Are you all in suspense? I hope so. Well, I have nothing else to say right now except sorry this again is such a short chapter.

Chapter 8

Morning's rays flooded down through the tree's leaves in the forest of Mossflower. Three hares looked ahead as far as they could see. In front of them rose the great red sandstone Abbey; Redwall.

Sprinting back to their master, one informed him, "Sire, there 'ppears t' be no vermin 'round.

"They musta been scared off by y'self!"

"As me ol' mater use t' say, 'Where tucker's scarce, so art vermin'. But I think there's plenty o' tucker in that jolly fort yonder."

"Hold up!" Urthord stamped his foot paw down so hard on the ground that the three hares bounced. "I want Kleave to spill the beans. Go ahead."

The first hare to speak stepped forward, stamped the ground with one paw, and threw a sharp salute. "As I already said, Sire, there 'ppears t' be no vermin 'round. Our scouting abilities showed no sign o' the blighters. Kleave out!"

"Thank you, Kleave. Your party can go back and join the ranks. Now, where were we captains?"

Four hares stood beside Lord Urthord; Captain Durkerut, Captain Inka, Captain Ethan, and Captain Sandlim.

"We were discssin' wot ta do if the Abbey was already under siege."

"That's right ol' scallywag, under siege."

"Why do ya have ta repete whatever someone says and insult them at the same time? I don't know why Urthord appointed you as a Captian, Inka."

"Is that what his Lordship asked, Ethan? No! He asked what we were talkin' 'bout."

"Okay you young rips! I know what to do now, but because you four are to busy arguing, I'll just take the hundred hares into the Abbey by myself." Urthord began in the direction of thenm five score hares in hiding."

"Er, no wait Lord! We're commin' too yaknow."

The shrew lookout on the wall top of Redwall nervously watched the hundred plus hares come closer. Regretfully he called to another shrew a couple yards away.

"Geramoch, are y' ganna report da bad news?"

"Er, not me, Jayol. Y' can."

"Oh no! I guess we'll both 'ave ta."

"Er, right."

The two lookouts hastily ran down the steps and almost collided with the mouse they were looking for; Abbot Sathodus.

"What's the hurry, friends?"

"Er, a bad report, that's all. Y' tell 'im Jayol."

"Over a 'undred 'hares 'eading this way, Sir."

The Abbot's jaw dropped in surprise. "Over a hundred hares? You must be joking! Friar Cupcud's going to have a heart attack! Show them to me."

The three walked up the steps to the wall top and the shrews pointed to the approaching army.

"Er, 'here 'they are."

"Unbelievable! I never knew Salamandastron had so many hares! I see Lord Urthord heading the group, and yes, there's Sandlim. He's made many trips here before with his Long Patrol. Something must be up for them to come here with that many fighters."

Triebane walked up and glanced out over the wall by habit but jumped back in disbelief. "By golly that's a lot of hares! Has anyone seen Arathorn? I can't believe he's still missing. Cythel said that if he wasn't here by tomorrow morning, we'd send out a search party. Zanzibar and Nightwing were the first to volunteer for the job, so Cythel selected them. They'd make a good team too. Zanzibar said I could come along and ride him but…"

He hesitated until Sathodus said, "But what?"

"Well, I can't ride."

"I shouldn't think so! You, I or anybeast has never seen a horse until a couple days ago! By the way, how do you think Cupcid will respond once he sees all the hares?"

"I don't know. Maybe he'll have a heart attack."

The Abbot looked shocked, "That's what I said!"

"Oh really now, I could have said the same thing."

Leaving one baffled Abbot behind, the warriormouse took the shrews down the steps and said, "I'd like you to give a kind message to the badger and company. Tell him this: 'Unless your hares provide food for themselves, you may not enter!' Now run along now!"

"But but, sir! They'll stone us alive!"

"Er, why don't y' do it, Triebane."

"Tisk tisk, you shrews! Bickering about who's doing what and what's doing who all the time. Now get going!"

He kindly, but firmly pushed them out the gate and closed it behind the wordless shrews. Unconsciously they walked toward the hare army.

"Er, the mice of Redwall have a message fer y', continue Geramoch."

"Um, they said unless your hares provide vittles for yourselves, you cannot enter the Abbey."

"Hem, never thought of that." The badgerlord stroked his chin with on paw and reached for his mace with the other.

Two frightened shrews huddled close to each other and cried, "No Lord, don't kill us! Where only the messengers!"

"No no no! I wasn't doing anything to you! I'm signaling the hares to advance onto Redwall. Surely the message was only a joke, right?"

Arathorn followed again as Rose led him down a rope ladder to the ground. They found Martin looking into a huge glass mirror. Arathorn gasped at the scean inside it. Martin's reflection was not there as it should be, but in it's place there was…

OOOOOOOO! You'll just have to wait till next time!