Arven was not afraid of anything now that Martin had found them. He had perked up considerably. "Me found a skallingtung inna rocks!" he cried.
Martin chuckled. "A skallingtung?"
"In the sandstone rocks, sir," Tansy explained, "down a deep crack, there was a skeleton of somebeast. Ugh! All white an' bony an' raggy!"
Martin saw the young hogmaid was bone weary. He let her lean against him and shielded her with his cloak. "Well, you're safe now," he said. "You can tell the elders about it when we get back to the Abbey. Oh! I forgot to tell you, there's to be a surprise spring feast in Great Hall this evening. How d'you like that, eh, young 'uns?"
But they were both dozing, almost asleep with fatigue.
Sister Cicely put both Arven and Tansy straight to bed when Martin delivered them back to her at the sick bay. They had been sound asleep before Martin arrived at the Abbey gate. Spreading his cloak by the hearth to dry, Martin accompanied Cicely downstairs, explaining as he went. "Something frightened them in the woodland today. I'll tell you about it when we're with the elders."
Nobeast couldn't be quite sure what made the spring feast such a success, the food or the fun. Martin and Cicely sat at the table with the Abbot, Foremole, Higgle, Auma and some other elders. They watched in amusement as the younger ones sat with their food on a thick rush mat, eating and providing their own entertainment. The smallest Abbey babes, the Dibbuns, ate all in sight with growing appetites.
"Oi thurr, Garffy, pass oi yon fruitycake. Yurr, you'm c'n 'ave some o' this plum pudden, 'tis tumble tasty!"
"Well thankee, my ole moleymate, I didn't know it were you be'ind those cream whiskers. Father h'Abbot, sir, would you like some o' my strawberry rolypoly?''
Smiling, the Abbot shook his head. "No thank you, Durgel, I baked that specially for you and Garffy. Besides, I'm enjoying my salad. Nothing like fresh spring salad after the winterwhat d'you say, Auma?"
The badger Mother held up a piece of cheese in her huge paw. "Aye, Durral, and when there's soft white cheese and hot baked oatbread to go with it, well, I'm happy."
Martin looked up from a steaming mushroom and leek pastie. "I've never seen you sad when there's food about, Auma!"
Amid roars of laughter at her huge appetite the badger winked at Martin. "Well, sir, I'm only making up for all the food that you used to scoff from in front of me, when you sat on my knee as a Dibbun!"
Furlo Stump the cellar-keeper poured himself a beaker of October ale. "Be you not careful, marm, an' Martin'll sit on yore knee agin an' scoff all that bread'n'cheese, I'll wager!" he chortled.
Rollo put aside a platter which had contained chestnut and banged the tabletop with a soup ladle. “Come on, you younguns, how's about a bit of song and dance for your poor elders before we fall asleep from boredom!"
In a flash Piknim the mousemaid and Craklyn the squirrel-maid were up and bowing to each other as they warbled an old ballad.
"Oh, look out, it's the terrible two!" Sister Cicely murmured in Martin's ear.
Piknim and Craklyn sang alternate verses at each other.
"As I strode out gaily, one morning in spring,
I spied a fair mousemaid, who happily did sing,
She sang just as sweet as a lark's rising call,
For she wore a green habit, and she came from Redwall."
"I walked alongside her, and bade her good morn,
And her smile was as pretty as rosebuds at dawn,
She captured my heart, and she held it in thrall,
For she wore a green habit, and she came from Redwall."
"I said, 'Lovely mousemaid, where do you go to?
To Mossflower Wood, sir, for flowers of blue,
To decorate my bonnet, at the feast in Great Hall,'
For she wore a green habit, and she came from Redwall."
"To the woodlands we went, and 'twas there in a glade,
1 gathered wild bluebells for my young mousemaid,
Then I walked her back home, lest she stumble or fall,
For she wore a green habit, and she came from Redwall."
" 'Pray sir,' said the mousemaid, 'be my gallant guest.'
O how happy was I to take up her request,
For I never will leave that old Abbey at all,
Now we both wear green habits, and we live at Redwall!"
Piknim and Craklyn flounced about, grinning broadly and curtsying deeply at the cheers and applause they received.
Auma chuckled, watching mouse and squirrelmaid milking the ovation for all it was worth. "Those two, what a pair! Hi there, Gurrbowl, what about a reel?"
The little mole took up his drum and thrummed at it with his heavy digging claws, calling to Friar Higgle, "Coom on, zurr 'iggle, owt with ee 'ogtwanger!"
The Friar produced his hogtwanger, a curious three stringed instrument which had belonged to his father, Jubilation Stump. Holding it strings-down over his head, he began humming a tune and nodding oddly. As he did, his headspikes struck the strings in time to the nodding and humming. Hogtwangers can only be played by hedgehogs, and Friar Higgle Stump was an expert.
Recognizing the lively reel, Abbeybabes and Dibbuns sprang up and jigged about furiously, calling aloud, "Frogs inna gully! Frogs inna gully!"
Auma sat watching, great footpads tapping until she could restrain herself no longer. Then the big badger Mother of Redwall lumbered out to join the dance, clapping her paws and whooping, "Frogs in the gully! Frogs in the gully!"
Martin and the elders remained seated, helpless with laughter at the sight. Gurrbowl stepped up the drumbeat and Higgle kept pace on his hogtwanger; faster and faster they played. Hopping, skipping and leaping, the dancers whirled, hallooing loudly.
While Auma made her own hefty pace, exhausted Dibbuns perched on both her footpaws and were bumped up and down. Then, dropping to all fours, Auma let the tiny creatures climb onto her broad back. When she was fully loaded, the crafty badger danced off in the direction of the dormitories, followed by Higgle and Gurrbowl, still playing as they shepherded the other young ones up to bed.
Later, when she had rejoined the elders at table, Auma sat back and sighed wearily. "Phew! I'm getting too old to do that much longer!"
Martin patted her striped muzzle affectionately. "You're a sly old fraud, Auma, you enjoy it more than the Dibbuns."
He poured her a beaker of cold mint tea, his voice growing serious. “Little Arven and Tansy were in a dreadful state when I found them in Mossflower Wood today: dirty, ragged, weary and very frightened."
"Indeed they were," agreed Sister Cicely, "both so exhausted they couldn't speak. I popped up to see them in the sick bay not an hour backfast asleep, the pair of them. Strange though, Tansy is a proper little rock of good sense. Did she say what had frightened them, Martin?"
Martin looked around the expectant faces of the elders and said, "They found a dead creature in the woodlands ..."
"A dead creature in the woodlands?" Abbot Durral repeated in hushed tones.
Questions followed from around the table.
“ What sort of creature was it?''
"Where did they find this creature?"
"I wonder how it got there?"
The Warriormouse held up a paw for silence. “Please, let me explain. This was not a recently dead beast. Tansy said it was a skeleton, clad in rotten rags, so evidently it had been there for some time. They came upon it down a crack in the sandstone rocks of the woodlands. I know the place well, actually they weren't far from the rocks when I found them, so they must have been running in circles since they were caught in the thunderstorm. Poor Tansy, she was terrified, but doing her level best to protect little Arven and get him back to Redwall."
Foremole nodded from behind a large beaker of October ale. "Ho aye, she'm a liddle guddbeast awroight. May'ap you'm goin' thurr on the morrow to see furr eeself, zurr Marthen?"