These are my final author's notes for this story. I don't want to have any for the last chapter so I'll just get everything out of the way here and now. I'm starting a new job soon which won't leave me a lot of time to write so I wanted to get this out to you quickly. First a quick disclaimer. Poncho D you should like this one. I use another song entitled "The Last Rose of Summer" in the final chapter. It's sung by the group "Celtic Women" so of course I don't own it. For what I use it for I think it fits well.

Now I'll reveal a few my mysteries about both "A Mask and A Song" and "Winter's Flowers." In chapter 33 of "Winter's Flowers" I put forth a contest asking if anyone could identify a historic quote I put in there. Only one person took up on the offer and after a hint or two from yours truly they were able to identify the quote. It's "last full measure of devotion," and is said in my story by Martin during his eulogy for the Highflight Eagles. Abraham Lincoln wrote it in the Gettysburg Address. The line is also used in the recent movie "National Treasure; Book of Secrets." As far as the secret plot bunny you would have gotten, it deals with the introduction of a female canon character in the last chapter. You'll spot her once you get there I'm sure.

I got several people wondering why I did kill the eagles. I told those people that I had a reason but never did share that reason. I'll share it now. The Highflight Eagles are American Bald Eagles. Those are not a native species of Great Britain nor are any eagles like them described in any Redwall book. Had they lived it would make sense there would have been a population of them somewhere. Since there's not, and because I believe there is something very heroic about laying down one's life for a friend, they do just that.

I do apologize if you felt I glossed over Willic and Kristyal or Scirus at the end of last chapter. My reasons were that this is a tale about Martin and Rose so they are the ones who should get the screen time. Who knows maybe I'll write something later about them. But not right now.

I would also like to share with you some of how I created the names for many of my OC characters. For the most part I took names of things, places, people or other languages and mixed the letters up a bit to come up with something I liked. The idea for that of course comes from "I Am That Is."

Rassk the Mask- It sounded like a good evil name, especially for a villain with a speech impediment.

Flurem Woo-es- Mix the letters around a bit and you come up with "Mouse Flowers" which references Rose and Columbine's names.

Lupisto- The Latin name for wolf is canis lupis. Add a –to to the end of lupis and you get Lupisto

Restro- Something that popped into my brain when I was working on this story at some incredibly early hour and it sounded good.

Alantra- Was inspired by the city Atlanta.

Scirus- Was again inspired by the Latin language and the scientific name for the Eastern Grey Squirrel sciurus carolinensis.

Now the Eagles, these were quite bit of fun to create. They're all the names of places of things that are of special meaning to me.

Dorocol- Colorado, one of the most beautiful places in the USA

Vendre- Denver, go Broncos!

Tankoam- Mankato, the city where I went to high school (I've since moved away) but a great place to grow up

Rancles- Lancers, the name of my high school marching band. Good times let me tell you.

Stobon- Boston, go Red Sox!

Merdofe- Freedom, God Bless America

And the last Eagle that I had planned and mentioned but never named, Sorvelot- Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt is one my favorite Presidents.

Giana- I was staring at the brand name to my portable DVD player and kept changing the sounds around till I came up with that. It was during my old security job and I got rather bored on third shift.

There was a cranky volemaid in the Gardens I wrote a bit about, but I can't remember her name much less how I came up with it.

Oakson- I figured that was a good squirrel name.

Isic- Taken from Isis of Egyptian mythology.

Yatal- I honestly forget where that one came from.

Terick- Playing with sounds again.

Ajaxis- Word play on Ajax from Homers "Illiad"

Sophor- More playing with sounds.

A'toney- Inspired from Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar." Play on the character Mark Antony

Pleabus- Again from "Julius Caesar." The Plebeians gave me this name.

Tyrelt- "Romeo and Juliet" this time. Tyblat inspired this name.

There are three new characters in the next chapter whose names are inspired by camps I've worked at and a doctor I had when I was a very small child. But I won't ruin the surprise as to what their names are in these notes.

Kristyal- One of my former co-workers was a woman named Kristen. Again I changed things around a bit and there you go. Only their names are similar their personalities are no where near alike.

Willic- I'm so glad that people responded well to him. Mainly because he's based on yours truly. I did put in some differences, but he's based quite a bit on me, including his name which will remain a mystery as to how I came up with it.

All other characters should be from the novels so if you want to know how they came about write Brian Jacques. I hope I haven't bored you to much with these ramblings. If there is anything else you'd like to know about this story please feel free to drop me a line.

And now comes the time to bid a fond farewell to this tale. It's been a lot of fun to write over these past months. I'm truly sorry to see it go, but the tale has been told. Thank you all for the comments and reviews you have left me. They were very helpful when writers block reared its ugly head and constantly challenged me to make my writing better.

Special thank yous go out to Awsomewriter123. The guy has reviewed every single chapter of every Redwall story I've written. Rock on dude. Scyphi, for a lot of good ideas that have been exchanged. And to nebula212255 for also being a very long time reviewer. To everyone else thank you as well for your comments. I don't plan on this being the last Redwall fanfic I'll ever write, but don't be surprised if I venture off into other fandoms now that this has been completed. Thank you for taking your time to read this story. It's been a pleasure and an honor to share it with you all.

So now please pull up a chair, get comfortable and scroll down to the last little arrow. We will now delve into the final mystery. How did Martin know about Matthias?