Next morning the Abbey dwellers held a meeting in Great Hall to discuss repairing the smashed wall.

"In order to rebuild our wall, we'll need stones," Tansy said.

Craklyn said, "According to the old records, the founders of the Abbey gathered the stones to build it from a quarry by the river Moss."

Arven stood up. "I'll lead a party there to collect some stones this afternoon."

"It might be dangerous," Craklyn warned. "Sometimes snakes take up residence in that quarry."

Joshy nodded sagely. "Aye, I recall havin' a run in with a serpent named Asmodeus there once."

"I think my hares and I ought to come along then, to be of service in case you run into any trouble," Major Perigord said.

His sister, Captain Twayblade, broke in, "Er, if you'll pardon me making a suggestion, brother, perhaps we'd better split our forces up. Half of us can travel to the quarry, and the other half can stay behind to protect the Abbey if the Rapscallions come calling."

The Major coughed. "Hm, yes, splendid idea."

"I'll come too," said Garnet.

"And me," said Amethyst.

Pearl said, "I'll stay behind with the other hares."

"What about you, Tamm?" Amethyst asked. "You coming?"

Tammo smiled. "Rather! Wouldn't miss it for the world, wot!"

Tansy said, "And while they go to get the bricks, we'll need another crew to fell some trees out in the woods to make log supports for the construction."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rinkul the ferret had arrived back at the Rapscallion camp. He entered Damug Warfang's tent and found Damug sitting inside with Peridot. He did a double take on seeing the Gem. "Who's she?"

"This is Peridot," said Damug. "She's my new advisor."

"What happened to Lugworm?"

"I caught him plotting against me, so I slew him. But that's by the by. Where in the name o' blood 'n' claws have you been, Rinkul? Where's the rest of your platoon?"

Rinkul shook his head sadly. "Dead, every single one of 'em!"

"Well, what happened?" Damug demanded.

"Well, ya see, it was like dis. We had cornered one o' dose Crystal Gems in a canyon up in da northwest, along wid two hares. We were fightin' 'em when suddenly dese monsters dat looked like giant turnips came outta dese caves in da cliffs an' started attackin' us, rippin' everybeast ta shreds! I got away, but I was da only one who did."

Peridot gave a start at Rinkul's words. Damug shot a glance at her. "You know something about this, don't you?"

"Me? I-I-I…" she stammered.

"Don't lie to me! You've seen what I do to liars. This place Rinkul's describing, the canyon full of caves, it's familiar to you, isn't it?"

"Well, of course, I only arrived on this planet a few days ago," Peridot said. "But it sounds to me like he's describing a Gem kindergarten."

"Kindergarten?" Damug repeated. "Doesn't sound like no school to me!"

"It's not a school," said Peridot. "A kindergarten is the place where Gems are created."

Damug gave a whoop of delight. "That's just the place I've always wanted to find! If I take control of this kindergarten, I could create my own Gem army and conquer the planet!" He turned back to Rinkul. "Could you find the kindergarten again?"

"I suppose I could," said Rinkul. "But I dunno why you'd wanna go dere. Like I said, it's full of monsters."

"Well, if they try messing with me, they'll soon find out I'm a monster too," said Damug. The Flower Monsters all were gone now, but they didn't know that.

"Anyway, I've got more to tell ya," Rinkul went on. "After da monsters killed my friends, I wandered around in da woods for a while, tryin' to find you guys again, an' den yesterday I stumbled onto… you'll never guess… Redwall Abbey!"

"Redwall Abbey." Damug's eyes gleamed. "Once I've got my Gem army, that abbey will make the perfect fortress for me to use as my base while I conquer the world."

Rinkul nodded. "An' at da moment, takin' over Redwall won't be too difficult. Cause guess what? When I was at da Abbey, I saw dat da north wall had collapsed. Dey've got some kinda hologram wall in its place, but it ain't real. It's a fake!"

Damug stood up. "We'll move right away, then. I'll order the horde to gear up and march immediately. First, we'll travel to the kindergarten and breed my Gem army. After that, it'll be on to Redwall!"