Redwall MUCK Forum

oz

Member

Registered: 2016-11-20

Posts: 1,659

You Help Me Find My Stuff, I Help You Find Your Chest-PART 2

Right after this log
http://forum.rwmuck.org/viewtopic.php?pid=56#p56

Xander frowns, he looks around for a way out, he sees the opening but he would have to go past the....what the heck is that thing! He gulps and grips his blade tighter.
   
The sounds of angry bandits can be heard, their vile threats and promises of what they plan to do to the heroes echoing loudly across the stone walls of the cave. The viper in the center of the room begins to stir, it's head twitching at every sound until it finally begins to rise. It has fins on either side of its head...an adder...and it's waking up...   

Slowly the beast rises to its full height. The snake does not appear to be happy to find a badger and a rat in her den. The bandits are almost upon them but not quite in sight yet. It opens it's fanged maw and lets out a groggy, "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?" It's eyes narrow on the beasts.   

Patch blinks and looks up, oh yes his worst nightmare has come true and he hears the bandits as he tries to stand up and falls down"...Stripy.....we gonna die" He has little strength  to run, he has lost a good deal of blood even if it has slowed some.   

Xander backs up and holds his blade tight, "G..Go away...I have a blade!" He also hears the bandits coming closer and shivers, he has no plans to die today and grabs Patch and throws him over his shoulders and goes to try and get around the large reptile, hopefully when its fully awake it will see the bandits and not them   

The snake hardly notices either of them, looking up at the ceiling. "Is thiss, sstill winter?" There appears to be a smaller cave in the back, behind the serpents tail. "Oh you ssso did not jusst wake me up in the middle of winter. Do you know how long it took me to get to sssleep! The ferret I ate was ssscreaming for DAYSSS! Why did you...are you bleeding? Isss that blood?" Tulip the snake now turns her attention to the beasts, maneuvering her tail to block off their path. "WHY. ARE. YOU. HERE!"   

And that's when the bandits come into the chamber, tripping over each other as each beast in the lead comes to a skidding halt in front of the others. The snakes eye twitches, "Snake hunterss! You are all snake huntersss!"   

Patch groans as he is over the badger's shoulder and he passes out, blood and just the threat of being snake chow, is too much.   

Xander backs up and goes to jump over the snakes tail or slide under it one, "We are running from the bandits!" He says and prays he can get out another way, let the snake eat some fox, ferret and yeah lizard yum right?   

With too many targets to focus on Tulip doesn't have time to banter. She chooses the largest group and attacks. And then beasts die.   

Horribly.   

The ferret doesn't even manage a scream as the serpents fangs pierce him and then toss him to the side like a rag doll. A marten wails as the snake slams him into a wall with her tail. The other bandits run. Dylan taking the lead and the remaining marten having the miss fortune of being stuck behind the heavy and slower Scamp. The snake tears through the lot of them. Dylan doesn't know the foxes fate, he just continues to run, dashing out into the cold. Past the inn where the marten he left on guard can be seen exiting the inn, loaded with bags of loot. "Dylan! I er...I can explain!" She cries, but the lizard just keeps running. By the time the marten realizes why all she can see is the snakes open maw descending upon her head. "AIEEEE!" She manages to scream before the beast eats her...   

The cave in the back proves to be rather narrow, leading away from the chamber and to a second exit further out in the woods.   

Patch groans, yeah he is missing all the action and maybe that’s a good thing   

Xander watches in horror and then gets on all fours and places patch down and crawls, barely fitting through the opening, he reaches a paw back in and  grabs Patch's tail and pulls him outside as well and places him again on his back, after putting the sword in its case and bolts for his life deeper into the woods   

Later that night.   

"Sooooo..." Scamp begins. "Not that I'm not grateful but uh..." The fox pauses to choose his words very carefully while wrapped in the coils of the serpents deadly embrace. The inn was cramped, the serpent hardly fit even before she had several ominous bulges in her scales. Scamps comrades at arms... "I do have to wonder...why am I uh...spared?" He looks to the snake hopefully, his whiskers drooping when she shoots him an annoyed look. "Er, eaten last?"   

"I jusst ate my weight in martens and feretsSSs. Forgive me if I don't have room for a fox. A nice fluffy and cuddly foxsssSs." The snake playfully squeezes her captive, much to his displeasure. Her voice may be sweet but it quickly changes, "You alsso look a bit well fed. It will be eassier to feed you up for dinner..."   

The fox gulps and the snake continues, "Don't look sssad about it. I am if nothing elssse, fair." The snake chuckles, "You have a week maybe two left to live. Thisss issh usually the part where beassts try to bargain their way to freedom."   

"Did...any of them ever succeed?"   

"No." The snake laughs, her tail moves forward to 'bop' the fox on the nose. "But there could alwaysss be a firsst."   

Scamp gulps, "In that case...have you heard of a place called...Redwall?" The snake smiles, she is probably going to eat the fox anyway, but for now she listens as he retails this  tale  of peaceful, tasty woodlanders...   

Patch stays unconcious mostly as the two gets away from the horrible snake den, the woods is a bit thick in places but oddly they are close to Patch’s tree, course there is still the abbey also, which way to go...tree is closer but abbey is better   

Xander looks down both paths and notices it’s getting dark, he chooses still the abbey and takes a deep breath and runs till he sees the entry and he gets inside.

RW Abbey: Infirmary
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Several beds are lined against the red sandstone walls of the Abbey's Infirmary. An examination table, separated from the rest of the room by hanging blankets, rests against the far wall.  Tucked into a small alcove is a sizeable workbench with various containers for mixing and preparing medicinal compounds.  Against another wall is a desk for use by the Infirmary Keeper.  A curtained off alcove behind the desk hides a locked door to the Infirmary's supplies and linens.
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Xander makes it to the infirm,  an otter guard took his longsword just before he got to the infirm, he lays Patch on a cot and calls out "Brother Leon!" His lower arm has his headband on it, soaked in blood now and some blood is on his clothing, but the rat looks worse off.   

Patch has a deep stab wound to his shoulder, a cut to his chin, a cut to his arm and some bruises and smaller cuts, oh and the tip of his tail is gone.   

Leon quickly goes into the infirm and his eyes widen, he is already getting the couple novice with him moving to help the rat and badger "Explain" He starts on the shoulder of the rat and looks him over "And sit down now!" Yeah there is some serious do it now or else in that tone.   

Xander slowly sits as he holds his arm, "We ran into....like a group of beasts who tried to kill us, and we barely got away. We tried to hid in this cave but this...snake was there and it, it attacked, probably ate the other vermin I grabbed Patch and run away and dint look back." He shivers "And..and....."   

Patch groans weakly as he is tended to. First is pain and then burly vision as wounds are sewn, herbs applied, and wounds bandaged..."Death.....hurts...." He mutters.   

Leon makes sure the rat is tended to as he listens " You said you be careful...you told Oz you be careful, I think you told Benar you be careful....your lucky this isn’t worse" Ok what would be worse? He sighs and has someone get Angela to help with the rat, he has down what he can before he checks Xander's wound, “Who did the bandage, it probably helped you not lose as much blood" He checks for other wounds as there is a lot of blood it came from somewhere right?   

Xander frowns "P..Patch...d...did...." He whimpers and looks like he is ready to barf, which he does and lucky aims away from the mouse, he shivers "Th...the marten....and a ferret..d...d..dead.....killed them...Patch killed 3 others and ....and" Yes lets barf again and cough" Sn..snake..got others....." Tears go down his face as he shivers and whimpers some. Bad bad day looks like.
   
Patch opens his eyes "Where...am..I..is this the dark forest?"   

Leon frowns as he listens and answers Patch "No..be  quiet" He says in a stern tone and goes to try and calm Xander down, "Xander...Xander calm down, you didn’t do it cause of something bad...it was self-defense sounds like, one of those last resort things and if you had not you and him" He points to Patch "May of died" He looks around and finds something he uses usually for knocking one out for surgery and places the jar under Xander's nose "Just breath normal ok....relax, you have to calm down"   

Xander whimpers but lets the herbs take effect and passes out, well that’s one way to be calm and he will hold still for any stiches and bandaging for his arm.   

Patch looks over as his vision focus "What...where?" He blinks, pain and confusion “Stripy?"   

Leon sighs and then cleans, sews up Xander's arm , and has a novice bandage it as he walks to the rat crosses his arms " Is this your fault? And he will be fine, he and you are both lucky rat."   

Patch frowns, "Well..ya see he was helping me...did he bring me here or..."   

Leon taps his footpaw "Yes he got you here, he could of chose not to but he got you here. Be lucky he has values and helping you do what? He said he was to talk to you about part of this...chest quest thing, how did that end up with whatever happen and please no more explaining or I will get a headache"   

Patch lets out a whimper and clears his throat" He was helping get back me important stuff....not like I wanted ta see the kid get hurt or almost killed by an angry mob...wait he..he saved me?"   

Leon makes sure a bandage is tied good "Yes, he did in a way. Getting you here for help when he could of left you somewhere."   

Patch looks over at where Xander is laying down and back to the healer "He..gonna be ok?" Yep Patch is  concerned" Did he pass out...what?"   

Leon answers "I gave him something to make him sleep, he will be out for the rest of the night and wake in the morning. It was the only way to calm him down." A novice is cleaning up any mess as Leon does to wash his paw and stub of a paw, and his tail, he sighs " It’s sort of like a battle shock, never seen it but heard of it. First time someone is in a true battle and first time one...kills" He frowns "And the fact he is still young. I am glad he wasn’t more serious hurt, as I said...lucky"   

Patch tries to sit up and dizziness makes him lay down again, "I..gots the drop on like 3 of them, wounded another...and there still was 6. He got two of them, and wounded a 3nd....the rest followed us to some, what I will just call an evil cave and..and well something else got the rest of the vermin, well think one maybe got away. Some lizard fellow...best idea he had ta run"   

Leon listens, "So what was so important to endanger both your lives?"   

Patch doesn’t answer, he just frowns "Ummm...just non-replaceable...things" Things he may of lost, things he hopes the badger still has but if they are lost, they are lost right...he is alive after all and life can't be replaced at all.   

Leon decides to forget it, "So anything else I should know about?"   

Patch frowns "Umm...well the kid probably didn’t get to my tree house yet and even if he did,  not like he would know where to look, and don’t think a badger, even his size, could go into my house and not make it fall over."   

Leon sighs "And whats in the treehouse?"   

Patch answers "Old stripes...chest, I took it there when he gave it to me to keep till the kid asked for it...."He frowns and lets a tear fall, “Miss old stripes"   

Leon nods "I..did see you at the funeral briefly. He died the day before...in the morning and yeah he will be missed by a lot"   

Patch nods slowly "So...the kid doing ok?" He asks, yeah right course he isn’t doing ok that’s a dumb question, he frowns knowing that too late "Sorry..dumb question"   

Leon says, "I am sure he will be ok in time. He seems to see you as a friend, so you could always help him also"   

Patch seems surprised "Me?..Friend?"   

Leon nods "Yes a friend, he carried you here. ..Patch right?   

Patch nods "Yeah my name is Patch, just..I never had any..true friend before. "Well maybe he had sort of friends or maybe old stripes was a friend, he wasn’t sure.   

Leon offers a smile "Well...well you get some rest and Xander will be fine, and so will you. I have some other things to do, excuse me" He then heads out to the hallway   

Patch nods "Yeah...ok...talk later...ok" He closes his eyes and lets some sleep take over, the bed is cozy but it’s not like he plans to stay...too long anyways.

==The next day, still in the infirm of Redwall Abbey==
   
Patch wasn't sure how he managed it, but he did. His treehouse wasn't too far away after all. He, though the pain and stubbornness, went out with an annoying Abbey Sister following him, the nerve of this place, but he came back and they demanded he stay in the bed or be tied down, 2-3 days...the nerve! He watched the badger closely as his bed was beside his, well least the rat got to sit in a chair for a little while "Stripy?"   

Xander groans and opened his eyes "Patch...you are ok.." He weakly smiles.   

Patch nods "Yeah..Guess so, thanks ta you oh yeah I got this for you" He hands him a small chest the size of a book maybe. "Unless ya lost the key in that chaos yesterday"   

Xander eyes open wider and he sits up, he gets a key out of a vest and opens the chest. Inside is a key, of course, and a note ...and a map? He reads the note "Your gonna need a shovel boy....good luck, Uncle Zee" He opens the map and turns it to where it says right side up and frowns "A..map..the woods!"   

Patch reaches for the map, "May I?"   

Xander sighs and hands the rat the map "Is the sword buried or something?!" He frowns when he wakes a grumpy vole, "Sorry...."He mutters, seems the vole has a toothache and grumbles.   

Patch looks at the map "Well..this symbol is a river...wait creek...this here is trees, lots of trees haha...and the abbey..Ferravale...an X, and dotted lines to show the way, well least it’s not near where we were, that’s good right stripy?"   

Xander frowns and turns to look at the wall.   

Patch grumbles himself "Look stripy" He then sighs "Sorry kid listen, I said I get ya the chest if you helped me get my...well stuff back and ya did. "He closes the small book size chest and puts it aside, "I say I tag along...keep an eye on ya, but not for say 3-4 days? No need ta rush after all and we both should get rest and heal up some, am I right?" He sighs "I am sorry bout ya uncle, he was a good beast"   

Xander nods "He...he was and..I am glad you’re ok, and thanks for getting the chest for me. I could of got it myself though"   

Patch shrugs "It was taking up room in my tree house" He smirks as a joke "Ya know....started to throw it out and though well it belongs to stripy so may as well get it to him, and you still opened it..sides ya would of crashed me tree house maybe"   

Xander chuckles a little and weakly smiles, "Yeah...so follow the map to the next chest in a few days?" He is starting to wander how long this will go on, how many chests are there anyways, is this the last one ....or far from the last one?   

Patch grins "You have yourself a deal kid, sides a few days here is fine...good food." He wanders himself what the old badger had planned with all these chests, besides he is bored and keeping an eye on this kid may be interesting.

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I play:
Oz-  Badger-young adult-Wanderer