Mhera awoke weeping. There was somebeast tapping upon the sickbay door. Hastily wiping her eyes on the coverlet, she called out, "Please come in!"
Fwirl and Broggle peeped around the door.
"Cregga told us we'd find you here." Fwirl ran straight to Mhera and put a paw about her. "Oh, dear, you've been crying. Are you all right?"
The ottermaid sniffed, dabbing at her eyes with the worn green coverlet from the bed. "It was just a dream. Silly of me really, I'll be all right in a moment. A creature of my seasons, weeping like a Dib"
Suddenly, Mhera buried her nose completely in the coverlet, her whole body stiffening.
Broggle tugged the coverlet gently. "What is it, Mhera? What's the matter?"
She thrust the coverlet at her friends. "Smell! It's lilacs!"
As they put their noses to it, Mhera felt the cloth's texture. "It's very old, and homespun. It's green, too, faded green, just like the scrap of cloth from the bell tower beam!"
There followed a shuffling sound, coupled with paws tapping against the wall. Cregga entered the sickbay.
Fwirl could not contain herself. Words rushed from her mouth. "Oh, Cregga, oh, mum, look what Mhera's found. Sorry, you can't look, can you? Feel this, smell it, what does it remind you of?"
Sitting down on the bed, Cregga did as she was bid. "Hmm, now don't tell me. It's a coverlet, the sort Sister Alkanet uses to keep the sheets from getting dusty. Am I right?"
Mhera's voice rose almost to a squeak. "It smells of lilacs and it's old green homespun!"
Cregga lay back against the pillows and sighed. "Think I ate too much lunch. Oh, is there writing on it anywhere?"
Mhera found it immediately, below the hem she was holding. A single word, which she read out slowly. "PITTAGALL. All in capital letters again, running downward." She pursed her lips, seething with frustration. "First we had HITTAGALL, now we've got PITTAGALL. Well, that's a great help, I don't think!"
Cregga nestled her head comfortably into the pillows. "What were you expecting to find?"
The ottermaid gestured helplessly. "Something . . . I don't know. Maybe an object that'll tell us who the next Abbess or Abbot of Redwall is to be. Something solid and positive I could recognize plainly, not all this HITTAGALL and PITTAGALL nonsense!"
Cregga heaved herself from the bed. "Well, I'm not going to get a very good nap here. I think I'll go to my room and rest in my chair." She waved them away as she felt her way out of the sickbay. "No need to help me, 1 can make it on my own quite easily. I'll leave you young 'uns here to solve your puzzles. Don't get too angry with yourself, Mhera my dear. You'll come to a solution if you give it a little thought and time. Patience, my friend, patience."
When Cregga had gone, Mhera and Fwirl found some shears and a needle and thread in Sister Alkanet's cupboard. They set about snipping the worded piece from the coverlet and sewing a new hem right along the edge. Broggle watched them, a smile hovering on his pudgy face.
"You'll excuse me saying, misses, but you aren't very good seamstresses, are you? Here, you'd better let me do that."
Mhera could not help laughing at the crooked line of stitching she and Fwirl had worked on. She gave the coverlet to Broggle. "Thanks, pal. I was always pretty dreadful with needle and thread."
Fwirl frowned. "I thought we were doing quite well, but I've had no experience of needlework, so how would I know? I'd love to learn how to do it properly, though."
The assistant cook took out his little kitchen knife and began unpicking the haphazard stitching. "Would you really, Fwirl? Then watch me and I'll show you. It's quite simple once you get the hang of it."
Mhera took the lettered cloth to the round window and studied it while Broggle, who was an extremely quick and neat worker, instructed Fwirl in needlework. The ottermaid soon gave up staring at the scrap of cloth and stood gazing out of the window, to where Durby and his Dibbun chums had finished eating their woodland trifle with meadowcream topping. Trundling from the gatehouse, carrying the empty basin between them, they were making for the pond. Mhera could see their happy little faces, all with beards and mustaches of meadowcream, and she wondered what they were up to. They waddled into the shallows and began washing the mess from themselves, knowing that they might be saving themselves from a thorough bathing by any elder who found them covered in cream and trifle. But, being Dibbuns, they quickly found better uses for Abbey pondwater than washing, and a full-scale watersplashing battle soon broke out. Mhera chuckled to herself as she watched the fun. However, her good humor suddenly turned to alarm. Whilst the rest were splashing one another, they had completely ignored the tiniest Dibbun of all, Wegg the hedgehog babe. He had launched the big beechwood trifle bowl onto the pond and clambered into it.
Paws cupped around her mouth, Mhera yelled down at them, "Durby, Feegle! Pull that bowl ashore and get little Wegg out!" But they were splashing and shouting so loudly that they were oblivious of Mhera's calls from the high window.
Broggle looked up from his work. "Is that the Dibbuns? What are they up to?"
Mhera dashed from the room, calling back to the needleworkers, "You carry on with your task. I'll see to this!"
She was across the landing, down the stairs and through the Great Hall like a flash. Whizzing through the open Abbey doorway, she almost collided with her mother, who was coming in from the orchard with an apron full of fresh pears. Filorn bent to pick up the fallen ones, shaking her head.
"Dearie me, the number of times I've told that daughter o' mine not to rush. She's as bad as any Dibbun, even now she's grown up!"
Bounding over the lawn toward the south wall, Mhera could see the trifle bowl well out on the lake as the splashing Dibbuns sent up waves. They had still not noticed the hogbabe's absence. But Wegg saw Mhera. Standing up in the bowl, he waved his tiny paws.
"Meeler, Meeler, ukka me!"
He toddled to the edge of the bowl and capsized it.
As she ran, Mhera saw the silvery flash rise close to the surface, then the long high purplish dorsal fin of a big male grayling, closing in on the squeaking hogbabe. Durby and the others saw it too. They stopped splashing and began yelling.
"Cumm owt o' thurr, likkle Wegg!"
"Yeeeek, big fish comin' to eat 'im all up!"
"Out of the waaaaaaay!"
Mhera went sailing over their heads in a long powerful dive. It was all over in the wink of an eye. She struck the hunting grayling in its midsection, stunning it. Swirling her rudder, the ottermaid did a spinning turn and grabbed Wegg, then made a beeline for the shallows, with the hogbabe perched on her head, giggling as if it were all a great game.
Filorn had dropped her pears and set off after Mhera, realizing that something was amiss. She was followed by Hoarg, Broggle, Drogg and Sister Alkanet. They arrived at the pool in time to see Mhera come to land with Wegg. Before they could ask what had happened, Durby, Feegle and the other Dibbuns were relating the adventure en masse.
"Ee gurt fisher, bigger as ee h'Abbey, eated Wegg all oop!"
"Meeyra dived up in the air, right right up to th'sky!"
"Boi 'okey, roight daown ee gurt fisher's mouth 'urr go'd!"
"Yehyeh an' she pulled likkle Wegg out an' swimmed away wiv 'im!"
Filorn felt Mhera's sodden robe. "You're soaked, miss. Is everybeast all right?"
Mhera passed the hogbabe to her mother. "They're fine. This one went sailing in your trifle bowl. He fell in and a grayling went after him, but I got him back safe."