Chapter 1 (revised): New Abbey Arrivals
Basil and I hiked through Mossflower Wood. We were on vacation from London-and our detective agency. I was carrying the entire luggage.
Basil sighed as I made my umpteenth complaint about it. "You shouldn't have packed so much."
I strained to speak and hold the suitcases in my hands and the tent casing under my arm. "I figured we'd be gone for a long time--Hello, what's that? An abbey made of red stone?"
Basil approached the abbey and inspected it. "Sandstone, actually. The type found in the typical forest quarry. And by the looks of it, I'd say that it was completed only a couple of seasons ago."
"That's astounding!" I breathed.
Basil smiled and replied, "Actually, it's elementary, my dear Dawson."
"Who goes there?"
We looked up at the top of the wall to see a badger standing guard.
"Basil of Baker St. and my partner, Dr. Dawson, do," he called up to the badger. "We were on vacation from our town of London. Perhaps we could spend the night here? It's been a while since we've slept anywhere decent."
The badger thought for a moment. "Alright," she finally said.
"Thank you, umm…"Basil then asked her, "What should I call you?"
"I'm Bella of Brockhall," the badger said. "And badger of Redwall."
"Yes. Thank you, Bella, ma'am," I said. "And what a nice name for your abbey."
"The abbey belongs to Abbess Germaine," Bella called down. "Come on in and you can meet her."
"We'd be delighted to," Basil cried.
The gate immediately opened for us as mice escorted us in. They took us inside of the building itself to an elderly mouse-maid in a wheelchair.
"Mother Abbess, I'd like you to meet Basil of Baker Street," Bella said motioning to Basil, "and his partner, Dr. Dawson," she finished off, motioning to me.
"Pleasure to meet you, Mother Abbess," Basil said. "And I must add what a lovely abbey you have here."
"Thank you," Germaine smiled. "It was my idea. I dreamed up this abbey while we were still fighting for our freedom from an evil tyrant wildcat named Tsarmina."
"Yes, well we better get unpacking for our overnight stay," Basil said. "Mind if Dawson and I could be taken to our rooms?"
Germaine nodded and turned to Bella. "Could you please escort our guests to a room?"
Bella nodded and started to herd us toward a stairway and up to a room with a few beds in it. As soon as she left we started to unpack the necessary. As soon as we were finished, Bella came in to the room.
"We'll be having dinner at Great Hall," she said.
"We'll be there shortly," Basil replied.
As soon as we finished sorting things out, we headed down to Great Hall (the first room we came to when we entered the building) to find quite a large number of woodlanders at the table. Dinner was quite interesting as we were introduced to many dishes and drinks such as October Ale and a fore-mole specialty called Deeper n' Ever Beetroot Pie. Dinner was almost finished when a female mouse came in, dragging with her a little child.
"What is it, Columbine?" Germaine asked.
"Gonff is missing," she said. "He's been gone for a long time and he can't be gone like that on his own."
"I'm sure he's just on a long hike," a strong built mouse named Martin assured her.
"That's pretty long for any hike." Columbine replied. "I tell you he's missing."
"Who's Gonff?" Basil whispered to his neighbor.
"He m'be her husband," the mole replied.
"But what can we do?" Germane asked. "Send out a search party?"
Basil smiled to me. I knew that look. Just as I expected, he stood up and said, "That won't be necessary. Dawson and I serve as detectives and we'll easily locate your loved one," he said to Columbine.
Columbine smiled.
"But we're on vacation!" I protested.
"Well then vacation officially ends now," Basil replied. "We've got a missing husband to find."