A ferret, the corsair Captain of the ship Bloodlust, stared back at the land he had just left. The southern lands of plenty, full of woodlanders long gone soft. Turning around, the evil-looking ferret turned to look at what remained of his fleet. At the moment, he had only half of a score ships under his command, including his own. Missing was one of his shore-raiders, the Poison Terror. The ferret left his perch and descended the steps down to the main deck, where his first mate, Darksnout, was yelling orders at his crew.
"Move yer lazy fat bottoms, ye deckswabs! Da Captain wants te reach da Resupply Island by nightfall, so 'urry up!"
"Darksnout, into my cabin immediately," the ferret said, making for the stairs that lead to the upper levels. The searat hurried to comply, though not before sending one last glare at the deck crew.
Once they had climbed a small flight of steps, which led to the Captain's cabin, situated just above the poop. After they had entered, the warlike ferret, dressed in full armour with a flowing black cape with red trim, removed his helmet and placed on the rack next to his desk.
"Darksnout, do you we have enough slaves to man all of the oars on board this ship and the others?" he asked, placing his adderskin gloved paws onto the table. The searat grinned, relieved that he could offer good news to his Captain.
"Aye, Captain Socca. I just received word from Captain Skullthief that 'e's filled all of the oarslots for every ship. The problem is, now his cells are full to the brim after ye took all of the Southswardians that ye could find."
"Stop calling me Captain!" Socca roared unexpectedly. "I will not be referred to as the same rank as my underlings. I killed the king of Southsward, which earns me the right to be king!"
Darksnout shrunk under his leader's harsh gaze. The ferret was terrifying sight, his silver burnished breastplate, trimmed with gold accentuated his black and white fur. His bright white fangs, stained red from the earlier battle, were bared, frightening Darksnout half to death. He had expected his Captain, now King, to be pleased withn the news. Instead, Darksnout's easy manner had backfired right onto him.
"S-sir, h-how about K-King Socca, Slayer of K-Kings?"
As suddenly as it had gone to anger, Socca's mood changed to content. Laughing heartily, the newly named king slapped the searat on the back, nearly sending him sprawling. "Hahaha! King Socca Kingslayer! I like that!"
"B-but sir, I said Socca, Slayer of Kings, not-"
Still laughing, Socca's face turned serious. "Yes, you did. But you are a dimwitted fool, and I am King of the Seas, Southsward, and many other untold lands! Who do you think has better ideas, you, my friend, or me?"
Not wanting to be fishbait, Darksnout stammered out the answer he thought best. He was right. "Y-ye are, me lord."
"You're correct," Darksnout could hardly contain his relief at the answer. "Now go and get my bosun. I need him."
"Yas, King Socca," the unusually tattooless searat responded.
"Oh, and one more thing."
"Yas, me Lord?"
"Go get some tattoos, will you? It's hard for the crew to respect a mate who doesn't even have the guts to get tattooed."
"Y-yas, me Lord," the rat answered, shaking visibly at the thought of the ship's cruel tattooist accessing his body.
Several minutes later, a different searat walked in. The Bloodlust's bosun was one of the shortest, and fattest, rats that most had ever seen. the only reason that Socca kept him around was because he always had the equipment in order and kept the food stocks safe from the crewmembers greedy nature, though more than a few morsels had mysteriously disappeared while he was on duty. Wormbelly, for so he was called, had been demoted several times for his thefts, the only reason his punishments weren't more severe was for all of his past services. Of course, he was always reappointed when the new bosun proved himself incompetent.
"Ye wanted me, Captain?" he said, about to sit on the chair facing Socca.
"ENOUGH!" Socca roared, scaring Wormbelly so bad that he almost fled right then and there. "I will not be called Captain any longer. The commanders of my ships are called Captains. I will not be the same! Oh, and you'll stand."
Wormbelly cringed. "W-wot would ye have me do, sir?" he asked, his oversized belly wobbling with each stammered word. He backed up slightly, not wanting to be within reaching distance of the King if he couldn't sit.
Socca dismissed him with a wave of his gloved paws. "We will discuss that later. It enough for now that you call me 'Lord' or 'King'. Not 'King Socca', though that fool mate of mine already called me that. And certainly not 'Captain'. I will not have that, not anymore. At any rate, do we have a good stock of food supply?"
Wormbelly brightened immediately at the mention of food. "Yes Cap'n-er, I mean, yer Lordship. We have enough to feed yer entire fleet tenfold!"
"What about the slaves?"
Wormbelly grinned nastily. "As long as weh kep 'em starved nice 'an good weh should be fine."
"If we fed the slaves well, would we still have plenty of food?"
Wormbelly's face drooped. "Why would weh wanna give da slaves plenty a food?"
"Just answer my question, Wormbelly."
"Yas sir, of course weh do, sir."
"But of course we'll keep that food for ourselves, won't we?"
Wormbelly's grin returned. "Of course, sir. Of course."
"Good. I like beasts who understand. Now, I need you to make an announcement," Socca said, drawing an evil-looking dagger with a red bound hilt and started to draw lines on the desk.
Wormbelly gulped audibly at the sight of the knife. "Uh, w-wot would ye like m-meh to make an anoun'ment about, K-King?"
"Oh, you know, just about how I will-" suddenly, the huge ferret's tone grew more menacing. "-No longer tolerate being called Captain!"
"B-but don't d-dey already kn-know that, s-sir?"
Socca leapt up and threw the dagger. It had so much force behind it that it snagged Wormbelly's jacket and pinned him to the wall. Socca drew a dagger identical to the one holding Wormbelly in place and placed it on his throat. "Of course they don't," he said, his voice deceptively calm.
"T-they don't?" Wormbelly asked, quaking with fear. The wallboards began to creak from holding up his weight.
"Of course not!" Socca roared. "Only you and that fool mate of mine know! Do you think I've called every beast in my fleet here to tell them that? No! The only reason you know before everyone else is because you are being given the honour of making the announcement!" Taking Wormbelly completely by surprise, Socca suddenly took his daggers and placed them into his belt, dropping Wormbelly to the floor, where he lay shaking. "I'm surrounded by idiots, yet my army is the most powerful of all these waters! Does that not show you who I am? What I can do?"
Wormbelly had recovered enough that he could stand up. "I-I'll r-round up da crew, sir."
"Please do. But don't forget to call for me when you're about to start."
"Y-yas sir."
A few days earlier...
Captain Moonfur was in a high bad temper. He and the crew of the Poison Terror, his ship, had been sent by Captain Socca to scout out a new stronghold to capture. So far, they had found nothing.
"Stir yer stumps, ye useless pieces of crabmeat. Weh need teh find somethin' useful afore we return tah the rest o' the fleet'" he said to the portion of the crew that was with him. he had left the others back at his ship under the command of his first mate, which would've been a bad decision if the mate was not just as terrified of Socca as everyone else. No one would dare returning empty-pawed to him.
"Ah, but we just woke up, Cap'n. Why'd we 'ave to leave so early?" a searat by the name of Karlost asked.
"'Cause I'd rather be back wit da rest o' da crew eatin' good stuff instead o' this narsty stuff," the almost completely white ferret answered, flicking a withered berry at Karlost. He swished his black diamond patterned tail irately at the crew's sluggishness.
Soon after, the crew was up and moving. Moonfur sent Karlost off with half of the crew to go scouting, while he went the other way.
"Oh, Karlost?"
"Yas, sir?"
"Don't go too far West. We don't wanna run inta that mountain."
"Yas sir."
A few hours later, Captain Moonfur and his party were deep in Mossflower, lost, and Moonfur's temper had only increased. He was hitting his men left and right, berating them for the smallest things.
"Hey, Hairpaw, get outa that bush!"
"But sir, I'm-"
"I don't care!" Moonfur screamed, spittle flying from his mouth. "I wanna get home. So let's 'urry up and wrap this up!"
A few moments later, Karlost came running towards Moonfur.
"Sir, we found somethin'!"
"Well, don't jest stand thar like a fool, tell meh wot ye found!"
"It was a little hut sir, and it looked inhabited!"
Immediately, Moonfur's band set off, following Karlost to where he had left his party. Pushing through dense woods, Moonfur was getting even angrier. Stupid branches and leaves were getting everywhere, and now he was covered in scratches.
"Ye better know where yere goin', Karlost," he said.
"I do, I do. It's just up here."
A few moments later, they found Karlost's band, all sitting around looking bored. Moonfur realized that he must've gotten himself so lost that he had circled back to where Karlost had been. But he was not about to et anyone know that.
"Alright, men. We're a goin' ta wait 'til tha inhabitants o' this place show up, then we're goin' ta jump 'em. Un'erstood?"
"Yas sir."
"Right then. Everyone, bundle up. Hairpaw, you've got first watch."
Everyone began to settle down, lying down for a bit of rest. Other than Hairpaw, who was muttering rebelliously.
"Huh, 'Hairpaw, you've got first watch. Hairpaw do this, Hairpaw, do that.' Well I'm done with that. Mebbe I can convince some of the others to come with me. Huh, that 'Cap'n' of ours is just lyin' there, sleepin'. Bet I could do the same," and with that, Hairpaw lie down to rest. Moonfur cracked open an eye, making sure that Hairbelly was properly asleep before rising. Captain Moonfur might've been short of temper, but he wasn't stupid. Hairpaw had been his punching bag for a long time, he had known that this had been payed, they always did eventually. maybe not immediately, but eventually.
Moonfur watched over the camp they were watching, examining every detail. By the looks of it, it was a shrew camp, though they didn't look like one of the large tribe's that usually travelled the Mossflower streams. Good. Loners were easy to capture. Captain Moonfur leaned against a tree, thinking thoughts of revenge.
A few hours later, just as it was getting dark, what looked like two small families of shrews arrived at their camp. Moonfur smiled in anticipation. There was only women and children; the men must still be out in the forest. Moonfur shook his men awake, telling them to keep quiet He motioned for Korlast to take half and circle to the other side. It probably wasn't necessary, but Moonfur didn't want to take any chances. Quietly, Moonfur crept as close to the huts as possible.
"Tibberinna, dear, please don't bug your brother. Oh, Farl, please stop jumping around, you're going to get all energetic before bed," suddenly, the mother shrew spotted Moonfur creeping towards her. She screamed. "Ahhhhhhh! Heeeeeeeeelp!" Acting fast, Moonfur tackled her to the ground, smashing her head into a pole, silencing her effectively. The rest of his crew followed his lead, gagging or knocking out the rest. Moonfur spotted Hairpaw standing aside from the rest, sucking one of his paws.
"Hey, Hairpaw, wot 'appened?"
Hairpaw scowled at his Captain. "That little tyke bit me," he mumbled past his hurt paw, kicking out at the little Farl.
Moonfur smirked at Hairpaw's complaint. "Mebbe that's 'cause you were too sluggish from yer sleep on watch," he said amidst the laughter of the rest of the crew. Hairpaw's face went red in shame.
Suddenly, Moonfur' turned serious. "Karlost, get that 'un talking" he said, pointing at the shrew mother that he hadn't knocked out.
Karlost obeyed, pulling out a rusty cutlass and walking over to one of the other little shrews. "I'm guessing he's yours." he said, pushing the rusty cutlass point into the babe's neck.
The shrew mother nodded frantically, motioning at Moonfur to remove her gag. Moonfur walked over to her, but before he removed it, he pointed at the little shrew, "One false move, and that 'un's dead," he said.
She nodded and he removed her gag. "Alright, little mousey, d'ye know of any fortress thing 'round her that weh can capture?" Karlost asked. Moonfur was furious that Karlsot had revealed Socca's plan, but he kept silent. As long as that shrew was kept under guard, they'd be fine.
"Y-yes sir. There's an abbey near here, proper fortress. You could take that."
Moonfur nodded, satisfied. "Right. Karlost, you take a little band of fighters and raob some travellers, so we can bring somethin' extra back to Cap'n Socca. I'll take the rest back teh the ship so weh ca notify Socca of our findings. We'll take these shrews with us, they might prove useful."
As the crew nodded in understanding, the shrew mother groaned with despair. Karlost lifted his blade and whacked the shrew in the face, and everything went dark for the shrew.
THE VERMIN HAVE ARRIVED! They're here! Now, to business. Because of my plot idea, I've had to change a few things. This is no longer a backstory of any kind, it's more of a sequel. Jack the Lucky, for example, is a descendant of Jack-Is-Lucky, though he inherited many traits. Not too far of a descendant, mind you, I believe just two generations. Jack-Is-Lucky is Jack the Lucky's grandfather. There will be others, some of which you may have already guessed. That's all, I will update soon!
