Author's Note: Awsomewriter, I wouldn't call it a battle. I'd call it a slaughter, with the lizards running for their lives.

XIII: The Fall

After all of the hares had ran by, the giant front gate was pushed forward from behind. As it swung back outward, Limptail and Marclaw fell to the floor in a heap. The ferret had a broken arm, but Marclaw seemed, for the most part, unhurt. He was, however, missing his sword, which distressed him immensely.

Limptail moaned. His arm had been bent at a funny angle when the giant door hit them, and now it hurt immensely. But Limptail didn't care as much about that than he did about the fact that Marclaw was right next to him, almost completely uninjured, and looking around spastically. What was he looking for? It took Limptail all of three seconds to realize that Marclaw's fancy, shiny sword was gone. The ferret noticed it on the other side of the room, long before Marclaw ever saw it.

He attempted to get up without moving his broken arm at all and failing, slipping and falling back down in a heap. Marclaw didn't even seem to notice him, which was good. Now, all he had to do was sneak by the lizard and get out the wide open gate. It should be pretty easy.

On his second attempt, Limptail was able to get up, by using the wall as support. He quietly began to move towards the door. Soon, he would be gone, out of this prison, and he could sit around a campfire and listen to Curvetail tell stories or watch Crowley do magic tricks. It'd be all good again, just like it had been before. No lizards, no Redwall, no Long Patrol. No poisons to have to choose from.

Marclaw took a quick glimpse back, to check to make sure the sword hadn't fallen the other way. Limptail froze. Marclaw simply seemed to look through him, though, as if he were some sort of transparent ghost.

Then the lizard finally saw the sword, on the other side of the gatehouse. He was paying absolutely no attention to Limptail now, but the ferret found he could not continue moving just the same. Stop being stupid, he told himself, you're very close to the door now. Just a few more steps and you'll be out, never to return again. You'll never have to see Marclaw's toothy grin as long as you live.

Limptail's legs just didn't seem to work, though. He was now screaming at himself to start moving, to get out of there, to go back to camp and take a nice, long nap, but he was glued to the spot. It was as if Marclaw had put some sort of binding spell on him to keep him in place.

That was impossible, though. Limptail was pretty superstitious, but he knew there was no way a clod like Marclaw could use magic. Except… He did seem eerily intelligent for a lizard… No, he was just being stupid. Marclaw couldn't use magic, and there was no binding spell on him. He was just being stupid. Slowly, he began to move again, confirming this thought.

Marclaw had begun moving towards the sword in the same trance-like state that he had been in when he had first seen it. How could he be so foolish, and let it out of his grasp for even a second? He internally reprimanded himself, but the overwhelming wave of excitement he got from reclaiming his sword nullified his self-anger. There was nothing else in that gatehouse except that sword, to Marclaw.

He was very close now. Light bounced off of the blade, shooting it straight into Marclaw's eyes. The lizard didn't care. He didn't even notice, really. All he could do was put on his big, toothy smile.

He was reaching for it now…

Marclaw's head left its body as the sword was suddenly thrust upward. It flew through the air and landed in front of Limptail, the smile forever frozen on its face. Limptail almost screamed.

After a few seconds, however, Limptail realized that Marclaw was dead. Instead of screaming, he began a fake, forced laugh, still looking at the head of his tormenter, the eyes glassy like crystals. Then Limptail had a thought: Who killed him?

The ferret looked up. Standing at the end of the gatehouse, holding the slain Marclaw's sword in his one remaining paw, was a very pale Colonel Caldwell. Limptail moaned. He knew that Caldwell would go for him next. Conrad had always said the Long Patrol was a bunch of vermin-hating overconfident pricks. However, this hare didn't look very confident. Instead, he looked very sick.

"Get out of here, you stupid ferret. Your friends… are looking for you. Get out!" The hare waved the sword in Limptail's direction. The sword drooped, since Caldwell could only hold it with one paw.

Caldwell didn't look well enough to fight a butterfly, but Limptail wasn't in very good shape himself, and he didn't want to get involved with the Long Patrol, not when his escape was so close. He glanced over at the open gates, then began to run as fast as he could out them.

---

Ex-general Davian stood transfixed to his spot on the top of the wall, along with Darkscale and perhaps ten other lizards who hadn't ran after Limptail. Down below, a few more lizards were putting up a pathetic attempt to retaliate. Davian saw Greenwart, who had never left her post guarding the doors, impaled by several spears at once. Still, he did and said nothing, and neither did the other lizards at the top of the wall. All of them seemed as if it were impossible for them to move.

Kalzmar walked out of the late King Kirrent's room, a solemn expression on her face. She got about two feet out of the room before she realized that everything had descended into chaos. An arrow flew by her face, missing her by inches.

The former general began to make an escape, her instincts kicking in. The main gate was a no-go; that's where all the hares were coming from in the first place. Kalzmar instead went for one of the small gates on the sides of the walls. She began to run for the first one in sight, which happened to be the very same one that Davian had opened, letting in Marclaw and Darkscale and all the rest, eventually leading to the capture of the red fort. She even passed right by the tree Davian had hid in for a whole day, where he had constantly feared detection.

On the top of the wall, Darkscale suddenly pointed and yelled, "Kalzmar!"

In complete unison, all of the lizards turned their head in the direction Darkscale was pointing. They pondered this new development with great interest. What was Kalzmar doing?

One lizard, figuring that perhaps it would be a good idea to find out, began to dash down the stairs. He got to the halfway point when he suddenly lurched over, struck simultaneously by three arrows and a javelin.

The remaining lizards looked at each other for a short moment, pondering what to do next. Then, all of them began to dash down the stairs at the same time, pushing and clawing their way in front.

Darkscale led the group, with Davian trailing in the back, unfortunately stuck behind all the slow-moving lizards, such as Rankeye. A flurry of arrows and javelins went flying at the lizards, hitting most of them. The slain lizards fell on top of the still living ones, causing a bizarre avalanche as the lizards all rolled down the stairs in a heap, with the living ones trying to escape frantically.

Davian found the stairs suddenly impassable. A few arrows soared over his head, striking the wall next to him. After a small moment's hesitation, Davian began to run back up the stairs, where at least he would be harder to hit with projectiles.

Darkscale ran down the grassy, open area alongside the wall, dodging a flurry of attacks. In front of him, Kalzmar had unlatched the small side gate and was making her escape. Behind him were maybe two or three other lizards who had managed to escape the carnage, all going after the last avenue of escape. Kalzmar had vanished out of the gate, relatively safe. Darkscale skidded to a stop and followed her, and a couple of other lizards followed him.

None of those lizards were Ex-general Davian, however. Davian clambered back to the top of the wall, keeping low as a few more arrows whizzed by overhead. The hares were now running up to him now, lancing and stabbing the handful of lizards that hadn't managed to escape.

Rankeye, who had managed to claw his way out from under a dead lizard, was trying to get up the stairs in an attempt to follow Davian. Even though the ex-general had no idea what he was doing, Rankeye figured that since he was in command, he would. He scrambled up to the top of wall.

Davian was desperately trying to figure out some sort of way he could get past the hares and escape, pushing his brain to its limits. There were two ways out of the red fort: through the very large main gate, and through on of the small side gates. Those couldn't be the only ways, though. There had to be another way to escape.

Rankeye, seconds after he got to the top of the stairs, was struck in the back by javelin. Losing his balance, he stumbled forward and dropped off of the wall, tumbling down to the ground outside of the abbey, hitting the earth with a sickening thud. Davian peered over the side of the wall. If he fell down there, he might break every bone in his body, of course, but…

Several hares had forced their way past the heap of dead lizards and were swiftly climbing the stairway. Davian gritted his teeth, knowing that there was only one way out of this predicament.

Just before the first hare made it to the top of the stairs, aiming to run the lizard through with a polished sword, Davian ran and jumped over the side of the wall, hurtling down to the ground below.

---

At as far a distance possible, Wemys and Swiss watched the events as they unfolded. As soon as Lord Oxpaw and the Long Patrol had shown up, they had nearly panicked, and ran halfway back to camp before Wemys got himself under control and forced Swiss to go back with him. By the time they had returned, Lord Oxpaw had been ramming into the main gate with extreme force, splintering it. A few seconds later, the door had been nearly ripped off its large hinges and Oxpaw and the entire Long Patrol poured in, slaughtering everything in their path.

Of course, at that moment, things suddenly seemed very bad for Limptail. Conrad loved to tell stories about how evil the Long Patrol was, how they'd kill any vermin they came across, no questions asked, and most of the senior members of the group backed this claim up whole-heartedly. However, Wemys decided to wait there. It was exciting, waiting there.

While Wemys and Limptail were friends, the real reason Wemys was waiting so long was that just being there enthralled him. It was exciting, an adventure of sorts. Back at camp it was always the same. He'd wake up, gather some breakfast, talk with the rest of the group, gather some lunch, talk with the rest of the group, gather some diner, talk with the rest of the group. Sure, Curvetail would tell stories and Crowley would do magic tricks, but the stories were depressing and the tricks were fake. And once one got past those two, the only thing really left to do was gamble with Jeld, which wasn't a good idea. Jeld always seemed to win.

So here Wemys was, on a mission. Doing reconnaissance on enemy territory. He had been kicking around an idea in his head to attempt to infiltrate the enemy headquarters, but he had scrapped that. There had to be somewhere Wemys drew the line, and that was when his own skin was in danger. Danger wasn't fun, and he'd been in it enough times to know that when there was danger, creatures usually ended up dying.

"'Ey, look, iddn't that Limptail?" Swiss suddenly exclaimed. He rose up and pointed at a ferret that was dashing out of the main gate. Wemys looked. It definitely was Limptail. Somehow he had managed to survive.

"It is!" Wemys exclaimed, "Limptail!! This way!!" He and Swiss began to yell and wave. Limptail stopped for a second, looking to see where all the noise was coming from. It didn't take him long to see Wemys and Swiss. He instantly started to run towards them, paying no attention to his broken arm.

Limptail got all of two inches away from his starting point when a scaly green thing plummeted out of the air and landed right on him. Swiss and Wemys exchanged glances for a second, not exactly sure if they had really just seen what they thought they had seen. Then, the two of them burst out of the bushes and began to run over to where Limptail was.

The ferret was screaming hysterically. He had thought he was in the blue, with nothing left to stop him from going back to camp and listening to Curvetail tell stories and watch Crowley do magic tricks and maybe even gamble with Jeld, and then Marclaw's ghost had fallen from the sky, landing on top of him! He knew it was too good to be true that the lizard was really dead! Limptail knew that a body could die, but a spirit lived on beyond that. It wasn't like ghosts hadn't visited Limptail before, either… He had seen them all the time in his dreams…

Wemys and Swiss grabbed Limptail and began to drag him away from the ghost of Marclaw, which was neither a ghost nor Marclaw. They pulled the ferret all the way back to the bushes, with Limptail screaming the entire way.

The three of them crashed back into the woods, falling in a heap. Limptail abruptly stopped screaming, instead breathing heavily. Swiss rubbed his head, which he had bumped on a low-lying tree branch. Wemys looked at them for a second, and then suddenly began to laugh.

Swiss and Limptail glanced at each other, confused, and then Swiss began to laugh as well. Limptail scratched his head, shrugged, and began to laugh as well, although it was fake and forced. He really didn't feel like laughing at the moment, but he decided he'd go along with it.

At that moment, Ex-general Davian burst through the bushes and landed right in front of them, and all laughing ceased incredibly quickly.

---

Corzon had seen Davian fall from the sky and land on the ferret, but he wasn't really interested in that. He was too busy peeking inside the front gate, getting a glimpse at the amazing insides of the red fort. There must be so many shiny and interesting things in there, he just knew it. If only he hadn't been tied up…

A small, wavy sword suddenly sliced through his bonds, as if something had decided to answer his prayers. He turned to see that he had been rescued by Darkscale and Kalzmar, as well as four other lizards.

"Come on, we muzt hurry!" Kalzmar shouted, running towards the forest.

"Where izz King Kirrent?" Corzon demanded, not able to resist asking. Kalzmar cringed. She didn't want to answer that question. She didn't want to ever have to think of King Kirrent again, not after what she had done.

"Dead," she replied simply, then dashed off into the forest. Corzon shrugged somberly, and then followed.

---

The lizards inside Redwall had been eradicated. Lord Oxpaw stood on the top of the wall, looking down on the once again peaceful woods. Justice had once again been dealt by his paw. Now, the only threat that remained to the good creatures of Mossflower was that treacherous weasel Regner and his horde…

Lieutenant Tabbins walked up behind the badger, and saluted smartly. "Sah! Reports on the battle, sah!"

"Let me hear it."

"No casualties on our side, sah, although I wish I could say the same for the Redwallers. We found a lot of 'em dead. It ain't pretty. Most of 'em were cooped up in closets and corners, hiding."

Oxpaw sighed. Why did so many good creatures have to die because of the evil in the world? Why couldn't vermin ever just leave them alone?

"We also found Colonel Caldwell, sah. He's in pretty bad shape, missin' a paw and all, but I think he'll be all right."

Oxpaw nodded silently. Tabbins continued.

"Sah, we also believe a few of the lizards escaped, perhaps four or five, as well as the one that jumped from the top of the wall. Should we go after them?"

Oxpaw paused. He very much would love to go after them, until every last one was dead. However, now was not the time. They had to stay there and assist the Redwallers and clean up the mess they had made.

"No," Oxpaw replied calmly, "We've seen the last of them."

END PART I

Author's Note: Okay, you can say goodbye to most of these characters for a while (there are two that return in the next chapter, though, so emphasis is on "most"). Part II focuses on a whole new cast of characters, as I said before. These characters also have more character traits than "stupid", like the lizards did, and I must say it was a lot more enjoyable writing Part II than it was Part I. There's a lot more plot twists and stuff that I'm hoping will catch you off-guard, although you aren't going to see the bait-n-switch that was in this Part; II is pretty serious straight from the beginning, although there is some dark comedy mixed in. Ehhh... I'll just let you guys read it. If I start talking, it's kinda hard for me to shut up, and I may start ruining plot points. .