II: The Guide
General Davian scratched his head in confusion. They were lost.
It had been three days since his conversation with King Kirrent. His expedition to the red fort had started well enough, no problems whatsoever. King Kirrent had given him directions on how to get there, and they were as easy to follow as possible. The only problem was that Davian had completely forgotten them halfway through the journey.
At the moment, Davian and the lizards were sitting at the bank of a stream, trying to recall which way King Kirrent had told them to go.
"He zed to go zouth at ztream!" suddenly exclaimed one lizard.
"No, he zed north!" shouted another angrily.
"Zouth!"
"North!"
The two lizards that had been shouting began fighting. They went semi-ignored by the rest of the lizards.
"Mebbe we crozz ztream?" suggested an optimistic-sounding lizard named Darkscale. General Davian shrugged, not recalling anything about crossing a stream anywhere in King Kirrent's directions.
The two lizards that had been fighting had drawn a few more lizards into the brawl. Trying to express the simple leadership skills King Kirrent had taught him, Davian shouted, "Ztop fighting! It no good! It izz no good!" Davian added the last bit after remembering the simple grammar skills King Kirrent had taught him.
The fighting continued to escalate. Davian frowned, unsure of what to do now. He turned to Darkscale for a suggestion, but Darkscale held no answers.
Suddenly, a loud voice yelled, "Hey! Lookit what I get!"
Curious, the lizards stopped fighting and looked to see what had been gotten. They were all looking at a well-respected lizard named Marclaw, who had just appeared from the forest holding a very scared-looking ferret in mid-air by the scruff of his neck.
"Food!" one of the lizards shouted. The ferret began squirming in an attempt to break away from Marclaw, but the lizard was much stronger than him. As the other lizards advanced hungrily, it was General Davian who stepped in.
"Wait! Mebbe he knowz the red fort!" shouted the general. The lizards froze, pondering this new development with great interest.
Not hesitating one moment, the panic-stricken ferret screeched, "Aye! I know the red fort! I know the red fort!" Luckily for him, he actually did know the red fort. Everybeast in Mossflower knew the red fort, almost.
Marclaw kneed the unfortunate ferret in the stomach. "Then you tell uz! Tell uz the red fort!" For good measure, he kneed the ferret a second time.
The ferret, knowing that his life was on the line, recovered quickly. "Uh… the red fort. They call it Redwall, y'see. It's this big abbey thing, and it's, uh, red, and a bunch of warrior mice live in there, uh, and, um, uh…"
Marclaw didn't knee the ferret this time; instead, he brought down his free claw on the ferret's head. "We not caring! Tell uz where red fort izz! Tell uz now!"
"Well, uh, yeah," the ferret paused. If he told them where it was, there was nothing stopping them from killing him on the spot. If he were to—
Another punch from Marclaw brought the ferret back into reality. "Uh, yeah, Redwall! I'll, uh, lead ya to it, yeah!"
Marclaw looked dissatisfied. The ferret braced himself for another punch, but before Marclaw could do anything, General Davian stepped in, as if suddenly remembering that he was in charge there, not Marclaw. "Good, very good, yez," the general said in his slithery, reptilian voice, snatching the ferret from Marclaw as if he were some sort of toy, "You lead uz, now."
"I would love to, yeah, but, um, you kinda have to, um, put me down first," the ferret mumbled. Abruptly, Davian let go, and the ferret fell to the ground in a heap. The lizards all laughed.
The ferret got up and brushed himself off, looking around uneasily. Marclaw stopped laughing and shouted, "Get on! Move! Now!" The lizards all stopped laughing and stared at the ferret, who began walking off, going in the direction of Redwall. Most of the lizards simply followed him, but Marclaw walked right alongside him, giving off a menacing, hungry smile.
The ferret gulped visibly and continued on.
---
About ten minutes later, a completely nondescript stoat bumbled into the exact same area where the lizards had been previously. He had been scouring the area for food, along with his friend, the ferret, when suddenly the ferret had vanished.
After a bit of searching, he picked up on the ferret's trail, and followed it to here. What he saw distressed him. There were a lot of tracks, and they were all jumbled up, so he couldn't quite tell how many creatures had been here, but it had been a large amount. And all of them were lizards.
The stoat picked up his comrade's trail again, in the midst of all the lizard tracks. They were leading north. The only thing north from here was—
"Hey-o, Wemys!" came a voice from the trees. The stoat recognized it immediately.
"'Ello, Swiss. Why are ya here?" Wemys responded dully, not bothering to turn around. Swiss was an annoyance, a stupid old somebeast (no creature in the little band of vermin they traveled with could tell what exactly Swiss was; the general consensus, however, was that he was a pine marten, because none of them had ever seen a pine marten and they knew Swiss was like nothing they had ever seen before) who appeared at the most inopportune moments and oftentimes had messed things up immensely.
"Oh, I'm just walkin' round, y'know, nothing fancy or anything," Swiss droned innocently. For any other creature in the group, Wemys wouldn't have believed that story for a second, but for Swiss, it was a perfectly reasonable explanation.
"Well, guess what? I got a job for ya," Wemys said, hoping that Swiss wouldn't get excited and start yelling or something. You never knew with Swiss. After a few seconds of silence, Wemys continued, "I need you to go back to the rest and tell 'em that I think Limptail's bein' chased by a group of lizards and that they're all going towards Redwall. You think you can remember that?"
Swiss smiled and restated what Wemys said, as if proving his competence, "A group of lizards captured Redwall and Limptail's in there!" Beaming, Swiss did not notice Wemys clutch his forehead in aggravation. Why couldn't somebeast competent show up? Why did it always have to be Swiss?
"Nevermind, Swiss, nevermind. I'll just tell them myself. Com'n, let's go." Wemys brushed past Swiss in annoyance. The bumbling fool simply shrugged and followed him back to camp, not knowing what he did wrong.