More completed missions

By Clara Sparra

“Teehee! Yorra clumsybeast, Avennaworm, arncha?” Clara Sparra laughed as
Avenna Reguba pulled herself to a standing position after falling down the
tunnel to DAB’s secret hideout.
The little squirrelmaid pushed past Clara and a couple of her friends, looking
as if she’d seen a ghost. Clara tilted her head to one side in puzzlement and
followed Avenna to Gonfflet, moving off to one side when they reached the little
mouse. The frightened-looking Avenna whispered something in Gonfflet’s ear, and
Gonfflet’s eyes went wide as candied chestnuts. He leapt up onto a chair, put
his paw in his mouth, and whistled. “Wissen! Avenna hewe jus’ said dat
Wedwall’s undew attack!” The Dibbuns all laughed.
“Hurr, you’m a gurt joker, Gonffet, hurr hurr,” chuckled a fat little molebabe.
“Yah, nobeast c’n get froo Ma Mewwus!”
“Hehe! Dat was a good one, Gonffawet, ya a’most had us foowed!”
Gonfflet glared at the last speaker. “I’m not jokin’, Wosemawy! Dis is weal!
Dere’s a big buncha vermin ‘tackin da Abbey!” There were more giggles at this,
which were silenced when loud, raucous sounds were heard at the tunnel entrance.
“Gerralong, stripedog! We don’t ‘ave all day, yer know!” It was obviously a
vermin’s voice, followed by a swift whipcrack and a cry of pain. “Haharr, inter
that cage!”
“If I ever get loose from here, I swear that I will tear every one of you
cowards limb from limb!” Mother Mellus’s low, bitter voice shocked all of the
Dibbuns into silence.
“Oooooh, lookit me, I’m scared, I’m shakin’ like a twig!” The whip cracked
again, and the badger’s cry, half anguished and half furious, sent tremors
through the Dibbuns’ bodies. “Now, shut yer gob an’ ‘old still!”
“I wouldn’t follow your orders if you proclaimed yourself Abbot, you ugly
vermin scum!” There was no cry this time, just a dull thud as the benevolent
Badgermum was knocked unconscious by a spearbutt.
Clara’s beak dropped open in utter astonishment, and a pall of silence hung
over the meeting place. The only movement anybeast made was the little molebabe
reaching up and removing his floppy tweed hat, toying sorrowfully with it in his
digging claws.
Avenna was the first to speak. “D-d-d-do you s-s-see w-w-w-what I mean? Dey
even g-g-g-got Ma M-M-Mewwus in a c-c-cage now!” Her voice cracked a little, and
tiny tears fell down her face like diamonds.
“Therethere, ‘Venna, donchoo cryworm! DAB gonna fixitup!” Clara, who had put
a comforting wing around the squirrelmaid’s shoulders, glanced warily at
Gonfflet. “Rightworm, Gonfflet?”
Gonfflet scratched his ears reflectively, then called out to the whole
congregation of little creatures. “Teww ya what. Da vermin haven’t found us
yet, an’ none o’ da eldes c’n eva find us, so we’we aww safe hewe, wight?”
Avenna, voice shrill with tears, interrupted. “But Ma Mewwus in’t! Ma
Mewwus’s in a cage wiv five mean wats guawdin’ hew! An’ dere’s lots mowe wats
aww ova, not ta menshun da weaslies, da stoats, da ugwy fewwets…”
“Sh, issokay, ‘Venna. Keep talkinworm, Gonffalet.”
“Tanks, Cwawa.” He cleared his throat. “Awwight, dis is what we gotta do. Some
of us cwawl out fwoo da excape tunnel, an’ da west of us stay wight hewe. We
gots enuff candied chesknuts ta last us twelvety-fifteen seasons, an’ we can
wait. Da Dibbuns who cwawl out’ll have ta be weawwy bwave. Awmost as bwave as
Mawtin! An’ we gotta get hewp fwom sh’oos an ottews. Who wants ta go?”
Slowly, the little molebabe raised a digging claw, muttering to the otterbabe
next to him. “Hurr, if’n we be a-gowen unnerground, bain’t any better creetur to
come’n’a moler, hurr aye.”
Avenna’s tiny paw waved high. “I wanna be a wawwiow like Mawtin. Daddy says I
might cawwy Mawtin’s swowd someday!”
Clara Sparra raised her wing. “Iffa the sh’ooworms don’wanna comewithus, I can
outta-argue anybeast any dayworm, Ibetcha, Ibetcha. ‘Sides, iffa ‘Venna goin’,
I’m goin’!”
Gonfflet nodded. “So dat’s thwee beasts goin’ fow hewp. I tink dat’s ‘nuff,
don’t you?” Everybeast in the room nodded with a small bobbing motion as
Gonfflet motioned for the three volunteers to come up to the chair where he was
standing. “Cwawa, Avenna, Dubbo, I fink you’we gonna do a weawwy good job to
hewp Wedwall. Wememba, dis is fow Ma Mewwus!”
The Dibbuns chorused back, “Yeah! Fow Ma Mewwus!"

Clara was miserable. “Huh, iffa Sparra was meant ta go undergroundworm,
Sparra’d belike wormfeed or moleworm. Yowch!” She bad-temperedly rubbed her
head with one wing; she had just hit it on a rather large root. “Stupid
rootworm! Rrrakaka!” The tiny bird tore at the root with her beak before Dubbo
scolded her.
“Clarra, you’m gotter control you’m temper! They roots’re trail markiners, burr
aye!” He carried on with leading the little band out of Redwall, mumbling
thoughtfully. “Hurrm…we’m passed four o’ they roots boi now, so we’m turnen
roight at ‘ee next root.” They came across the root in question, and suddenly
he stopped. “C’n oither o’ yousebeasts tell roight frum lefter?”
Clara shook her head. “No ideaworm.”
Avenna, however, was thinking very hard, munching her lips pensively. She held
her forefinger and thumb at right angles to each other and looked from one paw
to the other. “I fink…I fink wight’s dat way!” She pointed with the paw that
made a backward “L.”
Dubbo looked down the tunnel she had pointed to and nodded after squinting.
“Awright, that ‘un looks roight…hurr hurr, oi didn’t even mean to make a joker,
hurr hurr.” They continued down the tunnel until they came to a set of uneven
dirt steps, leading to the tunnel opening. Ever cordial, the little molebabe
stepped aside. “Maids furrst, that’s what moi ole granfer allus says.”
Avenna was about to go through in as ladylike a manner as possible, but Clara
bowled her over as she spread her wing and flew out of the tunnel. “Rrrakakaka!
Fine’ly!” She took a deep breath of the air and trilled joyously.
“Rrrrakaakakakakakakammph!”
Avenna had thrown her brushtail across Clara’s beak, blanching. “Shhh!
Wissen!”
Harsh voices echoed in the darkness. “Wot was that?”
“I dunno, mate. D’you want me to check?” The sound of a blade being drawn
from a sheath accompanied these words.
“Put that thing away, lunkbrain! Wot d’yer think’ll attack us out here? The
sparrows an’ robins?” He had a good laugh at his own joke as Clara trembled
with rage, but was restrained by Avenna and Dubbo’s paws.
“No! Gonffawet said ta find the Guosim an’ da otters, an’ any uvva hewp we can
find.”
“Hurr, you’m gorra get yurrself hurt roight bad, burr aye!”
Clara stopped moving to get out and practically hissed with anger. “I tella my
mama ‘bout himworm, youbetcha, youbetcha!” Then, she turned around and started
flying in the direction of the Broadstream. “Followme! We gotta get the
sh’ooworms.”
The other two Dibbuns followed, grimly eager to help their home out of this
terrible fix.

“Well, I say we’re goin’ back to Redwall, come floodtide or drought!” Log a
Log prodded his arguing brother with the hilt of his rapier, pushing his gruff
voice to its full volume.
“An’ I say there’s no sense in runnin’ to some Abbey wid our tails atwixt our
legs just because the lookout…” he shot an angry glance at the young shrew in
question. “Because the lookout claims that he saw some vermin ship sailing by on
the broadstream and down Wuddship Creek! It coulda been any ole ship, knowin’
him!”
“Better safe than sorry, an’ nobeast can touch us at Redwall, Sohb.”
Sohb turned his back. “You c’n go back, but I shore ain’t follerin’.”
Log a Log’s eyes narrowed. “Lissen, you. Just because yore jealous don’t give
you the right to disobey yore Log a Log.”
“What if the Log a Log’s lost ‘is marbles?”
The strong shrew grabbed his brother by the shoulder and turned him around,
pulling something out of his own shirt collar. “Y’see this? This is mine!” He
dangled a small black stone on a bit of twine in Sohb’s face. “An’ the law o’
the Guosim sez that the shrew who holds this stone is Log a Log, see? An’ I
jus’ happen t’be the Log a Log!”
“Log a Log or not, yore still younger, weaker’n me. I c’n whip you anytime,
Marctal,” growled the even stronger shrew, putting extreme emphasis on his
brother’s real name.
Log a Log sighed. He was an unusual shrew in the sense that he was never prone
to extreme arguments, and when they did happen, they were short and extinguished
quite suddenly. “Sorry I lost me temper, mate.” He turned around and headed
back to his tent, stopping only to growl a last command at his renegade brother.
“Never call me by anythin’ but me official title, or there’ll be heck t’pay!”
Sohb stoked the fire sourly, muttering some mutinous things under his breath,
until a tiny clod of mud hit him on the head. It was accompanied by a chuckling
voice. “Hurr, moi muther sez b’aint roight ter use any o’ those wurds, hurr,
hurr.”
He rose and unsheathed his blade defensively. “Show yoreself, or face the
wrath of the rightful holder o’ the Blackstone!”
“Hmmph. Oi thought yurr bruther sed ‘e wuz roightful ‘older o’ yon
Blackstoner, din’t ‘e, ‘Venna?”
“Sownded wike dat ta me, hehehehe.”
“What kinda strange vermin are ye, soundin’ like babes?” Only tittering sounds
reached his ears, and another clod of mud. “Show yoreselves!”
The three Dibbuns walked out of the bushes, grinning mischievously. Clara
spoke through irrepressible giggles. “Hehehehe! Sillyshrew, ya thought thatta
we were verminworms!”
“’e shore did, bo urr!”
Avenna, the most cordial of the three, stifled her chuckle and quickly extended
an apology to Sohb, who was quivering with rage. “Sowwy, Mista Sh’oo. We jus’
wanned ta have a widdle fun.” She made her best “Bambi eyes” at him.
“No wonder ye sounded like babes. Ye ARE babes!” He sheathed his blade and
sat down by the fire. “Wot d’ye want?”
Dubbo sobered up and tugged his snout respectfully. “Hurr, zurr, we’m looken
furr ‘ee leader o’ the Guosim, an’ oi reckerns that’d be yurr bruther.”
“Yeahyeah. Sumthin’ wrong atta Abbeyworm.”
He eyeballed the little bird sternly. “Wot ‘abbeyworm?’”
“Redwall, acourse! ‘S th’only abbeyworm ‘round here, sillybeast!”
His face hardened. “Ferget it. I’m not goin’ to any Redwall for any little
spies me brother set up.”
“But, zurr, we’m bain’t spies! We’m Dibbuns!”
“Spies, Dibbuns, wotever! Prob’ly mean the same thing!”
“It do not!” Avenna spluttered angrily. “Spies awe meanbeasts who go awound
pwetendin’ to wike onebeast, den wikin’ anuvva! Dibbuns awe babies fwom da
Abbey!”
Sohb had obviously stopped listening. He just stared into the fire with
resolution in his eyes. He wasn’t going to Redwall!
Clara, quite fed up by this point, stalked up so that she was standing right
next to the shrew and cuffed him around the ears with her wing. “How c’n ya
jus’ sitworm ‘round whenna verminworms are ‘tackin’ th’ Abbeyworm?!?”
Sohb broke the staring contest with the fire and looked at her. “Vermin? At
Redwall?”
“Aincha been lis’nin? ‘Course there’s verminworms at Redwall! Thassa why
wehere!” She let out a sigh of exasperation.
He rose and addressed the three Dibbuns paternally. “Wait here ‘til I get
back.”
The next thing they knew, he was leading Log a Log out to see them. “Now, tell
me brother wot ye told me.”
“Urr…zurr, do ‘ee mean that bain’t roight to use those wurrds ‘ee wurr sayin’
arter ‘ee bruther went back in yon tent?”
“No! The part about Redwall!”
“Oh! Aroight. Clarra, ‘ee sed et, ‘ee’ve a roight t’say et agin, ho urr.”
“Finefine. Verminworms are ‘tackin’ th’ Abbeyworm!”
Log a Log was wide awake now. “Vermin? At Redwall?”
“Hurr, that be ‘zackerly wot ‘ee bruther sed, zurr Log,” Dubbo pointed out.
Avenna spoke up now, trying to clear things up. She was the oldest of the
three, and with that came a little more precision in her language…but only a
little more. “Don’ fink dat we want youbeasts t’battle the vewmin wight now!
Gonffawet sent us ta get da sh’oos and da otters, den to go to Sawwymandastwon
fow hawes an’ a badja, wike Ma Mewwus!”
Log a Log blinked, still translating everything Avenna had just said.
“Right…so, from wot I c’n cipher out, there’s somebeast named Gonffawet who sent
yew three t’get shoes an’ otters, then go to Sawwymandastwon, wotever that is,
for hawes an’ a badger. What in the name o’ seasons is Sawwymandastwon?” The
game of translation continued for quite a while, and the moon had sunk low and
dim in the sky before the entire message and plan was completely clear to
everybeast present.