Hundreds and hundreds of vermin prepared for the battle they had been waiting for. Crude weapons were stowed in every place possible, and most of the horde also carried long spears. The horde stood out on the road, ready to march across the river. The original strategy was being used, the horde would go out in front of the Abbey and charge with battering rams, while other small groups went around to the other walls.
Bhriina, Covodre, and Wastrop stood at the head of the horde. Covodre called out to them. "Coalition of Anti-Redwall Corsairs! Hear me now! Many of you will die, but it shall be for a noble cause—to destroy the puny beasts of Redwall Abbey! Now, WE MARCH!"
Long boards were laid out across the river for the purpose acting as bridges, rolling the catapults across the creek. The vermin splashed noisily across it, bounding and leaping to get ahead of their comrades. They all wanted the chance to slaughter innocent beasts more than the others, or so they thought. All the rage of the horde was combined into the fury of Bhriina herself. Never had she felt so alive as her soldiers ran through Mossflower Woods, throwing torches and lighting the trees aflame. Had the population of Mossflower not been at Redwall, they would be running out of their fire-filled homes.
Amid the running vermin, Bhriina and Covodre paused on a rock sticking out of the ground, perched above their horde, and kissed. Bhriina wanted to kill him then, to shove her knife in his pathetic gut, but she refrained for the moment. The time would come to do away with the troublesome Covodre. Of course she knew there would be desertion and betrayal after it if she did it where beasts could see, so she would have to do it discreetly when nobeast was watching, but not with poison or anything of the sort—she preferred to see her victim's horrified face as a blade pierced their flesh.
Large stones had been found by a scouting party around a quarry (which Bhriina knew not to go in because of rumors of giant snakes within) to be used in the battle. They were lined with spikes administered by Blackclaw and Stumpwhisker.
And, among all the horde's might, Bhriina kept her promise. Atop a pike she held was the dead body of Jabez Stump.
Somehow in Redwall a sense of fear had arisen on this morning, and everybeast within somehow knew that today, the attack would come. Guards with bows and quivers full of arrows were posted all along the tops of the walls, including expert squirrel archers that had arrived very late in the previous night.
On the Abbey grounds stood every beast able to bear arms. The Skipper's motley crew stood ready with rapiers, the Brothers and Sisters of Redwall stood with their swords, and Orlando, Constance, and Auma were put into armour.
In the midst of it all, Matthias the Warrior pulled his sword. Next to him were all of his Redwaller friends. Basil and Cheek stood ready, Sam and Jess were armed, and Log-a-Log Flugg and the Foremole were prepared.
In the near distance, drums and horns could be heard: they were those of war. The horde was approaching swiftly.
Basil cried out as the vermin ranks became visible in the clearing. "Let's give 'em blood and vinegar, Redwallers!"
Orlando pulled his axe out and roared. "EULALIAAAA!"
A single tear fell from the eye of Matthias, landing softly with an inaudible splash on the soft grass of Redwall Abbey.
Abbot Carnlo had taken shelter with the old and the young inside the Great Hall. He talked with Mattimeo the Warrior before he went out to fight.
"Remember, Mattimeo. If your father tries to do anything, don't hesitate. Take over. I think he may be secretly in league with the vermin," the Abbot whispered.
Mattimeo never realized what he was doing as he handed little Martin over to the Abbot. "I will, Father Abbot. Take good care of Martin, please."
"Of course," Carnlo said, and as the Warrior walked off, he went into a passageway with Martin II, son of Mattimeo the Warrior and Tess Churchmouse, closely held.
What the Abbot did not know was that Cornflower had witnessed the entire thing.
Greychop heard the drums of his army outside Redwall, and decided to make his move. His wound had healed, and he was ready to escape.
The fox looked around to make sure there was nobeast about in the infirmary, and leapt up out of his bed. They had taken his weapon, so he grabbed an unlit torch from the wall, and starting walking towards the door.
Suddenly, Sister May popped into the room and saw Greychop. Immediately realizing what was taking place, she grabbed a medical knife from her counter and said, "Dirty fox! I never should have let you in here!"
Greychop picked up a jar of medicine and threw it at Sister May, but she dodged it. He threw an assortment of things, any object he could find, but she dodged them all.
Sister May leapt at Greychop, swinging the knife. He used a large book as a shield, trying to protect himself from her wild jabs.
Skipper Rovrew had been outside, and heard the commotion. He presently burst into the room and fired an arrow at Greychop. It did not hit, and Greychop ran at the otter, tackling him. Holding the otter on the floor, the fox fumbled for a knife on the table above, and got one. No matter how the Skipper struggled, the fox held him down. "This is for the arrow, otter!" Greychop said, before plunging the blade into the Skipper.
Just as he pulled the knife out, a piece of wood hit Greychop hard in the back. Sister May desperately threw objects at him, and he rushed at her. But Sister May was quicker with her paws than the fox had thought, and he stabbed him in the gut with the medical knife. She kicked away his carcass and ran to the Skipper. He was barely breathing.
She sobbed and tried to think of something to save him, but he stopped her. "Sister…Sister May…don't try…leave me…make Riverjack the new Skipper…"
And thus, Rovrew, Skipper of Otters, headed to the Dark Forest.
Matthias had moved up to the battlements, where he was joined by some of his closer friends as they watched the uncountable number of vermin forming up to attack the Abbey.
Jube saw Bhriina first. She and Covodre, accompanied by an important-looking stoat, were standing in a clearing amongst the swarm of vermin. But that was not why Jube saw her. He saw her because on her spear perched his father's limp form.
Jube went blind with rage. "I'LL KILL HER! I'LL KILL THE LOT! AAARRRGH!"
Before he could be calmed down, an immensely loud war horn was blown from the vermin and the infantrybeasts rushed at Redwall. The catapults were left behind and were beginning to be loaded with boulders.
The archers on the battlements fired arrow upon arrow down at the vermin, slaying many. But all of those arrows only made a dent in the number of creatures.
Now, the vermin began to dissipate and surround the entire structure, with attackers on all sides. The archers of Redwall responded by sending several of their ranks to the other walls.
The vermin carried in ladders and began to set them up on the sides of the Abbey. Some of them were pushed back over by Redwallers, but many of them were successful, and vermin poured onto the battlements, and killed most of the archers before they knew what was happening.
Matthias pulled his sword, as did Sam Squirrel, and together they hacked back at vermin that had come up the ladders. While he fought, all Matthias could think about was Mattimeo. Where was he? What was he doing? Where was he fighting? Was he fighting at all? But he was distracted from these thoughts when the vermin on the battlements were all dead, and he looked down. They were using a large wooden battering ram on the front gates, and beasts were barricading it in any way possible, usually with only themselves.
But the vermin broke in. Rats, weasels, ferrets, foxes, stoats, and even reptiles poured into Redwall, killing innocent defenders left and right. Matthias ran into the fray, cutting down vermin after vermin. But, not for the first time, Matthias began to grow weary. His old bones were not as easily used as they once were. And he wondered once more. Where was his son?
His questions were answered as he saw Mattimeo for the first time since the beginning of the battle, striding through, cutting vermin this way and that. But his eyes were not focused upon the vermin he killed.
They were focused straight upon Matthias.
Orlando had no idea how many vermin he had killed, but he knew it was more than anyone else in the Abbey. His powerful stride and long arms allowed him to swing his axe further than any other defender, and his pure might and size allowed him to crush vermin. Constance and Auma were doing the same thing he was when he spotted the wolverines.
Stonegor charged through the battle with two of his fellow wolverine mercenaries, in the general direction of the badgers. When they were close enough, Orlando leapt at one of them, and they dueled. After several minutes of intense grappling, Orlando decapitated the wolverine with his axe.
Constance was fighting with Stonegor across the Abbey grounds. They tore and clawed at each other's hides, spraying the Abbey grass with blood. Constance seemed to be taking the edge, and just as she was about to make the final blow, she felt a large pain in her thigh. She looked back in horror to see an arrow protruding from her leg. It was fired by none other than Nipsnout, the same weasel archer who had killed Jabez Stump.
Constance tried to cry out for help, for she now faced two adversaries, but Orlando was nowhere to be seen, and Auma was busy with another wolverine. She ended up decided to go with the larger threat, and continued tearing at Stonegor.
While the wolverine was by no means unscathed, he was still able to fight after all of her clawing, and picked up a sword from a fallen Redwall mouse. He swung it expertly around and lunged at Constance.
Having no weapon, she dodged out of the way and looked frantically about for a weapon. Stonegor wildly thrust the sword down, trying to stab her, but she rolled out of the way and his sword got stuck in the ground.
This was her chance—and she found a sword lying next to a dead fox. She brought it up just as Stonegor regained himself and thrust his sword at her, and their blades locked. Hatred flowed through both of them as they twisted and hacked their way around the battlefield.
Constance fell to her knees as another arrow penetrated her opposite leg. "AAAAGH!"
Stonegor walked shakily up to her. "Had enough, badger?" he said confidently.
"Not quite," she said, quite to his astonishment, and, using her footpaws to shift around, she continued slashing at him with her sword.
Nipsnout had gone up to the battlements. He pulled another arrow back and let it loose. It hit Constance in the back, but she miraculously kept going. He never got a chance to fire the fourth arrow, however, because Orlando appeared and split him in two.
"CONSTANCE!" he yelled, seeing his friend with three arrows in her body and still fighting. "CONSTANCE!"
She looked up at him.
She smiled.
And Stonegor killed her.
"NOOOOOOO!" Orlando screamed. He used all of his might to fling himself off of the battlements. He raised his axe as he flew through the air and brought it down just as he landed, right into the flesh of Stonegor. The force of the swing cut the wolverine crisply and neatly, and blood spilled out onto the grass, coating fall leaves in its red ooze.
Orlando threw his axe to the ground and took up Constance's limp head gently in his arms, cradling her and crying. He stroked her head, and whispered to her. "I love you."
Even as he wept, Orlando knew that the fight was not yet over, and the battle still raged around him. He saw innocent woodlanders fall to pirate scimitars, he saw valiant Guosim shrews pierced by killed by pirates, and he saw squirrels and otters that bravely volunteered to fight beheaded. And as fighting raged around him, something, something deep within Orlando the Axe simply snapped.
A rat ran at Orlando, and the badger grabbed him. He held the vermin high above his head and tore its body apart with his bare paws.
He picked up his weapon and leapt back into battle. He fought like no one had ever done before, killing vermin just by knocking them aside with his might. Something was flowing through his veins that he did not know he possessed. It was bloodwrath, which was present in the veins of the Badger Lords of Salamandastron.
The Abbot quietly stepped into his private room with Martin, and set him on the table. Immediately the youngster began asking questions. "Why are we in here, Fatha' Abbot?"
"Because it is safe in here, Martin," the Abbot assured, searching through his desk drawers for the right knife to end Martin's life.
"Where's my daddeh', Fatha' Abbot?"
The Abbot answered without looking up. "He is out fighting to save all of us, Martin."
"Can't I help 'im, Fatha' Abbot?"
"You're too young, Martin. You'll help him someday."
The Abbot finally found what he was looking for: a knife, the perfect size for slitting one's throat. Not too big, not too small, and just the right sharpness, it was the Abbot's favourite weapon in the world. He had his name scrawled in the handle: CARNLO.
It had been his personal knife in the time before he became Abbot of Redwall, when he was out assisting Covodre in rallying the Coalition of Anti-Redwall Corsairs together. He had been a secret ally of the two mice all along, as he had been a close friend of Covodre in his childhood years. He had used the very knife to kill Mordalfus, the Abbot who had served before him. They all believed that Mordalfus had died of old age, but in reality, he had been killed by Carnlo in the night without a single scream.
Carnlo walked towards Martin with the knife, and, naturally, Martin asked a question. "What's that for, Fatha' Abbot?"
"Oh, just a little test. You're special, Martin, very special. You could be the best warrior in the land if this goes alright," the Abbot said, in his most soothing, soft, calming voice, as he walked around the table Martin sat upon, stroking the knife with a fingernail.
"Ooh! The best warriah' in the land! Sounds good, Fatha' Abbot!"
The Abbot instructed Martin to lie down on the table, and he did so. Carnlo began to position the knife in a way so that it would be easy to kill Martin with no mess or yelling, and Martin knew no better, so he never once tried to escape. This was the purpose of Carnlo's befriending of Martin—so that Martin would trust him completely.
Something happened next that the Abbot had never intended. Cornflower threw open the doors of the room and walked in with a knife of her own. "DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM!"
Carnlo retreated from Martin, acting falsely afraid of the old mousewife. "Oh, dearie me, however shall I live with myself?"
Cornflower tried to look tough, and pointed her knife closer to him. "Don't you touch my son! Don't you ever touch my grandson! Ever! Do you hear me, you impostor?"
He laughed. "Impostor? I am Abbot Carnlo. I am the rightful leader of this Abbey!"
"Mordalfus was the rightful leader of Redwall! But age had to take him!" she said, with a quiver of fear in her voice.
He let it out, short and sweet. "A pity I killed him, then."
She gasped, speechless.
"Now, my dearest Cornflower, I'm afraid you must be going, this is a private matter!" the Abbot said, like it would make any difference.
"YOU WERE GOING TO KILL HIM! I SAW THE KNIFE, YOU TRAITOR!" she yelled, and tried to grab Martin, who slinked back farther into the middle of the table, scared and torn between the love of his grandmother and the trust of his Abbot.
"M and M," Carnlo said. "They both must go." In saying this, he had no idea that she knew something of the prophecy.
She gasped again, and whispered under her breath. "M and M. It's not Mattimeo. It's Martin." She dropped her knife, and it clattered to the floor.
She looked out the window at the battle below to see her husband and her son locking blades, and she was mortified.
"YOU MONSTER! YOU BRUTE!" she yelled, but Carnlo was upon her.
Matthias had no idea what was happening. Mattimeo, his own son, was wildly attacking him. Mattimeo had an evil fire in his eyes that Matthias had never seen before, and it was terrible. Matthias never attacked back at his son, he only defended, but that was getting harder.
Never had Matthias been as confused. He had absolutely no idea why his son was attacking him. He knew that lately he and Mattimeo had not been on the best of terms, but that was no reason to randomly attack someone. This was especially strange for Mattimeo, who usually seemed to be a very level-headed creature.
Matthias moaned. He wished he had help from somebeast else, but every other Redwaller was focused on their own adversary, and nobeast even noticed father and son dueling.
After a particularly stunning blow, Matthias tried talking. "Mattimeo! What are you doing? What are you doing?"
But Mattimeo did not answer. Matthias saw a spark in his eyes that he knew all too well—he had passed the bloodwrath down to his son. There was no stopping Mattimeo.
Matthias's bones ached and he grew tired once again. He hated being old, he truly did. He wished that, right then and there, he could have turned back time seasons and seasons, for Mattimeo was much younger than he, and much more powerful.
Matthias could not stop thinking about Bhriina in the back of his head. Where was she? What was she doing? Surely she was coming for him!
And then he saw her. She wore a long, billowing black cape that she somehow avoided tripping over, and it flowed in the wind behind her. She held a long curved dagger of sorts, maybe more of a dirk, at her side, only lifting it up when a Redwaller came near. Every valiant beast who went anywhere near her was killed. She even knocked aside Sparra warriors that dove from the sky as if they were mere snowflakes.
In tow of Bhriina was a mouse that Matthias knew could only be Covodre, and he was not as elaborately dressed as her, wearing only simple, dank clothing, but wielding a powerful-looking sword that slew everybeast that went near him.
Also following Bhriina was a stoat, who was Wastrop, Chief Lieutenant of the Coarc, and he wore clean-cut, efficient looking garb that showed his importance, and his curved sword was similar to Bhriina's, but shorter, and he also wielded a knife in the other paw. He now adorned a purple silken hood that made him look quite ominous in battle, and he was obviously a skilled fighter, and nobeast could come near him either.
All three of the Coarc leaders were headed farther into the Abbey, in the direction of Matthias and Mattimeo, although that was simply a wish of fate, because they had not yet spotted the mouse warriors.
For one brief second, Bhriina and Matthias stared straight into each other's eyes. They each stood like that, as if nothing else in the world was happening, and looked upon each other, for they know something. They knew that they were the ultimate adversaries, and they had not yet begun to fight.
Instantaneously, Matthias took off running, and in the same second, Bhriina dashed off after him. Mattimeo trailed after his father, angrily swinging his blade, and Wastrop and Covodre were right behind Bhriina.
Matthias looked desperately around before choosing a hallway to go into. A more close-quarters fight would be easier for him; he had trained himself right in these passages.
The sight in the hallways was horrifying. Blood dripped on the steps and the walls, all around, and beasts were slaughtered here and there. The fight was moving indoors.
Matthias ducked under a shrew dueling a rat only to bump into a weasel. The weasel snarled and pulled two knives. It was about to lunge at Matthias when an arrow went through its head. Matthias looked right to see the peaceable Brother Sedge holding a bow. Sedge nodded gravely to Matthias and he continued running up the stairs.
When Matthias reached the top of the stairs, he looked down to see two things: Mattimeo, followed by Bhriina, followed by Covodre, followed by Wastrop, running up, and Brother Sedge lying dead on the floor with a giant gash in his back.
Matthias held back the urge to cry out and give in right there, and kept running. There was nothing that riled him more than to see innocent beasts killed for no reason.
Matthias looked left and right for a room to go into, and after a moment, he jumped into the Redwall kitchens by impulse, thinking there would be nobeast inside.
He was wrong. Several rats were looting the pantries, and Brother Dan was ducked beneath a table. He reached for a knife on the ground and hurled it at one of the rats, who fell with the silver blade implanted in his brain.
Matthias leapt to Dan's aid, and leapt about, swinging his great sword and killing every rat in the room. He walked over to Dan and helped him up, and they ran, as Matthias could hear that he had not thrown off his pursuers.
Matthias and Dan ran through the Abbey, killing vermin and helping friends where they could, always running, because their pursuers were never far off. Eventually, the two reached the library, and silently they decided to make a stand. Matthias had never been particularly close to Dan, nor had Dan to he, but in this moment, none of that mattered. They were in it together.
Mattimeo reached the room first, and his bloodwrath seemed to have worsened, because he was now slashing at inanimate objects like they were his mortal enemies. Pages ripped from books, and as he ran along the walls of the library, pages started to flutter about in the air, and ripped book covers and scrolls lined the ground. He seemed to have forgotten Matthias for the moment, which was a good thing.
Bhriina halted her two comrades and walked slowly and menacingly into the library when she reached it. She slowly pulled her dagger, which had apparently been sheathed earlier, and ran her finger along the blade slowly, letting small drops of blood drip onto its metal.
Covodre and Wastrop drew their weapons. Covodre spoke to the stoat. "Here we go, Lieutenant Wastrop. Ready for this? We're gonna take out one of the M's!"
Matthias heard every word, and looked at his adversaries, nonplussed. "One? But he is in this room as well…" he said, pointing his sword at Mattimeo, but trailing off, because it hit him. The other M was Martin.
Bhriina cackled. "The child has probably already been killed by your little old Abbot!"
Matthias gaped, and it all started to fall together in his mind. The Abbot had been plotting the entire time. He had befriended Martin just so he could take him away and kill him. He had told Mattimeo false things to make him go crazy. It all made sense.
His thoughts were put off when the Abbey started to shake.
Matthias looked out the window of the library in horror. The catapults were being put to use. He had forgotten completely about them. Huge boulders smashed into the front wall of the Abbey, and it all but crumbled. Red sandstone bricks fell and crushed creatures alive, and all of the Redwallers on the front battlement were either buried alive or fell to the vermin whose ranks seemed endless, for more still came.
BOOM! The room shook again, and books fell out of their cases, spilling onto the floor, and more pages fluttered through the library.
The entire southwest tower fell to the ground. To make matters worse, the vermin began hurling torches and the forest surrounding Redwall began to burn. It started out slow, and grew more intense and larger as time passed. Matthias was in shock—his home, Redwall, was crumbling beneath him, and Mossflower Woods was on fire.
Bhriina began walking toward Matthias, slowly, and Covodre and Wastrop walked behind her, knocking over bookshelves. Many of pieces of literature and history were destroyed as they tore apart the room behind her.
Bhriina issued an evil laugh. "Fight me, Warrior. Let's see what you've got!"
Matthias silently motioned to Brother Dan to stay back, and he walked up to Bhriina. They walked around in circles, always watching each other, until she made the first move.
With the Sword of Martin, Matthias blocked her strikes, although his elderliness was once more getting the best of him. He blocked, parried, struck, swung, and slashed, but she would not weaken. It was as if she was invincible.
Bhriina kicked Matthias hard in the chest, and blood dripped from his lips as well as a small wound in his side. She taunted him as he lay there, coughing. "Is that all, Warrior? Aren't you supposed to be strong?"
At this moment, something deep within Mattimeo's brain told him to join in, and that he did, although he had no loyalty to any side. Covodre, Wastrop, and Dan entered, and it was a three sided conflict: Redwall, the Coarc, and the crazed mind that Abbot Carnlo had seemingly injected into Mattimeo.
Brother Dan was a better fighter than anyone in the room would have expected, and he used a sword he had picked up from a fallen otter along their way to the library to knock Wastrop's weapons free of his paws. Wastrop was dumbfounded, and tackled the mouse. Brother Dan did not give up, and he forced Wastrop to get back on his footpaws. The mouse and the stoat hacked back and forth at each other until Mattimeo whizzed by, almost knocking Wastrop off his feet, inadvertently giving Dan the chance to stab Wastrop through the heart.
Covodre looked up from fighting Mattimeo to see Wastrop dead on the floor, lying amongst a bloody pile of papers, which was somehow fitting, because he was one of the only creatures in the horde who could fluently read and write.
Covodre leapt on Dan at once, and they dueled back and forth. But Dan was not a trained warrior, and he was no match for Covodre. The bigger mouse knocked Dan's sword from him and took Dan up in his grasp, grabbing at his throat.
Dan struggled to get away, and fell out of Covodre's reach when another boulder hit the Abbey. While the severely injured Dan tried to crawl away, Covodre kicked him, and threw himself upon him.
Covodre grabbed wildly at Dan, and while the poor Redwaller struggled, Covodre choked him to the death, and the evil mouse rose from the body with bloodstained paws.
Mattimeo turned crazily from disheveling a row of potted plants and attacked Covodre. Meanwhile, Matthias and Bhriina expertly dueled among all the clangour of war.
BOOM! The Abbey rocked once again, and Bhriina lost her footing. Matthias lunged for the kill, but she blocked his sword and got up again. As the structure shifted around them, and books fell off of their cases whilst dust and cobwebs from the ceiling drifted down, they fought viciously. Bhriina was a better fighter than any that Matthias had ever dueled, and he was becoming concerned for his life.
He dismissed the thoughts immediately. He was ready to die for Redwall. He would do anything for these creatures, even if it meant giving himself up for their safety.
Matthias doubled over as Bhriina once again kicked him, and fell backwards as she hit him again. "You're weak, old fool! Whoever said you are a warrior is an even bigger fool!" she taunted once more.
Matthias's blood boiled. He looked up at Bhriina with immense hatred in his eyes. Bhriina took on a mock fright. "Oh, no, the warrior's angry? Maybe we should all calm down and have a spot of tea!" She cackled at her own whim.
While she was laughing, and not paying attention to Matthias, he rose up and hit hard with his sword, but she blocked it, and kept laughing.
Something in Mattimeo turned down his bloodwrath, and he began to become aware of his surroundings. He felt very weary, and had no idea where he had been or how he gotten to the library, but he saw a stoat and Brother Dan dead, and knew the battle was in full-swing as the room shook from another boulder launch.
He turned to see Covodre rushing at him, and quickly parried his swings. He also saw his father dueling Bhriina, but he could not help. He was too busy with his own fight.
Bhriina and Matthias fought like madbeasts, but neither could slay the other. They were nearly equal in power, despite Matthias's age.
Matthias kicked Bhriina, and she landed on the floor hard. He was about to go in for the kill again when a boulder hit Redwall, not far from the library.
Matthias stepped back, wobbling and unbalanced, and Bhriina used the chance. She launched herself up and ran at Matthias, who was still trying to regain his footing, and ran her dagger's blade right through him.
With the blade still in Matthias, Bhriina whispered to him. "One down. One to go." And she pulled it from him.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Mattimeo screamed, but Bhriina and Covodre were already long gone, and running back down the corridors.
Matthias looked down, without becoming alarmed at all, just a bit confused, and saw a giant bleeding hole in his midsection. Without a word, he fell backwards.
"NOOO!" Mattimeo screamed again, and ran to his father. He threw aside his sword and took his father's head in both paws.
"Father? Father? Oh, father!" he wept, holding Matthias close. Matthias whispered to his son with all of his last energy.
"Mattimeo…they…they have…"
"What, father? What do they have?" Mattimeo asked.
"They have…they have…"
"What do they have?"
"Martin."
That one word, that single six-letter word, was the last thing that Matthias the Warrior ever said to his son.
Mattimeo ran through the Abbey, towards the front gate, slaying any straggling vermin he could find out of pure hatred and sadness, and he cried as he ran. Tears flew back in the wind behind him as he shot like an arrow through the hallways of Redwall.
The scenes before him were tragic. Redwallers and vermin alike lay dead and wounded everywhere, and the Abbey was rubble. Luckily, around a third of the structure still stood (including the library where he had just been), but much was destroyed. Weapons lay askew everywhere, dead bodies flopped here and there, and the wounded tried to make it to the Great Hall as fast as they could.
When Mattimeo reached the Abbey grounds, he began to sob loudly. The once-green grass was stained with patches of red, and the dead were uncountable. Red sandstone bricks were lying everywhere as well.
The vermin horde was depleted for sure, but they still numbered over a hundred, and they were fleeing to the west. Mattimeo caught a glimpse of Abbot Carnlo amongst them, holding Martin close with a knife.
Mattimeo screamed with all his might, and every ounce of his anger seemed to offer itself to this one yell. The warrior fell to his knees, sobbing madly, as Mossflower Woods burned around him in fiery plumes of orange.
