The Executioner

[Feles]

Prologue
   Dolores goes by many names, to the goodbeasts he is known as a demon, to rivals he is the Executioner. We call him by the name he has given himself, Dolores. I have never seen him beaten, though our loyalty would not falter if we did. He has never seemed to have an emotion, or even a flaw. We do not know what he wants, or if he wants, though he knows all of us inside out. We will still die for him our lives because he has given us our lives. Dolores is our savior, and to the rest, he is their Executioner. - A note found on a rat's corpse near Redwall.

[The Skarzs]

Most intriguing.

[Captain Tammo]

Thrilling start!

[Feles]

Thank you.

Thrilling start!

Now I hope my first chapter doesn't mess that up.

~
Chapter 1
   "One lone fox?" Boggart said "I thought The Executioner was something to be feared." His gang laughed, but merely to please their leader, Lucin could tell from their voices. His bow was trained on their fat leader, how such a rat got to lead a group as big as the Bleeders was beyond him.
   "Believe what you will, Boggart, we will see, won't we." Dolores responded. His voice was sounded like a whisper, but carried much farther than a whisper ever could, it was unnerving to hear it, even now, after all these years, the emotionlessness of that voice chilled Lucin.
   Boggart, to his credit, didn't falter "Yeah, we'll see..." he paused and whispered to one of his lieutenants, who proceeded to whisper to the rest of the assembled rats "Are you prepared to get slaughtered Executioner?" the rat asked, then yelled "Make em bleed!" The war cry of the gang.
   "How utterly predictable." Lucin muttered disgustedly under his breath, an arrow notched to his bow aiming at one of the more competent fighters among the Bleeders.
   "Keep him alive, I wanna make him squirm" Boggart bellowed
Dolores didn't utter a word, just drew his blade, as if to fight the vermin running towards him. Lucin fired, as did the other 20 beasts in the trees, sufficiently cutting the size of the attackers by half, the rest running back or diving for cover.
"You appear to be missing a few of your rats" Dolores said, emotionless as ever.
"Where did they..." Boggart trailed off as Dolores began to walk towards him.
"To underestimate a foe is to die, Boggart" Dolores spoke as he reached the rat. "You have underestimated a foe." without any warning the fox impaled the rat on his blade. Turning to the other rats he spoke "If you don't wish to be filled with arrows, drop your weapons and line up here." They obeyed, after all, many of their comrades had been shot already, and only from one volley of arrows.
Lucin and the others climbed down from the trees and started over to the line of prisoners, many were afraid, others were angry, but a few were smarter, keeping calm despite their predicament. Dolores strolled down the line, looking each rat in the eye. He picked out one who held his gaze for a full minute. He motioned to two ferrets, Ignus and Freet, and they grabbed him and pulled him away as he moved on to the next rat. Once he was done, and two more rats had been picked out he motioned again and collectively, the archers, Lucin included, took aim and fired.


Chapter 2
"That was unnecessary." Lucin said to Dolores once they were back at camp
"No, it was not, rage and fear in foes inspire them to retaliate... Why do you care, i've made you do worse"
"I felt it was unnecessary, that was all, I thought you wanted to spread fear"
"I do, but not fear and rage, they create more enemies." Lucin sighed, talking to Dolores could gave him a headache, he had no idea how Dolores hadn't outwitted himself years before. Perhaps he was too clever to outwit himself, if that even made sense. "Anything else?"
"Oh," Lucin said startled "no."
"Very well."
Lucin looked after the ashen fox, then around to the tents, all with the Shades of Sorrow insignia on them, a cat's paw with each claw a different shade of grey and the paw itself black.
Ignus walked over and said, "Freet stuck a good bird, you should probably head over there if you want a piece."
"I assume you already got yours." Lucan replied
"Of course"
As Lucin walked over to Freet's and Ignus's tent, he marveled at how orderly the camp and "vermin" in it were. Dolores tolerated no infighting among his ranks and forced them to share food. Lucin guessed that Dolores did it so that the group would have something of a sense of brotherhood and would respect each other, it had certainly worked on Ignus and Freet.
He passed the captured rats, they would be sold to the merchants in the town of Lakepaw. Dolores did many things, but, if he cared to boast, he would boast the best slaves. His specialty was quality over quantity. Thinking about it made Lucin realize he couldn't think of one thing that Dolores wasn't good at. He was a proficient assassin, respected leader, cunning tactician, political genius, and so many more. Lucin gave up trying to find a flaw in his leader as he reached Freet's campfire, those thoughts would have to wait.

[Skyblade]

I certainly hope Dolores isn't as perfect as he seems Interesting idea you've got here.

[Captain Tammo]

You've done a good job setting Dolores apart from your average villain. I wonder how he'd take failure? Would he blame himself or would he blame others?

[Feles]

Sorry about the hiatus, I had other stuff to deal with, so that left me with less time than usual. Though now, its done.



Chapter 3
   Dolores sat in his tent, plotting. He had noticed the slight uncomfortableness in the camp, not from the recent battle, or massacre, he amended, but from a lack of a base of operations. It was an idea he had toyed with for some time, a base of operations certainly had perks, though he had preferred to stay in a moving camp. Though now he had an excuse to find one, he wouldn't pass it up.
The Mountain was out of the question, of course, even with the twenty other beasts in Lakepaw. The Abbey was close, though it had withstood many onslaughts before then. Many powerful warlords found their end there. So the Abbey was the clear option. He would send Lucin to scout the Abbey with a few chosen, watch their habits, look for weaknesses. In the meantime, he would go the Lakepaw and gather the rest of his forces.
Looking for one of his maps of the area, he found a map of the exterior of the abbey and the surrounding land. That map he would give to Lucin.

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

   Lucin was stunned, though he managed to keep his features from showing it. "Attack the abbey!? Why!?" he managed to ask.
"I'm not asking you to attack, i'm asking you to spy on the abbey, you are my spymaster aren't you."
"But you are going to attack the abbey, i've told you of the warlords upon warlords that have failed."
"They didn't know what they were getting into, i'm going to learn what the abbey dwellers do day to day, their habits, if they watch the wall, any weaknesses in the wall, what the inside is like, floor plans if you can manage it."
"Alright, alright, but we only have twenty-"
"forty."
"wha- oh, Lakepaw... but still, forty isn't much compared to what Cluny or Gulo had."
"It is enough Lucin, but I did not call you here to discuss my plans, but to tell you to scout the abbey, infiltrate it if you can, but I want to know these creatures before I attack them."
"Very well, who will come with me."
"Pick four."
Lucin went through the names of the beasts at the camp, filing through their abilities and general skill.
Eventually, he had them, "Wisteria, Ignus, Freet and Vero"
"Very well, gather them and head for the abbey immediately, I will meet you there in a half-season."

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

   Wisteria glanced up from the javelin she had been whittling. Lucin was walking towards her, Ignus, Freet and Vero in tow. "What do you want." She said, slightly standoffish. In her experience, when a group of vermin approached you, you generally were either wanted for something, or were about to get executed.
"I need you for a mission." Lucin replied matter of factly.
"What kind?" Wisteria was still suspicious of the rat.
"Were scouting the abbey."
   "What!?"
   "That's what I said," Ignus laughed "But Dolores is for real with this one."
   "Yeah." Lucin said, glancing back at Ignus
   "What do you even need me for" Wisteria asked, gathering her wit.
   "You're a good infiltrator."
   "How do you know?" Wisteria narrowed her eyes, that was something she had kept to herself.
   "It's my job to know, i'm the spymaster aren't I." Lucin let a small smile appear on his lips. "Besides, i've seen you sneak around during the night."
   Wisteria glanced up at him, unable to keep some of the fear from her eyes. "I haven't been sneaking around." she muttered.
   Vero had finally become impatient with the talk "Listen Wisteria, Lucin chose you because you're a good infiltrator, now let's get going!"
   "Fine." Wisteria said, turning to go, she realized she didnt have any idea which direction the abbey was, with a peeved look she turned to Lucin. "Which way?"
   "West."

[Skyblade]

Those character names are good

Not many stories go from the villain's POV, so this is pretty interesting. And the idea is going on a roll now.

[Feles]

To Be Rewritten...

[Dannflower Reguba]

@Inquisitor: Out of curiosity, where'd you get the name Wisteria?

[Feles]

It's the name of a poisonous flower.
So far as I remember, the poison was like poison ivy, but I liked the name.

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Huh, interesting... I ask because one of my best forum friends back in the day went by the name Wisteria Wildcat, back on the old forum. Seeing this here reminded me of her, and I just had to ask. Your fanfic is going rather well I might add, not quite my style, but that's purely preference, the writing is no doubt solid, and it still intrigued me enough to get me to read it, so clearly you're doing something right. 

[Feles]

Thanks 

[Feles]

Here be the "rewrite":
http://www.loamhedgeabbey.com/index.php?topic=1137.0