Mattimeo began laughing. Tim, Tess and Cynthia pounded him on the back as they shouted and cheered wildly:

“Good old Redwall, tell Ambrose to get the barrels open!”

“Who’s that on the walls? It’s your mum. Look, there’s ours too. Mum, Mum! D’you think they can hear us?”

*   *   *

The Methuselah and the Matthias bells began pealing and clanging out across the clear morning air.

Bong! Clang! Boom! Bong! Clang! Boom!

Basil halted the army. “Right markers, get fell in. Come on, you sloppy lot, we’re coming home like a proper army, not a ragamuffin crowd. Ranks of six, chins in, chests out, shoulders back. Step lively there, you at the back, catch up. Come on, come on, laddie buck, you’re not on a daisy-chain ramble now, y’know. Quick march!”

“Never gives up, does he?” Jess muttered to Sam from the side of her mouth. “You watch, he’ll be the first to break ranks and charge if anybeast throws a pie over that wall.”

*   *   *

The hot morning sunlight shafted down on the brown dust rising between the green and gold leaves of Mossflower as the main doors of the old red sandstone Abbey burst open.

The Abbot walked out at the head of the Abbey dwellers. They lined the path facing Matthias at the head of his army.

There was complete silence as they stood looking at each other.

The warrior mouse unslung his great sword. Stepping forward, he laid it flat in the dust at the paws of Mordalfus.

“Father Abbot, we have come home.”

There was a mighty cheer which shook the timbers of the main gate frame, then the ranks broke as every creature dashed forward to greet old friends and meet new ones.

So it was the young ones returned to Redwall.

*   *   *

It took the whole of that day in the Abbot’s study for the full story to unfold from both sides.

Matthias, Jess, Basil and Orlando, with Mattimeo, Tim, Tess, Sam, Cynthia and Auma, crowded in alongside Cornflower, Constance and Ambrose Spike.

Food was brought in to them as the young ones related all that had happened from the night of the feast to Malkariss’s cells. Matthias, Orlando, Jess and Basil related the hunt for the young ones from the same night up to the death of Slagar.

It was late afternoon before they were done. The Abbot had listened intently to the harrowing narrative. He shook his head sadly.

“In the midst of all our joyous reunion we must never forget fallen friends, particularly Queen Warbeak and Log-a-Log. I will hold services for all our fallen friends at the first sunrise of spring, and they will remain dear to our memories for all the seasons to come.”

In the sad silence that followed, Matthias decided to lighten the mood of the proceedings a little. He slapped his paw down on the table.

“Well then, Mordalfus you old twig, I suppose you’ve been sitting here twiddling your paws while we’ve been away. Tell me, how did you manage to keep busy?”