From the wall top battlements Gred watched the two receding figures with disgust. He had thought Hoff and Soma were his friends, but if they were willing to look for a traitor of a mouse, they were no friends of his. There were plenty of others creatures that would enjoy the pleasure of his company. And on top of everything, despite the loss of his badge, mostly everybeast loved him. In fact, both he, Mariah, and Begon were reaching the age when beasts mated. If Mariah were his mate, it would really hurt Begon. And she would probably help him to continue a STRONG line of mountain mice. Certainly stronger than any offspring of Begon!

"What are you think about dear Gred?" Mariah asks breaking into his thoughts.

Gred doesn't want to tell Mariah what he was really thinking about. Why risk the chance of her becoming disillusioned? So he said something that sounded believable.

"I'm thinking that since our abbey has found three traitors, that we need to start posting a wall guard. After all, we don't want traitors sneaking back in here while we are all resting, and then turn on us. For all we know, they could join a vermin band and decide to attack our abbey! They've all lived here, they could easily help a horde overthrow this beautiful home, Martin's sword with them or not!"

"You are so smart Gred," Mariah fawned. "And strong too. They should name you wall guard captain."

Unbeknown to either of them, Abbot Nill had climb the east battlements and heard everything!

"Oh, there will be a wall guard Mariah, don't you worry. But Gred will NOT be captain of it! In fact, I am forbidding him to even practice fighting for a full season."

"WHAT?!" Gred shouted "You can't do that to me!"

Before Nill can say anything Mariah says, "It's bad enough Begon stole Gred's badge, and some vermin gave him a scar that messed up a beautiful face, now you are taking one of his pleasures away?"

"Fighting should not be a pleasure," Nill said. "And I now realized that if I had been harder on Gred, NONE of this would have happened. Gred you will work in the cellars with Dreg the cellarhog until further notice. And Mariah, you will be assisting in the kitchens until I say otherwise."

The two mice tried to protest, but two strong otters took them to their new jobs. Mariah shoots Gred a look that says 'I love you, no matter what they do.'

As Gred was marched to the abbey cellars one of the otters took his wooden sword away from him. Abbot Nill watched in disgust as Gred tried to bite and claw his way away from his guards. Begon had been right, he should've been correcting LONG before now.

The scene was made even more crazy as Mariah tried to comfort him by shouting at the top of her lungs, "Creatures in this place are going crazy! Gred is the best creature here, and you're punishing him by keeping us apart! If anybeast had a grain of sense they would let him led a search party in search of those three no good traitors! And ABBOT Nill, you REALLY messed up this time!"

And Gred was heard saying in a convincing voice, "Mariah you are the only beast who understands me in this world. Once our punishments are over perhaps we'll leave these idiots and start a new life somewhere else."

Before Mariaah could answer, an otter called Swift Riverbank, who was the Skipper of the otters, grabbed Gred by the scruff of his neck and said, "You know Gred, you talk about Begon as though he was evil, but YOU are the one with a scar! In some of the places I have visited it is believed that if you have scar you are evil. And your attitude since you have arrived here hasn't changed my opinion. I hope my nephew Soma, and Hoff, and Begon don't come to harm. Now, let's get you to the cellars."

Abbot Nill watched as Mariah continued to rant that Begon was the evil one, if there was an evil mouse. And that she would leave the abbey with Gred whenever he wanted.


Meanwhile elsewhere in Mossflower Wood Begon was exhausted from running since early morning. He had found his way to the red stone rock formation that looked like an askew bookshelf. Knowing from Abbey school that there were caves there, he decide to take his rest. Once inside he looked at the golden badge that he had stolen from Gred. The picture of Martin the Warrior seemed to be giving him a reproving look.

Begon thought it was odd, but was too tired to care. Even though it was still daytime he fell asleep.

In his dream he was back at the abbey, standing in front of tapestry of Martin the Warrior. All the sudden Martin stepped out of the tapestry. He spoke softly but firm to the young mouse.

"Begon you know what you did was wrong."

Even though the mouse in front of him was and impressive figure, Begon spoke his mind, "Gred was ALWAYS acting like he was the best mouse that was ever born, Martin. He thought that rules and regulations never applied to him. When we were younger and lost our families, I looked up to him. I thought he was the greatest, and truth be told, I probably would never have made it to Redwall if it hadn't been for him." Begon admits ashamed of himself as he remembers the earlier days.

"So, what happened?" Martin asked

"Everybeast was saying how strong and brave Gred was to help another younger mouse." Begon explained "And how sorry they were that such a young one had a scar on his face. I don't know how he got the scar, it was before he found me. But I think hearing this made Gred feel like he was better than anyone else."

"So, his superior attitude and what others said made you jealous?" Martin asked

"Well, yeah." Begon admitted. No sense in denying it. "And I REALLY like Mariah. But she only has eyes for Gred. I figured if I returned to the abbey with your sword, creatures would see that I am just as good as Gred."

"And you think a sword makes a creature great?" Martin asked. "It is a creature's actions that define them. The advice I will give you is this: don't judge creatures by their appearance. Whether they are woodlander or vermin. Finish reading the book and you will understand why."

With that Begon woke up. It was late afternoon judging by the light coming into the cave. Begon would not dismiss the dream he had. He took the book out of his bundle and began to read.


A/N: It has been awhile. I haven't been on FanFiction for a long time until yesterday. Time got away from me and I really should have been working on this. But summer is almost here and everything so that's good. And Redwalllover wrote this chapter.