Continuing on from chpt.20. I start getting down into the details of Redwall's structure. It follows how I view the abbey, so if I describe in such a way that you don't like, well, tough, 'cause it's unlikely I'll change it. I think there won't be any problems with that tho. Anyway, enjoy. ;)
Chapter 21
Without warning, battle suddenly broke out on the north side of the abbey, the vermin horde lashing out with all they could from their spot on the ground. The defenders upon the walltops were quick to retaliate, returning the fire. Soon both sides were taking casualties.
"Keep 'em heads down!" Wootiberg shouted as he and Gooding as well as several other defenders raced from other portions of the walls to aide in the battle. "Keep 'em down, I said! You'll get slain if you don't!"
"Wot he said!" Log-a-log Flugg voiced from where he was already on the northern wall.
"Wot happened?" Wootiberg asked, as he met up with Flugg and sent Gooding off to aide with the troops.
"'Em vermin just got up an' attacked!" Flugg replied. "There was no warnin' or anythin' t' indicate wot they were up t', an' it ain't even very organized. They're just givin' it all they got!"
They ducked as a hail of stones clattered off the ramparts around them, and heard the yell of a nearby Guosim defender take an arrow to his shoulder.
"They're still givin' us a real spot of bother, regardless." Wootiberg said. "Even though it's not like this lot t' go the battle so disorganized like this, judgin' from wot I've heard of this Toka blighter, we need to get our act together, or we'll be overwhelmed." he raised his voice so he could be heard over the commotion. "Defenders!" he exclaimed. "Divide yourselves into two separate ranks! Be ready to fire on my command!"
Flugg winced, and jabbed Wootiberg in the ribs. "Yeh dolt, now 'em vermin know wot we're up t'!" he said harshly.
"Don't have a bloomin' choice, Flugg." Wootiberg said. "We've been backed into a corner, so we have." he raised his voice again. "Ready you lot? Right then, first rank, fire!"
"Wonder wot ol' Friar Ben is cookin' fer breakfast." Winifred thought out loud as she caught up with the rest of her small party of otter and crossed Great Hall towards Cavern Hole.
A fellow otter sniffed the air. "Well, I smell a few things." he replied. "I smell...um...strawberry muffins, some kind o' bread, mebbe a cake or two, an'..." the otter made a face as the party reached the top of the small set of stairs leading into Cavern Hole. "Sink me rudder!" he exclaimed. "Why that last smell smells like..."
"Vermin!" Winifred exclaimed suddenly, seeing Toka's invading party in Cavern Hole, seeing even more vermin filing into the room.
"Seize them!" Toka ordered, seeing the party of otters.
A group of vermin rushed up the stairs to attack, but the front ranks of the otters were still armed, and quickly felled the vermin as Winifred was quickly urging them to get organized and to retreat.
"Go!" Toka ordered, urging his troops onward. "Go and capture the abbey! Take as many prisoners as possible!"
"Vermin in the abbey!" Winifred exclaimed, as the vermin surrounded her party and slowly started rounding them up into a small corridor that branched off of Great Hall. "Vermin in th' abbey! Defenders t' Great 'all, somebeast get Matthias, Basil, th' abbot, some creature! Ring th' alarm, anythin'! JUST GET 'ELP!"
Marigold and Sister May looked up from what they were doing in surprise and alarm.
"Was that a call for help?" Marigold asked, worried.
Sister May started for the door. "I'll find out." she said. "Marigold, you'd better stay here."
She went to open the double doors leading out of the Infirmary when they doors suddenly swung open, pushing Sister May back. A stream of vermin flowed into the room, brandishing weaponry. Leading the group was Jaydee.
"Surprised to see us?" the vixen asked with an evil grin. "I would be."
Basil and Violet heard the noise of pounding pawsteps as a swarm of creatures charged up the staircase into the belltower.
Violet sat up, looking slightly pale. "Somethin' tells me those aren't abbeydwellers coming in here." she said.
She was proven correct when the first wave of vermin came into view.
"Vermin in the abbey!" Basil yelled at the top of his lungs as he and Violet charged the invaders.
Having nothing but their bare paws, they held off the first wave from raiding the belltower. But more vermin arrived, crowding in behind the first wave, pushing the whole group forward. Violet decked an archer vermin, and relieved him of his bow and quiver of arrows. Now armed with one of her best weapons, she put them to good use.
Vermin started to go down left and right, but Violet was running low on arrows, and Basil was still weaponless save his fists.
"Where are those defenders?" she exclaimed angrily.
"Vermin in the abbey!" Basil yelled yet again.
This time, a small group of half-prepared defenders ran into the belltower from an adjoining corridor leading in from the south wing of Redwall. They yelped when they saw the vermin just about to overwhelm Basil and Violet and flood into the tower, and quickly went to work. More quickly followed to join in, also ill-prepared, seeing they were caught off guard.
But they succeeded in holding the invading vermin at bay.
"Basil, sound the alarm!" Violet exclaimed.
Basil nodded, and quickly pulled aside two other defenders to help him ring the twin bells.
Matthias and Cornflower froze when they heard the Matthias and Methuselah bells toll out. Matthias's face turned grim.
"That's the alarm!" Cornflower realized suddenly, as if the shock was hindering her ability to comprehend what was happening.
Matthias by his point was already heading for the end of the corridor, shouting back to his wife as he went. "Cornflower, wake as many defenders as you can, and make sure all the other creatures get to safety!" he ordered.
"Matthias, wait!" Cornflower said, watching her husband leave. "You can't fight with your limp!"
"Watch me!" Matthias exclaimed back, and vanished around the corner, cane and all.
When the bells tolled the first time, Constance and Mordalfus exchanged glances. By the time the second toll rang out, Constance was up on her feet and was out the door, racing off to join the battle she knew was somewhere in the abbey. Mordalfus stood, one paw extended as if he intended to stop Constance, but Constance was already gone from sight.
A minute later, Matthias appeared at the door, bearing a sword in one paw, and his cane in the other.
"Father Abbot, we need to get you to safety!" the warrior said urgently. "There are vermin in the abbey! Toka's invading!"
"But what about..." Mordalfus began to object, gathering things from his study.
"No time, we must go!" Matthias said, grabbing the abbot's paw, and pulling him out of the room.
Chaos currently reigned in Great Hall as Redwallers met the invaders on from several directions. But the horde's numbers were already too great, and were growing rapidly. Winifred saw no way out from the swarm of vermin that surrounded her and her party of otters from all sides. The Redwallers defending the abbey were holding their positions and preventing the invading vermin from going onward, but had no hope of pressing the vermin back and coming to the aide of her poorly outnumbered and surrounded party of otters.
Then a roar bellowed out, and Constance suddenly appeared, plowing her way into the horde of vermin and began pushing her way towards where Winifred was. Succeeding, the badger was suddenly beside Winifred, fighting back.
"Constance, joined th' battle, too?" Winifred asked calmly, butting the end of a fallen dagger she had retrieved into the head of a ferret, having lost her only javelin long ago.
Constance ignored the comment. "I'm going to drive some these vermin back." she explained quickly. "When I do, get as many of your group upstairs to shelter. There are no vermin up there."
"But wot about you?" Winifred asked. "I ain't leavin' without ye."
"I can take care of myself." Constance said, fighting off three vermin at a time with nothing but her bare paws. "Now go!"
And with that, Constance hurled her way into the pressing mass of invading vermin, clearing a path for Winifred and her otters. Knowing that there was no talking the badger out of it now, and that the path wouldn't stay clear for long, Winifred took the chance, and headed for the nearest spiral staircase, bounding up it.
But out of the entire party of otters, only five made it to the staircase and up it, Winifred included. At the landing of the first floor up, Winifred found Matthias, the abbot, and a handful of defenders.
"Matthias, matey!" Winifred exclaimed, "Tell me ye 'ave good news!"
"Father Abbot is safe." Matthias said, "but other than that, I have none to give." he looked at the group of otters that had safely gotten here. "Where are the rest of your group?"
Winifred shrugged. "We lost 'em at some point." she admitted sadly. "Dunno wot 'appened. Mebbe Toka cut us off. We lost track of Constance too, she cleared a path fer us."
"Constance can fed for herself." Mordalfus assured Winifred. "Right now our main concern is to stop Toka's invasion."
"He already has Great Hall and Cavern Hole." Winifred provided.
"Which means he has the kitchens, cellars, and the storerooms." Matthias gathered. "I just got word that the Infirmary has been captured as well."
"That just leaves the dormitories and the belltower!" one of the defenders with Matthias exclaimed.
"And Warbeak's Loft." Matthias added.
"Somebeast should send for help from the sparrows." Mordalfus reasoned, the idea just coming to him.
"No time, Father Abbot!" Winifred said. "We've got t' stop Toka before he captures more o' the abbey."
"I'm arranging for barricades to be set up over the uncaptured areas." Matthias explained. "Winifred, can you make sure that the abbot gets to safety? Preferably as far from Toka's horde as possible?"
"Can do, Matthias." Winifred said, giving the warrior mouse a salute, and she and her remaining otters escorted Abbot Mordalfus further upstairs while Matthias and the other Redwall defenders continued downstairs.
The battle raged on for several more moments, the Redwallers fighting the multi-front battle while simultaneously constructing barricades to safeguard the unseized portion of Redwall. Within moments, the battle was over. But somewhere within the captured portion of the abbey, Toka was laughing.
Already he was succeeding in his war with Redwall far better than the first time...
Wootiberg heard the bells tolling, making the battle raging at the wall sound remarkably quiet. Surprised, he turned to look at the belltower.
Gooding didn't seem to hear the bells right away, or at least acknowledge that they were ringing. Poking his head up over the ramparts long enough to throw a stone, he said, "They're..."
But he trailed off, as the horde outside the walls suddenly stopped their attack, and backtracked into the surrounding forest, vanishing from sight.
"...retreatin'?" Gooding finished, surprised.
Wootiberg stood up, still staring at the tolling belltower. "They're soundin' the alarm." he said softly. "Redwall is sounding the alarm!"
Getting a very bad feeling, he raced back to the south wall, just in time to see the last of the vermin horde slide into a hole into the ground and vanish from sight. Gooding, Flugg, and various others followed.
Wootiberg looked back at the abbey again. "The attack was a diversion!" he said, realizing that they had been tricked. "They're all in the abbey now!"
Flugg's eyes widened in shock, and started down the staircase for the grounds. "We better attack back, then!" he said determined.
"Too late." Gooding announced, and pointed at the doors leading into Great Hall as they swung open.
Stepping out onto the grounds, surrounded by guards, Toka stood proudly in front of the abbey. "You upon the walls." he said loudly. "Make one wrong move, and my horde will attacked. You are outnumbered up there, and would be picked off one by one should my horde attack from this side of the wall." Toka paused, surveying the stunned defenders on the walls, grinning. "Your choices now are to stay were you are until you all starve or go mad. Or surrender. But what happens within Redwall is none of your concern. All you need to know is that Redwall is now mine!"
The abbey grounds then rang out with Toka's victorious laughter...