A/N: If only you could see me through the computer, you would see that I am on my knees, offering my most humble and sincere apologies and begging not to be forever shunned for taking so astronomically long to update my story. Life just basically ate me and I finally managed to get it to spit me back out, at least for the summer. I promise, I really do, that this time I will not take forever to post a new chapter. Thank you Kayla Silvercat, Agent D, and Flecher for your reviews, and I hope that you will be willing to continue reading my story. And yes, the female kitty will (obviously) live and (obviously) make it to Redwall, and you shall find out how by simply reading on!
Chapter 3: Seaspray
Three days the young female wildcat limped across the woodland. She weakened with each starving, broken step, and the blind fear of recapture presented the only force remaining to drive her onward. Her body was ready to quit forever, but still she struggled into a realm that held so little hope for a dying wildcat kit. On the morn of the third day after her escape, injury, lack of food and dehydration overcame her; at the bank of a clear woodland stream she collapsed in a heap, vulnerable to whatever fate should befall her.
Little droplets of spray jumped from the stream, flashing like fish in the sunlight, and speckled otterbabe Jodri Seaspray's face. He clapped pudgy paws together in delight-truly a waterdog even at his young age. Skipper Ret Seaspray, a sea otter gone landward, smiled down at his son. "Water's wonderful stuff, mate, that's fer sure." He gazed up at the single sail of his ketch billowing in the breeze. "So's the wind, as you'll be finding out soon enough."
Jodri grinned at his father, then his tone grew commanding as he gestured emphatically at the cool stream. "Inna water, daddy! In!"
Skipper feigned indignation. "Just a babe and already issuing orders! What kind of son am I raising?"
Shara Seaspray, Skipper's pretty wife, stole up behind him as he was speaking. "Hopefully a good strong otter without his father's disregard for rules."
Skipper chuckled softly, "Aye, and without yore strictness, although I wouldn't mind him having a pretty face like yours."
Shara slapped him on the paw, attempting sternness but blushing lightly at the compliment. As she was about to retort, a call from the prow routed the pair's attention from their banter. "Skipper, look! There on the bank!"
Skipper bounded forward, his eyes following the outstretched paw of the ottermaid Rara Broadbank until his gaze came to rest on a pile of mottled tannish fur on the bank. It was some sort of creature, though it appeared more like some strange sort of moss-covered rock. Skipper narrowed his eyes and peered at it. "I think it's dead, if it were ever alive," he said slowly.
Rara's keen eyes ran across the limp form, then grew wide. Instinctively her paw clenched tight around her sling. "Skipper, uh-I think that's a...a wildcat."
Jodri, Skipper's ever-faithful shadow, gestured at the cat. "A wide cat, daddy!" he announced gleefully.
Skipper nodded. "Must be just a young 'un, though. Mebe it's still alive."
Jodri tugged at Skipper's paw. "'Course it's 'live, we gorra 'elp it."
Rara stared open-mouthed at the otterbabe, shocked. "'elp it, Jodri? Wildcats are vermin, everybeast knows that."
Skipper scratched his chin. "True, but I can't stand to leave a poor helpless babe out there to die. Rocc, can you get close enough to see if the poor thing's alive?"
A brawny otter stepped out from the group assembled in the prow. "Aye, Skip. Whatever ye say." He leapt lightly over the side of the ketch and dove in, cutting the water like a knife. Moments later he surfaced in the shallows, edging closer with the silence of a skilled hunter, until he stood but a few feet from the unconscious wildcat. He made a silent motion to Skipper that the cat was breathing.
Ret Seaspray turned to his steersbeast. "Put her in close." He received an incredulous look. "You heard me!" The urgency of the situation at last dawned upon the crew; with expert steering and the help of some poling the ketch drew near the shore. Skipper sprang off the deck, landing lightly upon the grassy bank and crept slowly over to the kit. Rocc slid easily out of the water and joined him.
It was soon apparent that the babe posed no threat and was, at best, barely alive. Skipper crouched down next to it, extending a paw, and softly stroked the downy tan fur of a creature that was far too young to be so alone in the world. He saw the raw patches from ropes on her neck and paws, and the leg that crooked oddly to one side with half an arrow shaft still buried within it. And yet each paw was equipped with claws sharpened to kill, teeth encased in the powerful jaws of a born hunter. Wildcats were villains, everybeast knew that. The good creatures of the woodlands and of Redwall had fought them for ages-Martin the Warrior himself slew a wildcat to end their tyrannical reign over Mossflower. Skipper gazed at the babe's face, exhausted and innocent, and he saw another, hardly any older, the giggling, playful features of the babe he loved more than any other: his own son, Jodri Seaspray. "You are not so different," he murmured. There was so much danger in taking in such a creature, to himself, his family, his home. Who could tell what it would grow up to be? Skipper hooked both paws beneath the limp form, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and set off for the boat, Rocc following close behind. "I know a place that will take even you," he whispered in its ear. Back aboard the ketch he met his entire crew watching silently and somewhat fearfully. He lowered the wildcat onto a pile of extra canvas, then straightened up and addressed his crew. "To Redwall," he said.
A/N: For some reason this chapter wasn't easy to write; personally I don't think it's some of my better writing. And it was, well, short. I once again apologize for the longer than long wait and promise that I will update more consistently from now on.