Pent up Spirit

[Asterfall]

{Open for anybody to join!}
Thin shadows stretched from the corners of Great hall and from underneath tables, created by light streaming in from the great glass windows. It was late afternoon and the hall was empty, not yet being prepared for supper. The light streaming in was golden, instead of the dull yellows of winter - a promise of spring. The quiet of the spacious room was broken by the sound of wood clattering on the flagstones.
Asterfall had flung her whittling away from her. She had been sitting on top of one of the long oak tables attacking a piece of wood, trying to get restlessness out of her system. Wood curls and shavings were littered around her and she stabbed her short carving knife into the table top and crossed her arms savagely - the birds were chattering outside, and it was getting to her. It was another promise of spring, but to Aster, it was the call of adventure.
Spring meant being outside every day with your long habit sleeves rolled up. It meant pelting people with acorns for fun and racing on the wall tops and napping in the orchard in between. It meant having dandelion-cordial-chugging contests and using the Friar's best wooden trays for sailboats on the pond. It meant getting your paws sticky with pine sap and sharing the love by wiping it on other creatures.
There's nothing worse than being pent up inside after a long winter, listening to the promises of spring, and not being able to go out because there's still a chill in the air. Aster could feel her spirit jumping around inside - she needed to do something to get the feeling out of her.

Aster plucked her knife out of the table top and tucked it into its thick barkcloth sheath before dropping it into her pocket. She slipped off the table and landed softly, bare-pawed on the flagstone floor of Great Hall. She glanced around and her eyes caught on the tapestry. It was a beautiful piece of art that took seasons to make. It was ages but still in colors, a history of Redwall - all things Asterfall didn't appreciate. Her eyes were drawn only to the central focal image. Martin the Warrior.
She padded over to the tapestry and looked up into the warrior mouse's eyes.

"How come you got to go on high adventures to save Mossflower, huh?" She asked the picture softly. There was no answer, only silence save for the birds calling to each other outside the abbey.

[Sorrl]

Padding softly down the dormitory stairs, Sorrl Pineflight finally found his sister. He'd all ready checked all of the dormitories and some of the attics, wondering if she went somewhere quiet to sulk--she'd been doing a lot of sulking lately, what with Spring (her favorite season) coming, but far to slowly. But, no, of course she would choose somewhere where the sun was shining, that was the best way to keep yourself from thinking about nice, sunny SPRING, right?

"How come you got to go on high adventures to save Mossflower, huh?"

Was what the energetic youth heard his sister say to the beautifully woven Martin that adorned the tapestry. Sneaking up behind her, Sorrl flipped his hood over his face, and, using his best spectral voice, said,
"Because I have a cooler ooooouutfit than yooooouuuuuu!" As he said it, he lunged forward and yanked on his sister's tail. Whooping wildly, he back handsprung away from her, jumping on top of the table Aster was sitting on moments before.
"You've been boring lately, Aster! Instead of moping around, you should be making your own adventure," he shouted, grinning from under his hood.

[Asterfall]

The silence after her words to the warrior seemed to ring around the Great Hall. Of course, with Asterfall and her brother, silence doesn't last for long. She didn't hear him behind her, but she almost caught the sound of rustling fabric as Sorrl threw his hood on. It would register in her brain later.
"Because I have a cooler ooooouutfit than yooooouuuuuu!"
Aster yelped. "Ow!" She whipped around, clutching her bushy tail around her. In a flash of a green habit, her brother was on top of the table she had abandoned. She relaxed from the involuntary jerk her body had made when her twin brother snuck up on her. A tiny amused smile quivered on her face. She flung herself at the table, vaulting off the bench with one hand and landing behind Sorrl. She gave him a hard tug on the tail in return. She pulled off his hood from behind for good measure.
"Martin wouldn't say something so bee-brained!" She cried, but she she had to admit, that was a pretty impressive voice.

"You've been boring lately, Aster! Instead of moping around, you should be making your own adventure."

"Have I?" Asterfall said. She plopped down on the table top. "Okay, I take you up on that offer, then." She grinned bumptiously. "What do you have in mind?"

[Sorrl]

Eyes watering slightly from the tail tug, Sorrl tried to not be impressed. Evidently moping made one speedier than usual. He'd have to try that sometime...Nah, forget it. Moping would take too much effort. Ignoring the pain from his tail, He grinned evilly at his sister. "What do you have in mind?" was exactly what he had wanted to hear from her.

As everyone knows (or, at least, should know), causing trouble is the best cure for moping. Another fact everyone should know is Sorrl is an expert trouble maker. It only took him a few moments to complete his scheme.

"Here's what we gotta do, sis," He started. "Spring is coming... So that means that the Nameday Feast is coming too! And everyone knows that the best part of a feast is the drinks..." Here he paused for dramatic effect before finishing, "But what if no one knew what drink was coming from which barrel? If we sneak down to the cellars, you'll not only get your adventure, but we'll pull a great prank at the same time! No one would know what they're going to get. Someone'll think, 'Hmmm, some elderberry wine would be nice...', and FWOOSH! Out comes Strawberry Fizz! It'll be hilarious!" Grinning triumphantly, the troublesome squirrel added an afterthought:
"Of course, being able to add something to the drinks would be even better, but the barrels are sealed so tightly..."

[Asterfall]

Asterfall watched a smile creep across her brother's face. She knew that smile. It was her favorite - it was the kind of smile that meant nefarious and unpropitious mischief was about to be underfoot. She grinned wider, excitement sparking in her eyes.

"Here's what we gotta do, sis,"

Asterfall listened to her brother's proposition intently, her legs crisscrossed. Her eyes developed a joyful gleam as he went on, a sparkle that would only be satisfied if they carried out his plan. She leapt up to stand level with him.
"That's perfect! Just think - " She started chortling at whatever she was thinking. "The elderbeasts will be drinking all the sweet fizzes, and - " She tried to suppress her giggles. "- and the dibbuns will be chugging October Ale. I can just imagine - 'Oh, soorry, zurrs, h'Oi on'y t'out it wuz dany-lioun corjuul!'" She said, imitating a baby mole's voice. She fell about laughing, completely entrapped in giggles.
It took her a few minutes, but Aster finally pulled herself together and sat up. "Okay, so, great plan, bro. But how d'we do it?" She questioned. "The bungs won't be in the barrels yet so we can't drain and switch the drinks. Will we have to change the markings on the outside of 'em?" She remembered one of the times she had been in the cellars, the names of the drinks written on the sides of the barrels. Cellar hogs generally weren't good spellers.

[Sorrl]

Ah, yes. Truly this was an excellent plan. Sorrl could tell 'cause his sister was going into conniptions about it. Clearly Sorrl was an expert sulk-remover.

"Will we have to change the markings on the outside of 'em?" asked Aster. The trouble making squirrel smiled. 'Course she'd ask something like that. And of course, Sorrl had the answer. He always had an answer.

"Yup! I've seen the Cellarkeeper mark the barrels. He always does it with a charcoal pencil. We just gotta rub off what he wrote, and write a new label on it," He said, pulling a thick charcoal pencil out of his habit pocket. "I'll do the re-writing, 'cuz I'm the best forger in all of Mossflower," he concluded modestly. Doing a backflip off the table, he landed neatly on the stone floor, grinning excitedly.

"Are you in?"

[Asterfall]

"Yup! I've seen the Cellarkeeper mark the barrels. He always does it with a charcoal pencil. We just gotta rub off what he wrote, and write a new label on it," Sorrl answered. Asterfall nodded. Sensible and easy. Or... well, as sensible trouble-making went. When he nominated himself as the re-writer, she didn't object. If she tried to write anything, it would probably give them away. Though generally, they were suspected anyway most of the time since they were the ones always causing the trouble.

Asterfall was quietly glad Sorrl had come found her with a mischievous plan of roguery, because at the rate she had been going, she was bound to stand all day talking to a wall tapestry of a dead warrior. She didn't even cast Martin another look - though she visited him often, being up to no good was much more important.

"Are you in?"
Shaking off the last of her giggles, Asterfall bounced off the table after her brother, somersaulting through the air and landing beside him with her paws akimbo. Her bushy tail swished back and forth with exuberance.
"Of course I'm in," She said. "You don't even need to ask!" She was already dashing off when she called over her shoulder, "Race ya!"