Author's Note: Shoman: There's exactly forty chapters (three parts, each part being thirteen chapters, and a one chapter epilogue).
And, here is Part II.
XIV: The Scout
The scout commander, a decent-sized weasel who stood proudly, surveyed the situation with mild interest. Lizards. You didn't get too many lizards out in these parts. It was usually too cold for them.
But now, he had seven of them completely surrounded by his scouting party. They had found them when the reptiles were all sleeping. There wasn't a lookout or anything. Not too smart of them to go to sleep without posting a lookout. Of course, lizards weren't very smart.
The scout commander turned to one of his subordinates, a rat named Hairmold. "Ya think we oughtta wake 'em up, eh?"
Hairmold shrugged. "I don't wanna stand out here waitin' for 'em to get up themselves. Brekkfist'd be all gone by the time we got back to the castle."
"I s'pose yer right, Hairmold. Valla, Amora, go wake 'em up," ordered the scout commander, also not really wanting to miss breakfast because of some lazy lizards. Especially today, when breakfast was supposed to be some sort of fish soup. The scout commander enjoyed eating fish.
Two ferrets, identical twin sisters, moved forward and began to prod the lizards with the ends of their spears. One by one, the lizards rose sleepily, yawning and stretching. They were completely unaware of the predicament they were in. The scout commander chuckled to himself.
"Rise an' shine, sleepyheads!" he shouted. The awakening lizards all turned to him dumbly. Then, after a few moments, they all seemed to spontaneously realize what was happening, and jumped up, three of them brandishing weapons.
"Not so fast," the scout commander continued, "We gotcha surrounded. Drop yer weapons, those of yew that have 'em." He made a sweeping motion with one paw at the small circle of vermin around the lizards.
The three weapons clattered to the ground: a spear, a wavy sword, and some sort of wooden hammer. Very lousy weapons. The scout commander wondered where they had gotten them.
"Good," the weasel said almost soothingly, "Now, I'm Golding, the scout commander of Castle Regner. We don't really like trespassers, y'see? I'm 'fraid I'll hafta bring ya to Regner the Magnificent. An' I warn ya, he ain't magnificent for nuttin'. Actually, he is, but ya can just ignore that. He's still pretty scary." The lizards just stared at him dumbly, wondering what exactly this Golding character was talking about. "Com'n, let's get movin'. I don't wanna miss brekkfist. It's s'posed ta be fish soup, y'know."
The lizards were forced along by several assorted vermin. Saying nothing, they all followed Golding as he made his way through some trees and underbrush, hacking at all the branches that got in his way with a saber. They walked for a long time, and none of them spoke. The vermin all seemed to be on full alert, scanning the forest for something. The lizards didn't know what, though.
Then, the trees suddenly ended and they stepped into a clearing. Standing forebodingly at the top of a hill was a dark, malicious-looking fortress, the complete antithesis of the red fort the lizards had been to about a season ago. There were four dark, twisted towers sprouting from inside the walls like weeds, and the ramparts were being patrolled by all sorts of vermin.
Golding led the way up the hill, towards a steel front gate. At the top of the wall was a stoat watching them progress, obscured by shadows. Golding and the stoat shared a glance, and then the stoat disappeared from the wall.
"That was just ol' Deathblaze," the weasel said to the lizards with a slight hint of a smile, "The cap'n of the guard. He's Regner's little pet killer, but he won't touch ya unless Regner or Ballantyne orders him to, so don't worry."
The lizards exchanged glances. What had they gotten themselves into this time? The front gate slowly creaked open, revealing a poorly lit main hall. Golding proceeded inside without hesitation.
As they walked through the main hall, they garnered many odd looks from the vermin loitering about. However, nobeast said anything as Golding confidently led the way. The scout commander weaved through hallways, going through doors left and right. The castle was like a labyrinth on the inside. The lizards had no idea how Golding could know where to go.
After marching up a small, twisting flight of stairs, they stopped in front of a solitary door in an empty hallway. Golding knocked on the door swiftly, and then stepped back a few feet. After about five seconds, the door abruptly swung open, with a large, dominating weasel standing in the doorway.
The weasel was dressed in very elaborate golden armor, with an intricate crest on the breastplate. Behind him was a long, flowing red cape. The weasel's helm was adorned with an eagle feather. In one paw was a large battle axe that was taller than the weasel. His face was menacing.
Golding and his subordinates all bowed. "My liege, we found these lizards in yer territory, and decided to bring 'em to ya," the scout commander announced frankly, forcing himself to insert the "my liege" in the beginning.
Without warning, the large weasel struck Golding with the bottom of his axe, sending the smaller weasel sprawling. "Lizards, Golding? Lizards? I didn't askyou to bring me lizards, I asked you to bring me hares. I don't see any hares here."
Golding slowly rose to his feet, staring the other weasel directly in the eye. "Apologies, my liege, but—"
"But you wanted to make it back in time for breakfast so you decided that lizards were a good enough substitute for hares?"
"My liege, we haven't seen no longears in days. I don't think they're here," Golding responded coolly. It appeared as if he was used to this kind of treatment from his superior, but hatred burned in his eye.
"Fine, then! I'll just take your word over Ballantyne's. Yes, the little itty bitty scout commander knows more about this kind of stuff than my ingenious head tactician. That makes a lot of sense."
Golding wanted to scream in fury, but he remained calm externally. "My liege, Ballantyne don't go out there like we do. We've searched everywhere in that forest, an' we ain't seen nuttin'. Iddn't that right, mateys?" Golding turned to the rest of his group, who all nodded accordingly.
The large weasel frowned. "Maybe you just aren't looking hard enough, that's what I think. After breakfast, you'll continue searching for the rest of the day, and I don't want any complaints about that."
Golding bowed again. "Yes, my liege," he murmured. Regner then turned to the newly-captured lizards.
"I guess I might as well make the most of you. Which one of you is the leader?" he asked. Two lizards, both dressed in ragged white cloaks, stepped forward simultaneously. "Both of you? Fine, come into my office. Golding, make sure the rest of them don't go anywhere, okay?"
As Golding said "Yes, my liege" again, the weasel walked into his "office" and took a seat behind a desk. There were no other seats, so the two lizards simply stood in front of the desk.
"Hello," the weasel began, smiling falsely, "My name is Regner the Magnificent. I'm the commander of this castle." On the desk was a small candle that lit up Regner's face, causing shadows to dance around it. It simply made him look even more menacing.
"I izz Kalzmar, and thiz izz Corzon," replied one of the lizards.
"We were generalz for King Kirrent," announced Corzon. Kalzmar cringed at the mention of the name. She had been having nightmares about King Kirrent ever since they had fled Redwall. Horrid nightmares, in which King Kirrent's headless body rose up and slowly stalked her through the dark red walls…
"King Kirrent… You mean the King Kirrent?!" Regner suddenly jumped out of his seat and leaned over his desk, captivated by this new development. "King Kirrent the Great, who holds the record for the longest time having conquered Redwall?! You were his generals?!"
Every mention of King Kirrent's name hit Kalzmar like a giant boulder. She flinched every time she heard it. Corzon merely nodded.
"King Kirrent must have been a total genius in order to capture Redwall, even if just for a short amount of time! And you lot must have been amazing fighters, if you were able to combat the warriors that live there! This… is… great! I have to tell Ballantyne immediately!" Regner looked incredibly enthusiastic. Kalzmar and Corzon exchanged glances. They didn't really think that they had done much of anything in order to conquer Redwall, but neither said a word about that.
Regner propped his axe against a wall and began to wring his paws together excitedly. "Heheheh! I can't wait to see the look on Ballantyne's face when I tell him that we have the warrior lizards that conquered Redwall under our command! The strategies he'll be able to make with that knowledge… Hmm… I wonder…"
Kalzmar and Corzon stared at Regner blankly. What exactly did he think they had done? He had changed from a menacing, imposing warlord to a giddy weasel just like that. Now he seemed to be mumbling to himself, something about the Long Patrol and Ballan-something and things that made no sense. After a bit of this, he suddenly seemed to give up and relaxed a bit.
"Bah, I'm not cut out for this tactician stuff. That's why I have Ballantyne, you know. He's a genius. He's also a bit… odd. Everybeast seems to hate him, too, except me and Deathblaze. Oh, Deathblaze is the captain of the guard; you may see him from time to time. He's always angry at something. I suggest you don't talk to him."
Regner seemed to have drastically changed from the menacing, imposing figure he cut just a few minutes ago to a talkative, enthusiastic one. The two lizards wondered if such mood changes were to be expected from the warlord.
"Hmm… This is what I'll do. I could talk and talk and talk about my horde and my castle, but it won't do you much good. I'll have to get somebeast to give you a tour… But who…?"
"Golding?" Corzon suggested innocently.
Suddenly, Regner transformed again, back into his menacing figure. The candlelight illuminated his face once again in the eerie, shadowy way, and Regner seemed to grow a few inches spontaneously.
"Never listen to a word Golding says. Ever!" Regner exclaimed, "He's been out to get me for months now, gathering followers and all. I've managed to keep him in check, but it's only a matter of time before he tries something. But I'll be ready, yes, very ready. He can't defeat me, not when I have Ballantyne and Deathblaze at my side!"
Once again, the lizards stared at Regner blankly. Apparently, the warlord liked to go off on tangents, no matter what personality he really had.
"I've a good mind to just go out there and kill him myself, yes, but he's too popular with the horde. If I killed him, it'd cause an uproar, a rebellion. At least, that's what Ballantyne says. I'm inclined to believe him, though."
Corzon and Kalzmar exchanged glances. They had no clue what the weasel was talking about now.
"Whatever. I'll have Golding take you to the mess hall. The horde probably won't take too kindly to you at first, but just don't instigate anything and you'll be fine," Regner explained. Neither Corzon nor Kalzmar knew what instigate meant, but they remained silent. "Now, get on out of here. And remember: Don't listen to anything Golding says. Not one word."
Corzon and Kalzmar walked towards the door slowly and robotically, with blank expressions on their face. They had simply woken up and been forced into an army.
They exited, and the door shut behind them. Regner began to laugh.