Taggerung- The Essay

    ^{Seldom has a fictional character been praised as a moral hero, and that list shortens even further when you come to the subject of animals. Therefore, I am proud to present the first ever otter hero, Deyna the Taggerung. Now, he isn't your average goodbeast, although his species dictates that. Let's take a look at his background, history and heritage.}

   ^{Deyna was born in the good Redwall Abbey, where by a tragic twist of fate his father decided to take him to a nearby river, to be made a "proper" otter. A tribe of hideous and evil vermin were already there, by the information of a seer. They were here for the babe (Deyna), the destinied Taggerung, recognized by the flower pattern on his paw. Some vermin shot down Deyna's poor father, taking the babe with them.}

   ^{Seasons later, Deyna, now known as Tagg (short for Taggerung) is living as one of the most agile and formidable fighters that ever lived. None of his clan, not even his adopted father, could match him in talent or skill. That was expected, of course, as he was the Taggerung, a legendary warrior. However, even though he was raised among vermin who would murder their comrades for a crust of bread, Deyna (for that was his true name) firmly resisted killing and torturing, even when he was forced to. The was when he'd had enough.}

   ^{The otter had never seen his clan as a family, and he was tired of being order to do things he hated. Leaving the only beasts he'd ever know, Deyna journeyed north in search of real friends. One of them was Nimbalo, a stubbor and eager-to-lie fieldmouse. He did have some bad experiences, namely with Madd the squirrel trying to kill him because he looked like a vermin; but he forgave her and continued on his way.}

   ^{Meanwhile, a group of vermin from the tribe he'd left were following Deyna, led by Gruven, who had tried to murder the Taggerung many times before. (Of course, all that happened was Gruven being made a fool because of his failure.) Deyna knew they were following him, and probably could've killed them all singlehandedly, but didn't. It was only when they capture his best pal, Nimbalo, that Deyna became the very definition of roaring angry. And that proved he was using violence justly and as a remedy to evil.}

   ^{So, as you can see, sometimes the hardest thing to do is doing the right thing. Imagine being raised among the Nazis and taught their way of life-killing, murdering, torturing. What would you do? Deyna, unfortunately, had the same sort of bad environment to grow up on, and battled with his morals as well. Finally his inner self came through, and he refused to do any serious harm to any creature. Deyna was kind to strangers, too.}

   ^{You don't have to be all-powerful or ruthless to be respected, and sometimes the best thing to do is be yourself and recognize evil as a threat.}

^{By Laterose, the webmaster of this site, for her Language Arts class's persuasive essay writing assignment.}