Silent Apology
Under the filtering sun's rays, Jellissa sighed in disappointment. She sat in a circle with some squirrels and otters, quietly nibbling on an oatcake.
She had gone toward their torches in the dark, thinking that it had been the band of vermin. The Redwallers were surprised that she was there, but they invited her to go with them after the vermin horde. Jellissa agreed, but now she was havning doubts. Her presence was a source of awkwardness among the creatures, not helped by Broggle's obvious silence when he was around her.
She'd learned from Skipper that the group was angry for the assault on Mhera and they wanted to punish the beasts responsible. Jellissa approved of their plans, but looking at at these peaceful creatures, didn't think that they would succeed. They knew nothing of surviving on their own, outside of the Abbey.
Skipper seemed to have that idea as well. As they paused for breafast, the big otter had taken a few youths and thad them practice with their slings and bows and arrows.
Jellissa finished her oatcake and glanced up at the rest of the circle. She saw a few eyes look quickly away that had been watching her. Sighing again, she got to her paws and dusted the crumbs from her fur . Slowly she started to go to the small stream that was nearby, but Broggle's voice stopped her.
"Hey, Jellissa, wait," he called from a tree. She waited, watching as the chubby squirrel bounded down and came over to her . Again she turned and headed for the stream. Broggle walked next to her quietly.
After a moment, he said, "You know, Jellissa, I've never liked you. You're so different, it's like something foreign, an'..." he glanced at her, "But I guess you don't need me to tell you that." He paused for a moment. Jellissa kept listening, and soon he continued,
"I was also resentful that you couldn't talk. It seemed so much more pleasant to the grown-ups than my stuttering."
Jellissa stopped walking and sat down on the bank of the stream. Ginegerly Broggle sat down next to her.
"...But that stuff's all just water under the bridge. We're the grownups now, right, and I've needed to shape up for a long time." His tone grew lighter as he said, "Meeting Fwirl was the best thing that has ever happened to me, even better than when my stuttering was cured. She seemed to look at me and see the squirrel I could become instead of the squirrel I was. So I started chaning into who she saw, and I've been discovering myself and getting wiser and getting to know Fwirl beterr..." He looked at her. "I'm sorry, Jellissa. I've been really mean to you.. I'm sorry."
Jellissa studied him for a moment. His eyes were sincere; she could see no trace of mockery. Hesitantly she held out her paw and smiled slightly. Broggle smiled and shook her paw, visibly relieved. Lowering her paw, Jellissa slipped into the water. Broggle watched her. She saw something akin to warmth in his eyes, but she knew it would soon pass. Not wanting to wear him out with her awkward silence, she ducked under the water and started to swim upstream. She knew that her departure was abrupt, but she was a mute. He would understand.
The group of Redwallers had been following the tracks of the vermin horde all day. They had been going at too slow of a pace for Jellissa. Now she lay asleep in the leaves of a tree, but she was still restless.
Something pulled her away from the realm of sleep. Blinking, she looked around at the moonlit trees. There were some creatures gathered around the small campfire below. She didn't recognize weither Skipper or Broggle among them. Curiously, she leaped to a tree above them where she could hear their voices. To her surprise, they were talking about her.
"That Jellissa creeps me out," an otter was saying. "'Snot natural that she can't talk."
"Yeah," a squirrel said. "And she's weird-looking: more like a weasel or a ferret than one of us squirrels."
'She should just take her big bow 'n arrows and leave. I can't concentrate on anything when she's around."
Jellissa sighed and went back to her tree, where she picked up her bow and quiver. Perhaps Broggle had finally accepted her, but these creatures didn't seem about to welcome her. Perhaps she was still better off alone. Perhaps it would always be that way.