~Ratty's Long-awaited Meeting~
Fanfic by Jublenarris, illustrations by Jublenarris.
Part 1.
He was always in her mind, she thought of him for ages, every day, night, week, month and year. Ratty however, never got the chance to ever tell him what feelings she had for him. In her mind, he was strong, dashing, clever, humorous, handsome, -not to mention he was also a bold and courageous leader! Who was “he”? He was Cluny the Scourge.
How did this all start? How did Ratty ever fall in love with Cluny in the first place?
Well, it all started when the she-rat had wandered far from her home-town, Moscow; traveling by ship at sea to find a home to call her own. She was old enough, around the age of 23 to start her own personal life, so young was Ratty, yet had become a beautiful flower since she was a child. Ratty, or what you also may name her by, was Kriska; had an interesting welfare about her. Hanging out with pirates is what she liked best, joining up either a sword fight or drink with the meanest groupies in the villages she passed through during her travels.
One night, seas were rough and Ratty had to find some safe place to shelter her for the night. Reaching shore, Ratty scrambled onto the island without knowing of any trace of what could’ve been in inheritance from this unknown deserted location. –But did that matter for? All she needed to do was to find a homey place just about her size to fit in for the night to rest for tomorrow’s journey. “More venturing, the better,” thought Ratty, “If I keep this up, I might find better land to settle while on my journey. For now, it’s time to hit the hay for me. Tomorrow will probably be more fresh and clear to see what’s around here to see.”
And indeed, it was. This place was known as Mossflower, a beautiful wood which had come from an existence of hundreds of years ago. As soon as dawn appeared, the stormy grey clouds above the tree tops faded, and the sun hued up marvelous colorations of green, blue and purple, to red orange and yellow, as soon as the sun rose higher from the East. The water made a sweet-sounding rippling melody in the shallow lakes, dripping off of cool wet plants and trees. It washed away, eventually to dry the soil in the midday.
A sweet lavender, papaya and current plum scent in the air, freshening the air, giving more fair life to this land which Ratty landed upon last night, seeming like a strange, monstrous, dark plain, but turning out to be almost the perfect settlement for Ratty to stay for her new life.
Sunshine warmed her silvery white soft fur, brightening her snow white t-shirt added with a warm contrast upon her short brown skirt and boots. Her cranberry red cloak reflected against the sunshine in excellent contrast… Ratty awoke with a sneeze, shaking off moist drips of water which was left in her fur from the night before, fluffing up her head fur and fuzzy body. Twitching her whiskers, she started sensing what was about her as she fixed her clothes into place, rubbing the sleep dust from her jungle green eyes. Ratty began to look around, seeing oak trees spread around grass and soil. Plants, flowers, streams and buzzing and chirping birds surrounded the area.
Ratty began exploring, after looking through several areas of this lovely wood, Ratty smiled and thought to herself, “This land has more wonders to explore and far more plants than my family could ever see in their lifetime.” Hours later after breakfast, she came upon a part of the woods where there was more land in this area than for trees and plants to grow. She saw tents, spears; axes and swords were spread alongside, everywhere. Only male tough-looking rats walked these premises, some looked like guards, others looked like soldiers…but….where was their leader? Ratty took a look down closer and saw the biggest tent on the west side of the camp. “Maybe that’s where the leader stays…” Ratty said to herself.
Ratty wasn’t very fast, but she knew how to figure things out herself to get away if ever captured by any of the guards…
Grabbing a strong stick beside a large tree trunk, she dragged a simple line all the way from near the camp grounds to her shelter area. By this time, it was late afternoon, and she was quite exhausted, her delicate paws dirty and sorely red, but now she knew just where to find the camp again for another time.
A week had passed, and Ratty was still at the same place she landed on. Watching the camp closely with the proper materials such as climbing rope, clothes to camouflage her forest-like surroundings and knives, she was able to look down at the camp to find out what was going on without being noticed by anyone.
One day, Ratty saw a huge male rat with grayish brown fur, who had golden eyes, with a long whip-like tail with a tail-barb, wore a lot of purple and wore a black eye patch over his left eye. “That must be the leader of the horde…” Ratty said to herself silently. Never before had she’d ever laid eyes on such a handsome bold-looking creature! “Such a strong, dashing, handsome, -not to mention he also looks like a true courageous leader!” Ratty thought, not once could she take her eyes off of the rat.
This made Ratty feel more settled here since she saw the male rat, even though she had never met him personally--but what did *that* matter? Her time to meet this new rat would come, and soon perhaps. She wanted to know two things: Who this astonishing creature was, and what he was planning to do. If she could find out what this other rat wanted, perhaps she would want to join him, to help him get whatever it was he wanted. There was only one problem…She didn’t get his name!
She pouted and placed her chin on her paws, trying to think if the rats ever said his name apart from “Chief”. Just then, Ratty heard someone talking from a nearby distance: “What if in the next battle we’ll all get killed! Y’know the Chief can be pretty crazy about this whole “invade” idea. Besides, you’ve seen the way how those otters and the badger fight.” Then another rat spoke:“ Cluny’s tough, but he’s always coming up with new ideas. Maybe this time we’ll be inside the abbey as the Chief usually promises.”
“Cluny! So that’s his name.” Ratty thought, “Cluny….CL-U-NY. Cluny! Ah, I love it! What a wonderful name! A handsome rat deserves a handsome name.” Ratty felt proud to know of this rat, Cluny. “Hopefully I can meet him soon…” she hoped.
It had now been months, and Ratty still kept her eye watching out for the he-rat, and still remained reluctantly observant of his attentions and why he was to assist his duties. There was no doubt about it, this male rat’s actions made it seem so clear for Ratty to being absolutely sure she was right: He was trying to conquer the abbey which belonged to a load of abbey-mice! “That abbey, Redwall surely must be so wonderful for Cluny to want it so bad…” Although, now that she’d been thinking about location, she though of her home, and observed that no creature –not even Ratty knew exactly where Cluny came from. Either he came from the jungles across the Northern seas, or from Portugal.
Ratty though, only usually focused on important bits of information: Who Cluny was, wishing to meet him and why he wanted Redwall so much. Ratty only had one craving that kept her coming back near the camp every morning till’ night: Cluny. A tingling feeling inside of her would warm up making her feel fuzzy and soft. “Could it perhaps…” Ratty said to herself, “that….I am in love with Cluny…?” Ratty could not help the feeling, nor control it, but in heaven’s eyes, she was in love, and very deeply, too.
“I don’t know him yet, but I feel…safe, amazed, happy and confidentially loved. I don’t think I will ever leave this place.” Ratty smiled. She never wanted to leave Cluny. She was in love.
Part 2.
One night, Ratty scurried off through the woods to find the campsite. The night was dark and chilly, frogs croaked, owls hooted, crickets chirped. Ratty felt a cool breeze pass her fur as she fox trotted through the night with foot-patting and leaf-cracking sounds. She didn’t feel too comfortable at the moment, she felt slightly afraid that something or someone would jump out in the darkness of night to try and scare her, and she couldn’t seem to see the trail too well. Although, Ratty could feel the paw tracks that she had made from awhile back. Knowing this, she felt better there that she knew she was going the right way, but she listened and sniffed the air to make sure nothing was following her.
……….She was safe. “Good” she thought, “by the time I get there, it’ll probably already be dawn…”
Once dawn came hours later, Ratty was already there about the campsite, rested upon a huge oak tree root, peacefully dreaming of Cluny. “Cluny…Cluny…Cluny…” In Ratty’s dream, she and Cluny were at sea on Cluny’s ship. Cluny was dressed in a black and red tunic with a brown cufflink belt, baggy beige sleeves, connected to long, sewed, black wrist-bands. Cluny’s neck collar was red and the chest area of his tunic was undone, showing-off his chest fur. Looking at the sunset in the horizon across the evening seas, he stared out there, sniffing the air pleasantly.
Ratty walked out on the deck, where Cluny stood standing. She had her hair down, her lovely silvery white hair wavy-curly. A section of her hair from the back of her head was braided, with one hair-band with a big lovely pinkish blossom tied onto the braid. She also wore a white creamy colored lake gown with silvery wrist cuffs. Cluny turned to see Ratty, for she looked so beautiful and sweet, he smiled lovingly at her.
“Oh Ratty…” Cluny remarked to her, caressing his arms around her waist. “You look so beautiful!” “Aww, Cluny…” “I love you…””I love you too, Cluny!” Cluny and Ratty kissed, sharing the most fantastic moment together with that one kiss, so great that nothing could break them apart from this moment….not even cold reality itself. Ratty wrapped her arms around Cluny’s neck, then down to his chest.
Kissing his lips gently, she hugged his body to hers, snuggling with a joyful smile. Cluny himself was smiling, he too could not help the feeling to know that Ratty loved him, he felt that he wanted to spend eternity with the lovely she-rat; to love her, care for her, protect her and make her feel happy, because he loved her back. “Ratty…?” “Yes…?” “Will you be my wife?” Ratty felt a jolt of bursting happiness inside of her, she couldn’t help but smile. She blushed deep before answering…”Of cour—!“ Just then, Ratty awoke with a startle.
A huge commotion had interrupted her sleep. Heavy stones from Cluny’s rats slung towards the abbey, while arrows from the abbey mice shot back towards Cluny’s army. Shouts of despair from the abbey mice mixed with the moans of agony from the rats in Cluny’s army. Looking back and forth at the fight, Ratty could see a female badger run alongside the South abbey wall with the abbot mouse shouting orders to have a reload of their supplies. Cluny however, swore in a fit of rage, assaulting his army to give a huge boost of energy to bust down the abbey gates with a battering ram.
“Keep at it with the battering ram! When I give the signal, I want to see a huge amount of stones to hit on the top of that parapet!” Ratty dried tears from her eyes, feeling so sad. She really hated to see Cluny angry. Wiping dirt from her short brown skirt and her white t-shirt, she stretched luxuriously and waited till’ Cluny came back to camp. This would be the final time Cluny would be angry like this again. The time had come that Cluny and Ratty would meet.
“I’d do anything in the world to make Cluny happy.” Ratty thought to herself. “I know…!-I think it’s about time I visited Cluny. Hopefully I can make him feel better when I tell him I wish to join his army. Just you wait abbey mice--Cluny WILL win! ”
Later that night, the summer night was warm, and many candles flickered in their sockets on Cluny’s wooden table beside a red curtain. Cluny was sitting on his bed in his tent, thinking of a new tactic to strike at the abbey again. He had never felt so frustrated in his life. Just then, he heard paw-steps approach his tent. “C-Cluny…sir?” A soft female voice spoke; Cluny sat up, his whiskers lifted, and his ears facing forward, eyes widened. It was a female rat, poking her head through the flaps on Cluny’s tent. Ratty came in, and looked at Cluny with a soft face. “Who are you?” Cluny asked her.
“…My name is Ratty”, came the reply.
Part 3.
“Ratty, eh?” Came Cluny’s reply. “I’ve seen your work,” Ratty continued. “And I like what I see. You are a very bold and fierce leader. You don’t seem to care weather if you die in battle or not…” Ratty then sounded more worried than impressed. “I’d rather live than die, my dear,” Cluny answered smoothly, with an almost charming smile. “However, what are the odds? I let the dice fall where they may. After all, being a warlord takes hard work, planning the assaults, leading the horde, but one day he falls. Not to worry though, I assure you. I am a great leader, as I shall always be.” Cluny smiled. “I see,” said Ratty; she reached out a paw to touch Cluny’s shoulder. “Well, I came to know about you. Will you let me join your horde?” “What can you do?” Cluny asked. “Many things” Ratty smiled. “Wash, sew, clean, cook…--“
“Can you fight?” Cluny interrupted, Ratty nodded. “Good. If you can do all of those things, you are in my horde on one condition: Obey by my orders.” Ratty nodded a second time. “Now, any questions, my new recruit?” “No, Cluny.” Ratty smiled. Just then, Cluny quickly gazed into Ratty’s eyes, realizing how beautiful they were. Grassy forest green eyes which sparkled with desire and longing. This feeling of the start to getting to know this beautiful silvery white female rat simply made Cluny’s heart melt.
“Redtooth! Frogblood!” Cluny called. Two Hench-rats came running in, a tall scrawny-bodied red one, and a short light-brown hunch-backed one. The two rats saluted Cluny as they both replied by their master’s call: “Yes Chief?” “See to it that this new recruit gets a tent of her own, along with new weapons set up inside. She can start fresh and early with the rest of us for tomorrow on the next assault.” Ratty didn’t hesitate to be walking beside these two Hench-rats; these were Cluny’s captains, and as long as she was allowed to stay in camp to be near Cluny, she never really minded what would happen as long as he knew that she loved him. Simply doing anything for Cluny is what she was here for.
“Maybe Cluny will want to keep on traveling after this whole war scheme” she thought; “if so, he’ll probably take me with him. I couldn’t possibly want anything more than this…”
*The next morning*
“Alright, you living-dead buffoons! Onto Redwall!” Cluny charged forth his army from St. Ninian’s Church, loading up each soldier with a steady yet quite sinister weapon; shouting out orders on their next march to Redwall for another attack. Once he was finished, Cluny then turned to Ratty. “Ratty, as your first task, I’m lending over a very important job for you: the Redwallers will be up bright and early, placing their guards up at the top of the parapet on the walls of the abbey. There, once we’ve finished off the guards, it’ll be easier to break into the abbey. You whistle when their just the right spot.” “Right” Ratty gave a loyal and smart salute to her warlord; walking alongside him as he, Ratty and the entire army set off to Redwall to complete one mission: To fulfill Cluny’s state of revenge. Ratty could no help but look at Cluny and how handsome he looked that very morning, watching him cautiously; wishing not to disturb him in his present good mood by asking any silly questions of whatsoever. She as well as the army knew to stay clear of him in this moment; he was very violent, un-doubtful to mind.
Cluny’s deadly devilish eye set upon the form of the abbey, making his pace faster each time without making any sudden moves such as running. If he were to get excited and to charge out his battle cry to possibly make his army move any faster, he knew in his mind it would wake up the entire abbey. However, the feeling of the sun’s warm shine setting upon Cluny’s face made him feel ready for the start of his new attack; right then he would charge forth to take the abbey before anyone would realize it. Cluny thought deep down in mind that the thought of that plan would’ve been simply ridiculous, knowing it could’ve been too good to be true. No, he had to stay focused on this next assault; otherwise he would fail miserably, losing every soldier within one go, looking like a crazed idiot to his army instead of them seeing him as their victorious leader.
Cluny then saw at the corner of his eye that the rat maid was watching; knowing this, he turned to look at her. Ratty swiftly turned her head and blushed; she didn’t want to upset her leader, especially on her first day or ever. Once they made it to Redwall, Cluny grinded his teeth; giving the signal to Ratty. The rat maid nodded as she made a fair distance, climbing a tree to get a full view of the abbey and its defenders.
Once she saw the mice preparing for another day, she knew precisely what to do; she whistled down to Cluny, giving him the signal to attack. Cluny charged forth and charged loudly, causing several mice on top of the parapet to flinch nervously before getting the chance to backfire. Ratty did not want to just sit up in the tree like a coward, as soon as she knew Cluny would eventually need some assistance, she decided to stay up there for any look-outs for any fallen Redwallers and if ever they were to run low on energy and supplies.
Several mice fell, a hedgehog got hit upside the head, and an otter got shot in his right arm. Ratty whistled over down to Cluny, who looked up at Ratty, sword in hand; “Chief! Aim towards the East side of the abbey wall! That’s where the Redwallers are the most and firing down upon the army.” Cluny signaled his horde to fire on the top of the parapet of the East wall, although a few of his fighters unfortunately, were bad archers. Rats had difficulty with the string on the bow when it came to archery; on the other hand there were only two rats who were smart enough to work around the bow problem, and that was Ratty and Cluny. This is why Cluny made his army use slings. This was a good practice to get a better aim on top of the walls were the abbey’s defenders stood about the most. Cluny however, was smart and alert; he was not aiming to kill everyone on the wall, he was aiming to break into the abbey to kill everyone within the courtyard and beyond; so many times he’d order his troops to fire the highest they possibly could with arrows and stones inside the courtyard area. That is, if there wasn’t any way of getting inside the abbey during his assaults. This meant the real deal of war. Either the Redwallers were to suffer and die, or Cluny was; thing was though, Cluny never took no for an answer. He was always ambitious, unpredictable.
The battle took up all day. It was now getting close to sunset, and the remainders of the horde were badly injured, hungry and weary as much as Cluny could’ve been. The Redwallers ONCE AGAIN had foiled another one of Cluny’s brilliant plans.
Cluny was exhausted, hot, hungry, stressed and furious. He needed some time to think things over before he could continue on another attack. Although, the problem was, with less soldiers, lack of food and sleep, possible illness or any some sort of issue lurking around in Cluny’s camp; it’d be difficult for one alone to organize every detail at paw before even reaching one goal: To conquer Redwall. Once Cluny would have Redwall, there’d be no need to fight, no need for any hassle; just laid back, comfortable laziness. Now of course, he’d get somewhat bored after awhile, so maybe after some time there’d be more travels to pick-more mysterious things and adventures to find! He’d probably go back out to sea to discover new land, and maybe return back to Cluny’s Castle with a few things to remind him of his journeys. He could sure use a vacation-a nice calm relaxing sunny side time on a private beach would be fantastic. Cool breezes, warm sun, with the sand at perfect temperature; the sounds of the rolling ocean waves and seagulls ringing through his tiring ears, and oh, the sweet taste of a casket of barley wine and some cheese and nuts would taste fabulous. My, my, how wonderful his vacation would be if he actually had one—it would be absolutely perfect.
Cluny did best to ignore his pains as he and his horde headed straight back to camp. Even Ratty had her turn both on patrol and during battle; she needed to shut her eyes and lie back to relax for awhile after from dressing her wounds as well as anyone else who needed some recovery.
It seemed that every rat in the whole horde was licking their wounds and were doing their best to keep in shape for their next battle; while still suffering from their agonized pain. A lot of rats wanted to blame their leader-Cluny; however they said nothing nor made any faces of unfaithfulness. They knew better than to upset their leader, especially at a time such as this. Ratty went to work right away, after cleaning her own wounds; she got to work on everyone else. Some rats had illness; others had broken legs, paws or even smashed in snouts. One rat she was unable to recover—he’d suffered a major beating his skull that he died in his own bed soon after the horde got back to camp. Ratty reminded a couple of horde-members to burry the rat and said a few words.
Ratty wore her brown strapped boots, but also wore a red dress over her original outfit, long sleeves rolled high up-along with a white handkerchief over her head, ears and hair-which had been tied back into a ponytail; and she also had a white apron tied around the front of her silky red dress.
She carried around a few moist cloths over her left arm while holding a bowl of hot steamy herbal water in the other open arm. She’d just remembered about Cluny when she finished her work, and hurried over to him. Ratty slightly tripped, hot boiling water splashed out onto Cluny’s lap as he yowled out in pain and scowled at Ratty. The ratmaid took a nearby cool towel to dry off the mess on Cluny’s belly area. She made the smallest little effort as she looked down to see Cluny’s belly-area. It was….well,…rather huge and soft-looking yet a sturdy form to it at the same time…-ah, but enough of that. She quickly took her gaze off of Cluny’s crouch and carried out her clean-up on the mess she’d made. “I’m terribly sorry about this, Cluny—er, Chief. I really didn’t mean to—“
Cluny groaned soundly as he answered back in a rather raspy sounding voice; “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Now, what is it you need, Ratty?” “Oh, I was just wondering…if you’re hurt and need some…well…help with dressing your wounds?” “No, Ratty. Don’t worry ‘bout me.” “-Now, now, here. Let me fix it.” Cluny didn’t bother to hesitate in order to do nor say anything. He just sat there lied back, allowing Ratty to do her job as he closed his eyes to rest. It felt really good to him, actually, feeling her soft furry small, gentle paws to feel his body with such care and comfort—sure, he’d been healed by many healers before including Sela. Although…there was something strange about this ratmaid that seemed to lighten up Cluny which made his heart race; though he hoped this would never show in front of Ratty so she’d notice. He’d look like such a fool if anyone ever suspected he somewhat had special feelings for the pretty young Ratty; after all, they would never understand the true feelings that spin around in his mind which he could never express with apart from himself. Though he feared, that even Ratty would be shocked to hear such dark things from his depressing mind and would surely leave…that was the last thing Cluny wanted…
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