Major Perigord had selected Riffle, Tare, Morio, Pasque, and Rockjaw to accompany him to the quarry with the Redwallers. Besides them, there was Arven, Issac and a few other mice, Foremole and his moles, Skipper and some otters, Joshy Stag Hare, and of course Tammo, Garnet, and Amethyst. The molecrew were dragging wooden sleds along with them, which would be used to transport the bricks. They trekked through the trees until they reached the banks of the river Moss.
Arven pointed across the river. "The quarry's on the other side."
"How will we get across?" Isaac wanted to know.
Arven walked to the river's edge. Cupping his paws around his mouth he called in a ululating voice: "Logalogalogalogalog!"
A short distance up the bank, a shrew emerged from the nearby woods. He strode over to the group. "Did I hear somebeast call my name?" he asked.
Arven grinned. "Log-a-Log Welko, ye potbellied son of a water walloper!"
The shrew smiled too. "Arven, is it really you? Good t'see you again, amigo! And you've got quite a crowd with you. There's Skipper, and old Foremole Diggum, and even Major Perigord all the way from Salamandastron. Badger mountain still standin', I suppose?" Then he saw the Gems. "And who are these buenas chicas?"
"These are the Crystal Gems," Arven explained. "They travel around Mossflower, fighting monsters."
Welko bobbed his head up and down. "Oh, si, si. I know about them. I've heard the stories. Just never met 'em before."
"Actually, you have," said Garnet. "But it was back when your father was Log-a-Log. You were only a fuzzy babe then." She turned to Tammo. "This shrew is the leader of the Guosim. That stands for Guerrilla Union of Shrews in Mossflower."
Tammo stepped forward and shook his paw. "Pleased to meet you, Mr. Log. I'm Tammo Quartz Tussock."
"I'm assuming you want me to ferry you across el rio?" Log-a-Log Welko asked.
"Aye," said Skipper. "We need to reach the old quarry. Our Abbey was attacked by monsters, and one of the outer walls was destroyed. We need bricks to rebuild it."
"That sounds super no bueno," said Welko. "My shrews and I will be happy to help."
More shrews appeared, bringing huge wooden rafts. They lowered the rafts into the water and all the animals and Gems climbed onto them.
Tammo enjoyed the ride across the river. The current carried the rafts along with sufficient speed. As the crafts meandered happily down the broad waterway, the shrews jested and chuckled with each other.
At last, they reached the other side and disembarked. The moles hefted their sledges off the rafts and everybeast set off, following Log-a-Log down a trail that led through some tall grass.
At the top of a small rise, they stopped short. Spread out beneath them was the quarry. It looked as if a gigantic hand had scooped a great hole in the landscape. The shape was roughly oval. The steep, sandstone sides were terraced halfway around into long flat shelves. Piles of fallen stone were dotted about. The scant vegetation lent the quarry an air of stark desolation.
Amethyst shuddered. "This place gives me the creeps. It reminds me of the kindergarten."
Tammo took her hand. "Well, hopefully it isn't full of mutants like the kindergarten."
"Let's not stay any longer than we have to," said Garnet. "Let's just get what we need and leave."
"I'm with you there, sister!" Perigord said.
Everybeast started gathering up the fallen red stones and loading them onto the sleds.
They had been working for an hour or two when suddenly there was a roaring noise and the ground began to shake. Tammo looked up and saw that a large chunk of rock had broken off from the cliff and was about to fall right on Pasque!
"Pasque, look out!" he shouted. He ran to push her out of the way. When he touched her, his gem activated, encasing both of them in a giant bubble. The rubble fell onto the bubble and shattered, leaving the two hares unharmed.
"Are you two all right?" Garnet asked.
"I think so," Pasque said. "Golly, I nearly had it then! That must be the umpteenth time you've saved me now, Tamm."
There was another roar.
"The noises are comin' from over there!" Joshy said, pointing to a hole in the side of the cliff.
"It must be another mutant!" said Tammo.
Something long and slithery was emerging from the cave. It looked like a giant orange worm.
"Is it a snake?" asked a shrew.
"Looks more like a giant eel to me!" said Skipper.
"It's neither," said Garnet. "It's an Orange Spodumene- another Corrupted Gem."
The Orange Spodumene roared again, revealing a red gemstone located inside her mouth. Tammo tried to dissolve the bubble that he and Pasque were inside, but he couldn't! They were stuck!
"What's the matter?" Pasque asked.
"I don't know!" said Tammo. "It won't go away!"
Garnet leapt onto the worm monster's back and started punching it, and Amethyst struck at it with her whip. But their blows had no effect.
"Why isn't it poofing like the Flower Monsters?" Arven asked.
"This is much bigger than those things," Garnet said. "Our weapons aren't strong enough."
Orange Spodumene lunged forward, striking at Tammo and Pasque with its head. It hit the bubble they were in and catapulted it into the air, with Tammo and Pasque inside! The bubble bounced out of the quarry and started rolling away down the hill.
"TAMMO!" Amethyst yelled. Attracted by her voice, the monster made a lunge at Amethyst next, but Amethyst moved quickly and was able to lasso out around the head with her whip, holding its mouth shut momentarily.
Meanwhile, Joshy was doing some quick thinking. The Crystal Gems' weapons weren't big enough to defeat Orange Spodumene, but a piece of the cliff might be.
He raised his wand and blasted the cliff face right above the monster's head. Another large slab of rock broke off and fell on top of the monster, poofing it.
Everybeast breathed a sigh of relief.
"You're real handy with that wand, Joshy," Amethyst said. "I'd say you know as much about magic as Garnet does."
"Did anybeast see where Tammo and Pasque went?" Garnet asked.
Isaac pointed upward. "They bounced right out of the quarry and landed up on top of the cliff."
"Well, they're not there anymore," Garnet said. She broke into a run, bounding up the steps that led out of the quarry, and Amethyst was close behind.
When they got to the top of the cliff, the only sign of the missing hares was a trail of flattened grass that led downhill.
Amethyst groaned. "They must've rolled right into the river!"
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They had indeed rolled into the river, and now they were floating down it, still trapped in the bubble.
Pasque tried to smile. "Well, this is a lovely day for a sail, wot?"
"Glad to see you have a sense of humor," said Tammo. "I just hope we don't run into any waterfalls."
Well, they didn't run into a waterfall, but just at that moment, they crashed into a sharp rock that was jutting out of the water. The bubble popped, and Tammo and Pasque were plunged into the river.
The Abbey Pond hadn't been anywhere near as deep as this. Tammo struggled to keep his head above water, but the current was too strong and he was sucked under. He lost sight of Pasque as his nose and mouth were filled with water. He was drowning!
As he thrashed about wildly, his paw brushed a piece of rope. He grabbed it. He felt himself being pulled out of the river and onto the bank.
For a moment he just lay there, coughing up water. Finally, he sat up and looked around. Uh-oh. He was in trouble.
Pasque was sitting next to him. That was the good news. The bad news was that they were surrounded by rats, weasels, ferrets, stoats, and foxes. They had been rescued by vermin!
"Out of the bally frying pan, into the fire," Pasque muttered.
A big rat, twice the size of a regular rat, loomed over them, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"Hell's eyes," said Damug Warfang. "Look what we've caught- two hares!"