Fort Trinitide's Story

Long ago, a few generations before Polaris, there was a Fort that was on a peninsula on the west coast. It was near the toad lands, so the fort was often attacked. One day in winter, a toad with a great army came and attacked. They needed food and thought that fort, named Fortress of the West Coast, or Fort West Coast, had some. They were wrong. It was a long and hard battle, but since the citizens weren�t ready- and as the resident hares might have said �Can�t fight on an empty stomach, wot?�- the Fort was defeated. The toads found out that the fort had little supplies and wandered away. Polaris later found the ruins and thought the Southern West coast still need protection. So she built a fort, farther inland from the toad lands, and named it Fort Trinitide (One of her best friends, Gawthorn, thought of the name. It is now named Rath Trinitide.), in honor of Fort West Coast, because �Trini� means �three� and tide, well, is pretty obvious and Fort West Coast was on a peninsula where there was water on three sides. There had to be a reason Polaris named it in honor of that particular fort, don�t you think? Her father lived there when he was little, so she thought it only right.

I lived in a cave way down South next to a river with my mother and father. It was about five hours away from the shore. I always thought Redwall was just an imaginary place my mother, Silica, had made up to entertain me. She named me Polaris after the Northern Star. She said up North was much better than down in the South. One night on my seventh birthday, I heard scuffling in my parents room. I grabbed my blunt dagger that I used to pry open clams and jumped under my bed. A big rat that was in coarser attire came into my room with a few vermin at his back. He came close to my bed and looked around. I stabbed the dagger into his foot as hard as I could. He screeched and grabbed his foot. A ferret snatched me from under my bed. The big rat hobbled out and the ferret and the rest of the band followed, dragging me along. I was able to glance into my parent�s room while I was pulled along. There was a dead rat and some pools of blood. I bit the ferret�s paw. He flung me against the wall and put his paw in his mouth. I hit my head on the wall and blacked out.

I found my self in a cabin locked up in shackles. I didn�t ever find out what happened to my parents. They said I wasn�t strong enough to be an oar slave so I was a servant to the captain,. One night when I was sleeping in the cabin (Tied to the wall, I might add), I felt a paw against my mouth. I jolted awake and tried to scream. The paw muffled it. A voice whispered in my ear �I�ll get you out� Shh.� I didn�t get to see the beast, but I recognized the voice. The beast undid my binds and lead me off the ship. A rat spotted us when we were off the boat. The beast let me go and shot an arrow at the rat. The rat let out a scream. The ship came alive. Javelins and arrows rained down on us. I swung around and saw the beast who had got me off the ship. My mother! A javelin hit her in the side. �Go Polaris! Into the woods!� She ran to the shore and then jumped into the water. I suppose she lived, since she was an otter. I�m not sure. I ran into the woods, as my mother instructed. I lived there for a little bit and I traveled around Mossflower. I met Chamblein Swiftcurrent at Fort Riverway and later we married.

Recently, it was discovered, contrary to popular belief, Fort West Coast was not founded by Silica and Tarot, but by Tarot's grandfather (Excalibur has graciously offered to go to the ruins of Fort West Coast and try to find the foundation stone, which will probably have Tarot's grandfather's name) Tarot decides he would like to travel, so he leaves Fort West Coast in search of adventure. He meets Silica later. They don't live in Fort West Coast together. Silica travelled all over Mossflower with her family.