I'll be going away for a few days thus be quite preoccupied, so here's a gian chapter. Only one person is reading this XD

Enjoy.

Going Under

Chapter 4: Ice Price Slice

The lightning and thunder danced above their heads. Clementine gripped the roots the best she could possibly muster, as the rain poured down. The darkness had fallen, but she knew it wasn't night. She could handle the night, not this.

She remembered the terror she'd felt during the crumbling of the continent, and it was back. She could barely hold onto the roots much longer, she was shaking that bad and her chest heaving so much.

This isn't going to work. We're not going to make it.

"Hold onph!" Kurues cried, though it was hard for him. He was holding onto another vine-like root with his teeth, pulling at it- standing on her left. They were doing the best they could to keep the ship doing the way they wished. The armadillo, who had still not told them his name, and done something he wouldn't explain. But whatever it was, it made the ship move in the way they wished...somewhat.

The basics where that a steering bar had been stuck at one end of the ship, the bulkiest, while the pointed end was opposite it. The armadillo had even hacked off some ice to make it more pointier. Clementine and the others found themselves doing what he said, though Kurues liked undermining some of the more confusing ones.

"We 'eed to stay in the middleph of the iceberg, or 'e'll fall off!" He called, holding onto the root. The root that he held in his mouth was tied to the steering bar, another being held by Clementine and the armadillo to balance it out. It was the only way to control it, as the people with paws able to grasp it weren't strong enough to do it on their own. And...Kurues had no hands.

"We have to get out of the storm!" The armadillo bellowed back over the sound of waves hitting the sides of their ship, "Otherwise we WILL fall off!"

"I don't think this ship's goin' where ya want it, Arma-dude!" Maut called, gripping the tree with all she had to avoid being flung off. Glett was holding onto the tree with his teeth like Kurues was the root, only it looked even less comfortable.

Clementine coughed, the salty water stinging her eyes. "Stop arguing! "

The armadillo rolled his eyes, tugging on the root, "It's your antlered pain-in-the rear friend who won't follow my movements!"

"The ship's be-ing pulled by the current, no' us!" Kurues said through his teeth.

Snap.

The roots snapped, and the wooden rod embedded in the ice broke with it. The long roots whipped back, slapping into Kurues and the armadillo- Kurues stumbled, but the armadillo suffered worse. Clementine's mouth gaped as she saw him fly off the back of the ship- and disappear into the dark, trembling waves. She knelt there, for a second, three seconds- and saw him lurch out from under the surface, gasping. His leg was still injured...he wouldn't make it.

"Clementine!"

Clementine found herself flying. No, not flying. Falling right into the water, slapping into the cold and her air being cut off. She barely had time to hold her breath, and kicked upwards instantly.

I'm insane, I'm insane, But I need to get to him...

Clementine swam as much as her sore body would allow. She kicked and clawed at the water, trying to find him- then her paw came into contact with something hard. Probably his head.

She seized his shoulder, and began struggling back...but all of her energy had been used up getting to him. She gasped, going under, then resurfaced, spitting out cold water. The armadillo had clearly hit his head going over, his groggy eyes looked at her as if he'd never seen her.

Something clamped onto her ear and she squeaked. It was Maut, Maut with her wing still broken and her face contorted in a scowl of effort. Her feet and good wing where clinging to Clementine's ear, and around her stomach Clementine saw the root...

She raised her head. The two long roots had been tied together, then to Maut, and she'd used herself as a living hook to reel them in. Glett and Kurues used their teeth to hold onto it, tugging.

Clementine breathed out, feeling an odd warmth inside her as she and the armadillo where tugged back to the ship by her ear. She ignored the pain, and with her free paw she grasped the side of the ship to pull herself back up. They dragged the armadillo back on with her.

A few moments passed. They gasped and heaved, nothing but raspy breathes filling the air. Clementine turned her head where she lay to look at the armadillo, his eyes foggy but awake again, as he looked back. On his knees, he spoke in a husky, blank voice.

"Why would you save me...?" He asked, his tone almost bitter. Clementine breathed in.

"...You helped us...didn't you...?" The rabbit coughed a little. She rested her head against the solid ice, and felt something lean against her head.

"Hey. Hey. Where's my Thank ya?"

The sassy remark was far too energetic for Clementine, but she opened her eyes. Maut grinned down at her, clearly exhausted, but grinning all the same. Clementine couldn't help but feel her own smile flicker.

"...Th-thanks...that was pretty crazy."

"Giiiirl, Crazy's the new thing. And you can talk, you just looked like ya wanted to win a diving into stormy sea competition..." She leaned on her head, breathing out through her chortles.

The armadillo had stood once more, limping to the side of the ship and peering at the water. Clementine and the others watched him. Slowly, he raised his head, and sighed.

"...Name's Argeth." He muttered, head turned a little to them. His voice was quiet, almost a mumble.

Clementine supposed that was 'thank you' in his own way.

Crack.

Argeth's eyes had frozen on the berg. Not because of the lightning, but when the light flashed, bathing them in brightness, he'd seen something on the ground, a distinctive shape. His head jerked up suddenly, so suddenly that everyone else looked, too.

A gull was flying above them, now that the rain had cleared. It circled back and flew off just as they looked up.

"...A bird? This far out?" Maut mumbled quietly, watching him go. Argeth's eyes where wide and hard.

"He was watching us..."

Kurues stiffened. "...A scout?"

"Sc-cout...?" Clementine whispered. They sat there, the ship waving from side to side on the trembling waves. She could smell dampness. Argeth slowly bent, and scooped up one of the spears they'd made.

Clementine and Maut, lying where they were, stared in the direction the bird had gone. He'd vanished into a deep mist, a fog drifting not too far from here. It would engulf them soon.

Kurues swallowed. "...Argeth...do you think?"

"I know..." Argeth muttered quietly. "...We can't outrun them."

Clementine turned her head to look at him. The silence was so heavy, so thick, she could almost feel it on her whiskers. She lifted her floppy ears, and listened.

A soft clicking noise...

clamp.

A skull landed in front of her; bone cleaned off by sand and constant wave battering, but still stained with something red-brown within its cracks. She squealed, recoiling and scrambling back. Another skull, large and sharp-toothed, hit another part of their ship.

Argeth stumbled forward and began hacking at the vine attached to the skull, huffing. Kurues went to the other, trying to pry off the skull with his antlers, but neither attempt worked.

"...They're going to reel us in." Clementine whispered. Her breaths quickened.

Argeth snarled and stepped back, breathing in, "All right, this is gonna get messy..."

"We're gonna fight?" Maut yelped frombeside Clementine's ear. She'd settled herself on her shoulder. Clementine's knees trembled.

"Looks like it." Argeth said, eyebrows raised simply. Glett gave a fierce sneer, holding a pointed stick in between his teeth. Clementine blinked at him. That wasn't much...

The burg they stood on gave a sudden jerk, and sent them stumbling. Clementine's ears flew up.

Laughter. Whispers.

"There's animals...I can hear them...!" She whispered. Kurues stared ahead at the fog,

"What're they saying...?" He whispered back. Clementine's ears strained.

"Laughter..."

A sharp, ice-made point drew from the fog, it first as small as her paw, then growing more clear. It was attached to a much bigger, pointed block, very, very high up. A giant iceberg in the shape of their own ship, slid from the fog, towering above them like a mountain. In the mist and the dim, stormy light, Clementine saw it as frightening as a live monster.

The lightning flashed once more, and her eyes fluttered. But she'd seen the outlines of various uneven shapes, looking down at them. Figures.

The clamps tugged them closer and they hit against the side of the giant ship, and Clementine and Maut found themselves clinging to each other, Maut's eyes wide and head lent back in what would otherwise comical look, if this hadn't been the situation.

Then, those figures leaped into view, along the sides of the ship above, leering down at them. Clementine saw a kangaroo with raggedy fur meet her eye, but looked away when she smirked; then a boar, a badger with a snide grin, a tiger-

A tiger.

Her heart sprung and the group tensed. A predator- they could be the next meal...

Clementine heard Argeth growl and saw what he saw: The gull from before, who had clearly pointed them out. He was smiling down at them in the slimiest way possible, and Clementine felt a rare spark of hate flutter in her chest.

"Look at all the fluffy people!" A jubilant voice exclaimed. Maut gave a loud 'eh?' sound, peering up at an elephant wale that was peering back as if they were a bunch of pretty flowers. The rest, however, looked hungry, and very, very excited.

"The elk." The kangaroo hissed to the Tiger- Clementine's ears sprang up when hearing it. Kurues hadn't heard it, but now the two female pirates where eyeing him, the largest member of their little gang.

Kurues retained his stiff posture, though wariness flickered in his auburn eyes. Clementine admired his courage, she was trembling uncontrollably. The two groups stood staring at each other, studying, for what felt like decades of having pirates eye you up as if you where pieces of meat or fruit rather than living beings. Targets. Clementine felt sick, feeling exposed.

Something else suddenly jumped into view, up on the ice railing of the ship high above them. Clementine's mind reeled. She would have thought it was some kind of rabid weasel or something, but despite the ragged fur and conniving expression she saw it was, in fact...a rabbit. She'd never seen a rabbit with such a look, maddened.

He was a buck, grey and with ruffled sea-beaten fur, and ears that where wonky and crooked, much like his face, that seemed to be bulled in a permanent squint. Crooked was the best way to describe all of their looks, but he seemed to be doing his best to out-crook them all.

And she'd surely not seen another rabbit with a knife. He was twirling it in his paw, looking over all of their group like a hyper child who had found delicious sweats, wondering which one to pick off first. He glanced over them all quickly, and cackled at them, until his eyes landed on her.

Clementine felt her breathing stop as he seemed to pause in his accelerated study of their prey. He seemed surprised, perhaps forgetting what a normal rabbit looked like, or perhaps just forgetting what things like 'small, quiet and timid' meant when being a pirate, everything was opposite that.

Then, he gave a crooked smile and spun his blade in his hand, "I get this one."

What?!

Argeth stepped in front of her. Clementine's view of the rabbit, and he her, was blocked by his head and shoulders. Argeth said nothing, but his sneer was enough. The buck blinked.

The pirates gave a stifled sort of snort, perhaps laughter mixed with something else. Clementine saw the kangaroo roll her eyes, shaking her head whilst doing it. "Cut it, Squint, before Shira tells ya off again."

Suddenly the buck in question was pushed out the way, and out of sight, by the paw of the Saber-toothed tiger. She had not cackled, grinned or sneered, but retained a dignified posture- much like Kurues, but without being nervous.

"Wait for the Captain's orders."

"Captian...?" Kurues murmured, quietly. Argeth looked further up, straining his neck. Clementine followed his eyes.

"Ahoy, down there..."

A loud, sturdy voice called to them through the fog. Above, in the branches of the trees embedded in the pirate ship, was the bulky outline of a very, very large creature. Not bigger than the seal, but clearly more formidable. Clementine stared. Large shoulders, hanging from branches.

...A giant ape.

The ape swung with strange agility for such a large body, along the branches. "You know, they say these parts are filled with pirates...you're probably relieved knowing you ran into us instead!"

The oily tone wasn't hard to miss. The group, sans Argeth of course, cringed.

The ape swung into view. Big, and with thick hair that fell over his chin in a beard and stood up on his head like a kind of hat. He landed with a grunt onto the large branch sticking out from the side of the berg, and the group saw a pair of sharp, lengthy claws stretching from his strong fingers. He slid on a pleasant smile and held one of those hands out to them, almost as if offering help. They drew back, even if it was too far for the claws to reach them.

"Captain Gutt, At your Service."

Clementine couldn't place it, but there was just something so unsettling about his tone.

Kurues swallowed, and lifted a hoof and placed it back down, perhaps trying to managed a firm action, but deciding better. "...All right. I'm Kurues, we're just trying to find land. We don't want any kind of hostility, or confrontation of any manner."

What did 'e say?" The elephant seal mumbled. Gutt snorted, leaning back against the side of his ship, "Well! It seems we've got a bit of a smarty in our midst!" He gestured to the side with his elbow, as if nudging, and the pirates fell into a fit of mean-spirited cackles. Kurues looked affronted.

"Smarts can be useful if they don't end at your vocab, Hoof boy." The ape said, admiring his own claws, though his eyes appeared to be set on the elk, and his large antlers, "What else you got to make me take you seriously?"

"How about a brain."

Argeth's voice, sharp, sturdy and as sarcastic as can be, rang out through the air. The pirates stopped their chortles and the surviving group went still. The ape chuckled, not yet having looked to the armadillo, fiddling with his claws.

"You got nerves...I like that." He turned his head then, grinning lazily...then his eyes opened wider, and his smile faded slowly. The giant ape had gone still, too, gaze locked with the armadillo below.

Argeth bore his teeth in a snarl, gripping the sharp branch in his hands all the tighter. The ape stood, no longer lounging, and sneering back, bearing a set of large uneven teeth. Clementine's eyes widened.

The chatter game was over.

"You won't be getting back to your continent. Because you know what? You and your ship belongs to me." Through his fury, that was clear on his face, the primate smirked down at them and the pirates seemed to lean in.

He leaped from the side of the ship and onto the branch, swinging up on top of it- and raised his long arm,

"Battle stations! Bring their ship down!"

"ARGH!"

Kurues turned, "Quick! Take cover!"

Clementine squealed and turned to move back, away from the giant ship as much as possible, when something hit it like a bolt of lightning. The ground beneath the group jolted, knocking them off their feet. A large ball of ice had been thrown down on them- and more where coming.

"Look out!"

Kurues's yelp was enough to make Clementine and Maut leap from where they stood- and another block of ice hit the spot, sending a cracking sound ringing through the air.

Clementine, with the bat clinging to her ear, leaped to her feet and let her panicked instincts take over, sprinting off to avoid being hit.

A dagger was thrown through the air, and Argeth leaped, hitting it aside with his spear and spinning through the air. Maut gave an admiring whoop,

"Go Argy, you the man, Go Argy!"

Kurues had seen the dagger, and his eyes widened, "The dagger! Cut the vines!"

Clementine turned her head, and saw it lying nearby. Her nerves making her tremble, she ran towards it, on all fours, whipping past the blocks of ice being thrown at them from above.

A unison of growls came from above. The pirates had swung down from vines, and landed on their small ship. The kangeroo landed in a low crouch, wielding a spear made of wood and a sharpened shell. She slammed it down in front of Clementine, blocking her path,

"Ain't no way you're escaping, Quick Legs." She jeered, jabbing at her with the pointed weapon. Clementine staggered back, squeaking. Maut hissed at the tall marsupial,

"Get outa the way!"

Whack.

Clementine stared, horrified. Maut had been hit away from her shoulder with the spear, and she saw her black, small form fly from her shoulder and land somewhere out of sight.

A roar made her stomach leap- just like Kurues, who had jumped into her line of sight, grounding his hooves into the ice as he faced the sabre. The pale-furred tiger gave the faintest of smirks, and lowered her body as if to pounce.

Kurues charged, antlers at the ready. The tiger leaped out of the way and sank her teeth into the nape of his neck. Clementine found herself screaming, seeing the teeth pierce his tidy fur. Kurues was not finished. He turned his body and hit the tiger onto the ground, the hit being enough to make her let go. She clearly hadn't expected him putting up a fight.

Then, out of the blue, Glett came charging, or rather sliding, along the ice, his sturdy shell hitting the feline's side when she tried to get up. Clementine turned her head away, her mind razing.

Find the knife, cut he vines.

Clementine raced under the kangeroo's large feet- she had been distracted by Kurues fighting the tiger, and made for the knife. Argeth was tussling with the badger, blocking his dagger swipes.

"Ha-ha-ha!"

The buck whipped in front of Clementine.

The doe stepped back, her breathing having halted. Her eyes widened. The male rabbit only seemed provoked by this, his insane grin widening all the more, "You're a pretty fast runner, Girly...I like that."

He gave his wrist a flick, and he was then holding a whole batch of sharp shells, blades and stones. He held them like one would a fan. Clementine screamed out loud and turned, sprinting away. She heard the sharp objects hitting the ice just where her ankle had been, and following. She leaped to the side to avoid the rest, but he jumped back in front of her, blocking her path. She turned again, only to have him repeat it. He got closer every time, and the third time he leaped at her instead of just blocking her way.

Clementine felt herself being slammed onto the ground. Her mind in a frenzy, she kicked to try and get the pirate off her, his knife held too close to her face. "HELP ME! Argeth!"

The other rabbit had pinned her to the ground, she being too weak to fight him off, and he grabbed her ear and held his knife under her neck. Clementine reached with a trembling paw, to just anyone at all.

She saw Argeth, kicking away the badger at last, and how his eyes widened upon seeing her. He raced forward, sharpened branch held up.

The tiger leaped in front of him, and swiped. Argeth's face was hit, and he fell face-down, limp. Kurues yelled and Clementine found she could not longer breath. She coughed, her chest aching with effort after all the running.

Kurues was bleeding from the back of the neck, and panting, surrounded by the blades of the seal, the kangaroo. Glett was at his side, facing the point of the badger's blade. Maut lay unconscious nearby, like a dark rag against the ice.

"Not fast enough, girly..." The buck said slowly from above. She felt her head flop against the ice, exhausted, and defeated. She didn't look over her shoulder at him, his blade now twirling in his hat, his grip on her ear still tight.

The last thing she remembered was Kurues giving a yelp of pain, and the ape laughing raucously from above.