Disclaimer: The Redwall series belongs to the brilliant Brian Jacques. Salamandastron and the Long Patrol are from his imagination. Characters and plot are all mine.

They'd won the battle. It was not a bloodless victory, as the Long Patrol would call it. It should've been. They had lost hares. Not many, but they never wanted to lose anyone. They cleaned up and disposed of any evidence of a battle along the Salamandastron. Now the battle was over and gone. The hard part had come.

The officers made their way in, early that morning. They had news to break.

No one noticed the small young haremaid who turned and ran, hiding her tears from everyone.

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That had been over a season ago. A tiny, meaningless battle, shuffled back in the dark corners of the mountain's memories. Who cared?

That small young haremaid who'd ran before now stood solidly, lined up with the other young fresh picks of recruits for the Long Patrol. She was startled out of her reverie by the barking sound of her commanding officer's voice.

"Have you fallen asleep, Private Contarelle?" She cringed at the sound of her last name. She never understood why officers couldn't call their troops by their first name.

"No, sah. Quite awake, Sarge." Was her quipping reply, looking up into the dark gaze of Sergeant Sandscut.

"Stand up tall, chin up, ears straight!" He barked in her face. Biting back a sigh, she did as she was told. That was another thing she didn't understand. She knew Sandscut was a very laid back creature, but he became the authority of Hellsgates as soon as he was thrown into an officer position. She supposed it came with the territory.

"Yes, sah," she muttered unenthusiastically. She could take any one of those recruits with her eyes closed; the officers were sure of it. She could outrun any hare on the mountain; the officers were also sure of this. But she was not an advocate on following orders, and she made this very clear to everyone around her.

"I can't hear you, Private!" Sandscut yelled again, trying to get a slight rise out of her.

She took a breath and yelled right back "Mayhap you should get your hearing checked, sah!"

There were a few smothered chuckles among the other young recruits, but most watched in shock.

"Are you tryin' to be cute?" The sergeant dropped his voice this time, staring straight into the young haremaid's bright violet eyes.

Undeterred, she kept yelling as she seemed to have been instructed to do before. "I'm sorry, sah! Can't hear you, wot!" She hadn't meant to add the 'wot.' It had slipped.

"Go back inside," Sandscut said impatiently. "I'm not dealing with your insolence today."

"Yes, sah!" This time she threw in a salute for good measure. She turned and walked off, ignoring the dropped jaws of her audience.

She slipped in through the gate and walked into the mountain. It was about time for lunch, wasn't it? On her way towards the dining hall, she nearly collided with another hare. After checking her balance, she looked up into a familiar face.

She went to continue walking after saying a simple "Hullo, Lieutenant."

The other hare turned and followed her. "Shouldn't you be in training, Eula?"

"You'd jolly well think so, wouldn't you?" She said with a roll of her eyes, continuing to walk off.

"Eula! He kicked you out again?"

"Could say that, wot."

"I'll talk to him, c'mon."

"G'way Jamie."

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"Oh leave her be, Nate. Eula's a good gel, wot?"

"You want to hang around with my flippin' little sister over your best friend, go right ahead, Jame."

"Well, you heard him, Eula! Gonna hang out with you, wot?" The small haremaid shrieked with laughter as she was scooped up and spun about playfully.

"Haha! Stoppit Jamie!"

"Quick, Nate! I'll hold her down, you tickle!"

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Later that night, Eula walked along the beach in the shallow surf, watching the sun sink into the sea. That forever unreachable horizon in the distance. Kicking up a bout of water, she turned back towards the mountain.

She doubled around the back way and slipped into the training grounds. There she saw a small contingent of hares sparring whilst a single hare walked about giving suggestions and examples to the training crew.

"Evening, Lieutenant." Eula walked up to the commanding officer, who spun around to look at her.

"Hullo there, m'gel. In a better mood, I hope?"

"Guess so." She shrugged and leaned back against the fence, watching the other hares.

"Looks like you got 'em in blinkin' shape, Jamie."

"Lieutenant to you, kiddo." He grinned, indicating his platoon.

One of the hares ran up to the Jamie, a saber held in a pair of strong paws.

"Sah." He said quickly, waiting to be acknowledged before continuing. Jamie nodded at him.

"I'd like extra practice outside of this group, sah. Could you help me out a bit afterwards?"

"Certainly. Just hold back after, and I'd be glad to help you."

Eula stood silently, watching Jamie talk to the hare. Then he was distracted and ran off to a pair of sparring recruits to fix a problem.

The one who'd requested help from his commanding officer now turned with a grin to Eula. "Hullo there, m'gel. Name's Daikon." He held a paw to Eula, smiling amiably.

She accepted the paw. "Y'can call me, Eula."

She watched in confusion as the hare pulled his paw away and gave her a nasty smirk. "Oh, I've heard o' you, wot! Keep getting your bally self chucked outta training. Heard you're afraid of goin' to battle and dyin'..."

Eula's paws clenched at her side, already anticipating what would come next.

"Jus' like that flamin' brother of yours."

"Shut up," she growled angrily, trembling in rage.

"It's true, isn't it, m'gel? You're just a cowa-"

He couldn't finish his sentence, as Eula had knocked him straight to the ground. Daikon was too shocked by her response that Eula was given the chance to land one hard hit right on his jaw. Before she could throw another punch, he'd brought his legs up and kicked her off backwards.

Falling on the ground, she had jumped to her footpaws in the blink of an eye. Daikon had stood, ready for her assault. She went to launch herself at him but was caught around the waist and held back. "Eula, stop!"

"Argh, Jamie, let me go!" She screamed. "Let me go!" She was struggling uselessly with the strong Lieutenant. "I'll kill him, let me go!"

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A/N- You're probably confused, eh? Summing it up. This is kind of more of an introduction to Eula before the actual plot starts. Please review! Otherwise I won't be motivated to continue. Thank-you.