Chapter Three: The Ruined Village
"I recognize this place, we're almost there!" Maplefur ran along the riverbed surprisingly quickly, considering the amount of weapons she was carrying.
"Wait for me!" Beechtail took off after her, dropping his pack.
Lutran sighed, picked up Beechtail's foodpack, and followed after, muttering to himself "Confounded squirrels, charging off and leaving me to carry everything. Still, got to have enough supplies to keep fur and bones together, wot," he pulled some candied chestnuts out of Beechtail's pack, "Ha, if he doesn't want his bally pack, I don't suppose he'll miss a bloomin' pawful of nuts. Mmcrunch."
Beechtail was gaining on Maplefur, reaching the first buildings of Angdelve, he rounded a corner, and crashed into Maplefur, who had stopped suddenly, "Ooof." They fell in a heap, with Beechtail on top.
"I'm sorry," said Beechtail, "I didn't see you stand-" he caught sight of what she had been looking at, "Oh my."
It looked as if the Rapscallions hadn't bothered to bury the dead after they had taken over the village. All around them, skeletons of various woodlanders lay where they had fallen, with tattered clothing still clinging to them.
Lutran came up behind them, "I say chaps, you might have waited for m-" he stopped in midsentence, horrified.
They picked their way through the village, it was empty. As night was falling, Lutran found several torches in an abandoned house. He lit them, and gave one to each of the squirrels.
"What do you think; should we stay here and take care of the bodies, which could take a week or two, or go back to Redwall?" asked Beechtail.
Lutran replied, "I'm not sure, we want to be back at Redwall before winter comes and it starts snowing. Go ask Maplefur."
Beechtail turned and looked around. Where was Maplefur? Suddenly he heard a scream. He ran towards it, and was just in time to see Maplefur vanish into the tunnel entrance to the mines. He ran after her, Lutran following close behind.