Back to Brian!
"Do we hab to?"
A very young mouse looked up a squirrel, the obvious young leader.
"Yes," she responded, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "We're inves'gatin' that sound."
"But dose ruins are creepy!"
An otter, about as old as the squirrel, picking up the mouseling. "Aye. But you're not scared, are you?"
"No!" The otter set her on his shoulders.
The three walked quiet through the woods. To an unaware watcher, they moved without purpose, but it you watched very carefully, you would notice they were following a tiny worn trail.
"But deres adders!"
"In the quarry to the north. These aren't near them."
The mouse, out of excuses, promptly became quiet.
"We'll have to be fast, Reb. Or they'll get mad."
"I know that," the squirrel shot back. Her eyes glittered madly. "You think I want to get beat?"
"Dera don'd wanna be bead!" the mouse wailed.
"SHH!"
They walked faster. One never knew what lurked in the woods of Mossflower.
It was quiet, and as the red walls loomed in the distance, the mouse had only one question. "Are dere stawberry drees?"
"Oh yeah, sure Thera."
Red suddenly stopped. "Strawberries...Plants...HERBS! We can bring back herbs! They can't be mad then! The Sisters and Mother were complaining about that!"
"And Father as well, when he received dinner last night."
"We ged herbs? Whad are herbs?"
They began to run, leaping the remains of a door, and a tree trunk that had fallen in the grounds.
Reb stopped, breathing in the air. "I can smell them. Basil, thyme...Come on."
They entered an area just full of herbs. Reb began to pick, using her skirt to hold the savior plants. "Look at this, Kad! Dock leaves! As big as my head! The medicine sister will love it!"
Kad nodded, looking at the still towering building of the ruins. "I still wonder who lived here. It's so huge."
"Probably some vermin or another. They all love fortresses. Come on. I've got enough. Let's explore!"
She untied her apron, setting the precious plant collection on it. Kad added his own, and Thera set some daisies on top of it all.
There was a doorway. It welcomed them into a large, cool room, where the shadows pooled in corners and sunlight splashed in arched shapes on the red floor. Mold and dirt was caked everywhere, with glass shining amidst the mess.
There was a path, swept through it all, leading to something hanging on a wall flanked by two rusted lanterns. They were lit, and from the looks, had been dragged closer.
Kad approached first, picking his way through the mess. Reb watched a look of disgust pass through his face as he stepped on a patch of of slime mold. The Sisters and Mother always kept the House impeccably clean, with the female youth pitching in.
"Itsa a picture of a mouse."
"Indeed it is," a deep voice said. Three pairs of eyes looked around. Only Reb and Thera could see its owner, however.
An outline of a mouse on the stairs. At first, the straight, proud stance convinced Reb and Thera it was Father, and they quivered slightly. Had they been caught?
But he stepped forward, and gray fur became apparent, as did the hat and travelers clothes. His eyes were lit from within with a merry youthful light.
"But do you know WHO he is?"
They shook their heads silently, averting their gaze to the stone he stood on.
"He was Martin the Warrior, one of the founders of this once great abbey."
Reb looked up. "A mouse built this place? By himself?"
"Oh, not by himself. He had the help of many hundreds of creatures not unlike yourselves. But he made it possible for that dream to be. And so he named a founder."
"Mardin. Dat's a nice name."
The mouse chuckled. "Indeed it is, young one. What's yours?"
"Dera!"
"Well, Dera-"
"Not Dera! Dera!"
"She means, Thera, sir. My name is Reb."
"My name is Kad."
"Kad. How do you spell it?"
"I don't know Fath-Sir."
"Hmm..." The mouse bent down, using a slim shard of glass to scratch letters into a patch of moss. "Well there's this: C-A-D. Not a name though. And then there's K-A-D. Do you mind if I call you Kade?"
Reb didn't hear the reply, she was more interested in the letters.
"You can wite!" Thera exclaimed.
"Why yes."
"Mother and Father say only certain beasts can wite."
"Well I think anyone can write. Come over here, or perhaps there, where you can see."
They moved to the anointed spots.
"My name is Brian. See? B-R-I-A-N," he scratched them into the moss. "This is R-E-B, Reb. And T-H-E-R-A."
They stared at the letters. That was their names.
"So, sir-"
"Call me Brian, young ones."
"Brian, why are you here? We're never heard of you."
"We've never heard of most beasts in Mossflower."
Reb glared.
"He has da same sword as da mouse on da pic'ure!"
He stood. "It's a tapestry. Yes, this is the same sword."
"Can you use it?"
He shook his head. "No, not at all. I'm just holding onto it, till the real bearer comes."
"But why are you inna dusty old place like this?" Reb kicked what might have been a bench once, and regretted it. Something oozed out. "Ew!"
"I'm starting to clean up. After all. The lost Abbey of Redwall needs a place to be reborn. Now I must return to sweeping out the dormitories. You're welcome to come with me, if you like. It's nice to have young ones around."
He walked up the stairs.
"If he tries anything weird, we run for it."
"Right."
They followed.
So these were the dormitories. Each room had either a molding or caving door, and inside were places for beasts of all kinds.
"This is where dibbuns slept."
Brian was in a room with many, many small beds and large window frames streaming in light and a warm breeze. Dust, glass, and a powdery gray mold competed with moss for space on the floor and walls. Rotting shutters hung from the windowframes on rusting hinges.
"Whadda dibbun?"
"A young un like yourself, Thera."
"Oh." She stumbled over part of a bed to him, where he was sweeping the floor. "Why are you cleaning?"
"What do you mean?"
"Dat's a maid job."
"If that was true, I'd have been out of luck this morning. Well, could you all gather together the bed sheets? The ones that aren't salvageable."
They did so, working in silence, while Brian hummed.
"Oi Brian! Look what I found! The squirrel statue!" A short white-furred creature waved something."Well. Who're all you young uns then?"
"This is Reb, Thera and Kade, Teddy."
"Well, nice to meet cha! Brian! I found the statue! Still being used as a doorstop!"
Brian took it, gently scraping moss away from the neck of a statue of a squirrel. Then he nodded thoughtfully, took it in both paws and twisted.
The head came off. Reb gasped.
"I think there's even something inside! Well isn't that handy." He fished out something covered in beeswax. "And they preserved it. My my. Well then! What say we take a break?"
Thera waved a paw. "Me! Me me me! Oops!" She quieted. "I mean, I'd wike do."
Brian nodded, carefully peeling the wax from the paper scroll.
"We are leaving this abbey," he began to read. "In the past, it was capable of defense, but no more. Vermin march from the south, having taken the lands there, and Martin warns us to leave. We stand now, at the brink, the disbanding of a legend. Who knows what awaits us without our home to fall back on... I hope with all my heart that Redwall will one day be again."
He nodded sadly.
"The world itself feels darker, though it is high summer. I look around this abbey, and I see my entire life. One that will soon be over."
"Mira, last recorder of Redwall Abbey, Summer of the Fall."
Reb stared at the parchment. So this abbey had been abandoned because they thought they couldn't defend it? Why was it Summer of the Fall? What had fallen?
"We have to go back! They'll be mad!"
It was afternoon already?
"I'll take you back, young ones. I'll say you were helping me." Brian walked calmly down the stairs, and they trailed after. He set the sword behind a pillar as they passed the large entrance.
Reb gathered up the herbs, and they began the long walk to the House.
It was a large place, built into a cliff. Run by the Mother and Father, kept by the Sisters and Brothers, and succeeded by the youth they took in.
"Rebecca! Kadathen! Thera! Where have you been! And coming back all dirty too! You will feel my stick for this, young ones! Up to the baths, then to bed with you!" Sister Abbel chided them, taking the herbs from Reb.
"You'll have to forgive them, marm. They were helping me. I did not know they were to be home. They were gathering herbs when I found them, having lost an object very dear to me."
Sister Abbel looked Brian up and down. "And they helped you find it, did they?"
"Indeed they did, marm." Reb saw Brian's paws tense behind his back, though he showed no other sign of anger or otherwise.
"Well then. Take a bath, all three of you. But you'll have to make up for missed work! You were to have cleaned those floors, Rebecca! And you, Kadathen, missed much gardening."
She looked at Brian as they trudged away. "Will you join us for tea?"
Brian gazed quietly at three small backs scooting behind a door. "I believe I shall, ma'rm. If it's not too much trouble."
The "Mother" "Sisters" and other such characters are based off of classic nuns. Yeah. Rulers all round, for the misbehaving.