Mission of Stealth

[Scarlet]

The weather was fair and the wind strong in the sails as Scarlet lounged idly on the deck of her great ship, the Nightpearl. She had an apple to munch on, a great view of the bright blue seas, and an exciting anticipation radiating throughout her body and mind. She was on a mission of great importance. Fortunes could be hers, enough to build her own country if she wanted to. Enough to have unchallenged power over every creature, respect of every foe.
Her mission? To obtain another piece of the map that leads to Redwalls crumbling ruins, wherein she would find her wealth.

It's not going to be easy... She said to herself thoughtfully. There's the Badger Lord, to start. Urith Icebane... From what I hear he's undefeatable, a powerful, tall figure... Fighting HIM would be suicide. Scarlet had no wish to wage war against Urith and his militant hares. No, she'll have to rely on stealth and cunning. A major heist was in order.

She finished eating her apple and tossed the core overboard, glancing to watch it bob on the gentle waves. She jumped up and headed for her cabin, where she does her best plotting. She'd been planning this venture for months now, and being so close to Salamandastron now, she wanted to make sure that her scheme was perfect.

[Firestripe]

*Firestripe walked up to the deck, feeling a cool breeze on his face. He stood there for a second with closed eyes enjoying the weather, which was quite nice at the moment. He was once again able to feel happy to just be alive. He was no longer the emaciated, pathetic form he had been when Scarlet had re-discovered him. It had taken awhile, and Firestripe at first wasn't sure if he'd ever fully recover physically or mentally, but with Scar's help he was able to pull himself together and they'd been able to work through it all and keep their relationship strong. In fact, it was probably even stronger now because of it. He felt the same way about himself, he was now in top form and ready for anything. Well... almost anything.*

I still can't believe she wan'ts to go through with this, one wrong move and we all die. I can tackle most any creature, but I don't think I could handle a badger, not in hand to hand combat at least. And facing that along with a mountain load of hares, ridiculous. I know that finding Redwall is pretty much her lifelong goal but... I'm still not sure this is such a good idea. Oh, who am I kidding, of course this isn't a good idea, but it's necessary. At least to Scarlet it is.

*He sighed and shook his head, his pleasure forgotten for the moment. He had talked to her many times but he still needed to confirm everything. He cared about her too much to let her get killed so easily. He opened his eyes and made a beeline for her cabin. He reached the door and knocked.*

"Scarlet, you got a minute?" *He said through the door, using her name instead of 'Captain' or 'M'am'. He was the only one that he knew of that was allowed to do that on a regular basis and not get shot. It gave him a nice, warm feeling... not the getting shot part, mind you, the other thing there.*[/font]

[Scarlet]

"Hmmm?" Scarlet's head peeked up out from behind the mountainous stack of maps and plans that lay on her desk. She was only half aware that someone had knocked, deep in thought and concentration. She shook her head out of the blur of stratagems that floated about in her head. Oh, it's Firestripe! She thought with a smile. " Yeah, come on in!" she said cheerily.

Ever since they were reunited, Scarlet was always so happy to be around Firestripe; Though it had been extremely difficult nursing him back to health. He was so sickly, and his mind fared little better. The work to get him back to his usual self only brought them closer together though.

"I've just been refining the plans!" She called.

[Firestripe]

*Firestripe sighed quietly before opening the door and entering the cabin. He shut the door and turned to Scarlet, very unsurprised by the state of affairs in the room. It had been like this for awhile and the piles had only gotten larger as she discovered more and more information. He smiled slightly, at the very least he knew that she was throwing a whole lot of effort into this and that spoke volumes about how important it was to her. He walked over to her desk, being careful not to disturb any of the mounds of knowledge lest they go flying everywhere.*

"I figured that was the case. You've been putting a lot of effort into these plans for awhile now." *He said in a matter of fact voice. The idea of what they were going to do was crazy, but he knew that the plan itself was quite sound. Scar by no means had a death wish, which meant that she planned to make it out of there alive. Even so...* "I know I've brought this up before, but are you sure that you need to go through with this? I know that your ultimate goal is to find the ruins of Redwall, but... if anything goes wrong, I'm not sure that I could take on a badger, you know? I just feel that this is too dangerous, even for you."

*Even though he said these things, he knew he would follow her no matter what choice she made, and he had a feeling that she knew that too. If anything happened to her... he didn't want to think about it. He would die before letting anything even remotely like that happen and would do so happily. At least Firestripe was good at stealth, his black fur was useful for more than just making him look rather dashing, which he wasn't actually sure it did. He almost made a strange face as that thought crossed his mind but was able to maintain his current demeanor. *[/font]

[Scarlet]

"I know I've brought this up before, but are you sure that you need to go through with this? I know that your ultimate goal is to find the ruins of Redwall, but... if anything goes wrong, I'm not sure that I could take on a badger, you know? I just feel that this is too dangerous, even for you."

Scarlet knew that he was worried. She knew it before she had even begun planning this mission that he would be skeptical about the whole thing. But she couldn't pass up an opportunity to take that one step further toward her goal. She just couldn't.
She smiled at Firestripe when he said this.
" Even if the whole operation fails, we'll have time to flee before we get caught inside... Firestripe, I know it's dangerous, but I have to take this chance. I have to...." She looked deep in her eyes, searching for understanding. She knew it was there, but sometimes she worried that he worried too much.

[Firestripe]

*He knew from the beginning that she was dead set on this, that he wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise, that he would still follow her regardless. He just wished she wasn't so darn stubborn, but then she wouldn't be Scarlet, so he didn't actually mind all that much. He just didn't want to see anything bad happen to her, despite the fact that they got into all sorts of dangerous situations on a regular basis. He let out a sigh with a resigned smile on his face.*

"I know. I've known from the beginning that you wouldn't give this up. Well, I guess all that there is for me to do is to make sure nothing bad happens, eh?" *He said with a tiny laugh.* "But really though, let's hope your plan goes well. Geez, just imagine it, having to take on a badger. Your going to get me killed one of these days, you know?" *He said, but with a smile and a laugh that belayed his words. He trusted her to have a darn good plan that'd keep everything going smoothly.*

[Scarlet]

Relief emanated from Scarlet; She was glad that he wasn't going to try to talk her out of it; The last thing she wanted to do was get into some kind of argument over it. She smiled at him endearingly He really is so loyal... She thought to herself, her heart aflutter. And dashing too She added as she stood up from her desk.
"I'm sure everything will go just fine," She said. She was confident in her plan. " And you know I'm never going to let anything happen to you. " She stepped around the desk and took his paws in hers. " It's all going to work out for the best. Besides," She added with a chuckle "I'm sure you and I could fell even a mighty badger lord if we had to."
The complete and utter happiness that Scarlet felt when Firestripe was near seemed to make her glow. It almost was enough to make her forget all about the map pieces and Redwall and treasure.... Almost.

[Firestripe]

*Firestripe felt the warmth of Scarlet's paws as they clasped his own, a warmth that spread throughout his body. This always happened whenever they made contact. He liked to think that it was their deep connection that caused this. In all actuality, the reason for this was because he was blushing from his face to his tail, though this wasn't noticeable underneath his fur. He was actually pretty shy about this kind of thing, though he didn't realize that himself. One could say this was indeed caused by their deep connection based off of that so he was actually correct.*

"Well, if you believe in me that much then I guess that I probably could." *He said with a light chuckle as he looked into her eyes. Truly, he knew that if she believed he could do something then he would be able to. She made it possible for him to be the beast he is today. He knew that as long as he had her he'd be able to do anything. Goodness, I really am love struck, aren't I? He thought to himself wryly. Geez, she is so beautiful...*

"I know that were going to be doing some very dangerous stuff very soon, but dang it you're ridiculously beautiful, you know that?" *He said, suddenly speaking his mind. He actually hadn't meant to say that out loud, but out it came without his bidding. Well, it wasn't like it wasn't true but he looked somewhat sheepish after blurting out something like that.* [/font]

[Scarlet]

Now it was Scarlet's turn to blush. True, she had been called beautiful by many different creatures, on many different occasions. But it never had meant anything. Coming from Firestripe, it really meant something. When she usually wouldn't even be phased, she was suddenly shy. Ducking her head down to hide her pink cheeks, she wondered at this foreign feeling of being bashful. " Well," She started, bringing her gaze back up to meet his " You're ridiculously handsome, so I bet we make a pretty good looking pair." She said light-heartedly. It was true though, and she knew that everybeast knows it who has ever seen them standing side by side.

[Firestripe]

*To this, Firestripe actually had a bemused look on his face. He had never really thought of himself as handsome or good looking or anything related to those. This was news to him to be sure.* "You actually think I look handsome?" *He said in a slightly bewildered voice, still wrapping his head around what she'd said. Most would think that something as simple as that would be fairly easy to come to terms with and not something to get excited about, but since he'd never thought about it before, her saying that actually made him very happy.*

She thinks I'm handsome... heh heh, she actually thinks I'm handsome He thought to himself, starting to blush even more underneath his fur. Wow, it's getting hot in here... He knew that the mission to Salamandastron was of great importance but he was happy to be able to share moments like this with Scarlet. With their line of work anything could happen so he didn't know how much longer they'd be able to stay like this. Of course he'd do everything within his power to stay with her forever but, for all his strength, he was not almighty. That was something he knew all to well. He often wondered to himself what he'd done to have such a girl as her love him.*[/font]