Nothing more was ever mentioned about ill-fated Pixie after that. Mina never brought it up, and Camdyn understood. Camdyn went through the hardest lessons she'd ever encountered. It occurred to her that these weren't like school lessons, this was serious business in spite of Mina's frequent jokes. Mina backed up this by announcing abruptly one evening that they were leaving for Port Parides in the morning.
"We've learned all we can here. You need to learn how to live on your feet and off your wits and you can't learn that here." She said. "We've already been here two months."
Camdyn sighed, almost imperceptibly. If it wasn't for Mina's determination to make a pirate out of her, she'd be more than glad to stay here with the Ladies.
"Don't worry. We'll be back at some time. I just don't know when." Mina said, grinning.
"Does everyone get this sort of treatment?" Camdyn asked.
"No. Just the lucky ones. The others have to fend for themselves." Mina said, seriously.
"You never did tell me exactly why you picked me..."
"Well, I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the fact that you tried to get away when everyone else was crying like babies." Mina mused on the subject. "Or maybe it's because you remind me of someone."
Camdyn wondered who. Pixie? That was always a possibility.
"How many people have you done this for anyway?"
"Oh, probably about...eight or nine. Why?"
"I was just wondering who it was I reminded you of."
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me! Come on...please?" the vixen begged with a grin. Mina shook her head.
"Nope. Not gonna do it."
"Then who did you train? I'll see if I can guess."
"Well, there was The Rabbit, then Faite, Randall, Ginny, Diego, Invertego, that's a nickname you know, you already know about the seventh, Carl and then you."
"That's not fair...you didn't tell me who they were."
Mina laughed. You didn't ask 'who are they' you just asked for their names. Well, you've only met three of them, and it's one of those three."
"Who have I met?"
"Well, you've only met Diego good and properly, Invertego and Carl you've seen, but not talked to."
"I still don't know. Who the heck is Diego?"
"Well, I believe you've also met his sisters." Mina was thoroughly enjoying her game.
"Waaaait an minute...Don Karnage?"
"The very same. But I wouldn't go around calling him that. I only get away with it because I taught him everything he knows."
"Not every little thing. Father taught him some too." Sable said as she walked outside carrying a glass of iced tea.
Mina snorted. "Yes, how to try and sweet talk the ladies and that's about it."
"I never said he taught him anything useful." the patchworked wolfess grinned, taking a sip.
"He still doesn't teach anyone anything useful. That wolf is the biggest flirt I've ever met." Mina said.
"Wait...if this guy is your father, he'd be somewhere around..."
"78." Sable supplied. "And still as disturbing as ever."
"Disturbing?"
"He's seventy-eight. And he tries to flirt with Mina shamelessly. While his wife is following him around ready to rip his eyelids off. He is disturbing, yes?"
Camdyn laughed. She couldn't help it. The mental picture of Don Karnage's father following around the girls while being followed by his wife was funny.
"Don't get me wrong though. He's not as bad as he sounds."
"Excepting the part where he danced naked around the beach." Sable said.
"He wasn't naked, Sable. He was wearing his underpants." Roxie said laughing as she caught what was being said.
"He was wearing them on his head! That is being naked to me!"
"What happened that time?" Camdyn asked.
"Oh, he got into some liquor. He can't take the hard stuff, but doesn't listen to anyone."
This was proof enough to Camdyn that no matter how old you got or how fearsome you were, your parents could still embarrass you.
"What about your family?" Sable asked. She had finally started to warm up to the vixen, but they weren't the best of friends.
"Well, my father is a business man. He runs this shipping company and my uncle works for him. He's the uncle I told you about Mina."
"What about your mother? Do you not have one?" Sable asked. Roxie looked at her suspiciously.
"Oh, um...she doesn't live with us. She...lives on an island."
"Why? She does not like your fathers smelly socks?"
"Oh no...it's just, they never got married you see. I lived with her until I was eight, then my father came and got me and said he was giving a good home to a poor wretched child. I hated him for it."
"You do not like your father?"
"Well, he's alright...in his way. He thinks a woman's place is in the home, not wandering abroad. I refused to let him take away my last name so I've still got my mothers. I ran away the first chance I got."
Sable nodded sagely and was quiet. Roxie huffed and walked back inside. Camdyn looked after her, slightly bewildered.
"I am wondering what my brother thought of Carl's information." Sable said after a few minutes.
"If I know him, he'll be plotting world domination." Mina answered.
"Or at least a small part of it." Sable retorted. She got up and went inside. She hadn't made it farther than the kitchen when Roxie accosted her.
"Just who are you gathering information for, Sable?" the gray wolf growled as she washed dishes.
"No one. I was curious." Sable said.
"That's a lie. Who are you sniffing for? Our brother?"
Sable sighed. You couldn't fool Roxie for long. "Yes. Our illustrated brother wants to know a bit more about the vixen. I tried to talk him out of it, but you know how he gets."
"Why's he so interested?"
Sable smiled at Roxie. "I think he is keeping an eye on her. You know, I would almost swear she has something he is wanting."
"Humph. What could she have? All I know is that Mina wants to make a captain out of her."
"Really? She won't make it."
"Why the loss of faith, sis?" Roxie looked at Sable.
"She wouldn't make a good captain. Perhaps a tactician. Definitely a crew member, but not a captain ever. She doesn't have the personality, she can't send people into someplace where they might get hurt." Sable mused.
"Wrong personality, huh? Well, you know more about it than me. Seeing as you used to run around with Diego."
"Hmmm...she could make it. Yes." Sable said distractedly, then laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, just that Mina is a conniving type bear."
------------------------------
The tabby cat sighed again. He hated reporting in to Karnage. You could never tell where his act ended and he began. Therefore it was sometimes hard to tell when he might take a swing at you with that sword. He raised his paw and knocked on the door of Karnage's office. The Den as the tabby preferred to think to himself.
"Yes, yes...come in. What are you, some type of bird which pecks at the wood?" Karnage sounded irritated. As the tabby opened the door he could see why. The wolfs office looked like a hurricane had blown through it. "I will use their stinking hides as throw rugs! I will pickle their insignificant tiny little minds!" he growled to himself as he sorted through the papers and charts. The tabby decided it might be better not to ask what had happened.
"Are you going to stand there all the live long-ed day or are you going to be telling me something to make me happy?"
"Well, I was at Louies a few weeks ago. While I was there I saw The Hunter and that she-hyena he hangs around with and talked to them." he ducked an object that looked decidedly like a rubber chicken and decided not to ask about that either. "They said the usual same old, same old. The Ladies were there too, with your sisters." Karnage winced at this but let the cat continue uninterrupted. Where the Ladies were concerned, trouble wasn't far in coming.
"Well, there was Mina, big as life with some little vixen. Well, Mina says "Let's go out for a joyride." and drags the vixen outside. Well, get this, they stole Johnson's plane."
Karnage's ears flicked at that. "They stole it? They got away?" he asked, distracted for a moment by something shiny under a piece of paper.
"Yes. Got away and Johnson was standing there gawking and screeching like a parrot with it's tail on fire."
"An amusing story...well, have you got anything else? Something I might actually be able to use?"
"I was getting to that, sir. After they stole his plane, he started ranting like a lunatic. He apparently hid some sort of map in the plane, one that tells where he's going to be at any given time. You know, a map to his lairs like. That's the only thing that's kept him alive this long and he knows it."
"The vixen...she has the location of his lair? So. He will change the places he goes." Karnage waved a hand in the air dismissively and continued his search with the other.
"Well, after that the hyena suggested some plans to him, and he decided that he'd search all the ports around until he found the vixen and the plane. So, as far as I know, he's looking to be in Port Parides in a few days."
Karnage stopped searching. "Why did you not tell me this first?" he snapped. Before the cat could answer, a devious gleam reflected in Karnage's eyes. "Perhaps we should plan a little surprise party for him, yes/no?"
Carl gulped. He didn't even want to imagine what the pirates would dream up to do to the bounty hunter. He nodded and left the room, leaving Karnage to his search. No sooner had he closed the door, Karnage found what he was looking for. He tucked his diary into his pocket and, sighing, pondered about making someone clean up this mess.