Alright, you guys! Here's our next installment, but, before (raises her voice to cover the exasperated groans of readers) we start, we need- well, I want to- to answer questions, give thanks, and all that exciting kaboodle.(looks at Eruravenne pointedly)
Right, then...(Eruravenne whips out a sheet of paper) Thanks to ladyofthebookworms, warrior4, Riverfox237, Kelaiah, DC, and shoman for the reviews in the previous chapter. An extra thank-you to Riverfox for the 'food'. (Flicks a popcorn shrimp towards her Muse, who catches the softball-sized [to her snack and waves, grinning widely)
(The squirrel continues) Riverfox237… you're on the right track. She's a genius and has this all planned out. Warrior4, you are completely correct. There is no way that they're going to be easily taken over, and it's going to be tough. To write, it's going to be tough, and I've already had to bar the gate into here to avoid letting the characters wreak havoc upon us… And shoman's character was fun to write. We may be seeing more of Sargon if he lets us use him. Sorry for the embarrassment, but it had to happen. I was going to do an accent but…let's just say it wouldn't work out. (shivers slightly) Handing it back over to Eruravenne…(clenches paw in annoyance as she is poked insistently, over and over.)
(Eruravenne pulls her muse out of the squirrel's reach) No poking, 'Ramar. It's not polite.
Anyhow, back to review responses. I get to talk to Kelaiah!
Okay, first of all, there's something you need to understand about Gilding. It's dangerous. Sure, Kimber looks like a Sue and still has her own mind, but she's teetering on the brink there. If another Sue or Stu even starts to turn her, BAM! She's a goner. Archie's turning was taking some time because it had to fight off the potion and then spread through Kimber. It was stopped halfway. This means that another Sue could turn her the rest of the way in comparatively little time. That's an extreme danger, and not one many Gildeds get out of. Kimber was lucky.
And yeah, it was originally a 'Kill that Sue' agreement. The fight showed Rowan and Kimber a potential advantage in travelling together.
Oh… (the squirrel seems to droop as she looks at Eruravenne) As for DC… no comment.
(Rubs her han…paws together suddenly.) After a little over a page of As/N's, I have deemed it the right time for you to read. Now go! What're you waiting for? Oh, yeah...forgot...one more thing:
(As/N: Thought we might like to warn you of this ahead of time to prevent preliminary confusion: a time jump forward in several (four to five) months has taken place. Past occasions will be hinted at but not entirely described because they may not be entirely relevant to moving the plot along quickly.)
The sun rose pink and beautiful over the jewel-bright Redwall Abbey. Delicate clouds hung in the sky, casting faint shadows like moonlight below. The trees swished a lovely harmony in the wind. Birds with sparkling plumage sang and twittered in utter joy.
And inside Redwall, a certain mouse warrior was cooing dove-eyed over his lovely mate: Dylis Arianrhod Meinir Mórríghan Heledd Rhonwen Roseblossom Maeve Astraea Silvershiningfurduskeyes. She was wonderful! Her luminous fur like the moon, her queenliness, her royal lineage, her dark-light-black-silver-blue-pink-tawny-violet-emerald eyes! She was a warrior like him, but a gentler spirit he had never known. When his Rose had died, she comforted him, loved him, brought him back from darkness. And so he fell inevitably in love with her…
Martin, the great warrior of Redwall Abbey, recited sappy poetry beneath a spreading tree to a giggling, blushing, doe-eyed sue.
Not far from this pair, Deyna, the Taggerung, laid his head in the lap of a beautiful ottermaid, with lusterous fur more beautiful than the softly shining sun above him, letting her soft, delicate claws comb through his headfur lovingly. Oh, there was never a more beautiful maid than Aoibhín Clio Gráinne Bébinn Niamh Neve Muireann Derval Guinevere Osuchlovelybeauteousfuroflight! Her songs were trilled lighter and sweeter than any songbird's, and her eyes…such eyes! A beautiful, soft mix of pastel greens and hazel browns, and there was even a little bit of fuchsia around the rim of her pupil. And her past was so much like his! He was lost in a daze, idly wondering how he was so lucky an otter, to be raised in such darkness yet escape into such bright light.
This is what Redwall had become. The Sues came, they saw, and they conquered by dazzling their targets and turning them into simpering, love-struck, puppy-eyed idiots unable to lift a weapon except in their loves' defense and unable to think a single bad thought about the Sues. Over there, a Sue-vixen and a Marlfox, Mokkan by the looks of it, were crooning songs about beautiful foxes and mornings and sunshine and birdies and rainbows. Here, a Stu-squirrel and Song sat in a tree eating walnuts and laughing at jokes. All the great warriors of Redwall Abbey existed there, out of their times and dazzled by the vile creatures that had taken over.
What was left of Martin's spirit watched the physical form of himself kiss the mouse maid, and he felt slightly abashed at himself. His Redwall, his beloved Abbey, had been taken over by unnatural forces of evil, and he loathed every single one of them. He sighed in a spirit-way, and told himself that it was lucky that…
No, he shouldn't. They always found a way to get into his mind, find out who he wished wasn't here. And then they would bring that creature back. Curse those Sues, curse them! If only they had never taken hold.
Enough with the 'If onlies', he told himself. Think of something to override those two Fox-Sues before they take over Salamandastron!
He felt sorry for them. He had overheard that fox with the long last name list off how many were now 'saved', not including the shells that the Redwall Heroes had become.
Six-score…Probably more now, as it has been several weeks since that number.
The spirit watched his world, his wonderful Redwall, crumble around him from his home in the tapestry. What hurt him most was the fact that he could do nothing about it.
Unless…
If spirits had physical mouths, his would be smiling. He watched the Stu—a rat for once, though admittedly an over-handsome one—cross the Great Hall in his direction. A minor Stu.
How very fortunate.
The Stu never knew exactly what hit him…
The high, sorrowful wail rent the air, causing a momentary rift in the Sue-haze around them, and then it trailed out as the Sue-features vanished from the vole.
Karen sheathed her sword slowly, casting her eyes back and forth slowly as she searched for more Sues they needed to watch out for. My eleventh Sue, she thought, and then corrected herself. Not eleventh, ninth. Rowan killed the last two, remember?
Rowan, Karen, and Kimber met at Salamandastron just a couple of months previously. All had returned to report and rest at about the same time. Karen and Kimber had quickly become friends in that short stay. The hare maid soon convinced Karen of the advantages in Sue-hunting as part of a group, and the shrew became one of the team almost immediately.
"Camp now?" She asked Rowan, who was cleaning one of his daggers on the grass below. He continued wiping it methodically in silence, and Karen squashed down her impatience.
"Give it up, Karen. You know he won't budge or speak until his blades are clean; not after that incident with the Sue blood last month. You remember that one, I'm sure." Kimber grinned, but also made sure her blade was clean before sheathing it. The hare maid was dusty brown and grey once again and had recovered fully from her Gilding incident. The only lingering reminder of that was a faint silver sheen to her fur on nights with strong moonlight.
"Oh, I remember…" Karen felt herself drifting back in memory and shook herself mentally. Constant danger nowadays, Karen, remember that. She nodded to herself, and lounged against a thin poplar tree nearby, running her claws silently over the hilt of her sword.
Kimber, however, actually let herself drift back to the memory. "Oh, that Sue was a tough little beast! What was her name again? I could've sworn it began with an 'F'...Fonway…Fiongla…Fionnghuala! Of course. Squirrel, right? What a fight that was…"
Her reminiscing was cut off abruptly by an onset of tingling. Rowan felt it also, and flicked his tail in a rapid two-three pattern, signaling them all to hide immediately and wait for further signals.
Within seconds, a flowery scent that nearly choked Karen with its sweetness filled the air, causing it to seem even clearer if possible and make the slightly drooping trees straighten up, their leaves sparkling ever more so in the sunlight.
Suddenly a glorified rat marched grimly into view, bringing the flowery smell with it. In a tree above and across from Kimber and Karen, Rowan raised his tail, flicking it to either side twice, then up and down once. An ambush, with a pincer movement; Kimber approved. She and Karen would take either side of the rat, cornering it below Rowan. He would take it from above. The rat wouldn't know what hit him.
The rat stopped, and looked around, paw on the hilt of its sword while observing its environment.
Rowan gave the signal.
They charged, and soon the Stu was dead on the ground, all Sue-signs gone. But there was something odd rising out of his chest…a silver vapor of some sort.
Karen cocked her head at the figure beginning to form, and then recognition washed over her. Kimber's jaw dropped, and Rowan stopped short as he was about to slice the vapor in two, fearing a strange new Sue Ability.
Martin looked at them and immediately began to speak. "They have more than six score at the moment, and the numbers are growing."
"We know that much already, Warrior," Rowan replied, bowing as he was the first to get over the shock. "Please, you must have more to tell us?"
"My time is short; I cannot venture far from Redwall in this state for long. Listen closely and carefully, as I will never be able to tell you these things again.
"First, you must know now that every great Hero of Redwall is trapped there, enchanted by Sues. Bring them back to their senses and you shall have great allies. Even my physical body exists once more under that evil power.
"Second, I give you this information: the Sues that turn back into 'normal' beasts at death were turned to Sues. These can be saved with the closing of the doors. The Sues that drift away are different; they came with the doors, and there is no redeeming them.
"Third and last, return to Salamandastron immediately and give these words to those working on the counter-prophecies, as well as your leaders. They may be the difference between the survival of the real Mossflower and its permanent death:
Your paws now hold the key
The door is swinging shut
Return to the Great Abbey
When the shield is sharpest cut
From Bell Tower cry the tones
To waken foe and friend
Beware the glowing stones;
The vixen means to bring an end
Remember well this phrase
It holds your very lives:
'From you who seek to change our ways,
We sever all our ties.'"
The spirit had begun to look a little ragged around the edges halfway through his advice; by the end of it, large flakes of his misty shape were flying away as though caught in a strong wind, though the three beasts around it felt nothing. The mouse Warrior raised a paw in salute, and then he was gone.