Casper's story

From Redwall MUCK Wiki


Read the log 'Shandar has Brother?' before this. It is rather long (both this and the other), so just as a warning. ;)

Cavern Hole, Redwall Abbey

Casper settles into a comfy chair by the fire, gratefully accepting a warm bowl of mushroom and leek soup, fresh from the kitchens. He digs in, anxiously looking about for any signs of his sister.

Shandar only heard, ‘someone is  here to see you,’ and she stood to follow the sister, but now she is told, “His name is Casper. Seems like a lovely young fellow.” Shandar walks a few more paces down the stairs and then skids to a halt. “Wait. What? Repeat that?” The sister huffs and continues into Cavern Hole. “Really Shandar. Now is not the time for that. You should not keep our guest waiting. His name is Casper.” The sister walks into the cavern and waves to Casper. “Hello Casper. Shandar is coming. I will leave you two to your own devices. If you need anything at all, I shall be in the kitchens.” The sister departs after making sure that Shandar did indeed follow the rest of the way down the stairs. Shandar’s head can be seen poking around the doorway, eyes wide.
Casper stands slowly, a paw reaching out to the side with his half-empty soup bowl, placing it gently on the table near him. “Shandar.” He whispers.

Shandar enters the rest of the way into Cavern Hole, and a shaky paw reaches out in front of her, pointing at Casper. Her voice is barely audible. “You’re dead.” Her eyes wide, she looks the older mouse up and down. “Oh Martin. Casper. Casper!” She runs forward to hug her brother.

Casper blinks as she calls him dead, then bends down, kneeling on the floor, and catches his sister as she hugs him, holding her tightly. He continues to keep his voice low as he talks. “I thought I’d never see you again.” He knew Shandar was here- Elder Benar told him. But he never fully imagined how nice it would be to have her back.

Shandar buries her face in Casper’s shoulder. “We thought you were dead. You went out an’...” She starts to cry- slightly uncharacteristic for the happy-go-lucky dibbun. “..an’ never came back. I helped Mummy make a little altar f’r you. With flowers an’ a stone an’ everythin’.”

Casper leans back and wipes Shandar’s face with a paw, the other on her shoulder. “Aw, don’t cry.” slightly hypocritical, since he’s near to it himself. “I’ll tell you everything later. I’m just so happy I found you here. Have you been alright? I mean, I know what happened to Da and Mummy, but other than that....”

Shandar wipes her eyes with her own paw and gives Casper one last hug. “Yeah. Don’t you cry, either.” She smiles a bit, and sniffs. “A very nice otter named Wildefray came and helped me. She brought me here. And everybeast is very nice. You’ll like it here. You are staying, aren’t you?” She looks anxiously at Casper’s face.

Casper stands, going to lift Shandar up, and chucks her chin gently. “O’ course I am! Wherever you want to go, I’ll be there. And I take it you want to stay?”

Shandar allows herself to be picked up. “I do want to stay! Ooo.” She points at the bowl of soup. “What’s that?” Yes, she’s overjoyed to see her brother again, but she’s hungry, too!

Casper chuckles as he sits back down in the chair, Shandar in his lap. He reaches around her and takes the bowl from the table. “That’s it- smile! Haha, tis mushroom and leek soup. Very good. You want some? Lucky you- you’ve gotten to eat all this fine food for seasons!” He tickles Shadnar gently, smiling.

Shandar laughs. “Heeehee, stop, no, d-hahaha! Stoppit!”

Casper complies to Shandar’s wishes and stops the tickling, still smiling, and hands the bowl to her. “Eat up! Can't have you getting any smaller now, can we! I’m sure I could feel your ribs there.” he winks, resting his head on the edge of her shoulder.

Shandar winks back at him, slurping the soup quietly. “Mmmm. I think the Friar cooked especially good jus’ for you.” She swings her footpaws as they hang over the edge of the chair, leaning back into Casper.

Casper sighs, leaning back slowly into the chair so he wont disturb Shandar. “Im sure he did. I suppose you want to know where I was?” he doesn’t really want to tell her- but he knows that she’s likely to be pesky about it later.

Shandar nods vigorously, nearly spilling the soup. “Do tell! Start from the very beginning.” She turns around slightly so she can see casper better.

Casper closes his eyes, running a paw over his face. “The very beginning? Well then. It was summer, if you recall. I was about 10 seasons, and you were mayhap 2 seasons. I had finished all of my chores, and so I went down to the riverbanks, the place where you and I always used to play. But I wandered too far down. I thought maybe I could discover some new fun place to play.”

Shandar stops eating, completely focused on her brother’s tale.

Casper lifts Shandar and the bowl and places them both in the chair, getting into his ‘story-telling mode.’

“I lost track of time, and soon it was nearly suppertime. Getting to be dark. I turned around, and realized I couldn’t find my way back.” He acts it out, walking one way, then turning around, looking worried. “From behind me, the direction i had been traveling, I heard laughter. It was more of a petty snigger, though. Not a happy sound.” He shakes his head, one paw pointing behind him. “I was knocked out by whoever it was, and when I woke, i was strapped to a pole, nowhere near the river. I knew because I couldnt hear it. It was very quiet.” He sits on the floor, back straight against a chair leg.”

Shandar leans forward to see Casper better. “Who was it?” She interrupts impatiently.

Casper grins at her impatience, but doesn’t comment. “It was a fat ugly stoat and a mangy rat! I dozed off after awhile, and I woke up when one of them shouted-” He stands and leans forward suddenly, in Shadnar face, growling in a deep raspy voice. “-On yer feet, yew liddle scruffbag! Yer makin brekkers f’r us tew!”

Shandar eeps and leans back, horrified. Then she quirks a grin and puts out a paw against Casper’s chest, trying to push him back. “Keep going! Don't stop telling! i wanna know what happened! What did you do?”

Casper laughs and goes back to his spot aginst the chair leg. “I did what you just did! I was terrified!” He puts a paw to the side of his mouth, and whispers in an actor-style. (hushed, but not quiet) “His breath smelled, too! I swear all i could smeel for the next week was him!”

Shandar had gone back to eating the soup after Casper startled her, and now she has trouble not getting it up her nose as she laughs.

Casper watches her, cautioning, “Dont choke now. All fun until somebeast gets hurt. And I don't wanna have t’ make you cough that soup back up.” He wrinkles his nose at her. “That would be gross.”

Shandar doesn't make a mess of the soup, and wrinkles her nose back at her brother. “All fun until somebeast gets hurt. Then tis hilarious!” She quotes something she heard another dibbun say the other day.

“True Shandar style.” Casper waves a paw at her. “Anyway.” He clears his throat dramatically. “I was untied from the stake, and they watched while i cooked for them- it wasnt very good food, since i never cooked much before then. Ma usually did the cooking, if you recall. They had me as their slave, waking up like that, for...” He tilts his head back, remembering how long he was with the vermin. “1, 2 seasons? Cooking, which I gradually got better at, carrying their stuff when we traveled, gathering wood, mending their clothes.”

Shandar leans forward. “2 /seasons/?! That’s terrible!”

Casper nods. “Aye. You know how I got away?” He raises an eyebrow.

Shandar shakes her head. “Cummon, just tell me.” She pleads, not wanting to waste time guessing.

Casper stands from his spot on the floor. “We traveled all over Mossflower- sometimes I think just so I would have extra work to do, because we were never running from anybeast, and we never went to meet anybeast. One night, we came to the banks of a river, and like all vermin, they got into a....disagreement. One of them fell into the river- drowned. I was chained up, and though I could swim, I don’t know if i would have helped him had i been free.” Casper sits back down, the happy mood gone from him, holding his head in his paws.

Shandar downs the last of the soup, slips out of the chair, and goes to crouch by Casper, one paw thrown about his neck. “He didn’t deserve you t’ go an’ get him. What about the other, though?”

Casper leans into Shandar and hugs her. “He fell backwards, slipped in the mud, landed right next to me. I threw the slack of the rope about his neck, roped him to the pole, like me, knocked him out senseless. I spent the time he was unconcious trying to get to his knife, and when I reached it, i cut mself free. When the weasel came to, I let him go. I was so close to killing him. But I couldnt do it. He was frightened- of me. Who's frightened of /me/?”

Shandar goes to pinch Casper’s side, wanting him to finish the story. “What’d you do t’ him? The weasel, I mean?”

“Ok ok. Ow. You pinch /hard/.” Casper rubs his side ruefully. “I let him go- with a warning. And before you tell me I should’ve killed him, think of what you would’ve done.”

Shandar does, indeed, think, and her response is rather reasonable. She hugs Casper. “You did right. He was defenseless, and a coward.”

Casper is moderatly surprised. “Big words. Nice thoughts. Not like little Shandar. Who’s been teaching you? And what’ve you been reading?”

Shandar giggles. “There’s a whole library here. And Flicky said he’d teach me t’ be a warrior like him when I’m older!”A sudden thought occurs to her. “But wait. There was more time between when you escaped and now. Where were you?”

Casper shrugs. “Lost. Wandering. I saw the seashore. I’ll take you sometime. But tis quite a ways from heree. Ran into Daren- remember him? That nice vole who used to live near us. took me home- or to what was left of it. You werent there, and i suppose it was that Wildefray character you mentioned earlier that buried Ma and Da. I spent the rest of the time wandering Mossflower, looking for you. And avoiding those birds of Vladmir Stormfeather. You were safe here, I presume?”

Shandar tilts her head back, thinking. “Well....yeah. I was safe.” Casper can find out about the details later. Shadnar stands, taking her brother’s paw, trying to lead him into the kitchens. “Cummon, lets go an’ get a snack. An then you c’n meet my friends!”

Casper chuckles, allowing Shandar to lead him away. “Alright then. Suppose I’m going to get a tour of this place at some point?”