Finding the Furball - Part 2

--The next day, in the afternoon--

Tristan is sitting by the charred remains of the fire, scrubbing at his hood where the rat spit on it. His has a bandage loosely wrapped around his head, and appears to be in a rather foul mood.

Rosenade was doing the same thing she had been doing earlier - staring off in the distance. Only now it was because she was trying to force thoughts of nearly being...

Tristan grunts, giving up on the cloak and putting it back on. He glances over to fresh mounds of dirt where they buried the two rats. He picks up his bow and steps over to the mouse, crouching beside her, "You sure you're going to be alright?" he says, somewhat gruffly. He hadn't slept much the previous night, and his eyes are red rimmed.

Rosenade sighs softly, and gives the otter a weak little smile as he crouched next to her. "I'll be fine... Just, that brought back unpleasant memories. Glad you stopped him from... Making me his..." she trailed off, evidently not willing to finish saying it.

Tristan growls low, "I would've died first," he plucks at his bowstring absentmindedly, "Just be glad I'm a good shot," he sounds like he's relieved he didn't miss.

Rosenade smiles weakly. "I'm pleased as ale that you're a good shot." she replied, before standing up. "Still... We need to find that dibbun, before the rat that got away brings reinforcements."

Tristan shakes his head, but rises, "They were just a group of petty robbers, I doubt there's more." he touches the quiver of arrows on his back, as if making sure they're ready.

Rosenade nods softly, and looks off into the horizon. "In any case... The quicker we find the dibbun, the quicker I can be off my foot." she said; the rat had done some pretty nasty damage to her paw.

Tristan looks towards it, "You can always head back to the abbey now, you don't have to keep looking with a hurt footpaw." he holds a paw to his head as he turns it too quickly to look.

Rosenade frowns, and shakes her head. "You and I both have a bit of a handicap with this, so we should stick together..." she replied, nodding.

Tristan shrugs, "I suppose your right," his pushes up his hood lightly, careful of the bandage, "Where's the next place to look?"

Rosenade rubs her head a little bit at his question. "Blazes if I know. He could be anywhere in Mossflower."

Tristan grimaces, repositioning his dirks for travel and slinging his pack over his shoulder, "I guess we could start up North, past the Gull, and move South." he scratches his chin, "Maybe he's by a river, that'd be a prominent landmark."

Rosenade nods softly at his suggestion, thinking a little bit herself. "Unless somebeast inside the tavern captured him..."

Tristan shrugs, "Doesn't matter much does it? We can always just go in and ask the nice vermin some questions," he chuckles, "And maybe we'll meet our friend from last night, wouldn't mind finishing our business."

Rosenade snorts from his question and quirks a brow. "You're a sarcasm addict, aren't you?"

Tristan raises an eyebrow, "What makes you think that?"

Rosenade tilts her head. "You said 'nice' vermin. Since when are vermin nice? I mean, some vermin SPECIES may be nice, but vermin in general?"

Tristan shakes his head, wincing just slightly, "Sarcasm, my dear." he steps towards the road, bow in paw.

Rosenade snorts again, and limps along with the otter. "I figured as much."

--Later, in Mossflower Woods--

Tristan steps into the woods cautiously, his bow at the ready. He's not taking any chances.

Rosenade limps behind Tristan, paws in her habit's pockets. "Remember what he looks like, Tristan?"

Tristan grunts, "No, not particularly, but how many cat dibbuns can there possibly be in Mossflower?"

Rosenade shrugs. "I have no idea..." she replied, wincing a little bit. "That rat paid dearly..."

Clayton is out of sight of them both, up in a tree, he is a cat after all, he tilts his head and watches them walk around.

Tristan nods, "He certainly did," he pauses for a moment, looking around, but not seeing the dibbun. He walks on a few paces and looks around again, "Something's not right," he mutters to himself, but then seems to shrug it off.

Rosenade frowns a little bit, wondering what he was looking for now... Oh, right. She continued limping along, looking around. "I imagine we'll find him very soon..."

Clayton looks down at them and moves to another branch, he frowns at the weapons and goes to get into another tree that's close by, but first he must get out of this one.

Tristan sighs lightly and continues on, his footpaws making almost no noise on the forest floor. He still has that feeling of uncertainty that he can't shake.

Rosenade limps along, wincing at each step. "God... damned... rat..."

Clayton sniffs the air and slides down; he is behind a tree now and watches them closely.

Tristan pauses and sighs. His head's still hurting from last night and he's eager to find this dibbun, "Come out, come out, wherever you are," he mutters to himself.

Rosenade gives a little cry of pain, having stepped on a stick. "Gaaah!"

Clayton glares their direction, he isn't coming out to them, he starts to quietly climb a tree and gets on a low branch, he has some cuts and dirt on him from being in the woods and his stomach growls a little.

Tristan looks back at her quickly, he sighs heavily. "Maybe we should just head back; maybe if we wait long enough the kid will just get hungry and come to Redwall on his own. Not like it's easy to miss the huge red brick building."

Rosenade grits her teeth, and closes her eyes. "We're not leaving without that @#!*% dibbun... But if I find him, so help me god, I'll tan his tail for making us look all over Mossflower!"

From the shadows a rat slips out from the shadows, he has a dagger in his paw and waits till the mousemaid is looking away as well as the otter, the dibbun frowns he sees the rat why don't they, he blinks. He frowns and then yells "Behind you!!!"

Tristan turns quickly, an arrow nocked on his bowstring, and draws the bow back, but doesn't fire yet, trying to get a bead on the rat.

Rosenade squeaks, and turns around, paws out of her pocket, as well as the dagger concealed in one of them.

The rat grins and goes to stab at the mousemaid.

Tristan releases his arrow, hoping he's not shooting too close to the mouse, aiming for his wrist, hoping to disarm the rat.

Rosenade backs away from the rat, waiting for a possible moment to thrust her dagger...

The rat gets the arrow in his wrist; he growls and goes to stab his dagger towards the mousemaid again.

Tristan curses lightly, drawing another arrow as quick as he can, but knowing he won't have time to aim and fire before the rat finishes his thrust.

Rosenade backs out of the range of his second stab, only to have herself backed against a tree. " @#!*% ..."

Clayton frowns and gets out of the tree; he has decided he is going to run for it. He trips on some loose tree roots and oofs.

The rat grins "Bye mouseie..." he stops and looks at the dibbun and glares at him for interrupting him, his full attention on the dibbun...

Tristan sees the cat out of the corner of his eye, right as he releases the arrow. It causes his shot to go off course, heading for the rat's footpaw instead of his chest.

Rosenade blinks as she noticed the rat was distracted. In a small act of desperation, she quickly pounces on him, poised to stab him in the chest if she could hold him still long enough.

The rat is knocked down and goes to kick the mousemaid in the chest, at the same time the dagger enters his chest and he gurgles up blood and dies shortly afterwards.

Clayton whimpers and goes to dive into a nearby thorn bush, all the fighting is scaring him and he doesn't know these beasts.

Rosenade oofs out in pain, and rolls off of him, even as he died. She held her chest, breathing hard. "Hurt..."

Tristan grunts, looking towards Rosenade, but seeing she has things well under control, he turns to the troublesome dibbun.

Clayton is in the thorn bush, he whimpers still, he lays flat in the bushes.

Tristan steps over towards him, trying not to sound threatening, despite the longbow and dirks at his side, "It's okay, you can come out now."

Clayton slowly comes out and looks up at the otter, his ears go flat against his head, he has cuts on his arms and legs from the thorns.

Rosenade gives a weak groan as she sat up, gingerly removing the dagger from the rat... "Ugh..."

Tristan glances back to her, and then puts his bow on the ground beside him, he crouches down, "Are you Clayton?"

Clayton nods slowly "No hurt me" He says and starts crying softly, seems he is afraid of Tristan.

Rosenade absentmindedly pockets the bloody dagger, and limps over to the other two. "Found... him?" she asks, coughing...

Tristan rolls his eyes, "I'm not going to hurt you," he pushes back his hood, which is no doubt intimidating, "We're going to take you back to your father," he glances over at the mouse and nods, "Getting him to come with us is another story."

Clayton looks between them and looks like he rather run from them than stay where he is, he starts to run and tenses in pain, he looks at his ankle, it looks swollen.

Rosenade falls to her knees, growling. " @#!*% it... Can't... chase him..." she grumbled out, coughing again.

Tristan reaches out a paw to stop him, but sees the hurt ankle, "Well, that's a problem." he puts a paw as gently as he can on the dibbun's shoulder, "Just sit still."

Clayton closes his eyes and shivers, he opens his eyes when he notices they aren't hurting him, he starts crying "Want my...my daddy!!!!!!!!!

Rosenade gets back up, and limps over to the two, coughing occasionally. "Need to... h-hurry... Hurting like h- @#!*% here."

Tristan sighs heavily, this is why he was no good with children, "We'll get you back to your dad, okay," he glances at the mouse and nods again, acknowledging her problem. "Let me take you back to Redwall, okay?" he says to Clayton.

Clayton sniffs "Daddy, want daddy!!" He hic-ups and frowns, he looks willing to follow now though.

Rosenade feels quite relieved the little guy was going to come with them. "Thank the stars..."

Tristan stands up again, "Can you walk Clayton?" he picks up his bow again and slings it over his shoulder.

Clayton nods, he stands slowly he looks to the otter and then the mousemaid and then waits for them to move so he can follow.

Tristan steps back towards the road, "Let's get out of here before we run into anymore rats."

Rosenade coughs, and limps along behind Tristan again. "Can't fight... if we find... any..."

--All three return to the Abbey--

Tristan steps into the great hall, his hood back and a bandage tied loosely on his head, "Greetings Flick, we found that troublesome dibbun." he sounds rather annoyed.

Several mice and hares bring litters to place the beasts, seen approaching from the wall, on to carry them upstairs

Flicktail is rushing to help "Tristan...you sound...um...annoyed, Oi expect e dibbun put up a royal fight?

Rosenade limps in behind Tristan, looking worse for wear, and coughing occasionally. "Guh..."

Clayton peeks from behind the otter, he frowns, he has cuts from a thorn bush all over him and his footpaw is swollen.

Tristan shrugs, "Actually, he probably saved our lives, ironically," he scratches at the bandage, where just a bit of dried blood is visible.

Flicktail helps Rosen to a litter "And do not argue wi me NOVICE" he smiles "Oi kin tell ya to lay on the litter, sides these beasts needs somethin ta do, they got all ready for 'eavens sake. Flicktail waves to Clayton "ello there lad, yer dad's been lookin for ya

Rosenade coughs a bit harder, as she was more or less forced to receive help. "Rat did a number... to my chest..."

Clayton frowns and hides behind Tristan, he peeks at Flicktail and frowns, he starts crying again "Where daddy?"

Tristan removes his quiver and sets in on the table next to his bow, "He wasn't easy to find, I'll give him that." he glances down at the crying dibbun, but says nothing.

Flicktail asks, "wot did e do? Hit ya?" They move the 3 up to the infirmary. Flicktail says, "Daddy be commin lad"

--In the infirmary—

Flicktail tucks Clayton into a warm bed while a pretty doe hare looks at his cuts and his footpaw.

Tristan shakes his head at the fox's earlier comment, "He didn't hit me, but a rat did."

Rosenade coughs again, getting put into a bed. " @#!*% rats..."

Clayton blinks and tries to wiggle out of Flicktail's grip, but the bed is warm and soft, he lets the haremaid tend to his footpaw and whimpers as it hurts, it's sprained, the thorn cuts don't seem as bad. He looks at the otter and mousemaid.

Flicktail says, "They be stayin roight ere wi ya"

Tristan glances over at the small cat, and scratches at his bandage again absentmindedly. "We were camped out last night and ran into some bandits, and there was one lurking about where we found him."

Flicktail says, "you take care o im" Flick says brining a basin of water and beginning to wash Tristan's wound gently"

Rosenade shudders about the mention of the rats from the night before, before having quite a coughing fit.

Several Mouse maids begin tending Rosen looking at her chest to see what they can do.

Tristan doesn't resist his wound being tended to, "One of the rats smacked me with his spear haft, and Rosenade got her paw stepped on."

Rosenade coughs, possibly having nothing more than a large bruise on her chest. Didn't account for the coughs... "Got... kicked in the... chest... Bloody @#!*% ..."

Still the mouse maids are taking no chances as the abbey sisters place a mustard plaster on her. Flicktail is very gentle with his paws as he cleans the otter "and how did e dibbun elp?

Tristan smirks, "Language, my dear," he says, wincing slightly as the water stings his wound a bit. "He warned us the rat was behind us, gave me a chance to get a shot off."

Harold comes in from the Infirmary...

Rosenade closes her eyes, and coughs lightly. "Sorry... guh... l-least ya... saved me... sorta... Both of ya..."

Clayton has fallen asleep.

--A lot of people connected after this, and there was a lot of chatting, but nothing that really advanced the storyline, so I leave you with that--