Well, That Escalated Quickly...
Characters Involved:
-Rascal, a male fox
-Aden, a female squirrel
-Pesty, a male rat dibbun
RW Abbey: Entry
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.
Today on this day nothing remarkable happened...as of yet. The redwall abbey is famous for its many battles, its many warlords who broke their teeth on its ramparts. But it is also famous for its peacefull ways as well. Travelers come and go through the open gates and novices attend to their duties with in the walls.
The doors to the great hall open. A fluffy red fox exits the abbey hall and gives a little belch before patting his stomach. Picking his teeth clean with his claws Rascal the fox begins to slowly trots his way down the steps and towards the open gate. The little time Rascal has spent here was nice. The beds were soft, the beasts were kind, and the food was surprisingly good. For woodlander taste. He's sure he put on a few pounds from just the deserts alone.
But it lacks that...vermin quality. The gambling, the rowdy parties. Money. Yes, that's what the abbey lacked. It was time to head out to the open road once more...
To be fair, gambling, rowdy parties, and money are not things that only the vermin species seek out. As if to prove this point, an empty bottle falls, seemingly from the sky, to land at the fox's feet; but it is nothing compared to what tumbles from the heavens next. Snoring loudly from a low branch of a young tree is a slender, silver, and soon to be /very/ disoriented, squirrelmaid Slowly, she rolls, and her drop from her napping spot is abrupt and coupled with a surprised "Wha-?!" as Aden tumbles to the ground, landing in a heap next to the empty bottle. It's raining squirrels and booze! And who said Redwall wasn't interesting?
The fox yelps loudly as a bottle seems to rain from the sky. "By all that is holy! The gods surely must be crazy!" The fox then looks up to the tree and gasps again. A gentle beast would have rushed to catch the maiden, Rascal however, is no gentle beast. He yelps again, standing back on one paw and shrieking as the maiden narrowly avoid landing on him.
"Are you ok?" The fox says, concern on his face.
Despite his young age, the siren call of debauchery seems to have attracted Pesty the rattling. It appears that none of his time in Redwall has managed to temper his urge for being a horrible little brat, and he's escaped the abbey proper to play on the outskirts after being chased out of the kitchen for stealing candied chestnuts. He'd gotten a few. Popping them into his mouth until his jaws can barely close, he's treated to a comedy show on his own front door! He hopes that maybe another bottle will fall from the sky and conk the fox on the head. That'd just make his day. With his fox pirate doll in his arms, he watches from the gate.
"Ugh...huh? Who the -? what the -?" Aden cups a paw against her head, struggling to clear the fog of confusion from her muddled senses. Well, she is still at Redwall - that much is apparent - so at least she didn't run away again. That's always a nice surprise. Shaking twigs from her fur, the squirrel pushes herself upright and squints at the fox. "I'm definitely alive." She replies, stating the obvious with a sagely nod and adding, with a low grumble: "Although I would have preferred tha' to happen without the audience..." The dibbun earns a raised eyebrow and a smirk; he looks like a little punk. She respects it.
"Who cares about you? No I meant are you ok in the head?" The fox taps the side of his own head before flailing his arms about, stomping in place as he rants, "You could have killed me! What were you thinking? Were you trying to ambush me or just give me a heart attack, cause if its the latter I assure you, you nearly succeeded." The fox shakes his head, begining to move towards the gate, "By all that is holy, you Redwallers are weird. First the crazy yelling badger to your love of veggi-fied food." Rascal kicks the bottle with his paw, sending it rolling down the road way.
Undeterred by the warnings of strangers that all dibbuns get from sensible abbeydwellers, Pesty instead decides to get closer to Rascal. A fox! Pesty hasn't seen a REAL fox in such a long time! Not since his "uncle" went on that sea voyage. Squinting, Pesty thinks it might be best to make sure that he's not some otter or ferret or whatever in disguise. Strolling out onto the road, he meets Rascal halfway and reaches out, taking hold of his tail and giving it a firm yank to make sure that the brush doesn't come off. Since Rascal doesn't look like he's about to be hit by anymore bottles, it only makes sense for Pesty to create his own entertainment. "Hey! Are yew a real fox?"
R-U-D-E! Aden, who prides herself on her combative nature of taking /nobeast's/ crap, crosses her arms and glares at the fox. "I guess I was just trying to do my civic duty, /sir/, taking care of the Abbey's /trash/ one good braining at a time!" She levels a threatening finger at him "And /ANOTHER/ thing, I -" but she stops abruptly as the dibbun interjects. Her smirk widens, and a small laugh escapes. Serves him right!
Another yelp escapes the fox's muzzle as he turns to glare murderously at this...this filthy little beggar who dares touch his beautiful tail. Probably diseased by the looks of it. Rascal leans forward, gripping his tail tightly, "No. I'm a wolverine in disguise." The fox pulls his tail out of the dibbuns reach. "One who enjoys grinding little rats up for me bread. Now run along kid, you bother me."
Dusting off his tunic of stray dibbun particles the fox then points an accusatory finger at the squirrel, "And as for you miss, I wish you well on taking out the trash. Perhaps you can start with the rags you call clothes."
There, that should put these woodlanders in their place. Standing under the arch of the gate the fox smugly smiles and turns for the open road. He can afford to insult a few beasts here. After all this fox is never setting foot again in this place.
And that's when the arrow hits him. In the upper left of his shoulder, right above the joint.
There is a brief moment of shock as he stares at the shaft protruding from his flesh. His mouth opens wide and he lets out a very high pitched girly scream before falling backward.
Out on the road a shrew can be seen waving his bow in the air, "I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM! HIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the shrew dashes forward followed quickly by others numbering into a little more than half a dozen at the most. They have an almost tribal appearance, save for the cutlasses and the spears and the pots and pans they brandish as weapons.
In one quick movement they rush the gate in some mad attempt to grab the fox...
A wolverine? That doesn't sound right. Pesty's eyes narrow even further until he's squinting so hard that his eyes are nearly shut. He clearly doesn't believe Rascal that he's a wolverine. Heck, he barely believes that Rascal's a fox! "That don't make no sense," blurts the ratling. "My uncle told me wolverines were big! Real big! Huge! Yer... not." Pesty's about to try the tail again when the arrow hits the fox's shoulder, the ratling letting out a squeak of shock at the sight. It's not the first time he's seen something like that happen, but he's young enough that he hasn't been numbed to the shock. Staring with wide eyes at the fox, he does nothing but watch as he screams and tumbles backwards. It takes another cry from the shrews to make Pesty do something, and he grabs hard at the collar of the fox's shirt and tries his best to tug him backwards towards the gate. Rascal IS a fox, after all. And Pesty's particularly fond of them from back before he lived in Redwall. There's not much movement going on at all, however, as Pesty's simply too small to move something that much larger than himself.
Rude or not, Aden has a duty to the beasts within the walls (or she plans to, anyway). Still swaying slightly, she leaps into action; her first order of business to get the dibbun out of harm's way. She grabs the fox by the collar with one paw, and with the other she moves to scoop the little rat up like a football. "Are you lot /stupid/?!" She shouts at the guards on the gate, scrambling backwards away from the oncoming shrews. "Close the bloody gate!" She releases her hold on the fox to reach over and pluck the empty bottle from the grass, and with a mighty huff, chucks it as hard as she can at the oncoming shrews. She has an impressive arm (they don't mess around in the circus) and the bottle smashes in front of the closest, oncoming shrew, the barrage of glass shards giving them cause to dance backwards a few steps and buy her some time.
As the fox is moved out of the way the gates begin to shut. The guard to the side easily bounds in time to leap inside in time thanks to his long lanky hare legs. The young pot bellied otter guard to the right of the gates isn't so lucky. "Open the gate! Open the gate! Let me in! Let me in!" He bangs on the doors as they shut him out. He couldn't believe what he just saw. The shrews...they had just left the abbey. He even returned the bow to their leader for Marten's sake! Why in the blazes would they turn around and shoot the fox?
The otter throws his back against the doors as the shrews recover and rush the gate. He throws his arms around his head and screams, thinking his fate is certain. The shrews however just shove him out of the way and begin pounding on the gates.
Well... Pesty HAS been called stupid before. It's a definite possibility that he is. Tiny claws tear Rascal's tunic as Pesty is plucked off of him, the ratling thankfully easy to carry considering his small size. It might also help that he's slightly sticky with various kinds of Redwall food. Instinctively he wiggles around in Aden's grasp, but doesn't try to get away from her as hard as he could. Even he has some small degree of self preservation. He looks over his shoulder at the shrews running over the glass, cheering like the horrible little whelp that he is as they stagger backwards in dances of pain. Of course, once they're back inside the abbey and the gates are shut securely behind them, the ratling starts to thrash around under Aden's arm. "Lemme down! I can walk on me own!" Big talk from a ratling who still carries around a doll everywhere he goes. 'Helpfully', he calls out advice to the guards. "Yew should prob'ly kill the shrews!"
Well this certainly isn't the way that she imagined her morning going. She casts a quick glance down at the dibbun squirming in her arms, and once she has ascertained that he was not hurt in any way, she says "As ye wish!" and releases him all at once. He wants to squirm and wriggle? He can fall and learn a lesson. Her attention snaps to the fox, and she calls angrily over her shoulder at the group gathering to check out the source of the ruckus. "Well don't jus' stand there! Bring him a healer!" That is definitely not her strong suit - she's better at causing injuries than she is at fixing them. As a novice scampers off to secure a healer, Aden points at the dibbun. "Take care of 'im while we wait for a healer, aight?" And she turns, jogging towards the gate and stopping next to the hare who had bounded through the gates a moment prior. "What the devil do that lot want? Get me my weapons back an' I'll go find out." She had been itching for some action, and isn't about to be told 'no' by the 'official protectors of the Abbey peace and blah blah blah'.
The hare gives her a stern warning glare. "Get out of the way. We got this under control. Jake, go get the head guard and...Jake...Jake?" The hare looks about the gate then sighs. "Ah blazes...Jake..."
Out side the plump otter tries to shimmy away from the shrews as they claw, bash, and even bite at the gates. "You!" The otter gulps as the leader of the small horde of shrews walks up to him. Another shrew stops short a few feet away, letting his leader jump onto his back so he is at eye level with the otter. "Open the gate. Chop chop." He get's the point across by threatening the otter with his saber, letting it rest just under his chin while the shrew below him prods his middle with a blade.
"W-what the blazes are you doing?" The otter cowers until his back is against the wall. He tries to suck in his gut but that just prompts the shrew to push his blade just a little bit farther.
"We shot that fox fair and square out side the gates. He's OUR property now. Now give him back! He has to answer for his crimes!" The shrews all chorus, "Here here!"
Inside the walls, said fox starts to come to his senses. His eyes seem distant, unfocused, "By all that is...what...what happened. Where am I?" His eyes bulge with terror, The curse he lets out is probibly illsuited for dibbun ears. "I've been shot! Someone help! I've been shot!"
Pesty lets out a squeak as he's dropped onto the ground, landing with an 'oof!'. He stands up, dusting off his fox doll and glaring bloody murder at Aden. He sticks out his tongue just to show her that he isn't broken by her sarcastic interpretation of his orders. Hugging his doll to his chest, he stands awkwardly where he was left, next to the fox, not sure what to do. And if that wasn't enough to confuse him, he's told to look after an injured beast?! He's way too young for that! Not knowing how to care for somebeast, he stands near Rascal and just stares down at him, at least until the fox wakes up and starts to shout for help. Well... Pesty can TRY to help. He remembers that the first thing that an adult did when he got a splinter was to remove the offending object. And how different is an arrow from a splinter REALLY? Reaching down, Pesty grabs hold of the arrow shaft and gives it a sharp tug, expecting it to just slide out of the fox's shoulder.
"They do have a point." Aden muses to the guard, shrugging. "And it ain't our place to go interferin' in their affairs." The suggestion is mischievous, and /somewhat/ joking. She opens her mouth to give them some other biting remark, but she senses trouble behind her! Wha - why did none of the beasts gathered go and help the poor fox and the dibbun? Her order to help was just to make him feel mature - not an actual request! "What in - NO!" She scrambles back to snatch the offending ratling up once more. "Can /somebeast/ get over here and /help/?!" Her voice has risen in pitch, cracking in her bemused anger. The novice has returned, leading a team of healers and concerned looking Abbey beasts. "The crisis response in this place is laughable, ye bleedin' lot of -" her curse is cut short as she is jostled out of the way by somebeast who has a much firmer grasp on what they're doing. "Er, yeah, so ye can just, uh, run along?" She puts the dibbun on the ground, much more gently, this time.
Unfortunately for the fox the combined force of the rat pulling on the arrow and the squirrel pulling on the rat plucks the arrow head clean from the fox's body.
Having an arrow head violently removed from ones flesh is however, sadly a BAD thing.
Another girly scream erupts from the vulpines muzzle, his jaws opening so wide to scream that it looks like his head will surely break in half. The fox flails wildly as he is dragged away. At a distance it looks like just the spasms of an injured beast, for those up close it looks like the fox is reaching for something...
...and trying to strangle it to death...
Out side more shrews have joined the interrogation to help 'convince' the otter to make the proper decision. Standing on his tippy toes the otter tries to suck in his gut as a saber threatens to peirce his gut. Another saber is at his throat, a spear is pointed precariously at his chest, and a cooking pot is being waved in his general direction. "That fox has to pay! Now hand him over! I'ma tiring of waitin."
"B-b-b-b-but you can't do that..." the otter gulps, "You can't just...walk into redwall abbey and shoot some beast!"
"But he wasna in de abbey. He was outside it!" The shrews nod, "Here here!"
"But...this whole area belongs to the abbey. You're standing on abbey ground right NOW!" The shrews consider this for a moment. They look to each other, then to the otter. Finally the lead shrew replies, "Ah...well...@#$!"
The blades are with drawn and the otter slumps against the wall in pure relief. The leader of the shrews shakes a fist at the gates as his poeple slink off into the wilderness, "Mark my words fox! This isn't the last ya seen o us! I'll get you and feed you yer own guts wrapped up in your own hide! Ya hear me Rascal! I'm not done with you yet!" And then bounds away from the abbey.
Plucking up Pesty while he's got a grip on the arrow is probably a bad idea, and as it comes out of the fox's shoulder in the ratling's paws, he holds it up for everyone to see as if it's some kind of prize, the ratling beaming that he was able to help. See? He's responsible! Then comes the fox's scream. "Tsk! It's out now, yew big baby," mutters the ratling down to the fox. He seems blissfully unaware of the hands that would likely want to strangle him, and is indeed again being held by Aden. This time at least he doesn't thrash about like a fish, letting her set him back down onto the ground. At the suggestion that he find something else to do though... he just shrugs, staying where he is, since that's also where all the excitement is. Not to mention he wants to see if Aden yells at anyone else.
Aden watches the fox being dragged off and casts a guilty look at the arrow in the rat's paws. After a quick look back and forth to determine that the attention of the masses is focused more on the fox than her and the dibbun, she crouches and points at the bloody arrow. "Don't let the older beasts see that, or else they'll take it from ye." She winks and stands, turning her back and whistling - obviously under the impression that letting young beasts run around with bloody, dangerous weapons makes her seem to be the 'cool' adult. Reason #957 that the squirrel should never, ever reproduce. She scratches at her ear a moment before turning and heading towards the Great Hall; Nothing gives one an appetite quite like attempted murder!
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