An Unexpected Reunion

[Garret Strife]

Garret Strife strode through the woodlands, humming quietly to himself. He was somewhere in the vacinity of Castle Southsward. He had intended to once again see about recruiting a small party of capable warriors, but he had once again been without success. After leaving, he'd begun meandering in a northern direction. His next intended destination; Redwall Abbey.

To be honest, though, he wasn't making good time. His chain of thought was interrupted, however...

[blackfox7]

((Let ze fun begin?))

The thick carpet of leaves beneath her swift pawpads crunched lightly with every stride. Skyra was traveling south away from Romandar's tracking party, running in spurts to gain more ground. She bared a fang at herself alone: She didn't like running away, but her sharp wit told herself that a true warrior chooses the time and place of battle. That was exactly what she was doing...

The black-furred vixen leaped a small gully and landed catlike in a sunny glade. This seemed like an ideal area to wait for her opponents to come. Skyra would be ready for them.

Her keen vision picked out a black figure in the treeline, and she was immediately on alert. She drew her long sabre and took up a defense fighting stance.

"Show yoreself, or I'll come in there and see for myself!!" She snarled. Had the horde trackers been more skilled than she beleied? Had they caught up already?

[Garret Strife]

((Yez, let ze fun, begin!))

Garret's ears perked up. That voice... I wonder.

He strode slowly toward the source, still cautious. "As you wish. Though if you are also in hiding, I ask that you show yourself as well. It would be the honorable thing to do." he called, raising his paws to show that he was unarmed. He stopped, and waited.

[blackfox7]

Skyra faultered. Romandar's evil beasts would not have called out like that. On closer inspection of the field she spotted the lone beast. He had black fur, a fox's brush, powerfully framed, and holding out his paws as a sign of peace. That wicked, giant fox had no black foxes in his command. Plus the voice sounded quite familiar.

Still cautious, the black vixen lowered her sword and stepped out into the open, in full line of sight of the other fox.
"Have we met before?", she pondered aloud, never taking her eyes off the creature in the clearing.

[Garret Strife]

Garret smiled, genuinely happy at this turn of events. He lowered his paws, no longer needing to show that he was defenceless. "Yes, I believe we have. In Mossflower, you were with a white fox, and a ferret." He said, as he took an involuntary step closer. A minor look of concern appearing upon his features, he asked "You look like you've been running, are you being pursued?"

[blackfox7]

Skyra's eyes widened. Garret Strife, she thought to herself, I might've known.

Sheathing her sabre, the black vixen strode forward a few paces. She wiped a bead of sweat from her nosetip.
"Pursued? You could say that. It's more like being run after by a bunch of brain-dead flightless seagulls." She wrinkled her nose slightly in clear distaste, "I can deal with them myself."

[Garret Strife]

"I don't doubt it, but I'm going to help you anyway." Garret said, turning minutely toward the direction Skyra had come from, he layed a paw upon the hilt of the Fenrir. "Now I will ask, how many are there likely to be?"

(Sorry for the shortness, I'm a little... off lately.)

[blackfox7]

Skyra frowned at Garret's persistance. Why must malebeasts always behave in such a way? He was going to get himself on Romandar's bad side helping the giant's enemies like this.

Still, there was worse help to be had. At least the black dogfox was a real warrior, not a sniveling git.

"Every tracking party is about a dozen beasts," she said, her tone low and sulky, "So fight them if you really want to. Six to one is no challenge." The last bit was said with a snort, and she pawed her sabre's hilt restlessly. It was a mystery to her why Garret would want to battle gutless hordebeasts with her if there was no great challenge involved. She suspected another reason for his offer of help, but she couldn't quite pinpoint what it was...

[Garret Strife]

"A dozen to one is no challenge." Garret responded, drawing his monstrous blade from it's scabbard, and spinning it, as his keen ears picked up a branch snapping.

Indeed the vixen's thoughts were correct. His reason's were that he'd taken an interest in her... Something he hadn't ever allowed himself to do. It was against all his principles... But he didn't care.

Though he would've helped anybeast, he would normally have let them handle their own affairs had they said they didn't need his aid.

[blackfox7]

Skyra turned towards the sound of pawpads trying to be stealthy on the crunching and snapping forest floor, drawing her sabre as she did, "True,"she admitted. Some sense told her this fight would not take very long.

The leader of the tracking party, a somewhat feeble-looking rat named Flanagg, motioned for silence. He could see the black vixen now from his perch in a pricker bush, as could his followers. They were a rag-tag bunch: Mostly rats, but also a few foxes and one lone sea otter pirate. This otter was second in command, and his name was G'tullo.
Flanagg waved a paw to G'tullo, and in an instant the other ten beasts leaped up and drew straight swords, scimitars, and daggers. All at once they charged forward, trying to overwhelm quality with quantity. One rat stepped too close to Skyra's sword reach and found himself with a neat slit in his windpipe. The battle had begun.

[Garret Strife]

Garret was almost amused by how pathetic this 'tracking party' looked. No doubt they could track, but what could they hope to accomplish upon running into their prey?

Another rat met his end being cleaved neatly in half by the warrior fox, and another took a clenched paw to the chin. He dropped, sleeping before he hit the ground.

Garret turned then, parrying a blow coming from a fox, and pushing the beast easily away.

[grathenia]

Thia was just flying around and saw a battle happening and landed near a tree looking waiting to see when the battle would end. "wow, a battle on the floor here near my nest isn't very polite or nice. vermin like them shouldn't be around these parts." She thought. She flew down and grabbed a rat and flew high then letting it go and going back down a fast speeds but slows down and lands in a tree. "sheesh all these animals are making quite a mess of things." she though again and went after a vermin fox and claws at it's eyes trying to blind it or half-blind it to stop it from hurt the other two animals.