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| - The story opens by introducing Gabool the Wild, the nefarious King of Searats, who stands at the top of a cliff and watches as a small mousemaid frantically tries to survive in the seas at the bottom of the cliff. The pirate king returns to his fortress, Fort Bladegirt, where one of his captains named Bludrigg demands plunder. Gabool feigns an air of compliance, but suddenly beheads Bludrigg. After this short incident, he interrogates Joseph the Bellmaker and attempts to force him to build a bell tower for the enormous bell he captured. Failing in this, he successfully persuades the Bellmaker to interpret the symbols on the bell in exchange for the latter’s daughter. He then shoves the old mouse off of a cliff.
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abstract
| - The story opens by introducing Gabool the Wild, the nefarious King of Searats, who stands at the top of a cliff and watches as a small mousemaid frantically tries to survive in the seas at the bottom of the cliff. The pirate king returns to his fortress, Fort Bladegirt, where one of his captains named Bludrigg demands plunder. Gabool feigns an air of compliance, but suddenly beheads Bludrigg. After this short incident, he interrogates Joseph the Bellmaker and attempts to force him to build a bell tower for the enormous bell he captured. Failing in this, he successfully persuades the Bellmaker to interpret the symbols on the bell in exchange for the latter’s daughter. He then shoves the old mouse off of a cliff. In the meantime, the mousemaid is rendered unconscious when a piece of flotsam strikes her on the head. She washes up onto the shores, wakes up, and unties the rope around her neck. When a predatory gull arrives, she swings the rope and strikes the unfortunate bird, which hurriedly flies away. Suffering from severe polydipsia, the mousemaid searches for water, finds a small pool of it, and fends off another gull with her trusty rope, which she dubs the Gullwhacker. Cogitating on her forgotten identity, the amnesiac mouse names herself Storm Gullwhacker and promptly falls asleep on the dunes. When weary Storm awakens, she finds herself surrounded by trident-wielding toads, led by one disgruntled Oykamon. The mousemaid launches a trenchant attack, but is stabbed in the footpaw and beleaguered by hundreds of toads. She is rescued by Colonel Clary, Brigadier Thyme, and Hon Rosie, hares of the Long Patrol. They bandage her foot and decide to bring her to Redwall through Pakatugg Treefleet. A reclusive, pedant squirrel, Pakatugg is concerned about security and secrecy to an extreme degree. In exchange for all of the hares’ supplies, he offers to take Storm to Redwall Abbey with the proviso that she is blindfolded. At Terramort Isle, Saltar the corsair, brother of Bludrigg, arrives with the Darkqueen. Saltar duels Gabool, but is treacherously killed in a trap. Immediately afterward, the report comes in that Captain Greypatch has stolen the Darkqueen, Gabool’s flagship. Gabool tells his captains that whoever kills Greypatch will be made second-in-command of all searats.
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