Chapter 16
Pollur the old mole awoke to the sounds of vermin shouting battle cries outside the Abbey. The Redwallers, however, had obviously seen the vermin in the ditch and had put a large pile of dirt and stone behind the gates. The Gorvim struggled to open the gates before Blueback yelled out commands.
"Climb the wall, leave the stupid front door. If Skorret hadn't made me explode yesterday then we'd be in Redwall!"
The vermin left the door and began getting multiple grappling hooks and ladders out of the ditch. The first vermin to successfully anchor a grappling hook to the wall soon tumbled down back into the ditch, the grappling hook still attached to a sandstone block. The block then crushed several hundred vermin, and Blueback tried another strategy. (Unbeknownst to the vermin, the Redwallers had cut away the mortar that held the very top row of bricks to the wall, so that when the vermin attached a grappling hook to it, the weight of the vermin would cause the bricks to fall off.)
"Gorvim! Climb a tree and jump over the wall!"
A time passed before a large rat said, "We can't find any, Chief." (Again, the Redwallers had prevented the attack, this time by cutting down all of the nearby trees.)
On top of the wall, the Redwallers were cheering at their victory. However, unbeknownst to them, there were vermin using the log as a ladder and climbing up to the battlements. The fox named Norrig was the first one to make it up, and discovered that there was nobeast there.
"Come up here, there's nobeast here, heh heh heh!"
All of the vermin, about fifteen of them, were on top of the wall in a few minutes and they tried their best to stay silent. One smart weasel had brought up a small segment of chains, and he suggested using it as a weapon.
"Hey, look wot Platt brought up here!" said Norrig.
"There's more weapons over here," called a stoat who had wandered over to the corner of the wall.
The rest of the vermin rushed over and picked up assorted spears, pikes, and bows and arrows.
"Why isn't there any swords?" asked a small ferret.
"Who cares?" said the stoat. "There's weapons, and that's wot matters."
"I guess so," grumbled the ferret.
"Should we go down the steps and kill some woodlanders?" asked Platt.
"Nah, wait until they're all stuffed and tired, and then we can," replied Norrig.
"And then we can show Blueback we're not dumb just because we used to be with Skorret," said the small ferret.
"Aye, we can."
Later, the woodlanders were indeed 'stuffed and tired'. The feast had gone on past sunset and the vermin on the walltop had patiently waited for the woodlanders to go to bed. A few sentries went up to the walltops.
"Why do we even have to do this?" asked Trengle the hedgehog.
"I dunno, the vermin are gone by now," replied a mouse.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," cautioned an old squirrel. "Vermin are smart, they could be climbing the wall right now an' we wouldn't know it."
"Alright, don't take any hostages," whispered Norrig. "The last thing we need is Blueback screaming the house down about disobeying orders."
They did not take hostages. The four sentries were easily slain, and then the vermin continued down the steps.
The first Redwaller to see the vermin was Furrel the hare. He stared at them for a moment, and then his long legs shot out and kicked the small ferret, who flew into the wall and slid down to the floor, never to rise again.
"Redwall!"
The rest of the Redwallers came over to see what caused the battle cry, and then they also stared at the vermin for a moment. Another vermin flew into the wall.
"I say, you chaps, are you goin' to help or what?"
The next Redwaller to kill a vermin was Friar Durbee. He threw his wooden ladle at a stoat, and it hit the vermin between its eyes. The vermin fell over backward, and Furrel's legs finished it off.
After that, Seginus the hedgehog rolled himself into a ball, and another Friar's assistant wearing gloves shoved him into the twelve remaining vermin. The vermin yelped and hopped about, as they now had hedgehog spines sticking out of the paws and legs.
Furrel's legs found Platt, who cannoned into a rat, knocking both of them senseless. Another kick from Furrel sent a ferret flying into them, and all three slammed into the wall.
Furrel was about to kick a weasel, but Norrig got in the way, and he went flying into the weasel. The remaining eight vermin (Seginus had killed the weasel with his spikes) tried to flee the Abbey, but found that there was a squirrel and an otter guarding the steps. With nothing else to do, the vermin hacked and stabbed at the Redwallers, and managed to fight their way through the crowd and run down the other steps. They struggled to unlock a side wallgate, and then they ran as fast as they could, back towards the ditch.
Yet again, the Redwallers had defeated the vermin.