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Lieam was a male mouse and a member of the Mouse Guard. After the tragic events of the winter of 1152, Celanawe (the last in the line of Farrer's descendants) bestowed upon him the Black Axe - both the title and weapon. Often, he would be the one to climb a tree to get a better view of the area.
Biography[]
Midnight's rebellion[]
Discovery of a traitor[]
Lieam accompanied Saxon and Kenzie in search of a lost merchant mouse. He climbed a tree for a better view and spotted the merchant's overturned cart. As the sun set, the three guardmice made camp, Lieam taking the first watch.
The next morning, he found his two companions examining the area, when they were ambushed by a snake. The mice retreated until the snake was gone. But as Lieam kept watch, he found a piece of the merchant's hat and the snake looming over him. As the snake lunged, Lieam thrust his heavy dagger right through the roof of the beast's mouth, killing it.
Kenzie and Saxon retrieved Lieam from the dead snake and proceeded to cut it open, finding the dead merchant. Lieam was concerned about the merchant's wife until Kenzie revealed the merchant was a traitor. On the way to Barkstone, Kenzie stopped him from revealing too much of what they discovered to Midnight, who was passing by, then urged him to be more discreet.
Once in Barkstone, the trio of guardmice investigated. Lieam bought a piece of apple from a fruit merchant. However, their presence attracted the attention of the Axe Army. While Saxon and Kenzie created a diversion, Lieam slipped away. He discarded his weapon and cloak and entered Clarke's Cartography to gain some intel. Clarke assumed Lieam was a candidate member of the Axe Army and led him to a sleeper cell, where he was suited up with black armour.
Siege of Lockhaven[]
Lieam marched with the Axe Army platoon, which was on its way to join the main force and attack Lockhaven in order to overthrow the Mouse Guard, and noticed the grain merchant's grave. He removed his armour and spear and fought a couple of Axe Army soldiers, but was overpowered and taken to their leader, Midnight, who recognised him. He gave Lieam one chance to join them, but the redfur refused and was bound.
The Axe Army dragged Lieam all the way to Lockhaven, all the while taunting him with threats of death. At one point Midnight told him the Mouse Guard was useless and inefficient, then explained how he learned of the Black Axe's existence and took it from Celanawe. As the siege of Lockhaven began, Midnight presented Lieam before the Guardmice as a bribe for Gwendolyn. When that failed, Lieam was kept to be executed in front of the Matriarch.
A group of Axe Army soldiers dragged Lieam past the gates. As the portcullis closed on two Axe Army mice, Lieam managed to give his captors the slip. He stumbled to the armoury, cut his bonds with a sword blade, then geared up with a longsword and a small dagger. Near the Matriarch's office he was faced by four Axe Army soldiers. He used his weapons to deflect flying arrows, threw the dagger into the heart of one enemy, then killed the remaining three single-handedly.
Lieam ran to the Matriarch's office and joined battle against Midnight's remaining soldiers. After Midnight was defeated, he accompanied his friends and held the traitor at swordpoint, marching him beyond the Scent Border.
Food shortages in the Territories[]
Journey for supplies[]
During the winter of 1152, Lieam climbed a tree to get a better view as his companions Kenzie, Saxon, Sadie and Celanawe travelled across the Mouse Territories during a snowstorm to gain much needed supplies. Their last stop was Sprucetuck. After collecting two bottle of elixir, the guardmice started their journey back to Lockhaven. While Saxon and Sadie followed Kenzie, Lieam followed Celanawe. They were soon stalked by a great horned owl, but Sadie blinded it in one eye.
Kenzie, Sadie and Saxon were separated from the group when they fell down a pit into an abandoned Darkheather tunnel. Lieam and Celanawe were forced to continue without them as the latter reminded him that delivering the elixir was their top priority and taught him a valuable lesson about being himself.
While crossing a stream, Lieam managed to fall into the freezing water. Celanawe helped him get warm by a campfire and dry his soaked cloak. The oldfur thought Lieam made a promising apprentice. With a freezing storm falling heavily on the two, they took shelter by digging a hole in the snow. Celanawe spoke a bit about Midnight's motives for stealing the Black Axe and self-proclaiming the title as well as his own role during the Weasel War.
Showdown with the one-eyed owl[]
The one-eyed owl managed to find the hole they were hiding in and grabbed Celanawe in one of its talons. It snatched the oldfur in its beak by the shoulder plate, before the mouse knocked its beak with the Black Axe. Celanawe, though fluent in owl-speak, was not able to negotiate with the aggressive bird of prey.
The owl made another charge at Celanawe, who drove his axe into its left talon. He told Lieam to run and get the medicine to Lockhaven. Before Celanawe could land a lethal blow on the owl, it got up and clutched him in its bleeding talon, slowly crushing him. Lieam grabbed the owl by one of its tail feathers. While the owl took flight, the redfur climbed up its back and stabbed the back of its head. Lieam tumbled off and was caught by a tree branch, then landed on the ground.
The owl was weakened but still not defeated as was the case for Celanawe, who retrieved his axe and tried once more to talk to the owl. It simply crushed the oldfur in its beak. Furious, Lieam charged and struck the owl beneath the beak and then its leg. He ran for the Black Axe and used it to finally kill the owl with a blow to its skull.
Lieam managed to have a final word with the dying oldfur, who entrusted him to bear his weapon and title of the Black Axe from then on. Lieam tried to make his own way carrying Celanawe's body and an owl feather. He eventually collapsed from the heavy weight, breaking his right arm. He was soon rescued by Saxon and Kenzie, returning him and Celanawe to Lockhaven. Grief-stricken, Lieam wished not to talk with the other guardmice. Lieam attended Celanawe's cremation, a sling around his broken arm, silent throughout the procession.
Becoming the Black Axe[]
At some time during the winter, Lieam suddenly disappeared from Lockhaven. By Spring 1153, he was still missing and Gwendolyn was not able to spare a single Mouse Guard to look for him. She instructed the Guardmice acquainted with him to inquire with towns, all the while staying focused on their main tasks to protect the Mouse Territories. The matriarch felt guilty about not being able to find Lieam and suspected that Kenzie and Saxon seemed to know more than they were telling.
By Summer 1153, Lieam summoned Kenzie and Saxon to a large pine tree south of Lockhaven. He read to them the full story of Celanawe's quest for the Black Axe and the title he took to wield that weapon. He then entrusted them to keep their meeting and his presence secret from other mice, so that he may carry out the work of the Black Axe. He left them his Guard cloak, instructing them to tell the matriarch that this was all they found of him. Lieam then departed to continue his noble work.
Personality and characteristics[]
Lieam joined the Mouse Guard in the Winter of 1149 during the war with the weasels. Just growing into his own, Lieam was thrust into the exciting and dangerous life of being a Guardmouse.
Lieam is a "redfur" as other mice call him. So far, there have been very few other redfurs depicted. One of them is Wyatt.
Gallery[]
