All For A Pearl Of The Sea
It was a happy place, full of mad otters leaping about and dancing, while the young ones played at being warriors. This was Holt Galedeep, a tribe of warriors, though their leader, Finnbarr, was the only one to know the full extent of war.
A mere few were experts in weaponry, while the others had fistfights, tossing each other like a game of catch. Often newborn otter kits would be used as playthings in the aforementioned game and others.
Sometimes the elders, along with Finnbarr, would sail off on the Pearl Queen for a few days, leaving the mothers to look after the mischievous kits.
But all in all, Holt Galedeep was a happy place to be, until the Shalloo and her crew arrived on their shores.
It began with some little otterkits, playing in the shallows. Suddenly they were hanging upside-down by their rudders, each held by a searat. White-faced, the otterbabes screamed, but if they did, a corsair would give them a sharp poke with his cutlass. Only when the elders came running did the rats show emotion. It was fear of the big, brawny otters.
Recklessly the adults attacked, regardless of the fact that they had little weaponry, and no armour.
Finnbarr had one eye gouged out with a spear, and felt the slashes across his face. He watched his comrades die around him, and the final straw came when he saw his tiny son, not a season old, slain by Strapp, the burly captain of the Shalloo. His brother attacked the young otter from behind, but Finnbarr was so maddened by the death of his holt that he didn't feel them. He massacred nearly a score of the rats alone, but finally he was beaten into unconsciousness.
Some hours later, Finnbarr came round, and he wished he hadn't. His whole body was a mass of pain, he was alone, and - and his Pearl Queen was gone.
They massacred a whole holt, just for that ship? Why? Who wondered at vermin
, he thought bitterly. They've got no pity. Even if Pearl Queen was the pride of the ocean.He knew that the ship was all the corsairs had wanted. He vowed there and then that he would give them what they deserved, someday.