Meanwhile....In Brockhall....

Out of the blue the door to Brockhall is opened and Nash, like a great sack of so many potatoes, is thrown inside. "Now stay in dere, otter, or you'll see wot you got comin' to yers!" Hakit the rat is heard to say. The door slams closed behind the prone form of the otter and there is silence for a few moments. Finally, Nash stirs and sits up. His paws are bound in front of him which is what led to the crash onto the floor. Had he been loose he would've caught himself. He peers around at the unpenetrable darkness and asks, "Anybeast there?"

Though unseen Tie has his eyes closed as he grins at the noise "I could be asking you the same thing. Are you ok? that fall sounded painfull."He is leaning aganist the wall in the farthest away corner so he might sound slightly far away.

"Yeh, it was." Nash's voice is strained. "Dinna help that I have an arrow in my shoulder." He pauses briefly, considering something. "You wouldna happen to be a healer, would ye?" Hope stains his voice and he squints into the back corners of the room, trying to see who his companion might be.

Tie gives a low chuckle "I'm sorry, but I am not a healer. It seems that we are in the same boat for I have an arrow too." He sighs "Do you happen to have a blade with you? I can't seem to get free of these blasted ropes."

"Nah." Nash sounds frustrated. "Blasted vermin took everythin'. Even m' lute. What are /vermin/ going to do with a /lute/ I ask ye?" He obviously already knows the answer and sighs. "As to the ropes, I could prob'ly untie 'em for ye. M' paws are in front." Not knowing whether or not the beast behind the voice can see him, Nash holds his own restrained paws up in the air for evidence.

Tie gives an unseen shrug "they will probably use it as fire wood, but than again they took my cane...oooo I wish I could get my paws around ther necks for that one." he gives a low growel to drive his point home than he sounds hopeful "You think you could? My paws are nearly falling off from lack of blood. I will try and roll to you but you will have to keep talking so I know where you are"

Nash is confused. "Hol' up, mate. They got yore legs tied up, too? At least I can walk. Stay where ye are and I'll come to you." He hasn't put the whole cane and not being able to walk thing together, thinking that the voice belongs to an older beast perhaps. Never one to inconvenience others, Nash will make the effort here. "Keep talkin' tho, so's I can find ye."

Tie grins and it shows in his voice "yup. The tied me up good, heh I don't rightly know why." than he nods "I can talk for hours. They got me here about two days ago without to mush trouble. Oh and by the way my names Tie.R.W. whats your name?" He takes a breath "They also put a arrow in my shoulder, which was not needed for I could not see them in the first place." He stops talking hopeing that Nash know where he is by now

Nash has indeed located Tie and gently swishes his paw around in the air to locate his person. "Dinna want to hit ye. Where are y' paws?"

Tie sighs "there behind my back. Should I roll onto my stomach so you can reach them?"

"No need, I'll jus' go around back o' yahs." Nash has located Tie's shoulder and follows his arms down to his paws. Encountering the rope, he proceeds to work the tight knots loose. "So you's been here two days now? Where'd they catch ye at?"

Tie shrugs "Not really sure. The two land marks I can go by is that it was near water and I went over somthing stone, a bridge or something like that." He wiggels to help the loosening "where did they take you?"

Nash finishes loosening Tie's paws and holds onto the rope. It'll probably come in handy later. "There y'are." He steps back around his companion. "They got me up near th' Abbey. Redwall. Wouldna but they shot m' shoulder and that was the end o' that." He shrugs his good shoulder. "Name is Nash, by th' way. Could you unite me?" He holds his paws out.

Tie nods "I have never been to Redwall. Have you?" than he nods "Gladly." He feels around for the otters paws until he finds them and starts to work on the knots "Good to know you Nash."

Nash shakes his head and then remembers that Tie can't see it in the darkness. "Nay. Dinna go into the Abbey, thought about it but dinna go inside. Heard wunnerful things about tha' place though." He waits patiently for Tie to undo the ropes. His right shoulder is killing him due to the excess movement but he consoles himself with the thought that it'll soon be over and he won't have to use his arm anymore.

Tie unties the last of the rope than puts the rope in the paw of Nash. He starts to untie his foot-paws "oh and thanks for untieing me. Do you know what they plan on doing with us?"

Nash wraps the two pieces of rope around his middle as if they were a belt. Hopefully the vermin will be too stupid to realize that he's kept them. "I know for a fact they're slavers. As to what they plan on doing with us....I would assume it 'as to do with work." He laughs mirthlessly. "I can't imagine they'll keep us 'ere fer too long. Too close to th' Abbey." If or when the vermin decide to move them, Tie is going to have problems if he can't walk. "Tell me, mate. Is it the arrer in y' leg that's keepin' you on a cane or is it sommat else?"

Tie mutters "slavers. hate them." than he shakes his head at himself and by habbit reaches up to pull his cap down further over his eyes "The cane? I keep it with me for the sake of my eyes. I'm blind you know. My leg would be fine if it did not have the blasted arrow in it."

"Oh." Nash sits cross-legged on the floor. "Well that explains some things then." Why the darkness doesn't bother Tie, for instance. "Ye must have sens'tive paws then, aye?" Nash has a plan.

Tie almost sound ashamed as he nods "It probably explains a lot of things. why I am so helpless for one" he sighs than shrugs "my paws are Sensitive enough. why?"

"Yer no mor' 'elpless than I am, mate. Fact is, yer prob'ly better off in this darkness than me." Nash takes a deep breath, beginning to mentally prepare himself. "Y'think ye could remove this arrer outta m' shoulder?" It's going to hurt like heck but in the long run it'll be worth it to be infection free. "I know yer not a healer or anythin' but I need it t' come out."

Tie frowns "I guess I could. won't that make it bleed more?"

"It might but I dinna want to leave an arrer 'ead in m' shoulder f' too long. It'll get infected. But since you brought that up...." Nash proceeds to rip the bottom portion of his tunic off in a long strip. "There. I'll use this as a bandage to keep blood from gettin' all over. It's in m' right shoulder, m' sure ye can feel it." Prepping himself, Nash takes a deep breath and grabs one of the rope ends in his mouth in order to prevent himself from yelling out in pain. "Whene'er yer ready, mate."

Tie nods and starts the feel the otters shoulder until his paws come to the arrow than he takes a firm grip and says "ready? here goes." before giveing a sharp yank, hopeing that it is enough to get the arrow out.

Nash grits down hard on the rope and barely manages to keep himself from yelling. As soon as the arrow is out he clamps a paw over the spot and clenches his eyes shut, trying to focus on anything besides his shoulder. Eventually the pain begins to subside and Nash can breathe again. "Thank you, mate." He says, not unkindly, but in a strained voice. There are muffled noises as he ties the strip of cloth around the wound and pulls it tight with his teeth and good paw.

Tie holds the arrow in his paw "we could use this later." he says as he tucks the arrow into his belt "Are you going to be ok?"

"Yeh. It hurts now but it'll be worth it later on." Nash sits back against whatever hard thing is behind him. "Y' want me to pull that arrer out o' yer leg?"

Tie feels his leg and shivers slightly with the pain "It will hurt, yes? Well I might as well. can I have to rope?" he is nervous for the pain and he pulls his cap down more.

The door opens up, and the slavers throw a squirrel in, then the door closses again

"Aye, it'll hurt, mate. But what's worse? Pain now or losin' yer leg later?" Nash pats Tie's shoulder and then turns to see what's with the door opening and closing so quickly. "Hallo?" He calls out.

Tie shivers again "I guess your right. I do like my leg," He hears the door open and he frowns "Nash, can you see what just happened?"

Maria is not gona get up any time soon

"Sounds like they got another one, mate." Nash says dismally. "But this 'un ain't movin'. Let's get this thing out o' yore leg and I'll go check on whoever it is they just tossed in 'ere." He passes Tie the length of rope. "Lemme know when yer ready."

Tie nods "Poor beast." than he gives one last shiver before biteing down hard on the rope than he nods a Nash "Weady." 'Ready' does not come out right for the rope is hindering his proper speech. He balls his fists and closes his eyes.

Nash locates the arrow and with a quick, sharp tug, jerks it out of the squirrel's leg. He's careful to get it out the first time, knowing that having to go through it twice would be torture. They hadn't prepped any bandages this time though so Nash quickly clamps his paws over the now bleeding wound. "Eeer, y' got a bandage, mate?"

The pain is so great that Tie gives a yell that is slightly muffled by the rope. His eyes snap open and he groans and lets the rops drop from his mouth "now that was /pain/. oh a bandage?" he rips the edge of his tunic off and hands it to Nash.

Nash quickly ties the bandage around the leg and ties it fairly tight. "It'll probably bleed for a bit more, mate, but there inna much we can do about it." His eyes now much more accustomed to the darkness, Nash stands up. "I'm going t' go check on the beast what they threw in here. I'll be right back."

Tie nod and winces "right. thanks. See if you can tell if the beast is hurt." He reaches up to his cap and since the room is dark he takes it off and clenches it in his paws, faning himself with it, before puting it back on his head.

Stumbling some, Nash makes his way over to the entrance and comes across the body of Maria. Carefully, he kneels down next to her and shakes her gently. "Hey, hey. C'mon...wake up!" He isn't sure why it is imperative that Maria wakes up but it feels important. "C'mon!"

Maria sters 'wo...' she puts her left paw to her head where she has vary nice gash on it

Tie listens "Whats happening? Is it ok?" He asks Nash with a worried frown.

"Well, she's moving, which is good." Nash responds to Tie's worried interrogatives. "She's got a nasty lookin' wound though. Right on 'er 'ead." The bad news is that they can't do anything about it. "C'mon, hon." Nash turns his attention back to the squirrel. "You're gonna be alright. Can ye tell me yor name?"

Maria asks, "well, ferst, who are ye?"

Tie frowns "Do you think that he is mean or somthing? He is not ging to hurt you and besides if he knows your name is wont kill you." He seems to be rather annoyed that she would be suspisous of someone that may have helped her stay alive.

More relieved than anything that the maid can talk, Nash smiles at her pert response and smiles at Tie's helpful indignity. "I'm Nash." He says. "And he's Tie."

Maria says, "hm...well, Ah'm...Maria McGrove...."

Tie annoyance fades and he grins, speaking up even if the name was not spoken to him "Thats a pretty name." He pulls his cap lower just to make sure that his eyes can't been seen in the already dark room.

"I'd say I'm glad to have ye here, miss, but that is not the truth." Nash pats her paw. "Can ye sit up or is that gash in yor 'ead too much for ye?"

Maria trys to sit up, but the arrow in her leg a problem

Tie sighs. he is starting to get anxious for he can't do anything to help, but he asks anyway "Is there anything I can do?"

Nash motions for the squirrel to stop trying to sit up, noticing that it seems to be causing her some pain. "Yes, Tie. If ye could keep talkin' agin' so I can carry Maria over to ye I'd appreciate it." He turns back to the female squirrel. "Now, miss, I'm going to pick ye up and carry ye to the back o' the room where it's safer. All ye need to do is relax, understand?"

Maria says, "yis..."

Tie sighs "what to talk about" he mutters to himself than he grins "Maybe I will sing." after saying this he starts the sing a song about freedome that he is makeing up on the spot.

Nash carefully hefts the little squirrelmaid and follows Tie's voice to the back of the room. "Thank ye, Tie."

Gingerly, he sets Maria down. "Now miss, let's see about this leg o' yours, eh?"

Maria says, "oh, an' theres a arrow in thae back o' mae sholder..."

Tie yawns "I wish I could help yank the arrows, but I am feeling rather...tired." He slips into the wonderful stream of sleep and he dreams of freedom and his brother.

Tie has disconnected.

Nash locates the arrow in the darkness but touches it as little as possible. "Aye't, ye've two options, mate. Either ye can let it sit there and get infected or we can pull it ou' righ' now and git it over with." He sighs and tells her the truth. "They're both gon' hurt and we dinna have any bandages to stop the bleedin' unless ye feel like rippin' a strip offa your clothin'."

Maria says, "right...well, here goes nothing!" she grabs the arrow in her leg and polls it out leting out a small screm "agh!""

Nash is shocked. "I meant me! Let /me/ pull et out!" Scrambling, Nash searches around for something to stop the flow of blood with and finally ends up using the sleeve of his own shirt. "Dumb girl. Gon' get yerself killed." He trails off, muttering something about his best sleeve and squirrels being too hasty.

Maria says, "well, tha' hurt..."

"O' course et did!" Nash is fairly upset here, and not in a good way. "Lissen, squirrel, if'n yore goin' to go off an' do silly things like that yore goin' to get more than jus' yourself hurt. They's /three/ of us'ns now and we /have/ to work t'gether if we goin' to get out o' this alive." He nods towards the older squirrel who is now sleeping. "Tie there, 'e can't see. So we gots to 'elp 'im, you an' me /t'gether/ else he willna make et. An' I canna do this on m' own. So if y' get yerself hurt by being silly, chances are none o' us will make it. Do ye unnerstan'?" Yes, Nash is being harsh and he knows it. But the squirrel /must/ understand this if they're all going to survive.

Maria sighs "well, Ah got over with dident Ah?

Maria says, "an' Ah sae yer pount...."

"It doesna matter that you 'got et over with' what matters is that you could 'ave 'urt yerself worse and then where would we be?" Nash says this very quietly, in a calm tone of voice. "We'd be locked inna room with a crippled squirrel, tha's what. Instead o' havin' three able-bodied beasts what can attack the slavers."

Maria says, "...well Ah dae nae sae how thrae unaremd beasts can attack, an' wen, against a gang o' slaveres..."

"Would ye rather attack them or be a slave the rest o' yer life?" For Nash this is an easy concept. It doesn't occur to him that some beasts might just want to /live/ regardless of how.

Maria says, "Ah would attack them..."

Nash brightens. "Tha's the spirit! We'll think o' somethin' and we'll get out o' here." He pulls his sleeve away from the squirrel's wound and checks it with his paw to see if it is still bleeding. "Aye't. It seems to do better. Pity we don't have no 'erbs or sommat to put on et but..." He shrugs.

Maria says, "ye know...ye could make a fire with thae arrows..."

"Shore 'nuff. If we had tinder, or a string to tie to one o' 'em. But we dinna. The slavers took everythin'." Nash is not giving up, he's merely speaking reality.

Maria says, "huh, well, Ah would say it twas nice tae met ye...but were we are..." she sighs and soon falls asleep

Maria has disconnected.

As the last of the three to fall asleep, Nash contents himself with the status of their relative well-being before settling in against the cold wall. Hunh. Three seasons ago you could've told him he'd be locked in a room with two squirrels and he would have knocked you out. And now look at him. Checkin' to make sure they're okay.