And the battle continues still. In other news, be warned, my work schedule has changed to include more hours, thus meaning I have less time than before to write chapters. I believe I'll still be able to write them (there's always the weekends) but I can't say how regular they will be. Just so you all are aware.

Chapter 48

"Freeman, look out!" Cornflower cried out urgently, pointing behind the hare.

Freeman whirled around and yelped. "Oh corks!" he exclaimed, swishing out the sword Wootiberg had given him to deflect the blow the rat was above to deal to him.

The rat merely parried the blow and moved to strike again, driving Freeman back away from the door. Soon the two were engaged in a battle, Freeman desperately trying to keep the rat away from Cornflower and Tess. Tess yelped when one of the blades swished dangerously near her body.

"Just ignore them, Tess!" Cornflower said, trying hard to ignore the battle herself. "Let's stay on focus here! Please, try and remain calm!"

"Cornflower, I swear, you tell me that one more time..." Tess growled.

"Stay back!" Freeman roared as the rat pushed him closer to the two maidens and drove the rat back towards the door.

The rat, however, wasn't about to let that happen, and quickly sidestepped Freeman and moved around to stab her sword at Freeman's exposed back. Freeman reacted quickly to stop the blow, spinning around and driving the rat back, nearly bumping into Cornflower. The maiden quickly ducked in self-defense.

The rat then swung her blade down at Freeman. Freeman blocked it with his blade, driving the rat's blade back. The rat jerked the hilt of the blade back in an attempt to compensate and ended up ramming the pommel of the hilt hard in Cornflower's head, the force of the blow to knock Cornflower's head into the wall. Unconscious, Cornflower then slid to the floor.

"Cornflower!" Tess exclaimed.

Freeman didn't seem to notice. He instead pulled the rat's own trick back on her and sidestepped her next attack and went to attack her back, forcing the rat to turn around to defend herself. This allowed Freeman to drive her back, and drive her back he did, all the way back and out of the door.

"Get out!" Freeman exclaimed, reversing his hold on his sword and clubbing the rat in the head with the blade's hilt.

The rat wobbled on her feet for a moment, going cross-eyed, and was about to topple over. Freeman gave her a push out the door, and then slammed it shut behind her.

"And stay out!" he exclaimed.

But then realizing that a closed door with no lock probably wouldn't keep the rat out once she regained consciousness, and Freeman didn't really want to have to repeat that battle in these conditions, the hare looked around for a way to keep the rat from getting back in here. And his solution was to push a nearby bookcase in front of the door. He then took a step back, dusting off his paws.

"Cornflower!" Tess exclaimed again, eyeing the maiden's limp form.

Freeman turned. "Oh corks!" he exclaimed, and hurried over to check for a pulse. He was quite relieved to find a very strong one.

"She's alive." he announced with relief.

"Oh, thank the seasons!" Tess breathed, leaning her head back on her pillow with a sigh of relief.

But now Freeman was eyeing the nasty bump on Cornflower's head. "But she's unconscious," he went on, " and not likely to wake anytime soon."

"Oh, curse the seasons, then!" Tess amended. "This just isn't my day!" she punctuated each word by flopping her head on her pillow repeatedly.

"Well, how do you think I jolly well feel?" Freeman exclaimed, standing up and indignant. "With her unconscious, now who'll deliver the baby?"

The expression Tess gave Freeman explained it all.

Freeman caught on quick. "Oh no!" he exclaimed, backing away. "Oh no, no, no, no, no!"

"Freeman, who else could do it?" Tess exclaimed, clearly frustrated.

"B-but I can't do it!" Freeman objected, backing up to the wall. " I wouldn't know wot t' do, I haven't even seen..."

"FREEMAN!" Tess roared, at her wit's end. "GET OVER HERE AND HELP ME!"

Freeman was startled into moving and rushed back over to where Tess lay on the bed. But once there, he started to loose his nerve again, and paused for a moment.

"You sure you couldn't just..." Freeman began to suggest.

Tess wasn't going to hear it. "FREEMAN!" she exclaimed again.

"Okay...okay, okay, okay..." Freeman said, quickly recalling to his mind what Cornflower had been doing before she had gotten knocked unconscious. "Um...remain calm?"


Down in Cavern Hole, most of the battle had moved elsewhere, mostly back out into Great Hall, and even there the battle had thinned out, most of it journeying outside where there was the most room. So this only left a few stragglers down in Cavern Hole. Among them was Toka and Mattimeo.

The two were still tirelessly fighting, not making any visible ground, but the two were battling so fiercely and quickly it was had to watch and tell. Not that there was anyone stopping to watch, but it was true. Toka was proving to be a very fierce and skilled fighter, and a very difficult opponent for Mattimeo, and he was unsure how much longer he could this up though.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Toka was thinking the same thing, and desperately searching for a way to end the fight. While keeping his sword interlocked with Mattimeo's, Toka quickly lashed out with one footpaw and tripped Mattimeo. Mattimeo stumbled backwards and fell onto a nearby table. Toka drove his sword to sever Mattimeo's head from his body, but Mattimeo quickly rolled out of the way. Toka's blade merely ended up scratching the table.

Outraged, Toka whirled around to attack Mattimeo again, getting his blows deflected by Mattimeo's sword, which always seemed to be a step faster. Caught up in the battle, they started to wander up a staircase that led out of Cavern Hole, and up into the belltower. Once there, fought around in circles for a few moments until their blades interlocked again. Toka quickly threw Mattimeo off of him, then turned tail and ran, heading up the spiral staircase that went up the tower.

Mattimeo watched Toka go up the staircase, then with his eyes, traced the ferret's path up to the top of the tower where Redwall's two bells hung. He frowned.

"I wonder what Father would have to say about this." Mattimeo remarked, and then hurried after Toka...


While Mattimeo had his opponent on the run, Trey wasn't having such luck. Stumbling as he tried to scale the stairs leading out of Cavern Hole, the otter fell to the ground. Vimzey was upon him in a heartbeat, knocking Trey rapier from his paw, and then pressing the flat of her blade against Trey's throat, she started to choke the otter.

"There's more than one way to kill a creature!" the stoat hissed, very desperate to survive this battle.

Gagging, and seeing inky darkness starting to bleed in on the corners of his vision, Trey wrapped his claws around Vimzey's blade, and, despite the cuts he received in doing it, forced the blade off his throat and pressed it's flat side into Vimzey's throat.

"Yes...there... is!" Trey agreed, and then twisted the blade around so it's sharp edges cut into Vimzey's throat.

Within moments, the stoat was dead. Throwing her off of him, Trey sat up, rubbing at his own throat.

"An' good riddance, too!" he added as an afterthought, retrieving his sword and going to rejoin the battle.


"Bally persistent lot, this!" Gooding remarked to Wootiberg as they two fought side by side in Great Hall, being pressed upon on all sides by oncoming vermin. "They just keep comin' for more!"

"An' more they shall get!" Wootiberg promised, warding off one vermin with a sword he had obtained from one of the vermin who had been slain already to replace the one he lent to Freeman.

"You'd think they'd learn, wouldn't you sah?" Gooding went on, slaying one vermin with a single stab from the javelin he had snatched from the vermin horde.

"Never said they were a bright lot, now did I?" Wootiberg pointed out.

"Watch out for that blighter t' your left, sah." Gooding said suddenly.

Wootiberg quickly warded the offending creature off. "Thank you, lieutenant!" he said, glancing back at his companion. "Watch for that one sneakin' up beside you!"

Gooding quickly took care of it by decking the vermin, then spinning around to take out another vermin that was trying to sneak up while he was distracted. Then Wootiberg caught sight of another sneaking up on Gooding's unexposed back.

"Lieutenant, watch out behind you!" Wootiberg called out, trying to free himself long enough to come to Gooding's aide.

Gooding whirled around to confront the vermin, a weasel, but he wasn't fast enough. He turned around in time for the vermin to stab his blade into the hare's chest.

"Lieutenant!" Wootiberg said, breaking off his fight to try and help, but two vermin quickly cut him off.

Gooding, however, wasn't done yet. Using clearly what little strength he had left, he took the javelin and drove it into the vermin who had stabbed him. Then they both toppled over. By the time Wootiberg finally arrived at Gooding's side, the vermin was already dead, and Gooding soon to follow. Barely awake, Gooding grinned weakly at the colonel.

"Nicodemus..." Wootiberg said, gesturing about with his paws, looking for something to say, wishing there was something he could to do help, to make things right, but also knew there was little he could do.

"It's okay, sah." Gooding said weakly. "Just glad I managed t' take that blighter down with me." he jerked his head over at the dead vermin.

"And even if you hadn't, he wouldn't have had long t' live." Wootiberg added.

Gooding nodded, his strength sapping further. "It's been a pleasure servin' with you, sah." he said.

It was his very last words. Wootiberg hung his head for a moment, then moved Gooding's body out of the way so it wouldn't get trampled in the battle. Then, he took up his sword, and resumed fighting, determined now more than ever to rid the abbey of the horde plaguing it, not so much for the Redwallers, but to guarantee that Gooding didn't die in vain.


Meanwhile, Kislee was keeping busy, moving all about as she worked to help the injured. Now that the battle was slowly moving outside, it was becoming easier to carry out her wishes. But as she moved about, she constantly keep an eye out for Mark, making sure he was always within her line of vision, afraid he would vanish from view and not return. This proved to be fairly easy, however, for Mark was doing the same thing. The two were never far apart from each other.

As Kislee moved to help the injured in Great Hall, Lord Blackpaw had rallied together a regiment of the Long Patrol and some of the Southsward otters together, and they jointly blocked off the only exit out of the room that led outside, thus entrapping the vermin left in the room inside. Knowing that they were at risk of being defeated, the vermin fell back a little bit and attempted to regroup and charge all at once.

It had created a small lull moment in the battle, so Kislee was using the opportunity to check on the injured. Most of them, thankfully enough, were not badly hurt. Having finished treating one such creature, Kislee then turned to find the next creature, and was quite surprised to see Matthias sitting with his back against the wall, his eyes closed and not visibly moving.

Fearing the worse, Kislee hurried over to examine him, pressing a paw to his neck to feel for a pulse. Matthias jumped at this and turned away from the paw.

"Ooh, your paws are cold, Kislee." he muttered.

"Sorry." Kislee apologized, rubbing them together to warm them up a bit. "Are you all right?"

"Aye, I'm just resting." Matthias said, opening his eyes with a few blinks. "Not as young as I used to be, you know. And besides, some idiot rat cut my leg, and now it's too sore to walk upon. Add that on top of that annoying limp of mine, and that just about takes me out of the picture in this battle."

Kislee checked the said cut, wrapped with a impromptu bandage already, and saw it wasn't bad. "Well, at least you'll live to fight again." she remarked.

"Oh, I wasn't worried." Matthias said, adjusting his position. "Not my time yet."

"And how would you know that?" Kislee asked.

"A friend told me." Matthias replied, and gazed across the hall to where the tapestry of Martin the Warrior hung.

Kislee glanced at it. "I don't suppose he told who will die and who will live in this battle, did he?" she asked.

"Not particularly." Matthias admitted. "He tends to be a bit secretive at times. However, Kislee, while you're here, there is one thing I should tell you."

"Yes?"

"Enjoy it while it lasts."

Kislee paused. "Pardon?"

"Charge!"

The vermin suddenly surged forward to the barricade of creatures blocking the exit and began attacking. In the chaos that followed, Kislee lost track of things and somehow became mixed in a sea of fighting creatures. Not even being able to see Matthias anymore, and discovering she had somehow gotten moved away from Matthias had been in the chaos anyway, Kislee sought out Mark.

It didn't take her long to pick him out from among the masses of creatures grouped around, fighting valiantly. But he was greatly outnumbered. Kislee, starting to panic, moved towards him, then panicked even more when Mark suddenly vanished under the pressing sea of vermin. Fearing the worse, Kislee pushed her way towards the last position she had seen Mark.

"Mark!" she exclaimed. "Mark!"

And then, to her relief, Mark suddenly reappeared in the mist of the battle, no worse for wear, and getting the upper paw over the vermin attacking him. Relieved, Kislee decided to not tempt fate, and took the dirk Mark had given her and surged her way to Mark, joining him the fight, disarming and wounding, but not killing. She left that to Mark.

Fairly quickly, the vermin saw this tactic wasn't working and backed off again to regroup and plan a different kind of attack. Mark and Kislee soon found themselves alone again.

Breathing heavily, Mark rubbed sweat from his brow, and turned to Kislee. "Not to say that I'm not jolly well pleased t' see you joinin' in the battle, but I didn't really expect you to."

Kislee bit her lip for a moment. "I saw you go under for a moment...and...thought you had...er..." she began nervously.

"Died?" Mark asked, and then laughed, scoffing the idea. "No, those blighters couldn't get th' better of me."

"Mark, you're not immortal!" Kislee said. "This isn't a laughin' matter!"

"I said I'll always be there t' look after you." Mark said confidently. "Can't do that if I'm dead, now can I?"

"Well, no, but still..." Kislee began, "Mark, I wouldn't want to lose you."

Mark kissed her on the cheek, unexpectedly. "Neither do I." he said once he had done this. "But I think you have nothing to fear, Kislee."

"They're beginning to regroup!" someone shouted, referring to the vermin.

Mark lifted his weapon, and grinned at Kislee. "Time for this later." he said. "First, need t' finish off some vermin."

He walked off. Kislee watched him go, then frowned.

"'Enjoy it while it lasts.'" she repeated, remembering Matthias's words suddenly. "While wot lasts?" then it suddenly hit her, and she glanced back at Mark, readying himself for the next wave of vermin to attack. "Oh, great seasons, no!" she said. "It can't be!"

But then she couldn't deny Matthias's cryptic words. Something was going to happen. And Kislee suddenly had the impression it wouldn't be a good thing...