History Part III

By Greg Mills

I wish I owned Redwall.  Then I wouldn't have to put up a fanfic that apparently no one is reading from the lack of reviews I have on this site, but oh well, that's life.

Note, there MAY BE (emphasis on may and be) some cross-special relationships going on in this chapter.  I'm not sure; I make this up as I go along (god, the life of a Role player, whoohoo!), so try not to be too disturbed, eh?  I'm not going to guarantee anything though.

A young albino squirrelmaid of about 14 seasons (I'm just judging that seasons are equivalent to years in the Redwall world) whistled as she walked along the dunes of the coastline, enjoying the beautiful sunrise over the horizon.  She wore a white dress of silk that matched her perfectly.  Her magenta eyes sparkled slightly in the faint sunlight as she stared at it.  As she walked, she failed to notice the dark shape lying on the sands in front of her until it was too late.  She tripped and fell, landing face first in the sand.  She got up slowly, rubbing her head, which had landed on a rock, quietly lamenting to herself.

"Owww!  What tripped me?  That hurt, now I'm gonna have a big lump on my head!"

She stops talking as she sees what it was she fell over.

"EEK!!  A dead shadow of a hare!"

She jumps back, and then stops as she looks closer.

"Oh, its just a plain dead shadow black hare…I'm such a thickhead sometimes…"

She stops talking again as the "dead" shadow black hare groans and rolls over slightly.  The albino scrambles over to his side.

"Oh, you poor thing, you're still alive, you must be in terrible shape!  Wow, that's quite a painful looking neck injury, it's a wonder you're still alive!"

She nervously bites her lip as she looks around.  She was a healer, but she didn't have her things on her.

"Oh, great, the one time I don't have my medicines, and I come across somebeast who's almost dead."

She frowns as she looks him over.  He looked a little too heavy for her to carry.  She sighs miserably.

"Great, what am I supposed to do?"

Darkflash mutters something, and then sits up so quick that the squirrelmaid jumps backwards with a soft squeak of surprise.  Darkflash shakes his head, his vision blurry.

"Ah, man, my head, where am I?"

She shakes his head with a bit more vigor, and then stops as it starts to cause him a headache.  He looks around and spots the albino squirrelmaid.

"Oh, peachy, its an angel.  I'm dead.  Typical."

The squirrelmaid smiles slightly yet shudders as well at the sound of his voice.  Its smooth as silk, yet dark, quiet, and carried a sinister sort of note in it.  She shakes her head.

"No, I'm not an angel, though that's what my name is…"

Darkflash blinks in mild surprise at both things, the fact she was named Angel, and that she wasn't actually AN angel.

"Ok, so I'm not dead, then?"

Angel shook her head, smiling at him.

"Nope, 'fraid not sir.

Darkflash shakes his head.

"Ugh, I hate being called 'sir,' my name's Darkflash."

Angel smiled a bit wider and nodded her head at him.

"Pleased to meet you, Darkflash.  I can see how you got your name."

Darkflash shrugs.  "Oddly enough, its an old family trait to have a name like this…"

As he says this, the memories of the previous night slam into his mind.  Darkflash groans and closes his eyes.  Angel looks at him worriedly.

"What's the matter?"

Darkflash shakes his head and sighs.

"It…its nothing."

Angel nods quietly, not believing him.  After a second she stands up and holds her paw out to him.

"Well, we've got to patch you up, you can't get too far with an injury like that, ya know."

Darkflash nods and takes her hand, struggling up.  As he does, he almost falls back over as a huge wave of dizziness hits him.  He clutches his head and struggles to stay standing.  Angel bites her lip worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, we've definitely gotta do something for you, and quickly.  Think you can walk?"

Darkflash groggily nodded and began walking forward slowly.  Angel walks alongside him, glancing at him worriedly.  Darkflash notices and shakes his head slightly.

"Don't worry, I'm fine, just kinda having a hard time focusing, that's all."

Angel nods at him, still worried.  After a while, Darkflash manages to start to walk a bit more steadily.  Eventually he manages to keep up a normal pace, though he stumbles from time to time.  He almost falls over completely, but Angel catches him, almost falling with him.  Darkflash wasn't fat or anything, but his muscle weight from his military training kinda put a few dozen pounds on him, and Angel was more of the delicate type, so it was rather hard for her to catch him.  Darkflash stands up again and smiles at her.

"Thanks."

Angel smiles back.

"You're welcome.  Now come on, we're only a few minutes away."

Darkflash nods and takes a deep breath and continues after Angel.

12 minutes later…

Angel nods at a dune.  "We're home!"

Darkflash blinks.  "Uh…where?"

Angel chuckles.  "Its right in front of your nose, crosseye."

Darkflash mock-scowls at her.  "Its Darkflash, prissy-paws, and I'm honestly not seeing it."

Angel rolls her eyes at him and goes over to the dune.  She pushes lightly on the side of it, and some sand falls inwards, revealing a door right into the dune.  Angel laughs at the expression on Darkflash's face.  Darkflash blinks, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Uh…you live in a dune?  How'd you manage THAT?"

Angel continues laughing, and finally manages to sober up a bit, long enough to tell him.

"Well, it took me a while, I'll tell you that.  When I left my parents, I had nowhere to stay, so I got an idea.  I had a friend, who's a mole, hollow out the dune while I shored it up.  Eventually, it was finished, but it took months.  Now I have my own disguised home, safe from attackers.  Knock on wood, of course."

Darkflash can only shake his head in amazement.  After a second, he gets his speech back.

"Why'd you leave your parents?"

Angel shrugs.  "Its an old custom.  At the age of 12, the children must leave to go out on their own.  My tribe has been doing that for generations…it may explain why there are so few of us ANYWHERE.  Most of the ones that leave die because they are too young to fend for themselves."  She shrugs again.  "I just got lucky, I supposed."

Darkflash shakes his head.  "I've heard of weird customs, but that takes the biscuit."

Angel laughs.  "You're telling me.  I don't really miss my parents, though.  They were too goody-goody for my liking, they always annoyed me.  'Clean your hands, Angel, go to bed at sunset, Angel, work your ass off Angel, it teaches you discipline Angel,' AGH!  It was enough to drive me insane!  Thank god I don't have to deal with them anymore."

Darkflash shakes his head and speaks quietly, almost to himself.  "I wish my parents were still around…my dad may have been strict, and my mother may have always been busy, but I loved them."

Angel raises her eyebrows pityingly.  "Your parents are dead?"

Darkflash nods.  "Yeah, my 'friend' murdered them…"

As he says this, his eyes start going red.  Angel tilts her head at him.  "Your own friend killed your parents?"

Darkflash nods.  At Angel's voice, the hatred falls from him somehow.  "Yes.  I had trusted him for all my life, I thought he was my best friend…but last night, he showed up at my house with a band of vermin.  He had killed all of the workers in the fields, or he had captured them all.  In any case, he betrayed us and killed my mother and father by torturous methods, methods I won't tell you for fear of disturbing you.  One of his vermin ran me through the neck with a spear.  Somehow, all it did was cut through skin and flesh.  Somehow, I missed tearing through the muscle, throat, or blood veins…its like a miracle."

Angel nods sadly at him, then a light clicks in her head.

"OH, we're supposed to patch you up, come on, let's get inside!"

Darkflash nods, not arguing.  This injury was hurting like the devil.

Once inside, he looked around.  The place was lit with candles, and had a bed, a few chairs, a table, a stone oven, a small restroom, (Take in mind, it's a basic midevil bathroom, consisting of a very deep hole, and nothing more.  I like to perceive them as having toilet paper, dunno why, lol, I'm such a literalist) and even a small tub for bathing over in the corner with a screen.  Darkflash looked around with interest as Angel rummaged around a small bag for her herbs and medicines. 

She found them after a few minutes, and nodded at him.  "All right, hold still, I'm gonna put some herbs in this bandage, it may sting for a few seconds, but it'll heal the injury pretty quick."

Darkflash nodded back and stayed stock still as she worked the bandage around his neck.  As she worked, he couldn't help but notice how nice she smelled.  Nor could he ignore the fact he was oddly enjoying her touch.  Angel muttered quietly to herself as he worked.  She stole glances at him every now and then.  She couldn't help but realize he was pretty cute.  Both of them, though they didn't know it, smacked themselves mentally, both thinking the same thing mentally, "What am I thinking?  He/she isn't even the same species!"  But they both knew, without each other knowing about it, they had somehow fallen in love.

*sniff sniff.  Its so beautiful!  But in any case, some of you, or most likely all of you from my previous warning guessed this was going to happen, lol.  I may suck at romance fics, but every story needs a tinge of romance, I guess.  The story will continue tomorrow.  What will happen?  Well, I don't know, because, again, I'm making this up as I go along, although most of this IS from my ROC character's past (and yes, my ROC character IS Darkflash, I'm just adding in a storyline to his past, and there is a lot of it.  It'll cover several chapters more, then the present day stuff begins, and that's when the story hits the action sequence.  Plenty of stuff for people of all types, IF ONLY YOU PEOPLE WOULD READ THIS!!!!  PLZ, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, REVIEW!*