FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

First thing I would like to say is that comments and criticism is welcome and appreciated. I'm hoping this story will be as good for everyone that reads it as it seems to be to myself. Also I will be doing my best to post new chapters at least once a week. Next thing I'd like to touch on is that this story is based around the Redwall series of books, so with that.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Redwall or any characters/locations from the series!

However any other characters are mine.

Legacy of Silver

Chapter 1

_ _

The day had ran its course and slowly let in to night around Mossflower wood, the subtle warmth from the day starting to leave as the autumn night's chill crept through the woods and over the ramparts of Redwall abbey. As the light from the candle confined in the lantern grew, a cloaked figure started walking towards the south gate.

Walking slowly, eyes fully focused on the ground only two or three paces ahead of itself, it scanned for any sign of tracks. "Young'ns are always getting into so much trouble...they better have stayed in the walls...all this grief and uproar isn't what the abbey needs right now!" the creature muttered to itself as it got closer and closer to the gate, paw prints beginning to show themselves as it moved closer towards the gate.

"So did you pick up the trail Skipper?" the gentle but sudden voice startled the otter and made him fall over to his side. "Don't sneak up on me like that miss, please! Ya scared me half outa my fur." picking himself up and dusting off before looking back at the worried looking mouse, putting a gentle paw on her shoulder, "But yes I picked up the trail though I'm afraid it's headed straight for the gate...however that doesn't mean that they have left the abbey just yet." He soothed before she could start to cry.

"O-ok...I really hope their alright...Tam and Tia are always getting themselves into so much trouble...but I'd hate for them to learn the hard way like this skipper." She puts a paw over her mouth trying her best to keep herself from crying.

"I know Sena...I know, but whether they're in the abbey or out in the woods we will find them." Skipper reassured the worried mother before looking back to the ground and following the slight trail in the grass. Eventually his worst fear came to realization as the paw prints lead right to the gate which was hanging slightly inward...the dibbuns were out in the woods!

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"I-I'm c-c-cold brother! C-c-can't we go h-home now?" the young mouse's teeth chattered as the air around them got steadily colder. "I'm t-trying to f-f-find the path Tia, j-just l-lemme think." Shivering as a cold breeze pushed past them stealing even more warmth from their small bodies.

"B-but we've been looking for ages!" Tia wailed in despair, "I'm cold and I'm tired! I just want to go hooome!" "Well crying about it won't help now Tia....Whoa!" Tam tipped forward pulling his sister, who had been holding on to him, with him as he tripped over something, "I can barely even see, I think we're going to have to find somewhere to sleep for the night."

"A-alright..." Tia said as Tam picked himself and his sister up and began looking for a decent place to try and sleep until morning. Eventually they found a cave-like collapse of trees, slowly walking in, it seemed like the best place for them to sleep the night away, for the little bits Tam remembered of basic overnight stays outside of the abbey walls.

"If only they taught us how to make fire..." Tam thought to himself, but only the grownups were allowed to know how to make fire. Shivering again, this time at the not so distant memory of the fire that got out of hand last season while he and his dad were out with Skipper and his daughter, Maria, fishing for freshwater shrimp from the river to the north of the abbey.

"Brother? Are you ok?" Tia asked as she noticed Tam staring at the ground. "Yeah I'm ok Tia, you get some sleep ok? I'll keep watch." Tam told his sister, and with a slight nod she lay down and eventually drifted off into a fitful sleep.

"I shouldn't have brought her out here with me." Tam thought to himself. Before long his weariness started to get the better of him, as he started to drift into his own sleep, his head slowly sinking lower and lower until it was resting on his chest. And just as he was close to slipping off into sleep he thought he heard something, a quiet rustling, "had they been found?" was his last thought before sleep fully claimed him.

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"Ok we need to get searching. You all know where to go and how to look. It's going to get colder still as the night wears on. At this rate it could very well threaten their lives if we dont find them soon." Skipper's voice rang out over the four groups of five creatures he had chosen for the search parties.

"Be careful out there Maria, who knows just what could be hiding in the darkness." Maria's mother hugged her before handing her a dagger, "Just in case something happens I want you to hold onto this ok?" "Ok mother, but I'll be fine either way, I promise! It isn't like I'm going out alone..." Maria said to her. "It's my duty to worry about you Maria, but I know your right, you won't be out there alone."

"Come on! The quicker we are the better chance we have of finding them before it gets too much colder!" Skipper yelled back to his daughter as she ran over to her group and led them out of the main gate and across the path into the woods on the other side.

"Ok, we need to spread out some and comb the area, keep each other insight but don't stand too close together either. We need to cover as much ground as we can in a single sweep." Maria said to her group as they got into the woods, getting an 'aye.' from the four other otters.

They had been searching along the forest for anywhere the two dibbuns could have been hiding away to no avail. Looking up Maria could just see the moon, no more than a claw scratch of white light backed by a dark, star filled, sky. "Please...let us find them soon..." she mumbled to herself.

"Maria! We should head to the path and meet up with your father soon!" one of her group called to her, as she was the furthest into the woods. "Alright! There's a path just a little further ahead." She called back.

However, as soon as the words left her mouth she saw something flit across the feeble moonlight in a small clearing to her right. Wordlessly she moved to check it out. As she stepped into the clearing something felt different about the woods around her. They seemed...brighter, suddenly more welcoming yet...stranger.

"Huh weird, I've never seen trees like this before...or moss that glowed in the dark! Just where am I?" she thought to herself as she ran a paw over the trunk of the strange tree. It was taller than most of the oaks in Mossflower but so much smoother. And it gave off a warm dull light the same color as the moon, even the unusually but not uncomfortably long grass glowed with the light.

As she was admiring the tree a cloaked creature stepped out of the shadows with an old looking paw raised up as it spoke. "Fret not young one, I mean you no harm." He said in a strange almost echoing voice as Maria's paw shot to the dagger her mother had given her earlier that night. "Who are you? And what is this place?" Maria said as calmly as she could, a touch of wonder in her voice, her paw poised to take up the dagger incase the newcomer was lying about meaning no harm.

"Who I am is far from important, however, this place is a sacred place, one that few may enter, it is called the Moonlight Glade." The old creature said in that same strange voice, strong despite its obvious age. "Only one with a true heart may enter here, and it's chosen you for a reason my young friend, come closer and let's talk abit."

_ _ Hesitantly Maria walked closer towards the old creature, her paw away from the handle of the dagger as she decided this old creature truely meant her no harm. "What kind of reason would it have for bringing me here? The glade I mean." She ventured.

"Because...a darkness is starting to rise, one that we had hoped would stay locked away where it belongs, far in the frozen tundra to the north." As he said this Maria shivered as a cold wind gently whisked its way through the clearing. Closing her eyes for but a moment as she shivered, she opened them again to a horrible sight.

There was snow everywhere, and a blisteringly cold wind was whipping its way across the plains of ice and snow. But what made her blood freeze was what she saw in front of her. There was what could only be described as an all out war unfolding in the field of snow.

Creatures that resembled foxes but were somewhere between an otter and a badger in size, were tearing each other apart with vicious forms of weaponry. Barbed claws made of metal, blades with backwards facing teeth, shields with spikes that hooked into fur and flesh. She could hear the yelling of war; hear the pained screams as new wounds were opened on both sides.

She could only stare in absolute horror at the bloody scene in front of her. Wishing, willing to scream for it to stop at the top of her lungs but unable to make a sound as the snow turned into a scarlet red from all the blood being spilled.

"What you now witness is a great war unknown to the world in which you live, a war between good, and pure evil. This was known by my kind and family as the bloodiest battle ever fought. Countless creatures spilled all their blood and gave every breath to this damned fight." The old creature's voice echoed through her head.

"This was the horrible Blood Ice war. Though you may be asking why their fighting. One is for greed, destruction, for the simple joy of it..." as he paused, Maria could start to see a dark aura around many of the creatures on the blood soaked battlefield. "The other, simply for the salvation and the chance of a peaceful life for their loved ones..."

This time a warmer light started to glow from the rest of the creatures warring, and she noticed something different about those with the warm glow...they all had the same insignia somewhere on their bodies. Some tattooed on their ears and paws. Others wore it physically by way of necklaces and bracelets.

And as if by cue she heard the old creatures voice once again, "Those with the insignias are part of a group called the Silver Patrol, brave and loyal wolves, very much like the Long Patrol that you know of today." He said before sighing and speaking again.

_ "This battle lasted many, many days and nights; with absolutely no end in sight, the tide of the war shifted numerous times, neither side having the strength to defeat the other but either side wishing for it to end."_

_ _ Suddenly a loud rumbling shook the earth the warring creatures were fighting on. "And this is where the tides turn for the last time...but for all the worse..." the old creature choked out as Maria could see a huge wall of snow and ice rise up beneath her. It rose higher than she would have ever thought snow could before the dark creatures vanished in traces of smoke as the wall of snow and ice started to fall over the others left wondering what was going on.

Maria was nearly sick as she closed her eyes and turned her head waiting for the sound that she knew was to come. But after a moment of silence she opened her eyes to find herself back in the moonlit glade. "After that loss, what was left of the good wolves retreated back to warmer homes."

Shaking off her after images of the illusion she got enough breath back to ask, "But why would they fight at such a cold desolate place?" Maria putting her head in her paws trying to escape the bloody vision. "Because that was the last chance they had to stop them before they moved into warmer more peaceful places, the last chance to stop their evil. However, though they lost the fight gravely, they managed to set up a seal, a sort of wall with what little strength they had left. After that they scattered. But, one group stayed together and moved far to the south eastern lands."

_ _ "But why show me all of this? Why tell me, an otter?" Maria asked, wondering just what her role in all of this could possibly be. "There has to be more reason then just wanting to share a story with me surely?" she said as she lifted her head and looked at the old creature, seeing his face now that he had pulled down the hood that covered it.

"Because, there is one who will need your help, and you shall need his if all you know and cherish wishes to survive the coming darkness..." he said, truly speaking this time, his voice raspy and cracked, his face lined from scars of battles long past. "Fear not the shadowed one for it is he who shall bring the darkness to its knees."

Maria stared at the old wolf, about to ask another question before everything started to waver and fade, the old wolfs words echoing once more as everything dimed to black and she fell into strange dreams.

************

"Shhhh...something's up ahead." Skipper whispered to his group of searchers as he spotted the glow of a fire just up ahead through the trees. Waving for the rest of his group to split up and flank the area as he snuck abit closer trying to get a good view of the tiny clearing.

"Something doesn't seem right here...those two don't know how to make fire. And Tam is still somewhat scared of it with what happened last season..." Skipper thought to himself as he peered around a tree. Seeing the area empty, save for the fire, he slowly walked forward into the clearing.

"Well someone was here not too long ago...but where are they now?" Skipper mused as the rest of his group walked out of the trees and started searching the small camp. "Hey! Skipp! They were here!" looking up at this Skipper walked over to the tumble of trees. "What did ya find Del?"

"Tam's habit string, see?" Del said as he handed Skipper the thin rope. "Good catch Del, but where are they now, who or what found them before we could?" Skipper said as he looked around at the trees. "Well I don't want to lose this spot so we'll bunker down here until it starts to get light. Get some rest, I'll keep first watch."

As light began to take hold of Mossflower, Del who had taken last watch, woke everyone. As Skipper took to the head of the group again he found the tracks of whatever had found Tam and Tia. Following them as best as he could they came up to a river with a clear pool off to the right of it, a spring feeding into the river.

"The trail ends off at this tree...ok everyone start looking around for any kind of entrances or another trail." Skipper said as he himself started looking along the trunk of the trees for any kind of secret entrances.

After a long while of looking they all sat down having come up on a cold trail. "Dang it! Thought for sure we would find them...maybe we missed something?" Del said sighing. "I don't know. I've searched everywhere I could that's for sure!" exclaimed Skipper.

Then, a rustling came from the bushes on the opposite side of the river, Skippers view shot in the direction of the sound just a moment before three creatures walked to the edge of the river. His eyes widening as he saw the two dibbuns walking out of the bushes with a black furred creature that looked abit like an oversized fox.

The creature, dipping a bucket into the river before looking up noticing the creatures across from him, narrowed his eyes at them before kneeling down to talk to the young ones. While this was happening the search party had lined up across the bank on the other side of the river.

Skipper, staring at the creature directly across the river from him, waved at the young ones who happily waved back. Noticing the strange creature relax abit as he waved them over to their side Skipper gave a knowing nudge to the otters on either side.

As the otters swam over to the other side of the river, the three others backed up to make room for them on the bank. Though Skipper came right out and stood in front of the creature, the other four took their time coming up to stand in a semi-circle around them.

"I do believe those young ones belong with us, not you." Skipper said in an even but threatening tone, his paw straying towards his sword handle incase the creature tried anything. However, seeing this, the creature backed up pulling Tam and Tia behind him before speaking.

"Even if that's true, I will not let them go with one so willing to pull blade on a creature they don't even know." He stated in an even tone, his eyes not wavering for even a moment as he stared at the five otters, all with paw on blade.

Hearing a small whimper all six creatures looked at the frightened young mice, eyes wide in horror at the open hostility. Sighing the creature stood up straight again looking at Skipper. "Stay thy blades, your scaring them. Let me explain; I found these two in a small shelter of tumbled trees last night. I started a small fire so they could warm up some before I took them back to where I'm staying for the time being."

Seeing that he wasn't exactly lying about taking care of the young ones, Skipper relaxed a little, but still didn't trust the strange creature. He seemed so much like a fox yet at the same time not. Something about his eyes off set the whole view of it, they were steady and strong, too much so for a fox.

"Is this true Tam, Tia?" Skipper said looking at the young mice who nodded vigorously as he spoke. "Yes it's true. We woke up somewhere warm, we were scared of him at first but he brought us some food and promised to help us get home." Tia explained

Finally sighing, "Well thanks for taking care of them, but it's time they came home. Their mother is worried sick about them, along with the rest of the abbey." Skipper says as the two mice hurried over and got picked up by two of the other otters who chided them.

Picking up the bucket the creature said his farewells to the young mice as the four otters started to head home, but stopped Skipper before he left with them. "Keep a closer eye on your young ones, these woods are not as safe as you may think." was all that he said before walking off into the bushes, leaving Skipper on the bank of the stream.

"Hey wait...!" Skipper started but it was too late, the creature had gone. Shaking his head Skipper turned to follow the others back to the abbey when he heard the crack of a twig, swinging his head in the direction of the sound he listened but heard nothing else. "Just what did he mean...?"

Feeling a little nervous now Skipper walked a little faster to the path to meet up with his group if they had decided to wait. "Something just doesn't feel right here..." his thoughts started flowing around in his head for a while before the path came into sight, his group was just a little ways up the path and he ran to rejoin them, "Let's get home."