Redwall #15 - The Taggerung by Brian Jacques

Author:Brian Jacques [Jacques, Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-11-15T20:42:38+00:00

Robald's home was a turf hut up on the bank. It had been plundered and wrecked. The big stout hedgehog dug a broken-down old armchair from the wreckage, righted it, and dusted it off.

"They never found my emergency rations, fortunately for us." Removing a few slats of wood, he revealed a cupboard full of food. "Plumcake, damson cordial, nutcheese, fruit biscuits, spikebeer, candied apples and Great-Aunt Lollery's raisin teabread. They missed this little lot. Oh, don't stand on ceremony, help yourselves, friends. Don't worry about the mess, I'll clear up later."

As Tagg used his blade to slice the plumcake and teabread, the hedgehog told his story.

"Last night I was quietly dozing the sunset away when I was attacked. Can you believe it, set upon in one's own domicile. Three vermin, ruffianly louts they were, came at me whilst I was half asleep. I didn't even get a chance to reach for my club. One villain had a sword, kept jabbing at me, so what else could a body do? I rolled myself up into a ball, as we hogs are apt to do when in danger. But did that stop them? It certainly did not, the fiends! They tied me with my own rope, bound me painfully tight, so I became stuck in the curled-up position. Then without so much as a by-your-leave they rolled me up and down the bank for what seemed like an eternity. Lucky for me I got a hollow reed into my mouth, so I could breathe a little. Well, what more can one say? They played at their wicked game until I became the mudball you encountered today. Then they had the colossal nerve to ransack my dwelling and eat a pot of mushroom soup and a carrot and turnip flan. Just as well that Great-Aunt Lollery had visited a day earlier. She can't stand vermin!"

Tagg felt he had to interrupt. "Who's Great-Aunt Lollery?"

The hedgehog raised his eyebrows as he poured damson cordial. "Silly me, I forgot to mention, she's not my great-aunt really. She was my old nurse in my younger and better seasons. Lives in the woodlands now, won't move out here at any price. She's my cook, you know, and a hog more skilled in the culinary arts I've yet to meet. Dear old Great-Aunt Lollery, what a treasure she is. Goodness me, you don't think I made all this food, do you? Hah! Couldn't cook to save my life. She was only saying on her latest visit, as she always does, Master Robald, she says, you'd burn a salad if you didn't have Lollery to look after you! She's right, too. Why, I remember last winter..."

Tagg interrupted again. "Did you by chance hear the vermin's names, sir?"

Robald Forthright consumed a fruit biscuit topped with cheese at one bite, nodding vigorously. "Oh, yes, indeed I did. One was called Chief, stoat I think; there was another stoat too, Rawback, and a rat, ratess she was, name of Dagrab. Great seasons, where do they get these odd names, eh?"

Suddenly Robald put aside his food.

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