Alot of random chatrter used for filling in this. Basil makes a cameo. Nothing really happens that you don't know already but it was needed.
Chapter 6
Weylan stared in awe at the beauty of Redwall Abbey. As his mother had noted when they had both left for the abbey, it had been many seasons since he had last seen it, and as such, he remembered very little about it. It was definitely bigger than he remembered, so much so it was almost intimidating.
"Welcome to Redwall." someone said in the small crowd that had gathered behind the gates to see who had arrived.
Weylan studied them, noting that there were several different species of creatures here. Besides the mice, squirrels, and otters that Weylan already knew where here, he saw voles, moles, a couple of dormice, a badger, and a tall, lanky, hare. And all of them were a cheerful group, ready to greet Weylan and Kesmin in.
"Hello and welcome!" said one mouse.
"Absolutely capital to meet you, wot!" said the hare.
"Kesmin, welcome again to our abbey." said a very eldery mouse, older than the rest.
"Abbot Mordalfus, yore still up an' kickin' eh?" Weylan's mother answered. "Well, meet me son, Weylan. It's cause of 'im that we're 'ere."
"You don't say." Mordalfus said, turning to Weylan. "So why are you two here?"
"Ask 'im." Kesmin said simply, and went off to greet other friends.
"Well, uh, you see, sir, er..." Weylan said, uncomfortable with discussing the issue with a near stranger.
"Go on, my son." Mordalfus encouraged, "I won't bite."
"Um," Weylan looked around at the faces around him. He trailed off when he saw a mouse about his age standing apart from the rest. Something seemed important about him, and Weylan started to wander in that direction when a paw stopped him.
"If you jolly well walked here, you must be needing some good food!" the hare said to Weylan, starting to escort him towards the main building. "And there's plenty of that here in Redwall, dontcha know!"
"But I wanted to talk to that 'un over there." Weylan objected, pointing at the mouse he had seen.
The hare looked in that direction. "Plenty of time to talk with young Matti later!" the hare said joyfully, pulling Weylan along. "Food comes first, wot-wot!"
"Now, now Basil." the badger said, stepping in their path. "The only reason you want him to come along is so you can get some food yourself."
"Constance, I shocked that you'd even think that!" the hare retorted hotly. "Just makin' sure our guests don't die of starvation!"
And with that remark he pulled a struggling Weylan away, who really wasn't hungry, and didn't want to stop to eat anyway. The hare was completely oblivious to it.
"Basil Stag Hare's the name, wot!" he was saying as they went, "Jolly well would like you to tell me everything about you while we eat, young sah! Then, when you're done, we'll switch, how about that, eh?"
Kesmin chuckled, watching the pair walk off. "Ole Basil's appetite 'asn't changed, I see." she remarked to Mordalfus, as they began to walk across the grounds.
"No, if anything, it's gotten bigger." Mordaflus admitted, chuckling himself. "Now tell me, what brings you here old friend? Your son didn't get a chance to say."
"Well, fer me, it's just to visit ole friends." Kesmin said. "Fer Weylan, there, that's another story. 'ad a dream few nights back, told 'im to look fer the answers to it 'ere."
"Is that all." Mordalfus stated thoughtfully.
"Personally, I think it's nothin' more than his imagination over workin' itself." Kesmin said, swatting a fly away from her face.
"I wouldn't say that, Kesmin, dreams can do a great deal for us, if we're willing to listen to them." Mordalfus explained. "I myself have had a great deal of such dreams in my time, some of them proving to be invaluable. I must admit, though, the timing is interesting."
"Wot do ye mean?" Kesmin asked, stopping to sniff a flower.
"You remember Matthias?"
"Oh, ye mean that friendly warrior fella." Kesmin said. "Yeah, I remember 'im."
"Well, I'm afraid he's fallen ill." Mordalfus said gravely.
Kesmin looked up. "'ow ill?" she asked.
"Very ill, I'm afraid." Mordalfus admitted. "He may not live."
"Yore jokin'!" Kesmin exclaimed. "I'm sorry, mate, but I never saw that 'un dyin' like that."
"Admittedly, neither did I." Mordalfus declared, "But it is interesting."
"And wot's that supposed to mean?" Kesmin asked.
"That it might be to our benefit to see how the two situations play out." Mordalfus answered. "And see if they are somehow connected."
"I say, chap, steady on there. If you keep eating like that, you'll get sick!"
"Speak fer yoreself ye walkin' food trap! Yore eatin' ten times faster then meself, mate."
Despite Weylan's unwillingness to follow Basil to the kitchens, he brightened up when he saw the wide selection of food there was available to him. Which was just about anything he wanted, so long it was edible. This included hotroot soup.
While the hungry hare dished up just about anything he could reach, Weylan got himself several helpings of the soup, and only the soup, despite saying that he wasn't hungry. When it came to hotroot soup, Weylan was always had room for some. It was the rate in which he ate it that surprised most who were watching, who had been used to Basil and maybe Cheek only eating so much so quickly. And that apparently perturbed the hare.
"The only reason I'm eating is so much is to salvage my reputation." Basil remarked to the otter. "Gotta keep my strength up too."
"Strength that ye probably never use." Weylan remarked slyly, slurping down the remains of this sixth bowl of soup, ready to get a seventh.
"I resent that, wot!" Basil exclaimed angrily. "It takes a lot of nourishment to keep a growing hare like me goin'!"
"Basil, you're as old as Constance, you stopping growing long ago." one of the many Redwallers who had gathered to idly watch spoke.
"I resent that too!" Basil almost roared, standing. "I'll have you know that..."
"Don't, Basil, you know as well as I that it's true." another voice said from behind.
The two eaters turned to face the speaker.
"Tess, I wouldn't have believed you thought such a thing." Basil said, adopting the same hotly attitude as he did with Constance on their way in.
"Oh, shut up ye great silly beast!" Weylan said. "I 'aven't known ye for more then five minutes, and I already know it's true."
"Well, I wouldn't expect a young rip like you to think otherwise." Basil stated, "but Tess on the other hand, should know better."
"Actually we should know better than take you at you're word when it comes to food." Tess said, sitting down opposite of Weylan. "Anyway, I'm here because Brother Ben wanted your opinion about adding another row of potatoes next season after the harvest."
The hare perked up immediately at this news. "Well, why didn't you say so, wot?" he said, quickly hopping out of Cavern Hole. "I'll go see him straight away!"
Tess chuckled. "Good old Basil, always thinking with his stomach." she said to Weylan. "I had heard we had visitors, and came to see who. I'm Tess."
"I'm Weylan." the otter replied. "Pleased to meet yer, mate."
"As am I." Tess admitted. "Unfortunately, you've come at a rather sad time for some of us."
"How so?" Weylan asked.
"A friend of mine's father is ill, and he might not live." Tess said, sadly.
Weylan set down his spoon suddenly. He didn't feel like eating now. "I'm sorry to 'ear that mate." he said apologetically. "But maybe you can 'elp me. I came 'ere cause I was instructed to do so."
"By who and for what reason?" Tess asked.
"Well, I dunno who, really." Weylan admitted. "I, er, dreamt it. But I was told that if I wanted the reward, I was to come 'ere, to Redwall. And well, 'ere I am."
"Do you know what this award is?" Tess asked, interested.
"No." Weylan said. "An' it annoys me. But I do know that now I'm 'ere, I'll find out."
Tess was thinking hard. "Follow me for a moment." she requested, standing.
Weylan followed her into the Great Hall, and they stopped under a tapestry. "Was it him that told you to come here in your dream?" Tess asked, pointing at a warrior mouse.
"Oh, no is wasn't, see." Weylan quickly explained, "It was an otter, like me."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Tess said, feeling embarrassed. "I just thought...see, when it comes to important talk about Redwall, Martin here is usually the messenger, and like the otter in you're dream, he tells us things we need to know occasionally through dreams."
"I see." Weylan said, placing his hand on the delicately woven fabric. "Kind of guardian over Redwall, eh?"
"One could say it like that, yes." Tess explained. "He's a very important figure to us."
"I can see that." Weylan said, studying the rest of the tapestry. The warrior mouse popped up several more times on it, only not quite as big and important.
It was then that something caught Weylan's eye. On the opposite wall was another tapestry, this one looking newer. Again the warrior mouse was depicted on it, but with him was another mouse, who looked quite similar. Both were in full armor and held their swords at rest, with the point facing downward. They both had their heads turned to face each other. What caught Weylan's attention was what had been sown onto the swords. On the other mouse's swords, the words "I Matthias" could be seen. On Martin's was "I Am That Is."
"Wot's this?" Weylan asked Tess, touching the letters.
"Oh, this." Tess said. "This is a fairly new portion of tapestry. See, it's used to symbolize major points in our history."
"So wot does this part symbolize?" Weylan asked.
"For a time, Martin's great sword was lost to us, but recently, within my lifetime, in fact, it was recovered again, and used to defeat an enemy." Tess explained in brief. "The figure to the left is Martin, and the one to the right is a mouse named Matthias. The whole depiction symbolizes the responsibility of being warrior of Redwall being passed on from Martin to Matthias."
"Wot does 'I Am That Is' mean?" the otter asked next, tracing his claw along the letters of the phrase, sown onto the tapestry.
"It was part of a message for Matthias." Tess explained, stepping up next to Weylan. "Reshuffle some of the letters in that phrase and it spells 'I Matthias.' It was Martin's way of telling Matthias what to do, while trying to keep it secret too."
"So Matthias's the one I'm lookin' fer." Weylan said to himself, quietly. "Can I see him?"
Tess paused for a moment. "Weylan," she began, her voice slightly strained. "Matthias is the one who is ill."