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After the feast Matthias was told to escort Cornflower and her family home. They're in a small cart being pulled by the much larger and stronger Constance a badger. When they near Saint Ninian's Church, they hear a loud rumbling, and Constance quickly pulls the cart into the bushes. What they saw made them froze as a giant wagon being pulled by 6 massive horses came down the road. The figure in the driver's seat of the wagon is a giant compared to even Constance. (1)
"Is that a human?" Cornflower ask having only heard of humans in stories.
"Yes, I seen one before in my youth," Constance said remembering the only time before she seen a human.
The human is a female with long red hair with yellow stripes on it. Causing Constance’s eyes to widen as she remembers the young human girl that suddenly appeared one night at the Abby. She and the others drove her off, the girl tried to get back in several times before they finally managed to drive her away for good. Now she has return.
The Woodlanders watch as the massive wagon rolled by them, that when Constance got a better look at it. Is a human size gypsy wagon that she has seen travelers use, a house on wheels. Also so massive it takes more than a pair of horses to pull the weight and what’s on top of the wagon, which is a large wooden structure strapped down by ropes on top of it. Looking like a ship, that has rats, weasels, stoats, sables, ferrets, foxes, martens, wolverines, and other vermin on it.
“No,” Matthias eyes widen seeing a large rat in front of the ship. Someone he remembers too well in his nightmares.
Cluny the Scourge is an enormous black male bilge sea rat and horde leader with unknown origins. It is believed that he once was involved with seafaring, and came from distant jungles. Cluny had one eye, the other was lost in a battle with a pike and covered by an eye patch. He lost his eye and the pike lost its life. (2)
Cluny wears a cloak made of batwings that was fastened at his throat with the skull of a mole. His war helmet was adorned with blackbird feathers and stag beetle horns. One of Cluny's most distinguishing features - as well as his primary weapon - was his own tail, which was long, powerful, and whip-like. In battle, he fastened a poison spike to its tip and used it to lash out at enemies.
The rumbling didn’t stop as 3 more massive gypsy wagons, each pulled by their own team of 6 massive horses followed behind the lead one. Each wagon has its own ship strapped down on top of them, with a crew of vermin on it. Each of the wagons has a human driver all females, one with orange hair, the other purple, and the last blue.
Constance’s eyes widen as she saw on the last wagon ship is crewed by ratels. She has only seen one once, when her grandfather took her to a port town. The ratel was apart of a crew that had dock to the port town to resupply and he was in a tavern feasting on a leg of ham glazed with honey. She learned that he’s from the south and they're even fiercer than wolverines, thanks to having to deal with a lot more predators in the south lands then in the north. Their skin is like armor and very loose, allowing them to fight animals that are much bigger than they are.
Once the 4 wagons pass by heading for Saint Ninian’s Church, the Redwallers headed back to Redwall.
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Later -
Saint Ninian's Church, also known as St. Ninian's, was an old church located southwest of Redwall Abbey, just down the road. The building's origins are a bit hazy. According to a song passed down through Windred's family, the clan of a Mossflower mouse named Ninian had grown too large for their abode, so Ninian decided to build a new home for them. However, he was so lazy that his wife performed most of the construction, prompting her to erect a sign stating "This Ain't Ninian's!" Generations of weathering eventually faded off the first three letters and the exclamation point, causing the sign to read "Saint Ninian's". This reportedly caused the building, when it was rediscovered seasons later, to be mistaken for a church.
The wagons stop and the four human women untied the ropes that strap the wooden ships on top of their wagons. Once untied the redhead hands glowed as she lifted the four boats up in the air, the vermin crews onboard held on tight. She place them in a clearing near the old church.
The crews on board the ships got off and began setting up camp, unloading tents and baggage from the ships holds. One of the ships are crewed by the former camp followers, who use to do the nursing of the wounded, sowing, washing, acted as merchants, and outright prostitution. They still do that but now also work as the logistics, keeping the food supply, materials, and other goods in order so that the army has what they need to fight. (3)
“How long do we wait Sunset?” Cluny ask walking up to the redhead.
“The portal will open again in 29 days, when there’s a new full moon. The only problem is the Abby, those who lived there just keep on attacking me and refused to listen even when it was clear I could understand and speak to them, trapping me here for the last 10 years,” Sunset said. (4)
“Yes but if you didn’t we wouldn’t have met,” Adagio said, behind her Aria and Sonata are taking care of the horses.
“Yes that’s the only good thing that came out of them trapping me here,” Sunset said.
“And our deal?” Cluny ask.
“Yes, you and your army help me take my birthright and I’ll give you your own land to rule,” Sunset said.
“Good,” Cluny said who is tried of being a nomadic warlord and wants a place where he can rules. And being a lord under Sunset wouldn’t be too bad, if she continues to treat him the same as she has since his horde came across her.
Cluny was surprise that the human could understand him and his horde, and that she could use magic. Having been trap in this world for years, Sunset had learned to use her magic in her new body. Which the humans of this world feared magic, the ones in the village that Sunset was living in before being chased out as a witch. They got to talking and teamed up, with Sunset being able to bring Cluny and his horde unseen into human settlements where they could go around stealing valuables and coins, which Sunset in turn can use to buy what they needed.
Sunset also had him and his horde destroy the village she was chased out of. She had them steal a pair of horses and a wagon, loading it with all the money that the vermin horde could find and load it with as much food and supplies as the wagon could hold along with what the horses could pull. Then had the horde released the farm animals, dump animal waste into the village well, set fire to the storehouses, granaries, and the homes. Sunset took off while the village was in chaos as the farm animals are running away or running into the buildings that are on fire, with the villagers trying to fight them. Or trying to break into the storehouses or granaries that were barricaded from the inside thanks to the vermin blocking the doors. And on the way out she cause a landslide to block the river that ran through the village, making the river flow away from it instead.
All because Sunset had created a magical urn that could produce water for herself as she wanted clean water to drink, which was apparently a sacrilegious act. On the way to Redwall, Sunset and the others stop near the village to see what happen, and found mass graves and only a single family left living in an isolated farm. The family recognized her as the witch, and beg her to use her magic to help them, the river has ran dried, the animals have all died and been eaten, and the crops have all turn brown. Sunset just told them that she won’t as their faith doesn’t allow them to use magic or let anyone else use magic. So she’ll just leave them to die and they can be happy to die for their faith. Leaving the family of 5 to die.
“What should be done to the Redwallers?” Cluny ask.
“They either listen this time or we just wipe them out,” Sunset said.
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Author's Note
1 - The first book of the series Redwall, appeared to take place in the real world. Cluny was referred to as a Portuguese water rat at one point. Additionally, Methuselah claimed that one of the accounts of Cluny comes from a town dog. The horse present in the early chapters was the size of a normal horse, and the wagon it pulled was scaled to the same size – an entire army of rats was able to ride in it. Also there was a mention of cows that trampled through a village. However, Brian Jacques did not expect the book to be published, and excluded references to humans and many larger animals in later books.
In my story the setting has sapient animals like the ones in the Redwall series living with non-sapient animals and humans.
2 - Pikes are for small rodents are basically freshwater sharks.
3 - The cartoon has a big plot hole, with how Cluny and his horde didn’t had anything with them in the cart they rode on. But later episodes showed that they have a camp with tents and supplies when it was shown they didn’t had anything when they first showed up.
4 - Sunset and the Dazzlings are able to understand and talk to the sapient animals. The sapient animals and humans on the other hand can’t understand each other.
