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It was fully dawn when the trio slowed their headlong dash through the woodlands. Luglug beckoned to a strata of sandstone ledges, dotted with bushes and shrubbery. He drew his rapier.
"That place looks like snake land t'me, go careful now. Serpents like these shaded places, with lots o' nooks an' crannies, an' ledges where they can sun themselves."
Maudie whispered to Asio as they crept forward, "Looks jolly silent an' sinister t'me. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the neighbourhood was crawlin' with flippin' snakes, bet there're adders, too, wot!"
The owl scoffed. "Snakes are nowt but snakes, lass. Adders, subtractors, they're all a load o' sneaky worms t'me. Ah've never been fond o' the slippery things."
Maudie froze, fixing her eye on a movement, about halfway up the ledges, by a slender rowan tree. "Luglug, I think I've found our snake. See it, up there, coiled around that rowan root. There's the babe, too!" They ducked behind an old spruce, peering out to get a better assessment of the situation.
Asio blinked. "How's the liddle tyke, my eyes ain't too good from this distance. Is the babby hurt, d'ye think?"
The shrew chieftain shaded his eyes, staring hard. "I
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think I saw him move. Aye, he moved again, see? So, baby Dupper ain't been bitten yet, or he'd be stiff as a board. That's an adder, though, I'm sure!"
Maudie kept her eyes on the ledge. "How d'you know, by the thing's markins?"
Log a Log Luglug wrinkled his snout. "Can't make out any markins, it's in the shade. I can smell it from here, though, that's an adder!"
The owl was skeptical of Luglug's judgement. "Nay, lad, all snakes smell the same, it could be a slow worm for all thou knows!"
However, Luglug was adamant. "That's an adder, I tell ye!"
Maudie treated them both to a severe wiggle of her ears. "Will you chaps stop squabblin' an' help me to figure out how we're goin' to rescue little wot'sisface. There's no way we can sneak up on that slimy rotter, he'd see us comin' from up there on the ledge. By the time we crossed the flat area and climbed those rocks, the blighter could've done away with the poor mite, an' scoffed him t'boot. So, let's stop bickerin' about snake smells, an' face up to the confounded problem!"
Luglug shook his head. "Pity we never brought a bow an' arrows along."
Maudie stamped her footpaw, but quietly. "Really! I'm lookin' for solutions, sah, not wishful blinkin' thinkin'! Asio, any ideas rollin' about in that feathered bonce of yours, wot?"
The owl blinked his huge, yellow eyes. "Aye, lass, ah'll back off a touch, then fly up high in t'sky, then zoom in an' give yon worm ecky thump, just like ah would wi' a lizard!" Before Maudie or Luglug could protest, or agree, Asio shuffled rapidly backward and was lost to view.
The shrew chieftain blew a sigh of frustration. "It's no good talkin' to that stubborn ole fool. Come on, miz, we'll start advancin' careful like, so we can give him some help, if'n he does wot he's goin' t'do!"
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Nipping quietly from tree to bush, the pair stole forward, with Maudie keeping an eye on the snake and its prey, as Luglug watched the sky for signs of the owl. They reached the base of the ledges. Maudie stared upward.
"This is goin' t'be the tricky part, old chap, wot. No sooner do we start scalin' these ledges than that villain will spot us, we'll stick out like toads on a thimble!"
Without warning, a tremendous din rang out from above: Asio's hooting and screeching, mingled with little Dupper's wails, and the vicious hissing of the snake.
Maudie began bounding up the ledges. "Come on, mate, Asio's arrived. Blood'n'vinegar! Eulaliaaaa!"
The sandstone was weathered, soft and rounded, with no real pawholds, but Maudie and Luglug scrabbled up it as if their lives depended on it. They arrived on the scene in the midst of the hubbub. The owl was gripping the reptile's body in his talons as they attacked one another, beak for fang, in a furor of coils and feathers. The shrew-babe was howling lustily, trying to crawl away from the conflict.
Maudie leapt in. Snatching the infant up, she hurried him out of harm's way. Luglug circled the fight with his rapier at the ready, trying to get a good thrust at the snake. It came a moment later, when the snake lunged, open-mouthed, for a strike at Asio. The shrew chieftain thrust the blade right down its throat, dodging to one side as its tail thrashed furiously. The owl held it tight in his talons until he was sure the snake was dead. Luglug retrieved his blade from the reptile's mouth, saluting the owl with it.
"Got the brute, just as it was goin' to strike ye!"
Asio flung the snake's limp carcass over the ledge with a scornful flick of his hooked beak. "Goin' to strike me? Thou must be jestin', lad, yon great string o' scales must've bitten me about four times in all. Aye, he put up a gradely scrap, though, ah'll say that for 'im!"
Maudie was wrapping the shrewbabe back in his little
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shawl. Concern registered in her eyes as she stared at Asio. "Are you quite sure, old lad, that filthy rotter got his fangs into you four blinkin' times, wot?"
The owl blinked. "It were either four or five times, ah weren't countin'. Still, yon worm's slain now, an' the babbie's safe. That's all wot counts, lass!" Asio's legs seemed to buckle, he wobbled a pace or two, then squatted down, his head nodding forward as he watched Luglug cleaning off his blade. "Whoo, ah feel right tired out, 'appen ah'll need a liddle nap afore we carry on back 'ome." He winked lazily at Luglug, then chuckled. "Yeh great pudden'ead, yon worm weren't no adder, it were nowt but a grass snake. Ah were right, weren't ah?"
Putting his rapier aside, the shrew knelt alongside Asio, patting his wing gently. "Aye, mate, you were right, no doubt about it."
The owl's eyes were blinking rapidly as he turned to Maudie. "Ah may forget one or two things, but when ah recall 'em ah'm always right, eh, lass?"
Still holding the shrewbabe, Maudie hurried to Asio's side. However, the great yellow eyes had fallen shut, for the last time. The haremaid knelt, pressing her face against his downy cheek feathers. "My poor, old, brave, muddle-headed friend, you've earned a perilous warrior's rest. Sleep well, Asio Bardwing!"
Maudie and Luglug laid him where he had fallen, they built a neat cairn of sandstone slabs over Asio. It was mid-morning before the task was finished. The shrewbabe was hungry, he began whimpering for his breakfast. Maudie rocked him soothingly, as Luglug recited a few lines over the owl's resting place.
"Friend of the Guosim, courageous one, it is time to bid thee farewell, round campfires at night thy name shall live on, for great stories of thee I will tell!"
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Maudie passed the little one to the shrew chieftain. Taking Luglug's rapier, she saluted her fallen comrade, yelling aloud the Salamandastron war cry, in tribute to him. "Eu-laliiiiiiaaaaaa!"
They returned to Bulrush Bower in time for lunch. Little Dupper's mother was overjoyed to get her baby back unharmed. Luglug and Maudie told her of the owl's heroic sacrifice, how Asio had saved Dupper by doing battle with the adder. The shrewmum was greatly moved, she proclaimed from that day forth, her little one's name would be changed, from Dupper to Asio. Both Maudie and the Guosim tribe were in complete agreement with the decision. They ate a simple lunch, shrewbread, apples and some cheese. When all their baggage was packed, Luglug gave orders.
Shrews are notoriously noisy, they gossip and shout constantly. To gain silence Luglug had to shout out his official title, Log a Log, in an ululating call. Maudie was startled; for such a small creature, he had a resounding voice.
"Logalogalogalooooog!"
The Guosim ceased jabbering and listened to their chief. Luglug was very brief with his announcement. "Get the liddle 'uns on their lines'n'harnesses! Rigril an' Teagle, yore in the scoutin' coracle! Porters an' portagers, move out! We're bound for the Abbey o' Redwall, by the crook-stream an' ripples!"