Kani: Sorry for taking so long! I kinda lost interest in this fic. But I just finished reading The Ribbajack and Other Curious Yarns...and I'm back!
The first thing Dustin Blaine was aware of was talking, talking, incessant talking. After several minutes, he deduced that the speakers had European-sounding accents...which was strange. Did he know anyone who talked like that in New Jersey?
It took him a while to realize what they were saying.
The rasping voice seemed to be speaking the most. "I foun' him...her...uh, it alone near the River Moss last night...not sure wot t'make of it. Gaila?"
"I think we should keep it until we know whether it's a vermin or not," suggested a female voice. "It's not like Redwallers to turn out helpless beasts...things...beings."
A firmer male voice broke in. "This one strongly resembles the other two the shrews found a few days ago...what did they call themselves?"
"Horans?" ventured the rasping voice.
"Humans," the female voice corrected. "But I—"
Dustin stirred.
"Wait a moment. He's coming 'round."
Dustin opened his eyes.
Faces! Furry faces! Three twitching furry rodent faces looking down at him from the sky...
He instantly recoiled and tried to struggle.
"Hold on, calm down...human." Huge paws held him down. "We're not going to hurt you."
Realizing that he had a splitting headache, Dustin lay still. He clenched his teeth, remembering last night. "Y-you with that Swiftshot guy?" he questioned harshly. "Or are you those spikehogs that almost took my head off?!"
The three rodent faces turned from him to each other. "Swiftshot?" repeated the rasping voice, which belonged to the animal that made Dustin think of a thin seal. "He's in the area?"
"N-never mind."
"What's your name?" asked the female voice.
Dustin shot a look in its direction. He recoiled instinctively. "A skunk!"
"Skunk?!" the three demanded together.
The boy was feeling decidedly awkward. "Never mind..."
The firm voice's owner now spoke. "What is your name...uh...son?"
"Dustin Blaine. I'm a human boy, in case you still don't know."
"I'm Abbot Cadwall," the rodent—which Dustin decided must be a mouse—replied.
"I'm Gaila," said the "skunk." "And I am a badger."
Dustin turned bright red.
"And," added the raspy-voiced slim seal, "I am Skipper of Otters."
"Oh." Scratch the slim seal part... An uncomfortable silence reigned. Dustin shifted slightly. "When I woke up, I heard you...talking about 'two others.' Who are they?"
Gaila shrugged helplessly. "The shrews found them wandering in the woods, almost starved to death. When they came here and recovered somewhat, they kept saying they were...humans. And those names...Trina Jamison and Keanu Calloway, I think. So very...odd." She frowned at the look on Dustin's face. "What's wrong?"
Trina and Keanu...I know those names! Forgetting his bad headache and repulsion of "skunks," Dustin leaned urgently towards Gaila. "Can...can I see them?"
The hare Cuan was Dawson's teacher. He was a rather thin hare, but what he lacked in muscle he more than made up for in knowledge and battle skill. At the moment, he was in his room (with the belt full of daggers he never went without), copying from an old parchment when Dawson came bounding in.
"Mornin', little Cuan!"
"Dawson!" The older hare almost shot out of his chair. "I've told you time and again that my door is closed for a reason. Knock before you enter, and enter quietly, wot! And the next time you call me little, I'll write you up for insubordination and send you to Lieutenant for kitchen duty, mark me words, I will!"
Dawson smiled and saluted. "Yessir, little Cuan." He nimbly dodged the dagger that Cuan threw his way.
"Off to the kitchens with ye! I want to see those pots and pans scoured mirror-clean after breakfast, ho yes, I do!"
The leveret wasn't dismayed in the least. "I'll attend to those pots presently, Cuan," he said. "But first, I wanted to know how long a moon is."
Cuan slammed down his reed pen. "I've told all you leverets that before in your classes, wot!" he said, sounding mildly annoyed. "A moon is just about thirty days. Why do you ask?"
"That little horan...er, h-human Julian said he's seven years old, and then he said he doesn't know how long a season is, and then Coral said a season's about three moons, and then Julian said he doesn't know how long a moon is, and so I says to him, 'I'll have a chat with my teacher an' ask him.'"
Cuan let out a short chuckle. "Well, now you know. So kindly take yourself down to the kitchens and get on those pots!"
Dustin's eyes widened as he saw the two humans being escorted into his room by two otters and a shrew. "Keanu! Trina!"
"Dustin!" exclaimed Keanu, starting forward. "Trina and I saw the shrews take you in here, but they wouldn't let us see you. Did they hurt you or something...?"
"Hoi!" The shrew stepped before Keanu, jabbing a tiny paw at the boy's stomach. "Stay back until we say you can approach!"
Trina spoke up. "I don't understand...what's going on?"
The shrew unsheathed his rapier and waved it threateningly under Trina's nose. "You will speak when spoken to!"
"Log-a-Log Aidan, please." Abbot Cadwall raised his hands. "They have caused us no harm, so we should cause them none."
Skipper of Otters and Gaila voiced their agreement.
Log-a-Log Aidan looked from Trina to Keanu to Dustin, his beady eyes brimming with distrust. Then with a loud "Hmph!" he stalked off, the two otters right behind him.
"Don't mind Log-a-Log," Skipper said when they'd gone. "He doesn't trust easily, but when he does, you couldn't want for a more loyal friend."
Trina shivered as she sat on the edge of Dustin's bed. "So you're not sending us back?" She tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear, her voice panicked. "W-we're going to be stuck here?!"
"I've told you already," replied the abbot. "We don't know how you and your friends got here, so we have no way of knowing how to 'send you back!'"
"B-but..." Trina sniffed. "I-I want to go home...I want to sleep in a bed and eat cheeseburgers and go to school and get teased by Allen Wesley there and...and—" She broke down and cried. Keanu and Dustin exchanged uneasy looks, but it was Cadwall who moved first.
"There, there," he said awkwardly. "If you found a way to get here, you can find a way to get back." He put a paw around Trina's shoulders, and the girl recoiled instantly.
"Eww! Get off me, you rodent!"
"Trina..." Keanu sighed as the abbot drew back.
Dustin frowned. "So you're not with Swiftshot?" he demanded.
That got Skipper's attention instantly. "You mentioned that vermin before; how do you know about him?"
"That's a long story..." Dustin shook his head.