Chapter Two: Preparing for War
Nettleclaw emerged from the ditch an hour later in a very bad mood, not only had the squirrels escaped, but they had the sword. When he reached the settlement, he saw Mudeye the weasel, one of his officers, approaching. He quickly slipped the dagger into the sword scabbard, giving the impression that the sword was still there.
Mudeye gave a quick salute, "We've got the mines chief, no-."
"Shut up," Nettleclaw snapped angrily, "I want to see Blackskull. Tell him to come to that forge in four hours. Get the hordes working on forging shields and spears; there should be plenty of metal."
"Yes sir, Chief," Mudeye turned and walked off.
Nettleclaw went to work. Sometime later Blackskull entered the forge, Blackskull was a black fox, and Nettleclaw's second in command.
"You wanted me Chief?"
"Yes, when we killed the group that was trying to escape, I threw my sword at the otter. Two squirrels stole the sword and ran. They know how large my army really is, if they reach Redwall or Salamandaston all our plans will be ruined"
"What do you want me to do, Chief?"
"Take a dozen scouts and track them down. But first, tell me what you think of this."
Nettleclaw showed him his newly forged replica of the Rapscallion sword.
Blackskull looked the sword over, for several minutes the only sound that could be heard was the pounding of hammers as well over a sixteen hundred vermin forged spears and shields. Soon Blackskull gave his opinion, "There's no evidence of a break, but as long as they don't look too closely, they won't notice; they don't know you lost the sword."
"Good, and don't tell anyone about this."
Blackskull exited the forge and went off to find his trackers.
Nettleclaw watched him leave; he knew Blackskull wouldn't betray him. Now, he needed to arm his soldiers and train them until they could crush anything. As, long as the two squirrels were captured, it would be some time before the news reached Redwall. He would succeed where Cluny, Ferahgo, Damug, and many, many others had failed. However, everything had to be perfectly timed. As large as his horde was, it was fairly well matched against the Long Patrol, but there were the Redwallers to consider, who knows how many woodlanders they could muster, probably enough to turn the tide of battle. Nettleclaw's plan called for perfect timing, efficiency, and patience, conquering Mossflower would take a long time, but he would do it. He had never failed at anything before.