This is my first Redwall fanfiction, so please read and review; this was also a hard chapter to make, since it's the first.

Disclaimer: I own all the characters,(except Banjon and Brink; their from High Rhulain) but the song (the worm one) was written by Brian Jacques himself in one of his books, so don't give me credit for it. I just felt like adding it because I liked it :)

Review me with improvements/corrections, and also constructive criticism is appreciated! ^.^

Thankee gurtly,

~Persarr~

On a cold, windy night, the beavers of the Sleektail colony huddled happily around a toasty campfire, warming their paws up gratefully. It was their annual winter feast, and they were singing a comical ditty that an otter Skipper Banjon, and Redwall Abbey's Cellarhog Brink, had taught their tribe long ago.

"O I knew a worm who turned to his tail,

An' this is wot he said,

I wish that you'd stop followin' me,

As though we both were wed.

Said the tail to the head stop pullin' me,

'cos I've no wish to go,

Besides, I think yore really a tail,

An' I'm the head y'know!

This caused the worm some great concern,

He said, I'm sure yore wrong,

An' they both began to bicker about,

To whom did the stomach belong?

Both tempers did boil, while disputin' a coil,

They fell into an awful fight,

They wriggled and squirmed an' waggled an' turned,

For worms ye know can't bite.

Then a big blackbird, who'd heard every word,

Came flutterin' out of a tree,

I'll oblige ye both, the blackbird quoth,

An' he ate them both for tea.

So that was that, he settled their spat,

an' I'll bid ye all good day,

For it's heads to tails when reasonin' fails,

A worm should crawl away!

Young ones who had never heard the song before howled with laughter, while older ones who had heard it quite a few times laughed just a bit more controllably. All in all, however, the beavers were having a good time.

"Pale cider, anyone?" offered the colony's leader, Rikard Sleektail.

Almost all paws shot up, except for the few sleepy beaverbabes who simply could not stay up this late.

Rikard chuckled inwardly at this, because the babes had insisted that they could stay up, and he retreated back into his large lodge of sticks and mud to fill up some glasses.

At the colony's camp, lodges like this were plentiful, with about twenty of them in the whole place. Each beaver or beaver family got one lodge to themselves. A stream also resided right next to the camp.

The beaver leader eventually emerged from his lodge with his wife, Sibyl, carrying five glasses of cider each. They hurriedly passed them out, then rushed back inside their home to get some more.

The demand for cider was such a popular choice among the beavers that Rikard and Sibyl had go back and fill up glasses several times before everyone was satisfied.

Once they finally were, husband and wife plopped down on a log, enjoying the night's peaceful celebration by sipping some of their cider. Some of the colony was still singing their favorite tunes loudly to each other. Others tried to drift off to sleep, once in a while complaining to the singing beavers about their loudness, though the singers didn't relent their songs for a while.

After that while, the celebration died down, and everybeast scooped up their sleeping children, (if they had any) and trudged groggily towards their lodges.

Sibyl and Rikard did the same, waking up their fifteen-season old son, Luig, who had been one of the cranky beavers that had complained to the singers before.

"Luig, the celebration's over." whispered the his father, gently shaking his son.

Luig grunted and reluctantly stood up. "You could've just left me out here to rest; it's much easier for all of us you know."

"Luig!" exclaimed his mother, and then looked around warily before whispering, "Remember last week, that night when you saw the vermin..."

The beaver colony halted their dinnertime chatter around their lodges at the sound of a faint rustling of leaves..

Muttering broke out between the families until their leader Rikard announced silently, 'Everybody be quiet; Aaryno and Luig, follow me.' Rikard motioned to his best tracker and son.

The three beavers exited into the forest, whispering barely audible comments.

'What do you think it is, Rik?' murmured Aaryno

'I don't know, but I guess we'll just have to find out,' replied Rikard.

'Dad, I'm scared,' Luig whimpered.

'Don't worry, son, it'll be alright.'

The trio tip-toed into a clearing, then, hurriedly and silently they drew back into the safety among the trees, unnoticed.

Three ferrets were across from each other by a campfire. Empty bottles of whiskey and one scimitar lay abandoned by their footpaws. Luckily, two of the vermin were sound asleep, and the other ferret was cursing to himself and rubbing his head, as he had rolled into a bush when he had been sleeping. He was also seemingly too busy with his swearing to notice the beavers.

Luig sighed in relief, and three pairs of quick, silent pawsteps retreated back to the lodges for a report.

Luig recalled this very well, and then his mother's hushed scolding brought him back to reality.

"…and they could have gathered more of the vermin and--Are you even listening to me??"

Luig's father patted his wife's back softly and mumbled, "Hun, don't be so dang hard on the boy, he's probably just staring into space or something."

"Am not!" quipped Luig, and he grumpily scurried off to his family's lodge for some much-needed sleep.

His parents sighed and slowly followed after him.

Hiding in the surrounding foliage, watching the sleepy beavers disappear into their lodges, were the same three ferrets from the week before. Unknowingly to Luig, the ferret who had woken up back in the clearing actually had noticed them, he had just been careful enough not to show it.

That ferret, who happened to be the other two's leader, had then preceded to follow the beavers' tracks over the following few days.

His name was Kridje Swordbiter.

Kridje beckoned to the other two ferrets to follow him.

They sluggishly yet alertly walked towards the nearest beaver lodge. That lodge just happened to be Rikard, Sibyl, and Luig's.

One of the other two ferrets snickered in anticipation of raiding, but quieted down under the icy glare of his boss.

"Now," hissed Kridje when they reached their destination outside the lodge, "I want you two to grab anything you can find inside that heap of sticks. Kill if you have to, I don't care." The ferret leader handed his lackeys a sack to place stolen objects in. Both were used to Kridje giving them orders, and they knew not to question why he didn't help them with their missions.

"Uh, Kridje?" remarked one of the ferrets nervously, eyeing his leader's dangerous scimitar, "Shouldn't we be armed? We can't defend ourselves if we're not armed, y'know."

Kridje scowled fiercely at the ferret who had said that, whose name was Pilf, and then snapped, "I know; you may take my sword. If you come back without it, though, you will both be deadbeasts. I don't even care that we're all siblings!"

Eyes wide in fear, Pilf nodded. Pilf was always anxious, but the other ferret sibling just stood there emotionlessly.

The other sibling's name was Telkryn. Her unusual, sleek black fur made it oftentimes hard to see her at night.

Kridje glared at where he figured his dark-furred sister was warningly, and she looked up nonchalantly. "Whatever." Telkryn shrugged.

The ferret leader clenched his teeth annoyedly. Kridje loved striking fear in others, even if they were family, and although Pilf followed him enough without complaint, Telkryn was another matter. She would mostly just ignore or react without fear to his threats, no matter how harsh they were.

"Go now, and don't return without some of the beavers' belongings." growled Kridje. Pilf nodded fearfully at his older brother.

Telkryn walked silently over to the entrance of the lodge, Pilf following suit with his older brother's weapon grasped firmly in his sweaty paws.

The black-furred ferret glanced around her to make sure that Kridje was out of hearing range, then whispered in Pilf's ear, "Give me the scimitar, I know how to use swords better than our bastard of an older brother."

Pilf nodded, whispered, "I know," and handed his sister the sword. It was true. He sighed.

She in return thrust the empty sack into his arms.

Telkryn pressed her ear up to the make-shift stick door, and smiled in satisfaction at the three different pitched snores coming from inside. She beckoned Pilf over as she gently pushed the door open.

They both crept inside as quietly as they could, and looked around at their surroundings. They gasped in amazement, but quickly cut themselves off. The three beavers were snoozing right in front of them; it was only a one-room lodge. They'd have to be very careful...

...But it looked so much bigger from the inside! And there was so much to steal! There was shiny jewelry and gourmet vittles on a table and so much more!

But what really caught their attention, especially Telkryn's, was what was mounted on the fireplace's mantle. Warming flames crackled in the fireplace as they glowed orange on the object's silver blade.

It was a broadsword, just like what Telkryn had trained with when she was younger ferret. It's straight edge gleamed in the firelight, giving it a welcoming appearance, as if saying, "Come steal me!"

Telkryn mindlessly strode towards the weapon, one arm outstretched. She reached out to it, grasped its hilt, and lifted it off of its perch. It seemed to fit her paw perfectly.

She made an experimental swing, and the weapon cut a wooden spoon that was lying on the dining table right in half.

The younger ferret just watched his sister, impressed. She then noticed him, and hissed, "Don't tell Kridje, brother, this was meant to be mine!" She then sliced expertly through another wooden utensil to prove her point.

"Aye, sure," Pilf lied. He was more loyal to his older brother than his sister, because Kridje was a great leader. The youngest ferret admired his leadership.

Telkryn smiled at the thought of having her own weapon. And soon, there would be no more of Kridje to deal with once she slew him, though Pilf didn't really deserve it. She'd let him off easy.

Just then, Luig began to mumble in his sleep. Panicked, the ferrets grabbed all they could find, and stuffed it in the sack.

When Telkryn tried to grab a necklace made of shells that was hanging on a shelf, an unlit lamp that was set right next to it fell to the ground. It shattered with a deafening crash, waking the three beavers.

Pilf shot out of the lodge with the filled sack and Kridje's scimitar with no concern for his sister. Telkryn hesitated at a vital moment, and then thought fast and dove under the tablecloth that was draped over the dining table.

Rubbing their eyes, the beaver family sleepily sat up on their beds. But then, seeing the broken glass and missing items, they immediately jumped up.

"What's going on!?" exclaimed Rikard, "What's happening?"

Telkryn gulped and hugged her knees underneath the table. She had never feared anything like this when she'd been ordered to raid anywhere else. Maybe that's because she'd never been almost caught like this.

This newly roused fear irked Telkryn, because she had never been scared of anything before, especially not a couple of beavers, although it wasn't really them she was scared of.

It was death. She was afraid of death. If the beavers found her, they would tell their colony, who would undoubtedly murder her!

The ferret held her breath, hoping the three beavers wouldn't come looking for an intruder.

Sibyl sniffed disgustedly. "There's been vermin in here, I can smell them. We've been robbed! We must tell the whole colony!" She looked sadly at the empty place on the mantle. "They've stolen the broadsword, too!"

Telkryn's eyes widened. She shifted her position exasperatedly, and looked at the sword for a second. Was this really the right thing to do?

After a moment, the ferret composed herself again. How could I think about what's wrong and right; I can do what I want!

Telkryn confidently tried to stand up, forgot she was under the table and supposed to be quiet, and stupidly hit her head on the bottom of it.

Oof!

The beavers all glared at the table. Rikard grabbed the tablecloth and threw it off with one strong flick of his paw.

Hope it was a good chapter, once again please review. By the way, the paragraph in italics is a flashback of Luig's in case you can't tell. Once again, please review with any comments or criticism!

By the way, here are some general ages:

Telkryn: 17-18; Luig: 15 (I mentioned it once); Sibyl: 35-42; Rikard: same as Sibyl; Pilf: 14-15; Kridje: 19-22; and Aaryno: whatever age you want him to be.

Also, I hope I made it clear (in the story) that Pilf is the youngest of the ferret siblings, Telkryn is in the middle, and Kridje is the oldest.

R&R,

~Persarr~

P.S. If you read, please review, I enjoy reviews much better than just the fact that people read my story/chapter thingy!!