About halfway through this chapter, I started to recognise a few things. Then Bloodfur gave his little speech. The idea sounds slightly familiar, I must say. A feared pirate who wanted to retire, so he left his name to his first mate, then his first mate did the same. Where have I heard that before?
The Dread Pirate Bloodfur is a wonderful name. Rico should be very grateful. (It also explains the relationship between Bloodfur and Blue-Eyes. It isn't often that vermin have such strong friendships, but it's quite heartwarming)
I enjoyed this very much. Thanks for sharing and God bless!

Huh, fascinating. I had not realised how much younger Blue-Eyes was, compared to Bloodfur. They seem to have a very different dynamic here than in TGW. I will keep this short, for now, because O want to see what happens next.
Thanks for sharing and God bless!

Oooh, fascinating! Poor Urthblaze doesn't seem to have had a very pleasant childhood, does he? His grandfather sounds like a very nice beast, and very much a friend as well as a parent. The banter between the two badgers is heartwarming.
I was sort of expecting him to arrive home to find his grandfather dead on the floor, killed by vermin, but the story was altogether rather peaceful. It leaves me feeling rather suspicious, to be honest. Such happiness and peace is always sketchy when Seb's involved.
Fascinating thingamibob! Thanks for sharing and God bless!

I see this is one of those drabbles to ease you into the writing mood. Nothing wrong with that - changes in pace are welcome!

The story begins with tangentially related beasts, like many of your stories do. I could bet a few pennies that the three molebabes are not going to appear ever in any of your stories, but then, gambling is bad. Still, they're cute and I certainly would not wish harm upon them.

Nightwrath shows up! Yay! And does... nothing? Whatever. He's still fun to read though, with he being a bit too stoic even when talking to dibbuns. It gets quite amusing, actually. Though I don't really think those dibbuns leading a fully-grown badger to their home is a good idea - stranger danger, anyone?

In any case, you've written quite the nice chapter here. I hope your next chapter exceeds this one.

A nice, brief drabble to get you into the writing mood. Nice work!

Ah, Bertvar. While I don't really like the idea of killing him so early into the story, I enjoyed this chapter quite a lot.

We start off with the inner machinations in the vermin camp. Grunner and Furgly being rivals as per the course, and Bertvar's going to betray Baro once the battle's over assuming they both survive - which they do not.

But hey, don't let wasted development of major antagonists get in our way - we have a DREAM SEQUENCE! Gosh, do I love the World of Dreams! Oh, and Denra as well. She didn't do a great job as Bertvar's 'Guardian Angel', but points for trying, I suppose. The thought that she isn't the only Guardian would make the main stories much more interesting. That, and DREAM BATTLES! Super duper awesome!

Luck and pluck, Seb!

Certainly an interesting ideaaaaaaaaaa- Bertvar gets a dream about potentially going down the good path- I er- I rather like that Bertvar is dead now. Don't get me wrong I love redemption stories, I really do. And Bertvar wouldn't even be the first redeemed slavemaster in fanfiction! But I also don't think redemption is for everyone. Sure- anyone can change- but it's a bit hard for my sympathies to change considering the Big Bad Wolf removed one of Tragg's eyes on-screen (which separates him from the other redeemed slavers I've read who's dirty business is either somewhat justified or done off-screen). He er- didn't show any remorse for anything he did at any point in time and hell even in this chapter he's talking about killing Baro Steelclaws like the assassination of an emperor is nothing. Does he *really* think he can beat *every single claimant* of Baro's legacy? Does he have no *idea* what kind of political turmoil that can create? Gosh Bertie- I thought you were smart XD

And so he walks away from redemption and I find that fitting. It suits him. He doesnt want redemption, he cares not for his soul and, well- he's sort of already dead at this point :P

Update soon!

Where do you live sebias

Ho ho! Pirates attacking pirates! The old Bloodfur is mortally wounded and he passes his name AND let's not forget the red horned helmet! That is probably been something Rico has been eyeing since he was a dibbun!(JK)XD

I actually like the former captain, Bloodfur. He doesn't seem the type of beast to fiddle around with false praise, so the fact he picked Rico says something!

Great chapter! ~Keva Strongbow

When I first read this, I thought Bloodfur was the "Actual" Bloodfur in the book 'The Grey Warlord' . Thankfully it wasn't, cause that's not at all how I had pictured himXD

Nice to see how Bloodfur and Blue-Eyes were when they were still but young lads.

Great chapter! ~Keva Strongbow

Urthblaze! Wow, he so deserved this one-shot! Actually, in my opinion I think he deserves his own song;) They could sing it at Salamandastron in remembrance of him!

The part with him day-dreaming about The Mountain at school is So. Sad.! Little did he know he would end up going there and giving his life one day!

Great chapter! ~Keva Strongbow

Dear Sebias of Redwall,

It is good to see you writing again, and political intrigue no less! To be honest, my author says that you have acquitted yourself quite, though I have my misgivings - I will leave it til later.

My author would like me to start off by praising your characterisation. Baro, being Baro, is a power-hungry ruler who knows what he is after most of the time. Poisoning another ruler and taking his children hostage is something straight out of the game 'Crusader Kings II', or this is what my author told me. He then rambled on and on about a previous playthrough in which the details are too sordid for anybeast to talk about - there is a reason why Sir Christopher Lee said that people should try everything at least once, with the exceptions of murder and incest. I know it is unfair for me to say that, considering my marriage to a third cousin, but I have not committed murder yet. Assasination is unacceptable, not to mention foolish (better to make friends than enemies) - but I fear I am getting off track here.

Baro aside, the wolves are crafter pretty well, even though both my author and you know that not all of them are to survive. But still, you added drama by creating attachment between the would-be victims and the reader - well done. It is actually weird to think that I sympathise with vermin who oppress woodlanders, but once more, you manage. I also like how you tie it into Bertvar's origin story - so he's the noble fugitive archetype? Like another three of my author's top 13 fics? This shall prove to be interesting, to say the least.

My only gripe with the story is a little thing called the plot - it could get a bit unrealistic sometimes. I have no idea why Almar would trust Baro to hold a feast with him, let alone NOT use the same source of wine. Rule of drama, maybe? In any case, I am very glad that you wrote this drabble - Baro is a villain who (as of now) is remarkably undeveloped, though you could have done more in terms of personality, like what you did with Bloodfur.

Yours sincerely,
Prince Corrado of Garlesca

A/N: I love Stoneheart!

Death at a feast... lots of Game of Thrones vibes here (weddings are such dangerous things), what with all the sudden choking on poison, all the blood and all the stabbing and what will you. We get a brief snippet of backstory, explaining the history of Almar and Baro's respective clans, and at the same time we're given no explenation as to why Baro Steelclaws decided to break the truce. I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of clear motive there... did he just er- not like wolves (and if so why?) or is it just that he wants to crush his dad's legacy? Similarly I'm disappointed that Almar didn't make any preparations with treachery in mind. You've been enemies for such a long time and yet you now trust this wolverine emperor? That doesn't sound very smart...

And of course it isn't. General Skull is killed (but not in an ironic way involving skulls which is a bit of a shame) Nyko is killed (must have been a pretty big stone what did him in) Almar is killed (Baro mercy-killed him though, because he'd have proooooooobably died from the poison anyways) Kano and Cahira are kidnapped... could this be a secret weapon Baro's clinging on to? Something he is planning to unleash on Salamandastron? If so... well it certainly makes for some interesting possibilities now that we know Bertvar's name used to be Owen. Which... is such a not-evil name that it's almost ironic.

The feast was not particularly appetizing but the bloodbath was fun! Also I will say this. For a guy named Stoneheart, Stoneheart is such a sweetheart. He a) knows what a baby sounds like b) knows people who can look after a baby c) names babies after his uncles d) carries a big, baby wolf (which realistically is probably bigger than he is) in a way that does not provoke wailing- clearly he has experience with kids.

Stoneheart is the best.

Update soon.

So far this smells like the origin of two of your B's (you really... really like B-names, don't you?). Baro and Bertvar respectively.

Mr Steelclaws has assumed the throne and his first order of business is... murdering two of his father's advisors. Under the pretext that they stole from his deady pappy- but they claim they were framed. Baro is totally the type of beast to frame his dad's advisors as an excuse to have them killed. I mean... seeing as he killed his dad and stuff... Skinned alive and hung for the carrion birds. What a way to go. Sounds painful to say the least.

Baro's next order of business is employing an assassin, and of course it's a vixen. Vixens are basically *the* assassin species. In Redwall at least. And their job is to sneak into someplace as cooks- most likely to do some assassining and stuff.

Meanwhile a pack of wolves ruthlessly slaughter helpless woodlanders. Talk about grey on gray conflict- I don't even know which side to root for. The wolves are despicable (and then have the gall to act like they're killing that random mouse because he's a coward like... you killed the not-cowards too!) and Baro is equally vile (patricide is a big no-no).

You can tell something bad's gonna come up because well.. I read The Grey Warlord. That said, if I hadnt read your main fic this could've read as an intersting sort of political thriller. So good job on that front.

Here's to the feast. Update soon.

This is a very well-done chapter. I wonder if later Cahira and Kano will meet Owen/Bertvar the Greatest Slavemaster. That would be interesting. My, my, Baro knows what he wants, doesn't he. He does like slaughter, he likes it very much, like Gulo. Just he's way smarter than Gulo.
Bertvar is Owen... I sorta saw that one of the wolf children would be Bertvar. Two backstories in one. And no doubt Baro will regret this, and allowing Bertvar into the horde.
A very good chapter!