Hey, everybeast!
Mysterious guest: Well, thanks for both the review and the thumbs up! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Sebias of Redwall: THERE WILL BE NO SINGING OF THE MOLE SONG. End of story. Full stop. Cease and desist.
Thanks for the review and the accountability, though. Anybeast reading this fanfic, you should be glad I have this henchbeast to remind me to update, otherwise the story would have never been posted past the first few chapters.
Now, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Flavian, Sornah, Moses and Asher all stood on the shore, footpaws apart and back to back as they fended off their attackers.
It had been a couple of weeks since the mouse twins had been defeated and Flavian had suggested adding more to the defense party, along with adding a distinct goal to the game.
The four trainers now fought to defend an apple pie, which was sitting on a rock in the middle of their circle.
If the timer ran out of sand before the attackers managed to break through the line and retrieve the target, the defenders got to keep the pastry. If the attackers got through, they got the pie.
Fayah concentrated her attack on her father, her wooden blade whistling through the air with ferocity before being stopped with a dull thud as it was parried or blocked by Sornah.
Seeing their friend's struggle, Flynn, Tuemollt, Albertine and Faraji joined her, two of them taking turns relieving each other every now and again.
The timer went off as the last of the sand trickled down to the bottom layer, turning the crystal case over and restarting as it bumped a small bell, causing a musical tinkle. The young ones stood to attention, quickly moving into a straight line and then standing still, faces expressionless and eyes facing forward.
"At ease."
The trainees relaxed on Sornah's command, putting their weapons out in front of them, point first, in the sand and standing with their footpaws apart and their paws behind their backs.
"Good work. After lunch, we're going out in the boat. Be ready. Attention! Dismissed!"
All five of them snapped to attention, their weapons returning to their shoulders as paws stamped together and they saluted before turning to the right, marching two paces and then disbanding to their separate destinations.
Asher pursed his lips, an approving smile creeping over his face.
"They're ready. A good thing, too, since we're leaving tomorrow with the tide. Are the other preparations done?"
Sornah nodded.
"Yes, the ships are provisioned, we've stocked up on arrows and slingstones and the crews are all eager to get back to sea, though they're also sorry to leave Salamandastron."
The four captains were silent for a while as they looked at the huge mountain that had become their home for the winter. The time had flown by with the wind and now it was spring, with the snow and ice melting, the flowers beginning to show and the storms becoming less frequent.
Moses shook his head to clear it, smiling wistfully.
"Much as I hate to leave, I'm keen to get back on board. I've missed the feeling of the ship responding to my paw's touch."
Flavian smiled also, his thoughts going back to last autumn and summer when he'd learnt to sail and become captain of the Poppy.
"And the feeling of sea water spray as the prow cuts into a wave. It'll be good to be back aboard."
~Blah~
The day dawned bright and clear, the sea birds harmonising with the waves to form the morning music, the light wind carrying the melody from the sea to the creatures making preparations on shore.
DandeLion, Poppy, Iris, Amaranth, Lavender and Snowdrop bobbed in the shallows, secured to the beach with their sand anchors and riding the incoming tide cheerfully.
The Orchids, Roses and Geraniums were beached further along in formation, each fleet forming a wedge shape.
Moses surveyed his new crew, nodding approval as they stood to attention in front of him.
It had been agreed that Scavatore would command the DandeLion while Moses took over the Roses so that the young ones could continue their training with the smaller craft.
Fayah, Albertine, Faraji, Tuemollt and Flynn all wore their embroidered badges with pride, the roses all a light pink to match the colours of the boat they would help crew.
Fayah saluted smartly, stepping forward from the line.
"Everybeast ready and awaiting your orders, Cap'm Mosher."
Moses smiled, nodding to his niece.
"I can see that. The tide won't be ready for a few hours though. You're all free to do anything you need to. I suggest taking this opportunity to say your goodbyes to your friends. It may be a while before you see them again. Dismissed!"
Fayah followed the usual procedure of being dismissed, then broke ranks and ran to hug her uncle.
"Are you excited, Uncle Mosher?"
Moses nodded, noting that Fayah had thrown her arms round his neck this time, rather than his waist.
I'm going to need to watch that. She'll be bigger than me soon. The mouse captain thought, returning the hug.
"Yes, I'm very excited. I'm looking forward to the feel of the tiller beneath my paw."
Fayah gave him another broad grin and ran off to say her goodbyes to Lord Fernbar, who had just come out of the mountain.
"Bye, bye, Uncle Lord Fernbar. I'll miss you."
Fayah threw her arms around the badger lord's waist and buried her face in his blacksmithing apron for a few seconds.
Lord Fernbar smiled and patted the young ottermaid's head.
"I'll miss you too, Trouble. Look after yourself."
Fayah giggled deeply in response to the nickname, smiling enthusiastically.
"Of course I'll take care of myself, and everyone else too, especially my crew."
Fernbar looked curious, tilting his head to the side.
"I didn't know you would be a captain. Who's in your crew?"
Fayah shuffled her feet and looked down at the sand.
"Well, I'm not actually the captain. I'm going to be on Uncle Mosher's ship and he'll be the boss, not me. I just have to look after my fellow seabeasts, particularly Flynn, Albertine, Faraji and Tuemollt. I think Tuemollt will be the hardest. He can be cheeky sometimes and he's prone to accidents."
Lord Fernbar chuckled, nodding in agreement.
"Yes, that hedgehog is rather proficient at causing trouble, isn't he? Will you also keep a watch on your uncles? They can be quite naughty sometimes."
Fayah nodded seriously.
"Yes, I'll keep an eye on them, though they won't be naughty because they get to make the rules."
Lord Fernbar chuckled, shaking his head.
"Even beasts who are in charge can be naughty. There are certain rules that don't need to be made."
~Blah~
Lord Fernbar approached the Sea Sanction command group quietly, the hare beside him following suit as they both waited patiently to be addressed.
Flavian noticed the pair first, grinning at the pretty young haremaid who had, no doubt, come to say goodbye.
Asher nodded to the Badger Lord, smiling.
"Lord Fernbar, Clementine, I assume you've come to say goodbye? We'd stay here if we could but I'm afraid we have another role to play in this world. Thank you so much for your hospitality and everything else you've given us. We'll hold the memories close in our hearts."
Lord Fernbar returned the mouse's smile.
"I have come to say farewell. May the seasons bless you and may the wind blow fair. If you ever need shelter or any other kind of help, you need only come to Salamandastron."
Asher bowed gratefully.
"We will remember that. Best wishes for you too."
Clementine nudged the Badger Lord, looking up at him with pleading eyes.
Lord Fernbar sighed.
"The other reason I'm here is to offer the services of Clemetine. She would like to travel the seas with you and become one of your crew beasts."
Asher gave a questioning glance at his mother. This was a decision for the leader of the tribe to make.
Ruth smiled at Clementine.
"Of course you can join us. We'd love to have you aboard. Captain Sornah's ship, the Snowdrop could use an extra pair of paws."
Clementine beamed, first at Ruth and then at Lord Fernbar.
"Why, thank you, marm! I'll be the best jolly sea beast Snowdrop has."
Ruth turned to her son, gesturing to the excited hare.
Sornah stepped forward, looking the beast over briefly before nodding once.
"We'll be glad to have you, Clementine. Get your gear. We'll be leaving in just under half an hour."
~Blah, blah, time passes~
Moses took a deep breath of the sea air, balancing lightly on the balls of his paws as the boat beneath him flew across the water, sending sheets of salty spray onto the captain and crew, drenching them all to the fur.
The muscular young mouse shook his head to clear the water from his eyes and smiled, nudging the tiller of the small ship to keep her in line.
Behind them, the shore had all but disappeared, a thin, grey line on the horizon the only sign of the continent they'd spent the winter on.
It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining on the water and the blue reflecting its colour into the sky.
Without any preamble, Moses began to sing a well-known tune amongst the Sea Sanctions, his crew joining in and the song being taken up by the other ships in the fleet until five hundred voices were raised in song, with a great variety of tones blending together like forest birds on a windy day.
Into storm or sunny waters
Sea Sanctions will sail on,
With great joy we join our voices
leaving Salamandastron!
Here we come,
united together
Standing by each other's side.
With great courage, love forever.
To destroy the evil tide.
Moses sighed cheerfully as they finished the last note, grinning at his niece.
"Heard that, Fayah? That's the most important aspect of fighting evil; unity. If you stand beside each other and draw strength from each other, you'll never be truly beaten."
The sun was just beginning to set when the captains all met aboard DandeLion for their usual meeting. Scavatore shook his head as he emerged from the cabin.
"Gurr, they'm liddle beastees make oi gurtly busy. Moi hairers is going to be whoite afore oi'm thirting seesuns."
Moses grinned understandingly.
"Yes, they can cause quite a bit of trouble. I recommend relieving Beatrix of her sailing duties and getting her to tell stories to them instead."
Scavatore nodded, making a mental note to do so when they set off again the next day.
"Gudd oidea. 'ow are ee Rosers doing?"
Moses smiled genuinely, his eyes sparkling.
"They're doing well. Pink Rose handles beautifully."
Pershing nodded.
"They're probably as glad to be back at sea as we are. How's Tuemollt faring?"
Moses sighed, closing his eyes briefly.
"Your son is a very enthusiastic student but he hasn't yet learned the value of listening, rather than talking."
Pershing chuckled, his head spikes rattling.
"No, the little rascal has never been very good at that. Had any accidents yet?"
Moses shook his head.
"Thankfully, no. Tuemollt, along with Albertine, Flynn, Faraji and Fayah, are all doing very well. They've swapped onto Teal Rose for the evening to spend some time with Juliet and Greeah. It's good for them to spend more time with crewbeasts closer to their own age."
Asher chuckled.
"I assume Fayah has taken on the role of captain until you get back?"
Moses nodded, his lips turning up into a smile.
"Of course. Juliet and Greeah were appointed as scullery boys, last I checked."
Pershing frowned.
"Why do they have scullery boys on board ship?"
Scavatore shook a digging claw at the hedgehog sternly.
"You'm oilways need ee scurely boi."
Sornah cleared his throat meaningfully.
"While this conversation is very interesting, we're getting side tracked. Pershing, how are the Geraniums going? Is there anything that needs to be repaired or fixed after the winter?"
Pershing shook his head.
"I may replace a couple of rivets on the starboard side but, apart from that, everything is fine. How're things on Iris?"
~Blah, blah, time passes~
Moses stretched as he emerged from the small cabin in the stern of Pink Rose, yawning as he looked around. The first streaks of grey were making their way across the horizon, pushing the darkness aside to make room for the day.
On board the other ships in the fleet, beasts were beginning to stir, going about the usual morning routines of checking equipment, rearranging ropes for easier access and cooking breakfast on the small galley stoves.
Moses checked the horizon, pleased to see that the eastern sky wasn't covered in colourful splendor. Pretty as it was to have a red and pink sky, it foretold bad weather to come and every experienced sailor preferred a beautiful evening sunset.
He rubbed his eyes, feeling a small amount of disappointment when he remembered his niece had spent the night on board Teal Rose and wouldn't be having breakfast with him.
Shaking the slight nostalgia off, Moses shrugged and lit the stove, placing a pot over it, balanced on a tripod. The young ones weren't here but the rest of the crew still needed to break their fast.
Hearing the cabin door's hinges squeak again, Moses turned round, smiling a greeting to the large otter.
"Good morning, Cyrus. How was your sleep?"
Cyrus yawned with a paw over his mouth, rolling his shoulders.
"Not too bad. I find it's easy to adjust to the rolling of the ship when you've spent most of your life sailing. How about you?"
Moses added some dried apple into the porridge and stirred it in.
"Same here. I found it more difficult to get to sleep on land. We'll go pick up the troublemakers after breakfast."
Cyrus grinned, passing the captain his bowl.
"Sounds like a good plan to me. They will have eaten on Teal Rose, yes?"
Moses nodded, passing the full bowl back to the hungry otter.
"Yes, I presume so. Once you've finished, can you please wake up Sambre, Ingrid and Daetam?"
Cyrus nodded, digging into his meal with considerable enthusiasm.
Moses dished some food up for himself and began to eat, giving a wordless grunt of appreciation. The dried apples greatly improved the otherwise flavourless oat porridge.
The horn called its tune, signaling that the fleet would move out in ten minutes.
Moses nodded to his crew, gesturing for them to get ready.
"Let's fetch those trouble makers before we have to go. Out oars! Back port! Forward starboard!"
The four otters, already in position and anticipating the order, had their oars out within a few seconds and the little boat pivoted neatly.
"Forward together!"
The rowers responded smoothly, Pink Rose accelerating then slowing to a relaxed pace, Moses leaning the tiller to weave her between the stationary boats surrounding the little craft.
Arriving at the edge of the group, Moses frowned, puzzled. Teal Rose wasn't in her customary position on the right side of the fleet and she wouldn't have been able to move further in at night without bumping other ships.
Besides, there wasn't any reason to. Juliet and Greeah would have informed someone had they needed anything and Fayah, Faraji, Flynn, Tuemollt and Albertine were all old enough to be able to do without.
"Stay put."
The rowers stopped, glancing up at their captain with a questioning gaze as they held their oars straight down to stop their vessel drifting.
"What is it, captain?"
Moses' frown deepened as he thought about the matter, still confused.
"I don't know. Teal Rose isn't in her position. There wasn't any signal that she was moving either."
Cyrus frowned thoughtfully.
"Maybe they just forgot to give it. They haven't been sailing very long."
Moses shook his head decisively.
"No, Greeah or Juliet would have reminded them. Something's happened."
Cyrus gestured forward.
"Why don't we go forward and see if we can figure out what."
Moses smiled in appreciation of the head rower's simple suggestion.
"Alright. Straight ahead six strokes, then stay put!"
Cyrus called the strokes to keep them all in time, then recalled the second order, lifting his oar handle up and pushing the blade straight downwards.
Moses went forward to the bow, peering over into the icy blue depths for any sign of what had happened to Teal Rose.
A small, wooden bowl bobbed on the surface a few metres away, some white birch bark visible inside.
"Front rowers forward, forward… stop. Daetam, pass me your oar, please."
The burly otter obligingly passed his oar forward to the captain, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"What is it?"
Moses took the heavy oak propel, hefting it easily in his left paw as he kept his eyes on his wooden target.
"We're about to find out."
So saying, the mouse slid the oar blade under the bowl, lifting gently in an effort to fish the item into the boat. Unfortunately, the bowl tipped, spilling its message into the clear blue water.
"Oh, come on! Stupid bowl. Daetam, catch."
Moses flicked the oar up and behind him, sending the bowl with it. Without a backwards glance, knowing that Daetam would have caught both items with ease, Moses heaved himself over the bow post and into the sea, grabbing the small piece of bark as he did a flip and came up again, shaking his head to clear the water from his eyes and, holding the message in his teeth, climbing back aboard.
Daetam grinned at the mouse captain, shaking his head in admiration.
"That was fast. It's times like that when I can't help but remember that you're one of us. What does the message say?"
Moses took the bark from his mouth and sighed as he saw his thoughts confirmed.
"Most of it has washed off. I can kind of see some of the scratch marks from the stick though. Let's see; 'VER IN', I'd guess the missing letter there is m. 'VERMIN SHIP SOUTH', Several washed out words; 'AFTER IT', more washed out words; 'BE FINE. I LOVE YOU'.
"It's clearly from Fayah. How did she know I would be the one to find this? Sambre, blow the horn. I should probably tell the other captains about this before we go anywhere. I'm sure they'll all have the same opinions as I do regarding our next course of action."
Sambre, a large female otter with a white, star shaped marking on her forehead, stood up and blew a long, deep note on her small, brass horn, followed by three short notes.
"Forward to Snowdrop. We'll meet the others there."
Moses guided the ship in and out of the other small boats calmly, the note his niece had left resting in his pocket.
Arriving at the bigger ship's stern, Moses secured the tiller and grabbed the side rail of Snowdrop, hauling himself up and over the rail and landing smoothly on his paws.
"Sorry about the interruption. Are the other captains here?"
Clementine swung down from the lookout post, landing on her back paws and giving a lanky curtsy.
"Captains Asher and Flavian are already here. The rest are coming."
Moses nodded, smiling his appreciation.
"Where are they?"
"Captain Flavian and Captain Asher are in the stern galley with Captain Sornah. Captains Torfah, Pershing, Scavatore, Ruth and Sarina are about… ten metres away."
Moses gave Clementine a calm nod as he walked towards the galley.
"Thank you. Please ask the other captains to meet us in the kitchen when they arrive."
Moses walked relaxedly into the kitchen, helping himself to a scone as he nodded a greeting to his brothers and Flavian.
"Good morning. I trust you all slept well?"
Asher and Sornah, seeing through Moses' calm façade to his real feelings, muttered one syllabled replies, keen to get past the small talk and onto the real reason for their impromptu meeting.
Flavian, on the other paw, shook his head sternly.
"I say, what's the big idea? You call us all for an emergency meeting and then all you wanted to discuss was the quality of our slumber? What on land or sea is the point of that?"
Moses shook his head calmly.
"I have other things to discuss, I just thought we should wait until the other captains arrive. This might make an impact on all of us, Sarina in particular."
Sornah's brow furrowed in concern for his wife as the door opened to admit the other five captains.
Moses shuffled over to make room for his sister in law between him and Sornah, waiting until every beast had a seat before beginning without preamble.
"Teal Rose is gone. Fayah left a note about going after some vermin ship they saw to the south. It's mostly washed out but I can decipher it without too much difficulty."
Asher stared at his brother, his jaw dropping in disbelief.
"Please tell me you're not serious."
Moses felt all the eyes of the other captains on him as he slowly shook his head.
"I'm going to go after them."
Sornah spoke for everybeast.
"We're all going to go after them."
Yay! Things are finally beginning to happen! I won't say too much more, as I like to keep you in suspense and cruelly laugh at your pain, but reviews would be appreciated and would help me to update faster.