The Sable Quean - 21 by Brian Jacques

Author:Brian Jacques [Jacques, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

This time she sounded calmer, a mite penitent even. "Er, if you're not a foebeast, then who are you?"

Diggs gingerly touched his snout where it had been hit by the fal en door. "Name's Meliton Gubthorpe Digglethwaite, Subaltern of the Long Patrol, late of Salamandastron. An' I think you've broken my flippin' hooter, beltin' that bloomin' door down like that. Couldn't ye have knocked?"

The badgermaid sat down beside him. "Salama ... what?"

Diggs plucked a dockleaf and dabbed at his snout. "Salamandastron, but don't concern y'self with that right now. Y'can cal me Diggs, everybeast does--an' pray, what do they cal you, when you ain't knockin' doors down atop of 'em, wot?"

She wrapped the outsized sling around her shoulders. "I'm Ambrevina Rockflash of the Eastern Shores, but I get cal ed Ambry a lot."

Diggs was about to shake paws with her, but he saw the girth of Ambry's paws and thought better of it. "Wel , pleased to meet ye, I'm sure, Ambry. I say, you don't happen to have any vittles with you? I'm absobal ylutely famished, ain't eaten in ages, y'know."

The badgermaid went back to the bushes where they had first encountered each other. She brought out a large satchel with shoulder straps. Opening it, she produced a few pears, some ryebread and a chunk of yel ow cheese.

Forgetting his bruised snout, Diggs tucked in. "Good grief, a chap could lose a few teeth on this bread'n'cheese. Stil , the pears are soft, wot. Now, who's this friend you seek, a family member, mayhaps?"

Ambry passed Diggs another pear. "Do you ever have strange dreams, Diggs?"

The tubby hare nodded. "Cheese'n'pickles for late supper

301

in the jol y old mess, that always does it. Huh, dreams, flippin' nightmares, more like. But why d'you ask?"

Ambry's brown eyes took on a distant look. "Back on the far Eastern Shores, I was having the same dream for some seasons. It's a journey I want to take. I've got this yearning to be in a certain place, I must go there--yet I've never set eyes on it, except in dreams."

Diggs held up a paw. "Stop right there, Ambry. Don't tel me, let me guess. This place you're wearin' your paws out t'see, is it a big mountain on the shores of the sea?"

The badgermaid was thunderstruck. "How did you know?"

Diggs took a bite of the cheese, probing with a paw to see if he had loosened a tooth on it. "Remember that word y'couldn't get your tongue around? Salamandastron, that's the name of it, Mountain of the Mighty Badger Lords an' headquarters of the jol y old Long Patrol. Beg pardon, carry on with your story, wot."

Ambry continued. "After my father died, I could never get along with my brothers. So, early one morning I packed my satchel and set out to find the place of my dreams. That was at the start of spring season, and I had no real direction, just wandering wil y-nil y. Wel , I had been roaming for some time when one day, it was at the beginning of summer, I noticed I was being fol owed by a young riverdog.

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