Well..Lest They Found The Under Martens...Now What?(Kidnapped Abbot TP)

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The King Below's camp is quite a way under the abbey, deep within the ruins, the large Pine Marten king and his dark furred cohorts have tidied their camp up quite nicely. It is professional, tidy, neat, well-lit and incredibly well guarded. Benar is being kept in a tent with Rascal of all beasts, separate from the other abbey members who were kidnapped. The abbot, despite being a captive however has managed to somehow stay clean, presentable, well turned out and calm, sitting at a table sipping tea and ignoring the guards waiting outside.

One of the many guards stays by the tent entry, being far underground seems to not upset her as she is use to it, maybe most of her life in fact, she does yawn as she looks back and forth. She keeps a sword at her side.

Thunk, thunk, thunk.

Well, MOST beasts are calm at least. Unsurprisingly Rascal is not one of them. The red fox has awakened for the first time since being kidnapped, or perhaps fox napped and beaten over the head. It was not a pleasant experience. There was much screaming, begging, pleading, and a generally pathetic display of ones lack of bravery. And that was all before his vision finally cleared up and he realized that he had been haggling his life with a wooden post. To be fair, martens and wooden posts do look similar when one can only see a brown blurry mass in front of them.

Five minutes after waking up Rascal is now making good use of his time by pounding his fuzzy head into the same table Benar is at. "Dead. Dead. Dead." The fox comments with each THUNK. He pauses to chuckle darkly, "Figures...the only way I could get out of the abbey without being mauled by shrews was being kidnapped by martens." The fox leans back and peers at the room around him, "Where in the blazes ARE we anyway?"

Benar says, "We are in Kotir, or the ruins of it, I believe it was the fortress of the Greeneye Wildcats who once ruled Mossflower as tyrants." He takes a sip of his tea and looks at Rascal, "You really should calm down. We are hardly dead; if they wanted to kill us we would be dead already."

The female marten guard stays by the tent entry, she looks ready to go inside for a brief few seconds when the fox gets extra noisy but takes a deep breath and stays at her post and just shakes her head and mutters something about annoying fox and how she may have to shut it up somehow, maybe he is giving her a headache.

Logically speaking, that is true, but all the fox hears is 'they can kill us at any time.' The fox slumps deeper into his chair, "Some how I don't find that very comforting." Nursing the head ache between his ears the fox cringes, "So we were taken by a group of underground tunnel rats. Lovely. Any idea what they want with us?" Rascal glances at the marten outside and then to the abbot, "Or rather, what they want with YOU?"

Benar says, "I am the Abbot of Redwall, though I do not think they were intending to grab me at all, I was an accident. My last interview with the King was quite illuminating. His martens were to nab a bunch of Redwallers and start making demands for food and slaves and such. But as they have grabbed me they don't quite know how to get their demands heard." He sips his tea, "They seem to think you are my Champion, everyone knows the Champion of Redwall is a fox after all and my denials to this fact are just some elaborate smokescreen to give you the chance to escape and rescue me."

The guard at the door is maybe listening and maybe she isn't. It’s hard to say. She does seem bored though and seems she rather be elsewhere than by this tent, but she has been told to stay here so here she stays.

A mixture of emotions flows through the fox's muzzle. Despite his claims at being swift on the uptake it takes a while for the processor in his fuzzy little brain to take in this information after rejecting it several times. No, that can't be true. It just.../can't/.

Finally the fox starts laughing. It starts softly, then crescendos into a loud cackle before slowly subsiding into a pitiful whiny cry. Rascal lets his head rest against the table, eyes wide in shock. "I'm going to die. I'm going to die at the paws of idiots..." Passing a glance again at the guard the fox whispers to Benar, "But if they think I am.../gulp/ the champion...what happens if they want me to...to..." another gulp, what happens if they want him to prove that he is the champion? What happens if they find out he isn't? Which is worse? His voice simply trails off until, "What do we do? W-what is going to happen to me?"

Benar refills his tea cup, "You are going to be quite well Rascal, as long as you are with me nothing will happen to you. Ah here comes the Princess..." Another female marten is approaching the tent; she stops by the tent entrance and peers inside then glances at the guard, "So these are father's guests...."

The one guard, getting very annoyed now, speaks "Yes, the one fox needs slapped hard. Maybe you can slap him or better yet stab him and make him shut up. Their abbot seems calm, he has manners the fox lacks them"

The Princess sneers and shakes her head, "Teach him a lesson about manners then"

The fox let's out a pitiful squeak. His first instinct is to belt out, "hey! I'm not who you think I am!" But, would that really be wise? They think him a Champion...or rather a champion trying NOT act like a champion so he should act like one...like a champion not acting like a champion and...blazes his head hurts, even more so then the head wound.

"Wait...what?" Rascal says as he catches up with the conversation. Oh light...they are going to teach him MANNERS, which usually means something physically painful being inflicted upon his person in a very un-mannerly way. He swivels his head around to Benar, "This is what you call /well/?" He hisses in a whisper before turning to the martens.

"Now ladies, I'm sure there is no n-need for violence. I mean, we wouldn't want to get fox blood all over such lovely fur...right?" Yes...this is going to go well...

The marten guard smirks and walks in, she nods to the abbot and glares at the fox, oh he is right the blood..well she is just a guard and she is doing the slapping. She lifts her paw and then goes to slap it across Rascal's face a couple times before she glares at him, “You are far too loud, you have no manners you fox, how are you put up with?" She looks at Benar as if to start to ask him and then turns back to Rascal “You will sit upright and show respect to the princess fool!!"

Benar asks, "You are alive aren't you?" The squirrel murmurs as the guard does her thing. The Princess smirks softly and walks in to look down at Benar, "You have style and poise tree-rat, I can see why Father is flummoxed by you as for your champion," She glances back at him, "He is little threat, we should be taking your abbey from below now, not lurking here." Benar chuckles softly, "But you beasts do not want the land above, you want Kotir, the tunnels beneath and I think slaves on the surface?" The princess sniffs and turns back to Rascal, "Why do you serve this... this tree rat, why lower yourself to serve such scum?"

Rascal takes the slapping like a man. A man who with no pain tolerance at all. He yelps as his nose is bloodied, nearly falling out of his chair. "You know, sometimes I wonder..." The fox wipes his arm across his muzzle, "Beats serving a bunch of underground moles, sorry I mean martens." Rascal may not be the bravest, or the smartest, or the most enduring, but he just...can't stop talking, especially when he is angry, and afraid, and right now, he is both.

"I can see why you have slaves on the surface. I mean, insects are driven away by sunlight, right?" And instantly bites his lip to keep himself from saying more.

The Princess snorts, more of a laugh then anger, "Oh slap him again, maybe a couple of times really to remind him of his place." she turns and starts to walk out, "Well your Abbotship, I believe your little abbey will serve us sooner or later. Your rescuers bumble in the tunnels above whilst we hold you here." As she walks out Benar speaks quietly, "He is watching, Kotir can be yours, if you but accept freedom is above."

The guard glares, how dare he call her a mole, this time she goes to slap Rascal even harder, if it connects it may even be hard enough to break his nose, she snorts and studies the fox, "I think I will ask for permission to kill you fox....just you for now"

SMACK!

The fox spins out of his chair, landing on the dirt floor where he rocks back and forth for a moment before trying to get to his knees. A small part of the fox's brain is telling him to shut up, scamper off into a corner and cry, but another part just, refuses to shut up for reasons beyond his control. The two conflicting emotions meet and produce, "Ah yes, that's the way to slay the Champion of Redwall." He rolls onto his back, his smile is missing a tooth, "Then, years from now you can tell your great grand dibbuns that you killed the mighty Champion of the Famous Redwall, in an honor less match while he was wounded and unarmed. I bet your drinking buddies would love it too."

Why, won't he shut /up/? Thinks Rascal about himself.

The Princess looks back at Benar with a frown and shakes her head and walks out of the room and back across the camp. Benar places his tea cup down and waits for a moment until the Princess and her guards are gone, "Not bad Rascal, you could even make me believe it was true. Now I do believe our guests are here and we simply must be ready to leave. After all you can't expect the Captain to take on an entire camp but to sneak in quietly, find our tent with all the noise you are making in it? Why it'd be remiss not to take such an opportunity whilst the guard is inside, alone and out of sight."

The guard walks back to the entry, she missed most of the talk as she just grins and seems happy at slapping the fox.

The fox growls at her departure. Slowly he stands up, nursing his jaw, "Wait...what?" He says after a fashion, "Wait, run that by me again? I can't tell if you are being sarcastic or if I just missed some of that on account of the room spinning." he shakes his head to clear it. "So you WANT me to make noise? Sure thing, why didn't you say so. I'm actually good at noise. I can make all the noise I want! You hear that world! I'm makin noise!" The fox belts out, spinning around and kicking the table over in frustration and anger, "Behold! The redwall Champion is going to come and gut the lot of you! With a SPOON! Ya hear? I'm gonna mangle each and every one of ya like a pirate...and...stuff and blazes did I really lose a tooth? You jackwagons! You didn't even have the decency to bring me cake! What kind of captors are you? Not bringing your captives cake! Or gruel! Where is my gruel you @#$%!"

Benar says, "Yes that will do nicely, keep it up Rascal," He sips his tea again and waits patiently.

The guard cups her ears and glares at the tent and looks back to the area away from the tent, just count to ten and breath in and out. Think happy thoughts like the fox in a pool of red..yeah happy thoughts..ummm sort of?

Lee is far away in the ruins, having lost DoraRose, Anomen, Chud, and even John. But, the tunnels and ruins are like a giant echo chamber. He can hear faint yelling, which he follows.

Benar says, "Well keep it up Rascal, the louder the better," he peers into his empty tea cup and tsks loudly and pushes it aside. "Say ten more minutes of that level of noise then you can stop. That should give everyone a nice bead on where we are."

The guard would hear that but the fox is way too loud and her paws cover her ears best they can, and they walked off and left her here to guard the tent, by herself and this is annoying her. She snorts and yells, most likely a bad move,"SHUT UP!!!” Guess what? That echoes also.

With a curt nod and smile the fox lifts his head to the heavens and begins to belt out sea chanties. Since Rascal doesn't actually know any sea chanties he just mixes the lyrics. "99 bottles of bee's wax on the wall, take one down, pass it around, run off screaming cause you are being stung by bee's you sorry git! King hennery the 18th I am! All fat and angry and grouchy cause no one likes my sooooooooOOOOooooOOooooOOoong!"

The fox turns to the marten, crossing his arms and giving her the cold shoulder, "Oh! A music lover I see! Well good thing too! Cause...I'm the very modeEeerrn piniiiIIIical of a very modern geeeeEeEEenerAAAAaaaAAAl!"

Lee hears the faint echo of atrocious singing, and follows.

The guard growls, she looks ready to slap the fox again, she would rather enjoy that too. She was just told to guard them, that means she can do what she wants correct? She screams loudly and storms inside the tent, unknowing only adding to the noise "Shut up fool or I shall make you shut up, permently!"

But the fox doesn't shut up. Of course Rascal realizes that he is putting his life, in fact all of their lives into the off chance that someone up there can hear them and is indeed coming to their rescue. And it doesn't look like he has long to continue doing so he puts all he has into it, "I am the very model of a modern Major-Geeeeneral, I've information vegetable, beast-tial, and miner-al," He belts out at the top of his lungs, "I know the kings of Southward, and I quote the fights historical From Salamanderstron to Mossflower, in order cat-egorical. I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters matheeeeemaaaaaticaaaaaaal!"

Benar watches Rascal's antics with a calm detatchment, trying not to smile too much

The guard gets out her sword, but she doesn't go to stab him yet, she so should though. She growls and the noise is messing up her control of the sword and to get a good idea where to stab the stupid loud fox, she steps forwards, not aiming anywhere really "SHUT UP OR DIE DUM FOX!"

The music stops in mid verse. There is no lout yelp, or cry, just a pained, startled gasp as the fox doubles over blade running him through the mid-section from Benar's point of view, in one end of his belly and out the other, putting two holes through his shirt.

"Benar..." Rascal manages to gasp as he collapses backwards, curling into a ball with his paws clutching his side.

Lee is still following the echoes, but he has somewhat of a ways to go, yet.

The guard just looks at the fox, well he did shut up and this is good. She smiles and it’s still not clear where the stab was made for sure, she growls at the fox "Maybe you should of shut up then huh?" She goes to step back and chuckles as she goes to walk out. Believing the fox is dead or least will be dead soon.

Benar sighs softly and leans back in his chair, "I really do think it would be best if you quietened down now Rascal. Stop antagonizing the lady" His warning comes too late as the guard stabs the fox and he half starts out of his chair, "You... you do realize the King wants us both alive you... monster!"

Chud and Zarok move after Lee, Zarok sniffing the air quickly and pointing towards the source of the echoes, using his preternatural sense of smell to make up for the confusion of all the noise. "Let'ssss go," He breathes.

The fox rocks back and forth on the ground, blood slowly pouring out of the hole in his side. A few inches to the left and it would be his intestines dirtying up the floor as well. As it is, the blade ran through his side, either by design or poor aim, slicing painfully through the thin layer of meat that the fox had built up from his weeks of Redwall cuisine. "This...this hurts...this hurts bad B-Benar..." The fox gasps. He cringes curling tighter into a ball, then relaxes somewhat. "If...if I die, can you put Redwall C-champion on my tomb stone?" He chuckles softly.

"In short... I-n m-matters vegetable...... beastial... a-a-and mineral...I am the very model of a m-modern Major-G..." The fox hums softly until he passes out...

Moving as they are through the tunnels Lee, Chud and Zarok arrive on a ledge high above the old great hall of Kotir, it has collapsed at one end into what must have once been the outer courtyard, now an underground cave. The cavern is filled with a veritable army of tents and torches. There must be several hundred tents down there and about a thousand vermin, all martens moving about in military precision. Some are drilling, others are relaxing, some are on guard duty and above it all waves the standard of the Under King.... the abbot and the missing abbey beasts are down there somewhere but there is no way Lee and the others can rescue them by force of arms. They are going to have to use stealth and cunning to liberate Benar... there is an army in the earth beneath Redwall.

Chud almost whistles at the sight of the vast host beneath the Abbey, but he stops himself in time. "Wonder how long that's been there," he mutters. Zarok shrugs. "Who care? Let'ssss zneak in."

Lee peers down from the ledge, smiling at Chud. "Oy, mate, I'm glad ye caught up," he says in a hushed whisper. "This is far bigger than I was expectin'." He nods at Zarok, too. "Sneak, yes, but there has ta be a dark corner we can sneak in from."

"We could go back for moles," Chud says thoughtfully. "No time," Zarok growls. "We's could dig oursssssselves. Would a while, but--" "No," Chud interjects. "This is solid rock." Zarok hisses in annoyance. "Sssss."

"Can moles even dig through solid rock?" Lee muses thoughtfully. "Also, I don't know if ye two realize, but we got another concern besides Benar. I came down 'ere with five other beasts, an' in that time, I've lost three. We gotta find them, too."

"Aye," Chud says. Zarok seems impatient. "More beassssts just mean we're more likely to be sssseen." He gets an idea. "What if we put out the torchessss, so they can't ssssee ussss, then kill them all in the dark?" he suggests hopefully.

Lee frowns. "We will not kill, except as a last resort. I intend ta try an' reason wi' their leaders, if at all possible. A proper warrior knows when ta extend mercy an' use diplomacy."

Zarok sniffs. "I ssssmell blood. I don't think they want to reasssssson with ussss." Chud remains silent, crouched, his dirk held in a reverse grip.

Lee sighs. "Maybe not, Zarok, but there be three of us, and heavens knows 'ow many o' them. We are vastly outnumbered, we can't just go in swords blazin'."

Chud nods. "He's right," The younger of the two otters sighs. "We gotta think this through."

Plans will need to be made if the Redwallers are to save their friends.