Brian Jacques - Redwall #07 - Mariel of Redwall

Just over half a day of being tugged about blindfolded by the ill-tempered Pakatugg was quite enough for Storm. She had been scratched by nettles, poked by branches and bumped by trees, when finally the recluse squirrel called a halt for lunch. They sat down beneath a wide-trunked sycamore which had pushed itself a fair living space in the dense forest. Storm unbound Gullwhacker from where Pakatugg had placed it about her eyes.

"Hoi! Get that blin'fold back on right now, d'you hear!"

The mousemaid blinked and rubbed her eyes at the shafting sunlight of the green woodland aisles.

"Oh, go and boil your tail, squirrel. How do you expect me to eat lunch with a rope round my eyes?"

Pakatugg pulled food and drink from his knapsack and sniffed. "Leave it off then, but only for mealtimes and don't be gazin' all round, tryin' t' get a fix on your bearin's, eh?"

Storm saw that the hares had left a small stone medallion threaded about her neck as she slept. It bore a badger's head and a flat-peaked mountain insignia. She looked up, countering the squirrel's remark.

"Huh, who wants to see your silly old forest! It's not

68

yours, anyhow. It'd take more than a squirrel dressed as a tree to rule all this. What's for lunch?"

Pakatugg sat on the rucksack, clutching the oatscones and flask he had taken from it.

"Well, I'm havin' these oatcakes and a sup o' this, though I don't know what you're dinin' on. I only said I'd take you t' Redwall, never said I'd feed you as well. That weren't part o' the bargain."

Storm could not believe her ears. She watched Pakatugg smugly munching away at a scone.

"I'd share half of anything I had with a hungry creature, you . . . you greedy branchbound old miser!"

"Right, that's it! I've tooken enough cheek from you, mouse! Shut your mouth an' get yon blin'fold back on, right now!"

Storm tried hard to keep her voice level. "No! I'm not going blindfolded and hungry for you or anybeast!"

Swiftly Pakatugg leaped up and fitted a dart to his blowpipe. "Gotcha now, missie. Do as I bid or I'll deaden your paw fer a season wi' this dart."

As Storm stood up and reached for her rope, the squirrel fired. She threw herself sideways, hearing the thud as a sharp dart buried itself deep in the bark of a nearby pine. Launching herself forward, the mouse-maid thwacked out with her Gullwhacker.

The blowpipe was knocked from Pakatugg's mouth. He sat down hard, his eyes watering copiously as he clutched the end of his nose where the knotted rope had belted him. Storm stood over him, the light of battle in her eyes.

"First you blindfold me, then you starve me, now you try to wound me. Sit still and don't make a move, squirrel, I don't trust you anymore."

Hungrily munching alternate bites from an apple and a scone, she watched the squirrel applying a leaf poultice to his swollen snout. He was muttering fiercely.

"Huh, me, Pakatugg, lettin' a slip of a mouse break me nose!"

69

Storm shook her weapon grimly. "Listen, squirrel. I'm no slip of a mouse, I'm Storm Gullwhacker, so don't think you can bully and trick a creature smaller than yourself. I've split this food into two equal halves. You can go where you want and take yours with you. I'll find Redwall Abbey on my own, without having to protect my back against you."

Grumpily Pakatugg stuffed half of the provisions into his knapsack. He hurried off down the dim trail, yelling back derisively, "Yah! I'm glad you did that, you liddle fool. You'll never find Redwall alone; you'll die in this forest wi'out Pakatugg to guide you."

Storm saw the slight humor of the situation. "Aye, and I'd never have reached Redwall being blinded, starved and wounded," she called back. "On your way, you nasty old fleabag!"

The mousemaid ate a leisurely meal and rested awhile before packing the remainder of her provisions and setting off to find Redwall alone. There was no trace of Pakatugg, nor any living creature, just the still, green summer forest. Storm tossed her Gullwhacker high in the air. It landed with the knotted end pointing in the opposite direction to that taken by the squirrel. Trusting to luck, she strode off in the direction the knot had pointed.

The afternoon wore on. Hardly a breeze stirred the leafy canopy overhead as the tiny figure trekked resolutely through the maze of tree, bush and fern, noting from time to time the position of the sun, which she tried always to keep at her back, knowing that if it set in the west she must be traveling east. To restore her confidence, in the enveloping silence Storm tried to hum odd snatches of songs, but she could not remember any. With a careless shrug she pushed on, the soft swish of her paws through grass and occasional birdsong the only sound that fell upon her ears. Once, she came on a small stream. The mousemaid drank and

70

bathed her paws, wondering what Redwall would look like, if ever she was fortunate enough to find it.

Shades of evening turned the forest to a gloomy black-green vault as Storm plodded on, not sure whether she was going in the direction of her goal or traveling in circles. Gradually every tree, leaf and bush began to look the same. Night closed in on the forest and the mousemaid lost her way completely. She strayed from the dim trail and into impenetrable shrouds of wood and vegetation. Storm kept her confidence up by telling herself that being lost in a wood was better than being lost at sea, but the surrounding night and oppressive silence sat heavily upon her spirit. She fervently wished that it was daylight, or that she could meet another living creature. Sitting despondently at the foot of an elm she sipped mintwater from a flask, ate some white cheese studded with dark roast acorns and decided to await the dawn.

Then she saw the light.

Faintly at first, like an elusive will-o'-the-wisp faraway amid the trees. Swiftly and silently Storm made her way toward it. Still some distance away, she could tell it was a campfire of some sort. There was music too. Some creature was playing a stringed instrument and singing a song in a raucous voice.

"If I were a stone I'd lie alone

Amid the earth and clay-o,

Til some good beastie picked me up

And threw me faraway-o.

Lolly too diddle um

Rinky doo skiddle dum.

There's bread 'n' cheese 'n' cider,

Said the hedgehog maid who sat to supper,

But now 'tis all inside 'er."

It was a funny-looking hare dressed in jester's attire, half green, half yellow. He sat by a small campfire, tinkling a curious stringed instrument.

Storm decided there was no use beating about the bush; she had already met some hares who were friendly. Boldly she strode in and sat down on the opposite side of the fire. The hare winked at her and continued.

"Now my grandpa, he was by far

A dreadful fat old liar.

'It's cold in the river tonight/ he said,

As he sat upon the fire,

'Til my old grandma came along

And hit him with the ladle.

There's another egg been cracked/ she laughed,

As she set him on the table.

Doodle oo lolly turn

Tiddly oodly iddly um.

I loved a rabbit's daughter,

And she fed me on pots of tea

Made out of boiling water."

Storm laughed at the odd creature and his comical ditty. He twitched his floppy ears.

"Now then, young mouse me gel, what can we do for you?"

Storm shrugged. "Not a lot, sir. I'm lost, you see. Perhaps I could rest by your fire until dawn."

The hare shook his head sadly. "Lost! I knew a woodpecker once who got lost."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you find him again?"

"Find him? Of course I found the blighterthat's how he came to get lost in the first place. Who lost youor better still, who do you want to be found by?"

"Nobody lost me, and I'm looking for Redwall Abbey, so how could an Abbey find me?"