Hey readers. Here is Chapter 7. I meant to post it earlier but I've been a bit distracted with Pokemon lately. The snake is not in this chapter but he will be in the next one. This is just a talk between Shadow and the squirrel Ashford.
Disclaimer: I do not own Redwall. I only own Ashford, Talara, Shara and Kellos.
Chapter 6: (Shadow Speaks)
The small group of five walked fast but silently through the forest. It would be a day and a half walk from the cave to Redwall abbey. Ashford and Shara carried the stretcher between them. Talara was a few feet in front of the group keeping an eye out for danger from the sky. Shadow was behind them watching their backs and the sides of the group.
Ashford had tried arguing that Shadow was in no condition to be protecting anyone but Shadow had been insistent he watch the rear. He kept his dagger out and ready as he leaned on his walking stick, still managing to keep up with the others.
They had walked until the sun began to set before stopping and setting up camp for the night. Shara got a fire started as Talara reported no sign of danger which Shadow had agreed on. Kellos was asleep on the stretcher but everyone knew he was still suffering. Ashford tended to him before sitting down next to the fire next to shadow.
"Tell me," Shadow suddenly spoke, "Why do you help vermin?"
"I help everyone," was the response.
"Why vermin though?"
"I do not believe vermin are inherently evil. Some are but not all of them. Everyone makes mistakes. We just need to learn from those mistakes. Some creatures can while others can't. It isn't about what we are but who we are."
"How do you know I am not evil?" was Shadow's next question.
"I don't. I'm simply trusting that you aren't like those other creatures out there. I want to believe you made mistakes and learned from them."
There was silence for a while as Shadow thought about what the old squirrel said. He stared into the fire deep in thought.
"Describe the abbey to me. The name sounds familiar to me and I don't know why."
"It is a big abbey made of red sandstone. It's surrounded by tall walls on all sides made of the same material. There is a bell tower with a big bell and a good sized orchard with lots of fruit. In the middle of the spacious grounds is a pond full of fish."
Once again Shadow lost himself in his thoughts. He listened to every detail Ashford told him carefully. He had been to Redwall. He was sure that had been the place he had been sent to for that picture. That had been the place he had fallen from and the place he had been abandoned at.
"That place. I've been there," Shadow whispered quietly.
"Tell me about it," Ashford said back.
"I fell from red walls. High red walls. I had been ordered to infiltrate a big red abbey like building by my former leader. He wanted something. A picture of a mouse. I climbed the walls found this picture and managed to extract it from where it hung on the wall."
"Your leader wanted a picture of a mouse?" Ashford asked as realisation dawned on him. "Oh he must have wanted the image of Martin the Warrior."
Shadow looked a little confused. Until Ashford told him of the warrior mouse in armor in the middle of the tapestry Shadow had seen during his infiltration.
"I managed to steal the picture but was discovered by a little mouse in a green robe. I fled to the walls but he caught up and attempted to take back the item in question. A tug of war started between us on the wall. At the end of it just as I was about to escape down a rope I had with me the mouse had lost his grip on the picture and I had fallen over the wall. The picture went with me."
"That's how you got hurt," Ashford concluded as Shadow nodded.
"I remember seeing the mouse before I blacked out but I don't remember what it was I had said to him. Later on I awoke in a small dark room and escaped."
"What about that leader of yours? Why didn't you go back to him?"
"Why would I go back? He abandoned me. Left me after I had faithfully brought him what he had asked for. Left me to die after I had been so loyal."
Ashford held a look of sympathy for the rat beside him. All the loyalty Shadow had shown this leader and all he got out of it was betrayal. Ashford wondered if Shadow could trust again at the abbey.
"Maybe things will be better for you at the abbey?" the squirrel said as he turned in for the night.
There it is Chapter 7. So Shadow revealed what he knew of his injuries and his being in Redwall before. Ashford revealed he does not hate vermin. He's giving them a chance. What will happen next? Will this small group of creatures make it to Redwall? Read and find out in the next chapter.
Black-Phinoex!
