Right then, I have been waiting for suggestions for the next chapter of Goodbeast as mentioned in the most recent chapter, and haven't gotten any, so I've been trying to do it myself. It's taking a long time, as my co-author is sick, so I decided to write this up while waiting for ideas to come to me. This is a companion piece to Death Dust, a fanfiction I plan to write in future. I hope you like it, and if you have any questions or suggestions, please put them in a review and check the end author's notes for a few days after for a reply. Thank you.
A Little Magic Part 1
To the west of Redwall lays the bane of all corsairs of the Western Sea, the mountain fortress of Salamandastron. Towering into the sky, its very existence is a defiance to any who might will themselves to take it.
Currently, the mountain is alive with activity, with creatures of all kinds preparing for an impending battle. In the forge room, the Badger Lord Sunflash the Mace is bringing broken weaponry back to its usefulness. In the dining hall, woodlander and vermin work side by side to arm one another, testing each other's skill. In the kitchen, a hare and pine marten direct their assistants in the preparing of ration packs for the fighters. And in the infirmary, the army's healers are clearing every available space for use in taking in the wounded.
But for us, these tasks are unimportant. Our eyes must now stray down below all this, to the larders where the strawberry cordial and October ale is kept till somebeast comes to fetch it for drinking. For there, in the far corner, laying upon a spread out blanket, is a sleeping otter.
This otter ought to be up with the others, helping in some way, and yet here he lies, lazing about, waiting for the cry of battle to be called so that he may run out onto the shores.
But mayhap he shall do his part yet, for there is a young haremaid approaching, one Fordpetal by name. She, too, had hidden herself from her parents so as not to be put to work. But, having become board, she has come out of hiding, and is now looking for entertainment.
As it would happen, she has laid her eyes on the lazy otter, and has found his very appearance entertaining. For this otter is very peculiar, with a large brown robe hiding most of his garb, and his one footpaw sticking out at the bottom. Also peeping from underneath is a metal rod as thick as a mouse's wrist, which acts as the otters other leg in replace of the one he has lost, though how he lost it is another tale completely.
Being that this otter is the only creature Fordpetal has seen thus far in the larders, she has decided to wake him. With this object in mind, she goes over to him and shakes him as hard as her strength will allow.
Unfortunately, this action achieves no result. So the haremaid decides to try a new approach. Going over to a nearby cask, she heaves herself onto the top and takes hold of a mug sitting there. Climbing back down, she moves over to another, larger cask, and begins to fill the mug with the brew it contains. This completed, she goes over to the otter and commences to pour it into his open mouth.
The cask she had selected was the 'Dump Cask', which had been constructed as a way of collecting the 'over aged' ale. The otter had been ignorant of this when he came down, but he most certainly knows now.
As the liquid flows down his throat, he gives a violent jolt, choking, coughing, and gasping out, "I say, cough, old chap, gasp, can not a, cough, bloke get a, cough, good nights slee, cough cough, sleep!"
Fordpetal jumps back quickly. "I was bored, sa, and I thought you and I could do somethin, sa." She now realizes that she had not considered what they would do after she did wake him up. "I'm sorry, sa. I didn't really think it through, sa."
The otter, having regained his composure, glared down at the haremaid before him. "Well, miss, you have just happened to wake me in the middle of an extremely pleasant dream, a dream which I now have no chance to finish, and so I shall now end up living the rest of my life without knowing how that dream might have been completed!"
He now turns away from her and lies back down on his blanket. "I hope you learn something from this, miss. It is never, ever, a good idea to wake someone up without warning them first." He now becomes quiet, his breathing becoming slow, as he makes an effort to return to his slumber.
Fordpetal looks on, puzzling over how one would alert a sleeping individual of an appending awakening. Finding this beyond her understanding, she once again shakes the otter.
The otter grumbles sits up again, and turns toward her. "What do you want, miss?" he says in an annoyed tone.
"Please, sa," the haremaid asks timidly, "how should I go 'bout warnin you before I wakes you if you're still asleep?"
With a groan, the otter lays back down, once again facing away from her. "Just leave me be." he tells her. "I am trying to sleep".
"But I'm bored, sa!" Fordpetal complained. "It's all lonesome down 'ere, and I don't got nobody to play with! Can't you play with me, sa!"
At first the otter tries to ignore her. But after a few minutes, he comes to the conclusion that ignoring her shall not make her go away. Therefore, he gets up and looks down on her angrily, saying, "Very well then, miss. If I do entertain you, you will leave me in peace."
"Yes, sa, most certainly, sa!" she replies excitedly.
"Very well, then. Hmm. How about a magic trick." he suggests.
"Oh, yes please, sa!" she replies enthusiastically. "I remember two feasts back when Colonel Sandgall made an egg appear in my ea'!"
"Fine. Let us see here." the otter says, sliding his left paw into his robe and feeling around. "I know I put it here before we left, so it should still be here. That is if Adaon hasn't stolen it. Where is . . . Aha, here we go!"
He withdraws his paw, holding in it a deck of cards. He shuffles them, and then offers them to the haremaid. "Pick a card." he says.
Fordpetal looks at him questioningly. "What's a card, sa?" she asks.
The otter is rather taken aback by this question. Regaining his composure, he asks "What is your name, miss?"
"Fordpetal, sa." she replies. "What's yours?"
"Caspian the . . . wait a minute, this has nothing to do with me. Now, Fordpetal, a card is a parchment-thin piece of board with a picture on it. Here, look at this. This is an ace of spades." he explains, handing her a card and placing the deck on a nearby barrel.
She studies it intently. "What's this in the middle?" she asks.
Caspian leans over to see the card. "Why, that is a spade, miss."
"But spades don't look like that!" she disputes "They're thinna and longa and . . ."
"Alright, alright, I get the idea!" the otter interrupts. "Just for now, pretend it is a spade. Now, I will put this back in the deck, and mix the cards up so that we do not know where it is."
He picks up and reshuffles the deck, and spreads them out in front of Fordpetal. "There. Now pick a card, but do not tell me what it is. Memorize what the card looks like."
Fordpetal etches into her mind the ten red hearts on her card. "Done."
"Very good then. Now put it back in the deck."
She complies, and Caspian shuffles it once again. "Now, would you agree that your card is lost in the deck?"
Fordpetal's eyes grow wide. "You mean, it's mine!"
Caspian face palms. "No, no, no! I mean the card you picked. It is not really yours, it is just yours for now. So, would you agree that it is lost?"
The haremaid is very confused, but resigns herself to going along. "Yes, it's lost in the stack."
"Jolly good." He then takes a single card out of the deck, and presents it to her. "Is this your card?"
Her face registers surprise, and she replies "Well, it is the card I had chosen, sa! But it isn't mine, you just told me so, rememba?"
The otter slams the deck back onto the barrel in consternation, and lies back down, choosing to ignore her. He ought to know children better.
"Can you do anotha one, sa! Please, sa, I'm sorry for upsetting you. Please, sa, please!" she begs.
Finally, Caspian gets up and says "Fine, but just one more, and then you must leave me alone!"
Taking the deck of cards back off the barrel with his right paw, he transfers it to his left paw, and spreads the cards face up before his small audience. "You may pick any three cards you like." he tells her.
When she has made her choice, Caspian takes the rest of the cards and puts them back on the barrel. "Now, lay your cards out in front of you so we can both see them."
"But I thought that you wasn't supposed to see my cards." she objects.
"This is a different trick!" he replies.
"Oh, okay." She complies, and adds, "I picked these three because they had pretty pictures on them."
"Ah, yes." agrees Caspian, looking over the cards she has chosen. "A badger lord of clubs, a wildcat queen of diamonds, and a jackal of clubs? Huh. Okay. Now pick one of those cards, memorize it, but don't tell me which it is. Let me know when your done."
She considers them carefully. Eventually, she chooses the badger lord. "Ready."
Taking up the cards, Caspian slips them into his robe with his left paw. "Now," he says, "I shall read your mind, and tell you which card it is you chose."
Fordpetal's eyes once again grow wide with disbelief, and she quickly tries to forget about the pastry she stole from Ashleg this morning.
Caspian closes his eyes, and seems to concentrate. There is silence between the two.
Suddenly, he starts, and, opening his eyes, he reaches his right paw into his robe and withdraws two cards. These he returns to the deck.
He then turns to the haremaid. "Those two cards," he explains, "were the ones you did not choose. The remaining card in my robe is the one you did. Now, would you mind saying which it is?"
Fordpetal, who was elated at the news of the successful memory read, is now rather confused. "But, I thought you said you already know?"
Caspian looks at her with exasperation. "B-b-but, how can I . . . Listen, this is part of the trick. You're not telling me, your telling the audience, so that they see that the card I have is the one you chose as soon as they see it. Do you understand?"
Unfortunately for Caspian, she does not. "But we're the only ones hea!"
The peg-legged otter is losing his patience. "Just tell me which it was!" he shouts.
The young haremaid is still confused, but she decides to let it go. "Fine." Well, mostly.
She turns away from the otter, and proclaims loudly, "The card which I decided upon for this trick was the badger lord, as it reminds me of Mista Sunflash." This said, she gives a curtsy, and turns back to Caspian, who looks at her quizzically.
"What was that for?" he asks.
She gives him a dumb look. "You said I was to tell the crowd that wasn't there, sa." she informs him.
Caspian remains stiff, staring at Fordpetal fixedly, until he can regain his composure. This done, he gives a long sigh, and says "Young lady," but can not seem to get any farther than that.
Finally, he decides to ignore the issue, and instead reaches his left paw into his robe, pulling out the badger lord of clubs.
Placing this into the deck, he gives a nod to the haremaid, and tries to lay back down. But again, his efforts prove futile.
"Just one more sa, plea . . ."
"Alright!" he shouts, shooting up and turning to Fordpetal. "Just one more, that is it, no more after that, without question, and then you will leave me alone, because I am going to disappear!"
Fordpetal is taken aback by the otters outburst, but quickly recovers enough to ask, "Disappear? But that's impossible!"
"Oh, is it?!" he retorts. "Just watch me!" Crossing his arms across his chest, he gives her a farewell nod.
Suddenly there is a bright light underneath him. Fordpetal jumps back in alarm, and watches with amazement as the otter, the mat, and the nearby barrel all sink rapidly into the light, vanishing from sight. Once these are gone, the light disintegrates, leaving no trace of what had been there but a moment before, except for a very startled haremaid.
Due to both the reviews for this story recommending that I take off the last bit, I have half complied after consulting my co-author. So, for those who like it the way it is, stop here. But if someone would like an explanation, continue on to the next chapter, where the finally segment has been moved. Good afternoon!