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P** rologue: "The Unknown Champion"**

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For the good creatures whom lived in the vast forestland known as Mossflower, for the gentle souls within the safe confines of that stone built structure of Redwall, the bad weather was becoming a tad bit unbelievable. Of course, when it'd started last week as well as interrupted the formerly sunny autumn days, the first rainstorms had not been taken seriously by everybeast. Now though, with seven days having passed by with nary a hint of sunlight having shown itself through the forbiddingly dark clouds that still deposited torrents of rain, with folk having fled from their homes in Mossflower to seek shelter in the sturdiness that was Redwall, with the ground of the earth having turned from soil to mud, no one knew what to think anymore.

Unlike last week, with rivers flooding today and rains not stopping, no beast could deny anymore that Mossflower Country was facing something of a sudden epidemic. For her own reasons, not taking the opinions of anyone else but her own, it was as if Mother Nature had decided to release all of her sadness, bitterness as well as rage upon all that was known to exist. And with much howling from her storms, with her winds ripping trees up from the roots, with her deluges of rainwater creating blinding sheets, Mother Nature truly was... angry over something.

Yet, despite the growing nervousness of everybeast, despite the signs that things could go from bad to worse by tomorrow for all of Mossflower, Redwall remained many things in the eyes of those who presently called it home.

Firstly, where many an equally strong structure had collapsed under nature's wrathful fury during the week, the red hued, stone abbey as well as its walls stood as strong as the day they'd been constructed during the life of the famous mouse warrior, Martin. Secondly, as its courtyard gardens were ravaged by the passing gales, what was within the well secured abbey didn't feel so much as a breeze. And thirdly, seeing as the poor weather outside of its exterior destroyed most every kind of possibility for little ones to be able to play outdoors, everything inside its interior was dry, open and available for the many dibbuns at hand to have their fun.

As for the dibbuns having fun within Redwall Abbey, they were most certainly having a blast at the moment. Indeed, even with the howling of the autumn storm sounding at the closed up windows, there were screams, laughter along with mad giggling from the little ones as they ran, hid as well as played a good game of hide and seek tag in the main hall where the tables had been pushed back to the walls. In the middle of the hall's open floor were the seekers; a blundering he-mole along with a petite mouse maid who were both standing in the shadow of the huge, female badger who was a most loyal guardian of Redwall.

With sashes tied over the top half of their faces to keep them blind and make the game at hand more interesting for those giggling masses of little ones they were supposed to seek in several moments, the three seekers standing out in the middle of the main hall of Redwall were exchanging murmured words to one another. What the muttering between them about was a sort of congratulations. Truly, smiling to themselves, the she-badger and mole fellow were secretly congratulating the young she-mouse grinning at their sides.

"Well, it appears that no more of the little ones are crying over anything about the storm outside. That's good. I remember myself when I used to be scared of the boom of thunder." The badger female stated to her blind companions in a whisper, feeling a great relief in her heart every time she heard a dibbun snicker somewhere in the hall, "Still, I wouldn't have thought up something as simple as a good game of hide and seek to calm the dibbuns down, Samandra. Now I remember why I and all of Redwall elected you to be abbess last month. You have a good mind as well as heart."

"Oh stop it, Hellen. I may have thought of the idea for tag at the moment but you have just as good a mind and heart as me. It's just been worn down during this last week. Anyway, it's about time I got around to doing my duties as abbess and help you entertain these hordes of young ones for today." The little mouse maid who was Abbess Samandra, instantly giggled back to the badger, Hellen, both in gratitude as well as reassurance, "And as for entertaining these hordes of young ones, I do believe everything is going very well. I keep hearing giggles every so often which should make this game we are about to play quite easier. Don't you think so, Brom?"

"Oh, hurr', yes, ur' abbessness. All da' gigglin', da chucklin' an' da' scamprin' about by de little uns' is sure ta make everythin' easier on all our, er', parts. Burr harr." The mole fellow at hand, Brom it seemed, chuckled in his thick native accent while giving his nose a small tug to clear it, "Ha ha, this game'll specially make t'ings easier for the da kitch'ens cookin' de Stripedeye feast down in Caverny Hole. It'll let de cooks cook wit'out troubl', let ev'ry good beast help set de tables and even wear down dese littl' rogues for beddy bye time after'ards. Hurr, bo aye."

"I expect this game will be easier for you than for the both of us, Brom." Hellen chuckled next, smelling the air to try to scent out where dibbuns were trying to escape from her, "Your kind are accustomed to working in the dark, are they not?"

"Burr, indeed we are, missus Hellen." Brom replied, feeling the many movements of the little ones running all around him through his digging claws on the stone floor below him, "And yes, hurr hurr, me senses are goin' all tangled. My claws be tellin' me that dere are little uns' trying to outwit oi'."

"Hmf, little uns' you're talking about, Brom, can do their best to outwit us but they won't be able to hide for forever." Abbess Samandra declared boldly, making dibbuns squeal with glee in turn until the main hall reverberated with excited laughter, "How about it, you little rogues? Are you all finished in hiding from us?"

"YES!" Came the massive response from most every little one in turn that nearly knocked Brom onto his bottom.

"Hurr, ooch, we molers may be thick skinneded for digging our tunnels, bur aye, but we ain't made to take on such volumes of noise." The mole fellow chuckled happily, enjoying the laughter of the dibbuns as he began to waddle blindly through main hall towards where he suspected he could catch someone, "Nor are we made to be very fast. Slow down you snickering rips. Com' give your ol' nuncle Brom a nice, warm hug to help him brave through da stormy weather outside."

"Well, one of us is at least off at a speedy pace." Abbess Samandra laughed aloud at hearing Brom's antics, wondering how Hellen was doing, "Hellen, how are you faring on your end?"

"No! Stop that! Don't do that! This is hide and seek tag, not grab the badger's tail, you little villains." Hellen shouted out in mock anger as the dibbuns she was after had taken to trying to tug on her stubby tail, crawling in between her paws along with jumping onto her massive back for a ride, "Oh no, help me, abbess, help me. I'm being drowned in a sea of arms and legs."

"That sea of arms and legs you're talking about, Hellen, won't be made up of water but of dibbuns, no?" Abbess Samandra giggled softly, making her way blindly towards the direction of the sounds of the dibbuns messing around with Redwall's badger guardian, "And wherever there are dibbuns, I, as abbess of Redwall, must go to teach them their history, make them scrub pans in the kitchens, have them get tucked into bed."

"No, don't send us to bed, abbess." A little voice exclaimed sadly amid the throngs of laughing little ones, "It's not time for bed yet."

"We're not supposed to scrub any pans." Another dibbun piped up indignantly, "You grown-ups are in charge of that."

"We're not really going to have a history lesson are we?" A third tyke wondered innocently, "Unless it's about Martin the Warrior! Is it that kind of history lesson?"

"No, when I catch you, the history I'll teach will be the worse kind you'll ever have to sit through in your life." Abbess Samandra jokingly growled, trying to sound terrifying to the squealing young ones scattering all around her, "That's right, run. Run from me. For if you don't, if I get you, you'll do nothing but scrub dishes, write notes, wash yourselves up as well as go to bed exactly on the dot tonight."

With much panic from them, not wanting to be anywhere near their threatening abbess, the dibbuns deserted Hellen and ran to all sides of the main hall. In turn, with a grunt of gratitude, the formerly if not supposedly overwhelmed badger guardian of Redwall allowed the snickering mouse maid abbess to help her back onto her feet. Once the both of them got over their giggling at Samandra's antics, they attempted to get back to finding little ones... only to find the going was tougher than before. It was like there were no more dibbuns to be chased after.

"Hey, where did all you little rips take off to?" Abbess Samandra questioned worriedly to the silence, not wanting any of the dibbuns to get any ideas of trying to get outside into the horrible weather, "There will be no going outside, do you hear? You all must remain in main hall and not go about wandering through the abbey too. Those were the rules we arranged, remember?"

"Perhaps your threats earlier worked too well, abbess. Maybe you sent every dibbun who heard you running for the hills rather than play this game any further." Hellen chuckled good-naturedly, managing to softly pat the mouse maid on her head despite the sash covering her eyes.

"Oh, I hope I didn't make them do that. I didn't mean to scare everyone off. Everything I said was all innocent fun." The abbess quickly worried back, straining to try to detect where she could attempt to catch a dibbun, "Honestly, Hellen, did I come off as too menacing to you? Urgh, I did, didn't I? Hmf, some abbess I am."

"If you're talking about how wonderful if not gracious an abbess you are, Samandra, then by all means, you are as wonderful and gracious as the many who have come before you." A new voice, a young male's soothing voice, said from somewhere ahead of both blindfolded Samandra as well as Hellen, "As for what is menacing, you are not. What is menacing, mind, is the fact that you and Hellen were on a direct course for the stairs leading down to Cavern Hole before I got here."

Having a good enough reason to do so at the moment, the mouse maid abbess and guardian badger of Redwall took off their sashes to see exactly where they were which was indeed, unnervingly so, several feet just before the long staircase that led steeply down into the lower chamber known as Cavern Hole. If they'd not been stopped by a young he-mouse standing at the head of the stairs, the both of them would have undoubtedly plummeted head over tails into a dangerous situation.

Thankfully, that had not happened to Redwall's now shocked abbess and guardian. Due to the fact that they, again, had been stopped by a gently smiling, amber eyed, calmly handsome he-mouse dressed in a scholar's robe carrying a rather thick tome in his arms. A he-mouse that made Samandra instantly lose her voice, made her own blue eyes grow wide and her heart begin pumping all of the blood into her stunned face.

"Ah, hello, Hector." Hellen acknowledged to the scholar mouse, smiling Hector, speaking for the astonished abbess who was doing her best to get a grip on her overdose in blushing, "Well met. More so than if myself and the abbess were to have tumbled down those stairs and quite possibly into you a moment ago, anyway."

"Indeed, it is always better to see you this way, Hellen, rather than to have been possibly crushed underneath you on the stairs leading down to Cavern Hole. That and it's good that our abbess was kept from getting gravely hurt just before she were to bless the United Feast being readied downstairs." Hector replied, a humored twinkle showing in his soft eyes at seeing the effect his appearance had upon the abbess whom he'd been friends with since childhood, whom he knew had feelings more than friendship for him, "Isn't that right, abbess?"

"Oh, Hector, abbes is so very formal! Hah, there's no reason for you to call me that. It's just Samandra for you." Samandra spluttered, miserably failing at trying to behave at all normal in the eyes of he who she held dearest to her heart, he who was the apprentice to Redwall's recorder, he who she hoped didn't think her a total goof for shaking her blushing face next to get a grip on herself, "Er, no, I mean, thank you for addressing me as abbess, Hector. I hope you understand that it's good for me to show to everyone that I don't have favorites - Uh, I mean - I meant to say - I still consider you one of my favorite creatures to see, Hector. I just-"

"Abbess Samandra, relax. I have not come up to the main hall to give you a heart attack." Hector explained, holding Abbess Samandra's hand gently in his own to help her calm down which she did, "Rather, apart for having just kept from falling down these stairs behind me, I came here to give you this; the story you will read to the little ones during the United Feast on this night."

"Ah, I see. Er, thank you very much, Hector." Abbess Samandra honestly said, taking the thick tome from her crush, hauling the weighty thing up to her eyes, then opening the pages to begin looking over the many stories inside recorded by Redwall recorders for ages, "Ahem, what story is that you and Master Recorder Thomas have sharpened up for me tonight? Whatever will I be reading for the dibbuns?"

"You'll actually be reading something myself and Thomas just finished collecting and piecing together this very morning." The scholar mouse explained to the abbess, immediately getting into the element for recording had always been his passion since he'd been small, "Tonight, Abbess Samandra, you will be reading the story of Wren Stripedeye."

There was a moment of silence where the abbess tried to look impressed with the name she'd just been told. Then, with a smile still plastered on her face, she asked respectfully of her proud, scholar of a childhood friend, "I'm sorry, Hector... But I will be reading the story of who?"

"Wren Stripedeye." Hellen actually answered for Hector, joining the discussion with a thoughtful smile on her striped face, "Ah, Hector, so like you said to me last week, I truly was the last creature you needed to ask about that wildcat hero of Mossflower before you finished his story?"

"That's right." Hector admitted, smiling widely, "And you have my gratitude as well as Thomas's for all of the information you had to give us. We should have gone to you sooner than we did. You provided us with half of the story, after all."

"You did, Hellen?" Abbess Samandra wondered curiously, trying to keep up with the conversation.

"Yes, I did. As you know, abbess, my blood has the strength of the badger lords of the mountain stronghold of Salamandastron. When you were very much younger, when my father, Lord Ebonclaw, ruled there, I came to Redwall from that very mountain many a season ago." Hellen explained slowly, her golden eyes glazing over with memories, "And with me, I brought a certain if not inspiring story along. A story that Hector here wanted to know from me last week. The story that he has finished recording and you will now read during the United Feast tonight."

"I... see. I guess." Abbess Samandra admitted, a bit lost, "But here I was thinking I would read a tale from the records more like Martin the Warrior or Matthias the Steadfast or Rakkety-Tam the strong. What will the story be about tonight? Who is this Lord Wren Stripedeye? Who was he?"

"Lord Wren Stripedeye was a magnificent example of what all heroes should grow to be in life. No, not only heroes but all of the creatures in this world learned from his actions." Hellen stated at once, taking the thick tome from her abbess suddenly and flipping through the pages, "He lived long ago, during the days Salamandastron was maintained by Lord Oakheart Stripedeye and his son Urthen. And despite his being different from the badger lord and his son, even though an orphan, Wren lived alongside them without any issue. And because of that, because he didn't follow his tyrant side, because he learned the badger way, he went on to be a grand champion. One who wielded the sword of Martin himself and united all of Mossflower against one foe."

Listening to her badger friend's every enthusiastic word, drawn fully in by what she was hearing, Abbess Samandra couldn't keep from looking utterly awed about the mythical figure that was Wren Stripedeye. How had she not heard of this lord of Salamandastron before now? How had she not known of this chosen champion of the spirit of Redwall, Martin the Warrior?

As if having read her mind, Hector better explained to Samandra the identity of Wren Stripedeye, "The most inspiring detail about the story of Wren, Samandra, was that he was a wildcat. And because he was such... that is why most of Mossflower has not had the honor of telling his story. Not until today, anyway, since me and Master Thomas solved his riddles, gathered what he left behind and have pieced his tale together."

"Wait... Lord Wren was a what?" Abbess Samandra questioned slowly, looking from Hector to Hellen in bewilderment, "He was a wildcat raised by badgers? A wildcat was chosen by Martin the Warrior to be a champion of Mossflower? That wildcat even united Mossflower?"

"With some help from Redwall's guardian spirit, yes, Lord Wren united Mossflower Country and fought off the invading armies of Wrathgar T'lore." Hector explained.

"Wrathgar who?" Abbess Samandra immediately wondered back.

"Burr, hurr, hey, where did me friends Hellen and her abbessness vanish too?" Came the shout of Brom who, during the entire time Lord Wren Stripedeye had been discussed, had been doing his best alone to handle the vast army of dibbuns swarming around him, "Sorry but I'm beginnin' to get weary over here. I could surely use a break from all of dis' excitement anytime. Can anyone help dis poor moler out of dis tight situation?"

"Ha ha ha, Brom, I'm coming for you, friend." Hellen laughed aloud, placing the open tome into Samandra's paws before running out into the main hall when she began grabbing up laughing dibbuns in her massive paws, "Abbess Samandra, there are still a few moments before the United Feast begins. Rather than ask questions about him, read about Lord Wren Stripedeye and learn why he became a champion of Mossflower."

"That's a good idea." Hector put in softly, leaning forward suddenly, kissing surprised Samandra on her cheek and then helping her over to a table against the wall where she was sat down with the story of Wren Stripedeye open in front of her, "Don't ask any more questions, Samandra. Just go ahead and read. Trust me, you won't be disappointed with what you learn from this tale."

"No, I'm sure I will not be disappointed. Not when I know that Master Recorder Thomas has worked so very much on it." Abbess Samandra agreed, placing a quick kiss of her own on her crush's cheek whom accepted it with humble grace, "Not when I know that you, Hector, have been recording this story for so very long. I know your work standards. You only settle for the best. Thus, this story about this Wren fellow... it's definitely going to be the best."

"Just don't get too lost in that story, sweetheart." Hector gently said back, whispering sweetly in her ear, "You'll be needed at the United feast soon enough."

"Of course." Abbess Samandra replied, smiling brightly.

Then, as her childhood crush - hopefully more like her possibly courter now - left her side to disappear back downstairs into Cavern Hole, the pretty mouse maid that was Redwall's Abbess began to read about the curious figure who was Lord Wren Stripedeye of Salamandastron, champion of Mossflower, chosen one of Martin the Warrior. And although she'd been told to not do so moments ago by her best friend, unable to keep from feeling like she was not in her abbey anymore but back in the distant past, Abbess Samandra very well did lose herself in what she was reading... by page three.