User blog:Blizzard6654/The land of ice and snow

Prologue: A cold smile A blizzard whirled and raged in the land of ice and snow. All creatures that were not under cover would freeze to death. In the middle of this land stood a great fortress, inside which ruled the Evil Stella. She was a Pure Ferret, solid white like the rest of her family. She fought with a mace and chain or anything with poison in it. But the most frightening thing about her was her eyes. They were green with a hint of gold and could enchant anyone with a single stare. She had a horde of fifty score ferrets. They were all female and all had a certain specialty. She smiled coldly. This smile was as cold as the winter it self. For in the spring she would march south and conquer The Mouse Brigade. It was cold outside. But it was not as cold as Mighty Stella’s smile!

Chapter 1: The Mouse Brigade General Storm sighed. In the old days he was known as Storm because of his unstoppable fury in battle. Now he was old and no good at fighting. His mice were all old like he was; the young had left looking for adventure. If it wasn’t for his unit of hares and otters a score of vermin could overrun The Mouse Brigade. Just then a knock sounded on the door and a medium-aged hare entered, carrying a tray of food. “Good morning, General Storm. I thought you would like some breakfast.” General Storm nodded and said, “Yes indeed. You’ve brought me raspberry scones and mint tea, my favorite! Thank you Sergeant Lancing.” The hare smiled and said, “It was nothing. I say, may I breakfast with you? I don’t think you can cope with all those scones.” General Storm raised his eyebrows and scowled, “Just you watch me!” It was known that hares are the best scoffers there can be. Now however, Lancing watched in amazement as the General gobbled up all the scones. “That was amazing, general!” Storm smiled and chuckled, “I know it was. There’s no one who can out scoff me, the General!” The air rang with the friends’ laughter.

Down below in the soldiers’ barracks an old veteran mouse grumbled, “When is this accursed winter going to end? It’s been going on for five months now! Chills me right to the bones, it does.” A young otter stood up and grinned, “Stop grumbling Hard Rock. Everything is going to be fine.” The mouse merely wrapped himself up in another blanket and grunted, “Why should I believe you, Cheek? You said that last week!” The otter laughed and said, “I know. But it still improves morale.” A hare walked up and growled, “Stand to attention when you see an officer, Private Cheek!’ The otter stood to attention and shouted, “Yes, sir, Brigadier Thyme, sir!” Then a hare ran up and whispered something in Thyme’s ear. “There’s a vermin band of two score vermin, stoats and weasels, coming this way.” Brigadier stood up and yelled, “I need at least thirty good archers with me at the double!” Cheek moved out of the way and sat down next to Hard Rock. “Why are you sitting down, Private?” stormed the Brigadier. Cheek smiled and answered, “You said good archers, and I’m not one of those.” Thyme sighed and looked around for his archers. “Come on men, let’s get going!”

Crookback the stoat looked around at his vermin band. He reasoned that with forty vermin he could over run the Mouse Brigade without losing a single warrior. One of his vermin, called Slayer, was complaining loudly. “I don’t think that we can defeat all those mice with a band like ours. Maybe we should look for more recruits.” Suddenly a rock hit Crookback and a vermin voice shouted, “Take that you pile of apples!” Crookback turned on a small thin rat with a bump on his head. “No, please don’t kill me Chief, I didn’t do it, please don’t kill me!” The stoat snarled and killed the rat. Then another rock hit his head. This time a stoat called Rag was killed. In a few minutes the whole camp was full of turmoil. In the woods were the Brigadier and his archers. “Trust vermin to fight among themselves because of a few rocks!” Then Thyme and his archers rushed in, whacking the vermin. Then the Brigadier shouted, “I want you all to run north and never come back to the Mouse Brigade, got that?” The remaining thirty vermin nodded in terror and ran.

General Storm looked severely at Hard Rock and Brigadier Thyme. “So why didn’t you tell me that there were vermin attacking?” Brigadier Thyme answered, “Because I didn’t think it was important enough for you to know.” General Storm humphed and looked at Hard Rock. “And you? What do you have to say for yourself?” Hard Rock chuckled and said, “I didn’t tell you because you didn’t ask me!” All three friends laughed at this comment. Suddenly the air became warmer and the birds started flying over head. Down below Cheek jumped up the height of three badgers and shouted, “Spring is here! Spring is here!” Hard Rock laughed and yelled, “Hooray!” Even Brigadier Thyme was leaping for joy. Soon four hundred woodlanders were happily reveling that the winter was over.

Crookback the stoat was running, along with his vermin band. Then, after running for two hours they stopped for a rest. In three days the vermin were still running north, afraid of the hare. When they stopped for a rest again it was way past nightfall. “We’ll rest here, and then continue to march north.” The tired weasels and stoats were asleep as soon as they hit the ground. Suddenly a hand lifted Crookback by the scruff of the neck and he found himself looking at the most frightening face he ever had seen. In front of him stood Stella the Evil, slowly whirling her mace. “Who is the leader of this vermin gang, you or I?” Crookback knew his life depended on the right answer. “You are, My Lady.” Stella smiled and called out, “Rala, Stala, get these miserable wretches to the other underlings.” The two ferrets smiled viciously and started dragging sleeping bodies to some other place. When Crookback got there he saw about five hundred different vermin sitting chained up to large poles. Stella looked to the south. “Get ready mice, for here I come!”

Chapter 2: Redwall Abbey Benjo sighed and stood up, groaning as he did so. His old, tired, bones were just no good any more. He went to his friends Skipper and Colonel Corn. They were trying to calm down a horde of Dibbuns, Redwall’s young ones, which was proving to be impossible “Hey, stop running around and sit still!” “Don’t even think about swimming in the pond!” The Dibbuns were running around and screaming like crazy. “But Skipper, I want to swim just like you!” Benjo smiled and walked up to the Dibbuns. “Listen up, mates. The Friar is giving out candied chestnuts to the Dibbuns, but only at noon.” It was two minutes till noon. The army of babies stampeded away to Redwall’s kitchen. Skipper grinned and said, Thanks for that one, mate. We would be dead if we were with those monsters a moment longer.” Then a squirrel jumped up and shouted, “The Long Patrol is coming, and they’re hungry!”

Colonel Corn greeted his old friends; Colonel Apple, Field Marshal Carrot, and Major Mullist Muckworthy. A young hare shouted out, “Where’s the food? I’m starving!” Friar Delicious laughed and said, “The food is in the Great Hall!” The Redwallers were nearly run over as the hares raced to the Great Hall.

General Storm was delighted. The winter was finally over and he had got forty new recruits, all of them being squirrels. Now he had three hundred mice, fifty otters, fifty hares, and forty squirrels. Outside his otters were happily running around outside and the squirrels were chasing the hares. Then Hard Rock came in, with a serious expression. “Why do you look so sad, Hard Rock? This is a wonderful day!” Hard Rock answered grimly, “I had a dream last night. In it was a fierce-looking mouse with a red sword. He said; “There is danger for the Brigade, journey to the Abbey to be safe.” General Storm thought about this cryptic message. Then he sighed and said, “Tell my officers to come here.” When they were in he looked at them all. There was Sergeant Lancing, Brigadier Thyme, Lieutenant Field, Marshal Hester, Sergeant Radie, Sergeant Larmrock, and Sergeant Leaf. I want each of you to take a score of soldiers and investigate the country. Don’t go too far, however. I don’t want you guys lost in the land of ice and snow.” His officers nodded and left the room.

Stella the Evil was talking with her second-in-command, Frechta. “How many of the lesser orders do we have?” “We have about twelve thousand here and five thousand at sea.” Then a stoat ran up and said, “My Lady, there are a score of beasts attacking us. What do we do, My Lady?” Stella dealt him a blow that sent him spinning. “Fight them, you fool!” Brigadier Thyme was hard pressed against the overwhelming number of vermin. A squirrel ran up to him and shouted, “We’re down to eight squirrels now, Brigadier!” Thyme yelled back, “If I’m going to die I’m going to die in style!” Then the Brigadier and his squirrels charged the vermin with one final war cry. Rala ran up to Stella and bowed low. “We have killed a score of enemies, My Lady.” Stella smiled wickedly and asked, “And how many did we lose?’ The ferret bit her lip and didn’t answer. Stella smiled even wider and put a paw on Rala’s shoulder, Stella’s claws piercing her shoulder. ”How many?” Rala still didn’t answer. Stella put her other arm on Rala’s other shoulder, causing the ferret to cry out in pain. The Pure Ferret sank her claws deeper into Rala’s shoulders, making her scream in pain. “We lost one hundred and twenty, My Lady! Please let me go, My Lady!” Stella suddenly kicked out, sending Rala sprawling. “Get out of my sight, you idiot!”