DoraRose is stopped from finding Irinevok...because she has to deal with her pain-in-the-neck brother :P (Redemption of Marek TP, at least a little)
RW Abbey: Entry
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You stand on a grassy sward between two cottages. To the south you see a small, calm pond. To the north lies an open space where the Abbey has its feasts in the warmer seasons. To the east is the Great Hall, a massive structure that rises far above the abbey walls and is completed with large towers that pierce upwards into the sky. The main building is completed with a large, iron banded door that would allow one into the Great Hall.
The blanket of snow is replaced with the vibrant greens of spring. Newly sprung flowers and young shoots dot the path. They hold a promise of color and enhancement. The earth is relatively dry here, and the soil rich for growing, but muddy patches of dirt still can be found. Many Abbeybeasts can be seen tending to the gardens, though some are content with just being out and about, enjoying the warmth of the virgin sun and the pleasent weather. Dirt pawprints are tracked upon the clearing's surface, serving as witness to the fact that the majority of Abbeybeasts are caught up in the "spring fever." Most will will do just about anything, or make any excuse to be outside, eager to watch as spring colors emerge in scraggly clumps.
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Exits/Entrances:
[G]reat [H]all [C]limb to the [R]amparts [A]bbey [P]ond
[Ga]te [H]ouse [Leave] through the gates [Open] Ground
[C]hampion's [C]ottage
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Leon the mouse. DoraRose the mouse and various spoofed guards. Boaz the hawk. Emyuil the mouse.
DoraRose is by the gates, a haversack on her back and her sword strapped to her side. She hefts her axe as she says to a guard, "I'll be gone for a few days. I'm...going to be looking for somebeast." The left side of her face is still noticably swollen from when QuickArrow whacked her with his bow, and it's a very glorious shade of purple. The guard scratches his ear as he asks, "Who'll you be lookin' for that you need both yer weapons?" The Warrior mouse shrugs and smiles disarmingly, if a little crookedly.
Leon walks out of the gatehouse and tilts his head as he walks over to Dorarose catching some of what is said "Going to look for someone? Why and who?" He can talk now but it's still a little rough sounding, but only a little now.
Boaz is circling like he usually does in the air before he lands and then he finally lands slowly and away from the others in the entry.
DoraRose looks at her husband as the guard crosses his arm in suspicion. "Um, because of reasons. And.....it's somebeast...neither one of us likes. Let's say that." She smiles brightly, then waves at the hawk, hoping that'll be enough to distract the Master Healer so she can 'escape'.
Leon frowns "You should stay in the abbey dear, not go out looking for some beast, there is no one to really look for and...besides its a bit dangerous out there"
Boaz hops over and tilts his head to look at the mice "Are mouseies going out? Why is mouseies going out?"
DoraRose spreads her paws wide, making sure to not bring her axe close to the guard. "I'm a Warrior! Dangerous is my life! And there is somebeast to go look for, and I intend to find him." She glances at the hawk. "I'm the only one going out. Leon is staying here, even if I have to tie him up and stuff him in a closet. I have somebeast I need to find. Now I'm going." The guard steps in her way as she tries to go out the gate. "Not 'till you tell me who yer goin' after." The mouse stomps her foot in frustration.
Leon frowns "I...I didn't plan on leaving and he has a point, you should tell beasts where your going and who your looking for, is some beast missing?"
Boaz puffs out and just listens to the others seemly argue and backs off a little and tries to straighten up his feathers that are now a little messed up.
DoraRose sighs and looks at the sky in resignation. "Okay, fine! I'm going to go find Irinevok! Okay? Now you know who I'm looking for! Lemme out!" The guard looks frantically at the Master Healer as he says, "I'm...not sure ye'd best right now, ma'am...."
Leon frowns even more now "But, he is insane and dangerous, he almost killed Lee"
DoraRose stares at her husband. "And he almost killed you! I have to find him. I....couldn't live if you were to die, Leon. I...I just can't." Her voice wobbles a little, but she swallows and continues in a stronger voice, "And I know he's dangerous. That's why I'm wanting to find him. He has to be stopped, before he hurts anyone else."
Leon looks clearly worried "And what if he captures you? Then what? He has killed beasts and may or may not of killed the master healer of Ferravale"
DoraRose sighs and looks at the ground. "I...wasn't planning on letting that happen." She looks into her face, a pained expression on her own. She says nothing. She can't seem to find anything to say. Nothing at all.
Leon goes to hug Dorarose. "I...worry ok, let some other beast find him as I am sure he will be found, some time and hopefully soon"
DoraRose lets him hug her as she stares over his shoulder. Sighing, she buries her face in his shoulder and holds her axe otu to the guard, who takes it with a relieved look on his face. She undoes her sword belt and hands the sword to the guard, who takes it to the training yard as the Warrior goes to hug her husband. "I just want him to be stopped...I hate it when beasts hurt you....hurt my family..."
Leon nods as he holds her close "I know, and I was not planning on being caught. I was only out gathering herbs that day, guess it could of been worse and last I heard he was hurt himself"
DoraRose draws back a little so she can look into his eyes, but keeps her paws around his waist. "Do you know who did it or how it happened? If he's as intelligent as I've heard, he'll keep The Master Healer alive...he'll know he needs her."
Leon says, "I heard Marek almost killed him but he got away, it was Marek that helped Lee...saved him. Lee was badly hurt, I got a chance to look at Lee and he will be stuck in the infirm up there for a while and I have not had the chance to go back and check on him as I was still recovering from being a temporary captive of Irinevok...and been busy here. I could check on Lee, maybe find some safe way to Ferravale, I...I don't know really"
DoraRose nods slowly, frowning slightly. "I still don't believe Marek has changed...how do we know we can trust him?" She sighs and brings a paw up to gently cup the other mouse's cheek. "I could go with you to Ferravale....I want to have a talk with this supposedly reformed stoat. I'm a good guard, especially if it's my family I'm protecting." she adds with a wry smile.
Leon nods and smiles "I know, your a protector and we could talk to Marek, I think he has changed and Scioto did let him be in charge of teh tavern over there."
"Pah! Marek. Don't trust him as far as y'could throw him," comes Emyuil's voice from the ramparts. The Half-Rat walks down the stairs to join the couple. He rolls his eyes. "What are we talking about again?"
DoraRose clenches her jaws as her eyes flash slightly. "Great, so he can poison our drinks. Awesome." She glances at her brother and scowls. "I heard you punched the head guard of Ferravale in the face. Is that true?"
Leon frowns and looks over at Emyuil and back to Dorarose, "I don't think he could do that, he would of already. He hasn't tried to hurt anyone..." He blinks at the head guard part and looks back at Dora's brother, "You punched who?"
"I punched that fat fox that's Ferravale's head guard, yeah," Emyuil says scornfully. "Problem? He was talking about wearing a vest made of mouse's skin."
Leon starts to say something when a novice taps him on the shoulder and he frowns "I have to go..seems some beast got a bad burn from the ovens" He heads off to the infirm.
DoraRose puts 2 fingers on her temple and rests her head on her husband's shoulder, groaning. "Why? He can wear whatever he blooming well wants. You don't have the right to go around punching beasts..." She glances up at the Master Healer's face. "Bandit, Head Guard of Ferravale." She watches him head off, then slowly turns to stare at her brother with a look that communicates that she is developing a massive headache. because. of. him.
Emyuil cringes before standing defiantly again. "He can't wear something made from the skin of our species. That's pretty much cannibalism. So I punched him."
DoraRose purses her lips, her stare becoming a glare. "I wonder why you weren't put in the holding cell....you don't have the right to go around punching beasts without provocation! And he's a fox! How can it be cannibalism if her's not a mouse?! Y'know what? Forget that. You had no right!!"
Emyuil growls. "He is imorral enough to kill, skin, and wear the hide of, another living being. He's lucky I didn't run him through." His eyes are full of barely fettered fury.
DoraRose is also filled with barely bridled fury, her headache mounting. "What makes you think he killed and skinned that mouse?!" she growls dangerously as she takes an enraged step forward. "Maybe he stole it from some other beast and wore it because he was desperate! Maybe it was given to him as a gift! There are endless possibilities that lead to the conclusion that YOU HAD NO RIGHT TO HIT HIM!!!!" She goes to jab him in the chest very hard. "How did he get that vest? Huh? HUH?! How?! Tell me if you know, Oh Judge of All Creatures!" In her anger she becomes very sarcastic....
Emyuil snarls. "DON'T. TOUCH. ME." His paws are shaking as they clench and unclench slowly. "Doesn't matter, the fact that he wore it at all means he's willing to proudly kill innocents."
DoraRose clenches her jaws, her eyes flashing. Abbeybeasts stop in their work to watch the yelling mice. "How do you know? HOW DO YOU KNOW?!" She goes to shove him in the chest, hard enough to knock him over. "You snotty-nosed little undisciplined midget! You have no right to go around hitting beasts! You are not the Deity! You are not the Judge of All! I happen to /know/ Bandit, or at least know of him and his character, and I KNOW for a fact that he /never/ kills innocents! NEVER!"
Emyuil snaps. He roars, digging in his heels, and suddenly in a blur of motion he's in his sister's face. "I said don't touch me," he whispers in a dangerously low voice. "Ever. And clearly your judgment of his character is wrong if he's willing to wear the hide of a dead beast when he doesn't have to." His paws are shaking even more now and he's having to physically restrain himself.
DoraRose snaps at the accusation of not being able to judge a beast's character, and she draws her paw back and brings her fist at her brother's jaw, unable to restrain herself any longer. Her eyes have misted red a little. As a group of about 10 guards comes running over, she shouts, "What was he wearing when you hit him, you little whelp?! Lemmego!" She wriggles as 5 guards go to restrain her, and the other 5 go to hold the Half-rat still.
Emyuil roars again as he takes the hit, knocked back. His eyes have gone red as well, and he bellows, "He was talking about wearing a vest. Clearly he had other...GODS!" he barks as he whirls around, head-butting one of the guards under the chin and possibly knocking out some of their teeth.
The guard that got head-butted falls over unconscious, and one of the others goes to whack the offending mouse on the back of the head with his spear haft. DoraRose has calmed down some, and just watches grimly as this action takes place. 2 of the guards restraining her go to help their comrades in arms constrain the Half-Rat. The one who appears to be the leader bellows, "NO FIGHTING IN REDWALL! You 2 know this!"
Emyuil yells back defiantly, "BITE ME!" and takes the spear hit, his rising berserker fury enabling him to get through the pain long enough to kick the guard behind him in the fork of the leg by jerking his leg back. His eyes are shouldering.
The guards gang up on the mouse, going to whack him with their spear shafts until he is almost sensless. DoraRose has calmed down enough that the 3 guards that were holding her are able to join in the fray, and she quickly slips into the gatehouse, returning after a few moments with a long coil of rope.
Emyuil is staggering, bruises and lumps and gashes pockmarking his form. He stands alone now like he always has and he gives in completely to his rage. Breaking the grip of the guards just long enough to get a choke hold on their leader. "IF I GO DOWN--HE DOES TOO!" he chokes out, gripping the mouse's throat in a deathgrip.
DoraRose bares her teeth as the leader kicks at the other mouse desperately. "EMYUIL STREAMSTONE! You are about to kill a Redwall creature! That will have you banished for the rest of your life! Do you really desire to never see the inside of this Abbey again? Do you really wish to never see your niece and nephew grow up?" Some of the guards are trying to pry the berserk mouse's paws off their leader.
"I. AM. NOT. STREAMSTONE. I am the Half-Rat," Emyuil bellows, releasing his grip with one paw long enough to give a brutal uppercut to the guard's jaw. He's bleeding all over but seems not to care. "And also, Dora? Don't ever threaten me with my kin again. EVER." Emyuil releases his other paw to send the leader flying into another guard.
DoraRose growls and whispers something to a guard. He nods and yells something inaudible and goes to dogpile on the Half-Rat. The other guards follow suit. There are so many of them, now a full score, that he shouldn't be able to move. "I wasn't threatening you, you idiot! I was warning you! If you get yourself banished from Redwall, you might never see them again! I do not forsee Caleb ever wanting to leave the Abbey, and I don't know what Lily's fate is. But you might never see them again, not by my doing, but by yours, for I doubt they would choose to leave here. And I'm sure Ferravale would be closed to you, aswell! Where would you go? Where would you stay? Noplace would be open to you, for all the groups and villages in this area are friends to Redwall!"
"The road again," Emyuil gasps out, coughing. "I'll be alone again. Nothing--nothing new." He struggles and finally passes out from blood loss and general abuse.
DoraRose sighs as the guards un-pile themselves from the unconscious mouse. Kneeling, she goes to stroke his ears. "Oh, Emmy, Emmy, why must you be like this?" A couple of Novices come running over and start to attend to his wounds as the Warrior goes to tie his forepaws together with a decent distance between them, then connect them to his footpaws. He would be able to walk slowly. No running. A guard, at Dora's request, gets a bucket of water and throws it at the senseless mouse's face.
Emyuil wakes up immediately with a bellow of raw indignant hatred. He struggles. "WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAVE YOU DONE?" He stumbles and falls, cursing incoherently. Emyuil snaps his teeth and struggles some more. "I hate you. Every one of you," he growls in a low voice.
DoraRose raises an eyebrow and goes to grab her brother's ear. Aiming to pinch it with her claws, she takes off her haversack (that she'd kind of forgotten about) and hands it to a Novice, whispering something about soap. She then goes to drag her brother to the pond by his ear and dunk him. The guards and a whole huge group of Abbeybeasts follow, whispering among themselves. A Novice comes up and hands the Warrior a bar of soap and something that looks suspiciously like a toothbrush. "Thanks." She grumbles, then goes to dunk her brother again. Then aims to sit on him with all but his head and shoulders underwater. And starts to make a lather on the toothbrush.
Emyuil snarls. "Back the hell away." He strains against the ropes, and nearly throws his sister off him.
DoraRose meeps slightly, then snaps at one of the guards, "Would you make these freaks go away!!" The guards immediately start shooing the crowd, and eventually everyone except for a guard and a Novice healer are all gone, and even they aren't seeming to be watching. They're talking to each-other nervously. The Warrior growls into her brother's ear, "I'm tired of your attitude! You are going to learn discipline, and the first part is a good mouthwashing! Open wide!" She goes to pinch his nose shut and stuff the toothbrush in his mouth and scrub.
Emyuil snaps again. He clamps his mouth firmly shut, preferring to suffocate than be humiliated like this. He shifts his weight and this time his bound paws reach up, slipping the rope over the back of DoraRose's head and slamming her down against the mud. "You," he hisses, "are not my mother. Since when did you have this authority?"
DoraRose eeps and turns, going to wrap her legs around his torso and her arm around his neck. "Since you told me Momma died!" She hisses. She then goes to bite his ear and stuff the toothbrush in his mouth. She grabs the bar of soap and goes to scrub his head with it for good measure.
Emyuil hisses in pain as his ear gets a new gash in it. He whips around, pinned but now facing up. He growls. "I swear to the gods if you do this..."
DoraRose goes to sit on his chest. Hopefully his arms are now pinned behind his back. "You'll do what, you undisciplined little nuisance?" The second he opens his mouth to respond, she goes to, as fast as fast can be, stuff the toothbrush in his mouth!
Emyuil's arms are pinned now and he gags on the soap, biting down on the toothbrush handle firmly, fragments of wood flying everywhere, some digging into his mouth but he doesn't care.
DoraRose stifles a smile of satisfaction and lets go of the remains of the toothbrush. Now that she go it into his mouth, she's decided that he can worry about it. Going to lean on his ear, she growls, "Now, then. I'm going to teach you the discipline Papa taught me and that I'm going to be teaching Lily. And you are gonna do it until your footpaws bleed and your muscles scream, until your legs wobble and you're so sore and bruised you think you're gonna die in your sleep. And then you'll do it again. And again. Until you learn some manners. Am I understood?"
Emyuil coughs out the remains of his toothbrush and spots a glimmer in the shallows. A sharp-edged piece of rock. He decides to keep his sister talking as he shifts towards it..."And what would that be?" he spits venomously.
DoraRose smiles grimly. "What I do every morning in the training yard. Pushups. Situps. Crunches. The Plank. Jogging around the perimeter of the yard. Training with your weapon. Stuff like that." She thinks he's trying to dump her off of him, so she ignores his movements.
Emyuil growls. "And why should I?" He's almost there, the frayed edge of the rope resting delicately against the sharpened rock...
DoraRose brings her face as close to his as she dares. "Because I'm your older sister, and I said so. I'm tired of you putting yourself in danger needlessly, and this self discipline will help you make wiser decisions."
Emyuil hisses, "Danger is what I live for. Discipline I already have. How else do you think I stopped from killing myself when I was the only one left in Tuscani? What else do you think drove me on? Well?" Now his bound footpaws, in a swift, jerking motion, slide across the razorlike stone and the rope snaps. Emyuil moves like a blur again and suddenly he's up on his feet and grappling his sister, throwing her down into the mud. Blood trickles through his fur from his earlier injuries and pure, unveiled loathing shows in his eyes for a fraction of a second. And then sorrow. Then he's gone, headed to the weapons storage to get his sword. And after that, he's leaving Redwall. For how long, he doesn't know.
DoraRose hollers as she falls into the bank of the pond. The few beasts who try to stop her brother fail. She watches him leave, and tears stream down her face. Rising, she stumbles, dripping, to the gatehouse. After changing her clothes, she goes to the Garden of the Late Rose to think. And weep. She stays there for the rest of the day...
Thanks for reading!
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