Part Four: Seizure
Chapter Forty-six: Gathering
The next morning, Swike woke up late. No work was being done this morning, so she had been allowed to sleep in. But the atmosphere around Redwall was no longer what it had been the day before. With the dead finally laid to rest, an attitude of festivity was settling on the goodbeasts. Apparently, it was a tradition to celebrate the end of a war with a feast, and now that Redwall was nearly in its pre-war state, preparations for the feast were in full swing.
Just before lunch, Maren practically ran into Swike, she was so excited.
"We get to go out!" she exclaimed.
"Wh-what? Out where?"
"Into Mossflower! I was told that the infirmary is running low on a few herbs and the kitchens are running low on more. And there are some special things that will be needed for the feast. So we're going out!"
She took hold of Swike's paws and began to jump up and down with joy. "So I'm going too?" asked the rat.
"Are you slow today, or what? Yes! I did say we, didn't I? Right after lunch, a group of us are going out to gather herbs. Gyis and I got permission for you to come along."
Over lunch, Swike discovered that Char, Gyis, Bryce, and three other beasts would be going as well. They ate lunch quickly and then the eight of them left together.
"Do you have the list from Ronn?" Bryce asked Maren.
"Of course," said the mousemaid, pulling out a piece of folded paper and flashing it in Bryce's direction. "You have the list Cata sent with you, right?"
"Yes," replied Bryce, patting an inner pocket, just to be sure.
"Then we should be good," said Amber, the only other mouse in the group.
Swike looked around at her companions, rehearsing the names in her mind of the three beasts who she had just met. Amber, the mouse, worked on and off in the kitchens and the infirmary. She might have been a close friend, if not for the age gap. The oldest beast of the eight, she could have been Maren's mother.
Kris, a squirrel, worked closely with Bryce in the kitchens. Apparently, Bryce had been his apprentice a season or two back, but they had left behind the titles of teacher and student and taken on the relationship of friends. Kris, like Maren, seemed to have joined the group for the sole purpose of getting outside Redwall for a while, and he admitted that Bryce would have been fine on his own.
The last addition to their group was Ranton, Lanton's older brother. He had received some schooling from Ronn on medicinal herbs which had to be dug up, and he was in their group for that fact.
Swike felt at first that Gyis and Char's main purpose was to guard her, but she soon realized that they were valuable for the trip as well. Char was, by far, the best swimmer, and Gyis was a little more nimble than Kris, and a great addition to the group if they should want anything out of the treetops. They were also the only two warriors, besides Swike, in the group, and they were charged with the protection of its members, should danger arise. Hopefully nothing should go wrong. Log-a-Log himself had declared Mossflower Woods safe, for a half-days journey in any direction, but Swike had an odd feeling that the extra short sword at Char's side might end up in her own paw, should there be any trouble.
As they exited the eastern wall gate, Swike noted that Char fingered the long sword at his side and Gyis released her sling and deftly checked to make sure her bag of stones was easily accessible. They seem prepared; that's good.
Kris sprang into the branches of the nearest tree, his movements speaking of the freedom which he felt. Maren twirled in a circle, letting her giggles bubble out in her delight. Amber laughed at the antics of the two youngsters. "Now, behave yourselves," she said, sounding as if she were scolding dibbuns. "This is serious business, I'll remind you."
"They'm cun 'ave sum fun, tho'," said Ranton, grinning.
"I guess you're right," said Amber.
"Come on, Swike!" said Maren happily, taking her by the paw and rushing out into the woods. She went spinning around trees, Swike in tow. Before long, the rat was also laughing as she fought off dizziness.
"Just make sure we all stay together! No straying!" cautioned Char. His words were heeded, and before long the eight of them arrived on the banks of a river. Lying aside his clothes and weapons, Char turned toward Maren and Bryce. "Alright, what do we need here?"
Each of them took out their papers.
"Are you familiar with watercress?" asked Bryce.
"Course I am," said Char with a grin. "Show me an otter who isn't."
"Ronn wrote bacopa down," said Maren. "You might find some in the river, if not growing along the river bank. Should smell like lemons and have white flowers."
"Thanks," said Char. "I'll keep an eye out for it."
Char disappeared under the water. Amber and Swike each asked to see the lists so that they could start gathering herbs too. Before long, they were lost in their search.
Kris and Gyis maintained a constant lookout from above and Bryce and Maren sat down to talk with Ranton about things he should look for, so that he would know where to dig later on.
After a while, her paws full of comfrey, Swike decided to make her way back to Maren, who had the baskets. As she passed behind Amber, she just happened to glance at what the mouse was examining. After a quick double-take, she nearly leapt out of her fur.
"Amber! Don't pick that! It's poisonous!"
"What?" said the mouse, jumping back. "Do you mean the angelica?"
Swike shook her head vigorously. "That's not angelica. It's cicuta. If you eat it, you'll start having convulsions. It can kill you within an hour. I know they look similar, but that's definitely cicuta."
Maren came running up to see what all the commotion was about. Once she was pointed toward the plant in question, she agreed with Swike. Amber, appearing rattled at her close mistake, began apologizing, but the young mouse and rat assured her that no harm had been done. The three of them left the cicuta alone.
It was a while before they had all gathered enough specimens along the river, but they must have hit the river in the right place. They had collected lots of watercress and comfrey, and a little bacopa and peppermint as well, so they felt it would be unnecessary to continue either upstream or downstream.
"Where to next?" asked Gyis, landing next to Maren. The mousemaid looked over the list in her paw.
"Most of the things on this list can't be found growing right by Redwall. We'll need to go further. I'm thinking we have to cross the river."
"Will that work, Bryce?" asked the squirrel.
"Umm, let me see." The mouse pulled out his own list, checking off the items they had already gathered. "You don't need to go too far out, for what we need in the kitchen, but it wouldn't hurt either. In fact, I think there are some nice elderberry trees across the river, so that will be good."
"Are we decided then?" asked Char, coming up out of the water.
"Oi doan't loike water," said Ranton, eyeing the river.
"I'm sure we could help you cross up above," said Kris, also landing next to the group.
"Oi doan't loike trees neither," said the mole, shifting slightly.
"They're not that bad," said Swike encouragingly. "I'll go that way too. We share a dislike of water." She grinned at the mole who looked so like his younger brother.
"You'm 'elped Lantun," said the mole, appearing to like the idea more.
"Yeah, I did," agreed Swike. "So let's climb some trees."
Char ended up guiding Bryce and Amber to swim across the river, but all the other beasts opted to cross through the branches above with Gyis and Kris' help. While there were a few tense moments (including when Swike had to push Ranton from one tree to another with Gyis pulling from his other side and when Bryce disappeared under the flowing water and Char had to dive in after him) they all made it across in one piece.
"And now we march," said Maren, helping Amber to dry off.
"March where?" asked Kris, scaling the nearest tree.
"Those elderberry trees sounded nice," said Gyis. "Which direction, Bryce?"
The mouse appeared to puzzle over it a second, but then he pointed southeast. In a jolly mood, the group went on its way. When they finally reached the elderberry trees, they were over two hours away from Redwall and Char declared that it would be a good time to eat a light supper.
Kris and Bryce laid out a small feast which the mouse had been carrying with him. Sitting on the ground under a shady tree, they all shared out the bread, cheese, nuts, berries, and cordial. Before long, only a small amount of nuts and berries remained.
"We should save the rest for the trip back," said Kris.
As Bryce and Swike packed the extra food away, Kris and Gyis each swung a small bag over their shoulders and ran up into the elderberry trees to start picking the berries. Ranton got Char's attention and the two of them went off to where the mole had spotted some chives and meadowsweet.
In fact, flowers were blooming all around, and the group dispersed in all directions, Maren and Amber after a cluster of yellow foxglove and Swike and Bryce to a group of blue, star-shaped flowers known as borage. For the next hour, everybeast was busy gathering the many useful herbs in the area. Swike smiled to herself as she picked flowers and leaves. I could live the rest of my life like this. So peaceful, so quiet. And I'm useful too. All that experimenting when I was young, and then those lessons from Raynat. I'm sure I could learn even more now, from Haley or Catalina. The rat sighed happily.
Just then, she saw something glinting out of the corner of her eye. She turned toward it slowly, not wishing to attract the attention of her companions. Her stomach sank. Lying at the base of a nearby tree was a bracelet, and if Swike wasn't mistaken, it was one of Naysta's bracelets. The rat began to look around, as if she expected the vixen to be standing right there, but she could see nobeast save a few of her goodbeast comrades. Slowly, Swike made her way toward the tree, and once there, pushed aside some leaves until the bracelet was hidden from view. She didn't know why she did it. If she was hiding any evidence of the vermin, then was she still on their side? How could she say she was on the side of the Redwallers if she couldn't be honest with them? If Naysta was nearby, then it would be a good idea to leave, immediately if possible. Even if she no longer traveled with anybeast from the army, the last time Swike had seen her, the vixen had been raving about the serpent in Mossflower, which had not been seen since before the war.
Swike pressed her eyes shut, grappling with her thoughts. If I tell them there are vermin nearby, then we'll leave. And … Log-a-Log will come out here and take care of the problem. I'm not saying that I care that much for Naysta, but I still don't want anything bad to happen to her. She might not even be here anymore. This could have been the spot she chose to settle in during the war, when she couldn't get any sleep. Yes, I bet that's it. She simply dropped a bracelet here during the war, but she couldn't possibly be here now. If there were any vermin nearby, we'd have had some problems a long time ago. I don't think I need to tell anybeast anything.
Swike sat back, satisfied with her decision. Taking a deep breath, she tried to clear her head. But the deep breath brought a scent to her nose which she hadn't noticed before. Instantly, her eyes snapped open and her head shot up. Maren, who had drifted in her direction, noticed the sudden movements.
"Swike, did you hear something?"
Swike stood up, quickly depositing a pawful of flowers into Maren's basket.
"I didn't hear anything," she said. "But I smell … is it? Yes, there's some valerian nearby."
"Valerian?" asked Maren, checking her list. "Ronn didn't ask for any valerian, and as far as I'm aware, that plant doesn't have any culinary uses."
"No, no," said Swike, batting Maren's comment away. "It's not on the list, but it's growing somewhere …" she had her snout in the air. A breeze was blowing through the woods where none had been before, carrying the scent of the sweet, pink and white flowers from somewhere further off.
"Is something the matter?" asked Char, coming up with Ranton. They were each covered in dirt and carrying a load of roots and leaves.
Just then, Amber and Bryce also came over, holding over-laden baskets. "Are we done for the day?" asked Amber. "Is that why we're gathering together?"
"No, I was just asking Swike-" began Maren, but Kris and Gyis each dropped out of the trees to join the group at that moment.
"You were saying?" asked Char of Maren, his eyes on Swike who had started to wander off in the direction of the valerian.
"Swike smelt some valerian," said Maren. "That's all. Nothing else happened."
"I don't remember seeing that on the list," said Amber, heading off after Swike in any case.
Bryce shrugged at Char. "Couldn't hurt," he said. "We've gathered a couple extra things anyway. Why don't we pick some of the valerian and then head back to Redwall?"
Swike was now trotting through the trees with more purpose. She had barely taken in any of the conversation. Her mind had latched onto the sweet scent wafting through the trees. She had only encountered the flower one other time, and it had had the same effect on her the last time. She couldn't explain it, but she had to find the flower; nothing else mattered.
When she heard the yells, it took a moment for her to stop running and take in what was going on. Rats, there were rats all around her. She spun around to see what was happening to her friends. A heavy net lay on top of Gyis, Amber, and Bryce. Maren had dropped her basket and turned to run, but she wasn't going to make it. Ranton and Char were each captured quicker than they could respond, laden as they were with baskets. One rat swiftly sat on Gyis, seeing that she was grabbing for the sling at her side. Kris dropped his bag of elderberries and ran up the side of a nearby tree.
"Catch 'im!" Swike heard a rat yell. "The squirrel! Catch 'im! Shoot 'im."
"Wait," yelled Swike. Everything was happening so fast. "Stop!" she screamed. "What are you doing?"
She turned in a circle, looking around at the rats, trying to find a familiar face. While none of them made a move to harm her, neither did they listen to her.
"Stop! Please don't harm them! Why are you doing this? Swifcut, where is Swifcut?!"
And as if he had only been waiting for her to ask, Swike's brother was at her side, smiling. "'Ello Sswik," he said.
