Descent

"Hear. Feel. Think." A deep, calm voice boomed into the void. The voice belonged to the legendary warrior of Redwall, and it was one Seb had long dreamed of witnessing.

The young otter's eyes bulged out of his sockets as his screen lit up. "Oh my gosh, it's Martin the Warrior! I'm finally getting to play Defenders of Mossflower!"

The warrior went on. "Listen. Learn. Remember."

"R-right. You want me to remember these?" Sebias scrambled for a notepad.

"Grind. Queue. Upgrade." Dramatic music began playing in the background.

"I'll keep that in mind, oh great Warrior!" The otter cried, desperately jotting as much as he could down.

With a swoosh, Seb found himself in a magnificent suit of plated armour, which shone like a radiant star in the darkness of space. A gleaming shield popped into Seb's left paw as an impressive sword appeared in his right. At the same time, a thin beast clad in a black robe sprung out from the shadows, a red mask obscuring their face. The otter couldn't tell what species they were, but they sure did look like a video game villain!

Sebias brandished his new gear. "Ooh, nice! Do I get to keep these?"

"Of course not!" scoffed the warrior mouse. "Now attack that creature, wake up, and spend four quarters of the game wondering about what this means!"

Seb nodded eagerly. "Okey dokey!"

0000

Seb, sans gear, soon found himself in a port town, with houses crowded together and the smell of the sea permeating the very air. The wind made the otter's fur and whiskers bristle. "Ah, Craylock, my favourite city. Here, I'll learn to be a Paladin, able to withstand the greatest of enemies and repel the most powerful of foes! I wonder what happened here before the events of the game. Hey you! What happened here?"

The squirrel Seb was talking to turned to face him, his cinnamon-brown fur fraying in the wind. "Southsward invaded Craylock, Kalno and Ferthorpe fifteen seasons ago but stopped invading for some reason." the squirrel looked the otter over, blatant condescension firmly painted across his muzzle." I thought you read the lorebooks and the necessary documents before. Or is this your first character?"

"I meant before that!" the otter groaned irritably. He gestured towards Craylock. "You know, what lore is behind this? Why is there magic? Why hasn't Craylock been in the canon Redwall series? Heck, how did the game company manage to get the rights to Redwall? Nobody managed that! Not until last February, anyway."

The squirrel shrugged. "Dunno. I just play the game and wait for the Salamandastron DLC. Heard it has badgers."

0000

After extricating himself from the annoying squirrel, the otter found himself in a tavern. Like all taverns in fantasy settings, it was dimly-lit, and crowded with prospective adventurers. He turned to the tavern keeper, a fox with fur the colour of chalk.

"You're new, hm? You should make a name for yourself in Mossflower.

"How?"

"All right, you listening?" The tavern keeper leaned in conspiratorially, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Get this… a boatload of fetch quests!"

"Will that help me save Mossflower?" asked Sebias, his eyes widening hopefully.

"Yeah, sure." The snaggle-toothed vermin withdrew a long stack of scrolls from underneath his worktop. "Anyways, here's my dry-cleaning ticket, my shopping list, and my kid finishes school at three, so don't forget to pick him up."

0000

"Oh boy!" exclaimed Seb. "My first quest outside the city walls! Time to slay some innocent creatures to prove my worth as a noble Paladin!

Another otter with light brown fur seemed to materialize out of thin air. "Hallo! Mein Name ist Kio. Und wer sein Sie?"

Sebias stepped backwards, raising his paws in a gesture of surrender. "Sorry man, don't speak German! See ya!"

The paladin turned away from the other otter entirely, heading off in the other direction.

Seb clearly found the quest destination, a wood teeming with large ladybugs. Activating 'Fast Blade', the Paladin sped forward and quickly bisected one of them, finishing off another one with another slash. He turned to see the second otter still standing behind him.

"Are you following me?"

The other otter shook his head. "Nein, ich erledige ebenso nur Besorgungen in diesem Viertel."

There were a few seconds of awkward silence, which Seb spent thoroughly regretting not learning a word of another language.

"Ok then, guess I'll head back to Craylock!" The paladin gave the Pikebeast a pair of thumbclaws-up and departed.

Scowling, Kio followed in his wake.

0000

Sebias stood, his armour glittering in the sunshine, a look of pride on his face. "Ok! I'm getting pretty good at swinging my sword repeatedly in the exact same way at regular intervals until things die and I complete my fetch quests! Time to go fight a bunch of murderous pirates!" He turned towards the Pikebeast who had still not left his side. "And since you won't leave me alone… let's go, Kio!"

Kio nodded. "Ich habe tatsächlich mehr Hauptquests abgeschlossen als Sie, aber lassen sie uns loslegen!"

"Oh yeah!" Sebias cheered, adding "I think!" as a muttered afterthought.

0000

It wasn't long before Seb finally got to face their first boss battle - a tattooed searat with a murderous look.

"Here we go," said the otter, activating 'Fight or Flight' to increase his damage output. Rushing in, Seb quickly bashed the pirate's head with his shield before raising his paw to deal a solid strike, but in doing so he left himself wide open, almost allowing himself to sustain a nasty stab wound in the process.

A sable with a slightly burned face appeared out of thin air, a smile etched on her muzzle. "Hello there! My name is Mekai, and I will aid you against this foul beast!"

Rather than be grateful for the assistance, Sebias pointed at Mekai's odd choice of weaponry. "Are you using a twig?"

"It's a wand." she snapped irritably.

"Yeah…" Sebias shrugged. "Looks like a twig to me."

"And you look like a fool in that mismatched armour!" the teenaged sable hissed.

Kio giggled, pointing a claw at the various pots and pans Sebias was using in place of armour.

The Paladin gave himself a quick look before he sighed heavily. "I'm doing my best, OK?"

"Komisch…" mused the Germanophone otter. "Das ist eine Aufgabe der Hauptquest. Warum bin ich eigentlich hier?"

"No one understands you!" Sebias retorted hotly. "Speak English!"

Kio crossed arms, and activated Autotranslate for the first time. "No."

A/N: Sorry, Highwing. I was a bit too preoccupied with cooking for a party (long story) to post this chapter on time, but here you go, and happy belated birthday!