Okay, there's two sides to this chapter. A comical side and a serious side. Seeing you've all liked the past comical sides chapters as of late have sported, I think you'll that the first part. The second part...er...

I know all of you are going to wine and complain about it, but it WAS the plan to do this from the beginning, and I'm going to stick to the plan. So, that's why the serious side.

No, no battles between Mattimeo and Toka, this chpt either. I decided to save all of that for next chapter, get it all done in one shot. :)

Chapter 50

"Oh, good seasons!" Sister May cried out, and pressed an ear to the door.

Sure enough, now that she knew to listen for it, she could just make out the shrill screech of a newborn mousebabe. Stunned for a moment, May had to stop and remember what she needed to do now.

"Freeman!" she exclaimed through the door. "I need you to get this door open!"

"But-but wot am I jolly well supposed to do now?" Freeman asked urgently. May could just picture the hare standing there looking both panicked and clueless, holding the mewling babe in his paws like he was afraid he was going to break it.

"I don't know, that's why I need to get in there!" Sister May replied, slapping a paw to her brow. She paused to mentally review the steps in her head. "You've cut the umbilical cord, right?"

"Cord? Wot cord?" Freeman asked, telling May that he had not cut it. "You mean this thing?"

"Yes!" Sister May said, hoping she and Freeman were thinking of the same thing. "Cut it off!"

"But won't that hurt..."

"Freeman!"

"Right, got it." there was a momentary pause. "Done! Now wot?"

"Now wrap the babe in a blanket or some kind of cloth."

"Okay."

"Hand the baby to Tess."

"Okay."

"And then open this door!"

"Oh. Right."

Sister May paused for a moment, wondering if she had missed anything. She never had to do this through a closed door before. "Freeman," she asked, "how is Tess at the moment?"

Freeman could be heard pausing to check. "Uh, I think she passed out..." he began, but was cut off as a faint voice was heard speaking, presumably Tess herself. "No, she says she's just exhausted." Freeman finally amended.

"I'm not surprised." Marigold spoke up from beside May suddenly, making the mouse jump in surprise. "Like you said yourself May, just after I gave birth to Kaeth. It's not exactly an easy process."

May looked at Marigold, having forgotten the squirrel was present and listening, and saw that both Swayner and Jaydee were listening as well from their respective positions. Swanyer was grinning, probably at the whole unusualness of the event. Then May jumped again as a loud grinding noise rang out from the other room as Freeman finally got around to moving the bookcase that blocked the door. The moment the sound stopped, May flung the door open and surveyed the situation.

It wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. Tess lay in bed, now neatly tucked under the covers and holding the babe, now calming down. Her eyes were closed, but a big grin was plastered on her face. Cornflower still sat on the floor leaning against the wall and unconscious, but was showing signs of stirring. And Freeman, his paws being messy from having been the one delivering the babe, wandered aimlessly, searching for something to clean his paws with. He seemed a bit dazed by it all, but at the same time, annoyed.

May first went to Cornflower, to guarantee the maiden was alright. She was. The bump she now sported on her head wasn't nearly as bad as it first looked. Applying a poultice to it for a few days would sort it out in a matter of days, although May would have to go and retrieve the necessary herbs from the Infirmary first.

Sister May then straightened and went to Tess's bed to check on both her and the babe. Tess sensed her coming, and greeted her while keeping her eyes closed.

"Good day, May." she said, still grinning.

"How are you doing?" May asked.

"Just fine." Tess replied. "Exhausted, but fine now that it's over."

"Was it worth it?" May asked with a grin

Tess turned her head to look at the healer, opening her eyes, which were sparkling with joy. "Very much so." she said.

May then examined the squirming, but finally silent, babe, and was pleased to see that it was perfectly healthy as well. May was relieved by this. A whole number of things could've gone wrong by having an untrained creature such as Freeman deliver the babe. Fortunately, however, it was clear that nothing of the sort happened, and the delivery couldn't have gone better. May breathed a word of thanks to Martin for watching over everything.

"It's a boy." the healer noted suddenly as she examined the babe.

Tess nodded, having already learned this herself. "To continue the line of warriors in the family." she said confidently. Her grin then enlarged. "I think Freeman was too stunned by it all to notice, though." she commented.

Speaking of the hare, he was still wandering around aimlessly, vainly searching for something to clean his paws with, so May finally pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Freeman as he walked by. Accepting it without a word, he quickly wiped his paws clean.

"Freeman," Marigold began, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention, "just curious, but...uh...how did you end up being the one delivering the babe?"

"I don't want to talk about it." the hare grumbled, and walked off.

Right about then, Cornflower awoke with a jolt. Cautiously sitting up, she scanned the room.

"Freeman? Tess?" she asked, seeing the two still present in the room and alright.

But she was also surprised to see Sister May, Marigold holding little Kaeth, and Swayner standing in the room. As well as another babe in Tess's paws, and outside in the hallway, she could see Jaydee sitting on her haunches standing guard over the rat, Aurora, in case she woke up and caused trouble.

Cornflower blinked. "Just what exactly did I miss?" she asked.


Down in Great Hall, the entrapped vermin were still working at trying to fight their way out of the entrapment and escape alive. They had continued to attack in surges, battling with the mixed creatures keeping them in, then quickly falling back in a hit and run tactic. It was quickly failing, as each attack got them little leeway, and only resulted in more losses to their numbers. They were slowly getting picked off.

But the group's impromptu leader seemed determined to not give up, and kept urging the others to keep fighting. And so they did. At the moment, though, they had yet again fallen back to regroup, allowing the joined forces of the Long Patrol and the Southsward otters to fall back and regroup as well. Usually, during these lull moments in the battle, Kislee would go about treating the wounded, but she was finding it very difficult to concentrate.

Matthias's words of "enjoy it while it lasts" were continuing to haunt her, and she had herself convinced it meant something bad was to happen, and not to just an creature.

She was confident that something was going to happen to Mark.

And nothing was more bad than a creature dying.

Kislee was terrified for the hare's life, not at all wanting to see him die. Yet she didn't tell him her theory, knowing he would just brush it aside as irrelevant and tell her not to worry. So she didn't bother. Instead, she made sure she stayed near him at all times, and kept her eyes on him at all times, so she could see if anything bad was going to happen.

She had also tried to discreetly urge Matthias to relate more towards the meaning of the suggestive statement, but Matthias had nothing more to relate. He admitted he wasn't exactly sure where the statement had even come from, and reasoned the spirit of Martin had him relate it. It was clear, though, that Matthias wished to comfort Kislee regardless, though, and told her to not worry so much about it, but it was clear he doubted his own words on the matter.

The battle wore on. So far, Mark had managed to slip through the battle generally unscathed. Kislee probably should've taken hope in that, but instead she was rapidly beginning to dread it. She knew something was going to happen. And when it did, she would be ready to undo it. She had to.

She loved Mark. There was no way anything was going to stop her.

As always, the brief moment of calm everybeast found themselves in was sort lived, and quickly the two forces of vermin and woodlanders were at it again. This time, it seemed, the vermin had adopted a new tactic, however, and were continuing to press the battle, instead of eventually retreating to regroup. It came as no surprise to the warriors, though, and they simply continued fighting. The vermin seemed to finally be losing.

Kislee didn't care at the moment, and from the mist of the battle, generally ignored by the others possibly because she was a mere healer and not a true warrior, sought out Mark, having briefly lost sight of him. She quickly found him again, though, the hare fighting as valiantly as ever at the front of the ranks of woodlanders, cutting his way through the ranks of vermin that attempted to surround him.

Several creatures divided him from Kislee, though, and Kislee felt she wasn't close enough to Mark in case something happened, and slowly started to work her way towards him. She was later thankful she did.

The arrow shot out of nowhere, and embedded itself deep into Mark's upper chest. Yelling out in agony, gripping at the arrow's shaft, going down and vanishing from sight. Alarmed, Kislee doubled her pace, also taking the time to search for the archer responsible. The creature who was firing off arrows in these tight confines had to be mad, or at least very desperate. Whoever it was proved to be very elusive as well, though, for Kislee couldn't find the beast.

There were other things on her mind at the moment, though, and urgently fought her way to where Mark had fallen. Once there, she quickly knelt down and began treating the wound, fighting back tears of worry and fear. She had little to fear. When Mark went down, the creatures around him simply stepped aside, so he wasn't at risk of getting trampled. The actually arrow wound, while very deep and possibly serious if it went untreated for too long, actually wasn't all that bad, and Mark would easily live.

Regardless, Kislee wasn't going to take any chances, and worked to remove the arrow.

"Oh, Mark." she muttered as she worked. "You are going to live from this, and then you are going to give up the ways of a warrior, and then we will..."

But she got no further. Colonel Wootiberg happened to be looking at Kislee when it happened. He saw her working swiftly to treat Mark, talking to herself, doing everything that was perfectly natural for her to do. He then saw her suddenly freeze, her head jerking upward. Her eyes went unfocused, and then she toppled over to one side.

An arrow was protruding from her upper back.

Eyes widening alarm, Wootiberg surged over, and with one stroke, slew the vermin responsible as he tried to reload his bow with another arrow, then quickly turned to check on Kislee. But it was already too late.

Kislee was dead.