Yay! Thirty chapters! This is now the longest fanfic I've ever written (actually it was the longest four chapters ago, I just didn't know it yet :p). Nothing really exciting in this chapter tho. All filler. A little Mattimeo and Mokeet bonding, and word reaches Redwall of the hordes latest actions.
Chapter 30
Normally, being trapped in a cage would annoy Mattimeo to no end, especially seeing that in this instance, he had to share the already-too-small cage with another beast. But when the horde started marching again, they did so very quickly. Apparently Toka was in a hurry to get the treasure and get on with things, and was forcing his horde to march as quick as possible.
It didn't take long for Mattimeo to realize that if he wasn't in the cage, then he'd be forced to march along with the horde, and thankfully he didn't have to. The cage had wheels, so it was pulled along by the guards. So all he and Mokeet had to do was sit back and wait.
Unfortunately, waiting was the only thing he could do, which, considering what he had originally set out to do, was far from satisfactory.
The cage ran over a bump and jolted it's occupants around. Mattimeo, who was trying to rest, was rudely re-awakened. "I don't see how you get any sleep while riding in this cage." the mouse remarked to Mokeet, who seemed undisturbed.
"When ye've been 'ere as long as I 'ave, ye learn." Mokeet replied. "I'd say that with time, ye'll learn too, but it's doubtful both of us will live that long."
Mattimeo nodded glumly. "Our uses to Toka are just about over." he noted. "Once they are, we're of no use to that...that...ferret."
"An' Toka's not one to keep prisoners when he don't need 'em." Mokeet added.
"So how do you think the end will come for us?" Mattimeo asked. "Be beaten to death?"
"If we're lucky." Mokeet replied bitterly, but then searched for a less gloomy subject to pursue. "Ye know," Mokeet began, looking Mattimeo over, "You're handlin' this pretty well, all things considered."
"I'm not new to being a prisoner, unfortunately." Mattimeo said. "I've been through a lot in my life. I have been kidnaped from home, forced to march hundreds of miles with little food, drink, or rest along the way, chained, forced to sit in dark rooms for days on end, I was even enslaved once."
"You really aren't new to this." Mokeet remarked, both amazed and disgusted all that happened to one creature.
"True, but that really isn't much compared to some of the things Father has been through." Mattimeo said. "We've all thought he was dead, or going to die on numerous occasions, once he fell from the abbey rooftop into the pound, he even got buried alive another time, or at least that's how the story goes."
Mokeet gave the mouse an odd look. "Yore family leads an...interestin'...life." he said.
Mattimeo nodded. "I wish I won't have to miss the rest of it that's still to happen, though." he said.
"Considerin' yore luck, I wouldn't be too surprised if ye did." Mokeet remarked.
Mattimeo had to laugh at that, but it was short lived. "How?" Mattimeo finally asked, serious. "I won't lie, Mokeet, I honestly don't see how to survive this one."
"There's yore original plan..." Mokeet began to suggest, but Mattimeo cut him off.
"It will not work." Mattimeo said persistently, "Even though Toka does not know what it is exactly, there needs to be at least one creature loose in order to do it. We're both in here, so we can't do it, and Weylan ran off. Most likely to get help, or maybe even admit the plan failed and went back to the abbey to warn them."
"Couldn't he 'ave decided to try and do it himself?" Mokeet asked.
"Possibly." Mattimeo admitted. "But he'd be desperate to try it, and maybe not even in his right mind. It's not likely a single creature could pull it off, not with things as they are, with Toka and his horde on guard for anything suspicious."
"So...now wot?" Mokeet asked.
Mattimeo sighed and was quiet for a moment. "We wait." he eventually replied. "Look for anything we can use to our advantage."
"And if none come?" Mokeet asked.
Mattimeo looked at the otter. "Then we admit defeat." he said.
Not that Cheek usually wanted to advocate the slaying of creatures, but in this case, he wished that Mattimeo and Weylan would hurry up and defeat Toka and his horde so that he could get out of this stupid tree.
Yes, he had not moved from that tree in two, going on three, days, and not being a squirrel, is was getting very old very fast for the young otter. He kept asking himself why he had to stay in this tree all day and night long, only to have the more logical side of his mind reply that reports or inquiries for reports from the horde could come at any moment, without warning, and that they could not risk missing any of them.
This was proven when Dorrin, the next closest beast in Toka's communication chain, started calling for Cheek's attention in the middle of the night, an event Cheek had almost missed because he had dozed off, but the ever-alert Flugg and his group of hand chosen shrews that guarded Cheek's tree heard it and quickly got Cheek awake enough to reply. And it turned out that all Dorrin wanted was somebeast to talk to, since he couldn't seem to sleep on that particular night.
So Cheek could not move from that spot until it was all over, and he hated it. Immensely. So much so, he wanted to strangle the creature that came up with the idea of him sitting in the tree, only to have the logical side of him hold him back because one, it was Mattimeo's idea, and second, what would that get him?
"Oy! Whiptail!" Dorrin's voice suddenly echoed out. "Ya there mate?"
"Aye, I'm 'ere!" Cheek promptly called back, mimicking the late Whiptail's voice.
"Good ole Toka wants an update!" Dorrin hollered. "Anythin' new happenin' over there?"
"Nothin' in the slightest." Cheek shouted back. "How about on the horde's end?"
"That's part of the reason I'm callin' to yeh!" Dorrin replied. "Toka wants to make an announcement to the dwellers of Redwall!"
Cheek hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Wot about?"
Dorrin explained it to him, telling him what had happened back at the horde. "Pass the word along to the leader of the score of beats we left there!" he instructed once he was finished. "An' that's all. Be in touch later!"
"Right!" Cheek called back weakly. He stared off into the distance, towards the direction Dorrin was somewhere, before leaning over the edge of the branch and looked down at the shrew guards below. Log-a-log Flugg looked back up at him.
"You 'eard?" Cheek asked quietly.
"Aye." Flugg replied curtly, then added, mostly to himself, "This is not good."
Flugg volunteered to relay Toka's announcement to the abbey, and arrived in Great Hall shortly, calling the closest creatures to him, which happened to be Abbot Mordalfus, Cornflower, and Tess, who were passing by, and a group of guards. Having their complete and undivided attention, he told them the bad news.
"We just got word." the shrew leader began, and knowing there was no way to soften the blow, decided to be blunt. "Toka has Mattimeo as his prisoner."
The reaction was mixed. The guards began murmuring, wondering what would happen now, Cornflower and Tess were simply frozen with shock, and the abbot sadly sighed and bowed his head.
"When?" Mordalfus asked, his voice cracking.
"'Round noon, apparently." Flugg replied, bowing his head too. "The horde had stopped to rest, and somebeast in the horde found tracks of 'em following the horde. Toka sent out a party to search, and well..."
They all fell silent for a moment, broken only by the soft sniffles of Cornflower crying.
"What about Weylan?" the abbot asked next.
"Apparently he ran off." Flugg explained. "Where he is now ain't exactly known."
"What about the horde itself?" one of the guards asked, sounding worried, "what are they going to do?"
"Dunno." Flugg admitted gravely. "We weren't told."
"So Toka could be heading back here and we don't know it." Mordalfus determined. "Or he could be heading away and we don't know it."
"Best be on our guard, just in case." Flugg suggested.
Mordalfus nodded and was suddenly very serious. "Place guards on the walls, immediately." he ordered. "They must keep watch at all times, in case Toka comes back. If he does, they should not hesitate to fire, because Toka will not. Flugg, you better get your shrews together and put together a battalion of warriors, in case we will have to fight it out to the end. I want our supplies checked as well, and make sure we have enough to last through a siege. Cornflower, if you, Tess, the friar, and whoever you might need, could see to that, it would be very much appreciated."
He then turned and addressed everyone present. "Everybeast, this is a very grave moment, and it might only get worse from here. But I beg of you, do not panic, and most of all, keep your hopes up. If there is no hope in this abbey, then the war is already lost."
Everyone nodded, then began to set out on their different missions. It was then, without warning, that Tess wobbled on her footpaws, then dropped to her knees with a loud thud, looking quite pale. Cornflower, the only left nearby, quickly came to her aide.
"Tess, are you all right?" the concerned mousewife asked.
Tess did not reply for a long period of time, staring off into the distance blankly. Finally, she shook her head. "Matti..." she finally managed to get out before her grief choked off any remaining ability to talk. She said all that was needed to be said, however. Even though it was unspoken, they both knew what they were thinking.
The two maidens embraced each other, each trying to comfort one another, silently grieving for the situation they were in now. They did not know how long they stayed there, and to them, it did not matter.
"Cornflower, what will happen now?" Tess asked softly, breaking the silence.
Cornflwoer shook her head, staring at the depiction of Martin on the nearby wall, trying to draw strength from it. "I don't know." she replied.
"Will Redwall fall?" Tess asked next. "And if so, will we all die in the process?"
Again, Cornflower said that she didn't know. But she also added, "But I must die, I much rather die fighting."
The two were silent for another long period of time.
"What can we do now, Cornflower?" Tess asked.
"Hope for the best, Tess." Cornflower replied. "Hope for the best."