A/N: Warriormaid3000, thanks for the idea about the ring! I'd already written chapter six at the time (and the server was messing up my chapters), but hey—that's what reviews are for, right? To make our stories better…
Further A/N: Thanks, everyone who thought that there should be more, but I intended this to be the last chapter.
Chapter 6: Till Death Do Us Part
Bright sunlight lanced into the windows of Martin's room off of the Infirmary. The Healer mouse woke up to find a small squirrel shaking him by the shoulder, yelling "Marthen! Marthen!" in his ear. He sat up, set Chugger down onto the floor, and rubbed his eyes.
"Time to see our friends off, eh, Chugger?" The Healer chuckled. "Well, get out of here, then, so that I can get dressed."
They saw the Rambling Rosehip Players off after breakfast. The little cart went off up the path to a cacophony of cheering and yelling. Afterwards, Martin went into the little room off of Cavern Hole with a lighted candle and shut the door behind him. He set the candle down on the floor in the center of the room. The Healer knelt before it and took out his necklace. That morning he'd threaded his mother's ring onto it as well, and he grasped the older piece of jewelry as he spoke aloud.
"Rose," he said to the silence, "I do not ask for a sign that you're listening, since I know that you won't give it to me. If any of my other guardian spirits are listening, whoever you are, I ask that you carry this message to her." He began to recite what little of the wedding vows he knew. When he finished, took out a small pocketknife and, mentally apologizing to his female ancestors whose tradition he was breaking, bent close to the candle and carved four letters into the final empty space on the ring: R-O-S-E. As he finished, a thought crossed his mind: So let it be. I will never marry, and will be content to be the last direct descendant of whoever my warrior ancestors were. The healer was vaguely surprised to feel no particular pain at the thought. He raised the ring to his lips and kissed the stone.
"Dearest Rose, I miss you, and I will always love you, no matter what else happens." Martin put the ring away, picked up his candle, left the tiny chamber, and returned to the sunlit life of Redwall.
Behind him, the ghost of a mousemaid materialized out of the darkness and raised a paw in farewell.