ITS RUINED! but atleast it ends with pie?

Deciding to spurn dinner in favor of more exploration, Caddock walks down into Cavern Hole, the fox looking down at a book he's cradling in one arm, no doubt borrowed from the library. Pince-nez spectacles sit on the bridge of the fox's muzzle, and due to the warmth of the abbey, he has decided not to wear his cloak and hat. The gauntlet is likewise gone, as the fox has no way to hide its presence without his cloak. As the fox walks, his eyes rove over the book, occasionally turning a page.

Sitting at a table near the fire place is Ilari, the mouse is sitting over a diagram of what looks like it could be the abbey itself with a stick of charcoal in paw. Ilari's attention is focused in on the drawing and he takes almost no notice of the book bearing fox. With a few careful movements of his paw the mouse adds slightly to the length of a wall before closing it in and forming part of the outer wall.

Periodically the fox lifts his head and looks about Cavern Hole, taking it in, seemingly checking to see if things are still in the same location they were a great many years ago. His attentive eyes seek out every entryway and scan over the doors, and he gives a shake of his head as though he doesn't fully understand what he's seeing. "It doesn't /look/ very defensible..." he mutters to himself, as his footsteps grow closer to to Ilari, the fox warming himself by the fire as he reads and gawks.

Ilari doesn't appear to notice the fox as he nears, it looks like his eyes are all for his own parchment, at least at first. Once the fox speaks Ilari looks up for a brief moment, tries to catch a look at what ever it is that the fox is reading, then quickly looks back down. Tentatively the mouse starts to add small details, a little bit here and there with no apparent order to his work, leaving patrs of the drawing blank lines, while other parts are partially shaded and somewhat detailed.

Soon enough Caddock takes notice of the other beast in the room, moving up behind him and looming over him, looking down over the mouse's shoulder to get a good look what he's working on. Clearly the fox doesn't have any of the mouse's furtive shyness, and as he peers down, he gets a good look at the mouse's drawing, fairly sure what it is, but not completely. Caddock breaks the silence, addressing Ilari, "Is that the abbey you're drawing?"

Ilari was so lost in his thoughts he squeaks as he jolts almost out of the chair when addressed by the fox, in the process one of his paws streaks across the drawing adding a charcoal line across the drawing. Ilari immediately forgets about the fox as he tries the remove the new offending line with the edge of his tunic sleeve. Once the line is reduced to a shadow on the paper Ilari answers Caddock " Y-y-y-yes? "

Caddock isn't put off by how afraid the mouse appears to be as he addresses him, rather he seems to take a certain perverse enjoyment from it, grinning down at the mouse and showing off just what a fox's teeth look like. He places his paws on the back of Ilari's chair and leans over him, inspecting the drawing a bit more closely now. "It's quite good, you know." The fox ignores the streak that he caused, naturally.

Ilari looks back down to his drawing quickly as the fur on his arms stands up and stammers " I-t-t-t n-needs wo-work a-a-and t-t-there are b-better o-ones. " Keeping his head down the mouse tries to resume his drawing work as if nothing had happened to interrupt it. Ilari begins to detail the area around the edges of the drawing, adding tree tops and adding some cross hatching to the ditch.

Caddock's smirk remains as he walks around the mouse, circling him like a buzzard. "Really now? Are they all of the abbey, or do you draw other things as well?" By now the fox has closed his book and tucked it under one arm and the pince-nez has come off, being tucked back into the fox's coat. Again, the fox seems oblivious to the mouse's nervousness, and seems insistent on making a pest of himself.

Ilari has become a tightly wound little ball of nervousness now that Caddock is paying him so much mind, he even has to stop his detail work as his paws start to shake. With head still down the mouse answers " I-I d-d-do d-d-d-draw o-other th-things. " But that seems to be all that he is willing to answer for the moment as he tries to be terribly interested with his own drawing, the charcoal dust and the table top all at once, anything but the circling fox.

With a sudden movement the fox stops his pacing and comes to a crouch next to Ilari, his face level with the mouse's. Caddock gives him another toothy grin, one that seems spread even wider across his muzzle by the large gash where his cheek used to be. "How interesting!" His voice is full of makeshift interest, and he sounds just a little more interested than he should be. "Do you draw any vermin, mousey?"

Ilari quickly turns his head from the fox before stammering on even harder than before as he starts to quake in the chair " N-nn-no s-s-s-sir I d-d-do-don't. " now the mouses eyes look down at the table, hey that's some really interesting wood grain isn't it? you bet it is! Ilari has begun to quiver so hard now that the chair is starting to rattle where its legs meet the floor.

One of the fox's eyebrows lift, and his eyes squint a bit as he leans one elbow on the arm of Ilari's chair, staring at him, letting out a low, short chuckle. "Oh? Why not? I bet you draw plenty of Woodlanders. Why not Vermin?" The fox fixes Ilari with a piercing glare, staring at him even as the mouse looks down at the /fascinating/ wood grain. "Is there something wrong with Vermin, mousey?"

Ilari tries to turn his head even further away from the fox as he stammers on " I-I-I d-do-d-don't d-draw b-b-b-beasts, v-ver-vermin or-or w-w-wood la-landers. " Oh would you look over there! a chair! wow isn't that nice! Still quaking like the ground itself is shaking the mouse keeps his eyes anywhere but at the beast with all the pointy teeths that is right next to him.

Caddock stands back up with a laugh, pushing himself off the arm of the chair with enough force to cause the chair's wood frame to groan. "Hah! At least you're not one of those silly beasts who thinks Vermin don't belong in drawings. ...Unless they're being conquered, that is." The fox lets out a derisive snort. "I can't say I think much of your tapestry for that reason." The fox resumes his circling, strafing the mouse as though he's prey, and with the fox's bared teeth, it's probably not too far from the truth.

Ilari twists his body as far away from the fox as he can while it goes on with its tirade about drawings, until the fox remarks on the tapestry. Now starting to scowl the mouse turns back to look at the fox trying to wear an impassive face as he stammers " T-t-that ta-tapestry i-is n-n-none o-of yo-your c-con-concern f-f-f-fox. " Even for how much Ilari is trying not to be apparently terrified its still pretty obvious.

Seeing the mouse starting to scowl at him, the fox stops in his tracks in front of the mouse's chair, leaning in with a vicious looking smirk on his face, this one a lot more dangerous looking, the somewhat jocular attitude gone as he fixes a steely glare on the mouse in front of him. "Really? And what makes you say that, mouse? Don't like a fox talking about the abbey's magical tapestry?" The fox puts a particular stress on magical, scorn clear in his voice.

Ilari begins to turn away but manages to stop the motion before it gets to far. With his head at a slight angle to Caddock Ilari speaks " I-i-its n-no-n-not y-y-y-your p-p-place t-t-to c-crit-criticize i-it f-f-fox, m-m-Martin i-is t-th-the f-f-founder o-o-of th-the o-order a-a-and y-you wi-w-will n-nn-not d-d-de-demean h-him. " Even as the mouse tries to speak firmly his stutter and squeaks make him sound very small.

Amarro has a knack for entering a room at the least best time and she is merely honing this talent as she walks in on the scene in the cavern hole. The first thing she picks up on is the fox's menacing position in front of the mouse and Ilari's scared, but courageous, response. She doesn't have to think too much about what she's going to do here and quickly stalks over to the mouse and fox where she puts a firm paw on Caddock's shoulder and makes effort to push him away from Ilari. "If you wish to remain here then I suggest that you stop being a menace to the general population."

Caddock hadn't noticed Amarro at all as she approached him, and the shove causes him the stumble, the fox tries to catch himself but trips over his own foot paws. He spills onto the ground, falling right on his tail base, letting out a startled yelp. The book he borrowed from the library, naturally, falls from his grasp and bangs into the ground with a heavy thump. Picking himself up as fast as he can and dusting himself off, Caddock glowers at Amarro and Ilari, his eyes narrowed into slits, a strained grin on his face, one that suggests that he's holding it merely to keep from raising his voice. He doesn't bother to dust himself off, but merely folds his arms, glaring. "Ah, a menace, am I? It's not my fault this... sniveling thing right here," he indicates Ilari with a wave of his paw. "Can't hold a simple conversation without stuttering!"

Ilari could not be more thankful for Amarro's intervention, although the wave of the paw followed by the foxes harsh words cause his head to dip back down to the drawing that he had been working on. Right now Ilari just wants to escape further notice, so he holds still as he can on the chair and scarcely dares to breathe as he waits for the storm to pass. Slowly again to hopefully escape notice the mouse grabs up the stick of charcoal and lays a paw to the edge of the incomplete diagram.

Amarro is not easily riled and her expression is still very neutral. She gazes at the fox through unimpressed eyes and tilts her head slightly to the left. "I am not sure why you think you can justify your actions by blaming them on the speech deficit of another. Surely you cannot possibly think that I will be convinced that you are right in bothering the mouse because he does not respond according to your expectations." The elegant squirrel arches an eyebrow. "Or is that just how vermin behave and I was not aware of it?"

Caddock's tail flicks back and forth in consternation. He doesn't enjoy being spoken to as Amarro is speaking to him, and one of his arms unfolds to give a very cross-looking flick into the air. He jabs a finger towards Amarro. "And I am not sure why you think I should keep my mouth shut when I'm insulted!" Though the squirrel's eyebrow may arch while she speaks her barb, the fox's ears flatten, plastered to the top of his head, his nose wrinkling as though he just smelt something foul. He answers, his voice a low rumble, "Is that how vermin behave? Would you care to explain what that's meant to mean?"

This is definitely something that Ilari does not want to be in the middle of, he puts the charcoal stick in the side of his mouth and starts to roll up the parchment that he had been drawing on. All the while the mouse tries to be as quiet as possible, only adding the sound of sliding paper and rustling cloth as he makes ready to get to the side of this argument.

Amarro slows her voice down and enunciates her words perfectly. "I mean, do all vermin torment each other and then blame it on the other beast? Or is that characteristic unique to you?" Her ear flicks as she hears Ilari begin to clean up his space and it irks her that he has to move because the fox was being a jerk. Her expression finally changes to one of cold indifference, masking the annoyance she feels.

Caddock grits his teeth together hard enough that his molars make a horrible grinding noise, and it takes him a while to respond. He seems to be taking a few deep breaths before he responds, and his eyes close, and when they reopen, he's smiling his typical false simper. He spreads his arms, half-shrugging, holding them open in a calculatedly magnanimous gesture. "Why do you assume that I was tormenting anyone? I only asked Ilari why Vermin tend to only be depicted in Woodlander pictures when they're being conquered, such as in the tapestry. /Perfectly/ innocent!"

The foxes last words cause Ilari to pause in the middle of his escape, he turns to look towards the fox and debates on several different things that he could say to the contrary. Deciding against doing anything else right away the mouse finishes rolling up his work then takes the charcoal stick from his mouth, leaving a black smudge on his lightly colored face, its only then that he decides to speak up " N-n-n-not w-wi-with h-how y-y-you im-i-implied i-it. "

Amarro crosses her arms over her chest and looks expectantly at the fox, waiting interestedly to see how he's going to respond. The squirrel does have the misfortune of having walked into the room in the middle of the situation and has no idea how it came to be.

Dismissively, the fox waves his paw, as though trying to blow a bad scent from the room. "I cannot be held responsible for how you heard things. I merely asked an honest question. Is that so wrong?" The fox gives a shrug, then frowns, though it's not half as sad as he intended it to look due to the gash at the side of his mouth, which makes it seem like he's still half smirking. "You seem so /testy/ about that tapestry!"

Ilari turns away from the fox and starts over towards another table, he really doesn't have a clue what to do now or how to respond to that. So with eyes on the floor and drawing in paw Ilari shuffles on over to a table that is two over from where he was. Once the mouse gets what he thinks is far enough away for the moment he unrolls the drawing, takes a seat and starts acting like he is working on it again, but his paws are still shaking far to much for that to be possible.

A younger, more rash Amarro would've just gotten it over with and punched the fox in his smug little face. But the squirrel is old enough now to know that it won't solve any of the problems the fox is causing. With Ilari safely relocated elsewhere, she straightens up and glares at the fox. She's fairly tall and can easily make eye contact with him. "I am beginning to regret my decision to allow you to enter this abbey, fox." Amarro intones, her voice low. "I swear to you that if I hear one more story about you intimidating the inhabitants of Redwall I will make it my personal mission to get rid of you."

If Amarro was expecting the fox's eyes to dart away from hers as she stares into them, they don't, and Caddock stares straight back, his eyes narrow slits of pale green. "Aye. I believe you, squirrel. And knowing how you Woodlanders like to treat the likes of me, I'm sure it'll be with a knife to the stomach, won't it?" He holds his gaze for a moment more, then breaks it, shaking his head and closing his eyes, finally bending over to retrieve his book, the firelight catching the title: 'Minor Warlord Invaders of Redwall Abbey'. Quite miffed by now, he takes his seat in one of the chairs by the fireplace, reopening his book and taking out his pince-nez, perching them on his muzzle and beginning to read once more, letting Amarro get off her parting words to his flank, should she have any.

Ilari finally gets his trembling under control enough that he can start in on his drawing again. Passing the charcoal stick from one paw to the other the mouse starts to work on the details that surround the abbey again, as well as adding more random detail. Ilari's paws have already acquired a good amount of black dust from the stick as the darkened selves of his tunic can attest to. Wiping his paws on his tunic the mouse furtively glances up every now and again to the exchange between the fox and squirrel.

Amarro doesn't waste her words which would've gone unheard anyways. Instead she turns to leave the room, passing in front of Ilari and giving him a quick wink. Then she's out the door and perhaps the quick thud of boots jogging up stone stairs can be heard as she makes her way to the dormitories.

Rue seems to be adept at doing all the things that are known to wear on the Abbey's famed hospitality; fight, argue, and eat prodigious amounts of food. When she appears tonight she is doing the latter, and judging by her asymmetrical gait, she's been doing some more of the former. At first it is only her back that can be seen as she pushes the kitchen door, walking backwards carefully. When she thinks it's safe she turns, revealing arms laden with all sorts of treats; half cooled leftovers from that night's dinner. One can count among the pile a quarter of a wheel of hard orange cheese, a bottle of October ale, several strips of cured fish and an /entire/ red currant pie. Her mouth is full to bursting with one of these things, and her eye attends the armful only, making sure it doesn't fall. She only manages to spot Ilari out of the corner of her eye, sparing a glance quick enough to identify him only as a mouse. "Huff. Guite da nide, wod? S'a wondah ya're all nod round as barrells." Her voice sounds muffled by more than just food, and if any beast cared to look, they'd see the pink of her nose is now purple and swollen.

At first Caddock takes absolutely no notice of Rue's entrance, the fox's shoulders bunched up in tension after his confrontation with Amarro, and his nose buried in his book to desperately try to shift his mind. Naturally, as fate so often has it, the absolute last thing he wants to deal with practically comes trotting up, and the hare he'd gotten into a scuffle on his first day strolls in. Since her mouth is so full of food, Caddock doesn't even recognize Rue until she sounds off the familiar "Wot!" that no hare seems to be able to avoid using. Seeking to bury himself in the armchair he sits in, Caddock slouches lower and hopes that she doesn't notice him. He just doesn't have the patience for this tonight!

Fully adsorbed by the details of the drawing Ilari fails to notice the laden hare's entrance, even then its not until the beast speaks that his head comes up from the drawing. On seeing the overloaded beast Ilari thinks about offering a paw, but hesitates, the earlier encounter with Caddock has left him even more timid than the norm. Finally the mouse gives a half hearted quick wave to signal that he had heard and then quickly looks back down to his work. The diagram itself is starting to look like more of a work of art now that more and more of the areas are gaining detail. On the paper is a to scale drawing of the abbey and its immediate surroundings, including the woods, road, and ditch.

Fortunately for Caddock, Rue has eyes only for what's immediately in front of her. She is perplexed by the mouse's wordless greeting, and waddles over to his side, her left leg dragging a bit as she seems uncomfortable with putting any sort of weight on her knee. She cranes her head over Ilari's shoulder and watches his progress with keen interest, releasing the entire pile of food unceremoniously on the table below. It lands with much clatter, and the booze starts to roll almost ponderously towards the edge. "Bloody...where'd ya learn da do thad?" She asks. She stands like that for a moment longer until the glug of the bottle's contents catch her ears and she dives to retrieve it. The sudden action causes her knee to give way and she masks the weakness by plopping down hard on the bench, letting out a loud breath and stretching the offending leg surreptitiously under the table.

Knowing that he's being ignored (considering this arrangement just fine, thank you very much) and hoping that Ilari won't mention that he was talking to him earlier, Caddock relaxes into the chair and lets out a sigh, wincing as he realizes that he did that out loud. Oh well, who'd notice that? He continues to read quietly, every now and then glancing up and letting his eyes look over cavern hall, shaking his head at it as though he's amazed it's still here.

Ilari goes slightly wide eyed as the hare flops down next to him with its great heaping pile of food. Sliding away from the hare ever so slightly Ilari just stares for some little while before he remembers to answer. " I-I j-jj-just d-do. " with that the mouse looks back down to the work and slides it over so that its centered again. Taking the charcoal back up the mouse starts back in on the drawing hoping that the hare will lose interest shortly. The only other motion that the mouse makes is to glance back at Caddock every now and again when he thinks that the fox is not looking, just to make sure that the beast is still /over there/.

Who'd notice that? A beast with ears as big as a trout, that's who! At first these appendages are pointed in the mouse's direction, and quiver slightly with every stammer. But Rue shows no other sign of noticing Ilari's impediment; she just chews pensively for a minute as she stares at the drawing. She's not the most talkative beast either. But the sigh catches her attention and her eye snaps up to spy it's source. Suddenly her mood is somber, the food turning to ash in her mouth. Her face is still as she stares at the fox, but her ears flush ten shades darker, hinting at strong negative emotions under the surface. There is a pregnant pause. Then she coughs pointedly, uncorks the ale with her teeth, and begins talking, forcing cheer into her voice. "Ya should cound yaselv lucky then, mouse. Very few beasds I've met actually have a natural knack fah things. 'Cept of course violence." Rue stares pointedly at Caddock, drinking down more than a few mouthfuls of the stuff.

After everything that happened earlier, just the sound of Ilari stuttering is enough to cause Caddock to grit his teeth, his molars no doubt making a rather nasty shriek for beasts with sensitive ears to enjoy. Something about the way the atmosphere changes alerts Caddock that something has gone /extremely/wrong with his attempt to remain unnoticed. He peeks around the edge of the armchair and his eyes fix right on Rue's, the fox staring into them as a sound of anguish rises from his stomach and out his mouth before it can be stopped. Though no words come out, his lips still move, mouthing out a simple, "Why now?" He tries to get back to his book, but his ears are burning, and the ache in his ribs he'd just /almost/ been able to shove aside comes back in spades. The words jumble in front of his eyes as his mind is suddenly assailed with a dozen thoughts that capture his attention far better than the book could ever attempt to. The obvious barb towards him becomes even /more/ obvious considering Rue's staring at him, and considering that Caddock keeps glancing from her to the book, attempting to be discreet about it while simultaneously failing to do anything of the sort. His and Rue's history and the irritants of the night get to him, and he can't help but snap back. "Oh, aye! You're lucky indeed, mouse. The only beast I've met who has a natural knack for anything specializes in talking out of her hindquarters!"

Looking up form his diagram turned artwork Ilari looks rather startled at Rue and blinks several times in confusion, he opens and closes his mouth several times stammering " I-I-I... w-w... Y-ye-y-yes m-ma-mm-mam. " then nods dumbly. With a sinking feeling the mouse follows the hares stare towards Caddock then quickly looks back to his work making superficial movements with the charcoal stick as he tries again to escape notice by feigning adsorption with his work. After a few moments of drawing nothing though Ilari starts adding leaves to the trees that surround the abbey drawing, a few here a few there never one whole tree at once. When Caddock speaks the mouse lifts the charcoal from the paper and draws little circles in the air over it. When the mouse is mentioned Ilari cringes and draws his little air circles over the parchment faster and faster thinking if I ignore it it might go away!

Many seasons of shouting orders at beasts, and taking them in turn, over the din of battle have made Rue an expert at reading lips, and she thinks the mute plea is intended for her. Her lips release the neck of the bottle with a soft 'thup' and she lets loose a snarky, obnoxious laugh. She then takes hold of the cheese and begins to devour it in a very unladylike fashion, no knives or accompanying scones anywhere in sight. "Ach, dinnae call me Ma'am," she pleads, scrunching up her face, "Tha's sumdin' ya call ole nanny beas-!" Caddock renders her momentarily speechless with indignity. Really, the nerve of that fox!

Now that Rue's got his attention, Caddock is finding it impressively hard to look away, shooting her a rather scornful glare that's become intermingled with illness. How can hares eat so much and so messily? That settles it. Hares are now vermin, as far as Caddock's concerned. Nothing can be a Woodlander with manners like that. The speechlessness, however, is /intensely/ rewarding, and the fox allows himself a triumphant, victorious, "Hah!" shot straight in Rue's direction so she can't mistake his gloating for something more innocent.

Ilari spins the charcoal stick faster and faster in the air above the parchment thinking about how this could get any worse, then it does. As he had been going faster with the stick so had Ilari's grip on it been tightening, so with a dry snapping sound the stick breaks in half. Slowing his speeding paw to a stop the mouse looks at the now halved stick with a dumbfounded look as he hears Rue's instructions he automatically starts to answer. " Y-yy-ye-yes m-mm-ma errrr... " Realizing that he just started to what he wasn't supposed to the mouse turns a shade of blush himself and sets half of the stick aside, in doing so however he dumps charcoal dust over the drawing and hastens to remove it. Pushing the black dust all over the table, and getting it all over his lightly colored fur Ilari hangs his head, nothing is going to go well tonight is it?

At this point Rue has little attention left to give Ilari; it's mostly split between wanting to punch Caddock in the gut and wanting to show him that he is /not/ going to ruin her meal. She drops the half eaten cheese, clears her mouth with a swig of ale that empties half the bottle, and pulls the pie towards her. "If ya remembah correcdly, I showed ya jus' 'ow much my word means yestahday," she reminds him, the implied threat veiled so thinly it could take shape and dance about the room without loosing any subtlety. She then pulls a spoon from somewhere on her person, as odd as that seems, and plunges it into the center of the pastry. Only then does she turn to check up on the mouse, and her eyebrows unknit with surprise. "Careful, dinnae want ta smudge it." But her words of caution come a bit late.

That is odd. That's /really/ odd, frankly. Why does Rue have a spoon? Caddock can't puzzle this out, and simply chalks it up to another identifier of the absolute gluttony that hares love to indulge in. Just the mention of yesterday is enough to make Caddock's ribs sore, and before he can stop himself, he reaches up and rubs them, wincing as he realizes that he's showing that he's still in pain. Rather than shoot a zinger back, Caddock chooses to address the hare with a simple question. "How's your knee, rabbit?" He fixes her with a somewhat bored and impetuous smirk, cradling his chin with a paw while resting his elbow on the arm of the chair. Silently he steels his stomach, preparing to watch Rue dig into the pie with all the manners of an eel in a mud pit.

Ilari continues to try and be unobtrusive as possible as he removes the black dust from the parchment, until Rue's words reach him, then jerks forward and rubs some of the stuff over the gatehouse. Looking down at the splotch in horror Ilari takes the sleeve of his over sized tunic and starts trying to lighten the spot as best he can. Well now that the gate house is darker than the rest of the of the buildings the mouse removes the rest of the dust and tries to decide what to do now, then remembers to answer the hare " Y-yy-yes m-mm... m-m-mm-miss. " Picking up the longer of the now two sticks Ilari tries to get back to drawing the leaves of the trees at random when he hears Caddock again, then he starts thinking that he should get out of the line of fire.

Any soldier worth their salt, expatriated or not, always has the essential supplies on paw. It doesn't seem too strange to Rue. And one should suppose that this is a good thing, as the utensil seems to force some semblance of table manners. Relatively speaking. All that /really/ means is that when the food falls it lands on the table instead of her tunic. The doe wipes some of the goo from her lip with her thumb and casts an admonishing glance at Caddock before she turns to Ilari. Is that...sympathy...in her eyes? Who knew she was capable of such an emotion. She says nothing further until the fox makes his last remark, at which she snorts. It does not sound pleasant coming from a recently reset nose. "A ride side bettah than ya chesd, I bet."

If Caddock heard that explanation, it'd result in a week's worth of jokes about how hares value their scoff more than their weapons. Fortunately, he hasn't the slightest clue still and can only wrinkle his muzzle in disgust as he watches Rue force an innocent spoon to perform vulgar acts at the dinner table. The admonishing glance is /completely/ wasted, as Caddock simply retorts with an overly toothy smirk, amplified by the hole in the side of his face. Caddock lets a yawning chasm of silence fill the air between himself and Rue before he comes up with his next retort. "Oh, you mean chest! Hellgates, rabbit, you're even harder to understand with that messed up nose than you usually are!"

Trying to scoot down a bench in a room with two beast throwing verbal daggers at each other is no easy task, especially for one who is as nervously wound up as Ilari. Once he has increased the distance to just out of his arms reach the mouse stops, he has managed to mop up most of the charcoal dust that had found its way to the bench with his tunic, that thing is getting quite sooty looking now. Setting the stick he has in paw aside the mouse reaches over to the short half that's nearer the hare and grabs it, his tunic sucks up the remaining dust like some kind of magnet before coming back to drop it by the other stick, in the process of doing so he misses the look from Rue. Now with a tunic that is more black than blue Ilari starts trying to add some small lines to detail the main walls with blocks, sun, and shadow, at least until he starts wondering if he moved far enough away from the hare to avoid flying objects.

Rue is able to actually distract herself for a time by watching Ilari's movements. She is not generally one for making friends, but at this point an ally in her campaign against Caddock would be welcome, and she is more than a little disheartened by his silence. Food is her consolation of course, and not once does the spoon pauses in its repeated trips between pastry and mouth. In short order she's tucked away all but the outer crusts of the pie, and is on the last spoonful of filling when the fox needles her once more. Really, it doesn't bother her to hear her injuries made light of, but there's the 'R' word again. And she thought they were past that. The doe stands suddenly, causing the table to lurch forward and whips the spoon, filling and all, at the chair he occupies. "Dake /thad,/ gabface!"

Long Patrol training /clearly/ involves pastry flinging, because the gob of pie filling flies through the air and falls smack dab on the side of Caddock's muzzle, the splatter getting a bit of the gunk in his eye and causing the rest to dribble down onto his coat. Paw claps to eye as the fox leaps up from his chair like he was stung by a bee, and he lets out a pained squall. He shouts at Rue now, all calmness utterly abandoned from the unexpected pain of getting something delicious in his eye. "Augh! What! What was that?! What was that for you bloody, long eared, mangey, hopping fleabag?!" He rubs his eye furiously, trying to get it clear of the oozy mixture of filling and crumbs.

Ilari takes a quick peek over at the fox just trying to gauge how bad things were getting, then quickly turns back to his drawing. If there is one thing that the mouse likes about the feasting hare that is next to him it is this, so far she has left him relatively well enough alone, but he thinks that might only be because the fox over yonder is acting like a lightning rod for her attention. Ilari was starting back into his drawing quite well, several patches of the walls showed the lines of blocks, cracks, and the falls of shadow, then the table moved. SWISH across one of the walls goes a thick dark line as the table rises up from the mouse and all he can do is sit there, frozen in place looking totally mortified as another mistake is added to the drawing. So frozen in his own terror at the error on the parchment the mouse totally fails to notice the foxes cursing.

It's now Rue's turn to indulge in a triumphant "Hah!" as a victory prize, she reaches down, breaks a section of the pie crust away from the rest, and pops it almost daintily into her mouth. Ilari is quite right; the only reason she doesn't pay him more attention is the immediate threat of the nearby Caddock. And now she is reveling in the fox's ire, as usually it's her who loses her temper first. And no, she doesn't count throwing utensils as losing your temper. The doe tsks, wagging her pie covered forefinger side to side "Wod language, I nevah!. Huh." She shrugs, a snide grin splitting her face. "Stigs'n sdones, luv."

Completely failing to hear whatever Rue's telling him, the fox busies himself with gathering up all of the gooey pie filling in one paw, wiping it away from his eye and his muzzle and his coat, then nonchalantly shaking his paw clean of the filth. ...Unfortunately, he's not looking where he's casting it, and it sails far further than he intended, the pie filling soaring through the air until it lands on Ilari's drawing with a wet, vulgar 'splop'. Caddock hasn't even realized what he did, for he's far too busy staring at Rue with one pale green eye and one that's more of a tacky greenish-pink. His mouth moves up and down as though he's trying to think of something to say, but nothing he's coming up with is nasty enough to enunciate. No doubt Rue could read some rather nasty words on his lips.

Ilari just stares at the newest scar that has been added to his drawing with his paw clutching the charcoal stick, still raised to where the table had left it. The further calls and gibes go right past the mouse, right now one could probably call his state catatonic. The shorter stick of charcoal had rolled off of the table after its sudden bounce and currently resides on the floor, its probably going to stay there to. When the next shock comes in with a Splop! Ilari teeters backwards on the bench, yep that drawing is now pretty much totally ruined. The mouses backward motion does not stop, he keeps tipping until THUMP hes on the floor, the poor fellow had been working on that drawing for the better part of the last week.

Rue swallows audibly and makes an exaggerated noise of delight, rubbing her not-even-full belly "MMMMmmmmMMMM. Bositively Top 'ole! Really, fox, dinnae ya agree now ya've had a dasde of id?" She winks impishly, completely indifferent to the pie-missile or where it lands, and plucks the bottle from the table. She leaves the fish where it is, doubting it would follow pie well, and turns towards the kitchen door, fairly certain that she will be able to get more food now the cooks have gone to bed, and probably some celebratory drinks, hopefully much more potent than this Abbey slosh.

Caddock is still rubbing his sore eye, and predicts that it'll likely be this way for quite a while. He still hasn't seen just where the pie missile landed, and for the present he certainly doesn't care. The thump, however, makes him jump, as he doesn't quite understand where a noise that loud could come from without Rue being in the room anymore. He takes a seat on the arm of the chair, no doubt plotting some kind of overly-spiteful revenge against the hare.

The mouse kicks up a small could of black dust on impact with the floor, he makes not a move for several minuets. Finally the mouse starts to twitch and sneezes twice from the small cloud of dust, however after that he is still again and his eyes are unseeing as well as unblinking. After probably six minuets the mouse finally starts to pick himself up off of the floor looking the total picture of dejection as he rubs dust from his eyes.

Caddock sits for a moment more, plucking at his lower lip in thought, then eventually standing up and gathering his things. He gives a despairing look at his coat, hoping that the pie filling won't result in an ugly stain. Book under his arm, he starts to head out of Cavern Hole and towards the dormitories, reflecting that an entire night was basically wasted arguing with a mouse, a squirrel, and a hare. He lets out an irritated sigh, then his eyes happen to catch sight of Ilari looking over his ruined drawing. The fox shrugs at him, not a very pitying beast at all, calling to Ilari. "Well now. I guess maybe you should have drawn a fox." And with that, he's gone, letting the door to Cavern Hole slam behind him.

Once Ilari looks back to his drawing again he almost falls over once more as he sees the layer of pie that covers it. For some time he stands there staring at the mess until the stick of charcoal that had been in his paw snaps and falls from his paw with a small shower of dust. When Caddock passes the mouse is speechless, he can't even begin to form a reply until after the door slams shut, then the mouse lets go completely out of character for himself " Y-yy-you fat b-bottomed d-du-duster t-tailed sl-slop faced ex-excuse f-for a t-t-t-toads u-u-uncle! " For a moment after his little exclamation all the mouse can do is stand there and seethe, grinding the remains of the stick into the fur on his paw. Then it hits Ilari that the fox might of heard what he said so in his haste to escape he trips over himself several times in grabbing the pie coated drawing and making for the stairs out of cavern hole.