Kani and Mathoni centric chapter, they're getting closer to Redwall now. Next chapter will be Angolian-centric, and depending on it's length, the next chapter after that might be the same.

Chapter 36

"Brr." Kani muttered with a shiver.

"Wot, are ye cold, matey?" Mathoni asked, glancing back at him.

Kani nodded. His otter companion frowned.

"How can ye be cold?" he asked. "I'm not cold in the slightest."

"This from the creature who was about to faint from heat exhaustion the other day." Kani stated almost teasingly.

"That was different." Mathoni declared in his defense. "'Sides, I'm really not cold, and I can't see how ye can be."

"Oh really?" Kani asked, and pointed downward at his footpaws with one claw to prove his point.

Mathoni looked, then glanced at his own footpaws. "Well, I suppose th' water is a bit nippy, but that's nothin' a good coat of fur can't handle."

"Your fur coat must be different from mine, then." Kani remarked, shaking a heavily soddened footpaw of loose river water before he and Mathoni continued trudging through the body of water. It had been his idea after their brief encounter with the rat assassin that morning that they should continue this journey by walking in the river that they were following, so that they wouldn't leave tracks that the rat could possibly follow as easily, should she ever free herself in time. It was a solid idea, but the water was still quite cold from the morning chill, and the fox was beginning to regret it.

"Well, an otter is built for swimmin'." Mathoni did admit as they waded onward. "A fox...not so much."

"Particularly this fox, as I can't swim." Kani agreed. "But I still don't get it. Your fur is just as wet as mine."

Mathoni glanced down at the fur around his footpaws. It was throughly drenched and matted around his legs, the wet hairs having soaked others, and as the result, the water had slowly traverse halfway up the otter's leg, wetting the fur there as well. It was bone dry above that. A brief glance proved that Kani's fur was in a similar state.

"I don't get it either." Mathoni said with a shrug. "I feel fine."

"And I feel cold!" Kani snapped with a shudder. "Especially in my footpaws." he shivered again. "Maybe we should stop and take a break."

"That might actually be a good idea, matey." Mathoni agreed, suddenly stopping in his tracks. "Looks like th' river gets deeper from 'ere."

Kani walked up and looked around him at the river ahead of them. "Looks the same as always to me." he remarked.

"To th' untrained eye, maybe." Mathoni remarked, glancing at the fox. "Seein' that ye can't swim, I'm thinkin' we should continue on solid ground now."

Kani pushed past Mathoni and looked ahead, still not convinced. "Maybe." he said. "The current does begin to pick up, I can see that, but it doesn't look deeper."

"Looks can be deceivin'." Mathoni pointed out. "Besides, who are ye goin' t' believe, yoreself, or a professional otter?"

Kani gave him a grin. "A professional, huh?"

"Aye, I've been an otter all me life. I think that makes me a professional."

Kani merely rolled his eyes. "I still say that it's nothing we can't wade through for awhile longer still."

"I thought ye were cold, though." Mathoni said, giving Kani a bemused look. "Now ye want t' keep goin'?"

"No, no, I still want to stop and rub some feeling into my footpaws, but I really think we could keep wading through the river as far as we can go." Kani stated, turning to face his otter friend. "I highly doubt that rat we tied up is going to stay that way long enough for us to get to Redwall, and I'd feel more comfortable if we didn't make it too easy for her to try and kill us both again."

"Understandable." Mathoni said with a nod. "But really, Kani, we really shouldn't press our luck. Rivers don't usually get deeper very evenly. They might be nice an' shallow one moment, then suddenly so deep ye can't touch bottom."

"We're still in the shallower end of the River Moss, Mathoni." Kani pointed out, facing forward again. "I don't think this is such a big deal. I mean, I trust your knowledge and instincts, and I'm not saying that you aren't right...but I guess I'd like proof."

"Well, just wadin' out there blindly will give it t' ye, yore lordship." Mathoni remarked flatly.

"We aren't going to be wading onward blindly." Kani said with a sigh, rolling his eyes as he took one step forward, past Mathoni.

He then suddenly vanished into the water.

"Kani!" Mathoni exclaimed, and started forward only to discover that the riverbed suddenly dropped down more than foot in depth directly ahead of him...and Kani had stepped right into it. Mathoni hesitated, not wanting to make an unexpected dive as well, not without knowing mor ebaout what was going on. "Kani!" he exclaimed again, watching the water anxiously, hoping the fox would resurface on his own and give Mathoni a bearing of where he was exactly.

Kani did resurface, but through means unknown to even Mathoni, the fox had somehow managed to flow several feet downstream in the space of time he had been under the water, and resurfaced in a panic.

"Mathoni!" he gurgled as he resurfaced and struggled to keep his head above the water as he blindly struggled in the water. "Mathoni, help!"

He then vanished back under the water, only to reappear even further away a moment later. The current was pulling him away. Acting quickly, Mathoni dove into the water and with all the grace and agility he had to offer as an otter, began swimming towards Kani to rescue him.

"I'm comin' mate!" he exclaimed as he surfaced to get a gulp of air before swimming onward. "I'm comin'!"

But for Kani, he wasn't coming fast enough. The current seemed to be going faster and faster by the moment. The distance Mathoni had left to cover to reach Kani didn't seem to be getting any smaller, the current was pulling Kani away as fast as Mathoni could swim towards him. Kani tried to help by trying to make his way towards the young otter, but he himself had made clear time and time again, he couldn't swim. If anything, his feeble attempts probably only made things worse.

And even worse than that was the fact that Kani couldn't feel the riverbed with his footpaws anymore. He didn't have the foggiest clue how much water separated him from solid ground, and the thought frightened him as the fear of drowning gripped his heart as it donned on his mind just how much of a reality that was at the moment. The water was freezing, too, soaking clear through Kani's fur and chilling his flesh. The shock alone of the sudden drop into the water nearly rendered him unable to move. He could barely move as is, and at the moment, all he wanted to do instinctively was curl up into a ball and shiver uncontrollably, although he knew that was a bad idea in his current situation.

He struggled to stay at the surface of the water was he was swept further and further downstream, feebly kicking his legs and slapping his arms on the water's surface to do so. He managed to more or less do so in a bobbing motion, splashing water all about in the process. Suddenly water splashed unexpectedly into his face, blurring his vision, and pouring unexpectedly into his mouth making him gag. His concentration broken, he went under again, a frightful situation as he felt the moisture of the surging water press against him, the liquid stinging his open eyes, seeing nothing but swirling fluid all around him. Kani fought to get back to the surface again, but had lost all perception of up and down in the now very powerful current. He resisted the urge to breath, made harder as water flowed up his snout and poured into his ears.

Finally, he resurfaced on his own, breaking through the water with a burst and a welcomed gasp of air, followed by much gagging.

"Kani!" Mathoni called from further up the river. He still didn't seem to be getting any closer, no matter how fast the otter swam.

"Mathoni!" Kani called back, coughing as he did so.

He went back under the water for a moment, but was quickly surfaced again.

"Kani, look out!" Mathoni suddenly called, eyes widening in panic.

Kani didn't even have time to respond before his back suddenly slammed into something hard and solid; a rock sticking up out of the water. Stunned and in pain, the fox couldn't find the strength to fight to stay above the water anymore, and promptly went under. And stayed under. Kani felt like he was sinking deeper and deeper, and as water started gushing into his mouth and down his throat unbidden, he sensed that maybe there was no going back now.

What seemed like moments passed, and as conscious started blur around the corner's of the fox's mind as he feared Mathoni wouldn't catch up with him in time, something suddenly bumped into him. At first, he was too dazed to make note of it was until he felt the distinct sensation of claws grabbing at him, and the repeated bumping of something that definitely felt like a creature. The last thing Kani remembered was a sensation of fleeting hope that maybe he would survive now that Mathoni had caught up with him before losing consciousness altogether.

The next thing he remembered was being in the middle of coughing violently and feeling nauseous.

"Good!" a voice praised somewhere from above. "Better out than in!"

The voice wasn't Mathoni's like Kani had expected, which somewhat startled him, but he couldn't focus on that at the moment as he went into another coughing fit, ejecting the intrusive water he had swallowed earlier out of his body and onto the cold slab of stone he realized he was lying upon.

"C'mon, c'mon, get it all out, now." the voice prompted again. Whoever it was, he had the same kind of accent as Mathoni.

"Is he going t' be alright?" the worried sound of Mathoni's voice suddenly rang out from nearby, to Kani's relief.

"Ah, he'll live." the unfamiliar voice remarked dismissively.

Kani begged to differ. His lungs hurt from the coughing, his throat was sore and was burning, and his chest hurt, like someone had been pressing against it. However, as he finished with that last coughing fit and began to have the luxury of breathing normally again, he inwardly thought that it could've been worse.

Feeling the adrenaline still pumping through his veins begin to lessen again, and his beating heart relaxing, Kani blinked a few times to clear his fluid-flooded vision and looked around. The first thing he saw was Mathoni, on all fours and sopping wet, looking as if he had only just barely gotten out of the river, which, Kani was quick to note, was still nearby. The otter looked concerned as he peered down upon the fox, but was also relieved, and looked to be calming down himself.

On the other side of Kani was the owner of the unfamiliar voice; a red-furred squirrel in-between his age and Mathoni's dressed simply in burlap trousers and a brown leather vest. He, too, was sopping wet like he had just gone for a swim in the river himself (so much so that at first glance it was hard to tell he was really a squirrel), a surprise for Kani. If so, the squirrel seemed completely indifferent about this, ignoring his wet body as he instead focused his attention on Kani.

"Take it easy, there, ye nearly drowned just now." the squirrel remarked, holding Kani back as he tried to sit up. "Got a whole lot o' water in ye too, goin' where water shouldn't be goin'."

"Don't remind me." Kani moaned, his voice sounding coarse and rough.

"Ye alright mate?" Mathoni asked.

Kani nodded. "More or less." he said, breathing heavily still. "Just cold...wet..." he let his head fall back onto the stone slab with a soft thump, "...exhausted."

"And ye 'ave every right t' be." the squirrel remarked, sitting up wiping water from his saturated fur.

Kani gave him a glance. "And who are you?"

"Tide Waterryder, resident river sailor, at yore service." the squirrel replied with a proud tone as he squeezed water out of a hat he had apparently removed sometime before Kani regained consciousness and placed it on his brow.

"He's th' 'un that rescued ye, I couldn't get t' ye in time." Mathoni explained breathlessly.

"What?" Kani declared. "Really?"

"Aye, I know!" Mathoni agreed, equally impressed. "A squirrel that can swim. Now I've seen everythin'."

"Oh pshaw, t'weren't nothin'." Tide remarked as he stood up and stretched his nimble limbs, shaking water from his presently not-so-bushy tail. "Heard somebeast needin' 'elp, an' did wot any self-respectin' creature would've done." he glanced Kani over again. "Though I dunno why this otter wanted t' save vermin."

"Wha...excuse me?" Kani exclaimed, offended, forcing himself into a sitting position.

Mathoni stopped him. "Well, thanks anyway." he told the squirrel. "Kani's not yore ordinary fox, so it's much appreciated ye helped 'im anyway."

"Couldn't tell that he what he was when he was in the water." Tide remarked flatly, justifying his actions. "Dunno wot he was doin' in th' river anyway. Hard t' swim in these parts even for a skilled swimmer."

"Well, he can't swim at all." Mathoni remarked, jabbing a claw at Kani.

"Even more reason t' stay out!" Tide declared.

"I didn't mean to get swept away in that death trap!" Kani snapped, not liking the squirrel's ill-attitude towards him. "How was I supposed to know that the river suddenly deepened a mere pace ahead of me?"

Tide gave him an odd look. "Just wot we're ye doin' t' get like this anyway?" he asked, curious.

Mathoni shook himself (splashing water onto Kani in the process, to the fox's dismay) before answering. "Kind of a long story, mate." he replied, wriggling a claw in one ear as he spoke. "Anyway, I'm Mathoni, an' this is Kani. We're headin' for Redwall Abbey, by th' quickest means possible."

"Redwall, eh?" Tide remarked, pulling at his whiskers in thought. "Wot do they want with vermin?"

Kani shot the squirrel a glare, not understanding why the creature persisted to refer to him with such a cruel name. Again, Mathoni prevented him from reacting to the remark.

"Like I said, it's a long story." he said, while giving Kani a look to quiet him.

"Well, the abbey ain't too much further from 'ere." Tide said, looking around to get his bearings. "If ye're really in such a hurry, I s'pose I could take ye as far as the ford in me boat."

"Really?" Mathoni asked, brightening. "That'd be real nice, mate."

"Eh." The squirrel said with a shrug, the turned and walked into the surrounding shrubbery. "C'mon, we'll go t' me home first t' dry off, then we'll get goin'. By th' way, normally I don't let vermin on me boat, but seeing that fox is friends of ye, otter, I s'pose I can make an exception this once. Keep an eye on him, though, ye got that? Watch 'im like a hawk."

"Understood." Mathoni said, standing up and helping Kani up to his footpaws before following the squirrel.

Kani silently followed, supported by Mathoni for a few paces before he was confident enough to walk under his own power, too tired and too anxious for a quicker means to get to Redwall to complain aloud to the squirrel about his comments about him, and only him. He still didn't understand why Tide felt a need for such a thing, though, but Mathoni apparently did.

"Mathoni, why does he keep referring to me as vermin?" Kani asked.

Mathoni glanced at him, and hesitated. "We're in Mossflower Woods now, matey." he said like that explained everything. "'Round 'ere, most foxes are considered vermin, an' with good reason. In fact, never really known of a fox passing through 'ere that wasn't naught but vermin."

This was a surprise for Kani. With the exceptions of Methusael and a few foxes recorded in Angolian history, he had always considered his race to be goodbeasts.

"There's no such thing as vermin foxes in Angola." he remarked, stunned.

"I, uh, figured as much yore lordship." Mathoni remarked, sounding uncomfortable.

"Then why didn't you tell me about this?"

The otter hesitated again. "I was bein' polite?" he remarked with a shrug, again thinking the answer was obvious.

Kani thought about that for a moment, then shrugged, and they continued onward in silence for a few moments. His mind couldn't drop the subject, though.

"Mathoni," he began, knowing he had to know the answer to this question, "Will Redwall look upon me as the same way as Tide?"

Mathoni hesitated once more, and bit his lip. Kani could see him search for an alternate answer than the completely honest one, but ultimately failed. "More than likely, matey." he finally admitted apologetically. "I...can't predict their reaction entirely, but..." he trailed off. "Look, Kani, ye aren't like the foxes Mossflower has encountered before, an' that's all that matters."

"All that should matter, at least." Kani commented, knowing that wouldn't stop some creatures.

As Tide had indicated, they arrived at his hut first, not far from the shore of the river, and quickly dried off using cloths the squirrel had provided. While they were there, Tide also provided some food for his two companions, giving Mathoni an apple and a hearty slice of cheese that the otter downed quickly, whereas he gave Kani a half-slice of stale bread that wasn't very filling. He held back his comments on the matter, however, trying to tell himself that Tide just didn't know him and merely perceived him as the other, bad, foxes that were apparently common here.

Once they were finished here, Tide them led back out of the small hut and back to the river, heading a bit further down the bank than from where they were previously. Eventually, they arrived at a small, self-made wooden pier. Tied to it, bobbing gently on the rapid current of River Moss, was a raft made of logs, with a small cabin built in it's center with a small mast and sail rising up from it's roof. The edges of the craft were roped off with vines.

Mathoni whistled. "Nice craft ye got there, mate." he remarked.

"Thank ye, Mathoni." Tide replied, who had taken to the otter better than he had Kani. "Beautiful craft, me liddle Water Skimmer, eh?"

"Where did ye get it?" Mathoni asked as Tide led the way onboard the raft, Kani bringing up the rear.

"I made it. I know all 'em boat buildin' tricks from me family."

"Yore family? So they were water creatures too?"

"Aye, but would ye expect anythin' less from otters?"

"Otters? Yore family are otters?"

"Yep. Born an' raised with 'em."

"Born?"

"Well, not born into their family, of course. Me parents were squirrels like all other squirrels. But, somethin' happened t' 'em when I was really young, leavin' me alone an' without a home, an' th' Waterryders's took me as 'un of their own."

"Well, that explains a few things." Kani remarked as, now that they were all safely aboard the raft, Tide untied the raft from the pier and letting it be pulled into the river's current.

"Aye, it does." Mathoni agreed. "A squirrel raised by otters. S'pose that would make a squirrel want t' be 'round water later in life."

"Ye can bet yore mama's rudder that it does." Tide remarked as he sat down at the raft's tiller. "So, away we go. Should arrive at th' ford sometime this evenin', then yore gonna 'ave t' walk th' rest of th' way by paw."

"Ah, that'll be fine, Tide, just so long as we can speed up this trip." Mathoni remarked. "Like I said before, we're in a hurry."

"Don't matter t' me either way." Tide remarked. "I'll get ye where ye need t' be, though. All I ask is that ye keep th' vermin out of trouble."

Mathoni glanced over at Kani. The fox's back was turned to them both, hiding his expression but his ears were quite clearly folded back, making it clear that the comment was still perceived as an insult by him. Mathoni winced inwardly, but knew that there probably wasn't going to be much he could do to prevent this.

"I don't think we'll 'ave much t' worry about from him, Tide." Mathoni commented, then turned and joined Kani.

"Can't wait until we arrive at Redwall." Kani mumbled aloud as the otter approached, sounding somewhat bitter.

Again, Mathoni winced inwardly. "Kani, don't listen t' him, he just doesn't know ye." he remarked.

"I know." Kani said. "But he can't see it, and doesn't seem to want to. If he can't, who's to say anyone else will?"

"So?" Mathoni asked.

"Mathoni, I'm thinking about the inhabitants at your abbey." Kani remarked. "How can I expect them to willing to trust me, if they aren't even likely to think I'm not nothing more but mere vermin?"