Status Updates From The Taggerung (Redwall, #14)

Russano is truly wise. He's not going to let a thousand hares scarf down every crumb of food and drop of drink in the Abbey for too long. They won't have anything left for winter.

Outnumbered over 3-1, outmaneuvered, surrounded, disarmed, and forced to crawl on hands and feet like true animals has got to be the most humiliating thing I've ever read. And no one got killed is the most amazing thing!

Holy crap! Holy crap! Russano! I forgot all about him! He was the badger baby from the Long Patrol book! All grown up now!

Well, this is certainly a turn! I had imagined that Ruggan Bor being a reasonable creature would leave Redwall alone now that he's the Taggerung. But I guess vermin's gotta vermin.
But now a badger lord and a thousand fighting hares!

"The strange otter gave Gruven a dismissive glance. He recognized his old adversary immediately, but kept deliberately silent. Fixing his attention to Ruggan Bor, Deyna answered the fox's question levelly. 'There is no creature within these walls with vermin tattoos on his face. Why do you ask?'"
See? Knew it.

Imagine waking up in the early morning and there's an army of three hundred vermin that has silently approached and silently stood outside of the walled Abbey through the night and early, misty morning.

Tagg, Deyna, is going to have his tattoos removed by the time the vermin horde arrives. They won't recognize him, and so the Redwallers will claim that there is no Taggerung.

This is a stroke of unlucky for Gruven. The matey he left for dead in the swamp is actually alive.

This Ruggan Bor character already sounds like a more interesting than any of the other prominent villains we've had. We couldn't we have followed him as a character instead of Gruven?

"From that long-ago day when his father carried a babe out of the Abbey gates, Deyna, son of Rillflag, had returned home."

Yep, the fox doubted Gruven's lie especially when he gave a timetable that did not match up with the conflict between the two clans. Now the whole of the vermin clan are on the march.

This is probably more thinking than Gruven had ever done in his life. He managed to bluff his way to safety for a day, but even I know that doesn't last.