It was the middle of winter, and snow was covering the landscape of Mossflower Woods. The trees were covered in white and lacked leafs, whereas the earth and grass were invisible under the thick layer of snow. Even the great River Moss was covered in ice, serving as a natural bridge for creatures everywhere.

However, the harsh weather also meant that survival became much harder in the woods, as food was running out or became unreachable. And so, every winter, many woodlanders from the forests traveled to Redwall Abbey, for everybody knew all creatures in need for food or medical attention were welcome there, even vermin. This winter had been no exception. Farmer mice, fishermen vole, members of the local otter and squirrel tribes, shrews of the Guosim and all other sorts of creatures traveled to the Abbey, where as always, they would be greeted by the Redwallers with a smile, before they were led to Cavern Hole for dinner.

And just like every winter, a feast was held in Cavern Hole. Mice in the traditional green and brown robes of the Abbey ran around, providing their guests with food and drinks. Squirrels and hedgehogs performed acrobatics and magic tricks for the children and their parents, while otters and hares swapped war stories with one another. And while the music and entertainment went on, the creatures devoured their delicious food while a small choir was singing.

"Amid the deep white winter snow,
Sleeps Mossflow'r until spring,
While snug in Cavern Hole below,
All Redwall's creatures sing.
Old autumn gave us plenty,
Our harvest did not fail,
No plate or jug is empty,
There's good October ale."

Without a doubt, every creature was enjoying itself below Cavern Hole, drinking, eating, laughing, singing or watching the entertainment...Well, except for maybe one beast perhaps.

In the lower attics, where the Abbey Library was located, an old female mouse sat a table. The only company she had where the candles in the room, along with the muffled sound of the singing voices that she could faintly hear. However, the mousemaid paid no attention to the party in Cavern Hole. She was too caught up in writing in a book. As that was her job, for the mouse was none other than the Abby Recorder, responsible for adding everything worth knowing to the Chronicles of Redwall Abbey. Her predecessors had already made quite the collection, and the archives spanned back many seasons ago, to times nobeast remembered.

The mousemaid, however, was snapped out of her thoughts when a voice interrupted. "Jura? Jura! Are you in here?" called a voice, which became louder every time the creature sounded, and was soon joined by several other's as well. The mouse, Jura, looked up from her work and sighed. "I'm here!" she called, hoping she wouldn't regret it.

Immediately, several Dibbuns ran into the room, cheering and laughing as they approached her. Jura sighed and rolled her eyes in a good-natured way. Dibbuns, the orphans of Redwall Abbey, never seemed to get tired. Nor would they ever stop bothering hard-working beasts like herself...Of course, she supposed that was part of being a young creature. Nevertheless, she smiled at the children as she closed the book she was currently writing in. "What is it, little one's?" she asked gently. One of the Dibbuns, a mouse that seemed to be two or three seasons old, stepped forward. "You promised to tell us a story!" he squeaked, as if that was obvious. His buddies joined in as well, agreeing loudly with the mousebabe.

"Yeah, you promised us!"

"We wanna hear a story!"

"Story, story, story!"

Jura blinked in surprise at the little ones. She hadn't forgotten about her the promise she had made the previous day, but with the feast in Cavern Hole, she had figured the Dibbuns would have forgotten. "Are you certain that you wish to hear a story?" she asked, frowning a bit. "You do realize there are clowns and acrobats and magicians down below in Cavern Hole, right? Would you not rather enjoy their performances?" She asked.

The creatures, however, immediately shook their heads. "No, we wanna hear a story! You promised!" protested a young squirrel. Jura sighed and bit her lower lip. It seemed the new chapter of "Recordings of the Great Vermin Wars" she had promised Abbot Tayra was going to have to wait...But she supposed that one story wouldn't hurt...

"Alright then." she nodded, and chuckled as the Dibbuns started to cheer. "So, which story would you like to hear tonight?" she asked. Immediately, all Dibbuns spoke up at once.

"The Late Rose Wars!"

"No, I wanna hear about Lord Brocktree!"

"The Long Patrol!"

"How Martin kicked Tsarmina to the Dark Forest!"

"Yes, we wanna hear about Martin the Warrior!"

"No, I wanna hear about Malkariss!"

"What's so fun about that old polecat? The story of how the Marlfoxes were defeated is much more awesome!"

"No, the one about General Ironbeak!"

Jura patiently waited till more than two Dibbuns seemed to agree on a story, but after five minutes, she sighed. "You know what, I'll choose for tonight." she decided. The Dibbuns seemed to consider for a moment, and then nodded. "Which one?" asked the same mouse as before.

"It's one you haven't heard before, as well as one I was briefly a part of. The main character of the story was a good friend of mine, and we kept in contact for a while by bir-"

"Just tell us already!" interrupted a small rabbit impatiently. Jura chuckled. "Alright, alright. Our story started about twenty seasons ago, at the shores Mossflower, during the Autumn of the Terrible Shrike..."

Rain was falling hard that afternoon along the coasts of Mossflower while the red fox walked through the woodlands around the coastline. It did not help matters that it was also a typical chilly Autumn day, the drops of water that touched the fox's reddish orange fur instantly made him soaked to his skin. In a feeble effort to avoid getting wet further, the fox avoided using the main road and walked through the woods, hoping the trees would provide him some cover from the rain…perhaps that only made it worse since large drops of water fell from the tree branches.

The fox had long since stopped wearing his hood, since it was now soaked completely through the fabric and perhaps only made him colder.

His eyes, which were unnaturally crimson and his pupils were dilated as if they were snake eyes, scanned the forest ahead of him as he walked through the woodlands to his destination. Despite it being futile, the fox still shook his red and white patched fur to at least dry himself, still hoping to his Ancestors that the rain would at least let up so he could have a chance to dry off.

Continuing further into the woods, the fox paused as his left ear flicked backwards, hearing something from some bushes to his left. Raising his left hand to his sheathed sword, the red fox proceeded to walk slowly and carefully, as he heard more movement around and ahead of him.

Slowing his walk, he treaded carefully. It was when something whistled through the air and a lance struck the ground mere inches from the red fox's left foot. Merely seconds later the red fox was surrounded by a group of twenty shrews that emerged from hiding in various bushes.

One of the shrews was carrying a rapier, who pointed it at the fox.

"Halt!" Barked the grey furred shrew, clearly he was the leader of this group. "State your business Vermin!"

Not wanting to insight hostilities with the Shrews, knowing his chances of survival were very slim if he made it look like he really wanted trouble, the fox reached into the pocket of his leather vest, pulling out a piece of rolled up parchment and holding it out in front of him to show the contents of the paper.

Finally, the fox spoke in an accent that was foreign to the lands of Mossflower.

"I am a Hunter," The Fox spoke calmly, not wanting to antagonize the shrews. "I saw your notice."

"What notice?" Repeated the shrew leader skeptically, eyeing the fox. "Whatcha talkin' about vermin?"

"You are having Predator problems, correct?" The fox asked. "There is a town not far from here, and there was a job request for the aid of a Hunter to kill a Predator harassing local shrews."

There was nervous whispering among the shrews that surrounded him, clearly they were having problems with a predator, but whoever set up the notice back in the town likely set it up without the consent of the rest of the group.

The leader of the Shrews looked back at the fox with skeptical eyes.

"Why do you care, fox?"

The fox simply smiled, before gesturing up to his eyes, revealing his unnaturally crimson eyes that resembled a snake piercing eyes.

"See these eyes?"

"Yea? And?" The Shrew snorted "What about it?"

The fox, growing slightly irritated but remaining calm, slowly pulls at a small chain necklace around his neck, revealing a metal snake in the shape of an S with a sword piercing it down the middle.

"Recognize the guild?" The fox responded, hoping the Shrews would realize what particular guild the fox hailed from.

The Shrews that saw the pendent, instantly recognized it. Some of the Shrews in the group began to whisper in realization "A Hunt…A HUNTER." They realized the fox was not a Hunter of game animals…but a Hunter of PREDATORS. Snakes and other large creatures that killed Vermin and Woodlanders' alike.

The Hunter Guilds, formed fifty seasons ago, was formed by various beasts, Woodlanders and Vermin alike, and were trained in the art of hunting Predators and undergoing grueling trials and training to reach top physical condition. Among these trials included the ingestion of toxins at a young age in order to gain mutations to their senses which would allow any beast with these mutations to hear and see things most normal beasts would never be able to notice. In the end a Hunter could be immediately spotted by their piercing crimson eyes that resembled a snake's piercing eyes.

Though there were some Shrews that felt hope that their problem would come to an end with the appearance of a Hunter…there were those in the group that were still skeptical of the fox, Hunter or not. He was still a Vermin in their eyes, and a Fox to top it all, known for their tricks and deception. For all the Shrews knew: this Redfox could have been just like Slagar the Cruel.

The Shrew leader frowned, "A Hunter? YOU?" He snorted. "Why would a vermin care about the problems of other creatures?!"

"We are for hire," The Fox said plainly. "Woodlander and Vermin alike from The Hunter Guild are for hire…as there is no other Hunter close by, whether your group likes it or not, I am the only Hunter who can help you." He explaining the hard truth that the Shrews all knew. "Now…will you please explain to me what is going on?"

While the Shrew leader still glared at the fox with mistrust, he spoke up, revealing what the problem was.

"We've been having trouble with a crab for the past several weeks." He began. "It attacks our fishermen, our gatherers and anybeast that wander out onto the beach."

"What kind of Crap?" The red fox asked.

"What difference does it make? A Crab is a Crab." The leader snorted.

Sighing, the fox nodded.

"Very well…I will go out onto the beach, and get to work." He answered calmly.

The leader of the Shrews looked to the rest of his friends, nodded to them, the Shrews all lowered their weapons, allowing the fox to pass.

After making his way past the Shrews, the fox walked out of the woods, and came to the sight of the coastline. Past the wet sands was the sight of a seemingly never ending body of water. Water rolled up onto the sands and very quickly rolled back into the ocean. Walking out onto the sandy beach: the fox began tracking his prey.

Using his Hunter mutations: The fox began to look for any kind of information he could use to track his quarry. One piece of information that the Hunter first found was a pungent odor…buried in the sand. Further he travelled westward: the odor grew even more powerful.

It was obvious now: the crab he was dealing with was a Shore Crab, it was burrowing under the sand…Now that he knew how to find his prey…now he needed to lure it.

His ears flicked back, as he heard the group of Shrews walking behind him. Biting back his annoyance, the fox turned his attention back to the Shrews.

"What?" The Hunter asked calmly.

"Why should we trust you?" One of the Shrews, a female, said harshly. "For all we know, you released the crab here. Or you'll just tell us you got rid of it, and then laugh as we walk into a death trap! Why shouldn't we send a messege to the Redwallers or the Badger Lord instead?"

The fox sighed in annoyance.

"You realize Hunters take trophies from predators prove to we killed them, right?"

"So you are saying you're going to kill a crab on your own? HA! Good luck with that." laughed one of the Shrews, followed by laughter from the rest of the group.

There was shifting under the sand…It was close…

"Doubt me, that is fine...But I advise you all tread carefully here...you have a Shore Crab problem...full grown...female..." The Fox said calmly…standing up, raising his left paw to his sheathed sword on his back.

It took a few seconds for the words of the Hunter to sink in…but their eyes widened, in shock and fear.

"How…how do you know that?" The leader of the Shrews asked nervously.

The fox kneeled on the ground, still kneeling while pulling out a flask of red liquid from his pack, pulling out the cork from the top.

"Hunter observations…something we Hunters are trained in from a young age…" The fox said calmly. Seconds later the ground in between the Shrews and the fox began to shake violently. "You may want to stand on solid ground…"

Realizing what maybe about to happen, the Shrews quickly ran away from the sandy ground, and onto harder ground, ducking behind a tree.

Seconds later: the top of a Crap's shell began to appear from the sands as a crab, bigger than the fox and easily dwarfing the shrews,

While the Crab dug itself out of the ground, the Fox quickly drank the red liquid from the flask. The fox felt a flash of pain surge through his body, briefly coughing a small trace of blood from his mouth to the palm of his right paw.

By now: the Crab had fully emerged from the ground, standing on eight legs, with two large pincer like arms. It's shell was seemingly impenetrable against any of the weapons that the Shrews had on them, not even the fox's sword could pierce the shell. This meant the hunter had to be 'creative.'

The Hunter subtly paced around the crab, who looked at it the fox with dark eyes underneath it's shell.

It was the fox that made the first move, sprinting towards the crab, which lashed out with one of it's pincers, but the fox, using his smaller size, jumped up onto the top of the pincer. Running along the crab's arm, while attempting to keep his balance on the crab the fox reached the top of the Shore Crab's shell.

Laying on his belly while the crab thrashed around, attempting to shake the fox off of it, the fox slid his right palm, which still had the blood on it, on part of the crab's shell that covered it's head. As soon as the blood touched the shell; the shell over the crab's head began to fizzle and dissolve, as if the blood was acting like acid.

When the shell was weakened enough; the Fox stood up, raised his sword and plunged it through the weakened shell and impaling the crab's brain underneath. For a brief moment the Crab froze, it's arms frozen in the air, feeble attempts to snatch the fox...seconds later the crab's enter body went limp and collapsing on the ground…dead.

Sliding off the crab's corpse and onto the wet sand, the fox backed away from his kill. For the first time he took a deep breath and exhaled in relief.

It took the group of Shrews a few moments to register what they had seen…they had just witnessed the crab that had been harassing them for weeks finally get slain…and by a fox no less!

The Shrew leader was the first of his group to step out onto the sand and make his way over to the fox, who was kneeling in front of the dead crab, removing a piece of the crab's shell. When the leader was a few feet from the Shrew, the fox kneeled down in respect and presented the crab's shell.

Staring at the piece of the crab's shell in disbelief and relief; the Shrew looked at the fox with amazement.

"You…you did it…you SLEW a crab!" He said, his voice both holding amazement and disbelief.

"I apologize for taking so long." The fox said politely. In response: the Shrew reached for a leather pouch tied to his belt, pulling out three gold coins for the fox. But before he could hand the fox the coins, the Hunter did not accept the coins. "No…keep it."

"What? I thought you said Hunters were for hire? Besides; you fulfilled your contract!" The Shrew said, confused.

"Some of us Hunters who are Vermin have a conscious." The unusual fox said.

The leader smiled. "I suppose you learn something new every day." Holding out his paw, the fox took it, and the two shook hands. "Thank you…?" He paused, not knowing the Hunter's name.

The Fox answered. "Redtail…Redtail na'Atsila."

"WAIT WAIT WAIT!"shouted one of the young dibbuns, a small squirrel. Jura looked up in surprise as she was interupted.

"What is it, Erika?" she asked, although she already had a feeling what the little squirrel was gonna ask.

"Miss. Jura, why is this story about a fox?" she asked, genuily confused. "I mean, aren't foxes and stoats and such supposed to be the bad guys?" she continued, and several of the other children murmered in agreement. They had grown up with stories about rat warlords, stoat pirates, weasel assasasins, mercenary foxes, ferret slavers, barbaric lizards, trigger-happy crows and wildcat qonquerers. They were vermin: barbaric and evil creatures that murdered, pillaged and looted whenever and wherever they pleased, slaying everybeast in their way.

So why in the name of Martin's Spirit was one of those creatures the supposed hero of this story?

Jura chuckled softly. "I suppose when you think of foxes and vermin in general, you think of figures like Cluny the Scourge and Tsarmina Greeneyes, do you not?" she asked.

Erika and most of the young woodlanders nodded, and Jura smiled. "I thought so. And once, I thought the same. Whenever I thought of a fox, I would always think of the stories about Slagar the Cruel and the Marlfoxes. But as I exsperienced, there are indeed Vermin out there that don't act like their more barbaric counterparts. Its rare to come across an honest fox or a peaceful rat…But its not impossible."

"But…How did you meet this Redtail then?" asked a young otter curiously.

"Its quite a tale, but we have the time. Now, if you stay quiet, we might be able to finish before your parents will start looking for you." Replied Jura, before she continued with her story, the dibbuns hanging at her lips.

Warrior of Spectra A/N: Hello everyone! Warrior of Spectra here. Just wanted to write this A/N to explain a little bit about the main character of Talon and I's newest fic.

I am a rather new fan to the Redwall series, I was a fan of the first two seasons of the animated TV series of Redwall back when I was a kid. Talon recently reintroduced me to the series, and I find myself becoming a "Fan" again. Please note: I am still fairly new to the series, I have not read a single book of Redwall and I know only rough outlines of the stories.

This fic loosely ties in with a series of mine labeled as "The Spectra chronicles." There will be subtle hints towards these ties throughout the fic, but this story is an independent story, meaning reading the other stories in the Chronicles are unnecessary.

Also: for those of you who are fans of Andrzej Sapkowski's book series "The Witcher" you may notice that Redtail's guild is based on The Witcher Guild. This is intentional, as The Hunter Guilds are based on The Witchers.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the fic and we look forward to seeing you in the coming chapters.

e continued with her story, the dibbuns hanging at her lips.