The mousemaid looked up ahead and saw the dusky-red towering towers (no pun intended) of Redwall Abbey reaching above the emerald leaves of the trees that formed Mossflower Woods.

With a squeal of delight that she valiantly tried to suppress into a look of sobriety, the beautiful mousemaid quickened her pace, anxiously glancing up at the sky, which looked as though it were threatening to rain if she didn't get to the abbey soon.

Drawing her ragged cloak about her slender, perfectly sculpted form in a most piteous, feel-sorry-for-me fashion, the fair maiden looked up at the red sandstone ramparts of Redwall with soulful blue eyes that would've put the very sky to shame with their unearthly blueness.

Finally the mousemaid made it up to the humongous gates of Redwall Abbey and knocked on them hurriedly in a dainty, ladylike fashion, readying herself to call out for help.

There was no need, however, for almost right after she finished knocking, the gates opened a bit and a plump male mouse wearing a green jerkin peered out at her. He looked like he was suffering from both a serious headache, yet there was a gleeful sparkle in his eyes that suggested that he had been laughing recently.

Of course the mousemaid knew that this mouse was Gonff, but she couldn't say that because she hadn't been introduced to him yet-

"Oh no, not another one," the mouse grumbled. His voice, oddly enough, sounded like it was caught between a groan and a laugh.

This rather surprised the mousemaid, but nevertheless the gracefully pulled back her hood to reveal a most beautiful face with finely chiseled features that were perfectly even and delicate and lovely. The sun caught in her golden-brown fur like a field of ripened grain, and her blue eyes glowed with warmth and gentleness that hid a fire that was burning inside . . . a fire of a warrior. She was incredibly, immensely, enormously pretty, as beautiful as a dewey spring morning combined with a summer morning, a spring evening, and a summer evening.

"My name is Polysaccharose," the mousemaid murmured. Her voice was as clear and fresh and bubbly as a-

"Uh, yeah, nice to meet chah," interrupted Gonff, saving the author the trouble of trying to come up with more descriptions for the lovely newcomer. "Eh, if you're here to meet Martin, he's kinda busy right now."

"Busy?" cried Polysaccharose. Her story had only begun! It couldn't end now! She and Martin were destined to go through so many wonderful adventures where she would find out about his lost love, Laterose, and he would realize how similar, she, Polysaccharose, was to Laterose (they had "rose" in their names, after all), and then he would fall in love with her and then they would live happily at Redwall together for the rest of their-

"You'll have to come back some other time," Gonff said, hurriedly closing the door. "Bye."

With lightening reflexes and the strength of ten badgers, Polysaccharose shot out her slender, dainty paw and stopped the mousethief from shutting the gate on her. Gonff looked out at the mousemaid and saw that her eyes were now an icy shade of blue that burned with a cerulean fire.

"What's going on?" Polysaccha . . . you know what? I think I'd save a lot of time and effort in simply calling her "Polly", eh?

"What do you mean Martin is busy?" the Sue (for that's what she was) demanded, putting her slender body against the door and pushing her way in.

"Ah, its a long story," Gonff said, straining to keep the mousemaid from getting in.

"I've got a long story too," Polly said through gritted teeth, slipping one of her perfect legs through the door. "So maybe me and Martin can exchange our stories, eh?"

Gonff narrowed his eyes, suddenly serious. "Look, we can't have you in here alright? We can only handle one at a time-"

"One at a time?!"

Even though she didn't know exactly what that meant, Polly threw all of her strength at the door and Gonff went flying ten feet back, coming to a skidding hault in the dirt. The gates banged open and Polly leapt over the threshold and looked wildly around, her eyes darting every which way for Martin the Warri-

Suddenly she saw him.

There, across the lawn, by the orchard . . . . and with him . . . .

. . . . was another mousemaid!

A mousemaid with deep, dark chocolate brown fur and big, huge, clear sparkling eyes of the deepest, loveliest green. . . .

You could almost hear the evil music theme: Duh duh duuuuuuuuuuuuh!