Botaurus

Botaurus is a male great-bittern and slaver who works for Parus the Manipulator. He first appears being summoned by Parus to infiltrate Redwall, which he does. He personally greets Erinaceus Quill and Hedwig, and Abbot Giotto permits him to stay in the abbey, but immediately made an enemy of Freja Furrel. Before a fight could break out, Koga and Alzbeta Grang stop them and Botaurus lays eyes on Freja's father Kav Furrel, whom Parus has met before and told Botaurus to look out for. At dusk, he sneaks off to Saint Ninian's ground where his allies had stationed themselves, and relays to Parus about his encounter with Kav and Freja, with Parus deducing the latter to be the perfect target, then sends Botaurus off to act as in insider for her. Parus arrives in the guise of a circus, and Botaurus catches on tries to persuade the redwallers into letting them in, which they do. After putting on a show they planned, and for the finishing move, Parus douses everyone with sleep powder, knocking out almost everybody, but quickly find they missed Ganner Grang and Zonder Banksnout, who they chose to kidnap, and Telma Furrel and Vakama Foeseeker, who they murdered. Come morning, he helps march the slaves down south.
The next day, they enter a swamp, and Botaurus taunts Freja about being eaten by toads, though she merely responds by lashing out, further fueling their feud. After narrowly escaping a toad-ambush, Parus decides to recruit them incase relatives and friends of the slaves were following, and Botaurus stayed with the slaves. He again tries to taunt her, but fails, though he gets back at her by preventing Whitebelly from feeding her, by tripping him, and he responds by shoving him into the water, he also had his dagger swiped by Russell Swordmaid, who when the slavers weren't looking, broke himself, Zonder, Ganner, Freja and Kasper Thistledown free and they tried to sneak off, though Ganner's sudden cry alerted them. Botaurus believed only Whitebelly would receive Parus' wrath for the mishap, but was quick to realize his dagger was missing, which led some to believe he freed them himself, which he denies. Parus later does find out about their escape, but orders them to come over and recapture, and successfully do so. After the group leave the swamp, Botaurus' assumption that Whitebelly would be in trouble by Parus comes true, as Parus lures Whitebelly back in the swamp and kills him. 
They eventually arrive to the Great Inland Lake, where Parus would bring a boat for them, and Botaurus tries again to break Freja, but Xof Chopsnout repirmands, and since they rarely got along, Botaurus hopes Parus will backstab her. He ends up getting his wish, only Parus wasn't planning to betray just Xof, but all of them, and took advantage of their feud to pit them against each other. The next morning, Parus leaves with the slaves to Castle Marl, and sure enough, Botaurus assumes it was because Xof was planning to backstab first, while she believes he would. They get caught by the pursuing woodlanders and lose Brownarm and Spearbeak to them, while Botaurus himself, Xof and Fuzzface were taken prisoner. The woodlanders intended to use them as bargaining-chips or maybe human-shields, but this was foiled by a Brancasaurus devouring all three slavers.
==Appearance==
He wears a yellow-cloak, a belt with a Dagger and orange-tunic.
==Trivia==
*Botaurus' name is a also the genus name for the Eurasian bittern, Botaurus stellaris.
*He is not to be confused for Botarus of The Taggerung.
Category:Males
Category:Birds
Category:Slavers
Category:Parus Rides Again characters
Category:Casualties