V: The Ladder

Limptail the captive ferret scratched his head in confusion. They were lost.

Of course, he had no intention of letting the hungry lizards behind him know that. He turned left and right, seemingly confident that he was going in the right direction. None of them suspected anything yet, not even the one that was always nearby and smiling evilly, Marclaw.

Truth be told, he wasn't completely lost. He knew exactly where he was now, and he knew exactly how to get back to his camp from here. He knew most of this area like the back of his paw. However, he had only ever seen Redwall once, at a distance and obscured by foliage. It had been many seasons ago, and Conrad, the wily fox that led the small band of vermin Limptail was part of, had told him never to go anywhere near there again. The fox had said that the place was filled with warriors and magic swords and all kinds of crazy-sounding things. Limptail didn't doubt it, however, and he had never been back there again.

However, now he didn't know how to get there at all. His memory was foggy; he knew it was somewhere in the general area, but he couldn't remember whether to take a left turn at one tree or a right turn at another. And his memory wasn't helped by Marclaw, whose toothy smile never seemed to cease.

And even if the ferret could remember exactly how to get to Redwall, did he really want to go? Even Conrad was scared of the place, and Conrad wasn't scared of anything (except perhaps his fraud of a sister who, one night, attempted to kill him as he slept, stealing all of his things and leaving him for dead). It was really like picking his poison: Death by a bunch of hungry lizards, or death by a bunch of warrior mice. And he may still be killed by the lizards anyways, once he did what the only thing they kept him alive for.

Lost in these troublesome thoughts, Limptail suddenly stepped out of the forest, and into the darkness of night. In front of him was Redwall, serene and peaceful in under the moonlit sky.

"Imprezzive," Davian simply said, stretching his vocabulary to the absolute maximum, and that moment was the only time the lizards took to admire the beauty of the fort. "Now, we take it over for King Kirrent, yez! Where izz the ladder? Get it against wall, we climb over!"

The lizards helped to prop the rotten, flimsy ladder against the stone wall. Unfortunately, it leaned profusely, much to Davian's disappointment. He couldn't climb up a ladder that was leaning so much. The general decided to put his best problem-solving skills to the best, racking his brain for answers.

"Yez! I know!" he exclaimed after a minute or two. The lizards, who had been simply staring up at the walls, all turned to him. "Darkzcale! Marclaw! You two hold ladder, yez! Then we go up!"

Limptail breathed a sigh of relief as Marclaw left his side. He and Darkscale held one side of the ladder each, and it righted itself, standing almost completely straight. Davian smiled in satisfaction.

The general stepped onto the first rung of the ladder. It snapped cleanly in half, and Davian fell back to the floor. The lizards began to laugh, but an icy glare from Davian silenced them. He stepped onto the second rung, not putting so much weight on it. Luckily, it held.

Davian began climbing up the ladder, followed one by one by the other lizards. Every once in a while, a weak rung broke, and Davian once had a very close call, almost falling backwards.

Then, after Davian was about three quarters of the way up, he realized a second problem: The ladder wasn't tall enough. It stopped a quite a few lengths below the top of the wall. However, the lizards below him were almost pushing him up now; he didn't have time to think of a solution here.

General Davian reached the top of the ladder. The top of the wall was so close now, just out of reach. The lizard snuck a quick peek down. It was a long drop, Davian realized. If he fell from here, he could break almost every bone in his body. Davian looked back up. The top of the wall was so close…

Mustering up all his energy, Davian leapt up from the top of the ladder. It was an impressive jump. Davian's claws hit the top of the wall, and he latched on like a parasite. The ladder shook below him, but Darkscale and Marclaw managed to keep it steady.

Davian pulled himself up. He was on the top of the wall, inside the red fort. He looked down into what he planned to conquer. There wasn't a single creature moving about. They were all sleeping, Davian hypothesized. If that was the case, then taking over this place would be easier than he had previously thought. Unfortunately, he hadn't counted on Colonel Caldwell.

---

Colonel Caldwell had kept his small squad of six hares (including himself) moving at a breakneck pace. He wasn't particularly worried about Redwall; they could handle a small group of forty oafish lizards without a problem. However, he wasn't going to slack off on his way there just because of that. Caldwell held duty in very high regard. He would only strive for the best he could do. And, he couldn't wait to have some of that heavenly food.

He was sure that the hares he had taken with him had complained inwardly, but none of them had done so outwardly. That was a sign of good training, Caldwell thought to himself. They were incredibly near Redwall now, and Caldwell had hurried his troops' pace, wanting to be there before it got too late. There was no reason to spend an extra night sleeping in tents when they could be sleeping in nice, warm beds.

The small squad burst out of the forest and were met with an awkward sight. A large group of lizards were climbing up a ladder that wasn't tall enough to reach the top of the wall. In fact, the lizard at the top of the ladder had stopped and was looking around dumbly.

"The ladder isn't even stable, sah," Gavin pointed out, as if he too had felt the scene to be humorous, "Look, they've got two of those brutes holding it up. And what's with that one ferret?"

A hare named Sedgewick joined in, holding a javelin in one paw. "How about I give those bally lizards a wake-up call, wot wot?"

---

Darkscale yawned. It was late, he was tired. He hoped that Davian wouldn't take too long conquering the red fort, he wanted to sleep. After all the lizards were off the ladder, he may just go to bed anyways, right there on the earth.

A javelin landed inches from him, embedded in the ground. Darkscale took a few seconds to register this. As soon as he did, however, he jumped back, screaming, "We under attaaaaaaaaack!!!"

This had been the desired effect of Sedgwick. With Darkscale no longer holding the ladder, it suddenly began leaning to one side drastically. Marclaw shouted to his ferret friend, "Grab that ladder!" But it was too late. With a large group of screaming lizards clinging to it for dear life, the ladder leaned to the left, then simply plunged backwards in mid-air.

From the safety of the top of the wall, Davian watched in horror as the ladder hit the ground with an extremely large crash amid a myriad of extremely loud screams. He saw the hares, six of them, and panicked. What if there were more? What if the badger was with them?!

Davian bolted, looking for a way down from the wall. After a few moments of frantic searching, he saw a staircase, leading down to ground. Davian took the stairs three at a time, searching for a way out, a way away from the hares and the badger.

Then Davian realized he had more problems. A door to some building swung open, and a gaggle of creatures materialized out of it, wondering what all the ruckus was about. Davian turned his search from finding a way out to finding a place to hide. He was in the middle of a yard, though, and the only thing near him was a big fruit tree.

That was it! He'd hide in the fruit tree! Lizards weren't exceptional climbers, but Davian was up the tree like a lightning bolt. The abbeybeasts filing out of their rooms never even noticed him. Davian breathed a very large sigh of relief as he clung to a branch.

That was a temporary end to Davian's problems. Marclaw, however, was finding things not so simple. He had rallied the lizards that hadn't been crushed to death by the ladder and led an attack on the six hares. However, the hares fought like demons and most of the surviving lizards bore serious injuries, such as broken limbs, from their fall.

As the hares massacred the injured lizards, Marclaw slunk back a little. If he could just get at the leader… There! Darkscale had injured one of hares. It wasn't the leader, but Marclaw was already formulating a basic plan.

Marclaw dashed forward, his slim, wavy sword drawn. Pushing Darkscale aside, he grabbed the injured hare, the same one that had thrown the javelin, Sedgewick, and held his blade up to the unfortunate hare's throat.

"Zurrender now or longearz diez, yez!" Marclaw yelled. Both the lizards and the hares stopped fighting, with the small group of surviving lizards and the one ferret converging behind Marclaw, as if he were their leader.

"You dishonorable brute!" Sedgewick exclaimed. Marclaw merely laughed, not exactly knowing what 'dishonorable' meant.

Caldwell was furious. He knew the lizards were mean, but he didn't expect them to be so ruthless. The other lizards simply looked confused, though… Perhaps it was just this one, with the toothy smile…

"Now, we go, and longearz izz zafe, yez?" Marclaw negotiated. The four hares behind Caldwell all looked ready to lunge forward to tear the lizard apart if he did anything to Sedgwick.

"Fine, then, you bally lizard," Caldwell shouted back. At least he hadn't asked him to lay down his weapons, then it'd have been a tough spot. This was a very simple request.

Marclaw smiled and began backing up slowly. The few remaining lizards backed up accordingly, so that Marclaw was always in front. One by one, they all vanished back into the forest, until only Marclaw was left.

"Now, let him go," Caldwell demanded. Marclaw smiled even wider, and then began to laugh. Without any warning, he slashed Sedgewick's throat and threw the dying hare to the floor unceremoniously, right before he vanished into the forest himself.

Caldwell nearly exploded with anger. He charged forward into the forest, right after Marclaw, shouting unintelligibly, followed by the four other hares.