Mattimeo and Weylan chat. Weylan's family history is discussed.

Chapter 8

When Kesmin went in for the night, she wandered around Redwall, wondering where her son had gotten to. It didn't take her long. He, Mattimeo, and Tess were all still gathered in Cavern Hole, probably still searching for answers to Weylan's riddles.

Only at some point, they had all fallen asleep.

Tess had stretched herself across the table's bench, curling into a ball, using both paws as a pillow. Mattimeo had stretched out on top of her, his arms dangling at either side of her, tail lazily shifting from side to side. Weylan, sitting on the opposite side of the table from the two mice, was still sitting up, his head resting his paws, and were the only thing keeping his head from falling on to the tabletop.

Kesmin, naturally being the mother she is, thought the whole scene was cute and left the three alone, wandering off to the upper dormitories, where the abbot said he would find a room for her to spend the night in.

Weylan was on the hill again. Recognizing where he was instantly, the otter raced to the top of the hill where he knew the adult otter stood waiting for him. Sure enough, the familiar, but unknown otter stood where he always stood. Weylan waited for the otter to start speaking another riddle like he had in the past two dreams.

Only this time, the otter did nothing, except stare at Weylan, and calmly pull a dagger from his belt, raising it in front of his face. After having held it there for a moment, the otter returned it to his belt and then bent down to lift the flat stone to revel the tunnel underneath.

Weylan peered inside and saw the flight of stairs again, and dropped himself onto the top most step. Calmly, he journeyed down them a short distance until the stairs abruptly stopped and lead into an underground chamber. It didn't seem very big, but most of the room was hidden in a thick darkness, so it was impossible to tell for sure without more light.

Weylan looked around for one, and finally spied an old lantern sitting abandoned on a stone shelf. Quickly he reached for it...

...And woke up to something cold splashing his face. Sitting up and rubbing the liquid off his face, he realized his head had slipped out of his paws and into the forgotten bowl of hotroot soup from the previous night.

Sneezing, Weylan also realized that getting hotroot pepper up your nose wasn't a good idea. Standing up, he wondered where he could go to wash up. Trying to hold down a sneezing fit, the young otter looked around for somebeast to ask, but the only other creatures in the room were Tess and Mattimeo, and they were both sound asleep, although Mattimeo was showing signs of stirring.

Not being able to wait, Weylan ran outside, remembering seeing a large pond by the abbey orchards the day before. Dawn was just breaking on the horizon as Weylan quickly washed the pepper from his nose. Having completed that task, Weylan looked around at his surroundings, studying the beautiful architecture of Redwall as it shone in the early morning light. No one else was around, and were probably all still asleep.

Weylan wondered what the view was like from on top one of the four walls enclosing Redwall looked like, and saw a set of stairs on the other side of the pond from him. Diving into the pond and swimming to the other side as a shortcut, he climbed those stairs.

He was greeted with a very breathtaking view of the sun peaking over the top of Mossflower woods, glowing like an oversized lantern. Basking his face in the warm glow, Weylan leaned on the wall edge, taking it all in.

"Quite beautiful, isn't it?" a voice asked from behind the otter.

Turning, Weylan saw that Mattimeo had followed him up onto the wall.

"Yeah, tis a pretty sight, alright." Weylan admitted, as Mattimeo came to stand next to him.

"I often come up here to just see the view and to think." the mouse went on to say. "Although I haven't been doing it often the past few days because of all that's happened."

He trailed off, leaving an awkward silence. Weylan could see that Mattimeo was thinking of his ill father.

"Yore father means a lot to ye, doesn't he?" he was Mattimeo calmly.

Mattimeo nodded. "I probably wouldn't be here if it wasn't for what he's done for not only me, but everyone here at Redwall." he said. "In fact, Redwall probably would've long fallen into vermin hands was he not around."

"Right, he's a warrior by nature." Weylan said, understanding. "Never really was a warrior meself. Rather just attack only in self-defense, which, lucky fer me, 'asn't 'appened much. But mum says me dad was very much a warrior."

Mattimeo studied Weylan's face. "Tell me a little bit about your father, seeing that you already know lots about mine."

Weylan sighed. "Ain't much to tell really." he explained, "Never really knew 'im, see. Wot I do know is that his family line traces back to a 'olt Lesbrin somewheres up north. When me dad was young, the 'olt went off sailing out in the great sea, while me Dad stayed behind, fer wot reasons, he never said. Long story short, the group never came back, leaving just me dad by 'imself."

Mattimeo was intrigued. "What did he do?"

"Went looking fer 'em, naturally." Weylan explained. "Met a sea otter with a boat an' became friends, and together they went looking for me dad's family, only to come up empty. Me dad didn't want to give up, but his friend the sea otter convinced 'im to. So he wandered down 'ere in Mossflower where he met me mum, and later 'ad me."

"What happened to him?" Mattimeo asked.

"Dunno fer sure." Weylan admitted. "When I was still a babe, so says me mum, he went back to visit his sea otter friend, but never came back. Mum thought he might 'ave decided to go lookin' fer his family again and got lost at sea. Personally, I think some vermin found 'im, but there's no way to really know."

Mattimeo grimaced sympathetically. "Must be hard for you." he commented.

Weylan shook his head. "Admittedly, not really." he said. "I mean, 'ow can ye miss someone ye never met? I do wonder sometimes wot life might 'ave been like 'ad he not gone missin', though."

"What do you think it would've been like?" Mattimeo asked, curious.

"Probably would've been the exact same, except I had a dad to look after me." Weylan stated simply. "Not like me life would've turned drastically fer the worse without 'im like yers would be."

Mattimeo sighed, staring out at the leafy tops of Mossflower woods. "I'm worried it might happen anyway if he does...die." it was clear the thought worried him greatly.

Weylan didn't understand. "Seems to me you've got everythin' under control." he said, "I mean, when he's dies, ye take his place. Simple 'eir to the throne stuff."

"Or in this case, heir to the sword." Mattimeo stated. "But that's just it, Weylan. I can't take his place! I just can't do that!"

Weylan shrugged. "Course ye can." he said simply.

Mattimeo stared at the otter for a moment. "I can't say I share you're confidence in the matter."

"Tis simple mate." Weylan explained. "If it's yore father that wants ye to take his place, then ye can do it. Get it?"

"No."

"Okay, let me explain it this way then. Liddle while ago, me mum left, leavin' me in charge of the dwellin' for a few days. Ferget where she was headin' I think to get some 'erbs or somethin' but she had to journey fer a few days into the woods to get it. Anyway, I didn't think I could do it, and told her so. Her response was that she wouldn't leave me to do anythin' if she didn't think I could do it. Then she left. Turned out that everythin' went fine, and I learned somethin' important too. Parents know their liddle 'uns better than the liddle 'uns know themselves, and the parents know exactly wot the liddle 'un can or cannot do."

"But this isn't about a simple thing of looking after a home!" Mattimeo objected, thinking that Weylan didn't understand the seriousness of the issue he faced.

"Course it ain't, mate." Weylan agreed. "But it still applies. Would yer dad really leave ye with so much responsibility if he didn't think ye could do it?"

Mattimeo realized he had no answer to that question.

"Think about it, mate." Weylan encouraged, looking back out at the rising sun. "You'd probably be surprised by the answer."

They fell silent, Mattimeo thinking over what the otter had said. At one point, Weylan had left, but returned a moment later with two freshly picked apples, one of which he offered to Mattimeo, who gratefully accepted it.

By this point the sun had cleared the horizon, and it's light, instead of glaring in their vision, now shown downward to light up the heavily used path that lead to Redwall and beyond. Weylan studied it, finding it funny that it looked like a mere line of dirt from here as compared to the great and wide path he had seen it as the day before. His eyes began to follow the path northward.

Suddenly he stiffened, straightening his back, his eyes squinting at something.

Mattimeo couldn't but notice. "What is it?" he asked after swallowing a bite of apple.

"Somethin's comin' this way, mate."

"What?"

Mattimeo followed Weylan's line of vision and squinted at a some movement that was definitely coming towards Redwall, and quickly.

"Wot do ye think it is, mate?" Weylan asked, having given up trying to figure out what it was.

But Mattimeo hadn't. And his answer came in the form of a yell.

"Vermin!"

Moments later, the sky rained arrows...