"RAWNBLADE!!!!"

Lightpaw shuddered, clamping his paws over his long ears. The young Long Patrol lieutenant turned beseechingly toward Dandin. "Um... is she...I mean...is Lady Mariel all right? That mousemaid...she bally well scares me," the hare admitted sheepishly.

Dandin patted young Lightpaw companionably on the shoulder. "Aye, mate, she scares me, too."

"I heard that, Dandin, you rat!" Mariel called through the curtain that divided the room in half. Dandin chuckled and leaned against the stone wall. It was cool and smooth, deep gray rock, just like the rest of the fortress of Salamandastron.

"Come and get me!" he called back. "I have your Gullwacker, LADY Mariel."

"Urgh!" she growled, and commenced banging about on her side of the curtain.

Dandin grinned and straightened the sleeves of his tunic. It was deep black, with delicate spiral embroidery along the edges, and buttons carved from pale white bone. "Rawnblade really went all out. I wonder where he got these clothes; they fit perfectly." He turned to Lightpaw, "How do I look?"

Lightpaw blinked, really looking at Dandin for the first time. He appeared so differently from how he had turned up at the mountain, just yesterday, dirty and travel-worn from the road from Redwall. "You actually look a jolly nice sight, Dandin, sir," the hare marveled. "And I really mean it, wot!"

"Hear that, Mariel?" Dandin called. "I look a jolly nice sight. How does the DRESS fit?"

Lightpaw could feel animosity radiating off the mousemaid like heat out of an oven. "Its...it's..." Mariel searched for the right words, "Disgusting. Sparkly. Ruffley. Dandin...its PINK."

This latest fact proved too much of Dandin to handle. He fell to the floor, laughing so hard that he could hardly breathe.

Lightpaw tried to calm the enraged noises coming from the other side of the curtain. "I'm sorry, Lady Mariel, truly I am, but Lord Rawnblade DID ask you here for a reason. He's meeting with a falcon king from the far north, and wants to make a jolly good impression. I don't know WHY in Mossflower those birdies want to see His Nibbs, but we all need to look respectable. And that means a dress, Lady Mariel, wot!"

The mousemaid sighed in resignation. "Fine...fine...but ONLY for Rawnblade! Dandin, wipe that stupid grin off your face. Just hand me my Gullwhacker, and we'll go down to dinner.

Lightpaw had been trained by fierce, battle scarred fighting hares. He had learned all manner of hand-to-hand combat skills, and had even faced a few rats in his time. But something about the mousemaid, confined behind only a thin curtain, frightened him beyond belief. Especially when he had to tell her this...

"Umm...Lady Mariel...you see...you're not h'actually allowed to bring weapons to dinner..."

Mariel exploded. "RAWNBLADE!!!"

Dandin clasped the hare by one paw and dragged him out of the room. "We'd best disappear, Lightpaw, before she breaks something. Like our heads. Mariel!" he called, "We're going down to dinner. You can come down when you've calmed a bit."

"I'll send Sergeant Woodsorrel to escort you," added the lieutenant, thinking of Tarquin's stalwart, stolid uncle. Surely HE could handle Mariel...

As Lightpaw guided Dandin to a seat in the dining hall, he began to have second thoughts about Woodsorrel.

"They're still not down yet," Dandin murmured anxiously, echoing the young hare's thoughts.

"I'm... um... sure they'll be as right as rain, and down here any moment," promised Lightpaw, as much for his own reassurance as Dandin's. Even so, neither of their eyes left the grand staircase that ascended to the hall's door.

Suddenly, a whisper of cloth and...there she was.

Clinging to the stolid Sergeant Woodsorrel's paw, Mariel seemed transformed, from the rough-and-ready traveler, to a fine lady of some faraway court. The rose-colored gown, its beaded hem swishing against the ground, fit Mariel beautifully, accenting her figure. A moonstone belt was wrapped around his waist, and she had a silver locket about her neck. On her head, albeit crookedly, she wore a string of pearls like a tiara.

Lightpaw expected a laugh from the mouse warrior beside him, even just a small smile. But Dandin seemed absolutely dumbstruck by Mariel's appearance.

As Sergeant Woodsorrel showed the mousemaid to her seat, Dandin stood up and clasped her paws tightly in his. "You look amazing, Mariel, absolutely stunning."

This time, there was no mockery in his voice.