Welcome to Gaia! ::

Eula watched Donato for a few moments. She then spooned a bite of pie and chewed it slowly, postponing a reply for as long as possible. She did a little gesture with her spoon, a guilty look on her features. "Describe... 'any of this'."

She took another bite of pie and frowned, keeping her voice low. "It was kind of hard to keep the riddle a secret... he knows about that," Eula tapered off slowly. "No, I'm lying. I didn't tell him anything. He knows about the riddle but not... what I have to do with it," the guilty expression again.

She let out a slow breath, watching her food and mushing the rest of her slice of pie into pudding with her spoon. "I've kept mum about it thus far... maybe we can just get through this without him finding out?" Her tone was more hopelessly hopeful than reassuring.

Eula pulled her little routine where she took a bite of food to avoid answering for a few moments. Well, Donato didn't understand! How was she supposed to tell her father - whom she can thanks for actually BEING at Redwall now - that she had dreams where dead creatures spoke to her and recently she was informed of doom and destruction in some undetermined amount of time.

She thought about it a little longer. Perhaps she could just explain the part with Martin and the riddle... she didn't see anything wrong with that. After all, that was all she'd told the rest of Redwall, except Donato. There was no reason to worry him. Eula gave a grudging sigh.

"You're right," she mumbled, giving a little wave of her spoon. "He will find out sooner or later." Which was Eula's way of saying: Not from me.

With a massive wince, Sideswipe dug the back of a claw against his ear, trying desperately to clear it of the high-pitched ringing that echoed there after Gem's yell. That was something that he hadn't missed: the little bat's random outbursts. Still, at least he wasn't a hare, else that would have been far more damaging than leaving a small echo.

Call him gullible (and some certainly had) or call him trusting (that was another one) but the badger found his short whiskers bristling in response to Gem's warning.

"Why would damson pudding doom the Abbey, Gem?"

::Gem sat there, caught between the immediate eyes of Faith and Sideswipe, and for moments, she just kept looking back between the two, a small meddlee of 'Umm...' 'Well, I...' and a few other assorted unanswering answers came back to them, until finally::

Oops! ::She said in an over the top fashion as she lugged away the half-peach, laughing nervously:: All outta peaches, I better go get another!! ::And in a habit even more annoying than her voice, her wings flushed out and away she went!!::

::Faith blinked after her, and then turned back finally with a small 'mmm' thoughfully, before looking to Sideswipe with a smile again:: I wouldn't worry... usually... ::She began to wither her smile as she looked after the bat again::

She's always doing whatever she feels like, but... that seemed really out of place... even for her... ::She began working her way down the pile of tomes on her chair that kept her above table height, until she managed to lever herself off with an 'oomph' and stand with her staff once more::

Maybe we should go see she's alright? ::She suggested up to the badger::

::Meanwhile, in the other side of the room, Jasmine's eyes narrowed, before she too rose, nodding back to the hares:: Excuse me, please.

I need to see about some damson pudding... ::She stared after the exiting bat, before moving to make her way around the chairs, and as an after thought, plucked the napkin from Tracy with a triumphant grin and letting it fall albeit by a corner to unveil her hidden harvest, and with all the age and maturity of a worn old vixen who'd seen every trick in the book, stuck her tongue out in the most refined manner possible at besting the little rabbit::

Eula watched everyone get up and follow Gem off. She had her paws in her lap, wringing them nervously as she contemplated following as well. Chances were she was taking this whole situation out of context, and really shouldn't be worrying about anything. That didn't stop her from watching the procession with a nervous gaze. When the others disappeared she returned her attention to the table again, losing all desire to finish her meal. She picked up her cup and pretended to take a drink, just to look normal, although her cup was already empty.

Tannia watched the bits of celery fall back into Tracy's plate, lifting an eyebrow at her. "Saving some for later, are you?" she asked lightly, absently sliding the little rabbit's bowl of pudding away from her, nodding at the bits of vegetable on the plate. 'Sneaky,' she signed.

Tracy responded with an innocently bewildered look on her features, reaching over and taking a piece of celery and popping it into her mouth, chewing it slowly as she eyed the pudding.

Eula was really hoping Donato hadn't noticed anything odd about Gem's sudden outburst. She was really hoping it was just her paranoia getting to her. But at Donato's nod, those hopes came crashing down. With a glum expression, she set her empty cup down and slumped back in her chair.

Now what?

She considered running after them and making certain Gem kept her mouth shut until she could pull the bat off to the side and have a good talk. Sure, the others would know Eula had some kind of secret, but she was starting to believe it was better if everyone knew she had a secret than everyone knowing what it was.

She could never do the right thing, it seemed, without ramifications. Now everyone would be upset that she had concealed information, even though she had done it with the best intentions. What would Faith think knowing Eula had been told that she was going to bring about the doom of Redwall? How would the rest of Redwall feel? It would cause paranoia, low morale, and on a more personal note for Eula, a lot of nagging as to what she would do about it.

At Donato's comment, she shot him a short annoyed glance as if to say 'Well thanks for your help.'

She pondered in silence for awhile longer. Well... then again... she could always pretend she had no idea what Gem was talking about. At this point in time, Eula definitely had a better reputation than the troublesome Gem. Put the word of the Redwall recorder against the one recently found guilty of starting a foodfight? But Eula had major qualms with lying. Lying by omission was one thing to her, but outright lying through her teeth...

She sat there, weighing her options. Let the whole abbey fall into a state of unease... or lie?

Well, actually, the abbess and I were going to get one of these dreaded damson puddings for an interrogation. ::Sideswipe chipped in, with a sideways wink to Faith, who couldn't help but giggle aloud at the sudden ideas, although perhaps not taking in the FULL parallel of Sideswipe's jib::

Indeed. ::Jasmine simply raised brows as they began looking left and right, but Faith seemed to walk on without a worry, when Sideswipe reached out a loping finger, and gave the infirmary vixen a tap on the shoulder, that near enough floored her, when she turned and gave him a glare that for some reason seemed to fill his head with visions of rusty nails being smacked into something with one of the cellarhog's bung hammers...::

::But finally, she followed his frozen finger, as even the badger flinched in sudden memory of how truly terrifying the infirmary nurse could BE at times, letting himself a sigh of relief, throw him waves and breakways and storms at sea over that vixen's glare!::

::And so she followed, and he followed after HER as they both followed the little abbess forward towards the main doors, until finally, it was Jasmine who spoke up, exchanging a queer look to Sideswipe:: Mother Abbess?

Motheeer?! ::Faith near squealed in frustration, grimacing at the title being used by HER mother, before Jasmine waved a paw dismissively::

Do you know where Gem is, Faith?

::Still a portion embarrassed by having her mother address her by such a title, Faith seemed a LITTLE off the track, but as she turned, she did smile again:: Yup! She HAS been one of my best friends for as long as I known her!

::Jasmine looked expectantly to Sideswipe, the badger after all, nearly the adoptive father, or at least brother of the bat-ling, and for whatever reason, the vixen looked to him to suddenly produce an answer also, wherupon the badger simply gave a look back, he'd been gone for seasons, where would he know the bat would go?::

::And suddenly that bothered him, a painful, lonely twang... that time had passed, and things had happen, and Gem had grown away from him, to a place he knew nothing of, why, where was he supposed to think she'd appear? Nowhere but-::

The orchard? ::The badger suddenly burst out with, looking to Faith::

That's right! ::Laughed the little abbess, yanking the door open with her own power and a little struggle, before darting through!!::

~~~~~~~~

::Gem hummed away to herself as she plucked her prize of a peach from the branches of the tree, and with a skip and a jump, fell downward, wings out to gracefully land, about to take a bite, when she stopped, and looked to the shadows over her, at the three forms before her:: ...Hi?

::And in the silence, suddenly offered the peach up with a nervous laugh:: Found one?