Angolian chapter today, featuring mercs, arguing conspirators, doubting toms, and plotting rebels. As for next chapter, I have an idea for a possible new twist to the Alexander subplot that I'll try out then, but if it doesn't work out, it'll be a Redwall chapter by default.

Chapter 37

After Aurora left, Grim and Sais continued doing as they were ordered, which was to observe the village of mice and to locate and unveil the rebels, and dispose of them. They did so reluctantly, however, as neither the young ferret or the wiser weasel liked each other, and didn't like the idea of having to work so closely. To remedy it, they kept their distance from each other, and did not speak to each other unless it was absolutely necessary. Grim seemed perfectly okay with this, even seemed to prefer it, but for Sais, it was depressing, and he kept wishing Aurora would come back already. At least she acknowledged that he even existed.

On this particular day, things had run much like before. They arose as the sun did, had a brief breakfast at their camp, then moved to the places they had determined was best for spying on the Angolian village; within two neighboring trees that were tall enough to overlook the whole village, but didn't stand out to an onlookers attention, thus allowing them to hide in plain sight.

They had both been like this all morning, Grim sitting on the branch of one tree, while Sais straddled a branch in the next tree over. They had both been silent while the observed the village, and had hardly moved during all this time. However, for the past several moments, Sais had begun fidgeting about as if uncomfortable. Finally, he slapped the side of the branch with his paw in frustration, and started to clamber off of it.

"Enough of this." he muttered as he went.

Grim turned to look at him disapprovingly. "What are you doing?" he asked flatly.

Sais looked back at him. "I need to go." he replied.

"Go where?"

"No, I mean go, as in...y'know...go."

Grim merely narrowed his eyes at the ferret, still not looking like he approved.

Sais stared back. "Or would you rather I just went up here in the tree?" he asked, annoyed at being delayed.

"I would rather that you held it and continued watching the village like I asked you to." Grim replied, turning his attention back to the village.

"And how much longer am I going to be doing that?" Sais asked as he reluctantly climbed back onto the branch, straddling it again.

"Until I tell you to stop."

"But that could be hours from now! I don't know if I can hold it that long!"

"Can't you?" Grim looked disappointed.

"No, I can't, and I doubt you could too!" Sais argued, although as he said it, he wondered if that was really true. It had already been proven that Grim could sit in his tree all day and not leave for anything. In fact, Sais couldn't recall Grim going to take care of his private matters at all. It was as if the weasel had perfect control over his body.

Of course, it wasn't like Sais stopped to watch when a creature needed to relieve his or her self. He may be vermin, but even vermin can have standards.

Whatever the case, Grim merely ignored the jibe and allowed the conversation to drop by falling silent and ignoring Sais's plight. Sais was left unable to continue the argument, and was more or less forced to obey Grim's request and stay. He grew more and more uncomfortable and began fidgeting more and more as time went by, so much so, he wasn't really paying attention to the village anymore, but he managed to keep the matter to himself for the time being. Although he wasn't very confident he could stay that way for much longer.

Finally, Grim spied something that grabbed his attention. "There." he said, pointed with his claw at something within the village. "Do you see that?"

"See what?" Sais snapped, who, of course, had not seen it.

"Those two creatures within the village." Grim stated, narrowing his eyes at them. "They've been walking around the village in a circle, almost consistently, no less than three times now. Like they're a patrol from the royal guard, but they can't be. They're too short to be foxes, meaning they must be mice. They aren't wearing any kind of uniform, either, and are instead wearing cloaks. Like they've got something to hide..." he fell silent for a moment while Sais tried to track down these mice himself, and failing. "Sais, what do you think?"

Sais, who was anxious for any excuse to get out of the tree, promptly agreed. "Sounds suspicious." he said, slightly surprised the weasel even bothered to get his opinion.

"Yes." Grim said, and jumped out of the tree. "Suspicious enough to report it in, I believe."

He started towards their camp hidden deeper in the woods. Seeing this, Sais quickly went to follow, getting out of the tree a little less gracefully than Grim had, and stumbled along after his companion as best as he could. Grim did not stop until he arrived at the camp, and pulled out a bow and arrow from where they were set beside the fire. Taking a bright red cloth from his pocket, the weasel tied it to the arrow, just below it's head, and placed the arrow on the bow. Pointing it straight into the sky above him, Grim fired the arrow. It sailed upwards, it's crimson taper flapping in the breeze, then the arrow stalled out and came tumbling back down to the earth, point first.

"Think they saw it?" Sais asked, whose fidgeting hadn't lessened any now that he was out of the tree.

"If they did not, I will fire it again." Grim remarked, putting away the bow. "I do not believe I will have to, however. Our employer is usually very good about seeing when we have messages for him." he turned to face Sais, and saw that the ferret couldn't keep still. He sighed, then waved the younger creature off. "Go relieve yourself, Sais."

"Thank you!" Sais cried instantly, and with relief, and without hesitating, bolted into the surrounding woods.

"I expect you to come straight back here in five minutes!" Grim called after him.

"I will! Don't worry!" Sais exclaimed back without even pausing.

Grim watched him go, then turned his head, rolling his eyes, then settled down to wait.

As it turned out, Grim was completely right, and the arrow he had fired, serving as a coded message, was seen, from a tower window at Midnight Castle. And promptly upon seeing it, she hurried to relay the news.

Meanwhile, in the study that now belonged to him, Methusael was standing behind his desk and looking out the window at the village beyond, thinking. Things were not going according to the plan, the plan he had spent much more than a season planning. The completely unexpected Angolian rebellion was the one factor that messed things up the most for him. It was because of that, that he had to act quickly and go forward with his plans sooner than he would've liked.

Now he had control over all of Angola, as he wanted, but many of the problems Kani had faced when he was leader was simply dropped onto him. And now that was slowing down his plans. He couldn't begin his plans fully until he had dealt with the rebellion, and who knew how long that would take.

Unless, he accelerated his plans yet again. But that would mean that the advantage of stealth he had been using throughout all of this would no longer apply.

His thoughts were broken when there was a sudden knock on the study door.

"Come in." he said, turning to face the door.

Adah entered the study calmly, looking as bitter as always. "Your mercenaries are seeking your attention, milord." she stated in a official manner. "Shall I send the messenger?"

"Yes, please, I hope they have something useful to report for a change." Methsauel said with a nod.

Adah nodded to indicate that she understood, then narrowed her eyes slightly at Methusael. "Has Aurora completed her mission yet?" she inquired.

Methusael returned the glare. "You just can't let a subject drop, can you?" he asked.

"Answer the question."

"I won't know until Aurora comes back to report in. And I don't know how long that will take her."

"Takes that long to kill one lone fox, does it?"

Methusael's glare hardened. "I've told you before. Aurora is just checking to make sure Kani does not go and rally himself an army to take back what I've taken from him. Only if he is, is she to kill him."

"You know I don't buy that."

"If so, then why haven't you made good on your threat?"

"There's more happening here than me and you, Methusael." Adah said, almost challenging. "Clearly, you haven't believed me."

Methusael made a frustrated sigh that was more of a quiet snort. "Your argument was rather weak." he said in his defense. "Whatever the case, why must you always be at my throat?"

"Because if I back off in the slightest, you'll stab me in the back."

"I will not. As I've said before, Adah, you're very valuable to me, and you're just as much in this as I am."

"You gave me little choice. And besides, how do I know you won't do me in out of spite?"

Methusael didn't answer.

"You know, Methusael, I used to admire you, before this all began." Adah remarked. "Maybe even attracted to you somewhat, and don't pretend that doesn't mean anything to you, because I know you're attracted to me. But that all has since changed. You may seem...mm...okay at a first glance, Methusael, for a military creature. But then I have to take into consideration everything that you've done. If you really wanted me, Methusael, you shouldn't have pulled me into this. Or, better still, you shouldn't have done this at all. Because all that it has done for you is give you enemies."

She then turned around and marched out of the study without waiting for a reply from Methusael. "I'll send the messenger." she called back as she went.

And then Methusael was left alone in the study to contemplate the conversation.

Since the time Grim had spotted them, the two mice had since vanished back into the cottages the village of Angola contained. This did not bother the patrols from the royal guard in the slightest, but seeing that they never knew of the two mice in the first place, that wasn't so surprising. However, later, two were going to wish they had known about it.

They were two foxes, who hadn't had too much experience under their belts yet, and were wandering the streets of the village randomly as they sought to carry out their standing orders; locate and arrest any and all members of the Angolian rebellion. However, like the rest of the royal guard, they weren't having much luck. They didn't even have a clue as to who might be a rebel and who might not be one. Which one of them seriously wondered if that might something.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if there's any actual truth to this rebellion." the fox remarked to his companion.

His companion gave him a look. "You crazy?" he asked. "How could there not be any truth to it?"

"Well, what if his lordship has been overexaggerating the seriousness of the situation? What if the rebellion isn't really that bad?"

"Then how do you explain the events that's been happening around here? Are you saying that they didn't happen?"

"No, of course not, it happened. No one can deny that. I'm just saying that a lot of things just aren't adding up about all of this."

"Well, I will give you that much. Some of this is highly...irregular."

"Aye. Like Methusael suddenly taking over in Lord Kani's stead."

"Now don't you go touching that subject."

"But we can't ignore it. Lord Kani's disappearance has a lot of unanswered questions to it, and something about it doesn't seem to add up in my mind. It seems very convenient, even."

His companion was silent for a moment. "Like Master Methusael had planned for it to happen?" he asked.

"Possibly."

"But you speak of treason!"

"So I do. But you can't deny that it's possible."

And he was right. His companion couldn't argue that point and fell silent.

Then they suddenly heard something hidden in the space in-between two cottages. Stopping, they turned to look. They didn't see anything, but something had clearly moved down there.

"Something worth checking out?" the fox's companion asked.

"Probably." the fox said, gripping his stave tighter. "Let's go look around."

They started down the alley, looking around for any signs of any creatures. They got about halfway down before pausing. They looked like they were considering turning back to look again, when two loaded slings suddenly whacked them in the back of their heads, knocking them out like lights. Toppling over, Moroni and Amulek stood over the two fallen guards, looking self-satisfied.

"Well good, that worked out nicely." Moroni said, bending down to begin undoing the clasps to one of the two foxes's uniforms.

"I still say this is a very bad idea." Amulek said, who still had misgivings about the whole plan. "What about when these guys wake back up?"

"We'll be long gone by then." Moroni said.

"Yes, but they won't be wearing much." Amulek said as he started undressing the other fox.

"They'll know someone stole their uniforms, yes, but they won't know who, or why." Moroni said as he worked. "Besides, we circled the village about a dozen times earlier to determine which patrol would be the most ideal to attack, and we picked this one. I'd say we're safe from any repercussions from this for the time being."

"It's afterwards that I'm worried about."

"You're so negative, Amulek. You should look at things from the bright side more often."

"I do! For instance, there's a bright side in the fact that we were able to convince Sister Daisy to sit this one out."

"Ah yes, I can't believe she wanted to come along and help for this. I suppose she wanted to make sure we weren't too rough with them. Still, it's good that she didn't come along."

"Aye, this is really a job for males, seeing these two are males themselves."

Soon, they had removed the uniforms from both foxes, leaving them stripped down to their undergarments. Quickly, they placed the stolen uniforms in a haversack and donned the cloaks they had shed for the event and prepared to depart.

"Act casual." Moroni whispered to Amulek before they exited the alley.

And so they did, walking out into the street and heading home, trying to act unsuspicious and like nothing had happened. And it worked, nobody ever suspected the pair of clocked mice, and the two stunned foxes were none the wiser about the details of what happened. In fact, nobody knew they were there until they came stumbling out some time later, and, embarrassed, went to report in to their commanding officer, who reportedly got quite a kick out of their predicament.