TIME SKIP! Eep! *dodges rotten fruit and comments of 'lazy writer'* Look, I'm sorry okay! Just my sorrines is shrouded by overwhelming procrastination powers and writers block, or in my case, writers wall. Aaaanywho...ON WITH THE STORY:
Chapter 1
Carlos lay, sprawled on the ground. The fight had been long and hard, until he had missed a block, and his attacker had flung his sword away, leaving Carlos defenceless.
He had been forced to fall to avoid his opponent's sword, but now he saw it was a mistake! For his opponent was on top of him! Her glittering sword raised high, ready to deal a shattering blow upon her latest victim.
Carlo feebly grasped out for his sword, but it was far too late.
The other cat cackled in victory, letting her massive sword slice the air as a show of power and prowess.
But as she did so, she heard a very unexpected sound from her victim. Instead of a gasp of fear, or pleas of mercy, she heard a yowl of pain. "Pain?" She thought. "Why pain? Of all things… " Suddenly, she felt the body under her feet move, and she tried to stop the movement.
"Ah! Ahhhh! Ah-ah-ah-ahhhh!"
The short cries of her big brother snapped Milly out of her day dream, and she looked down at her big brother's pain stricken face, then down at her sword- which was actually a bone hunting knife.
For a moment, the tiny wildcat wondered why the blade was red, then, realisation hit.
The knife had gone clean through her big brother's tail, and a bit into his side, though, all Milly knew was that her big brother was hurt, and it was all her fault, with this in mind, she let out one very long wail and ran into the abbey to find and Abbess Sprig.
The orange gold light of evening was glinting playfully on the deep blue pond, as the sun ran from the bloody sight. It's light shone through the light green leaves, and pink blossoms that blessed the abbey with their colours. Mystery shadowed the breath-taking scene of the great redstone abbey, which now almost glowed in the fiery light as the sun sunk lower and lower on the horizon. And, amidst all the beauty, the young cat lay prone on the bright, soft grass which was quickly being stained with his red, hot blood.
~(`~`)~
Carlos gritted his teeth against the pain.
Through the tears welling in his eyes, he could see a watery figure of a tall mouse, with two others. An older mouse was leading a dibbun he recognized as his two season old little sister, and Mrs. Appleseed, who had taken the cats under her wing for the past seasons, as her own children had long ago grown up, and gone off adventuring, or settled down far away.
She was a kindly old mouse with cream brown fur that she always kept perfectly clean and brushed.
Now, more than ever, as she scolded Carlo for letting this happen.
"What were you thinking, my boy? Teaching a babe knife work by lettin' her test it on your tail?! Honestly, Carlo, I told you, I did! I said- Oh deary me, just look at yer side!"
After a while, the ranting died out, as the old marm went to work stitching up the wounds.
Abbess Sprig comforted Milly and tried to be helpful by commenting on what a lovely spring day it had been, before taking off her glasses to clean them, and trying to show a sobbing Milly how to weave things out of grass.
By this time, Carlos was in so much pain, he passed out- and didn't wake again until the evening meal, when Bennie rung the bell, and he was surrounded by curious dibbuns; who told each other tales of what happened as a very groggy Carlos listened, well and truly amused.
"I herded dat a biiiig bird f'ew down an' choppered off his tail!"
A young otter named Pud said confidently to Vinkle, a dibbun hedgehog who then replied matter of a factly. "No, 'e fellded of the wall an' landed on tha frya's big knife! Duh!"
One of the older mice dibbuns shook his head in disagreement.
"No, no, no, sillies! I saw it! Milly choppered it off! Swish!"
At this, the other dibbuns laughed, for they thought it silly that one of their number could do such a thing, particularly not the tiny, clumsy little cat.
But at that, Mrs. Appleseed and sister Sunflower- the resident badger- hurried them off to get their grubby little paws cleaned.
But, as Carlos started up to follow them, he found himself unable to balance.
For a while, he staggered about, somehow unable to stand upright.
The young wildcat tottered, then fell, growling in frustration at his own helplessness.
"Hohuhuhoa! Cat caught your tail?" The abbess approached, as she spoke, she fiddled with her ear absently.
Carlos knew she meant no harm, but it still took a while for him to be able to speak without growling. "This is NOT the time for tail jokes."
He muttered, accidentally uttering his thoughts aloud, thankfully, Abbess Sprig didn't seem to hear as she fussed about.
She was a good abbess, and she did her job well, but she seemed to give off an energy of nervousness, and stress, as though she were constantly under a rock of doom.
The young cat was dragged out of his thoughts by a poke from the abbess, who had been trying to ask him if he needed to be carried into the great hall for dinner.
He nodded absently, still very tired and sore.
"Yes please.. I can't walk.. Or even stand.. "
The abbess smiled as she chattered on to a now well and truly blacked out Carlos.
Soon after this, Carlos found himself at the table with dibbuns around him, trying to feed
him meadow cream and dandelion pie.
The injured cat smiled to himself, as the dibbun's happy little faces reminded him of his playful brothers, and happy sisters, and how they used to sit under the great oak together in the summers and springs.
His eyes misted over with tears as he remembered the glittering lake, and all the happy memories that lay with it, then his face darkened.
They would have never left if it weren't for the horde "If they hadn't tried t' make Da join their army gran' never would've died.. Ah wouldn't have had to leave Sindarline behind... An' we'd still be home... With th' mountains an' lake.. An' we'd still be with-"
Carlos almost slapped himself as he realized he had spoken his thoughts aloud.
He glanced around quickly. The dibbuns had stopped their chatter, and were staring up at him, most of their mouths opened wide, until a young mouse known as Santhy piped up.
"I wanna know what happened next!"
A cheeky grin slid onto the irrepressible little mouse's face before she asked her questions.
"Who's Sinarline? Is she your giiiirrrlfriend? Can you tell us more stories? I wanna hear more stories!"
At this, all the dibbuns, and younger beasts gathered squealed their approval of the plea, as Carlos sat there awkwardly, but happy as he looked upon their joyful little faces.
Eventually the young ones had him telling stories of Scott and his adventures, and his sister's pranks, as the dibbuns laughed and gasped in joy and fear.
The best stories for this were the ones about how Carlos and his father used to rescue beasts from the woods and lake around their home by training their pet giant cockroaches to lead them to those in need.
They were also the most painful to recall.
~(`~`)~
quietly bustled up the quickly darkened stairs.
The old mouse was worried- she had expected for her young kit to be guilty for what she had done, but in the two seasons she had known the babe, Milly had never missed dinner.
Not even once, but now, Milly had not even come down, and, from what knew, this was bad.
Very, very bad.
When the old mouse finally reached the door of her cozy little set of rooms, she was panting.
Her forehead was beaded with sweat which dripped and sparkled in the quickly fading last light of day.
As the old mouse opened the door, she was met with the warm glow of candle light, and the light of the warm fire. As her eyes agsted, and the light faded, the motherly mouse spotted a familiar figure of the tiny wildcat.
The kit was hardly the size of a newborn mouseling, despite being two seasons old.
Her soft cream fur was wet with tears, though no sign of pain was now on the angelic little face.
softly crept closer to the sleeping infant, and, though she had hardly made a sound, the dibbun's big brown eyes opened, and she whimpered, scrubbing at the tears that blurred her vision.
"Come now, li'le un, no need to' cry. You didn't kill him. It'll take more than that to kill a warrior." spoke in a proud, yet gentle voice as she opened her arms wide and knelt down.
At this the little cat raised her eyes to meet those of her mother figure, and, in an instant, she was sobbing the whole story into the old mouse's arms.
Half of which was inaudible over the sobs, sniffles, and coughing of tears.
And, after some time of this the noise died down, and the little one lay, curled up and snoring in her caretaker's arms.
The elderly mouse sighed and pushed up her glasses which had slipped down her long, straight nose as she comforted her dibbun. She had laid down the young one in the dibbuns shared room tonight, as she had some matters to deal with upstairs, and had no wish to wake the young one.
The green clad figure slipped silently down the stairs and into the great hall, where, to her surprise, she saw Carlos, surrounded by younger beasts, and the old.
"T'was one of the crows! He had the weasels in his claws when my da lept on his back and stabbed the bird! "
"Was it big?" A young mouse by the name of Bennie asked, wide eyed.
"What heppeneded to da weasel?" The cheeky young otter twin chorused loudly, almost leaping with excitement.
Carlos, who was looking a tad bit annoyed at this point, quickly nodded, answering briskly.
"Yes, yes, it was very big. Anyway-"
"Ohhhh, how big? Was it as big as brother Jimgle's tummy?"
Yet again Carlos was interrupted by the tiny giggles and chatter of happy young ones when finally, sister Sunflower called all the young ones to bed, and they scattered like ants from a fire.
Amidst the squeals and laughter that ensued, the young cat staggered to the stairs, intent of finding his bed once more.
He had started to get his balance right, though his movements were clumsy, and uncorderated.
And by the time he finally reached his room, he found that dibbuns had taken it over, the muffled giggling came from under his bed and he smiled tiredly.
"You little monsters better be quiet, or I'll tickle you!"
At this the giggles were mixed with squeals as the hiding villains squirmed at the thought of being tickled.
Carlos shook his head in mock despair, as he changed into his sleeping habit from behind a changing screen. When he came out, he was dressed with a tired grin, and he plopped himself down onto his bed.
"You three will really have to stop doing this at some point, or you'll get in trouble with sister Sunflower.."
At this three little heads popped out from under the bed. One, the little otter who had interrupted his story, promptly spoke up.
"Howded ye know it were us'ns? Coulda been any be'st!"
Carlos grinned wickedly at the little beast before answering.
"I could smell you! And hear your little heart beating!"
Conversation like this continued a few minutes, before finally, the little ones could be found curled up around the wildcat. In the short time Carlos had lived at the abbey, the dibbuns had taken a liking to his playful and indulgent ways, and they flocked to him. Often found to have wandered into his room if they had nightmares, or simply were hiding.
And, despite his efforts to not get too close to them- As he planned to leave with his sister to catch up with their family- he had started to really love the little ones. Four in particular seemed to cling to him. The otter twins, Pud and Flurry, a young mouse by the name of Bennie, and a little squirrel called Tulip. The four were different as night is from day, but somehow they all got along.
Carlos often sat them all on his bed and sang them songs. Tulip on his head, Milly on his shoulders, and the other three in his arms.
And tonight was no different. After a search of the cavern hall, Mrs. Appleseed retired to her room, and found them this way, though she noted Milly was absent. Quietly, she left the room to tell the badgermarm she found the missing dibbuns.
As she went, the old mouse smiled to herself and softly padded her way down, hardly making a sound on the polished stone stairs.
"Ah deane kean how 'e does it.."
Mrs. Appleseed mused to herself aloud as she walked.
"'E really is a Redwallian now.."
The old mouse reached the door and stopped.
"Carlos o' Redwall….Ah think ah like that…
Carlos of Redwall..."
Why did I take so long to write such a short chapter you ask: Because I'm not Grey or Lichard, and I can't pump out chapters like blood. Also, I made sure to not standardize my spelling because!...Um...I'm lazy.. Anywho...Uh...Bye.