OK, as I said before: "I'LL BE GONE FOR ABOUT 6 WEEKS AT THE MOST. THIS COULD BE MY LAST CHAPTER FOR A LONG LONG TIME." OK, there, so I'll be gone for about 6 weeks at the most because my summer vacation is in another country and I don't think the internet connection is working too well in Malaysia. I'll try my best though. Summer's just started for me and I'm loving it! :)


Pandemonium


From the Records of Redwall Abbey's Archives taken Ten Seasons Ago:

"Redwall has gone through much times of hardship so I shouldn't be the one to complain. It's withstood the plague of wars, death, misery, battles, and still maintains its peaceful nature through it all. I have no doubt in my heart that it will even withstand the test of time. However, although I'm sure that our peaceful way of life and our teachings will continue, I'm worried about many of the lives here at Redwall.

It's been several weeks now since several of us have had signs of an illness, and it's been spreading. We've lost two more lives today and I don't know how many more will leave this world before night befalls us. Even I have been feeling quite under the weather as well. If only we had known that it was something serious sooner- but of course nobody could blame poor Sister Rina. Redwall has never had any knowledge of this illness and yet she blames herself. She and her daughter have been doing all they could for the abbey and they have been a tremendous help.

I worry for Abbess Cadencia, though. Before this mysterious illness struck Redwall, it was quite clear how her age was catching up to her. Now, she's become even more frail and I fear that her health will fail her by the end of the week. Despite Sister Rina's constant attempts to heal her, she refuses to accept any treatment.

'My duty as abbess is to make sure that the abbeybeasts are safe from harm. The others are young and have a bright future ahead of them. As abbess I have to put everyone else's lives before mine, you see? To accept any medicine now would be an insult to the Abbey itself!' she would say.

There's still hope, though. Brother Bartholomew is organizing an expedition to the North to find medicine. I remember another expedition to find medicine in Redwall's history. It was the otter, Thrugg, who journeyed North to find the medicine to cure the Dry-Ditch Fever. Brother Bartholomew will leave tomorrow and I wish him the best of luck.

Redwall Abbey's Recorder,

Quimby


"I have a plan," Keetch repeated hurriedly, "Just play along." They didn't have much time now, as they were about to be swallowed down by the gigantic toad.

"What?" Brink asked as, to his shock, Keetch collapsed into the mud lying perfectly still. Brink swallowed nervously, hoping that he wasn't unconscious. Then, to his relief, the fox started twitching and making short gasping sounds. His relief turned into horror, however, when Keetch started screaming in agony and yelling out garbled words.

"Somebody! Somebody help me! Please! No! No! NOOO! The pain! The pain!" he screamed as he started writhing in the mud. The marsh creatures were just as surprised by this sudden outburst and took several nervous paces back. Their leader, however, stood his ground and watched the spectacle with interest.

"Keetch! Keetch! What're ya doin'?!" Brink called out, confused and horrified at the sight. He knew that Keetch was capable of nervous breakdowns, but this? No, this was as if he had completely lost every fragment of sanity he had within him. Speechless, Brink couldn't do anything but watch as the fox continued everyone else watched in shocked silence.

"Help me! My fur! My fur is turning white! I've got the disease! I've got it and it's driving me mad! Hahahahahaha!" Keetch cackled wildly as he splashed in the muddy water, his body convulsing in weak spasms. Brink continued staring on in horror as Keetch continued his insane babbling.

"Brink! Brink! Help me out here! I can't deal with this disease! The pain is tearing me apart! My fur is turning white, Brink! I think it might be the disease!" Keetch screamed at the top of his lungs while he rubbed off some mud on his fur, revealing the white splotches on his brown fur. The creatures stared in awe as panicked whispers spread throughout the crowd.

"The fur!"

"Itz white!"

"Impossible!"

"Kill him... now!"

"Get rid of him! Get rid of him!"

Brink, who had been completely confused up to this point, had finally understood what was going on.

"No! N-n-n-n-no!" he stuttered as he turned to the marsh creatures, "Don't leave me with him! Don't let me catch the dreaded disease! Don't let me catch the- er... White-Fur... Death... disease!" He finished with hesitation as he stumbled towards several of the toads, who in turn, scrambled away from his reach.

"Please help me! I think I might have it! You've got to save me!" he wailed as he lunged for another group of marsh creatures, who quickly retreated back a few steps. He looked back at Keetch, who was now a mess of hysteria. He had to bite his tongue to keep himself from laughing.

"It'll turn your eyeballs into jelly!" Brink shouted, "I'll start bleeding from the inside out and I'll be dying of the fever! My fur will fall off and so will my tail! You've gotta help me! You've gotta!" He and Keetch got up to their paws and ran in a staggering motion towards the massive toad, who was now fully convinced of this disease. He leaped back in fear, unintentionally killing two of his servants as he landed directly on top of them.

"You've gotta help me! Don't cast me out! You've gotta help me!" Brink screamed as he lunged wildly at the circle of creatures, who withdrew immediately and flinched at his gaze.

"Get them out of here!" the toad's voice rumbled in its baritone voice. For added effects, Keetch and Brink started tugging at their ears and fur savagely while they let drool start frothing at the corners of their mouths. Uncertain, the creatures stood their ground, hoping that some other creature would finish the job.

"Get them out NOW!" the toad bellowed once more and the creatures hesitatingly did his bidding. The creatures broke their circle around the two, creating a wide exit. Seeing their chance for escape, the pair staggered uncoordinatedly towards the exit, screaming in exaggerated pain and agony.

The marsh creatures, not wanting to disobey their king slithered, hopped, and crawled towards their captives while trying to keep a wide berth. They didn't want to know what would happen to them if they caught the disease.

"Get out! Get out!" they croaked and hissed meekly.

"It's working, mate," Brink whispered under his breath, "they're chasing us out- alive!"

"Shut up and keep screaming!" Keetch whispered back with less optimism.

"You can't tell me what to do," Brink muttered, unsure if Keetch had heard the response. Nevertheless, Brink adhered to the wise advice and began moaning and clutching his stomach in exaggerated expressions of agony. They were almost there! The swamp creatures had begun falling farther and farther behind them and they could just smell the fresh air of open plains.

Impatient and desperate to get out, the two abandoned their act and made a sudden mad dash to for the exit. Keetch looked over his shoulder to see if any creature was still following them when he tripped over a tree root.

"Oomf!" he fell flat on his face. Brink, in turn, felt the sharp tug of the chains and, unable to stop himself in time, ended up flat on his back.

"To hell with these chains!" Brink choked the muddy water out of his mouth as he sat up. He was answered by a strangled cry from Keetch behind him. He whipped back in horror to be staring straight at a rotting corpse, bits of flesh still transfixed on the skeleton, the eyes staring forward in terror, its mouth gaping in a silent scream.

The body was ravaged beyond recognition, but it was easily deduced to have been a previous meal of the marsh creatures. Then he noticed several skeletons and rotting bodies of several other marsh creatures scattered around them. He nearly threw up at the sight.

"The bastards! They're cannibals!" Brink gasped.

"We have to get out of here!" Keetch began to panic once again. Snapping out of it, they raced out of the marsh with a new sense of fear. In a few moments, they found themselves out of the dark swamp and in a world of light and open plains of hills and grass.


"Your Highnezz," one of the lizards began.

"Are they... gone?" the gigantic toad croaked.

"Yez... they juzt left," he lizard replied smoothly, "they're going towardz the Fire Mountain." The toad gave several short, low, gasping sounds. It could have very well been a laugh.

"Yes... they are their problem now..." he cackled to himself. The rest of his subjects slowly caught on to the "laughter", thrilled at the thought of their death trap falling right into their enemies' laps.

Unbeknownst to them, they weren't the only ones laughing at the moment.


"WaHOO!" Brink yelled as he leaped into the air, "That was amazing! Those nut-brained, warty old toads couldn't get us!" Keetch on the other hand was less enthusiastic and seemed rather traumatized.

"Ah, dry land... and could you just feel the wind?" Brink said as he stretched his arms out and collapsed on his back. Keetch never thought he'd see a completely carefree side to his companion, but this was surely not the time.

"How can you have to energy to talk? My throat hurts from all that screaming," he asked with irritaton.

"Don't know, mate," he replied, "My mom always said I had the loudest and biggest mouth on the entire island!"

"Hmph! We've lost all our provisions thanks to those... things!"

"You've got a real problem keeping up the good mood," Brink replied bitterly.


The nights on the open plains was always comfortingly warm and quiet- in the summer. Unfortunately for them, the exact opposite was true for the colder seasons. Brink cursed under his breath as another bone-chilling wind blasted at him. He wasn't used to this kind of weather. Keetch noted his condition with growing curiousity.

"You aren't... used to this weather?" he asked cautiously now that Brink was no longer in high spirits.

"What do you think!?" he snapped as he hugged his knees and shivered. Of course he's faced the cold before, but that was when he had a home, a fire, and a family to go to. Now there was no fire, no water, and no food. He glared contemptiously at Keetch, who didn't seem bothered at all by the cold, thanks to his growing winter fur.

"Gimme your jacket!" he demanded, his arm stretched toward him expectedly.

"You have your own," Keetch replied stubbornly.

"That's not good enough! You have your white fur to keep you warm!"

"I deserve this jacket! It was thanks to me that we survived out there!"

"It was thanks to my acting that they were convinced!"

"We wouldn't have been through any of that if it wasn't for you and your... stupidity!" Keetch argued.

"Last chance! Give it to me now!" Brink snarled. He watched the hesitation and uncertainty in Keetch's eyes for a moment as the fox gave his answer.

"Go jump in a river!"

"That's it!" At that he leaped at Keetch and gave him a quick punch in the face. Recovering quickly, Keetch took the liberty of giving him a sharp kick in the stomach. Instantly, the two were a tangled in a fight as they rolled down the hill, their enraged shouts and curses audible in the atmosphere.

When their rolling at last came to a halt, it was Keetch who was on top of Brink, his fists raised and poised for a punch.

"Hold it right there!" The two of them snapped their attention to the newcomer. Breathless, they strained their eyes to see who was there, but to no avail. He was only visible as a tall, cloaked shadow.

"Now wot's all this then?" the stranger asked in a strange accent. Stumbling to get into a fighting position, they were met with a sharp demand.

"Don't move! We have you surrounded!" They obeyed, but their eyes wandered around to see five other beasts surrounding them. They were all poised for battle, with arrows, swords, and spears pointed at them. The two stared at these figures, completely breathless.

Just when we get out of trouble, we have new problems, Keetch thought to himself.


OK, I decided to do something new to this chapter so I added an excerpt from Redwall's archives to provide more background info. I'm planning to add more info every chapter. I'm sorry for those of you who thought that a squirrel character would show up. It's just that I don't want to rush the plot, so I'm trying to get the right pacing. Trust me, it's painful for me to not rush. Maybe next chapter.

Last time, I told you guys that if you reviewed, you would get a spoiler-free character bio of any character you want. Of course, I didn't get more reviews, but I enjoyed doing them, so if anyone wants to, please review and I'd still do the character bios.

Yes, I'm still having trouble fleshing out Brink and Keetch's personality, ironic since they're the main characters. Well, apparently, Brink is moody, very aggressive, and immature, as he will fight just to get his way. He does, however, display a good side every once in a while. Keetch, although timid in the first chapters, is beginning to get more confident and isn't too afraid to cross Brink anymore. I guess he's gotten to the point where he is more comfortable around Brink.

Their escape was also meant to be comical, by the way. Yes, and Brink is kinda slow and comes up with the worst names ever, like the "White Fur Death disease". Also, the swamp creatures didn't try to kill them because they were too afraid to touch them, just making it clear there.

Also, Brother Barholomew and Bartholomelo are completely different characters so DON'T GET THEM CONFUSED!! Oh yeah, and I also made a reference to Salamandastron. Who do you think these mysterious guys are and what do you think will happen next chapter?

Please Review and stuff! Any constructive ideas, advice, comments, thoughts, etc. would be greatly appreciated!

REMINDER: I'M GOING TO BE GONE FOR AT THE MOST 6 WEEKS! I MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO SQUEEZE IN A CHAPTER FOR NEXT WEEK!

Special thanks to all who reviewed: Awsomewriter123, Foxstar24, Adderstar of ValorClan, and Mangahottie740. I wouldn't keep writing without you guys!