Okay, now we're getting into some action (and the end of the story). Hood is finally revealed for who his really is. But if you think that's a big thing, wait until the next chapter... ;)

Chapter 33

A hushed silence seemed to have swept over the horde. Toka stood, as usual, at the lead, and cautiously stepped forward out into the meadow beyond. Almost blankly, his eyes fell on the hill in the center of the meadow.

Knottail appeared at Toka's side. "This must be it, lord." he said. "The location of the otter treasure. Mokeet said it'd be in a meadow in Mossflower. A big one."

"Like this one." Toka replied, a little slow to catch on. He was still fighting off the effects of his drunkenness at the lunch earlier, not quite remembering how he had gotten in such a state.

But the enough of the effects had passed that Toka had regained his almost evil cool, idly studying the large meadow, allowing himself to take in it's beauty, noting how appropriate that beauty seemed for hiding something so valuable.

The silence was eerie though, and it made Knottail edgy. "Your orders, lord?" he asked, mostly just to break the silence.

Toka turned and faced his captain. "Get together a search party." he ordered. "Find the entrance into the treasure cave, then report back immediately to me. Do not enter the cavern without me. It may be a trap. The rest of you set up camp."

"Yes, lord." Knottail replied, and quickly set off to carry out the orders.

"Hood." Toka said next, and the cloaked figure stepped up to refill the place Knottail had vacated next to the warlord. "I want to talk with our prisoners."

"Shall I go get 'em, then?" Hood asked inquiringly.

"No." Toka replied, making a choice, a faint grin spreading on his face. "We'll go to them."

And then he walked off for the cage containing his two prisoners, Hood obediently following, passing Knottail and his search party along the way. When they arrived, Toka saw the prisoners had done nothing much in reaction to their arrival, but this did not surprise him. He knew that they knew, there was little they could do to defy him. And that fact gladdened Toka greatly, feeling the sense of power he now had over the prisoners.

And he felt like exercising that power.

"Beautiful day, isn't it?" The warlord asked calmly, starting to circle his prisoners like this was an ordinary interrogation. "Too bad you can't enjoy it."

"What do you want, Toka?" Mattimeo asked defiantly.

"Just confirmation that we have indeed arrived at the treasure." Toka replied.

"Why do you want confirmation for something you already know?" Mokeet asked darkly.

"Because, by having you do so, you'll be admitting your defeat." Toka stated. "Because this is the end of the road for both of you. And you know it."

"And how do you know that, Toka?" Mattimeo asked. "You said yourself that you were sure that it was trap. How do you know that it won't spring just because I'm your prisoner?"

"Because you will be joining the horde as it journey's into the treasure cave." Toka replied bluntly, then turned to the guards. "Pull him out please."

The guards nodded, and went to open the cage and drag Mattimeo out of it.

"Wait!" Mokeet suddenly exclaimed, as the guards continued to work. "Why Matti?"

"Because Matti is my liability, remember?" Toka pointed out, motioning to the guards to continue with their task. "If that cave is indeed rigged as a trap, then no Redwaller would dare spring it when Mattimeo is in the line of fire."

Mokeet's eyes widened slightly at this realization. Mattimeo's, however, narrowed into a glare.

"I'd like to see your expression the day that assumption is proven wrong." the mouse stated.

"If that day ever comes." Toka shot back, enjoying himself.

The guards lifted the top of the cage open, and began to reach into the cage to pull out Mattimeo. The warrior mouse provided no resistence. Mokeet looked anxiously from Mattimeo, to Toka, to the silent figure of Hood, watching in the background.

The otter then made his choice.

"No." he said suddenly, grabbing Mattimeo to keep him from being pulled out of the cage, then turned to Toka. "Take me instead."

"You?" Toka asked, finding the idea slightly humorous. "Why you?"

"Because you're right. No Redwaller would spring a lethal trap on one of their own." Mokeet said. "And the Redwallers consider every good woodlander to be one of their own. Including me."

Toka grinned, suddenly liking this idea, almost hoping that the trap would be sprung on the otter. To him, it seemed like the perfect irony. There was just one thing he felt he should point out.

"You do realize that young Matti will die anyway, correct?" the ferret asked, smirking.

For a moment, Mokeet didn't reply, but eventually spoke: "At least he'll get to enjoy a few more moments of life."

Toka grinned at this, apparently finding some part of it amusing, then looked at the guards and nodded. "Go ahead." he said. "We'll take Mokeet. But Mattimeo must stay and be guarded until I come back." he gave the mouse an evil look. "Then we'll wrap up a few...loose ends, shall we say."

Mokeet was quickly pulled from the cage, and it was closed and latched back on Mattimeo, who tried to follow. "Mokeet!" he exclaimed, "You don't have to do this!"

The otter ignored him, however, looking at Toka expectantly. The warlord, however, was ignoring Mokeet and had turned to Hood.

"Care to join us and get some booty?" he asked cheerfully.

But Hood shook his head. "I'll leave that to the rest of yeh." he said. "I ain't got much of a need fer treasure and that sort of stuff."

"You sure?" Toka asked. "Because no one is going to be saving some for you to pick and choose from."

"I know." Hood replied. "But I rather stay 'ere. Besides, shouldn't someone be left to look after the camp?"

Toka chuckled. "You are very smart, Hood." he said. "In that case, however, watch over Mokeet while I get a few final items before we enter the cave. Meet you at the entrance."

Hood nodded, gently accepting the prisoner as Toka shoved him in his direction. Then the warlord walked off. Hood and Mokeet made eye contact for a moment, but nothing was said. Finally, the two began to walk off as well.

"Mokeet!" Mattimeo called out again, trying to talk the otter out of this. "This isn't necessary! Don't put yourself in danger needlessly!"

However, Mokeet turned back and shook his head. "This I gotta do." he called back. "It's important that the both of yeh stay safe."

And with that, he and Hood vanished from sight in the mass of hordebeasts anxiously awaiting the chance to get at the treasure. Mattimeo and his guards watched them go off.

One of the guards snorted. "Good riddance to that 'un." he said, in reference to Mokeet. "Gettin' tired of his ugly mug."

Mattimeo, however, was sitting back in the cage, thinking. "What did he mean, 'the both of you'?" he asked himself softly.

Once camp was set up, the horde began to gather in the meadow. Toka took the lead, relieving Hood of his charge, and keeping Mokeet at bay at sword point. Knottail strolled up.

"We found the entrance." he reported. "It's under a large rock at the top of the hill."

"Very good." Toka replied, gently poking the tip of his sword into Mokeet's ribs just to remind the otter how quickly he could kill him. "I want a guard posted on every angle of that entrance, looking in every direction so that no area of the meadow is overlooked. Me and Mokeet will lead the way, clearing the way of any traps we might face. Knottail, care to take up the rear, just to be safe?"

The weasel captain nodded obediently, and with making so much of a complaint, stood at the rear of the horde.

Toka jabbed Mokeet again. "You first, otter." he said.

Pausing long enough to give Toka a glare, he started forward, traveling up the hill, Toka following closely behind. One by one, the two beasts as well as a good majority of the horde filed into the cavern within the hill, soon to be in awe the sight waiting to greet them...

As the horde filed into the cavern, Hood quickly traveled across the empty camp in the opposite direction of the treasure. He had spoken truthfully to Toka when he said he had no interest in the treasure. But his reasons for that lack of interest were not because he had no use for treasure. In fact, he wouldn't mind some treasure of his own.

But that treasure had another role. One he wasn't going to interfere with.

Hood pressed forward, briefly glancing at the open tents as he went by them, shuddering discreetly at the sight of the very vermin-like messes each contained. Until he joined the horde, he had never been in a vermin camp before. And hopefully, once this was all over, he'd never have to again. Because it was absolutely disgusting.

The way they acted, the way they ate, what they ate, drank, everything. And the stench...no one in the horde bathed. For the first day or so, it was near impossible to live with, but finally he got used to it, no doubt as he started to pick it up himself.

He mentally made note to bathe, very, very, thoroughly once this was over.

But first things first.

Reaching a kind of intersection in the groups of tents, Hood changed directions, heading towards the place Toka's only other prisoner was...

Mattimeo sat anxiously in the makeshift cage, eyeing his guards. He was desperately trying to think out a plan of action to try and save the day after all, but ran into a dead end at every turn. There was getting out of the cage, avoiding getting recaptured by the cage's guards, getting to the treasure cave unnoticed, springing the trap unnoticed, and most importantly of all, getting Mokeet out of harm's way unnoticed.

He was stuck at every spot in the plan.

He had a vague idea of how to carry out the plan when Toka arrived to get his "liability" but then Mokeet had to convince Toka to take him instead, leaving Mattimeo in the cage and in a bind.

But then he had to wonder if Mokeet knew something he didn't, for the otter had been acting very oddly lately...

His thoughts were cut short when he suddenly saw Hood walking towards him. The guards, who had been lounging around discussing the treasure, quickly jumped to attention at the creature's appearance.

"Cap'n!" one of them exclaimed, saluting him. "All's fine and dandy 'ere."

Hood did not return the salute. "Yore dismissed." he said in response.

The guards were caught off guard by this. "Pardon?" one of them finally asked.

"You heard me." Hood replied. "Yore dismissed. All of yeh. You want some of that treasure, right?"

The guards anxiously nodded.

"Then go get some." Hood said, stepping to one side and motioning to the path that lead to the meadow. "I'll keep an eye on the prisoner."

The guards looked at one another, then, in a very disorderly fashion, ran off, whooping and yelling with glee. Hood shook his head and turned back to Mattimeo in the cage. Mattimeo looked back, wondering what he was up to. Then Hood marched up to the cage, trying the latch. It was tied shut with rope.

Muttering that he didn't have time for this, Hood pulled out a dagger and began hashing at it. Mattimeo recognized it immediately.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded, pointing at the sapphire-hilted dagger.

Hood stopped and glanced at it. "This?" he asked. "Twas easy. It was left to me."

Mattimeo frowned and shook his head. "No, that can't be." he said. "That dagger belongs to a fri..."

"I know." Hood interrupted, freeing the latch and opening the cage. "An' it really is a simple matter."

"How?" Mattimeo asked, hesitantly poking his head out of the cage.

"I'll show ye." Hood replied.

And with that, he whipped back his hood, revealing his face to Mattimeo for the first time. Mattimeo stared at it for several moments, but slowly a grin started to spread onto his face.

"You know," he began, "You were the very last creature I expected to see under that hood."

"Wot?" asked Weylan, "Did ye really think I'd leave ye behind?"