Norham (Completed)

[W0NWILL]

Tailli scampered into the kitchen and was able to make off with a tart before she was chased from the kitchen by a mole wielding an oven paddle in a floury apron, "Burr, you'm best brung ee tart back nao! Oi chase dibbuns frum 'ere, but not 'un as growed as you'm!" Tailli kept running, a look of concentration on her face. The mole gave up when Tailli bounded up the stairs and into the nearest door.

Tailli looked around the room. It was fairly big and filled with small beds. And two small beasts. Tailli payed them no heed and clambered onto a wardrobe accessible by a bed. Tailli wasn't a dibbun anymore, but she was still young enough to enjoy sitting and eating in strange places. She dug her paws in the tart, biting her lip at the warm interior. She didn't look at the two dibbuns below her until the mousebabe spoke.
"You bes naughty." He waggled a finger at her, "Not 'sposed to take from the cooker. Or climb onna cab'net."
Tailli glared at him, "Shut it, welp."
The hedgehog dibbun stepped forward and looked up at Tailli, "That not nice." She said very matter-of-factly.
Tailli didn't move, "You two, shut it."
The mousebabe shook the cabinet, "You've bes naughty!"
Tailli moved quickly. She jumped/fell down and grabbed the mousebabe by his smock. She bundled him into the wardrobe and closed the door. The hogbabe ran from the room. She ran down the stairs and stood on the lowest one, her paws spread wide, "White squirrel put Jen inna cab'net!" She exclaimed.

Tailli looked around the dormitory for a long straight object. She ran to the corner of the room and grabbed the broom that seemed to magically be right where needed. She thrust it between the handles and the door of the wardrobe, effectively locking Jen in. She then stood on tip-paw to grab her tart and walked slowly from the room, without a care in the world. Tailli finished her tart and went down the stairs, sucking the last of the pastry from her paws.

[KitrallStreamrippler]

Antura got to the kitchen to find the mole Friar muttering darkly to himself about Dibbuns that never grow up and chopping tails to make soup. "What's wrong, Friar?" When he informed ht of Mabel's offense, Antura shook her head and sighed. "She's trying, Friar. I told her that we were going to get some food, and she doesn't know better than to just take it. She'll learn. I'll go find her." As she got to the stairs leading to the dormitories, a hogbabe came barreling into her, yelling about a white squirrel locking Jen in a cabinet. "Oh no," Antura groaned as she hurried to the dormitories. There she found a broom stuck in the handles of the cabinet doors to prevent them from opening. From inside, she could eat the shrill, shrieked yells of a Dibbun. Antura quickly pulled out the broom and threw open the cabinet doors, gathering up the crying mousebabe. She soothed him, talking softly and wiping away his tears. She would have to speak to Mabel about this, and let her know it was wrong. For know, though, Antura would see if she could get Jen to take a nap.

[Quickpaw]

Vash didn't know what to say, so he tried to start a conversation. "So how old are you anyway? I mean, if you don't mind me asking." Vash said.

[W0NWILL]

Tailli licked between her fingers, getting the last of the sticky tart filling from between her fingers. She was sitting in a small single room, that only had room for a bed and a chair, near the stair. The door was shut, but there wasn't a lock. That irritated Tailli, but she had to make do with what she had. She liked the little room, or at least she disliked it less than anything else she had seen in the abbey. She lay on the bed, staring at the low ceiling, lost in her thoughts. The scared crying of the mousebabe had slowed, and now existed in hiccups that weren't audible from the room. Tailli ran her paws over the bed covers. Single rooms like this must be hard to come by in this abbey. Her eyes were growing heavy. This was a nice bed. Tailli let her eyes close. Soon she was half-asleep. She was standing for the most part, but she was bent over backwards with her head in the middle of the bed. Tailli blinked hard and shook her head. Now was not the time to be falling asleep. She stood and paced. Four paces wide, seven paces long. She collapsed on the chair.

Tailli suddenly grinned as she remembered. She took from her pocket the last scone she had stolen that morning and ate it. Tailli brushed the crumbs off her dress and stood. Maybe there was something interesting going on outside the room. Maybe she could sample some of the food from the kitchen(though she was full now), or get a nice drink from the pond she had seen, there had seemed to be no other water source. Maybe she could even learn to read. Books and stories had fascinated her for a long while, since her mum used to tell tales. She would speak of handwritten documents, knowledge gathered. She would also tell funny stories about moles and squirrels who lived together in a big beech tree. The tales had stopped her from being bored, at the very least.

[KitrallStreamrippler]

Sister Baypaw thought for a moment. "Hm. About 23 seasons, I suppose. I never really bothered to keep count. What about you?"

[Quickpaw]

"Me? I'm 21 seasons." He told her. He didn't know what to say after that. "So, um...what do you like to do?" he asked when it popped into his head.

[KitrallStreamrippler]

"Well, I rather enjoy healing, dontcha know. Patchin' up other creatures' hurts and making them better, wot. Besides that, I like to sew. It's relaxing, really."

[Quickpaw]

"Well, I guess that seems nice." Vash said, shrugging. He had no clue how to continue the conversation, do he was just going to say whatever popped into his head.

[W0NWILL]

Tailli extracted herself from the chair and stretched. She would explore, that would keep her occupied for a while. She opened the door and stepped onto the landing. She walked away from the stairs, running her hands over the stones of Redwall. She tried the first door she came across, just another dormitory. She closed it and continued down the hall. The next three doors she tried were all dormitories, and the fifth door she tried was locked. Maybe she would try and break in later, see what was in there. The sixth door led into a washroom. There was all the doors in this hallway. Tailli had reached the other end of the hallway and began climbing the stairs. These were covered in dust.

Tailli reached the top of these stairs and tried the first door she came across. This led into the ruined infirmary. That wasn't important. Tailli shut the door and went back to the stairs that seemed to go up another flight. Tailli climbed them slowly and came out at a small landing, not the big hallways like before. Tailli tried the nearest door and came into the library. Tailli walked to the nearest bookshelf and pulled down a book at random. She brought it to the table and opened it to a place in the middle. There were no pictures of any sort, and Tailli couldn't read. She instead traced the inked words with a paw. Tailli snapped the book shut, not paying heed to its obvious age. She carried it to the shelf where she had found it and put it roughly back in a different place.

Tailli could see that the shelf that it was from only had thick books, written in often before they were catalogued. Tailli went over to a different shelf and pulled down a thinner book and opened it. This one had detailed drawings of plants in it, next to a blob of text that Tailli could only guess said if you could eat the plant or not. She brought it to the table and sat down. She absently flicked through the pages, looking at each illustration.

[Quickpaw]

A question popped into his head, so he asked it. "So, do you have a mate?" he asked, immediatly feeling stupid after the words had left his lips.

[KitrallStreamrippler]

Sister Baypaw gave Vash a quizzical look. "No. I could have had one, but I joined the Order of Redwall instead. I'm not allowed a mate now." She got a distant look in her eyes as she thought of her old home.

[Norham Waterpaw]

Norham was up and about. He decided to go see how it was inside Redwall. He had never really taken the time to explore it. He had never been upstairs, save dor the time he was in the Infirmary, while it was being destroyed. He explored each room carefully. He was coming along an old, rickety stairwell. It had fresh pawpints in the dust. He climbed its many flights of stairs. He stopped short when he heard someone flicking through the pages of a book of some sort. He opened the door slowly.

[W0NWILL]

Tailli barely looked up before turning back to the book. She couldn't make head or tail of the words, but the pictures were detailed and well-drawn. She could recognize a few of the plants as well. There was marigold, water cress, strawberry. She reached the last page and closed the book. Only then did she glance at Norham, "What're you doing here?" She asked sulkily. She couldn't explain why she felt so sulky and bitter, it was just one of those times. Though maybe it had something to do with the fact that she wasn't even getting a quarter of the pleasure from reading.

[Norham Waterpaw]

"I was going to ask you, you sold us out to those vermin, remember?" Norham said through clenched teeth.

[W0NWILL]

Tailli looked down, "Can't help it." She muttered. This otter scared her slightly, she would have to play innocent. She slid off the chair and walked over to a shelf. She picked a book at random and brought it over to the table. She knelt on the chair and opened it. This one had less pictures, and they were of pies, cakes, and tarts. It was a cookbook, Tailli could see.