A/N Thanks for the reviews: daevilBEAN, Xenosagi, Elven Bunny and Butterfly Lion. Please R&R! hope you like it
As Father Abbot got the elders together, Mark pondered what he should do. He knew that his brother had done this, but should he fight back? He knew fighting back would be disastrous, but all the Redwallers would die if they didn't fight back. Mark guessed that David was going to try to bring guns to defeat the Redwallers. David had formally been in the army, and he had connections with the black market. He could get guns easily, and money was not a problem. David had made some good money with the black market.
Mark knew more about modern warfare than David thought. In fact, Mark knew a whole lot about modern warfare. Mark felt confident in his ability to lead the Redwallers to battle, but they were not ready. They had no knowledge of guns. Mark could train them, but who knows how long it would take? Mark was comforted by the fact that the vermin had no knowledge of war, either. David was too smart to lead an inexperienced army into battle. Or was he?
Mark had hacked into David's black market accounts long ago, just in case he needed to know these things. Mark could get the Redwallers weapons if they decided to fight.
Mark would bring up all of these points when he met with the elders. He dreaded that meeting, fearing that some of the elders might blame the situation on him. In a way, it was his fault.
Just then, Abbot Maximus led a group of creatures into the room. Some of them, Mark knew; some of them he didn't know. Abbot Maximus was the first to speak.
"I'm going to start out with some introductions. Mark, you already know Sister Ice, Methuselah, the Field Marshal, and I, and this is Cellarhog Jed, Skipper of Otters, Rula the Badgermum, and Squirrelqueen Alice, direct descendant of Lady Amber. Elders, this is Mark. I will let his describe the situation to you."
(I don't actually know if Lady Amber had any children, but I'm pretending she did.)
"As you probably gathered from the Father here, we are surrounded by a vermin horde numbered somewhere between 300 and 400. I have a brother, and I am ashamed to admit he is not very nice. I don't know if I would call him evil, but he has definitely cast his lot in with an evil bunch. He is going to return to my world and bring back new weapons called guns. They are made of metal and shoot out other little pieces of metal, called bullets, in a small explosion so fast that you can't even see the bullets. You can easily die from a bullet wound."
Mark continued on making his points and looking at the elders' reaction. He noticed that they were anxious when he told them about the new weapons. When he finished making his points, Mark told them what he thought were logical options of what to do.
"The way I see it, there are three options: We could fight back and many of us would die and there is absolutely no assurance of victory, we could surrender and we would most likely be made into slaves or all killed, or we could move somewhere else and hope that the vermin led by my brother don't find us."
Mark stopped talking to let what he just said sink in. At first there was silence, but then all the elders immediately broke out in an argument over what they should do. The Abbot quickly silenced them.
"Quiet!" he shouted. "We need to do this in an orderly fashion. Skipper, you go first. Then we'll go in a circle around the table."
Skipper jumped up and vehemently exclaimed, "Redwall has survived many vermin threats in its rich history. Why should we back down now? I say we fight!"
"Okay, now it's your turn, Alice," said the Abbot.
"I agree with Skipper," Alice said reluctantly. "I don't want innocent Redwallers to die, but we can't let these vermin conquer us."
Rula Badgermum was the next to speak. "How dare these vermin come and try to conquer us. I will fight, even if the rest of you don't!" Mark wondered if he actually saw that tinge of pink in Rula's eyes then or not.
"I don't know, it sounds pretty risky, but I think we have to fight back," said Cellarhog Jed.
Methuselah seemed unnaturally agitated. "Our forefathers fought hard to establish this haven of peace, and I'm not going to let these vermin take it away from us. We will destroy them!"
"There's no doubt about what we should do, wot! We can't just let those cheeky blighters march right in and frighten us out of our bally fur! We will fight!" said the experienced hare.
The Father then coolly replied, "It's unanimous. We will fight back."
Mark then said, "I will now go back and see what kind of weapons David is getting. I will formulate a battle plan. When I come back, I will gladly accept fighting suggestions. Hopefully my brother won't start battle right away. That way I can train you. How many able-bodied creatures do we have here?"
"About a hundred," replied the Abbot.
"Okay, I'll get weapons for a hundred. I will be back probably in the morning to see how things are going with these vermin."
As Mark left the room to go back home, Abbot Maximus confronted Methuselah. "I have never seen you so agitate before, friend."
"Yes, I know. War is a terrible thing. It is a shame that war has to touch here."
Now for a flashback.
David watched as his mom told Mark to mow the lawn. He was very glad that he didn't have to mow the lawn.
"Now's my chance. I'm going to look through his room and try and figure out what is going on," David thought.
David looked through Mark's room, but he didn't really know what he was looking for. After a few minutes, David got bored and sat down on Mark's bed. He noticed High Rhulain laying on the bed.
"This is that book he's been reading. I wonder if it's any good." David opened the book to read it, but instead he saw the blue light and the outline of a hand.
"Whoa! I wonder what this does. Maybe this healed Mark or something. I'm going to try it out." Mark's room began to fade away. "This is kinda weird..."
Mark's room continued to fade away, and trees and a stream began to appear. As soon as the wood became all real, David immediately took stock of his situation. He noticed that there was some fruit trees growing nearby. He also saw footprints that he couldn't identify. Some of the prints looked like rat prints, but they were very large. As he was pondering this absurdity, he was caught and tied up in the blink of an eye. Before he even knew what was going on, he was being dragged along by some creatures that he could not see because his face was on the ground most of the time.
When he finally came to a stop, he was in front of a large fire. He noticed many animals around him, but one stepped in front of him to speak. He looked like a ferret, but he was much too large. His face was painted with purple and green war paint.
"Who are you, what are you, and what are you doing here!" demanded the ferret.
"You've got no right to yell at me like that, punk," replied David.
David was immediately whipped from behind by a rat.
"That was for not answering the general's question and referring to him as a 'punk.' Even though I don't know what that means, I bet it isn't nice," squeaked the rat, who was quite scrawny.
"You wanna untie me and try that again?" taunted David.
As the rat raised the whip again to hit David, the general moved like chained lightning to catch the rat's arm before the whip fell.
"No more whipping, at least not yet. This thing has guts. Now," directing his attention to David, "who are you?"
"I'm David. Wh-"
"Shut up!" interrupted the general. "I'm asking the questions now. How did you get here?"
"I don't really know," replied David, "but I'm g-"
The general leapt over and dealt David a hefty blow to the side of his head. "Didn't I just tell you to shut up? Are you deaf? Are you stupid? I'll let you ask questions in a minute, but that minute has not arrived yet. Now, last question: What are you doing here?"
David answered, "I'm gonna make you pay for that when I'm untied, but I'll still answer your question. My younger brother, Mark, has been disappearing lately, so I'm trying to find our what he's been doing. I found this book that apparently has a portal to this world. Can I ask some questions now?"
"Sure, go ahead," replied the general.
"What's your name and who is this mob following you?"
"My name is General Fangbeard. These creatures are my followers. Together we make up the Southern Horde. Anything else?"
"Yeah. Where am I?" asked David.
"You're in Mossflower Woods, of course," replied Fangbeard.
"Mossflower Woods, huh? That's were Redwall is, right?"
"Yes, why?"
"My brother might be there. They're just a bunch of farmers, why don't we take Redwall? My brother's just a stupid idiot, and it would be freakin' awesome if I could get at him like that."
"Haven't you heard the stories about Redwall? Dozens of hordes with more vermin than mine and with craftier leaders than me have failed in their attempt to take Redwall. What makes you so sure that we could do it?"
"I can't get us special weapons, and they won't be able to do anything about our super weapons," David said.
"Ha!" laughed Fangbeard. "That's what you think. You couldn't get us any 'super weapons.' You're just imagining things. Besides, I'm the leader around here, and I get to decide what we do. Even so, let's take a vote. Horde, should we take Redwall?"
There was a deafening roar of disapproval, and Fangbeard turned to face David. "You see? The vote is 300 to 1. What are you going to do?"
Fangbeard turned around and started to walk away. That was when David made his move. He moved with quickness that Fangbeard would have envied. He leaped over to the squeaky rat, whose name was Scumtail, and took his whip and knife. He then struck out with the whip, wrapping it around Fangbeard's neck.
"You should have listened to my advice, Fangbeard, because you would still be alive and in two seasons you would be ruling Redwall. But that doesn't matter, because I can lead in your place."
With that, David slit Fangbeard's throat.