• • •
"Pass some-hic-of more of dat October-hic-Ale, mate." The hare struggled to stand up and see where the barrel he sought lay. The floor buckled under him like a ship on rough seas and his paws locked onto a barrel to keep up.
His squirrel companion, Andrew, lay on the dirt floor of the cellar nearby, "Oh dis is-hic-'evenly, my tongue has never been treated so-hic-much in this way of-hic-elexors 'n such. I..." The hare's voice gussled away as a spout was opened to send the flavors of Strawberry Corjil into his mouth.
Fezz slapped Toby on the back, "I told yer not to fret on problems when a drink can always rise 'em and sink 'em. I wise fool I 'em, eh? Ooo, his blackburry wine stuff 'ere is marfishicant."
"Where de-hic-October Ale?"
The inquiry came just as the door of the cellar slammed open, unleashing the light of daylight into the room, blinding its occupants.
"I'll show you where the October Ale is!" The sound of the voice made them consider that the source of the voice would not do what it said he would.
The scene that greeted the opener of the door was not a scene of dignity for Fezz, Toby, and Andrew, them sitting in the cellar, barrels opened everywhere, pools of liquid on the floor, dripping off the beasts, and it was a scene that pushed Molvo over the edge of his temper.
"What are you all doing? This is a whole den of fools. There is no excuse for you being down here without permission. I...I...you complete and utter idiots of idiots. You have made a sticky mess everywhere. You have no thoughts of your actions and I think that you need to be reprimanded. You are hereby restricted from this area Iand/I the kitchens. That's final." The black squirrel slammed the door before anyone could even say a word.
The slam awoke the fourth beast in the room, sleeping behind one of the barrels of October Ale, the cellerkeeper, Jocco. He rose, and shook his spikes, "What's goin' on?"
"Molvo's what's goin' on," Toby grumbled, "Where does he get off doing that?"
"Oh, that's nice," Jocca faded back to the floor in a sleep.
Andrew closed the flowing cordial that had been flowing onto his head since Molvo had entered, "It's as if were Dubbin's to him and...oh, this cordial is good..." His voice again gurgled away under the cordial.
The mouse had been thinking to himself, a plan dancing about on his mind forming into an intricate tango of a prank of pranks. "I have an idea to place the sourness of this squirrel into the right brine to make a pickle..."
• • •
"I didn't even have a bracelet when I came to the Abbey, how would I be able to leave a bracelet when I didn't even bring a..."
As Ces tried to refuse the 'return' of his 'forgotten' bracelet details started to lock together in his mind and also as a female, a conclusion could be made from these details easily.
"Oh, take the bracelet, I'm sure you just forgot that you brought it. I doubt Olivia would have made a mistake of whose bracelet this dropped from," said the hare, Maria, once again pushing the bracelet into the squirrel's paw in a firm, still friendly matter. This time Ces didn't even bother to hand it back, his mind lost in the mists of shock.
"Oh, thanks..."
"Nice ta meet ya sir, have a safe trip back." Maria bounded away back in the direction of the Abbey.
"Oh."
Ces started stumbling along his way in a daze.
Violet started stumbling along her way in a daze.
This parallel was getting more confusing in course of the last event.
How had she missed it?
The fluttering eyes, the sultry voice, the twitching of the whiskers, the tail flowing about in a weird seductive way, paws grasping at each other in nervous anticipation: all signs of one horrible emotion, love.
"How? I mean, what matter of jest of the Fates has set this upon me, as maid in a male guise. I sought the direction from a warrior's mind and I have accidentally captured a lady's heart, the lady that his own heart desires. All this happens while I long for his own oblivious heart. All he sees, all she sees, all everyone sees, is Ces, not Violet. I truly am, the man!"
She suddenly felt very sick.
• • •
"He is perfection in the form of a squirrel Maria."
Silence followed this comment, maybe because Maria's gapping mouth really couldn't make words at the moment. To have someone to vow off males and change their mind within a period of five minutes of talking with another beast of that vow was no small thing. Especially Olivia. Being the best friend of Olivia, Maria knew this. Olivia was a hotheaded individual that was hard to please in most cases and when she vowed to do something, it wasn't a small feat to make her change her stubborn mind. Maria also knew, that Olivia was a pure romantic at heart, though it had been covered up lately by the sorrow from her brother's death.
Olivia romantic side had become unlocked while in the presence of that mysterious male squirrel.
Maria couldn't make sense of it.
She also couldn't make sense of Fezz, Andrew and Toby asking her to help them in a top-secret mission to 'defeat the dark squirrel of Doom'.
Prioritize, prioritize.
Maria took Olivia by the shoulders, to steady both the love struck squirrelmaid and herself. "Really, I've known you since Dibbun-hood and you've never acted like this."
"I'm in love."
"I think that's been established," the fact being repeated every time Olivia spoke, "What about the vow you so tearfully proclaimed?"
Olivia kept smiling, "What vow?"
"Your brother's death, how you can't love another, for how many ever seasons you said for, wot? Eh?"
Olivia bit a claw, "A silly vow could not hold the essence of love..."
"You've only just met this...it's absobalolutly rubb-" Wait one 'wot' there hare, her mind interrupted, this is your best friend and you are trying to argue her out of love.
"Don't get hurt," Maria finished, mussing up the fur on her friend's head.
• • •
"'I cannot accept Duke's proposal?'"
Storm clouds gathered in the room that Duke paced, his tail bristled at the news that his apprentice Ces had brought to him and desperation took hold.
"I cannot accept her proposal of proposal to refuse my proposal."
It took a moment for Ces make sense of that proposal.
As fast as the panic and anger came onto Duke started to fade away.
"Sorry about that." He sounded utterly defeated and tired now, "I just...I just...I don't know anymore...what is love? Can you answer that Ces?"
Everything kept coming back to that.
He didn't see the eyes of his apprentice soften when he said the word.
Ces knew that he shouldn't answer that question; Violet knew that he couldn't stand not to.
"Love is a delicate thing to hold in the paws of a maid, it holds chance and hope and excitement and to just give it away friveriously is something she would never do."
"Really?" Duke seemed surprised of the response.
"Yes," Ces continued, more confident, "a maid searches for what she thinks is the right one and when she sees her, she knows it, somehow, from the depths of her heart." Like how I felt when I first saw you, Violet added in her head. "When she knows this, all of her hopes direct toward this person to try and win him. But if there is another that sees her that is not true in loving her, she shall scoff at the attempt of the fool."
"Are you calling me a fool?" Duke boomed, his sourness returning, "And who are you to be an expert on the thoughts of love in a squirrelmaid's heart?"
Ces quavered a moment, fumbling for words and loosing himself, "I sir, was all the daughters of my fathers house..." He choked when he realized what he said and added, almost too bluntly, "and all the sons."
"Oh..." the Duke said, much calmer all of the sudden, his sporadic tempter hiding again. His eyes scanned his apprentice as he thought of the words given to him. He took the squirrel by the shoulders and look his apprentice straight into the eyes. "I..." He stopped because he noticed something, whether it was something in the eyes, or even an observation from the past few days that dawned on him, he noticed it. What he noticed, he couldn't put his paw on. The hairs rose on the back of his neck and a warm tingling sensation came over him and the position he was in for some reason was awkward to him. The hint of a reason came to Duke's mind but he banished it before it could even finish.
Duke released Ces and stalked out of the room without another word, trying to figure out what had just happened.
• • •
"Why am I writing this again?"
"I wish you would stop asking that question fair haremaid, that face of suspicion is not fitting on your wonderful maw of breathtaking beauty."
Maria didn't hide her smile very well from Fezz and she continued to jot down the words that he told her without further question. She carefully made sure that the script was as close to Olivia's own as it could.
• • •
"'Ere we are mate, to de mouth of de River Moss, the entrance to woodlander paradise and vermin peril."
"Are you sure you want to bring me up the river?"
The fox laughed, pounding the side of his fishing craft, "Course I am matee, I shall prove to ya that doe I'm a fermer piratiy beast, I still got a liver in me body."
"You mean heart."
"No, tink liver's it."
The squirrel sighed, not caring to argue on the petty topic, and continuing to be amused by his unorthodox rescuer. He stared at the mouth coming closer and the water flowing out into the ocean. Whatever would lie up that river, Seb would never be able to guess.
• • •
Molvo was in one of his infamous moods. It wasn't much of a surprise because Molvo Ialways/i in one of his 'moods'. It was as if he were destined to be miserable and he made sure that everyone else was miserable too. There never was an actual reason for his mood, it was just the way it always was and always would be. It almost appeared to be his goal in life to not smile unless it was at the detriment of another creature.
Maybe a little bit of the black squirrel longed for something more...
Molvo never even paused to consider that. He was not a creature of hope, he was a creature of reality, a realist through and through and along with this a cynic on all accounts.
This is why the letter sitting on his bed surprised him. On the letter, in a familiar flourished script his name was written. The source of this script escaped from his lips.
"Olivia."
Before anymore moments passed he had practically dove upon the letter