The Tale Of The Sabre

[Rusvul]

this is my redwall fanfic about my char, rusvul. idk if this really counts as a fanfic, cause its not about chars in the books, but there are still some chars that are in the book and this fanfic. im not a writer, i tried my best, so without further ado:


THE TALE OF THE SABRE


CHAPTER 1
THE LATE ROSE SUMMER WARS

ssssssthow! sssssthow! ssssthow! "Ha, that'll teach you to speak against orders!'' Cluny yelled in my face. blood was dripping down my face. I saw my friend Rowanclaw standing in the crowd with his arms crossed. he was being awfully helpful, doing absolutely nothing whatsoever to help his friend while he was being whipped by the most merciless of all vermin just for sneezing. Not that there was anything he could do. True, the scourge had been speaking, but was that how they treated folks in armies? I had heard of an army called the Long Patrol, I had heard tales of the crew of vermin fighting them back when they were searats and corsairs. I wondered if this was how they treated their soldiers. Anyway, I was forced out of my thoughts and back into the present when Cluny whipped me again with his tail. this time it was on my snout. I winced. I'd like to say that I laughed at Cluny, fought back, cut his tail off with my sabre and whipped him with it, but the truth is, I just fainted.


When I came to, I was lying on the loam, some mud plastered to my face. One of my eyes seemed gummed shut. "Don't try to move" said my friend Rowanclaw. "And don't try to open your right eye. Cluny whipped it pretty hard. I'm surprised you haven't been permenantly blinded." I looked into my friend's grey eyes. They were filled with worry. He seemed about the only person worried about me. my comrades, my captain, the chief, all of  them seemed to not care if I lived or died. only our skinny weasel medic, despised by all, even those whose life he had saved, actually cared about my life. "I'll be ok" I murmured. "thank you for healing me." He nodded. "least I could do, after you saving me from that snake." I grinned sleepily. "that was nothing, only a slow-worm."  he mumbled something in return, but I didn't hear it, I was already asleep.

In my dream, a kindly mouse in armor stared out at me from a red haze. a bell tolled softly in the background. I felt underdressed in my simple blue tunic and torn green cape. The warrior's sword ( I could tell for sure that he was a warrior, I'm not sure how, but I could) shone like a faraway star, a deep mysterious light that strengthened my heart and put courage into my soul.
" Rusvul the Fox, warrior born,
tis not your time to fight or mourn.
Stand not with the horde, nor with Redwall,
stay here, in time, the bell will fall."

I woke up with dirt and leaves in my mouth. the training officer, skragglenose, yelled at me to get up and start training. he told me to get my smelly face over to the knife throwing targets, and I did. When I got there, there was already someone using the target. "Frog blood" I muttered. it was Leneat Tazzun, the small fox. she wore a green tunic, her belt was festooned with seven deadly throwing knives. She was the only one in the horde who could beat me at throwing knives. nobody else even tried. with my mud-covered eye, she would beat me, no contest. She smirked at me. "What happened to you, mud-face?" she asked. "sneezed out of line. got whipped by the chief." I replied. "Oh" she frowned. "is he getting that bloodthirsty?" "see for yourself" I answered, plying some mud off of my face. Rowanclaw had told me that mud, if left on for more than a day, could infect the wound. otherwise, it healed it. "that's nasty" she gasped. "Watch it!" I joked. "Anyway, feel like getting stomped into the ground at throwing knives?" she challenged. "feel like trying?" I countered. I drew one of my three knives: the longest. all of them were balanced for throwing or fighting.  I hurled it at the target. perfect bull's eye. "Beat that!" I challenged. "Easily. that all you got, Rusvul?" she threw her knife, and it slid into the wrapping on the hilt on mine, severing one of the cords that wrapped the handle of he knife. "Hey!" I protested. We threw a while longer, until skragglenose came by and sent us to sword practice. Rowanclaw was there, nervously holding a thin shortsword and a shield. Leneat found herself a pair of long stiletto daggers, and they faced me. I charged, yelling my warcry, "YOWLOWLOWLOWLOWLOOOOOOO!" they cringed, and then I was upon them, whirling my sabre and my knife in a sort of crazy dance. blocking, parrying, spinning, dodging, slicing, twisting, I lost control. A sort of instinct took over, block, dodge, slice, repeat. when I finally stopped, Leneat and Rowanclaw were on the ground, banged and cut up, my dagger at one's throat and my sword at the other. the stilettos were in the ground behind me, and the shortsword was in the hand that held the dagger, facing backwards. I blinked. "How the heck did I do that?" Rowanclaw stood up fearfully " I'm not sure, but I do know one thing. I'm glad I'm your friend and not your enemy." Leneat nodded in agreement. I returned their weapons.

The rest of the war went much like that, me beating my friends sorely at swords, and Leneat killing me at knives, and us never actually fighting in the war. I don't know why I trusted him, but I did as the strange warrior mouse said. and waited.



and, chapter two, short but here sooner than expected.


CHAPTER 2
THE BELL


One day Cluny led another raid, one conducted through a fieldmouse fearing for his family.he opened the doors and let the hordes in. I was back at camp, helping Rowanclaw tend to the wounded from the last raid. once the horde had been gone for two hours or so, we heard a bell toll, then a mighty crash, and the cacophony of  hundreds of screams. a rat ran into camp, screaming "the chief is dead! we are all lost now. THE CHIEF IS DEAD!" I looked at Rowanclaw. " We need to find Leneat" he said. "It's time to go."
Leneat was throwing knives, and she was quite surprised when one of my knives, the smallest one, whizzed past her eyes and knocked her knife from her hand.  she yelped, then saw that it was us, and grinned. "you got me that time" she admitted. Rowanclaw told her about the crazy rat, and she agreed that we leave with all speed. none of us had much more than was on us, so we decided to run for it. Once we were about a mile away, and I, unused to so much walking, was puffing hard, I slapped myself in the face. "Is something wrong?" Leneat asked. "Ummmmmmmmm, yeah," I replied. "We totally forgot to bring anything edible. how are you at foraging? I'm terrible at it." Leneat nodded in agreement. "Me too. Rowan?"she asked uneasily. "Mmmmmmm, I'm ok at it, I suppose..... a bit out of practice though....."  at that point we heard a loud singing and shouting and squabbling, and the smells of delicious food wafting through the forest. we approached cautiously, and were just about to walk in to ask something, like, say, for food, when a small spiky-furred creature wearing a kilt, a colorful headband, and a dark green vest jumped out of a bush and poked a sturdy little sword at me. "And where do you think you're going, fox?" "I-I- we were just coming to ask for some food. we ran away from some of Cluny's horde." his eyes narrowed at the sound of the name. "If you are going to try to kill me with that shortsword-" "rapier" he broke in "-rapier, I'm afraid I will have to fight you back. I hate bloodshed, but I don't fancy getting killed either." " A fox that doesn't like bloodshed? Ha! A spy, you mean! A bunch of filthy vermin like you? leave the GUORAF camp area immediately or you will find you suddenly have something better to think about than hunger...." I could tell Leneat's temper was starting to flare up.... never a good sign.... "look, spikefur, Cluny is dead, we aren't spies, we only served him because he forced us! we all agree with Rusvul and hate bloodshed, but there is bound to be some if you attack us. we are stronger than we look"  sudden cries came from the camp, and the funny little creature ran off, yelling something that sounded like lagylagylagylagylagylagylagylagylagylagylag!  I heard a primal howl that made my blood run cold. "Vaulx" I murmured. "Who?" Rowan asked me. "Vaulx. half fox, half wolf. horrible creature to run into. his forces have probably been swelling with the remnants of Cluny's army roaming Mossflower. "You seem awfully knowledgable about this Vaulx." Rowanclaw  stated inquisitively. "yeah, well," I almost whispered. "Maybe that's because he's my father.



ok, next chapter

CHAPTER 3
SHREWS AND RAPIERS


Without thinking I charged into the fray, shouting YOWLOWLOWLOWLOOOOOOO!
again, I went into a sort of trance, and time seemed to move slow. I cut down rat after rat, weasel after weasel, stoat after stoat, and ferret after ferret. I hardly knew what I was doing. somewhere at the back of my mind flitted the thought that this was my first real fight; all the others had just been practice. it also occurred to me that I was killing all of these creatures, but that too was shoved aside by everything else. finally I came out of my trance, facing my father, Vaulx, as he snarled in a gravelly voice, "Rusvul. so good to see you." then he charged at me with two of the wooden sticks he used as weapons. they frightened me, they were supposed to kill slowly. I had seen them used before, they were barbed, so that they could be stabbed in but not pulled out. Voulx liked to stab them into his victims, then attempt to pull it out, lodging vicious wooden splinters on the inside of his victims. it was a slow, agonizing death. I blocked and parried, slashed and hacked, even chopped one of the sticks in half. he just drew another of the many ones in his belt. I stabbed one final time, and felt an explosion in my side. then all was black.

I saw a strange forest before me, with a large guarded gate. ghostly figures flitted about in the gloom. ghost.... forest... dark.... "a-a-am I dead?" I asked to nobody in particular. a tall stately fox with a bow walked out of the gloom. "mother?" I asked. "yes," the figure answered. "go from this place. it is not your time. seek the bell, fight the mask, and trust the sword"


I woke staring into the face of one of those spike-furred creatures. it blinked, then said "hello. glad you're awake. just in time for dinner. I'm Melth, a shrew of the GUORAF."  "GOURAF?" I asked. Melth sighed. "guerrilla union of roving and fighting. division of the GOUSIM. that was quite some fighting you did earlier." suddenly I felt weak " did I- are they all- dead?" I said in horror. "aye," the shrew replied, grinning. "tis something to be proud of. they won't be slaying anybeast any time soon. " no, you don't understand" I replied " I have never killed anything in my life. I hate bloodshed."  Melth looked at me differently. "ah, I see. battle shock, they call it. just keep this in mind. all those you have slain would feel no remorse, no regret, had they slain you, and slaying them is the only way to stop the death of countless woodlanders. follow me. I would imagine you would be hungry after all that fighting." I tried to stand up, but felt a horrible pain in my side. I moaned. "ah, don't worry" the shrew said. "we got all those little splinters out, matey. Though you should be dead by rights." he helped me get up in a way that didn't make me feel like I was dying and took me to  the food.

I sat down between Leneat and Rowanclaw. some shrews put food on the table in front of us. watershrimp and wild garlic stew ( I avoided that myself), shrewbeer, strawberry and apple trifle, shrewbread, and something called deeper'n'ever tater'n'turnip'n'beetroot pie that they said they had learned about from the moles and now loved. I ate everything that was put on my plate, and heaped some on it myself. I hadn't realized how hungry I was.
later that night, we were around a campfire roasting chestnuts, and me and my friends were telling our story. the shrews listened in silence. and when we had finished, wailed. "we missed the fight! the GUOSIM got to fight and we missed it! aaaaaagh!" then they became more serious. "of all you killed this day, was your father among them?" I shook my head. I may have banged him up a bit, but he is alive and well.  another shrew with a fancy rapier and a red headband came up to me and introduced himself "I am Logalog of the GUORAF, deputy to Logalog of the GUOSIM. I am pleased to make your acquaintance, Rusvul the fox. I give you a name and this, our finest bow, if you should accept it." he handed me an ornate gilt bow that seemed to be made of cherry wood. I don't know how I knew this, but I knew cherry was rarer and stronger than yew. the best wood for a bow. there was a sabre in gold leaf along the side. there was also a quiver, made of barkcloth. it also had a sabre on it. Logalog drew his rapier and told me to kneel. I did as he asked. he tapped me on my left shoulder and then my right, as he did so saying "I, Logalog of the GUORAF, name ye Rusvul the Sabre, in honor of your fine swordwork and the saving of our tribe. thanks to ye. ye can rise now, the formality is done." I stood. "I am honored by this gift, sir." Logalog winked. "don't be sirrin' me, mate, I'm yer friend, nothing more." we were up until late at night singing and laughing.

[Rusvul]

working on chapter 2
expected post date: the day after tomorrow. could be sooner. could be later.

[AbbotAlf0805]

cool!

[Rusvul]

thanks, i have zero experience as a writer, but i have a good story (at least i think so) to tell. i'm trying to make it work.

[davidfredrell]

Its quite cool and a different story to read.

[Rusvul]

thanks

[W0NWILL]

Great story!
And davidfredrell, welcome to the forum, though this isn't the place.

[Redwaller]

Awesome!

[Rusvul]

wow so many comments all of a sudden! (lol sorta) thanks for your various complements everybody

[Shadowed One]

I really like this story! Though you might want to work on capitalization.

[KitrallStreamrippler]

I really like it- you've got a unique character and I can feel a good storyline working itself out. Don't worry about not having writing experience. Fan fictions are a good place to start.

[Redwaller]

When I asked him, he said that he wasn't sure if he'd continue. If he does, he says he might start over.

[Norham Waterpaw]

Very cool, Rus! This reminds me of the writing style used in my first story

Please accept this criticism: The story is awesome, but it's going a little fast. But hey, like you said, you have had zero writing experiences, so for a first story, this is amazing!

[Rusvul]

Thanks, everyone, for the criticism and compliments! I will probably be restarting this, there were several flaws with my character history. Soon I will be writing another one, though.o

[Rusvul]

Avast, folks! I started a new fanfic, called "The Airship Endeavor", it's mostly completely different, but Rus and Leneat are in both. So, yah! Check it out!