| Page Two of his Mission |
| DOGSTAR'S MISSION: CONTINUED When we reached the little gate, I took out one of the friar's vegetable knives I had tucked away in my cloak. It was long, flat and thin. Perfect for the job. I slid it through the crack between the door and the wall, and began working the blade along several grooves in the bolt I had made earlier that afternoon. After a few moments of tension filled silence, the gate swung open with a slight creak. Silvabrush became even more suspicious than before. "How'd ya do that?" he said in a hoarse whisper. I pointed down at the bolt in the gate. "Simple. A couple days ago, some silly abbey mouse left this gate open. I took my opportunity and cut grooves along the bolt. Now all I have to do is use my knife, and I can slide the bolt out." I took a quick peek inside, then gave the all clear. I tried to stay ahead of the pack as we made our way across the Abbey courtyard. I counted my pawsteps carefully, as I noticed that Silvabrush had surrounded himself with the other foxes. Good for protection if there was an ambush, but hard to get away in a hurry when I flicked back the trap door latch with my footpaw. The trap doors fell away, taking five very surprised foxes and one raving mad leader into the earth. I laughed down at the groaning foxes in the hole as they rubbed their bumps and bruises. I called out to the darkness of the yard. "Hey Foremole! Do you want to see what you caught in your pit?" Suddenly, lanterns were lit all over the Abbey yard as Foremole and his crew came trundling over, along with the other Abbey dwellers. Foremole looked down into his hole. "Hurr, hurr. Uz'n caught 'ee gurt foxez in ur holer. What'll 'ee be doin' wit' 'em zurr? Choppen off 'ee tailers, an' maken' foxer zoop? Oi dearly loikes foxer zoop." "Not quite Foremole. Abbess, could you hand me your torch and one of those bundles of herbs please?" I held the herbs in the flame until they began to smoke well, then I dropped it into the hole. SIlvabrush took one sniff and jumped back. "Nightshade! Get away you fools! Don't breathe it!" But it was too late. He held a cloth to his nose as he kicked at the drowsy foxes. "You stupid dolts! ARRGGHHHH!!!" In his rage, he grabbed a sleeping fox leaning against the pit wall and used him as a ladder to climp up to the inward hanging trap doors. From there he jumped up onto the Abbey lawn, drawing his sword as he landed. I called for everybeast to get back as I drew my own sword. We circled each other, deep growls emitting from our throats as we looked for weaknesses or possible openings for attack. He made for a charge, but at the last moment, side stepped and changed his angle to side swipe me. I caught it in time, blocking the sword blade, and giving Silvabrush a thwack on his back side with the flat of my blade. He tried the same move several times with much the same effect. I caught on to what he was tring to do. He was conditioning me to always move my blade in the same place to block his attack, while driving me towards the Abbey wall, where I would be cornered. Suddenly, Silvabrush made another forward move, this time for my throat. Again, I blocked it in time, but our sword hilts became locked. We stood, staring at each other for a few moments. "Next time, I'm going for yer head, wolf!" he snarled through clenched teeth. "I would love to see you try, fox!" I snarled back. We unlocked our blades and faced each other again. Silvabrush held his sword for another charge. I moved my blade to counter it. He came, full tilt, aimed straight for me, but instead of moving his blade down as he had done before, he moved it up, aiming it for my head. I sidestepped, just in time, bringing my own sword blade down onto his, driving it into the ground. Silvabrush stumbled, and ran headlong into the wall, knocking himself unconscious. I disarmed him and held a packet of the smoldering herbs in front of his nose, sending him into a deeper sleep. The Abbess came forward with the other creatures of the Abbey. "I've been meaning to ask you Dogstar, what exactly do those herbs do?" "It's just something I picked up on my travels. They're used mostly for medical purposes, to put a creature into a deep sleep for about two days. The maple and willow bark I added will erase their memory for about a season or two." Cinnabarr was puzzled. "What ever would you do that for old chap?" "Well, the Abbess gave us an option of sending them away with really bad memories of Redwall, so they wouldn't come back. Instead, I sent them away with none at all, and they won't even be able to remember the way here. I've asked Log-a-log, Rock, and Hazel to take two of our beasts to each fox, and take them in all different directions, away from Redwall. Wherever they are at dawn, they are to drop the fox and come back here." Rock came striding into the orchard. "Clean up crew all done, mate! All our beasts should be back by noon tomorrow." "Did they give you any trouble, Rock?" I asked. "A couple of 'em didn't the full dose of sleeping smoke, but we took care of putting them to bed." The Abbess looked pleased that it was finally over. "Good! Now, after we get this lot here cleaned up, we'll have our orchard and Abbey back to normal." I started walking off in the direction of the Abbey pond. "Speaking of cleaning up, I'm going to wash all this soot and filth out of my fur. I smell like a fox!" |
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