The Newcomer of Redwall

Book 1: The stranger (or Heaven, interrupted)

Chapter 2

Matthias

What's going ....Something's the matter with Cornflower....

She's right over there...Why can't I reach her? What happened?!

Something's wrong with my arm...Something about the road....

....Road?.....

Something happened...

But...Cornflower...Cornflower is hurt, !!!

"CORNFLOWER!!!"

Matthias sat bolt upright, panting, awash in cold sweat, looking everywhere for Cornflower. Seconds passed, and suddenly a tide of pain swept in from his shoulder. He hissed breath through his teeth, eyes turning to slits. Sister May placed a gentle paw on his chest, using firm pressure to lie him back down. "She's fine," She said in a stern voice, "Resting, but you needn't worry about that one, no, right now we're worrying about that shoulder." She sighed softly, wearily. "Always hate to do this, but it's got to be done."

He watched her travel to the other side of the bed. "What's wrong with my shoulder?" He asked quietly, using his good paw to wipe sweat away from his eyes. She placed her paws under his armpit and on his elbow. "Snapped it right out of joint." May looked up at him quickly, then shook her head, murmuring "Later." to herself. I'm terribly sorry about this Matthias, I wish I could have done this while you were asleep, but," She jerked the bone upward, wincing as Matthias roared a bark of pain. He yanked his arm away instinctively, closing his eyes and putting his other paw on his shoulder, rubbing it. "Ow. Will I be okay?"

Sissymay nodded. "Yes, although I don't think you'll be able to drill the troops today." She wrung her paws briefly. "I'm worried about leaving them in the care of that mad rabbit, I swear, look what he did to that poor otter son of his, tsk tsk." He smiled comfortingly, relaxing back against the pillow. "Relax, Sister. It's only for one day, how much damage can one creature do in one day?"

She crossed her arms over her chest. "How much damage? HOW MUCH, you ask. Look here, Matthias, that blasted rabbit could lay this whole Abbey to waste in an hour if he had the motivation to, I swear, he-" Matthias blinked in surprise, reaching over to lay a fingertip on May's lips, silencing her. "Maybe you should go check on my wife." She inhaled, getting ready for another rant. "Please?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. She glared at him, and he could see small bags under her eyes, and irritability and sleeplessness behind them, before slipping away with a "Clothes on the table."

He laid back again, wiping a new line of sweat from his brow, exhaling in relief. He frowned, thinking of that....Thing. The tear, he supposed. What WAS it? Why did it exist, and what purpose did it serve? He closed his eyes, a habit he had acquired for deep thought.

Auma

"Where are you going?"

Auma froze, turning slowly. Sam stood against the northern wall, arms crossed over his chest. His tail flicked a bit as he started to walk towards her. "Auma? Where are you going? Is this something about Cornflower and Matthias?" She nodded quietly, feeling a bit guilty and not quite knowing why. Sam pointed to her hip. "Why do you need a sword?"

She glanced down at the blade strapped across her waist, fingered the hilt uncertainly. When she when into the armory, she had had a perfectly good reason, but now, before Sam, she drew nothing but white emptiness. "I...I, uhh, well, Sam..." He nodded, "Yes?"

"Sam, you...You really don't know what you'll meet out there. Whatever it was, it was strong enough to hurt Matthias and Cornflower that badly. I don't want that near your Abbey, Sam." Sam stood next to her, and a small smile grew over his strong features. "OUR Abbey, Auma." She smiled, a bit embarrassed, and nodded, her head sinking a bit. "Yes. " They walked, almost casually, towards the road, then turned north, first strolling, then jogging, then running, and finally sprinting down the beaten, dusty road, panting raggedly.

Simon Gilnom

They were coming, and coming fast. Two of them, at least. They had to be running flat out to make all that noise. "What are you going to do?" Ross asked, sitting beside the road. Simon shrugged a bit, leaning out of the brush. In the far distance, framed against a nearly perfect blue sky, was a huge stone building that he could hardly make out. Oddly shaped, too, with high (high as far as he could judge, To him they were less than an inch high, blurry as well, even to his 20/20 vision) towers. For WHAT exactly he had no idea, though. A thought suddenly crossed his mind, and he wondered why he hadn't thought of it before.

"Ross?" Ross nodded a bit to show he was listening. "Wouldn't it stand to reason that, given the lack of asphalt and cars and stuff, and the abundance of trees, that we have been put somewhere rather remote?" Ross nodded again. "Wouldn't it ALSO stand to reason, then, that if there is a group of people to build that huge building down the road there, that they would be cooperative and most likely friendly?"

Ross opened an eye, turning towards Simon a bit. "Got a point. What are you getting at?" Simon stood and began walking out to the road. "Well, if they're friendly, then they're more than likely to point us back towards Alaska, at the very least."

Simon stepped onto the road, and thought to himself 'Those two must be awfully close by now,' before something big, thick, striped, and, most importantly, solid as a brick connected with his skull, making a crack like a metal beam splitting a length of wood, knocking him cold.

Sam

Sam skidded to a halt four lengths up the road from the thing. He whirled around, astonished. "Auma! Look!" The new thing lay on its side, crumpled and useless, bleeding from a cut that looked like it had tried to heal and then got split open wider than before. Auma rubbed her elbow as she turned. "Ow. Look at what?" She gasped, her eyes going wide and her jaw going slack. "Sam! What is it?"

Sam was busy cautiously approaching the thing, reaching towards it, mumbling to himself quizzically as he placed a paw on the thing's shoulder. It was long...No, tall, he supposed, taller than him, at least, and wide. Huge, even. He used his fingertip to explore the fold between the thing's back and its red pack. "Is it alive?" Auma asked. His paws stared to explore over the thing's neck, and yes, there, pulsing slowly but rhythmically, was a pulse. "It's alive, but unconscious, I'd guess." He turned to her. "What do we do?"

She knelt beside him. "Take it to the Abbey, get it to the infirmary." She started to pick it up, when Sam grabbed her paw. "Wait. What if this is the same thing that hurt Matthias and Cornflower? Do we want it in our Abbey?"

She shook her head, pulling her paw away. "And what if it's an innocent creature? Do we want to leave it here? Sam, regardless if it IS the thing that got to Matthias and Cornflower, it's currently unconscious in the middle of the road with a head wound, and I'M the one that hurt it! I say we take it, and sort all this out later." Sam stared down at the creature, debating silently.... "Alright. Let's take it. But we'll get rid of it at the first sign of trouble." Auma nodded, grinning, hoisting the thing over her shoulder, saying, "We'll deal with it, IF there's any trouble."

They started down the road. "Who knows? This thing," She gave the pack a pat, "Might turn out to be a sensible, useful, non-violent," She shot a glance at Sam, "addition to our Abbey."

Sister May

She sat next to Cornflower, stroking the poor mouse's paw. "Poor dear. "She mumbled to the other, then sat back and sighed softly. "At least you're not in pain, darling, or in danger of losing your only line of protection to some mad hatter hare." She nodded, paused a moment, then leaned forward. "Cornflower, I...I know I can't tell anyone this, but you're a real friend to everyone in the Abbey, and I guess if I were to admit it to anyone, it would be to you. Who are you going to tell, anyway? I've always felt so...So very useless here, in this infirmary, and, well, I've been thinking of going to the Abbot and renouncing my position. I'm not sure if I can, but....I want to try. I'm sick of seeing so many creatures sick and injured and pained....and you look so....very helpless, laying injured like that, Cornflower....I know this makes me sound like a coward, and I know I am...."

Her voice trailed off, leaving the silence of the room to overtake her, Cornflower's soft breathing the only thing breaking it. Sissymay placed her elbows on her knees and her head in her palms, resting her eyes. "I guess I'm just tired, Cornflower. I can't get any sleep at all lately." She muttered. She would sit here for a moment, just rest her eyes. She swore to herself that she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't sleep, she wouldn't sleep, she would- "May?"

May jerked upright, clutching her chest, feeling her heart jackhammer her ribcage. "Cornflower? You're awake? You gave me such a fright..." Cornflower placed her paw gently on May's shoulder, smiling soothingly. "I'm sorry, May. I feel a bit better now. Although, I don't see why you would want to leave the infirmary." May folded her paws in her lap, her eartips reddening. "How much, uhhm....How much did you hear?"

Cornflower patted the shoulder under her paw. "I heard enough, Sister. But are you sure you want to leave?" May nodded, and Cornflower laid back, and coughed softly. "I think I caught something a few days ago. Maybe I should rest."

May turned to her patient. "Are you sure?" And then she saw, she SAW! And screamed, staggering backwards without standing, knocking over a small table and scattering the items on it. Cornflower's fur was matted down with yellow pus that oozed steadily from her open sores, mixing with the blood leaking out of the cracks along her face and lips. She smiled again, and this time a long, flat strip of flesh broke off, splitting from its bone anchor audibly, a long, dripping red worm of meat that used to be her cheek, exposing a long line of grinning white teeth. It flapped and wriggled as she spoke. "Does it look bad, May?" Cornflower, or whatever this monster was, sat upright slowly, starting to slip off the bed.

May's eyes widened, the whites glistening, raising her arm as the thing took a shambling step towards her. The flesh under the fur was rotting quickly, peeling off and falling with wet slaps onto the stone floor. "Help me, May." It mocked her, its face starting to melt away, eyes terrible white orbs that looked right at her. May could see the muscles working to propel this abomination towards her, to raise the arm. A finger, the ring finger, exactly, slipped off. Did not fall off, SLIPPED off, the flesh and tissue and tendons sliding from the individual bones smoothly. May's eyes followed it during its fall, all the way to its small plop onto the floor. May gasped as the horrible, putrid stink hit her nose, the stench of disease, the smell of putrid death, like thousands of bloated corpses all popping at once.

Cornflower took another step forward, reaching down, and May knew that if she swung at it, her arm would sink into its abdomen slowly, breaking flesh and muscles and intestines. Then it would get STUCK, stuck in some horrible sucking wetness, the flesh and blood and muscles healing around it, pulsing and writhing sickly, drawing her in, first her shoulder, then her torso, then ALL of her, pulled horribly into the other mouse's lower torso and she would be one with, be as that creature, sick and rotting and dying before others, only to spread the sickness! She screamed, tried to crawl back, but instead felt her arm swing, totally out of her control, connecting solidly with Cornflower's side and

"NO!!!"

May had fallen off her chair while she slept. She vomited, then crawled away from the puddle weakly, curling into a tight ball, whimpering softly and clutching at her head, eyes wide with terror, too afraid to even blink away the tears that had started to leak from them. "Why is this happening to me?" she whispered, but got no answer.

Sam

"Umm, sisters?" Sam peeked his head into the infirmary, glancing about the room. A mouse's ear wiggled, and its owner turned to him. "Yes Sam?" She said, starting to walk over. Sam glanced over his shoulder, not opening the door, then turned back, muttering to her, "Is Sister May in? We have a....A special case for her."

The mouse nodded. "You can come in, Sam. We don't bite." Sam shook his head. "It's a bit more complex than that, Amelia. Please get Sister May." Amelia turned on her heel and walked over to one of the side rooms, and looked in. She gasped, her paw flying to her mouth in surprise, then flinging the door open and dashing in. Sam glanced at Auma again. "Something's happened. I'm going to go see what."

Sister May was huddled in the corner of the room, a small puddle of vomit a half a length away from her, shuddering violently as Amelia tried to sooth her. Sam walked over to the sobbing mouse quietly, laying a paw on her shoulder. She flinched visibly, trying to draw further into the corner. Sam looked at Amelia. "What's wrong with her?" He asked, and Amelia shrugged. Sam stood, turning to ponder what to do, and he saw Auma, standing uncertainly in the doorway.

"Where is it?" Sam asked, gesturing to her empty shoulder. "Sleeping in another room." She answered, peering over Sam's shoulder. "Is Sister May alright?" Sam shook his head, answering, "I don't know." Amelia turned to the badger. "Auma, please get Sister May into that bed over there." Auma nodded, walking over and picking up the shivering mouse, starting to take her to the empty bed next to Cornflower's.

May looked at the sleeping mouse and shrieked, squirming in Auma's arms. She held onto the mouse tightly, looking at Amelia. "Get her into another room." She said. Auma grunted distractedly, striding from the room and trying not to drop May.

Sam started for the door when Amelia spoke up behind him, "Sam." He turned, and she continued, "Sister May has told me of nightmares plaguing her dreams of late....I wonder if this...." She let her sentence hang frayed in the air. Sam shrugged, giving her the answer that he naturally drew as a part of his life at the Abbey, "Ask the Abbot." She nodded, and walking back to the puddle, listened as Sam left the room.

Auma

Auma stood over the sleeping thing. She had disarmed it and removed its pack, leaving it in the corner of the room. She had bandaged the cut very well, and was now simply watching it sleep. Her nose twitched a bit, and she smiled. "Hello Jess."

The squirrel closed the door, standing above the creature opposite Auma. She looked down at it silently for a few minutes, then said, not removing her eyes from its face, "Sam told me everything. Do you think the thing has something to do with May, Matthias, and Cornflower?" Auma said nothing, simply touched its forehead.

Simon slept on, and dreamed.