Matt, though physically recovered from the days events, had not felt entirly safe in the thought of returning to his home. Somebeast was out for him. They knew his name. They knew he had the prophecy, and they wanted to stop him from learning anymore. He and Charlie both stayed with Lucy at her flat that night, Charlie more for support to his two comprehension- weary friends.
The next morning, after Charlie thoroughly searched his car for bugs or anything out of place, the three mice drove to the library a few blocks away from Matt's flat. Charlie and Lucy waited inside while Matt walked to his front door as inconspicuously as was possible and retrieved the book with the origional copy of the prochecy inside it. It was when he was placing it in a brown leather bag he could strap across his chest, his subconcious lured him to a small pouch made from white, beaded linen that his grandfather had given him many seasons ago…
Matt didn't want to stay in the hospital room. Watching the mouse that had stood as his confidant and idol for so long slowly dying was more than the younge mouse could bear. However, his Papa, as he had so fondly called him since birth, called Matt to him via Matt's father.
Matt had entered the room with a growing dread that he would be witness to his Papa's death. Papa wouldn't allow him to linger at the doorway, though, and beakoned him closer as Matt's parents left the room. "C'm 'ear, little one, I've sumthin' I want you t'keep ahold of for me…" Matt was, against his will, sympathetically curious and did his grandfather's bidding.
"Take this," his grandpa said, coughing into his paw after Matt had taken the linen bag, eyes large with wonder and amazment. So many years had Matt looked to the bag in admiration and wonderment, and Papa was now giving to him when he was hardle eight seasons strong!
It was the very bag Martin the Warrior retrieved from his birth place in his quest to learn the story of his father, Luke. It had been kept among the few treasures in Redwall Abbey for seasons until the visit of the young Healer mousemaid Aubretia. Abbot Saxtus had given it to the maid before she departed as thanks to the history of their warrior founder she left them with, as well as expressing a feeling that he felt it belonged to her in some curious way. The bag had passed through many many generations until it had come to the paws of Matt's Papa. It had begun to yellow with age desipte the excelent preservation it had been subjected to and several of the beads had been replaced with exact replicas over the countless ages. Matt was about to release the pull strings and open it when Papa stayed his paw.
"No!" he rasped weakly, coughing painfully again before continuing. "I've never opened it. It was not ment for me to open, and it wasn't ment for y'father. It's ment fer you…just not yet. You'll know when th' time comes…a terrible time it will be…"
"Papa?" Matt squeaked worriedly. His grandfather had lain back against his pillow and stared at the ceiling with wide, glazed over eyes, his breathing turning to soft rasps through his open mouth. Matt jumped when the door behind him was thrown open and slammed into the wall. He sprinted from the room with the bag clutched to his chest when his parents and nurses came rushing in. He could hardley bear to glance back one last time. He wouldn't remember many of the words his Papa spoke to him after he woke from the fitfull sleep he would cry himself into, and he wouldn't know what he had ment by most of them until much later…
Matt sighed. He grabbed the pouch and carfully placed it in the leather bag on top of his wallet, a change of clothes for he and Charlie, and the small crystal figurine of Abbess Germaine his sister had given him when it turned up in her shop, another item on whim he was bringing.
Lucy's maicured nails had been reduced down to he pawtips when Matt returned. Even the irrepressible Charlie looked relieved to see him. "Could have taken a bit longer, there," he said jokingly as Matt and Lucy clambered into his car, trying to smile and lighten the mood. "Not in any hurry…"
Lucy started the car awkwardly as Charlie sat next to Matt in the back seat, asking Lucy, "You sure you can drive it?"
Lucy took up an indignantly affronted air and said, "Of course I can!" Despite how unsure she looked, she pressed on the gas pedal and the car went off like a shot, throwing Charlie and Matt backwards. It was more tragic for the latter, as he had been halfway through putting on his kaki trousers after slipping out of his working slacks. Lucy gained control of the vehicle after only a few miles, though, and was soon comfortable enough to start muttering about bloody Americans.
"We're going to have to change cars," Matt muttered through the black knit jumper he was pulling over his shirt. Charlie, supremely miffed and shocked, popped his head through the clean t-shirt of Matt's and exclaimed, "Why!"
"Oh, Charlie," Lucy snapped, eyeing him through the rear- veiw mirror. "I know your precious car means everything to you, but how many American models do you see on the streets? It's an easy target, and frankly, I'm not sure why we're still in it." She peered worriedly out the front again. Her voice had trailed off to almost a wimper. Charlie put an apologetic and comforting hand on her shoulder.
Matt had pulled out the linen bag in the silence that followed thereafter and was staring at it intently, remember the fateful day he had obtained it. Charlie finished tying the lace of his black sneaker and pulled his dark jean pantleg over it, asking Matt, "What's that?" Matt felt it a slight betrayal to his grandfather's memory when he turned it towards Charlie to veiw. It only took Charlie the few seconds he saw it to realize what it was, though. He stared at Matt with open- mouthed awe.
"What is it?" Lucy asked curiously. Charlie, after shaking his head to clear himself of his stupor, proudly explained.
"You know your Redwall history, don't you? Yes, yes, expected. Well well…Mr. Woods here had me going on that he had no connections to the place other than knowing it through studies, and yet here he sits with the very container that held the image of our Warrior that is now on the tapestry in the Great Hall! Handed down from the very first Martin to Luke, then to the founder of Redwall, Martin the Warrior! That bag has passed through great paws, it has!" Lucy was titillated at this announcement and asked by whom he had been given such a thing. Matt smiled weakly and explained. Charlie was awed completley and clapped a paw on Matt's shoulder, apologizing when Matt winced from the twing it gave his cut.
"That's something to be truly proud of," Charlie said. Matt smiled fully this time and replied instantly, "I am." He looked out the window and noticed for the first time his surroundings. They had left the main hub of the city and the road was leading into a much less densly populated town. Charlie stretched and looked at the digital clock on the dashboard.
"Two- thirty," he said, slipping into a gray, hooded sweater and zipping it up. "Excelent. We should be at Hali's in an hour or so, maybe less." He pulled the thin, black laptop from his own bag and set it on his knee. A chart popped up alongside a document. The fine print scrolling by at a rapid speed was making Matt woozy; he had never really been one with an easy stomach for travling. He settled for closing his eyes and turning his face down towards his paws. He leaned his head against the window, the cool glass caressing his ear wonderfully.
He was back at his childhood home, happily sitting in the sandbox with his baby sister until some neighborhood boys rode up on scooters and bikes and hailed him over. He stood and did so, not listening to the calls of Mary behind him. He turned around to tell her to hush, but she had been replaced by a female mouse, perhaps 20 seasons of age. She could have been much younger, but the worry in her beautiful face aged her. Matt thought she looked a bit similar to his great- grandmother when she was younger, (Papa had shown Matt many pictures of his mother,) but he reasoned with himself. He had never known his grandmother and her son had been dead for almost two seasons now. Besides, from what Papa had told him, grandmother had had blue eyes, not hazle ones. And she had always kept her hair in a short bob, not long and pulled back with a tie. And what was that funny dress she was wearing?
"Matthew," she called out to him. Although it was strained with worry and distress, it was the most melodious thing he had ever heard. "Watch for what is coming. Stay with the ones you trust, not those that may appear to be friends." Matt tried to wave behind him and call "They are my friends", but his arms were exceedingly heavy and his mouth would not form words. The pretty mousemaid seemed to read his thoughts though, for she shook her head sharply and said, "Things are not what they appear to be. Creatures can be deceived by the outer shell, but One may look past that to greater things. Look beyond, Matthew…"
She was receding into the white mists. Matt tried to call out to her, but she only retreated farther. He turned back to the neighborhood boys…but was confronted by leering faces peering down at him maliciously! They closed in on him slowly, brandishing an assortment of weapons at him. Matt was rooted to the ground, paralized with fear as the ever- growing horde of vermin advanced on him. He was pushed roughly from his left side and his arm gave a sharp twing, a voice grunting gruffly in his ear, "Oi, lazychops, let me work, willya?"
Matt's head connected with the window as he slumped sideways with a resounding tunk!, waking him up fully. He rubbed his head ruefully and glared at Charlie who glared back squarley.
"Geeze!" the latter said huffily with a twinkle in his eye, straightening out several slightly rumpled papers and setting his laptop straight. "The way you were moving around in your sleep, you would think you were being massacred!" Matt looked out the window, deciding not to answer and shuddering involuntarily. He was surprised to see they were driving down a country lane, trees of all varieties pressing in upon them. Shuddering again, Matt asked, "Where are we?"
Charlie grunted inconprehensibly from when he was engrossed in another document. Matt shrugged it off as Lucy pulled off the paven road and onto a dirt side- street. She slowed their speed as they bounced along. Charlie sighed and closed his notebook as a large farmhouse came into veiw. It was two stories, painted white with blue trim and shutters. The yard was neatly kept; despite the odd assorment of childrens play things, black skateboard, bright red scooter, and numerous bikes lying about the yard and halfway in their shed off to the left of the neat little house, it looked as though nothing were out of place. Beyond the shed was an enormous oak with a wooden platform built high in its leafy boughs and slats nailed to the trunk leading up to it, a tire siwng hanging on one side and a rope on the other.To the right of the house and coming out in front from an angle, a weeping willow sheltered a sandy stretch of flowers just before a sweeping pond where toy boats and other random items hung about. Matt even spotted the reminants of a childs tea-party lingering on the front porch in front of the bench swing.
"Just to warn you," Charlie said as Lucy brought the car to a stor and they all piled out. "Hali is a bit – er, well, eccentric might be too strong of a word…no, it's not…"
"I had no idea there was an established definition for 'normal' in this day and age," Matt countered with a grin. "Come on, mate, I've been through plenty in the past 24 hours, being shot at not to be forgotten among the many things. Lay it on me…"
Lucy laughed and led the way up the path to the red front door, her purple maryjanes kicking up a small cloud of dust as she jumped over a tricycle and white skirt bouncing around her knees. "Come on, you two lumps! I'm sure she's waiting – ah, yes, spoke too soon…" Charlie grinned and tilted an ear towards the house, but Matt thought it was unnessicary. From his spot 20 feet away, he could almost feel the loud music issuing from within, the drums and loud chanting making his ears twitch.
"Heavens!" he exclaimed, clapping his paws about them. "What does she do again?" Charlie chuckled.
"Teaches elementary students classical instruments. Facinating, isn't it?" Matt's mind was going on an instant hiatus from the pounding in his ears, so he left it at "facinating" for lack of better word being able to be found. Lucy marched right up the stairs a dozen paces ahead of the two male mice, knocking on the door loudly and ringing the doorbell several times. Matt breathed a silent thanks as the music from within stopped and the same sweet voice that he had heard over the phone called through the door, "Come on in, you three! It's open for you…"
Lucy opened the door upon the bidding and stepped inside. Charlie and Matt were about to follow when they were set upon, by what, Matt didn't know. He shouted out in surprise and terror when a proportionally huge head jumped down at him unpleasantly, it's wide mouth set in a wicked grin and whole head surrounded by the same spikey grasses that composed a chest cover and skirt too large for it. Tiny chesnut eyes set in huge sockets leered feircly at them from it's tan face. The effect was somewhat spoiled when a squeaky voice growled, "Grrraaoooowwwaaahgg! I etta you up foh sturbin my dance, yoose maggits!"
While Matt was clutching at his chest and attempting to regain his breath, Charlie laughed and swept the creature up, saying, "Haharr! I'd like to see you try when I duck you under the pond out there, you little maggot!" He began tickling the little creature, who squealed and laughed in pained delight. Now that is was on the ground and not flying through the air at him, Matt realized it was a little child, a squirrlebabe. His second assumptions were affirmed when the child pulled up his mask and stared up at Matt with a gleeful smile after he had lept from Charlie's arms.
"Ahaha!" he laughed in triumph. "I skarra you, huh huh? Youse a fwaidy- kitten!" Lucy did not help Matt's broken pride when she collapsed from laughter on the couch in the spacious livingroom that connected with the small area of terra-cotta tiles that made the entry way.
"Ahahahaha! Ooh, you should have seen yourself, heeheehee! It was classic! I wish I had a camera! Ahahahahahahaha!" Matt's face flushed in embarressment as the creature next to her unsucessfully stiffled a laugh as she swept up the squirrle.
"Dill Williams! Teehee, erm,shame on you, trying to scare away Charlie and his friends. Be off, you little imp! Your mother will be wondering where you got off to…"
"No she-a not," Dill scoffed as he pulled off the mask the rest of the way with the chest cover and kilt. "She-a knowd I bees with you alla time!"
"Oh, away with you, you maggot, I have work to do!" Dill oblidged and skipped past Matt out the door, calling back to him, "Byebye, mista Fwaidy- kittens! Byebye, Hali! Byebye, Charlie'n'Lucy! I sees yoose all t'morrow!" Matt turned back around, still blushing furiously when he had to stifle yet another shock.
Hali had stood upright, Dill's costume in her paws. She set that on theground next to thescrubbed coffee table and picked her way through the dozens of papers on the surrounding floor and over to Matt, holding out her white paw to him with a brilliant smile. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Woods."
Hali was as straight as an arrow and about as skinny as one too, long hindlegs and torso putting her at least a good head and a half taller then Matt. She was a bright reddish hue. Her paws, footpaws, the tips of her ears, her pointed muzzle extending up to her eyes and to the top of her chest, and a third of her long, thick tail were white though. She was an excelent speciman, through and through, of a fox.
Matt stood stock still for a moment, not knowing what to say or even think. A memory flashed in front of his eyes when something quizzical appeared in Hali's brilliant hazel eyes: the image of a beautiful yet mournful mousemaid and her warning.
"…Creatures can be deceived by the outer shell, but one may look past that to greater things…"
Matt smiled and took her paw in his, shaking it firmly and saying, "Same here. I've heard nothing but good things about you." He winced in pain as Hali's strong paw tightened around his and pumped it harder.
"I've heard the same about you, and not just through Charlie. Creatures all over South France were talking about 'Matthew étonnant et merveilleux, qui a exposé Campbell, le traître d'un hérisson'. It's my honor to have met such a creature." Hali gave Matt another one of her dazzling smiles, who smiled back. Charlie let out a breath behind him.
"Come," Hali said, releasing Matt's paw, much to the releif of Matt himself. "I have much to show you. I'm glad you came, Lucy."
Lucy flashed her own smile, but it was more of a grimace. "As soon as Charlie works this out and gets me out of it, I'm going to kill him."
Hali smiled but shook her head. "I don't think Charlie could have helped it…"
"What do you mean?" Matt piped up. Hali rounded on him and gave him the same soul-picking search that Charlie had given him the other day.
"You're a teacher," she said. "I'm surprised you hadn't figured it all out. But then…mice are humble creatures as they come. Add in something like this, they won't accept…" She had slowly trailed off, but her lips were still moving as she muttered to herself. Charlie was irked by the fact she had strayed her attention from them and the topic. He closed the door and asked, "Mind telling us what you're going on about, Hal? Or do you plan to give us subtitles…"
"Oh, you shoosh," she said, walking over to the coffee table and plopping herself onto the floor in front of it amid the center of her paperwork. Lucy took a more gracful seat on the couch, Charlie sitting next to her. Matt chose a bit of fluffy carpet a few feet in front of Hali, who plucked out the faxed copy of the prophecy. It too had its own scribbles, lines, and diagrams drawn across it. She flattened it out on the low table and began to explain, tucking back a strand of headfur that had come free from her messy ponytail.
"Have we all established this is Martin speaking? 'My sword', lingering precence, the whole deal? Excelent. Same goes for present day, blah blah blah, and we come to the creatures he seeks aid from: 'My sweet flower I call forth To bring order over all'."
Charlie and Matt were still looking stupidly down at the paper, waiting for her to continue. Hali, however, was staring pointedly at Lucy, who gasped.
"What?" Charlie asked, looking up finally. Hali rolled her eyes heavenwards and sighed impatiently.
"Lucy dear, would you mind refreshing the inferior memory of you co-worker, please, before I get a headache from his incompetence. What is your middle name?" Lucy's prodigious eyes were wide with revered awe. When she answered, it was hardley above a whisper: "Rose."
Matt's jaw dropped and Charlie's eyebrows shot up. The latter regained speech first, not to anybeasts surprise. "Well…keeping order is your criteria. Who's…oh, what is it – 'Your match to aid the jaunt'?"
Hali stepped back in. "That was odd at first, because there is nobeast in this world who is like our Lucy. Then I figured: mirror image. It's your exact match, just backwards…or opposite. It's like a magnent; opposites attract. Unfortunatly, I've befriended your opposite, Lucy, and I'm loath to allow him allong on the 'jaunt'."
Charlie, however, was not loath at all. He whooped excitedly and pumped his arms in the air. After squeezing Lucy in a hug, kissing her swiftly on the cheek, and getting a good slap on the shoulder for it, he exclaimed, "That's what I'm talking about! I knew there had to be a reason for getting moved into that stuffy office- job! So…what's next?" Matt spoke, the next stanza clicking into place, courtesy of his dream.
"Hali's going too. Look… 'Friend to all, yet once a foe.' If you can befriend hoodlums like Dill and Charlie, I'm sure you're friends to a lot of creatures, yet you were once concidered a foe as, er…"
"Vermin?" Hali was smiling. "It's ok, you can say it. I don't veiw myself as that, though. It's a title based upon personality, not species, so I take no offence."
Matt nodded. "I couldn't agree more. And I've gotten the impression you know how to take care of youself…"
He smiled as he glanced around the cream coloured wall. A similar African ritual costume to the one Dill had been wearing, dyed red, was hanging next to a glass case filled with different knives and daggers above the heads of Charlie and Lucy. A paw-crafted dirk was suspended between two pegs above the case. The wall behind Matt hosted two crossed samurai swords, another mask, this one Japanease, hanging above them, looking very much like it would jump out at you if you dared to touch them. More random knic- knacs crowded the bookshelves to the left of the sofa. More were also found on the entertainment center to the right of the french doors leading to the Hali's back yard and the left of a hallway on the wall to the right of Matt. Many snapshots in frames along the free wall and shelf space convinced Matt every item was taken personally from the location by Hali. Matt had a hard time not snorting out in laughter as he saw one of them: Charlie standing over a unimpressed looking goat, holding out a red, gold-lined cape as used in bullfighting in Spain.
Chalie gave the tall, intricatly detailed Talking Drum next to his couch armrest a sharp rap and chuckled. "You don't know the half of it. She's got an archery and knife- throwing range out back. How cool is that? Bet you don't know any creatures who have something like that, do you?"
"I don't know, Chalire," Lucy said, elbowing him in the ribs. "You're the first creature I've ever met who could store two tons of junk in a 30 cubic foot office…"
Matt and Hali laughed. Charlie scowled and said loudly, "Moving on!"
"Do you know any specific creatures who have it in for Redwall?" Hali asked, standing up with the prophecy in paw, grabbing a pair of headphones from the entertainment center and pulling them over her ears. She stared intently at the paper as she paced back and forth, long tail swaying back and forth in time to her music. Charlie obviously knew this to be a habit of hers to help her think, for he pulled his laptop out and opened the files he had been looking through.
"Yes…do you happen to know the current location of Badrang Nigel Averill?"
Hali stopped her pacing and stared hard at Charlie, pulling off her earphones slowly. Even Lucy turned to stare at him. Hali said, "Yeah. About 14 miles outside of South London in Norwood Cemetery." Charlie cocked an eyebrow. "You certain about that?" Hali glared at him through slitted eyes while Lucy shivered and drew her baby- pink cardigan closer around her. Matt was thoroughly confused.
"Wait a tick," he said, thinking quickly. "Badrang…was – "
"'Mine enemy'," Hali injected, mouth hanging open. "I thought that…but – we saw him, Charlie! How…oooh, Lord…" She slumped down against the wall beneath the sheathed swords, groaning and pulling her headphones back on. Matt was beginning to get angry.
"Mind telling me who…this – Badrang is supposed to be when he was killed by Martin hundreds of seasons ago?" Charlie had his head buried in his paws, elbows on the coffee table. He lifted all up and looked Matt square in the eye.
"He's one of the creatures that was working with Alistair Campbell, simply a result of sadistic parents who though Badrang had the right idea and named him after the origional. Badrang, as every creature, had separate, ouside resources. Campbell was never interested in Redwall because of all the laws he would have to get around, the lazy slimeball. Badrang was willing to put the effort where it counted, though, and was very interested. We learned he was working with Campbell on the side to infitrate the SIS and get information on Redwall. I think he might have even gotten it when you report the prophecy almost half a season back, because he ditched Campbell to head back to his own happy vermin. We're not sure how far his network extends because it's so complex.
"Anyways, after that, er, mishap with the shooting at Andorra, we tried to go after Badrang. It took several companies to track him down. Some of our creatures hardley found him a few weeks ago, but we saw his body being brought in. (They'd been shooting to wound, but he wouldn't stop at that.) Although, it seems it was some very well thought out decoy…almost like a twin or something, because he's back and gunning for us."
Hali stood up. "It doesn't make sense. Where's the proof?" Charlie reached into his bag and tossed something small to Hali.
"We dug that out of Matt's shoulder," he said grimly. "We can show you the wound if you like." Hali did like, and Matt pulled down the neck of his jumper to reveal the rapidly healing hole. She whistled as he was readjusting his shirt coller.
"Lucky break for you there, mate," she said, examining the bullet in her paw closer. Suddenly, she growled and bared her teeth. "The bloody cowards, Charlie! Paw- made so we can't track them. Same kind they pulled out of you, me, and my brother…Denis wasn't so lucky though…"
Matt felt an immense sadness for Hali. He didn't know what he would do if he lost Mary. He resolved to call her as soon as he was certain it souldn't be hazardous to her saftey. Everyday. Maybe twice.
"It's ok, Hali," Lucy whispered. Hali smiled at the sweet mouse.
"Ah, I know Luc," she said and resumed pacing. "I suppose it's nice to know who we are protecting our Abbey from; it will be an especially sweet revenge…" Looking into her blazing hazel eyes, Matt knew this was no empty threat.
"On a happier note," Charlie said after a moment of tension- filled silence. "Matt gets to stand above us all and witness the whole thing from the best seat in the house!"
"What?" Matt said stupidly, jerking his gaze up from his paws.
"O Mighty One, I am at your disposal!" Charlie stood up and, making an elegant leg, bowed comically.
"Please," Lucy said, pulling Charlie back down. "Dispose of him quickly." Charlie pretended to look hurt by her comment.
"Such a sweet flower," he said, voice cracking with feigned emotion. "But I know now: the thorn doth sting sharply! I say, Mighty One, couldn't we just leave her here?"
"What are you talking about?" Matt exclaimed angrily, looking to Hali for answers, hoping there would be at least one creature to give him a sensible answer. She looked down at him steadfastly and said, "Don't you get it? You are The One…"
A/N: urg. Let's all give a collective sigh of frustration.
Ok, so it's not that bad. It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you enjoyed to read it. You could tell me in a review y'know…
The-Very-Little-Turtle: Sorry if I scared you too badly. It's just in my nature, doncha know. And I hope some questions were answered in this chapter. If not, with time everything will make sense.
