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Cheshire departs Redwall in search of new assistants for his lab. He leaves with Cornelius the fox merchant and Charles his marten servant. When suddenly, BANDITS ATTACK!

It is a bright but chilly morning along the dirt road, and Cornelius and Charles are walking along, heading north, having completed their short stay in Redwall. The fox currently takes the lead, walking ahead of the marten dragging the cart along. "Wonderful day, isn't it Charles!?"

"Sure...why don't you take a turn hauling this thing?"

Cornelius chuckles, "Oh, Charles, you and your sense of humor..."

Walking beside the cart Cheshire scowls at the road ahead of them. Wrapped up in a thick coat and head scarf all that can be seen of the black and white furred cat is his large green eyes and his tail as it swooshes back and forth. The inventor grumbles as he walks. "Why did I have to run out of..." grumble grumble "Now of all times..." grumble grumble hiss, "And I need to recruit a new assistant on top of all the..." grumble hiss grumble.

Charles glances over at the cat from time to time, still confused by why he's with them. Cornelius is likely responsible...

Cornelius chuckles, and turns to look at the cat. "Don't worry; I'm sure you'll get your supplies soon." The bright red of the fox's coat is actually rather distracting in this light...

Cheshire shields himself from the glare of the fox's coat. It's bad enough the fox is already covered in a red pelt, "The sooner we get to the next village the better." Cheshire walks on thinking to himself about his plight. His lab was, slightly, exploded recently thanks to the idiot assistant he pulled into this latest project. He had found the rat, like all the others, from the Black Gull tavern. The fool was as clumsy as he was stupid but he could count higher than five and didn't care who he worked for as long as he had his belly fed and a roof over his head. Cheshire would not have to make this almost weekly commute to the Gull if he could only find someone useful to use...or if the beasts in Redwall were not wise to the dangers of working with Cheshire.

Cornelius chuckles, and happily states, "We'll be there soon, I'm sure." The fox turns back towards facing ahead, and walks along cheerily. Then, he hesitantly asks, "Uh...how much farther is it, Charles."

"I don't know. I'm not /that/ good, Cor."

"Oh. Alright!"

The cat shakes his head as he walks. Peasants. Merchants actually, which are worse. The cat comes to a pause as he views a tree fallen across the pathway. The bottom of the stock appears to be chopped by an ax blade. The wielder of said ax is the brown furred stoat sitting calmly on the fallen tree. The tip of the stoats ears are black as is the tip of his tail. A patch of creme yellow color runs down his belly. His slender waist is adorned by a pair of grey trousers and his head has a black cloth wrapped just above the eyes as a head band. A small hatchet leans against the fallen tree to his side. "Evenin gentle beasts." he says cheerfully.

Another beast - a rather broad-shouldered beaver, also rests on the log next to the stoat, waving lazily. "Greetings, travellers!"

Cornelius grins. "Why hello there, good sirs! Wonderful morning for some outdoor activities, eh, chaps?"

Charles is less than amused. "Couldn't cut down a tree /farther/ from the road? This is a bit of a nuiscance..." The marten and the cart draw to a halt.

Nuria is also going down the road, from the opposite direction, her two large burly rat cronies with her but otherwise alone and looking rather benign. She stops at the fallen log and pointedly asks all present, "What is the meaning of this?"

Cheshire cringes a bit at the sight of the beaver and stoat. He replies. "Morning." He says but not as a greeting. The cat explains, "Technically evening is still several hours from now so the greeting would not work." The stoat opens his mouth to reply to the cat but finely pauses. Apparently everyone has not grasped the purpose of blocking off a major road way with a fallen tree. Shaking his head the stoat then turns around to see even MORE beasts coming down the road, "Well...ain't this interesting. Nice catch this 'evening' eh?" Cheshire cringes again, "The word 'ain't' is not really proper grammar. It's..." The stoat shouts, "Shut it cat!" He chuckles, drumming his claws together in maniacal fashion, "Who to rob first, the rats or the merchants...decisions decisions..."

Cornelius's excitement visibly fades, replaced by an equal amount of astonishment and horror. "R-rob? You're bandits?!" The fox takes a few steps back, closer to the marten.

Charles scowls at the stoat and beaver, setting the leads of the cart down. "Oh, wonderful. You're not just idiots with an axe, you're /thieving/ idiots with an axe."

The beaver is obviously upset that the stoat spilled the beans. He wanted to toy with them some more. "Actually, 'bandit' is such an ugly term...we prefer the phrase, 'in-transit acquisition associates'."

The stoat sighs at the beavers explanation  of his chosen profession. He grips his ax at the ready as he hops off the log, "Not so fast, any of you. Take one more step forward and the archer in the trees will cut you down before any of you can make move." The stoat grins mischievously, "Now, yall best be handin over your possessions if you want to live to see another day! All of yous!" Cheshire pulls at his ears, "GAH! Where did you learn to speak? The villains school of idiot slang? DO you honestly hear yourself talk?"

Cornelius is nearly hiding behind Charles at this point - though his bright red coat and only slightly less bright fur make hiding rather hard.

Charles for, his part, stands his ground in front of the cart...though with a quick flick of his wrist, a small push dagger drops into his palm from his sleeve, the blade sticking out from between the middle and ring fingers of his paw. It's not much...but he has to have some way to protect the fox, doesn't he?

Nuria is flustered, not to mention angry, "So help me, I am going over that log so I can get the help I need to fix my house up, and I don't see your archer."  She tells the goons to stop it, "No use in getting yourselves killed."

Flicktail Approaches Charles, very stealthy from behind, with Matrin's blade out, he intends on just..touching the Martin with the tip of the blade.

Lee has left the Abbey after his first, fruitless interrogation of Safana. His mind races as he plots his next move. Ideally, it would be capturing Aster. So...he searches the woods even more, unaware of a nearby hold up for the moment.

Charles nearly jumps out of his fur when the fox sneaks up behind him, and the blade brushes against the tip of his tail, right above the strip of cloth tied to it. Predictably...the marten spazzes, and spins around with his punching dagger, backing up a few feet and taking a defensive posture. He has no idea who this fox is - he's never seen him before, and his stay in Redwall was brief. He just thinks it's another bandit...

Cornelius flees when Charles is startled, and having nowhere else to turn, and his protector distracted...decides to hide under the cart.

The beaver is more than a little disappointed by the stoat's distribution of labor...but he's not going to turn his back on the rats and get himself stabbed just to spite Wolf. He keeps his bow pointed at them. "Now, don't do anyting silly..."

Flicktail leans up and taps the flat of Matrin's blade on the Marten's shoulder "Wot ya doin chap?

Lee continues searching the trees. He is far enough from the road that he doesnt yet notice the commotion.

Nuria is already doing something silly. She's  already gotten closer during the time of the conversation between the beaver and the stoat, and now pulled out a bow  on him, aiming at his head, "Looks like a standoff...I love how that old and crippled act fools them every time."

The stoat is about to take advantage of the martens distraction but pauses when he hears the rat behind him. Turning around Wolf's ears fall flat against his head. He really, really wishes he was not bluffing about the archer... Before the stoat has a chance to react, most likely beg for mercy, there is a loud crack and popping noise from below. The ground beneath the stoats paws begins to move towards the center of the road like sand being sucked through an hour glass. The effect extends outwards under the log and towards the cart.

The beaver is about to loose an arrow on one of the rats...when the long unexpectedly shifts out from under him, and he falls off backwards. "Oh, for crying out loooouud!" *THUD*

Charles glares at the fox. "I'm trying not to be murdered by bandits!" The marten inexpertly parries the blade with the dagger in his fist, and retreats farther as the ground begins to shift.

Cornelius just looks really, /really/ nervous as he spots the growing depression, laying under the cart as he is.

Nuria cries out, "Of all the things? What the heck is happening? I want to know what is going on?"

Flicktail looks confused "Well Some beast is a bad beast, an dthey ave to face me....

Lee is now close to the road. He can hear the commotion, so he watches from the bushes.

Wolf screams in terrified panic as he is sucked into the center of the vortex. Thankfully the stoat didn't have very far to fall. The edges of the holl encompasses a large space of earth, just beyond the fallen tree log which hangs loosely from one end of the hole to the other side. On the southern end of the hole the cart also hangs dangerously close to the edge. At the bottom of the pit that has formed Wolf finds himself laying face down on something soft and...scaly? The young stoat looks up and gasps in horror as he realizes that he is staring into the face of an impossibly large beast. It stares back at him with a single blind eye as it slowly raises itself up. Even with most of his body still in the pit the snake towers over them all. Ageless wavers back and forth like one awaken from a deep sleep. He is NOT pleased. "Who...DARESSSSSsssss...." The snake asks in the tone of one in serious need of coffee.

Charles is no longer so concerned with the fox; he's too busy scrambling away from the hole, and the enormous snake towering above him!

Cornelius isn't so lucky...as the cart begins to drift further, so does the brightly colored fox under it - who yips in terror as he begins sliding towards the creature. "CHARLES, HELP!

Charles didn't even know where Cor had gotten to in all this, but he dashes towards the cart when he hears his friend's call. He reaches out a paw to the fox, trying to drag him out...

Nuria exclaims, "Burnt Wiskers." She fires her bow at the snake to distract it, "Its that adder I was warned about. Boys, your bows!" Her rat guards also draw their bows and start firing.

Flicktail traots over "heeey! a Friendly Snakey!  Hullo there" he waves down atthe eye..having never met the snake

Lee's eyes go wide, but he remains still

Caught at the edge of the hole Cheshire finely pulls himself back onto solid ground while arrows strike the giant snake. Some stick to its scales, others merely bounce off. Regardless it still stings. Ageless pauses to listen and sniff the air with his tongue. There is an overwhelming amount of scents here. Stoats, foxes, rats, cats, even a beaver. He doesn't know who is shooing him just that some beast IS and they are about to be punished for it. Thankfully the snake is blind, and also not venomous, so there is a good chance of survival even if ageless does manage to catch one of the archer rats in the strike he sends their way. As the snake strikes with his fangs he ignores the warrior fox for the moment...for the moment.

Charles drags his vulpine companion out from under the cart while the snake is distracted by arrows. "You know, this would be easier if you were lighter!"

Cornelius nervously pulls himself to his feet, and all but drags the marten off towards the forest. "NOW IS NOT THE TIME, CHARLES!"

Nuria calls to Flicktail, "Hey, white fox! That there is ageless, and he's a dangerous beast! I'd reccomend you take out your weapon right about now."

Flicktail has his weapon out only he's shouting "Don't SHOOT at the Snake yer bein RUDE! you'd be cranky too if ya got rudely waked up" he waves his blade toward the snake, unaware it is blind "Hey Mr Sneaky Snake...er Ageless..Stop I won't let these beasts harm ya" of course of Ageless tries to strike Flicky will try to give him a sharp rap on his nose...

Lee inches closer through the underbrush. He pulls his bow out of the quiver on his back, then pulls out an arrow, too. He draws back, sighting carefully, aiming for the snake's head.

Ageless hisses in disgust when he  misses each of his strikes against the rats. His attention is turned now to the fox, he doesn't reply at first. It doesn't actually sound like these beasts were after him but rather stumbled upon him by accident. Come to think of it, there was a roof to this cave that he found. A nice quiet place with a stead stream of food if he got peckish during the winter. More so than any thing the snake feels anger towards those who disturbed his rest. The snake can feel foot paws trying to get off of his back as the stoat scrambles towards the edge where Charles was helping the fox up out of the hole. "Pull me up! Pull me up!" The snake takes in all these sounds and the smell of terrified panic. "Why...do you disssturb Agelesssss..." He asks all of the beasts in general.

Cornelius is too busy fleeing in terror to answer right now. "Runrunrunrun!!"

Charles looks back at the snake, and the stoat, and the near certain doom that awaits anyone that doesn't get away from that pit. "Shouldn't we help them?!"

The beaver finally picks himself up from behind the log...instantly freezes as soon as he sees the enormous snake. "B-b-b-big snake!"

Flicktail nods, though the snake can not see it "Were Sorry Me Agless Sniky Snake....didn't mean to... maybe we can elp ya get back to snoozin? anything we can do for ya?

Unfortunately, Lee did not hear what Flick said about arrows. An arrow whizzes by, and thankfully misses the snake, embedding in a tree.

Agless feels the arrow pass by over the back of his head. Not that it would have done much if it had connected, but still the principle of the thing. Ageless was actually considering letting the beasts here live but now... The snake narrows his eye at the fox, "When we meet again...I will crusssh your bonesss into dusssst....and devour you infront of thosssse you all hold dear. " the snake doesn't specify exactly /who/ that threat was against. It's easy to imagine that it was directed to all of the beasts present. Ageless pounces, off to the side of the fox and darts to the woods, but not before wrapping his tail around the beaver's leg and pulling the bandit with him.

The beaver screams as he is dragged off, dropping his bow in all the commotion. "NOOOOO! All I wanted was some moneyyyyy......!!!"

Cornelius stares in shock as the snake takes off and nearly drops to the ground in panic.

Charles has a bit of a better grip on himself, and helps the fox back up. "I guess that answers that!"

Nuria gripes loudly, "Who shot that arrow? He's gone and made me /another/ enemy I don't want or need, the galoot." She approaches wolf and offers about twenty coins, "How would you like to temporarily join my guard?"

Flicktail Turns angrily "HOLD yer fire or I will RUN the next beast wit shoot's thru MESELF" he turns :Ageless..AGELESS Don't make me kills you! it was just a mistake" he genuinely tries to save the beaver...

Lee wisely remains hidden, he decides to retreat further into the woods.

The stoat successfully pulls himself out of the hole. This won't prove to be a problem for travelers AT ALL. Wolf watches as the tip of Ageless's tail dissapears into the woods around them carrying the beaver off behind him. The beaver's fate is, best left up to the imagination. "Blazes!" Wolf kicks at the ground. He sighs, "That's the second partner this month..." Shaking his head the stoat says to Nuria, "Well, looks like this is as good a time as any to take a break from banditry. Ye got yourself a deal." Cheshire is of course hiding behind the cart breathing heavily and thankfull the snake was not hungry for cat today.

Cornelius and Charles only stop running once they see that the snake is headed off to do...things...elsewhere. Presumably quite unpleasant things, to any beast who crosses his path. "That...was close...m'boy!" The vulpine pants as he leans next to Charles, using the marten to support himself.

Charles nods rapidly, for once just as terrified of something as Cor. He silently tucks his knife back away - it would have been no use against a creature that large, anyway. "C-come on. Let's see what's left of the cart..."

Nuria walks past over the log, followed by her goons, "I still need to fix my roof. Common Wolf."

Flicktail Comas back panting "I tried...to saveteh beaver...but" he puffs "S..sorry

Lee doubles back through the woods, making sure his bow is hidden. He steps out on the road, then heads back to the scene of the commotion, acting oblivious. "Wot be goin' on 'ere?"

Wolf follows the rat closely behind, "Yes ma'arm." He says to the fox while he walks past Lee, "No worries. Better 'em than us right?" Cheshire decides that today is NOT the day to go off to Ferrevale. Shakily he pats the otter on the shoulder, "Oh just some bandits attacked and a giant snake ate one." He says with an errie amount of calmness. Just another day in the Mossflower woods...

Players: Cheshire, Wolf, Ageless all belong to me. Cornelius, Charles, and beaver bandit belong to Cornelius. Rat guards belong to Nuria. Flicktail and Lee belong to their respective players.


[[Category:Dylan Locke]]
[[Category:January_2014]]
[[Category:Dirt_Road]]