The Undecided

[LT Sandpaw]

      Sighing the big stoat turned his back on the walls giving the abbot a show of looking frustrated. Shaking his head Hacklaw drew a long dagger, placing the razor blade against the base of the otter's ear. "I have no desire to hear your lies mouse. I have tried being reasonable, and I continue to show immense patience, but do not seek to frustrate me or waste my time. Unless ye want the blood of innocents on your paws I suggest you cooperate. I can make this long and painful, and I have seven hostages here. This could take hours, or minutes. It's your own damn choice. Give me Darrin now!"

[The Skarzs]

  "He isn't in here!" cried Abbot Gerard, slamming his fists on the wall. "You must believe me! I'll give myself up to you if you promise not to hurt the child!"

[LT Sandpaw]

   "I have no need of you mouse!" Hacklaw snarled, his large booted feet kicking up dust as he practically danced with rage. Sheathing the dagger he paced back and forth, only pausing in his frustrated pacing to return the otter babe unharmed to its mother. It made no sense to Hacklaw. Why would someone willingly give themselves up to save a child, but refuse to surrender a gang of vermin to another horde of vermin. For all his assumed knowledge of woodlanders this was the greatest puzzle the big stoat had ever faced. There was no precedent for it, either the mouse was so honorable and stupid he would give his own life to save everybeast else's or...

   Hacklaw turned his gaze up towards Abbot Gerard, his yellow eyes cold and calculating. "I know they were in there. Prove to me they are gone."

[The Skarzs]

  Gerard almost collapsed in relief as Hacklaw let the baby otter go. When he asked for proof of Darrin's departure, however, the mouse was once again worried. What could he possibly do to prove he wasn't there?

~~~~~~~~~~~

  Rallowan leaned against a tree as he looked at the lifeless wood door on the eastern side of the abbey. This was boring. Hacklaw could be starting a battle, but there the fox was, guarding a gate.
  Annoyed, Rallowan began walking around, looking at his surroundings. Bushes, broken branches, leaves. . . Suddenly, he noticed something further. There were green leaves on the ground. Rallowan stooped to pick them up, then looked a little bit beyond in the same direction. The earth was disturbed, as if some creatures, many creatures, had hurried through that way.
  Rallowan had only to think a moment before figuring out what happened, and he called for some of the other vermin.
  THe didn't need to listen to Hacklaw. He lived for the fight. The hunt.
  The fox smiled.

[LT Sandpaw]

   Leaning on his halberd Hacklaw stroked his chin in deep thought, trying to work out a solution to this problem. He didn't have the forces to storm Redwall, nor the time or patience to wait out a prolonged battle. If it was true that Darrin had fled the abbey then pursuit needed to be taken post haste before the trail went cold. Looking up at the anxious faces of the waiting Redwallers Hacklaw gestured towards his army.

   "Open your gates and allow my warriors search your abbey from top to bottom." He suggested, a sly smile on his muzzle. "If you truly have nothing to hide then there is nothing to fear."

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Raleigh averted her gaze, avoiding Twisty's eyes while simultaneously trying not to catch any more of the various vermin's attention with her wandering eyes. She really wasn't sure how to answer, or even how she felt besides being tired.... But that kind of answer probably wouldn't fly with the rat. Finally, she responded with a dry, raspy voice, "What do you want to hear?" She swallowed in an attempt to improve her ability to speak before finishing, "Because there's not much for me to say." Her wandering eyes caught sight of a ferret that she could tell had been giving her that funny look for a longer time than was comfortable. She reeled her head in and stared straight down, better to see Twisty's feet than the other vermin present.

[Ashleg]

"Hey!"
Twisty spun, raising a fist and snarling at the sneaky ferret. "You stop starin' at her!"
He grabbed Raleigh by the shoulders and moved her behind him.

"What is it with ferrets an' you?" he hissed. "First Darrin, now this wide-eyed frogwalloper? You gotta stop whatever yer doin' that makes them like you..."

[Dannflower Reguba]

       "What did you expect? It's not just ferrets..... It's all of them Twisty, I...." Her words trailed off as her thoughts picked up the last remark, "I don't belong." Raleigh rubbed her shoulders to ease the discomfort after having been moved so roughly, "And what about your paw? How much attention have you been paying to it when you're running amok with your comrades? You shouldn't be grabbing or moving anything with it yet, much less a whole squirrel."

[Ashleg]

Twisty glanced cross-eyed at his paw, as if he just remembered it, and clutched it defensively to his chest.
"T'ain't right," he whined. "A rat spends 'is whole life without it, an' now that it's fixed 'e can't even use it."

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Raleigh rolled her eyes with a sigh at her impatient subject. Other vermin forgotten, she put a paw on her hip and held out her left hand, palm upward. She gave Twisty a stern look, with her right eyebrow raised for good measure, "Paw please."

[Ashleg]

Twisty eyed her suspiciously and thrust out his paw, then pulled it away again.
"Nothin' weird now," he said. "Th' moment I see you try an' break my paw so you kin get away--well--y'won't be very pleased."

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Raleigh maintained her stare, viewing Twisty as a patient once again, instead of her kidnapper. She responded almost immediately, albeit, with a touch of sarcasm, "If your paw is fine, then what could you possibly have to fear?" She motioned for his paw with her fingers, "Paw please."

[Cornflower MM]

Rowan bristled, turning to look at Ellijah. "And why not? There's precious few of us here, I could be valuable help in a fight." Maybe Rowan did know more about fixing injuries than inflicting them, but hitting someone with a stick wasn't very hard, and she could be quick and light on her paws.

[Ashleg]

Twisty suspiciously put his paw in hers.
She better not do anything.

[Dannflower Reguba]

       Raleigh turned her attention to the paw in her hand, and started checking over the splint. She traced out Twisty's veins on the wood and bindings with her fingers, mentally checking for nerve constrictions or rough spots. After verifying that the splint was properly in place, she turned his paw over and felt along the exposed underside of his forearm. The motion stopped just short of his wrist, at which point Raleigh looked Twisty in the eyes with sincerity, "I'm a Doctor Twisty, not a magician. What do you think would happen if you got in a fight and somebeast hit this paw?" She flicked the fur just under the wrist to agitate the nerve for emphasis while simultaneously releasing the paw. She turned away from him as she finished, "I'll need to change that splint within the next day, you can say good bye to that entire arm if anything gets infected."