Chapter 29

Sharpclaw was furious! He was at the camp where the Redwallers were camped, now they weren't. He had his tent setup and was talking to Mysteye again. "How could a camp full of Redwallers just disappear like that? HOW?"

Mysteye was pondering the question and made no comment or answer. "I want this area searched! Immediately!"

A few of his horde heard and organized a search that soon went underway; soon there was a report from one of the searchers. "We found another camp, full of creatures, Redwallers, in a cage..."

"What?"

"In, in a cage. They were chained as well. It looked like they were being questioned by somebeast. I couldn't tell what or who, but it looked like they weren't going anywhere for a long time...."

Sharpclaw sprang up and said, "Now's the time to strike, while they're defenseless. Muster the horde, we're going!"

Horde soldiers scurried about, orders were called, soon they were formed up. Sharpclaw looked around, and then asked the scout, "Which direction?"

The scout pointed with a claw, "That way."

Suddenly Sharpclaw froze, his face a picture of immense dread. He called Mysteye to him. "How are we supposed to go there, the last time we went there, some of my horde had died, and we never saw who did it."

"Well we could wait a day and then storm in or not go, your call."

Sharpclaw considered this and said, "We'll wait. Hey! Scout, get over here!"

The scout hurried over and saluted. Sharpclaw spoke first, "You will drill this rabble here, I want them at their best when we go tomorrow. Send any troublemakers to me."

The scout saluted and went back bawling out the days training schedule. Sharpclaw went back to his tent, his confidence growing.

Almost all of us in the cage were interrogated by the badger; suddenly there was a problem with Darkslash's interrogation. The badger looked to one of his hares and said, "Get another one of those prisoners and bring them here, we need somebeast to vouch for him if his story is true."

The hare saluted and went to the cage. I was there, out of the ten of us, only me, Liz, and Darkslash were left to be interrogated. The hare showed himself, or at least I would know later it was male. He looked at all of us in the cage and then he selected Liz, had her chains taken off and went with her to the badger. The badger was slightly taken aback by the odd creature, but spoke to it regardless. "Do you know this fox?"

Liz nodded. "Yes, why?"

The badger nodded. "Is he good or evil?"

"He is a good fox, he helped my friend when he was new to this area. He even helped to splint his arm when it got broken."

"A good fox? Fox, is what this thing says true?"

Darkslash nodded, "It's true, the friend she's referring to is in the cage."

"She? You mean this thing has a gender?"

Liz was a little mad about this. "Well of course humans do! That was very rude for the son of a badger Lord."

The badger stamped his paw down. "You will show respect to the next heir of the mountain!"

Liz retorted, "And you will be nicer to a lady!"

The badger was dumbfounded, usually nobeast argued with him, this was a first for him, he needed to talk to some other beast, he told the hare closest to him to put her back, the fox as well. The hare nodded and escorted them back to the cage, then he unchained me and brought to the badger. "Alright, human, who are you?"

I cleared my throat and said, "My name is Wyatt, me and the others inside of the cage are all residents and guests at Redwall Abbey. I can have Abbess Birch vouch for all of us if you want."

The badger was now a bit surprised, this human knew what he was going to ask and responded accordingly without waiting. Composing himself, he responded. "Well you certainly know your friends and how to go bout situations like this."

"Well, that and I asked the others what you asked them."

I nodded. "Well it makes things easier."

The badger nodded. "Well since you seem to have that done with, you wouldn't mind if I ask you a few questions about those nearby trees."

"What about them?"

"Well one fine spring day, I saw a strange creature just appear through those trees. I had one of my hares knock it out and then we watched, that was you wasn't it?"

"So now I know who hit me in the head, that hurt you know."

"Well sorry, next time a strange creature comes around I'll ask it nicely before I have it knocked out."

"Well, enough of that, can me and my friends get out of that cage now? It's embarrassing really."

"Well alright, I'll have you all relieved of the cage and its restraints, but until I know more, all of you are to remain in the camp."

I nodded. "That'll be just fine, by the way, what's your name?"

The badger chuckled, "Well since you asked, it's Spearpaw."

Sharpclaw was on the move finally; having a plan ready, he split his force into four groups, and had them placed in all directions, north, east, south, and west; they were waiting for his word to commence the attack. Mysteye had been looking into her omens, and had predicted a victory, though Sharpclaw didn't listen to that information. Soon he had his scouts take a look, when he knew what was happening, he gave the order, with bloodcurdling yells they charged, five hares fell to the charge. Spearpaw and his hares were not taken by complete surprise though, and they quickly retaliated, keeping the horde at bay, meanwhile, I was hoping that they could hold them off, and I could find a weapon to use, not seeing one that wasn't already being used, I decided to wait with the rest, apparently Spearpaw didn't have extra arms lying about. Suddenly an idea came into my head why not go through the trees? It would make it difficult, then again would others be allowed through? There was no time to try any theories. I got to Glen and Liz, "Glen, Liz, see those trees? Those are the same trees Liz and I came through to get here a long time ago. I want you to get everybeast through those trees, and then go and hide in the woods there, wait for me to get there, I know that area best. Be ready for any weather, see you on the other side."

Glen opened her mouth to protest, but Liz put a restraining arm on her shoulder and they got together to go through, within a few minutes they had all gone through the trees, and disappeared, to the real world. Meanwhile I went to Spearpaw and told him of what to do, calling a few orders, Spearpaw and his hares disappeared, suddenly I was alone, turning around, I ran through the trees, all I could hear behind me was, "Stop that creature! Don't let it escape!"

The camp was now crawling with vermin, none of them wanted to follow the odd creature through the trees. Sharpclaw moodily walked about, then said, "Alright, that's it, this horde is drilling for the next week! Get to it!"