Vermin? You sure?
~~~
Chapter Seven
Tagg and Nimbalo were in the throne room, along with Spinfer. They had told Poynt and Sibiline about the rats, and the royal stoats had gone to organise the army - or so they said. Tagg was fairly sure that Poynt was actually leaving to hide in his room and have a nervous breakdown.
Spinfer stared at him.
"What do you mean, you've never heard of these rats? Surely you know of the rat barbarians of the unnamed marshes?"
"Well, we did say we're not from around here," said Nimbalo. Tagg shrugged. Spinfer sighed.
"It looks like I'm going to have to start at the beginning. The rats used to be harmless - they stayed where they were, in the marshes of the north. However, an evil stoat sorcerer named Flaggatis was banished there, not long ago. He made the rat hordes think that we mustelids should be wiped off the face of the earth - all except himself, of course. He has attempted to start a war between mustelids and rats several times - let's hope this time he is unsuccessful again."
Spinfer continued with his gruesome tales of Flaggatis as the group wandered out into the castle bailey. Weasels and stoats alike looked up briefly at them, then went back to whatever they were doing. Nimbalo jogged on ahead of the other two.
Suddenly, as he rounded a corner, Tagg heard Nimbalo scream. This was in itself a rare occurrence - Nimbalo was almost never afraid of anything. He rushed to see what had frightened his friend.
Nimbalo was shivering with horror, pointing at a large low-fenced enclosure, which was apparently full of walking furballs with pink tails. On closer inspection, however, Tagg saw that they were mice - but how different from the mice he knew. These mice walked on all fours and wore no clothing, but worse than that, they seemed to be completely mindless. They snorted and squeaked as they fought to guzzle vegetable stuff from a trough. Tagg felt sick.
Spinfer hurried up behind the shocked pair.
"What is going on?" he asked. He looked to where Nimbalo was pointing.
"Why are you afraid of the mice? They can't be that much different from the mice anywhere else. They are not going to hurt you."
Tagg put his paw around Nimbalo's shoulders. The weasel peasants and stoat soldiers had started to stare at the weird cloaked creature who was scared of mice.
Spinfer sighed again.
"We had better take your friend indoors, Tagg. I hope shock doesn't set in."
The two managed to pull Nimbalo out of sight of the mouse pen, at which point he relaxed.
"What is wrong with you?" Spinfer asked irritably.
Perfect, he thought. Poynt has saddled me with a pair of lunatics, one of whom panics at the sight of farm animals.
"Well," Tagg said, "when Nimbalo told you he was a mouse, he wasn't joking. The mice where we come from talk and think like you and me. We had a similar problem earlier - he nearly got killed and eaten."
Nimbalo had mostly calmed down by now, and removed the mahogany-coloured cloak that, until now, had helped to mask his species. Spinfer saw clearly for the first time that this mysterious creature was quite definitely a mouse.
~~~
Meanwhile, Sylver's band had been travelling through the woods, heading for Thistle Hall, where they could seek refuge with their friend Lord Haukin. It was a path they had trod many times before, but somehow they had taken a wrong turning, and were now hopelessly lost.
"There's a familiar tree," commented Icham drily. "Haven't we passed it three times now, unless there are three identical trees in this area? And that's odd, because I thought I knew every tree around here, and I've never seen that one before today."
"Sylver, I'm scared," whined Mawk. Sylver ground his teeth in irritation.
"Wait, I think there's a clearing ahead. We can stop there and get our bearings," he called back to the group.
As the weasels reached the clearing, they gasped and stared, not quite believing their eyes.
In front of them was an enormous red sandstone building - the place Tagg had described.
Redwall Abbey.
~~~
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