Love In The Light 04: The Way It Often Is
The moment the rumour reached Rainoh (Resistance Army In [the] North Of Hartfar) that King Mordred was staying in Castle Merriam, they grouped together and sent messengers to the other forms of the Resistance (Raisoh, Raieoh, Raiwoh, and Raicoh).
"Y'see, Mordred is here. He's got captives. I saw 'em being brought in. Two mice."
"Yes, Laurie."
"Laurel, shut up."
Laurel Chamberlain Sarkcroft sniffed. "Well, if you don't want my advice…"
"We don't. Honestly, we don't."
"Fine."
She stalked off, muttering to herself. "Well, y'know the cheek of those blinkin' folks! It's only once in a flippin' blue moon y'get somethin' worthwhile from me - I don't mind sayin' I'm not clever. But that's somethin' worth havin'!" She stared mutinously at the castle. "I bet Mordred'll bally well come out in a minute an' attack us. And guess who'd get the flippin' blame?"
It was in glaring down that she saw two creatures make a bolt for it to the gates. Laurel could spot a chick in a nest from more than a mile away, and it wasn't long before she could identify the exact same mice that had been captured a few days before. She nodded approvingly before freezing. Then she was up and running for the Rainoh.
"Attack! Attack! Mordred's comin' this waaaaaay! Attaaaaaaaack!"
Delia, a superior watervole, scowled disapprovingly at Laurel. "Do be quiet, haremaid. We are trying to formulate a plan."
"Well, Miss Snootyface, I'm trying to jolly well save two of Mordred's prisoners, doncha know! Bloomin' heck, what a body has t'go through t'save a bally friend who y'don't know!"
"What's wrong, Laurie?" asked Allen, a tall, brawny otter.
Laurel almost screamed at him. "There's two prisoners down there, surrounded by Mordred's flippin' vermin! The ones you've just bin talking about, y'know!"
Allen swung round and issued a sharp order to his holt, who snatched up their pouches (mercifully full of stones) and swished their slings meaningfully. Lady Safire picked up her quiver and leisurely chocked it full of Rainoh's finest arrows, as her tribe followed her example. The squirrels were in no hurry to do battle, for it would be long before they needed to cover Rainoh's retreat.
"Aureole, go down an' open the bally gates for us, there's a dear. A peck of help it'll be to those poor mice if we jolly well can't get in, and really, you could only get down from this bloomin' window. Skipper darling; take the rest of the army down there so Aureole doesn't have to wait ages. Some stupid vermin could close them if y'not quick enough."
So spoke Miriam, an old female hare, watching the younger creatures benignly. She called everyone 'dear' or 'darling', and mothered him or her until they backed away in terror.
"Can I stay with you, Grandmamma?" pleaded Susie, her granddaughter, barely half a season old.
"Of course, dear."
"Good. I hate fighting."
"It's necessary, little'un," Laurel told her niece. "We don't want you to know how much we've suffered first-paw."
"But I'm not going to, so it doesn't matter."
Laurel laughed. "I'll take that as a compliment," she said to Lady Safire. "It's nice to have her unfailing faith in us."
Aureole, a saintly-looking squirrel who belied her name and appearance, swung lightly out of the window and landed in a high beech close to the walls. Leaping over the grey, forbidding stones, she collapsed in a heap by the gates. Mordred himself ran past her, and she held her breath.
Miraculously, he seemed not to notice the squirrel. She crawled to the heavy iron gates and drew the bolts back. They grated loudly, and she froze as a heavy paw clamped down on her shoulder.
Aureole had been trained to deal with many situations, but it was inevitable that she would come face to face with the very one she hadn't been prepared for - a confrontation with the wildcats. Only one, but she was well aware she could be killed with a single blow.
Slashing out with her dagger, she sliced a long gash across his chest - he wore no armour - and kicked out furiously.
Allen dashed in through the gates and set upon his enemy with a ferocity that had never before touched otters. His command of holts followed him and fought like madbeasts.
Aureole cut herself a path through to the two mice. She grinned reassuringly at them.
"No worries! Rainoh love this, thank you for escaping!"
Even as she said it, she wondered if Laurie's light-hearted banter was taking effect on her at last. Aureole sincerely hoped not, Laurel might be able to deal with serious things with humour and chaos, but Aureole used two separate states of mind, and intended to keep it that way.
The mice didn't seem to hear her; they battled on together, barely seeming to notice that they had reinforcements. Aureole decided to get out of the way before that whirling dervish of a rope the maid was swinging hit her.
"Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeddddwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaallllll!"
Aureole ducked back into the battle as Lady Safire hurtled out of a massive hornbeam.
"Carry on, squirrel, you're not doing badly."
"Yet," muttered Aureole. This was the impersonal address given to any creature that happened to be near. Aureole had heard it at least seven times that season.
How can I describe the undercurrent of hate in this - no more, really - skirmish? Mariel and Dandin sensed it, fighting desperately as they were. They were impersonal to any feuds; they knew nothing of the war-torn land they were in. All they wanted was to escape. But they couldn't even do that. They sensed the hatred, fear, and anger between the two other forces, but they didn't feel it, couldn't feel it. And why should they?
Aureole, Allen, Safire, Laurie, they hated the usurping vermin passionately, they wanted Hartfar to return to the democratic nation it had been, like in the stories told of Mossflower. Indeed there was a monarch, but he had reigned with a slack hand, letting his people wander the castles freely, listening to the ballads sung by minstrels and troubadours. They wanted it to be like that again, when all the decisions had been made by the ordinary creatures and the king or queen had been chosen as the wisest family in the land. That was what they wanted.
As for Mordred and his army, they were almost power-crazy. His sons kept cool heads, and though they loved the might they had, his sons didn't let it go to their heads. But Mordred, once he had power, clung to it with almost pitiful strength. His sons saw him as an ageing wildcat, with not many seasons to last, but he saw himself as strong and vital, with decades to pass before he wended his way to Dark Forest - if he wasn't diverted to Hellgates, that was.
Finally, due to the fierce strength of the vermin, the woodlanders were driven back. Dragging Mariel and Dandin with them, they retreated outside the gates.
When they were a safe distance away, Aureole collapsed on the solid, firm earth. The two mice immediately knelt down to see if she was all right, but she waved them away.
"Just tired," she explained. "And why not?"
This was said with slight defiance, directed towards Laurie, who shrugged. It was all water off a duck's back as far as she was concerned.
"Hiya," she said amicably. "I'm Laurel Chamberlain Sarkcroft, but I'm usually known as Laurie, or Laurieshuttup. Either'll do, but I'd prefer the former, wot?"
Mariel and Dandin were rather taken aback by this offhand greeting so soon after a battle, but recovered themselves quickly.
"I'm Mariel, this is Dandin. We're from Redwall Abbey in Mossflower."
"Nice place, Mossflower," said Laurie with no apparent motive. "What's Redwall like?"
"It's beautiful. There's a bell tower, a pond, green grass, the Joseph Bell - "
"Named after Mariel's father, who made it."
"Yes. It's one of the most magnificent places in Mossflower. Salamandastron is another."
"I know Salamandastron. I've been there. Fantastic, but what some creatures would call Spartan."
Mariel looked blank, but Dandin supplied the explanation. "After that tribe of hares?"
"Yeah - they that hated comfort, and fought like madbeasts. And as for that lazy squirrelmaid - "
Aureole looked up. "Hey, I fought hard!"
"You're still lazy, 'cause I want you to be."
"Thank you." Aureole subsided.
"Anyway, I think we'd be getting back to the tower now."
"The tower?" questioned Mariel, as they trudged back to the grey, stone building.
"Yeah." Laurie wrinkled her nose. "It's just a turret, like on Castle Merriam, of an old ruin. The rest of it's fallen down."
"Oh."
As they trooped in, Miriam called to them. "All those creatures who were in that skirmish, get to your dormitories now, and I don't want to see your ugly mugs until tomorrow! Not you two, of course, dears," she added to Mariel and Dandin. "You two take baths, have a meal, and then Laurie'll show you where you're sleeping."
"Oh, Laurie will, will she?" cried Laurel indignantly. "And what if she's asleep?"
"You won't be, I heard you groan," said Miriam inexorably. "Go and get changed into your nightdress first, darling, though. Allen Skipper, you show them where the tubs are - I heard you grumbling. And I don't care if you can barely keep your eyes open!"
To Mariel and Dandin, it seemed like heaven after the cold, dank prison. Hot baths, and then a good meal, they hadn't had those since they left Redwall. Miriam might be old, but she was an amazing cook. Dandin was sure, though he didn't say anything, that Miriam could cook a whole Redwall feast to last three days…alone…and better than the Abbey Friar could.
As Laurie left the two in their respective dormitories, she turned to Miriam with a wink.
"A mouse and a mousemaid, best of friends, both warriors, complete and utter loyalty to each other…what more could you want?"
Miriam looked warningly at the apparently innocent features of the cheeky haremaid.
"Let nature take it's course, Laurie."
"Certainly…but isn't a helping hand a nice thing to have around?"
"Not where you're concerned, Laurie - especially with your matchmaking skills."
A/N: Don't tell me you didn't know what they were getting at! There's going to be four more parts to this, I hope, and the last one is a songfic to the one and only Enya. Flora's Secret, it's called, from A Day Without Rain. The greatest!
Has anyone noticed that in The Bellmaker, the riddle is solved a little bit too quickly? I'd have expected a bit more pondering over who was to go - look at Redwall! At least we could have had a few questions in the mind of the Bellmaker himself. Not that I'm criticising Brian Jacques's work, it's just…that jarred when I was reading it in the doctor's waiting room. My appointment was ten to six, I left at twenty-five past five and was still there at twenty past six. Typical schedules. Sounds like our class in a science lesson - twenty-odd topics to cover, and only seven weeks till the SATs. And half the class barely manage Level 2, while me and a couple of others qualifying for Level 6 - our average is Level 4, and Level 6 is this impossible target to most people. And us supposed to put in three hours a week on science, and half of us not doing a quarter of that…that includes me, incidentally.
But that's enough of my moans on our 'important' exams that are nothing like as important as the eleven-plus was. I want to know what you think. Should I neglect my revision, and keep it for the BBC ReviseWise website? Or should I go back to ordinary studying, and forget about fanfiction for the next two months? You decide.
Mariel Gullwhacker.
P.S. The not-so-fantastic dedication goes to Kathryn Angelle. I hope I've spelt that right? And does anyone think my characters are OOC (out-of-character)?
