Morning found Tammo standing atop the northernmost wall of the Abbey, keeping watch for Flower Monsters. As Perigord had suggested, the defenders had split into four groups, each one guarding a different wall. Garnet was leading the group on the north wall, and she had insisted on keeping Tammo near her. "If I can keep my eyes on you, I'll know you're safe," she'd told him. "Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around."
Pasque was also stationed on the north wall, which pleased Tammo no end. So were Captain Twayblade and Rockjaw Grang, along with Arven the Warrior and an assortment of other Redwallers. The hares and otters were armed with slings, while the mice and squirrels had bows and arrows. Everybeast also had a knife or sword tucked into their belts.
"Now remember," Garnet told them. "When the Corrupted Gems arrive, don't shoot them in their gemstones, whatever you do. That would kill 'em, and we don't want that. We just want to poof them into bubbles so they can potentially be healed later. So, anywhere else on their body is fair game, but not their gemstones!"
Gurrbowl the mole came into view, wheeling a cart laden with bowls of porridge. "Hurr et be, brekkist!"
"Thank you, marm," Tammo said when she got to him. "That's the stuff to give the troops, wot!"
Rockjaw nodded. "By 'ecky thump, there's only one thing better'n food- more food!"
Gurrbowl addressed Garnet. "Still no sign of ee monisters?"
"Not yet," Garnet said.
"Well, may'aps they'm won't trouble our h'Abbey at all. That'd be noice."
"Maybe so," said Arven, "but there's a world o' difference between what we'd like an' what we get."
Just then, a terrible roar rent the air. Gurrbowl threw up her paws. "Bo urr! Seasons preserve us'ns!"
"I take it that's the sound of the mutants approaching, marm?" Captain Twayblade said to Garnet.
Garnet nodded. "Remember the plan, everybeast."
Now the Flower Monsters appeared out of the woods. There were scores upon scores of them, and they were making awful noises, roaring and snarling and growling.
"Let's give 'em blood and vinegar, mates!" Twayblade cried. "Eulalia!"
"Redwaaalll!" Arven shouted.
As the monsters closed in on the Abbey, Garnet gave a command. "First rank, fire!"
The hares and otters leaped forward, whirling their slings over their heads. Once the monsters got close to the wall, the defenders let fly. A volley of stones rained down upon the attacking mutants. The blows from the stones weren't strong enough to bubble the monsters, but they did make them fall back.
"First rank, fall back and reload! Second rank, fire!" Garnet ordered.
The hares and otters stepped back and started gathering more stones to fill their slings with. At the same time, a line of mouse and squirrel archers came forward and started firing at the monsters. A number of arrows hit the monsters, and the arrows were forceful enough to bubble them. But there were still plenty of monsters left, and the survivors kept advancing.
"Second rank, fall back, first rank, fire!" Garnet called.
Tammo and the other slingthrowers sent another shower of missiles down upon the monsters. The ones that were hit stumbled, but this didn't deter them long. As soon as they could, they got back on their feet and charged again.
"It's as if for every step we force them backward, they take two more blinkin' steps forward," Pasque said.
Garnet ordered the archers to fire another salvo of arrows, but it barely made a dent in the opposing side's forces. There were simply too many of the mutants. The Redwallers and Long Patrol hares were doing everything they could to hold the attackers off, but no matter what, the Flower Monsters kept getting closer.
Finally one of them reached the wall and threw the full weight of her body against it like a battering ram. The whole wall shook.
Arven looked down. "Great seasons! She's made a crack in it!"
"Yeah, us Gems are strong," said Garnet. Her voice sounded perfectly calm, but inside she was scared.
Isaac raised his bow and aimed it at the Flower Monster who had headbutted the wall. He fired, and the arrow hit her and instantly bubbled her. But two more Flower Monsters ran up to take her place. They crashed into the wall just like the first one had. The crack grew wider. Garnet knew this was trouble.
More and more monsters rushed at the wall and smashed into it. The defenders rained missiles down on them, but they just kept coming.
One of Garnet's powers was sensing structural instability, and she could tell the wall was fixing to collapse. "Everybeast, get down!" she yelled.
Garnet, Tammo and the rest scrambled for the stairs that led down to the Abbey lawn below. They were just in time. An instant after the last of them reached the ground, there was a sickening crunch, and one of the Flower Monsters burst through, making an enormous hole in the wall!
"Draw your blades!" Garnet cried. Tammo pulled the knife Torgoch had given him out of its sheath. Arven took out his sword, which had once belonged to Martin the Warrior. The only person who didn't get out a sword was Garnet herself. She always fought with fists alone. Now she charged at the monster who had broken through and karate chopped her in the head, bubbling her.
But more monsters were coming through the wall, creating more and more holes. Following Garnet's example, Arven leaped into the air and landed on top of a monster. He drove Martin's sword into her back. A moment later, this monster too disappeared into a bubble.
Tammo heard shouts of "Redwall!" and "Eulalia!" behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the other defenders were rushing to join the fight at the north wall. He saw Pearl leading a band from one direction and Amethyst approaching with a group from another, and Major Perigord's group was close behind.
"Tammo, look out!" he heard Pasque call. Tammo whirled his head back around to see a Flower Monster coming right at him. He thrust with his dagger, and the monster ran right into the blade and poofed into a bubble.
"Nice one!" Pasque said as she dispatched another monster with her own blade.
From that point on, it was complete chaos. The fight ranged all over the Abbey grounds. Everybeast in Redwall took part in one way or another. Even Abbess Tansy was curled into a ball, rolling herself at the monsters and striking them with her spikes.
Joshy Stag Hare found himself surrounded by a group of the monsters. He kept his cool and shouted a spell. "STAR SHOWER!" A shower of stars burst out of his wand and hit the monsters, bubbling them.
Slowly but surely, the Redwallers were getting the better of their alien attackers. As more and more of the monsters were bubbled, the tide began to turn. Tammo never knew how many of them he had fought himself. In later seasons, when he thought back to this battle, it was all a blur in his mind.
But he remembered the end of the battle all too well.
He was standing in the center of the lawn, facing down a Flower Monster, one of the last ones. He stabbed at it with his knife, but the flower on top of its head reached down like an arm, snatched the knife out of his paw, and tossed it away. Now Tammo was weaponless.
The monster kicked him with one of its stubby legs, knocking him to the ground. It loomed over him, opening its cavernous mouth, preparing to bite.
Tammo didn't know what to do. He started flailing wildly with his paws…
And one of his paws happened to touch the Gem Monster on her forehead, where her gemstone was located. Then a strange thing occurred. When Tammo touched the monster, her form started to change. She turned from a monster back into a Gem!
She was small and skinny, with pink and purple striped skin. Her head was shaped like a turnip, and she had two buck teeth in her mouth resembling a squirrel's. There was a tuft of green hair on the top of her head that looked just like the flower that had been on top of her head in monster form. She would have looked rather cute if the expression on her face hadn't been so anguished.
"Help… me," she moaned.
Tammo was shocked. "You-you've been uncorrupted! How?"
"I don't know," she said. "I've been in so much pain…"
Tammo realized that the battle around them had ceased. Looking around, he couldn't see any other monsters. It seemed they'd all been bubbled now, except for this one.
"What's your name?" Tammo asked.
"Grossular Diopside," the Gem said.
Nearby, Amethyst looked over and saw Tammo speaking with the strange new Gem. "Hey, what's going on?" she exclaimed.
At the sound of Amethyst's voice, Tammo turned to look at her. In doing so, he took his hand off Grossular Diopside. When that happened, she turned back into a Flower Monster. She let out a roar of anguish.
Frantically, Tammo placed his paw on her gemstone once again, and she morphed back into her Gem form. "What's happening?" she cried. "Why do I keep switching back and forth like this?"
"I don't know," said Tammo, trying to keep his tone calm and soothing. "I want to help you, but I don't know how."
By this time, everybeast had gathered around them. "Tammo, what are you doing?" Pearl said. "How did you manage to turn her back into a Gem?"
"I have no idea!" Tammo cried, accidently letting his paw slip off Grossular Diopside's gem again. Instantly she turned back into a monster again. Quickly, Tammo put his paw back on her gemstone and she went back to her uncorrupted form. "It seems that she reverts to her true form whenever I touch her gemstone," Tammo said.
Garnet shook her head in disbelief. "I've never seen that happen before."
Grossular Diopside was crying. "I don't like being a monster. I want my own body back permanently."
"I'm sure you do," Tammo said. "I just don't know how to make that happen."
"Maybe this has something to do with your healing powers, Tammo," Pasque said. "Try using your spit on her, like you did on me."
Tammo licked one of his paws and rubbed it on Grossular Diopside's gemstone, but when he took his paw away, she still turned back into a monster. He hurriedly touched her gemstone again so she'd go back into Gem form.
"Make it stop," she sobbed. "Make it stop."
Tammo began crying too. "I'm sorry," he said. "I jolly well wish I could, but I can't."
"I think you're just gonna have to bubble her like the others, Tamm," Garnet said sadly.
Hearing these words, Grossular Diopside lowered her head resignedly and closed her eyes. "All right. Do it fast, okay?"
Eyes full of tears, Tammo nodded. "Your wish is my command, marm."
He thrust his dagger into her chest, and she poofed into a bubble like all the other mutants. Tammo was left standing over the bubble, bawling his eyes out.
Garnet put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Tamm. She can't feel anything inside the bubble. She'll be safe now, until we find a way to cure her."
Tammo picked the bubble up. "You hear that, Grossular Diopside? Someday, I'll find a way to heal you for good, along with all the other Corrupted Gems. That's a promise!"
There was an ominous rumbling sound to the north. Everybeast turned to see that the damaged north wall was shaking. Before their eyes, it collapsed completely, into a pile of rubble.
"Great. Just great," said Pellit the dormouse. "Now we're open to the world. If the Rapscallions come marching up now, we're done for."
"We'll just have to rebuild it, that's all," Abbess Tansy said with determination.
"Hurr, 'twill take toime, though," said Foremole Diggum.
Pearl said, "In the meantime, I know how to make it look like the wall is still there." She walked up to the spot where the north wall had been, and used her gem to create a hologram wall in its place. "There," she said. "Maybe that'll be enough to fool any potential invaders while you get your wall rebuilt."
"And we'll stay here at Redwall until the wall is fixed and the Abbey is safe again," Garnet promised.
"So will we," said Major Perigord. "Lady Cregga'd have our tails on toast if we didn't, wot!"