Magic Spells and Wishing Wells

by Velamintsgirl

PLEASE REVIEW! Begans long before Redwall at Loamhedge, where Privtal kidnaps four siblings and claims to be their father, he gives them a days head start to escape, if he finds them, well you get it. Will they ever find the truth of there real parents?

Magic
Spells and Wishing Wells

By: Hannah Duke
Illustrator: Hannah Duke

Chapter One

A broad summer morning with light of crimson red, ocean blue, and bright gold shined through a herd of clouds colored soft pink and pale yellow as the dew glimmered like a field of diamonds laid upon the grass for the wind to steal until the next dawn. Pistol, Thorn, Grantel, and Dorte were picking the ripe apples and pears for desert that night after dinner.
"Wisker cats, run!" yelled Thorn quiet suddenly. Clump, clump, ploosh the whiskertews paws grew louder. Pistol, Thorn, Grantel, and Dorte ran as fast as their legs could carry them to the hole. Making it into the hole just as the wiskertew walked into the open.
"Pistol, there you are. Spigs has been looking everywhere for you; he says it's important! He told you to meet him in the normal place." his sister yelled as she ran towards him panting. Without another word Pistol ran right past his sister towards the meeting place. He walked into his room closed the door and laid down right on the floor and whispered "Sisters drool, we rule." There was a snigger, as a part of the floor opened into a small hide out that led through a secret passageway that only Spigs and Pistol knew about.
"I know why the parents have been so secretive lately. Spigs said after Pistol was inside, "There's an strange creature roaming around outside the house, he has a horde to."
"How'd ya' find out?" asked Pistol as he grabbed a cookie Spigs was trying to give to him.
"You should know that," said Spigs
"Nop."
"Sure?"
"Yep."
"This place goes everywhere, you can hear anyone's conversation as long as you're standing under the room they're in." Spigs said after a pause to make sure Pistol was telling the truth. Suddenly the secret trap door opened and Spigs and Pistols sister climbed in.
"How'd ya' know we were down here Houstler?" Pistol said completely outraged.
"You left the trap door open, so me and Bushel invited ourselves in." Houstler said as she chuckled to herself.
"Leave."
"No"
"Yes"
"Make me" Houstler said standing with a wobbly sprout tree wood sword she placed under his chin.
"Leave or I'll tell mom."
"Then you won't have a secret place anymore." Bushel said for the first time since the conversation started. Spigs and Pistol then had a whisper conversation with each other. A few minutes later they nodded in agreement, but then they started arguing again.
Finally Pistol spoke," You can't tell anyone but you can use the place."
"Good" she said and then climbed out of the secret place and back into Pistols room and Bushel followed, "Oh yeah, it's time for dinner!" She yelled as she closed the trap door. Pistol could hear his sister laughing all the way down the hall.
"Gotta go, see ya'." Pistol yelled as he climbed out of the secret place and back into his room. Spigs ran down the secret hallway, but he never got back to his room that night...

Chapter Two

"Wake Up! Wake Up! Pistol, Spigs is gone." His sister said as she shook him ferociously. Pistol sat straight up and started putting on his clothing.
As he did so he asked questions," When did they find that he was gone? Do they have any evidence? How long has he been missing? When is the search party gonna start looking for him?" "Last night 10 o' clock. Nothing. 10 hours. Started two hours ago." Was her answer and then gave him a piece of paper. Pistol read the paper.

Spigs Tastol Greenwheather was found missing at exactly 10 o' clock last
evening. Pistol halft thontel the third has been reported as the last person with him last night. There for we must Question you as a wittiness.
We need your full corporation in solving this crime.
Thank You
Head of Elders

Pistol tried to hold back tears, his best and only friend was gone and he was going to have to show them the secret place. He ran to the meeting hall after kissing his mom good-bye. His sister came with him; she had also seen him before he disappeared. Houlster was questioned first, 25 minutes later she walked out and Pistol walked in. He was in a small room completely white, he sat down in a chair, and it too was completely white.
"Where were you last night with Spigs Greenwheather?" said a voice that seemed to come from nowhere.
"I, I was, we were in our secret spot." Pistol answered
"And where is that?" the voice asked
"Un, underneath the whole Loamhedge building." Pistol answered bringing up his courage a bit.
"How do you get into it?" the voice replied
"Anywhere there's a trap door." He answered.
"Show us one." The voice replied and then Pistol noticed the door as it opened to reveal the three head mice, each had a badge that gleamed from some hidden light. 4 minutes later Pistol was inside the secret place with the three men. Pistol suddenly heard a noise and ran, the three men followed. Then Pistol opened the door where he thought the sound was coming from. There in the corner of the room was Spigs, he seemed very still. The sound had been a book. It lay open on the floor. The page read

The sick little boy who took my wife,
And you, who took my child,
All I want is to have them back,
No harm will come to them.
But beware, I'm everywhere
I'm watching you as you stand
If you do not return them soon,
The consequences will soon be known.

"Son, you are obviously in danger, for your own protection we need to keep you highly guarded. You're going to stay here until we can find a place better." He said as Pistol thought he must be from another land, because his accent. Suddenly Spigs started moving then he opened his eyes slowly.
"Pistol, Pistol, you must go west, he's trying to take us. Run; run with your sister westward I must go with you. I must go with you." He said it as if he was hypmatized and his voice was so strange. It was as if someone controlled him, his eyes were unfocused, the rest of his body still. Then he went limp.

Chapter 3

"Privtal! Privtal give 'em his kids! Privtal! Privtal!" What sounded like an army was cheering.
"Quiet you buffoons. Just find my daughters and sons now! Said another voice. Crash crack boom suddenly Pistol was hit from behind as his sister leapt into the room. Hours and hours later Pistol woke up. He didn't know what time it was or where he was. In front of him was mouse that looked a lot like himself.
"Hello my son it has been so long since I saw you last." He said with a somewhat happy voice. "Your mother died after you were born then one day you and your brother and sisters were gone, kidnapped. Now you're with your true father. Me." He grinned showing horribly crooked yellowish black teeth.
"Pistol where are we?" his sister asked groggily, he noticed his sister next to him. Spigs was on the other side with her.
"We've been kidnapped by a nut case who thinks he's are father." He replied loudly so that everyone could hear.
"Pistol, he is our father. I found out a while a go that we were taken from him. He couldn't handle five kids, they offered to help until we were older but then they wouldn't give us back." She replied as if a two your old should have known. Suddenly a piercing pane went through the back of his neck, all of it was a lie, his true father was this man who seemed so evil and mad. Pistol jumped up and ran towards Spigs, Houlster and Bushel followed the example. They tried to knock down the door, split crack boom! The door collapsed and they ran out into a trap. Crash! A heavy metal cage fell on top of them. All but Bushel were captured; she however jumped out of the way just in time. Suddenly guards leapt on her.
"Ahhhhhhhh! Get of a me or I'll get really mad!" Bushel was yelling at the top of her lungs. She started punching and kicking and biting and scratching. Two of the guards got knocked out but they finally got her into the cage. The whole time Pistol, Houlster, and Spigs were cheering for her.
"You were awesome Bushel I've never seen you act like that before." Spigs said clapping her on the back.
"But I didn't escape. I didn't even get close to the door." Bushel replied.
"We have to get out of here, that's final. We need a plan." Pistol said quietly. He cleared his throat, then coughed, "Father, could you fetch some food and water for us." He winked at us.
"What did you just say?" He barked, angered immensely.
"You heard, fetch some water and food."
"Why you little. Soldiers, depart!" Immediately the soldiers fled, scrunching through the narrow doorway.
"Well are you going to fetch some water and food or sit there like the dumbass buffoon that you are?" He ran at the cage so ferociously then it was scary. He let the cage up, angered.
"I'll give a days head start, then, your heads are mine!" They ran their tails off, grabbing the small bag of money that he had left on the stand near the cage. The money he was going to use as wages.

Chapter 4

"So, why do you think boss let us off early for lunch?" One of Jonathon's soldiers named Stumptail asked another solider called Witbreeze. "You BUFOON, you saw him, he was about to kill them, now he's probably decided to play Hide and Be Dead with them." Witbreeze said as if he was the greatest scientist of all time.
"Ahh, your probably right besides why do I care that we get a longer brake although it is kind a' heart warmin rescuing his kids in all. To bad they're not his, huh. Ah here's, Brainerd with our food." Stumptail said kind of fast. He was right on one thing Brainerd was coming over, he handed them some sandwiches and left mumbling some math equations to himself. 10 minutes later there was thirteen big booms, Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Which meant it was 1 o' clock. Everyone got up and started towards the house. They waited outside for their boss to assign them new positions.
Nightfall came slowly inching its way as slowly as it could. Drenched to the bone tired and hungry they stopped. "I'm estimating that we are about eighteen miles away from the army and the forest will end within five miles. I hope theirs no more rain, we should be at the end of the forest by about mid after noon tomorrow. But I'll worry about that later, lets eat." Bushel said grabbing a handful of berries and then stuffing them all into his mouth before any one was able to stop him.Bushel's theory was correct, the forest ended quiet suddenly; they came out near a large pond.Water shone and reflected ripples on their faces, lily pads covered the shore and large fish were swimming playfully in the shallows. The water was cold as it ran down their dry, thirsty throats.
"Ahhhhhh now that's good and refreshing." Houlster said after taking a long gulp.
"Well you have to keep it clean and take away the dead fish." Said an unfamiliar voice. Everyone turned around to see a tall mouse with a long cloak and a long skimpy hat with lots of patches and holes. His face seemed fragile and old as if it had been through and seen a lot of things. "Go on drink, I don't mind really. I just live hear tired of doing all this magic and going around saving people and other stuff. I usually don't get visitors, at all. No one knows where I am, probly don't care.

"Why don't we fallow them? Their tracks lead into the forest." Someone else yelled.
"Because, they've got a seven day heads start and unless they stayed in the forest their long gone. Why waste time besides we'd have to run night and day for about four days before we even started to site of them probably." Witbreeze replied, most nodded in agreement.
"He probably doesn't even have the money, why try to get money he doesn't have?" Another guy yelled
"Yeah, lets blow this joint!"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah!"
"Revenge!" Replied a deep cockish voice.
"What about revenge?" replied someone else
"He got us to get his kids, he must really want em' so we take his kids and torches um till he give us the money." The man replied.
"Ooo I like where your goin' but better yet take the father and get the kids to surrender, but because they might be fakin' take one o' the kids too." Stumptail said.
"Lets put plan kidnapped in business" Yelled Witbreeze.
"Wahhooo, were finally getten' paid. Wahhhhhhhooooooo!
"It's about time too!!!" And off they marched into the forest at a fast jogging pace unaware that they were in more danger then they could ever imagine, for Wiskertews were in the forest, and hungry for something, mouse! Wiskertews were huge cat like creatures with so many whiskers you could hardly see their eyes. With long bushy tails and gigantic, deathly paws that could render a mouse dead in less then six seconds they were not a very good thing to run into in a dark spooky forest.
"Ahhhhhhhhh! Help me a whiskertew is in the for..." A blood-curtailing scream rose and echoed through the forest sending chills down the hordes backs. One by one men went down screaming and yelling for help, anyone who stopped to help should have just started digging their graves. Shadows seemed to move and blood seemed to afflict from everywhere like the sun on a cloudy day. Finally they came out of the forest grateful it was still daylight out, just barley but there was a hint of daylight. Wiskertews couldn't leave the forest except on a full moon and luckily the full moon was two nights ago so they didn't have any worries.
"Lets see, um one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifth teen, and counting myself and the other captains. There are only 22 people left." Swag (who was the one who wanted revenge in the first place said half mumbling half talking.
"Hey, you forgot us!" A small group of about 15 limped in with about ten dead whiskertews," Yeah, and we got dinner enough to last three seasons, too." Already one of the soldiers was starting a fire. They skinned the whiskertews in which made about 40 single person sized blankets and pillows. They slept well that night with warm beds and hot whiskertew meat with potato and onion gravy from an abandoned field full of potatoes and onions. Wounds were soaked in flaming hot water from a small pond and water shrimp was used as blood soakers that worked very effectively as a sponge to soak up the blood. When they woke the next morning they were bandaged up and every wound felt wonderful. A tall old man was at the campsite with teakettles and a large bowl of crushed herbs and fruit. The man had wrapped all the whiskertew leftovers in paper and packed them in sacks. The mans name was Dethrone or that was what he liked to be called. He told them that if you mixed water shrimp, crushed peppermint leaves, catnip, and Boiling water together you get a healing lotion that also helped you relax. And he was very right, the lotion had helped everyone relax so the wizard was kind enough to make one bottle full of the lotion, but he warned them never to use it on a full moon because it attracts whiskertews from miles away, once a man put on this lotion on a full moon with the forest fifty- two miles away and twenty minutes later he was dead. The soldiers left with canteens of water and their packs full of food, and they stayed low just as a precaution.
. . .

Meanwhile the Stonerests had made it to the bottom of the mountain. They relaxed and cheered silently for themselves as they drank a long drink of water, they had noticed the army the night before when they came yelling and screaming out of the forest. The break wasn't long and before they knew they were on the mountain and climbing the steep rocky ledges and sometimes they had to leave the trail because it was to hard. Luckily Pistol and Spigs (they had decided to keep their old names because it was to hard to remember them when they'd been called something else for a long time) had picked up rock climbing and they would climb to the top of the steep ledge and then lower down the rope for everyone else to climb up. It was very successful and the managed about one fourth of the way up before three o' clock, they took a small break for about thirty minutes before they began again and this time they had something join them, wind, a lot of wind. They held on to the rope very tight because it was hard to keep it steady when someone was climbing. It started getting dark quickly and they had to make camp in the protection of a rocky ledge. They were all cut and bruised from head to toe and their feet ached and went to bed miserable. The next morning they seemed to be living a dream cuts were gone and bruises had faded and their feet felt as if they had soaked in hot water for hours and hours and hours
Chapter 6

Both the Stonerests and the mad horde were going tough. The rain was drizzling and the sky was cloudy, windy, and very cold. Lightning flashed and thunder vibrated the ground making it hard to walk. Everything seemed as if it was in slow motion. Bushel was in the back of the line, she couldn't help wondering what the poem meant or if it was just something a child had wrote for fun but it seemed to serious for something a small child had made up. No longer was there cliffs they had to climb, only a flat and bumpy surface. Suddenly a roar shook the ground and Bushel fell, lightning hit the base of a tree and the tree began to fall, on Bushel! Houlster screamed as Pistol, Spigs, and Pitols ran to help her, but it was to late. The tree had rolled onto her and she was stuck. No matter how hard they tried she couldn't move.
"Thar ee ya nee som' he'p. 'ello thar did no introducen o' meself did I? 'ow ya do I 'own as Caser Onerten Saentell Alenternestingfo bu' yu ca' cal' mi' Cosa. Now let mi ee what we got her'. Tuck unde ee tree." He went into a rhythm song. "We'll his 'hing 'appened to me, w'en one 'ay a mouse wa' tuck onde' a tree. A 'ood mol' 'ike 'ee saws 'his 'hing' tuck onde' a tree. 'ith a 'lap o' me 'ands and a 'tomps o' me 'eet in 'ees tha' ten 'inutes 'lat t'at 'ousey was bac' on tis feet sayin' wishes I could be a moley like yee'!" he stopped and bowed, and then took a dive into the mud like dirt. Within eight seconds later Bushel had been wrapped in a thick mole made wool blanket and three others joined them. A weasel named Whist, a stoat named Badge, and a fox named Slick. They lived on the mountain and had come to see what all the fuss was about. The fox was a healer from the town of Bastern Healers in which getting this name because the legendary fox healer Bastern was born there and it was a community of healing foxes. The weasel and stoat were abandoned when babies and rose by a ferret named Alsterin. Bushel was lucky to survive; her ribs had almost caved in on impact. The mole said even if he hadn't showed up Bushel would have survived any way because she had fallen into a small rut that saved her life. The mole took them back to his cave for dinner, tea, and some rest. Cosa had a wife named Wither, a son named Ridge, and a daughter named Stream. Their dinner consisted of Whiskertew meat with piping hot chicken gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, a loaf of almond, chestnut and pecan bread, and for dessert a pear and apple crumble with meadow cream. Then they relaxed, Bushel, Spigs, Houlster, and Pistol practiced a few spells. Spigs accidentally turned his chair into a lemon, Cosas hat into a cup, and the sugar shaker into a pear all after mispronouncing a word. Sleep overcame them quickly and everyone had fallen into slumber. Bushel was in a dream, the night wind was howling from afar as the ghostly white moons reflection glimmered from a pool of water formed by the rain. A humming started and then a sweet voice rang from the heavens like a bell:

"Rest upon a travelers journey,
From the west and to the east,
Wind travels oh so softly.
Come with me and we will feast,
Life has never reached an end,
All it does is form again,
Above the sky of blue and white.
Floating threw a summer's night,
Do not leave,
Do not come,
Only go when there is no sun."

A person appeared from the shadows of a willow tree carrying something. When the figure was in front of her it gave Bushel the bundle then disappeared. "Child! Wake up this instant before breakfast gets cold." A voice said ill temperedly "I'm up." said Bushel as she sat up and was looking into the face of an old looking ferret. Next to her was a small bundle wrapped in dark cloth. "There's some blueberry 'n strawberry pancakes, cold apple 'n pear cordial, and this littl' concoction to help ye thin' straight. Oh, by the way I'm Caiforn the healer ferret. Now lets see, what is in thar' package?" Bushel had already started undoing the straps that had been holding the package together. It was a very strange thing to have in a bag, a pot with glimmering paints and second hand jewels placed neatly along the out side rim which meant it wasn't for drinking out of. Bushel popped off the thin lid with ease to find only a note and a beautiful miniature long bow with arrows. First she read the note, it said:

You should know, life will never end. Complicated and confusing it seems, but it's not. The one thing no one new was that I was a witch, my ashes are in my magic book, guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. It waits in the dragons keep in an unknown passage waiting to be found again. All I ask is to be brought here again. For spirits live inside others and you can bring love and happiness back to your father.
Love,
Bushel Cangon Stonerest