferrets numbered about ten, and while they were an ambitious lot, they hardly had enough collective brains to fill a thimble. The only reason they had been able to sneak up on her in the first place was due to the mouse being in a deep slumber brought on by a sleeping draught she had taken in order to help with cold she been battling for the last two days.

It took Lindy only a half hour to convince the ferret clan to not only untie her, but also to travel in the direction that Lindy had originally been shooting for anyway. Her tales of Redwall treasure had the vermin practically trembling in anticipation, and her squeaks about how they should leave the defenseless abbey alone had the band dragging her along the path with them so quickly they forgot half the other woodland captives they had back at their own camp.

Each night Lindy either acted as a storyteller, verbally painting images of grandeur and fortune that would soon belong to the ferret’s after they conquered the helpless abbey, or the harvest mouse was put to work repairing the crude weapons and armor of the clan.

By the time the group was halfway to Redwall, Lindy had freed the other captives, successfully blamed the escape on two of the more dim-witted ferrets, and convinced the leader that his mate was plotting against him. The only feat she had been unable to pull off was her own escape, which was made difficult due to the fact that she refused to leave without her pack full of equipment, which the ferret leader never seemed to part with.

But things were about to change. At last the ferret band (now two less in number, believe it or not), approached the gates of the great abbey. Lindy was at the back of the group, a rope halter tied about her neck, and the other end held firmly in the claws of Tragfoll, the leader.

“Remember, mousie, if this don’t work we’ll use your own hooks on ya!”

Lindy merely nodded and pinched herself to make tears come to her eyes.

“Yes Chief Tragfoll, I know it will work sir! Please don’t hurt me!”

A few moments later the ferret band crashed through the woods on their way to the corner of the abbey wall. They were equipped with rope and grappling hooks, supplied by the innovative harvest mouse. Lindy herself counted silently to three hundred before taking a deep breath and stumbling out of the woods and onto the path in front of the gate.

“HELP!” she cried at the top of her voice as she threw herself at the sturdy gate and began to pound on it wildly. “Help, I’m being chased by bloodthirsty vermin! Help, help!”

[Wildrun]

A beautiful day, so nice in fact that Oaklea Wildrun was daring to continue in her attempts to irradicate her fear of heights. This entailed strolling leisurely--slowly--along the ramparts, one paw firmly clutching at the great sandstone and eyes fixed ahead with a kind of absorbtion that could only have been broken by screams.

Therefore, when said screams came, the mousemaid snapped her head around to stare out at the woods with a kind of incredulous irony written on her face.

Muttering a curse, Oaklea dared to lean over the edge and peer at the harvest mouse banging frantically on the gate. A brief second passed before she had scanned the line of trees, inhaled deeply, and flown down the stairs back onto solid ground. Leaping for the gate, she barked at the gatekeeper to help her and hauled the mighty doors open barely a crack.

Brown eyes narrowed, she hissed to the harvest mouse, "Hurry up and get in!"

[Tirael]

This was pointless. Arturo had been searching for hours, but it seemed like Mossflower had been picked clean of anything edible. All he'd managed to find were a few shriveled roots. As if he hadn't had more than enough of those over the past few months.

With a sigh, he finally admitted to himself that he had no other choice but to go to Redwall. With any luck, they might actually give him the benefit of the doubt, and with more luck, some food. As he trudged through the undergrowth, he speculated on how he might get himself welcomed into the abbey; well, maybe 'welcomed' was too strong a word. Admitted was the best he was going to hope for.

Finally, the gate was in sight. Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm his nerves as he headed for the path in front. He was almost there, too, when he noticed he wasn't alone. At first, the other ferrets didn't seem to notice he didn't belong, though the shocked look on his face gave him away as fast as the band understood what it meant. "'Ey! Who's 'e!?"
"I dunno, but maybe e's got loot!"
"Get 'im!"
As two of the burlier vermin grabbed him, Arturo looked behind them and yelled, "LOOK OUT!" They all looked, but the two ferrets kept their grip on him. Dang, he thought as the rest turned to glare at him. "Uhh...heh..." Digging his footpaws into the dirt, he managed to push both himself and his captors past the treeline and in sight of the walls. Falling on his back, he wriggled out of the other ferrets' grips and scrambled for the gate. "HEY!" he called to the two mice he could see there. "DON'T CLOSE THE GATE YET!"