Redwall Royale
It was a quiet night in Redwall. Quiet and "So... flippin'... BORING!" as Basil put it. A blizzard had been going strong for half the winter, so no one could go outside. The gatehouse was buried completely in snow, so there were no stories, except for those everyone already knew, and those were no good. But it had been a good growing season in the seasons before winter so there was plenty of food for all. At first there had been great merriment amongst the dibbuns at the prospect of so few chores, but then it had dawned on them that there was nothing to do, (not even chores).
Nowhere was the feeling of boredom more prominent than in great hall at meal times. The Redwallers would trudge in from the various places they had been whiling away that day; squirrels, moles, mice, hedgehogs, otters, shrews, badgers, hares, sparrows; and sit down in silent subdued rows, eat their food, and trudge out again to await the next meal. Everyone felt the feeling of subdued depression, but none more than Basil, Log-a-Log, leader of the Guosim shrews, Skipper,leader of the otters, Dusk, and Penblade. Penblade and Dusk were two wanderers; a great big badger, Penblade, and a small black furred mouse, Dusk. They had stopped at Redwall for one day to resupply their cart, a small boat with waggon wheels, and to rest. The next day, they had awoken to a solid wall of stinging snow outside. Basil naturally wanted to stretch his legs, Log-a-Log was loathe to stay in any one place for long, and with no shrimp or hotroot in the larders, Skipper was more depressed than a toad with a tummyache.
One day, near the end of winter, everyone came in for supper as usual. Abbot Mordalfus sat in his big wooden abbot's chair at the head of the table, with Constance, the abbey's badgermum, Basil, the resident hare, foremole, Dusk, and Penblade on his right, and Matthias, the abbey champion, Cornflower, Matthias's beautiful wife along with their tiny son Mattimeo, Skipper, Log-a-Log, and Ambrose Spike, the cellarhog, on his left. Basil looked at his food for a moment then down the table at all the other abbeybeasts. He sighed fitfully.
"Hhhhhhhhuuuuuuuh, Downright depressin' isn't it old chap."
Foremole nodded his velvety head sagely, "Hurr, you'd foind mo'er cheer outsoid in 'e snow 'an in 'ere."
"The problem is that very snow, but there's not to be done about that," Constance said, munching halfheartedly at a scone, "Almost makes you, dare I say it, Miss Cluny." Mordalfus blinked several times in surprise, "Almost," Constance repeated, finishing the scone.
"Agreed," Matthias said from across the table, "At least when he was here, we all had something to do."
"Nuffin' t' do," little Mattimeo said from his seat on his mother's lap, poking a flan dejectedly, "Nuffin' but eat an' sweep."
"Little chap's right ya' know. Nothin' to bally well do but cream some creams and dream some dreams, wot," Basil stared, uninterested, at his plate, "and I don't know about you lot but I've eaten about as much as I can stand for one winter, wot."
There was a small gasp of mock terror from those within hearing range of the hare's remark then Mattimeo grinned mischiveously. He crawled out of his mother's lap, onto the table, walked to the middle of the table, coughed loudly to get everyone's attention, and shouted, "I must be dweaming," there was a whisper of confusion, then, as explanation, Mattimeo pointed a tiny paw at Basil and shouted again, "Mista' Basil says he's full."
Amidst the general laughter that followed, Basil flattened his ears and sank lower into his seat, in an attempt to escape notice, "Little villin', takin' a body's secret shame and shoutin' it all over Mossflower and beyond," he muttered darkly to himself as Mattimeo swaggered back along the table and plopped back into his mother's lap, who attempted to scold him while at the same time trying to hold in a fit of laughter.
"Heehee, Matti! Haha, that was very, heeheehee, very mean of, haha, of you, hehehe." Finally she broke down and doubled over, laughing with Matthias.
"Hmph! Runs in the bloomin' family I see. Flippin' bad form for a pair of upstanding beasts such as y'selves. Flippin' bad indeed"
Time Passes...