The day finally came for Strider to be on his way to Salamandastron. He had spent the day earlier packing up all his provisions that he had and helping Lucky who kept putting too much food in his sack for the trip.
Strider made sure that all his friends brought a weapon just in case they met vermin along the way. Lucky decided to take a dagger that his father had once owned before he died of a sickness a few seasons after Lucky was born. Billy and Milly each had a short sword that they found in the armor room. Nathanial had his own set of bows and arrows that he would take along with him.
Once everyone was settled, Strider lead them out of the abbey where most of the inhabitants were waiting to say goodbye. It was snowing and about five inches was on the ground, but everyone managed to come outside and say goodbye. Walter was the first to walk up to Strider.
"Take care of yourself, I hope to see you again one day," said Walter.
"Let's just hope it is not when vermin attack, so I hope the abbey is peaceful when I am gone now," said Strider.
The abbot smiled and then hugged the big badger. This was quite a hard task seeing the mouse could barely put his arms around his waist. Strider just smiled and hugged back, picking up the old mouse in the process.
Strider then put Walter down carefully and turned to Catspaw who had been waiting to say goodbye to him.
"Last time I saw you leave this abbey for real was when you were a tiny dibbun, let us hope that you will not return the same way as your mother," said Catspaw.
"Don't worry I have a sword with me, if anyone tries to hurt me, they will quickly regret it," said Strider.
"Now take care of that father of yours and the mountain he is on, no doubt that once he is done meeting you he will make you lord of Salamandastron," said Catspaw.
"Me, rule a mountain? That is going to be tough," said Strider.
"If you can defeat a vermin clan of fifty, then you can rule a mountain," said Catspaw.
Strider sighed and looked sadly at Catspaw; he was going to miss that badger mother even though she was a little stern. Catspaw smiled at him, she knew he needed one last hug and gave it to him. It was not like Abbot Walters but it was still just as good.
Strider continued to say goodbye to everyone and the last person he walked up to was Log a log.
"Well if you ever need any help over there, just send someone to get us, we will be there as fast as we can," said Log a log.
"Thanks, I hope I never need you though," said Strider.
Log a log then shook Strider's paw and let him walk out of the abbey. Strider the lead his band out through the gates as he heard the inhabitants say their farewells. A few were crying like Tobias and some of the dibbuns, but Strider knew it was time to go.
Strider and the others were almost into the forest when Lily burst out of the crowd, she has been trying to get a hold of Strider ever since he started saying his goodbyes.
"Strider! Strider!" she cried.
Strider turned around and saw the young otter running at him. Once she was close enough, he quickly scooped her up in his paws.
"What is it Lily?" he asked.
"I want to go with you, I want to be a warrior like you," said Lily.
Strider sighed. "You can't, you are still quite young."
Lily gave him the largest pout he had ever seen come out of a dibbun. "But what if I just live with you and when I am older I can start fighting with you," said Lily.
"Maybe you can journey to Salamandastron when you are older; this journey would be too dangerous for you now. You don't want to get captured like when you were younger do you?" asked Strider.
Lily's eyes filled with tears and then shook her head. "There's a good girl, now give me a hug," said Strider.
Lily quickly buried her face into Strider's huge chest and began to cry. Strider saved her life two seasons ago; she did not want him to leave her, ever.
"Once I learn how to use a bow and arrow, I'm going to find you," she said.
Strider just smiled at the young otter's persistence, and brought her back to Skipper who was glad Strider would not let her go.
Once everything was in order, the group began to walk off into the forest where they continued to hear the goodbyes for quite a few ways.
Once the voices disappeared, the group remained quiet for some time as they ploughed through the snow.
Finally Lucky was the first to speak. "I'm bally hungry wot," he said.
"What already," said Strider in an obvious annoyed tone. Lucky got the point and shut up.
"So do you know where we're going?" asked Nathanial.
"Well Catspaw told me just to head west, so that is what I am doing. She told me you can't miss the hug mountain once you reach the ocean," said Strider.
"How long do you...." Said Billy.
"....think this will take?" asked Milly.
"Don't know, it could take weeks or months depending on how lucky we are," said Strider.
"I hope it will take only a few bally weeks because I already miss the taste of that delicious Double Decker Ale wot," said Lucky.
"Do you ever think about anything else?" asked Strider.
"Yes, I usually think about jolly females, I want one who is willing to cook for me and have kids with me," said Lucky.
"Ha-ha, you think someone will fall in love with you," said Billy.
"Yeah I bet every time you meet a female, she runs in the opposite direction," said Milly.
Lucky's jaw dropped and stared at the two twin mice in anger. "Are you saying that I am bally ugly?" he said.
"Well you could use to loose a few pounds," said Billy who patted the hare's stomach.
"Yeah and your snores are enough to wake up the dead sometimes," said Milly.
"Well at least I never wore a flippin dress when I was a dibbun," said Lucky to Billy obviously pointing out how the mouse would pretend to be Milly when he was younger.
"Hey we were all stupid back then, we did not know any better but at least I never covered myself in honey so I could see what a bee tasted like," said Billy remembering the time Lucky had invaded the kitchen and smeared himself with honey. A memory Lucky had hoped to forget.
Lucky did not like what he heard and made the biggest snowball he could find and threw it at Billy.
Billy ducked just in time and hit Nathanial in the back of the head. "Ouch you guys watch where you throw those things," he said.
"Sorry Nathanial," said Lucky who was then hit in the face with a snowball by Billy.
Lucky grabbed another snowball and threw it at Billy. Again Billy moved out of the way and this time the snowball hit Strider in the back of the head.
Strider let out a yelp and turned angrily at Billy and Lucky. Billy and Lucky saw the badger walking angrily over to them. Lucky pointed at Billy indicating that he did it and Billy did the same.
"It was Lucky," said Milly.
"Yeah it was Lucky," said Nathanial.
"Guys don't tattle on me," said Lucky unhappily.
Strider then grabbed Lucky and then dunked him head first into a large pile of snow. Once Strider let go, Lucky came up with a mouthful of snow while everyone was laughing at him.
"Let that be a lesson to you; no more snowballs," said Strider.
"Yes oh great warrior," said Lucky who crawled out of the snow and continued to follow his friends through the forest.
As they slept, two ferrets snuck silently into the camp. They were robbers, who took as much as they could before anyone could wake up.
"See anything of value yet, Zata?" asked one ferret named Drez.
"Yeah, I see a nice dagger right here, and here are some nice vittles," said Zata.
"We should take those things, now hurry before they wake up," said Drez.
Lucky, whose stomach started to wake him, decided to open his eyes and get a small bite to eat. When he did, he saw some shadows near his pack. Lucky was quite scared and turned to the nearest person next to him, it was Nathanial.
"Nathanial, there are shadows stealing our vittles wot," he said.
"Oh don't worry about it, they'll still be there in the morning," said Nathanial all sleepily.
The ferrets heard their comments and looked at each other. "Should we kill em?" asked Zata.
"Hmmm, only if you think they should be," said Drez.
Zata just smiled and picked up the dagger he wanted. "Hehe I could get a nice coat out of this rabbit here too," he whispered happily to Drez.
Lucky heard that and tried to shake Nathanial again. "Nathanial get your arrows," he said nervously.
But Nathanial continued to ignore him and sleep.
Lucky decided to close his eyes, ready to feel his life end at any minute. He was not happy with that either, only a day traveling and already he was dying.
Zata smiled and raised his dagger, just when he was about to strike, he heard the most frightening sound ever.
"Redddddddddwaaaaalllllllllllll." It was Strider, and he had heard the ferrets ever since they arrived.
Zata saw the badger knock him down hard in the snow. The ferret got up and looked at the badger who was as black as the night.
"Egad, where do you end and where do you begin, because I want to kill you," said Zata.
"Lucky get the fire going again," said Strider.
Lucky just nodded and put some sticks into the fire and lit it. It started to burn quickly.
"Oh good now I can see you nicely," said Zata.
"So can I" said Drez who came from behind and stabbed Strider in the arm. Strider roared in pain and turned to Drez who he grabbed by the neck.
This caused Billy, Milly, and Nathanial to wake up and see the huge badger stab Drez in the heart with the sword of Martin while Zata stood there in shock never knowing that the badger had a sword.
Strider threw the dead ferret in the snow and looked at Zata ready to fight. Zata suddenly lost his will to fight and decided to run. He did not go very far though because Nathanial shot him in the back.
Strider ran over to the wounded ferret and looked down at him. "That ought to teach you to never raid a camp again," he said.
"I'm...I'm sorry s-sir, please l-let me live," said Zata.
"How about this, I will let you live, but you must never set your paws in Mossflower again. If I hear you are in Mossflower, your death will come swiftly with my sword," said Strider.
"Yes sir," said Zata who then painfully pulled the arrow from his back and walked weakly back into the forest.
"It's true that I will never hear from him again any way, he will most likely be dead by morning or some time soon," said Strider.
"Yes, I did hit him in a weak spot," said Nathanial.
"Good reflexes for someone who had just woken up," said Strider.
"Thanks, and sorry about ignoring you Lucky, I thought you were having one of those dreams that you had when you were a dibbun where you would wake me and tell me that the vermin are after you," said Nathanial.
"It's alright wot, even though I almost bally died," said Lucky.
"That would have been a tragedy," said Billy quietly to Milly. Milly just giggled.
Strider walked over to his pack and took some cloth that he put on his wound. "Well no one was really hurt, so that is good. I suggest you all go back to bed and don't worry, if any other vermin come, I will hear them," said Strider.
They all nodded and yawned as they walked back to their sleeping bags. They all fell asleep very quickly; knowing that the worst of the night was over and a new day would soon begin.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------That was a fun chapter, filled with humor and suspense. I hope you all liked it and please review if you did. I am suspecting that their journey will last about three more chapters as they get into more interesting predicaments. Any way just to let you know if you review my story I will review yours. Again if anyone has any ideas for a different name for this story please tell me, I just don't think this name fits. Well that is all I have to say so have fun writing.