4

Judos and Mellor sat down wearily. They had been helping out all over the Abbey: cleaning the dishes, sweeping the cellar floor, and so much more, all under the eye of Mother Sara, who shook her head often, finding it a pity that these two should be so monitored.

Mellor looked at her, "Are we finished, Mother Sara?"

The large badger looked for a minute, and nodded. She took them to their dormitories.

As she left, Judos sat up in his bed, "Mellor! It's time."

Mellor looked at him cynically, "Your jesting is annoying, Judos."

Judos beckoned to him, smiling, "Mate, we've been working all day, and Sara knows it. They think we're too tired to try anything tonight. So we escape, and escape properly!"

Mellor smiled, "Good thinkin'."

Judos lowered his voice, "During dinner, I snuck a sling and two pouches of stones f'r me, and a short spear n' knife f'r you."

Mellor's smile grew wider. His spikes began to tingle with the excitement he felt at the prospect of escape.

Judos produced two haversacks, "I also got these. They're filled with vittles."

Mellor was astonished, "How in the seasons did you smuggle that up here?"

Judos shrugged, "They were in a pile. Skipper's preparing to leave, so Abbott Varrus wanted to provision them. I got these at breakfast, and replaced them so no one would see the difference."

Mellor shook his head in bewilderment at the quick mind his friend possessed.

Slowly, to make sure that no one woke, the two would-be escapees crept to the open window. Judos, taller and more lithe than his stockier friend, peered outside, and saw the ledges provided a chance for them to escape.

Taking their bed sheets, they twisted them into strong ropes. Mellor kept watch at the door, while Judos prepared the ropes.

Mellor gave a snoring sound, causing Judos to freeze. The sound of a habit shuffled along the corridors near the dormitories.

"It's Sister Val." Mellor muttered. Judos nodded slowly. Val was in charge of the infirmary. She was kind, but would not be pushed around.

Gradually, the noise receded. Mellor sighed, and crept towards where Judos had completed his work.

Judos smiled, and offered Mellor a mock bow to Mellor, "After you, matey."

Mellor climbed slowly, afraid of the height of the building. Judos bit his tongue to stop from screaming when Mellor nearly fell as Redwall's Methuselah and Matthias bells rang, as Judos had forgotten they did, at the start of evening.

Eventually, Mellor made it to the ground. He hugged the bushes, declaring he'd never dream of flying again.

Chuckling to get over his fear, Judos scaled down the wall. Slowly, they went towards the east wall. Once at the top, Judos reached for a big branch that hung over the wall.

This time, they did scream. A lean creature stared at the two of them in the half-light.

Judos didn't even think. A stone from his sling hit the creature's skull with a clanggg. The beast soundlessly fell to the ground.

Judos and Mellor bolted, for the bells rang again, though this time, in alarm. They did not run back to the dormitory, but in their panic, burst into Cavern Hole, screaming, "Attack! Attack!"

Skipper, Raga, and Mother Sara came running to them. Sara glared at them, "What is the meaning of this racket!"

Judos and Mellor were too scared to even speak. Gibbering, they pointed, with shaking paws, out towards the east wall.

Where there were now several torches being lit. A group of Brothers came, bearing a stretcher. Judos bit his lip in fear.

The stretcher came ever closer, yet the body was barely visible, hidden by the Abbey habits worn by the inhabitants of Redwall.

Mellor suddenly went pale. He could see something Judos did not. Behind him, Sara gasped in astonishment. Skipper shut his eyes at the prospect of something. Judos was utterly confused, for he could still not see the body.

Another few seconds, and he too went pale. He couldn't see who it was, but in the sudden light, it revealed a bushy tale.

If Judos had gone pale at the sight of the bush of hair that could only belong to a squirrel, he nearly fainted when he saw who it was.

It was Jander.

His face was horribly bruised, battered, and bleeding from his fall. A lump the size of a gull egg swelled beside his left ear from the sling. His tunic was feathered with twigs, leaves, and bark.

Judos dropped the sling that had started it all. It seemed not to clatter on the floor, but make a sound alike to shattering glass. He felt all eyes on him and Mellor, cold and accusing. He tried to shut them out by staring at his feet.

Varrus' grave voice broke through like a stone breaks through glass, "Judos. Mellor. Can you explain the meaning of all this?"

Sara stepped forward, taller than anyone there. Her face betrayed an anger Judos and Mellor were often a witness to.

"I think I can place it together. These two rogues were attempting to get out of here, when they thought they saw a monster in the shadows. Jander here took a slingstone to his head and fell over the wall. Am I correct?" Mellor and Judos merely nodded dumbly.

Sister Val, summoned, inspected the unconscious squirrel, "He's had quite a fall, and your Judos there can really whirl a sling,' the compliment was given grudgingly, 'but he's not taken any broken bones. He'll be fit again in a week or two."

Varrus shook his head with a rare anger, "You two should be ashamed of yourselves. First you take a sling, knife, spear, and provisions, and then you nearly kill a dear friend to us all. Frankly, I'm fearing what will happen next when you try to sneak out."

Judos and Mellor said nothing. Resent began building up in them. Another lecture, another week of hard punishment. All they wanted was to control their lives, see the world.

Judos wanted something Mellor didn't. Varrus knew what the young otter wanted as well. It was a secret that Judos revealed to no one.

Varrus went back to when Judos first came to Redwall.

It was on a blustery winter day. Icicles that would have gleamed like glass in the sun were murky grey in relevance to the sky. Snow blew in the wind, which howled and blew as though the gods were releasing a tempest.

Varrus, shivering with the cold, was wrapped in two thick blankets over his habit. Mother Sara stood with him, her ageing striped fur rustling in the wind.

Varrus shook his head, "Never in my life have I seen such weather."

Mother Sara smiled at her old friend, who was indeed ten seasons younger then her. Badgers lived for a very long life.

Jander, who was staying at the Abbey for the winter, came up, "Shouldn't you be at the Great Hall fireplace?"

Varrus smiled and ruffled the squirrel's ears, "Our Abbey stays open to any seeking shelter. I will wait."

Jander shrugged, and went back inside. Not even his loyalty to Varrus would keep him out in this icy hell.

Sara suddenly paused. Her eyes were glassy, her mouth slowly open. Varrus stared curiously at her. Her eyes were widening as though horrified by what she had seen.

As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. Sara began running into the winter-encumbered forest of Mossflower. Looking over her shoulder, the old badger yelled at the Abbott, "Get stretchers! Hurry!"
Varrus was mightily puzzled, but did not ask questions. He went into the Abbey as fast as old age allowed, bellowing with a surprising force, "Redwallers! To me!"

Raga came running up, the sword of Martin the Warrior in his hand, "Abbott, I've had a vision of trouble from Martin the Warrior himself!"

Relieved, Varrus indicated to the open door, "Sara had it too. She's heading out to find the trouble."

Raga shook his head, "She'll need help!" He plunged out after her.

Raga blundered through forest, guided by his instinct, and his knowledge of Mossflower. Sara's tracks were barely visible in the forest, and that was with reduced wind.

Instinct emerged triumphant, though. Through the noise of winter, he heard screams, and the clashes of battle. Battle-light shining in his eyes, Raga burst in the middle of a battle.

Vermin, two score of them, were terrorizing a small otter community. Sara was surrounded by a score of vermin. The older badger was holding them at bay with a long shovel taken from a dead otter, but the vermin outnumbered her.

Roaring his battle cry, Raga swung his sword at the nearest vermin.

It was a magnificent sword. The point was like an icicle, and the blade was of double-layered steel that shone brightly in the sunlight. The hilt was wrapped in black and was topped with a ruby red pommel. In short, it was the sword of a true warrior.

Vermin fell before the wrath of the warrior and the strength of the Badger Mother, leaving the sad remains of the community.

All the buildings were aflame, spewing black smoke into the white world of winter. Of the community, only two survived, one of which was mortally wounded. It was a mother otter that was weeping from the pain of a spear in her midriff. The other was her young son who had received only a bruise on his forehead. Wailing, it crept to his mother's side.

Sara picked it up, tears flowing down her cheeks, "How could they just do this to a peaceful group of honest beasts?"

Raga was angry, far too angry to answer. He merely took the babe as Sara looked after the mother. Then he saw the babe was staring at him.

The otter cub was no longer wailing. It was staring at the Warrior Mouse with a look that neither could place. His eyes blazed with fire, and his small teeth were clenched.

"Judos."

Raga and Sara looked at the otter mother. She had feebly called out as she watched the two of them. "It's his name. Just like his papa. When he's grown, he must find Coldbane. He did this all… " Her eyes misted over, and her head lolled to one side.

Raga turned the otter cub away, "Judos it is." He paused and stared bemusedly as Judos reached for his sword. "By the fur, this one's going to be a warrior."

Sara shook her head, "I hope to the seasons not. He's seen enough death as it is. He can become a creature of peace."

She went forward back to the abbey. Raga looked at the otter in his hands with a knowledge he would never understand afterwards, "Not as long as this cub's heard what his mother said. And I'd bet my life that nipper already knows what he's going to do with his life."

As the seasons passed on, Judos kept his past a secret from even Mellor, who he had befriended instantly, as they shared a longing for the outside world. Eventually he had half-forgotten it himself.

Now they were once again punished. Jander was now awake, but still in bed.

Varrus went to him and apologized to the squirrel, but Jander merely grinned and shrugged it off.

Judos and Mellor, subdued and defeated, were at the moment completely done with trying to escape. They now just took their punishment with submissive attitudes.

But very deep in Judos there still burned a name. A name of the vermin who had destroyed his village, murdered his family, and had filled him with a desire for revenge.

And though Judos did not know it, Coldbane, along with Blackback, was to play a large part in Ætharr's coup.