Mattimeo sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes. It had been a long time since he struggled with sleep, excluding the times his son would wake crying for either himself or his wife, Tess. He felt her side of the bed stir, "Matti? Are you all right?" Tess groggily asked him. He turned to her and smiled bashfully.
"I'm fine Tess, just a bout of restlessness, I didn't mean to wake you," he responded.
Tess sat up and snuggled up to her husband, "You know you're not very good at lying, Matti."
"You know me too well it seems, love," Mattimeo chucked, "I just…feel like something is missing in Martin's story. I'm not sure why but I think I need to find it."
Tess chuckled, "I never thought you'd become the scholarly type, oh Warrior of Redwall," she teased him gently.
"I'm sure Tim will be surprised."
"Yes he may be a little, but in the morning Matti, let's get some sleep, it's still late."
Mattimeo nodded and snuggled with Tess in bed again and soon drifted off to sleep.
Mattimeo found himself in the Great Hall, before the tapestry that hung on the stone walls of Redwall Abbey. It was a strange feeling, on one hand it felt real, but also not. Suddenly a voice called to him, "It's been some time since you saw me in your dreams isn't it?"
He turned to see Martin the Warrior standing before him, clad in armor and tabard, the Sword at his side, "Y-yes it's been a-a long time."
Martin simply smiled to him, walking past and gently touching the rose on the tapestry, "You're not wrong in believing there is more to my story, young Mattimeo."
As love once was, so to is my story,
Lost to history, a tale of valor and glory.
Seek the war in parchment and paper,
Know your lineage, brave Mouse Warrior.
The next morning, Mattimeo and the Abbey Recorder, Tim Churchmouse, scoured the entirety of the Library, "Well Martin certainly wasn't vague on where to look, Matti, but it could take days to find what we are looking for assuming we even have any records of what it was he meant," Tim breathlessly informed the young warrior.
"Seek the war, he said. I'm not sure how much more vague he could get," Mattimeo said, frustration evident in his voice.
"You have a point, considering Redwall has seen many wars in it's time…oh? What's this?"
Mattimeo rushed over to Tim, "What did you find?"
Tim hoisted a large tome onto the table, "The Record of the Great War, by Abbess Germaine, first Abbey Recorder. Well that's certainly Martin's time, but I didn't know there was a Great War."
"Martin did say his final story was lost to history."
"Found anything yet?" Both mice turned to see the old, retired warrior of Redwall, Mattimeo's father, Matthias, standing in the Library doorway.
"It seems so, some record of a Great War, recorded by Abbess Germaine," Mattimeo informed him, somewhat surprised by his father's arrival.
"Herein lies a record of the Great War between the Tanarian Alliance, and the Empire. Where Martin the Warrior lead the Redwallers against a great evil. His final war, his final adventure, and his true happiness at long last," Tim dictated from the first pages of the tome.
"Well my friends, let us gather the Abbey denizens and hear of this final tale of Martin the Warrior," Matthias grinned.