Fading Rose Petals (Redwall Fanfic)

Introduction

As per every ONC, I start off each story with a bit of introduction with this being the first of eight fanfic projects for ONC 2022. And yes, I'm that crazy with a, "Do not try at home," kind of warning.

What prompt did you use?

For this one I am using number seventy.

"His eyes were cold and lifeless as he stared at me.

'You have no idea who I am, do you?'

What fandom are you writing for?

Redwall, one of my favorite fandom despite rarely writing for this fandom with Martin the Warrior being one of my favorite Romance novels with true start-crossed lovers and me being super excited that there's going to be a new adaption of said series which I've waited for eons.

What do readers not familiar wuth the fandom need to know?

So, if you're not familiar with the Redwall fandom, it's very much in line with Wind in the Willows with anthropomorphic animal characters, my favorite being hands-down Martin the Warrior, a character who manages to be in every single book despite being long dead in many and not yet born in one.  I'm also using this for the current Froday Madness challenge although what I write will not be available over on AO3 for those who don't have AO3 accounts until said challenge is finished.

However, what are some of the specifics that the readers need to know? Well, as I was working on the second chapter I remembered some may not be familiar with what's called in Redwall fandom as Moler Speech and Hare Speech which are dialects specifically used by moles and hares within the Redwall canon which in turn are based of dialects the writer came across in his travels across Britain. As such, I wish to give a bit of forewarning, as reading dialects can be jarring for some individuals who aren't already used to it.

Also, Rose and Laterose are the same character, Rose being the shortened nickname of the name her parents gave her.

What was the inspiration for the story?

So, the reason I jumped onto the prompt was I'd been brainstorming up ideas for the latest Froday Madness challenge which involves characters who died living, so I had in mind that I wanted to write a story where Rose lived incorporating Martin's loss of memories that's revealed to exist in Legend of Luke. And then I saw the quote and I knew exactly how to start that particular story and I was hooked. Like, big time, because I could imagine it as - well, I'm not going to spoil it!

How am I incorporating the prompt?

In the Redwall series, the mouse Martin suffered memory loss from his battle with the wildcat Tsarmina. One of the things Martin's broken mind struggles with remembering is the death of his beloved Rose, but the reason he struggles with remembering is her death is a traumatic event for Martin and he blames himself for her death.

Yet, there's a part of him that wants to remember because she's the mousemaiden he fell in love with. This manifests itself in his dreams, where a dead Rose who he struggles to recognize approaches him, asking effectively why he doesn't remember her to which Timballisto wakes him up, which in turn is how the prompt is incorporated.

Yet, the irony behind the dreams he's having isn't just that he can't remember, it's that Martin's broken mind never knew the truth in the first place, that Rose is alive. An illness breaks out and Timballisto has to leave Martin in Mossflower as Martin struggles with that nightmare for the simple fact Martin is still physically recovering from his battle with Tsarmina (creatures in the Redwall series measure time in seasons, not years), but where Timballisto heads is where Rose actually is.

Word Progress

Chapter 1 - 1,436
Chapter 2 - 2,692
Chapter 3 - 4,030
Chapter 4 - 5,205
Chapter 5 - 6,616
Chapter 6 - 7,826
Chapter 7 - 9,079
Chapter 8 - 10,301
Chapter 9 - 11,488
Chapter 10 - 12,720
Chapter 11 - 13,877
Chapter 12 - 15,279
Chapter 13 - 16,308
Chapter 14 - 17,549
Chapter 15 - 18,717
Chapter 16 - 19,723
Chapter 17 - 20,826
Chapter 18 - 21,921
Chapter 19, 23,206 fin