Chapter 26
His lids fluttered. He squeezed his eyes. His lips parted as he gave a groan.
A feminine gasp assaulted his ears. "I think he's waking up!"
There was a flurry of footsteps, and he got the impression that several pairs of eyes were on him.
"What's happened?" he asked, squinting in the light when he opened his own pair of eyes. "Where am I? What . . . Lily?"
"Good morning, Uncle Markas," smiled the mousemaid, beaming down at him. "Oh, you might not want to touch your head like that. We just got the bandages on it."
"Wha . . . buh . . . goodness, you've gotten thin!"
A triumphant snort entered Markas's hearing range, but he was distracted by Lily's comically irate face.
"I've always been thin!" she snapped.
"You haven't been gray before," Markas countered, and another triumphant snort was heard. The old mouse turned and beheld a towering female badger.
"Why, Merola!" the old warrior cried. "Good to see you, old friend. Well, now I know why my poor niece is so thin," he added, looking over the badger's fat figure.
Merola gave a growl, but a sudden loud laugh blocked it out. Markas turned in the direction of the laugh, and beheld three teenage maidens.
"Who are they?" he asked, blinking.
Each maiden revealed her own name:
"Primrose."
"Petunia."
"Pansy."
Uncle Markas's eyes widened. "But . . . but I brought babies home!"
"Babies grow up, Uncle," Lily reminded him.
"Yes, they certainly do . . . though how they ever managed to accomplish that with this one in the house," he added, giving Merola's figure another look, "I'll never know."
Pansy gave another shrill giggle and flounced over towards her legendary uncle. "You really are brave, Uncle Markas!" she chirped. "Nobeast would ever say such things to Merola!"
"Well, Merola and I have a bit of an understanding," Markas began to explain, but was interrupted by the badger.
"You certainly haven't grown thin during your travels! Just what have you been up to all these seasons?"
"Well, I suppose I do owe my family a bit of an explanation, don't I? Well, then let me start: after I had left Noonvale all those seasons ago, I headed west. Met a few beasts on my travels, decent creatures they were. Rescued a vole family when their house caught on fire, helped repair it, too, I might add. But I ended up coming upon the western shoreline, where a gang of sea otters were about to go on a voyage to visit some of their relatives. So I ended up coming along, when suddenly a violent storm came upon us. There are few things less terrifying than being out in the middle of the ocean during a storm, my dears."
"And then what happened?" asked Pansy, wide-eyed.
"Well might you ask, miss Pansy," Uncle Markas replied. "Well, we were eventually washed ashore upon a tropical-looking island. Beautiful place, it was. But our ship was in horrible disrepair. So we rolled up our sleeves and set to working on it, when suddenly we were set upon by a tribe of savage weasels. We barely had time to defend ourselves. Myself and a few others managed to escape, but we were all bent on retrieving our comrades. Unfortunately, some of them didn't survive, but most of them we were able to rescue.
"But there was still the matter of repairing our boat. No matter how many times we tried, the weasels weren't about to let us escape. They ended up destroying the ship beyound repair. We had no other way of getting off the island - or at least, I didn't. I couldn't swim like the otters could, nor could I endure the sea's unforgiving coldness, as they could. I told the otters to just rescue themselves, but they were much too grateful to me for helping them rescue their friends. So, like the brave-hearted creatures that they were, they stuck it out with me on that island, fighting against the weasels and building a raft in a secret cave.
"It took some time, until finally we were able to get off that wretched island, and we set sail for the homes of the otter's relatives. There we held a proper ceremony for the funeral of all the otters who died on that island. After that, came a much better life. The otters that we were visiting lived on an island as well, only it was much bigger, vermin-free, a plentiful with food. I was never thin to begin with, my dears, Lily and Merola can vouch for that, but after all those seasons on that wonderful island, I make my past-self look as thin as a willow-wand!"
Pansy and her sisters giggled.
"So all this time," Merola said. "You've been lazing about on an island, stuffing yourself silly while we've been here, worrying about your saftey?!"
"If you call fending for your life while being hunted down by a tribe of ravenous weasels 'lazing about'," the old warriormouse replied cooly. "Besides, if you'd have been on that otter-island, you'd have lost track of time, too. Now if you don't mind, I would like to look over my nieces, and see how they've blossomed. Ah, Pansy," he went on, smiling at the squirrelmaid. "You've gotten to be a pretty creature! So grown up, too!"
"If you think I'm grown up, wait till you see Primrose!" grinned Pansy. And with that, she pulled her sister forward.
Markas's eyes widened. "Goodness," he breathed, looking the ferretmaid up and down. "Primrose, is that you? The fuzzy little ball of fur with sticky paws?"
"Oh, Uncle, really," the ferretmaid laughed. She leaned forward and gave the old mouse a hug.
"I certainly hope you haven't been getting any unwanted attention from any of the young males around here," Markas said, winking roguishly.
"Oh, stop! I've had plenty of nagging from them, thank you," Primrose said, gesturing at Lily and Merola.
"Well, I'm just looking out for my niece," Uncle Markas assured her. "Now where is Petunia? I want to see how she looks."
The haremaid came shyly forward, suddenly self-conscious and worried about what her uncle would think of her appearance. She had just barely managed to scrub all the blood out of her fur and wiped her mouth of all traces of last night's vomit.
However, Markas smiled and said, "Lovely. Give your old uncle a kiss."
Petunia obliged, giving her uncle a smiling peck on the cheek. Pansy, not to be outdone, gave Markas a smooch on the other one. Primrose, for the sake of not being left out, kissed him on the forehead.
"Now this is the type of welcome I was looking forward to!" the old mouse proclaimed, and they all laughed. "Now come on, let's all get comfortable. I've told you what's happened to me. What've you all been doing with yourselves for the past . . . er. . . ."
"Eleven seasons, Markas."
"Has it really been eleven seasons, Merola? Well, I'll be blown. Oh well. Let's get on with the story-telling!"
Uncle Markas gave a sigh of contentment as he leaned back comfortably into the couch. "An actress and a dancer, eh? I hadn't any idea I had brought home such gifted creatures! And what about you, young missy?" he asked, turning to Petunia. "Has there been anything on the stage that intrigues you?"
"Petunia? On the stage? Our Petunia?" sputtered Pansy. "Hah! No way. She wants to be a Long Patroller!"
"A Long Patroller?" Markas said, raising his eyebrows approvingly at the haremaid. "Well, that's certainly a noble ambition! I'm sure you'd be good at it!"
"She would be."
Markas turned in the direction of the new (and male) voice. He beheld a young, tall, sturdy-looking mouse standing over the threshold of the cottage.
"And who might you be?" the old warrior inquired.
"He's Dakar," Pansy said. "He's been staying with us for about a season now. He's been giving Petunia sword-lessons."
Markas blinked. "Staying here? But . . . that means. . . ." the old mouse turned accusing eyes to Lily and Merola. "My bed! You let a complete stranger sleep in my–"
"When you've been gone for ten seasons," boomed Merola. "You lose privilege over what bed is yours'."
"I thought it was eleven seasons," mused Markas.
"He arrived in the tenth season you were gone!" the old badger shouted. "Pansy just said he's been staying with us for a season!"
". . . Oh. Right."
"I'm sorry, sir," Dakar apologized, walking over. "But allow me to draw the conversation back to Petunia – she saved your life last night."
"What?" said not only Markas, but also Lily, Merola, Primrose and Pansy.
Dakar grinned. "I'm pretty sure you recall those vermin who attacked you, sir?" he asked Markas.
"Well – yes, I do." The old mouse suddenly turned fawningly to the blushing haremaid. "Do you mean to tell me my little flower beat up a whole group of vermin just to save me?"
"I . . . did have some help," Petunia mumbled, smiling at Dakar.
"And do you know something else, Petunia?" the young mousewarrior went on. "Remember that day when we were getting water from the well? When I first came here? You said that when you were little, you used to imagine yourself saving your uncle from a band of vermin who were about to cook him."
The haremaid blinked. Then her eyes began to widen. "It came true!"
The others gaped.
"Remarkable," murmured Markas. "Though, Petunia dear, next time you start imagining things, do you think you could try to come up with something that didn't involve me nearly getting eaten?"
"I'll try," laughed Petunia.
"Dakar!" gasped Lily."You didn't tell us that Pansy fought any of the vermin last night! She might've been killed!"
"Well, she wasn't!" Markas stated. "And neither was I, nor was this fellow here. We all made it, and Noonvale doesn't have any vermin wandering around its borders. We owe our lives and safety to you, Petunia!"
"Yes, indeed we do," said Merola, placing a paw on the haremaid's shoulder. "And you too, Dakar. Thank you. Both of you, thank you."
"And to think," said Pansy, "that I wasn't around to see it! Oh, of all the bad luck."
"Well," put in Primrose. "It was your running off was what got Petunia in that right part of the woods."
"And it was you, Prim," said Petunia, smiling. "Who made me go in that direction. So we all helped."
"Well," said Markas, standing up and stretching. "I guess that settles it. Pansy and Primrose will be going off with this troupe of theirs, and Petunia will be off to Salamandastron to become one of those Long Patrollers. Noble creatures, they are."
"Have you met any, Uncle Markas?" Petunia asked hopefully.
"Met them! Hah, you can bet your ears I met them! In fact, I'm on pretty good terms with some of them. So I suppose I'll be the one to take you down there."
"What?" cried Lily. "You, take Petunia all the way down to–"
"I've still got another adventure within me!" the old warrior proclaimed, standing taller. "And what better way to end my adventures than to lead my niece to the place where she'll get her start as the greatest warriormaid the world has ever seen?"
Petunia flushed but smiled.
Lily, on the other paw, shook her head. "But . . . but . . . you couldn't possibly go on another journey, Uncle!"
"Not go on another journey? I survived being in a seastorm, being hunted down by a tribe of weasels, and a blow to the head last night, didn't I? And I am oldbeast, even though I don't really like to think it! Besides, I'm sure Petunia will help me along the way, won't you, dear? We can look out for one another."
"Yes, we can!" the haremaid nodded excitedly, taking her uncle's arm in hers'.
Lily blinked and continued to shake her head. "But . . . but. . . ." The poor mousemaid was filled with some fearsome mixed feelings. Pansy and her uncle had only recently returned after being away, only to leave again, and Primrose and Petunia were going with them. As much as she wanted her family to be happy, Lily knew that her heart was being broken.
"Um, excuse me? May I have a word with Miss Lily alone, please?"
The mousemaid blinked, and turned to look at Dakar.
So did the others.
"What do you want with my niece, young sir?" Markas asked sharply.
The others, however, grinned. "It's alright, Uncle. We'll explain outside. Come along, now."
And so, Uncle Markas was bore off out the door, which was carefully shut by a giggling Pansy. Who tried to keep it open a sliver, only to receive a harsh reprimand from the others. With a huff, the squirrelmaid shut the door all the way.
Lily and Dakar were alone.
The mousemaid folded her paws and tried her best not to tremble. "Well, what is it? What do you want to say to me?"
The young warriormouse was silent for a moment. Then he spoke.
"I'm sorry."
"For what? For not sinking your claws into me any deeper?"
Dakar winced at the replay of his harsh words. "No. Listen, please. I never meant to hurt you like that. I. . . ."
He trailed off, staring as Lily slowly turned her back on him. Nevertheless, he took a deep breath and pressed on.
"I know now that you're not perfect. You were right. About everything. You . . . you thought I was with Vanna, and you were jealous. You were hurt, and I never meant to make you think that way. All I wanted was to show you I could dance, and . . . well, I guess it didn't work out very well, did it?"
The mousemaid said nothing.
"But – about Primrose . . . where's she's concerned . . . I never meant for it to happen. I. . . ."
He trailed off again. Lily still had her back to him.
Finally Dakar took the deepest breath he had ever taken.
"I love you."
Lily's shoulders stiffened.
Dakar went on. "I love you, though you may not believe it. But I really do love you. That was why I wanted to learn how to dance. You . . . you took me in when I was but a stranger, and not only that, but you bandaged me up and fed me and gave me a bed to sleep in. No other creature has ever been that kind to me.
"And during the whole time I was living here, under the same roof with you, it was almost like we were married with three children. Three very wonderful children. And I didn't realize how much I loved it until . . . until that one night, at the ball, remember?
"And I . . . I remembered how I hadn't gone to the ball because I couldn't dance. I wanted to impress you, to romance you. I wanted to start a courtship, but . . ." He sighed. "That one night, after the play, when you . . . you were right. It was just like with Spring. I put you on a pedestal, thought you were incapable of anything bad. Which is why it came as such a shock when you . . . showed an imperfection that night. And I, being the coward that I was, lost interest.
"But it was only temporary, I swear! Because . . . after you guessed about what happened with Spring . . . I began to miss you. Terribly. I wanted it to be like the way it was, before all the trouble began. I wanted to be with you so much. And I . . . I came to terms with the fact that you aren't perfect. I know that you can get jealous, that you can get hurt, that you can come to the wrong conclusion, that you can get angry and sometimes lash out . . . but I still love you, and I . . . still . . . still want to . . . marry you."
Finally Lily turned around. There were tears in her eyes.
She held out her arms.
Dakar practically ran to her and flung his own arms around her, and both mice broke down into tearful happiness as they shared their first kiss.
After a moment or two, Dakar whispered in Lily's ear, "Do you want me to show you how much dancing I've learned so far?"
The mousemaid gave a watery chuckle, and nodded.
The male mouse placed his right paw on her waist. She placed her left paw on his shoulder. They both joined their other paws.
Soon Dakar was leading Lily on a slow yet graceful waltz.
The mousemaid sighed and placed her head against his shoulder. "It's a shame there isn't any music."
For a moment, silence reigned again.
But only for a moment.
From a partially open window came the sound of slightly off-key humming. Primrose, Petunia, Pansy, Merola, and Markas, who had been eavesdropping the whole time, were trying to give the two mice some music to dance to.
Lily and Dakar stared at the window before breaking down into laughter.
"Oh well," Lily giggled. "They were all not very good at singing, anyway."
A/N: Welp, people, this is the second-to-last chapter. After the next chapter is uploaded, this fic will be done.
Also, do any of you recall the three necklaces Markas left the three maidens? He said that each necklace had a story behind them. He's going to reveal in the next chapter.