*this book's characters are all animals, but talk and act mostly like humans*
The book starts off on a snowy day. A hawk gets battered by the snow, and crashes into some trees. He gets noticed by a nearby camp, and their evil leader, Swartt. however, during the night, the badger Swartt imprisoned in the camp frees the hawk. The two escape, and the badger smashes Swartt's well-known six-clawed paw with a large tree limb. they run far away, and the hawk calls the badger sunflash, as it didn't know it's old name. They go far, eventually they make it to Salamandastron, a huge stronghold carved into an inactive valcano. The place is also where warrior badgers like sunflash are destined to end up.
Swartt builds up an army of stoats, rats, foxes, and other creatures, wanting revenge on Sunflash for destroying his paw. Meanwhile, Swartt's abandoned and forgotten child gets found by some members of Redwall Abbey, and they to their best to raise him, (naming him Veil) but nothing good comes out of him.
However, one day, after stealing a honey pot, he attempts to poison someone as revenge for yelling at him. He is caught, and kicked out of the Abbey, declared outcast.
at the mountain, Salamandastron, the two armies meet. Swartt and his horde, and Sunflash with the fighting hares of Salamandastron. The rest is for you to read!