User blog comment:Astar Goldenwing/The Coming of Badger Lady/@comment-2142396-20160108180550

@Snowstripe: Thanks! I love meaningful names, so it was interesting to come up with those. And actually, in Russia we mainly study English as foreign language as well as German and French, not exactly the one of neighboring countries.

@Tragedy of E: Thanks! I wanted to have a strong start with the prologue, so good to know I succeeded. I loved writing about Juska culture, and Sumra, too. ;) He really has a close bond with Rarog, and it is going to play its role in the story. I admit I also never liked the idea of ‘Destiny says so, and you cannot change it’, so I was dubious about prophecies in my previous works. But in ‘Redwall’, prophecies are often of a vague nature, and the carvings of Salamandastron’s secret room are indeed too important part of the worldbuilding to leave it out. Besides, I couldn’t resist the temptation to play out with different interpretations of the prophecy and the twists it presents. ;) I think Rarog is kind of mildly superstitious… he puts a lot of meaning into the visions and prophecies, but he wouldn’t blindly trust them like, say, that one warlord who let his army walk into a trap just because two completely strange seers told him to. :D And yes, Orlando will be there. The mountain needs its ruler, does it not? And I always wanted to learn more about Cregga, too! She is my favourite badger ruler, and I always wanted BJ to write a story about the first war with the Rapscallions. Well, this story is not about Rapscallions, but about Cregga’s coming to Salamandastron, but I guess it serves it purpose. :) You will see Cregga soon, those at this point of her life she is neither rose-eyed nor ravager yet…

@SaynaSLuke: Thanks.)) I think you deserved the dedication. Yeah, Rarog is not a hero in this story, though he was one in a sense in ‘The Taggerung’s Battle’… And right you are, that unnamed stoatmaid will certainly be important later in the story. ;) I assure you that Orlando is going to stick around there for some time at least, so you will see more of him. Diener, too – I’m glad people are loving him despite his flaws. Though I must warn that we won’t be seeing these characters for a while due to the PoV switch in the next chaper…

@Segalia: It seems like a frequent issue here, since I had troubles posting comments myself and seen other users complain about it, too… The ties with ‘Pearls of Lutra’ and ‘The Long Patrol’ will be included; in fact, I like doing such links between stories. Well, I tried to be mysterious regarding the stoatmaid with X-markings and probably didn’t word it very well, but I intend to explain the details of what her crime was and why she was given such markings later in the story. Speaking about Rarog, that was exactly the impression I wanted to give: that while superstitious, he isn’t going to trust destiny to do his work for him. And I simply couldn’t resist playing with gender assumptions. ;)