Coming Back...

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

Fort Blissban...the sight never failed to overtake him. After a long time away, Cuiasodo finally arived back at the stone fort, wanting so much to put his feet up for some rest. Yeah, sure, he might have to do some chores around the place to help out. Goodness knows he owed his friends there considering how long he had been away. But still, he hoped for a peaceful few days for once.
He had just finished with a raiding party of about fifteen strong. Four days ago, he heard about the group, three days ago he set off after them and found some wreckage and only two days ago did he finally contend with them. He only needed to kill one in defence and lay another one out for the band to get the picture. They hightailed it out of Mossflower land, and it was pretty obvious they weren't going to try anything anytime soon.
Cuiasodo sauntered the rest of the way up to the walk and knocked on the doors. He patiently stood in place, arms crossed, awaiting an answer...

[Rellim]

Rellim stumbled up to the door. He had awoken when the knock sounded. He shook his head, trying to clear it before calling out, "Who is it?"

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

He was tired and already getting impatient. Non-challantly running his paw though his hair, he called up to Rellim.
"It's me, Cuiasodo. Dontcha recognize me?"
He crossed his arms and leaned back against the gates. Either he really was too tired to stand, or he was making it a point to look cool. Sometimes, you never knew with Cuiasodo...

[Rellim]

"Oh, sorry, Cuiasodo. I'm a bit tired." Relllim said, unlocking the gate. "'Ow are you? It's been a while."

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

"Thing's have been going fine on my end..."
Cuiasodo opened the gates and cast a glance about the fort. It looked the same as ever, with its solid grey walls and the layout that he had grown so used to. It seemed strange that a place that he hadn't been to in nearly a season hadn't seemed to change at all. Then again, you had places like Redwall and Salamadastron that stayed the same after the ages. The fort was stable a sturdy enough, so everyone took "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" to heart.
Upon a closer look, beasts could be seen going here and there about their usual tasks. Not exactly a hub of energy today though. He must have come here on one of those lazy leasurely days.
Before turning back to Rellim, Cuiasodo closed the gate behind him, making sure the lock was secure. After all, he may have been folowed, and he didn't want the enemy finding its way here.
"So...how things been going at the fort lately, Rellim?"

[Yarin Baskblade]

The sun's light washed down upon Fort Blissban's great grey walls. Hurried footsteps were heard everywhere you went as hurried beasts scurried about to complete that day's work. Yarin Baskblade paced the corridors of the great Fort, rays of light reflecting off his radiant brown fur.
As he passed by the front hallway, he heard voices from outside. One, the usual voice of his great pal Rellim, and the other sounded quite familiar...
Yarin stopped in his tracks, frozen with wonder. Could it be? he thought. Had he really returned?
He rushed outside to make sure it was true. And, just as he had suspected, there stood Cuiasodo Sharpedge. He had not seem Cuiasodo for the longest time now. He quickly ran over to greet his old friend.
"Cuiasodo!" he shouted.

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

"Cuiasodo!"
The coyote looked across the way to see A brown mouse making his way across to him. It only took a few seconds to recognize the mouse.
"Yarin? Good to see ya, buddy!"
Cuiasodo held out his paw for Yarin to shake as he kept talking. "Had to go away for awhile. I was needed elsewhere you could say. Came back here to see how things were going and here you are! So, how are things here at the fort?"

[Yarin Baskblade]

Yarin shook his hand gladly."Good, good, same old stuff as always. This place is timeless...it never seems to change. I've been looking forward to your return. This place does get a little boring after a while and it's nice when visitors stop by."
He turned to see that Rellim had already greeted him, and then looked back at Cuiasodo. "So, where did you go anyways...?"

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

The coyote shrugged.
"I've been around. I have to patroll all the time, so I'm never in one place for too long. But hey, it's the life I chose." He paused here to thumb some hair out of his eyes. "I had to deal with a raiding party a few days ago. Wasn't too hard, thankfully. I just showed them some of the Cuiasodo flash and they went running."
Cuiasodo then leaned in a bit closer so that others did not overhear. "Yarin, I don't want to alarm you or anybeast else, and I certainly don't want to burden you, but I think I may have been followed here. You might want to tell anybeast on centry duty to keep an eye out."
He then went back to his normal patern of speech.
"So...anything you guys need done around here? I've been gone so long that I figured I owed you. By the way, is that old dormitory I used to use still here?"

[Yarin Baskblade]

Yairn nodded with a smile. "Of course! You've been gone a long time, but we knew you'd be coming back sooner or later. Up on the 3rd story, remember?" Then his voice quited down. "And I'll be sure to tell those on sentry duty to keep an extra watchful eye over that wall."
Yarin then turned to leave. As he walked off, he turned his head over his shoulder. "Nice seein' again, Cuiasodo. We miss you around the old Fort!" And then he was off to his usual work, for he still had many chores to attend to.

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

Cuiasodo gave the mouse a final nodd and headed off to his old dormitory. He had to climb the usual three flights of stairs, memory's wafting through his brain the entire time. He had tried to make his patroll area as far up as Fort Blissban and as low down as Redwall, sometimes a bit further. It usually took a month or two to make an entire circut, but recent chaos had delayed his return to Blissban. A shame since he had quite a few friends here.
He pulled an old rusty key out of his jacket and inserted it into the door lock. Cuiasodo was supprised he'd kept the key after all this time. The door creaked open reavealing his medium sized dormitory. A bed was in the far corner, situated next to a window with a fresh coat of dust upon it. Next to the bed right up against the wall was a nightstand, and at the foot of his bed his old trunk.
Cuiasodo kept trunks in his temporary rooms wherever he went. To date there was one here, one in Salamandastron, one in Redwall and perhaps others scattered about. Each had several sets of cloathing, bassic supplies and a few items specific to where he was. For example, the trunk at Fort Blissban was the only one that housed his dress cloathes for special ocasions. It also held a hammer and some other forging equipments for Cuiasodo's experements at the fort's forge reguarding weapon making. The entire reasoning behind having a network of trunks was so that he didn't have to tote a harversack around all of the time.
The coyote looked out of the window and sighed. He needed a rest. Before he knew it, he was colapsed on the bed back first, sleeping soundly...

[Yarin Baskblade]

Yarin awoke from his deep slumber. He shot up out of his resting position and sat up in bed. The warning bells of the Fort were ringing loudly and clearly. He quickly jumped out of bed, dressed himself in his usual tunic, and strapped on his shoes. Something was not right.
He ran to the door speedily, turned the fading brass knob, and pushed it open. He stepped out and locked the door behind him. As he came out of his dormitory, he could see that others around him were doing the same. Miss Abigaile, one of his friends whose room was beside his, was just now locking her door.
"Miss Abigaile, do you know what's going on?" he quickly asked.
"No," the old mousemaid answered. "I'm just as confused as you in all this. But I've got a feeling things are not the way they should be..."
Yarin turned and headed the other way down the hall. Once to the end, he took the flight of stairs down to the lawn. There were many beasts gathered on the ramparts located on the tops of the surrounding walls. He rushed toward them to see what was the fuss.
"What's going on?" he shouted. Other beasts were chatting nervously amongst themselves.
"Do you see it?" one said to another.
"Yeah, look at that! What are we going to do?" the other quickly replied.
"What's going on?" Yarin shouted, loudly and more impatient this time. He pushed his way through the crowd, desperately trying to get to the wall to see what was happening. Finally, he made it through to the edge of the Fort. He gazed out on the horizon. The sight horrified even him.
Thousands of torches were lit in the far distance, in the middle of the field. War chants and snarls could be heard echoeing across the plain. The Fort was going to be invaded.

[Cuiasodo Sharpedge]

The first thing that Cuiasodo noticed was that he was still wearing his cloathes in bed. Then, he woundered why he was awake. Finally, it donned on him; the alarm bells were ringing!
The coyote rolled out of bed and leapt to his feet. He didn't have to waste time getting dressed, for he had all of his equipment on him, Bushido and all. Cuiasodo sprined to the door and grabbed the handle, but was stopped when he jerked it. The handle was jammed. He tried the key. No such luck. Then he atempted to kick it and came away with what felt like a broken right foot. The doors here were really solid.
"Sorry, Yarin, but I gotta bust up your door."
The timbers of the solid door split into four pieces as something sharp cut an x through them. The timbers fell away revealing Cuiasodo standing with his sword raised in an attack pose. He flicked the blade as he usually did to clean it of blood (there was no blood in this case, but it was part of the usual ritual of sheathing his weapon) and slid it back into its sheath without looking.
Cuiasodo's boots padded against the grounds as he ran like the wind, partially climbing and partially leaping over the stairs to the battlements. A gigantic hoard of agressors was easily visible in the moonlight, their torches making them easy to spot.
Great, who did I tick off now?
Cuiasodo thought as he waited for the attackers to state their buisness.