Foreign Intrusion

[The Skarzs]

Two days earlier. . .
  Had it been a horde of vermin that showed up at his doorstep, Lord Hargath would have made no hesitation to destroy them, or at least drive them off. However, it was not vermin that arrived to seek entrance to Salamandastron, but about a score of mice, shrews, squirrels, otters, even a female badger, and at their head was a creature of legend: a wolf! The badger did let them into his fortress, hearing their pleas for help from the group of vermin that had apparently attacked them, leaving them with the large burden of carrying their dead. Lord Hargath welcomed them as friends, offering his aid for as long as necessary.
  The wolf introduced himself as Vrungin, and gave most courteous thanks to the generous badger. This Vrungin was polite and pleasant, though his, and the creatures' who came with him, accents were odd, causing Hargath's best friend Colonel Sharpeye to grow suspicious.
  When the hare saw the badger lord next, he was laying limp on the ground, his thick skull crushed horribly by some great force of a blunt object. As soon as Sharpeye began crying out orders, all the creatures Vrungin had brought pulled weapons and began attacking with great ferocity the Salamandastron hares; most frightening of all might have been when the canvases covering the "dead bodies" moved to reveal two cats, the likes of which had never been seen. The attackers proved to be terrifyingly deadly, and the colonel was forced to gather as many of the hares as he could, taking them down out an entrance at the side of the mountain to clamber down and away.
  Upon making sure the hares were far from the mountain, Vrungin had his creatures lock up the captured hares before leaving the mountain with most of his force to meet with the rest. . .

Present time. . .

  Vrungin examined the dirt road leading inland.
  "Well, this is interesting. Let us move on. This road goes somewhere, and I intend on finding out. What about you?"
  A small cheer was raised from the motley assortment of creatures, and they started walking in the direction of Redwall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Abbess Hhenf finally sat down at the midday meal, watching creatures move around as she rested in her chair. The day had not only been tasking on the body, but also on the mind; so many creatures had come from outside, and though it was peaceful, she knew that the vermin were out there, and she worried about it all the time for the safety of her creatures.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  A cougar stood at the banks of the River Moss, surveying the forest-covered land around him as creatures piled out of lifeboats from a ship.
  "Foreign land, Commander; do you think Vrungin is here?"
  The armor-clad cat looked up at the dull sky and the bare trees stretching into it. "It's the biggest land mass we've come across for a while; he'll be here. Let us head away from the river a bit and into the forest, see what we can find. It's been a while since we've seen our old friend Vrungin, so let's get-"
  "Friend Vrungin, eh? Well, ol' Metalwhiskers, I'm afraid your friend will have to wait, wot?"
  The commander raised a brow at the strange, lanky rabbit-like creature that appeared from the underbrush in front of him. "And why is that. . . rabbit?"
  The creature's ears shot up straight. "Rabbit? I, sah, am a hare! Salamandastron fighters, form a line!" Dozens more of the hares hopped from the bushes, making a perimeter around the force on the banks with spears, swords and daggers pointed inward. Immediately their opposition raised shields at their front.
  The cougar waved back his archers. "What do you want with us?"
  "We want murdering scum like you off our country!" Colonel Sharpeye called back. "A friend of Vrungin is an enemy of ours, wot!"
  The cougar's scarred face curled into a slight snarl. "Vrungin is no friend of ours; that was merely sarcasm! He comes from our land, the Barkhills, and is a dangerous criminal of ill intent! Lower your weapons, and we shall do the same, for it would be more desirable to have allies than kill needlessly."
  "How can we trust you, eh?"
  The cat walked out in front of his creatures and spread his arms. "On my honor, if you attack me I will not defend myself, but I cannot say the same for my soldiers. Let us talk."
  A moment passed before the colonel ordered his hares to stand down. "What's your bally ol' name?"
  The other bowed stiffly. "I am Karn Warcat, Commander of the Hammer Warriors of the Barkhills. You?"
  "Colonel Sharpeye of Salamandastron. The wolf you were looking for killed our Badger Lord, but he left inland."
  Karn rubbed his chin. "At least we know he's here. Why do you seem so worried?"
  The hare waved a paw east. "Inland is where a jolly old abbey is, a place of peace, wot! If that madbeast reaches it. . . We were on our way there."
  "Then we will join you," said Karn, motioning to his soldiers. Turning back to the hare, he went and shook his paw. "I am sorry for our intrusion into your land, but whether or not the creatures of this country like it, we foreigners must take care of our own, especially when they must never be underestimated."

[Hickory]

A certain lynx was currently wandering Mossflower Wood, trailing an unusual party lead by an intimidating wolf. It was a certain habit of his, to investigate possible employers before offering his services. Narrowing his eyes, the lynx observed Vrungrin. The wolf did seem a little... on the mysterious side. Even Named, who was good at reading beasts, found it hard.

[Eulaliaaa!]

Stashi Bushtail crouched behind a bush, watching an old shrew fish in a river. She had once heard it called River Moss. She fingered the handle of one of her daggers, wondering if she should rob the shrew and take his traveling pack. Looking back, she saw how empty her own bag was, then jumped out from behind the bush and snarled as she notched an arrow to her bow, "Lissen, shrew. I don't wanna kill nobeast, but I'm outta food. Gimma your bag and I'll let you go!" She growled.

OOC: anyone can be the shrew if you want 

[Unimaginative]

Altuth Harjinsson was resting lazily near the River Moss. The otter was content, having a full bag of food and a comfy place to sit in the clearing. It didn't matter to him that the food had once belonged to the two rats that lay slain under a bush nearby. However, the warrior otter was annoyed when his rest was disturbed by some beast speaking nearby. Altuth opened one eye, then pulled himself up, leaning heavily on his simple walking stick. He limped out of the clearing and closer to the river, where he saw an elderly shrew being threatened by a Fox.

"Oi, yeh Fox. Quit bothering that old fool. If yeh need food, I've some to share over here." He motioned back to his clearing with his walking stick. "I wouldn't try anything, though. Bigger beasts than yew have tried to attack me, and I've not yet gotten the short end 'o the stick."

[Eulaliaaa!]

Stashi jumped slightly, mentally beating herself up for not noticing the otter before. She forced herself to smile, knowing from experience that otters were dangerous, "Ahoy there, big fella. Wot a kind offer, matey. And don't worry, otter, I'd not dream of fighting a warrior such as yerself." She said, looking the otter up and down as she slowly lowered her bow.

OOC: is Altuth on the same side of the river as Stashi or the opposite?

[Unimaginative]

OOC: I was thinking the opposite side.

Altuth grinned and motioned for Stashi to join him, before limping back to his grove.

[Izeroth]

 Woodwing flew through the trees, scouting out the ground beneath him. It was not the owl's custom to hunt during the day, but hunger and impatience had forced it upon him. Woodwing would be glad of any prey, be it woodlander or vermin.

The owl's sharp eyes picked up a brown spot on the forest floor-- a water vole. Silently, stealthily, Woodwing lowered his talons and swooped in for the kill. The prey had not a chance of escape.

Swoosh!

In a moment, the vole was gone, and Woodwing was again flying through the forest. That was enough hunting for one day-- he'd return to his home now.

[Eulaliaaa!]

OOC: ok, but Stashi can't swim. I'll just say that there's a fallen tree she can walk across.

BIC: Stashi hesitated for a second, then slung her bow across her shoulder and bounded across a fallen log to the other side of the bank. She followed Altuth, watching his every move for anything suspicious, "So, wot's yer name, big fella? I'm called Stashi. A pleasure to meet yer I'm sure." She said, holding out a grubby paw to shake paws with the otter.

[Hickory]

Named had finished observing Vrungrin. He crept steathily away, unknowingly heading in the direction of Stashi and Altuth.

[The Skarzs]

OOC: Erm, Vrungin's group is pretty far away from the path there.

[Hickory]

OOC: *modifies post*

[Faiyloe]

Phane and Pheranuse walked along the path to the abbey. They where just returning from a long trek that had taken them round about north east up past the river and around west till they came back around to the north south path and decided it was high time they returned to Redwall for a visit. The sun was strong but there was a cool breeze. Pharanuse strode along at steady even pace each stride seeming to take him a mile. This had earned him the last name Evenstride. Phane was hard pressed to keep up and she skipped along beside him to make up for her lack in size, or as she called it Pharanuse'es unfair advantage.

"We haven't seen anybeast since midday yesterday. You don't suppose we got turned around back there and are heading the wrong way," She said peering into the forest as if expecting to see a creature materialize out of the forest in front of her.

"Naw, we passed the river Moss back there, we're going the right way alright,"  He said scratching the back of his neck and rummaging around in his satchel for an apple.

"ahw, its just it's way to quiet, I mean, where'd all the birds go?..." As she spoke she looked over her shoulder at the ground they had already covered, and up the path she spotted a dust cloud. "By gates, look at that," She said stopping in mid skip and spinning around to get a better look.  It took Pharanuse a few moments to realizes his sister was no longer beside him.

"Whats it this time?" he asked uninterested, it was probably just an odd plant or a caterpillar. He turned to see Phane standing tip paw trying to see down the path, a paw on her brow shading her eyes from the sun.

"Look at that," She said pointing with her free paw at the cloud rising from the path behind them.  Pharanuse was suddenly interested.

"What in Mossflower? What could make a dust could like that?" He said starting back towards Phane. She didn't wait for him and bounded over to a tree before scampering up into the first few  branches to get a better look.

"See anything?" he said stopping beneath the tree.

"Naw, just more dust. Their still to far off. But I tell you anyone enough to make a cloud like that is allot," She said.

"You think it could be the longpatrol or sumat?" Peranuse said helping her down.

"Naw, longpatrol's to few," She said as she stepped down onto his large shoulders and  dropped down to the ground from there. Pharanuse debated weather or not to go on ahead to the abbey or to turn back and see who was approaching. Finally Phane interrupted him and said "Come on, make up your mind, there going to catch up with us anyway at the pace they are going. He looked back at the cloud and sure enough it was coming closer at a surprisingly fast rate.

"Lets stop here, we can have lunch and wait for them to catch up with us," he said. Phane was about to plop herself down by the road but Pharanuse stopped her. We should conceal ourselves just in case they are not friendly.

[Ashleg]

Regan was walking along the trail with Vrungin's group, every so often dropping to the back and working her way back to the front again. She weaved her way around a mouse and up to their leader.
"Hey, umm...Chief? Where are we headed?"

[Lady Ashenwyte]

Henri the Chivalrous had been planning to visit Redwall for a while, but had been too nervous to actually go there. He had finally persuaded himself to go there, and had set off a few days ago. He had been following a pair of otters for a while, watching them in amusement. He frowned, the pair had vanished into the undergrowth. He looked behind him, and his frown deepened. He loaded his crossbow, put on his bascinet and called out. " Who art thou, creatures who make such a dust cloud big enough to encompass a badger?"

[Faiyloe]

OOC: its otters. Sorry if the tree thing confused you Phane is kind of odd.