4
The island of Depollo had been the home of the Splicken for as long as any records had been written. It used to be a beautiful green with no sign of inhabitants anywhere. If you had looked closely enough you might see a cunningly hidden door in some rocky outcrop or a lone hill. The Splicken loved to keep to themselves, never telling anyone where their island was and never allowing anyone to find it.
They were known for their excellent swimming abilities, which they would use in the following manner to discourage ships from coming to their island. They would boat out in a small boat until they were barely in view of an oncoming ship. Then they would swim the rest of the way, without being spotted, to the back of the boat. When there they would add a small piece of wood onto the tiller to make it turn slightly. If they started this far enough away the boat would completely miss their island. The occasional boat made it to the island however, but they would only see the rolling green hills, gray rocky outcrops, and waving forests. The Splicken hadn't been able to do this however when the blood red boats, bearing the morning-star symbol, had been spotted. This was because there were only three of the splicken left, and these were old and gray. At first these three were able to hide, but when the Lord of the ships had decided to make Depollo his permanent home they were quickly found. Two of the three were slain, and the other was thrown into a deep dark dungeon.
* * *
Lord Vokspar stood at his high chamber window. From here he could either look into the parade ground of his castle, or past the castle walls to the north port. From the other side of his room he could look south to the green hills, forest, and gray rock quarry, where he had his slaves gather and cut rocks for his fortress.
The fortress was half finished, the outer walls were done, except for the corner towers, but it was the inside that was being worked on the most now. The building process was slow. At first it had actually gone quite quickly, since the slaves were fresh and fast. But now there were less slaves, and those that were left were broken, and worn out.
"I need some fresh new slaves." He thought to himself. "Young and strong." Vokspar walked to the door and opened it quickly. The startled guard outside jumped to attention, standing as straight as the spear which he held at his side. His burnished metal breast-plate shone in the light.
"Anythin' I kin do for you M'lord?" The guard stammered nervously, looking straight forward. He didn't dare to look into Vokspar's evil eyes.
"Yes. Bring up the captain of the good ship Crymsonblade. I want to have a little chat with him." The guard took off at a quick pace down the hall to the mess. Vokspar re-entered his room and looked at the fearsome weapons lining it. There were numerous sharp swords, heavy maces, and spiked morning stars. He picked up one of the morning stars. Vokspar didn't like them as weapons much. They were heavy and clumsy. They looked quite frightening though. Vokspar much preferred a weapon of his own design that had taken the blacksmith weeks to produce. Vokspar went and picked his special weapon up from a stand on the ground. One might call it a spear, but it really wasn't that. It had the same type of long shaft, but a little shorter. In stead of a spear head there was a longer blade which almost resembled a slightly curved sword. Vokspar whirled the weapon around his body. He called it a naginat Yes this was the weapon for him.
The head Captain, Rapskov, of all of the other captains strode into the room. He was dark, and wore a red tunic, black pantaloons, black leather gauntlets, and a swirling cloak, black on the outside, and red on the inside. A black baldric, with a brass buckle, supported a schiavona, which hung at his side. He drew his schiavona in fine military fashion and saluted.
Vokspar turned around. In a quick motion he had disarmed Rapskov, and was holding the blade of his naginat against his throat. Rapskov's schiavona spun across the room and flew out the window. There was a small clatter from the top of the battlements as Rapskov gulped.
The naginat blade tickled Rapskov's throat as Vokspar spoke. "You should always be on your guard, Captain. You never know who may want you dead." He pulled the naginat blade back and let out a chuckle. "I won't kill ye."
Rapskov had known he wasn't going to be killed. After all, he was the head captain of all the Joule-Scuttlers. "Thank you M'lord. Now, what was it you wanted to see me about?"
"Well as you have probably seen, the fortress is far short of slaves. I need you to thake the Crymsonblade and scout around for more. Look on islands, or on ships. Try to get young ones. Not to young mind you, just young enough to be strong and healthy. That can take a full days work." Vokspar said.
"As you say, Lord. When do you want me back?" Rapskov asked.
"Be back in three weeks. Or until your ship is full of slaves. A good Idea would be to go to the western shores of the continent." Vokspar said. "The Rima aren't very strong there, so you should be able to get a few slaves quite easily."
"Yes master. I'll get the crew ready and be off at once."
Rapskov turned and was almost to the door when Vokspar spoke again. "Oh, and Rapskov, look about for any pirate ships that aren't under the sign of the Joule-Scuttlers. Especially galley ships. Those are usually loaded with galley slaves that also make quite nice buildin' slaves. You can toss the old ones overboard. They wouldn't last a week out here. Just bring the fine strong ones back."
"Yes M'lord." With that Rapskov was out the door and down the stairs to rally his crew. First he went into the mess hall. There he found only a lot of empty tables, and spilt things on the floor. Next he went down another flight of stairs to the barracks. Here he found his first mate, Grimere sitting on a bunk with a flask in one hand and a long sword in the other. He upended the flask onto the blade. Some kind of sticky resin dripped out, which he promptly whiped all over the blade.
Grimere looked up and saw his captain walking towards him. "Ahoy there Cap'n! what brings you into the lowly common barracks?"
"Get yourself all packed and ready to go, Grimere, were shippin' out on his lordship's orders. Goin' to catch us some more slaves to help the buildin'."
"Alright Cap'n." he said. "But the crew aint goin' t' like this. We just got into port yesterday, and got assigned guard duty and what does he do? Says 'Ship out again you lowly worm buckets who aren't worthy to lick the scraps off my table.' I think ol' Vokface is getting' to big fer his boots if you ask me."
Rapskov drew his schiavona and tested it's edge on his thumb. "You'd best watch your tongue, Grimere, one morning you might wake up to find it missing if you keep talking like that when his lordship is around. Or you might just not wake up at all."
"I'll go get the rest o' the crew and tell them we'll be leavin' soon." Grimere put down his sword and walked past Rapskov, towards the door. Rapskov went over to the sword to find out what Grimere had been putting on it. It turned out to be a long burning pine resin from up north. It was a common trick of the Joule-Scuttlers to light their swords on fire. It not only helped to panic the enemy, but also one could thrust his sword into a sail, or deck to light it on fire.
Rapskov and his crew were on the Crymsonblade within two hours, and were ready to sail.
* * *
Cap'n Sholabar and his crew slid over the side of the deck without making a sound. Quietly they all drew their weapons and looked around the deserted deck. They were a crew of about forty, with five remaining on the other boat, so that they could make a fast getaway if need be.
Cap'n Sholabar winked at his crew of cut-throat pirates. "All right boys, here's what we'll do. You ten, go below deck and see what kind o' grub they gots around here. Make sure you take as much as you can. Poison the rest." The ten slipped of to the hatch. "You boys scout around for prisoners, to put down in the galley. Make sure they're strong, but would be easily broken." Sholabar whispered his orders. "Me 'n these fellows will be doin' our work at the back o' the boat just in case the poison don't work. If you get any resistance, kill 'em. Try an' keep it quiet for once in yer stinkin' lives. The last o' you, try an' find some barrels o' oil to spread around the boat. Don't wake anyone up."
The crew of Cap'n Sholabar split up, all going to their assigned tasks. Cap'n Sholabar and his group headed to the back of the boat. Soon they were done with their task and they headed back to the mainmast.
"Cap'n lookit what we found!" one of the pirates said, holding a pair of unconscious captives.
"Not so loud, you blithering dolt!" another whispered. This whole ship is full o' big creatures, both humans and meatures! We should probably get while the gettins good, Cap'n. I was down in the bunk place an' I saw this huge meature, wid an ax the size o' my arm!"
"Aye, Cap'n. We'd best get outta here fast, afore they wakes up!" another agreed.
Cap'n Sholabar agreed and the crew of cut throats left the boat quietly. They took with them as much food and supplies as they could carry from the hold, and the two figures, bound in ropes. As soon as they were gone, the mist settled back into place, and when the sound of oars had gone, there was complete silence.
* * *
Koldo woke up the next morning to find that the rain had stopped, and the clouds had moved away. He climbed out of his comfortable hammock, with it's thick blankets and onto the cool wooden deck. Bing, bong-bing. The breakfast bell tolled out from the deck, muffled by the walls of the captain's cabins. Koldo put on his dark green, baggy shirt, black pantaloons, boots and vest, and then draped his blue cloak around his shoulders to ward off the rain.
Breakfast was good, fresh muffins and toast with honey, all washed down with milk. Koldo sat on a small wooden bench, which was attached to the rails all around the deck. He started to eat a piece of toast as he looked around for Cyfe. "Hey Gykojo, have you seen Cyfe around?" he called to Gykojo. "He's usually first in line at breakfast, especially when we have sourdough toast."
"You put him up in the crows nest with Rukoe, remember." Gykojo called back from across the deck.
"Oh, that's right. Would you climb up there and get them? They probably are asleep from staying up all night."
Gykojo was halfway up the rope ladder when Globespree came from the back of the boat, where the tiller was located. "Koldo, somethins wrong with the tiller. No matter how hard I turn it the boat keeps sailin' willy-nilly."
Gykojo had reached the top of the mast and he called back down to Koldo. "They aint up here, Koldo. They must be runnin' around down there somewhere."
Just then one of the sailors, a meature, who had been sitting next to Koldo, and eating huge amounts of food, toppled onto the deck. A cry rang out from another part of the deck. "Help, Tomen just keeled over! And he ain't movin'!"
Koldo shook the sailor who had fallen next to him. "Smolr! Smolr! Get up!" Leaping to his feat he ran around the deck shouting and knocking food to the ground. "Stop eating! The food's been poisoned!" He really didn't need to say stop eating, since everyone was gathering around bodies on the deck. Members of the crew began dropping like flies, doubling over and falling on the ground.
Koldo felt a slight pain in his stomach, and he ran to the side of the deck. Shoving his fingers in his mouth, he made himself throw up his breakfast. He then collapsed onto the deck, and the calmness of being unconsciousness took away the pain in his stomach.
Koldo struggled to open his eyes. All he could see was a dark brown thing hovering over him. Sitting bolt upright he hit his head against it. It jumped back and Koldo collapsed back onto the hammock, because of the pain in his stomach.
"Watch it there, Koldo. You almost took out me eye with your nose." Koldo recognized Gykojo's voice. His eyes focused to see Gykojo standing next to his bunk. He rubbed his head. "Just lie still now. Lucky for you, you only had a piece of toast. Lucky for me. If you hadn't woken up, it would just be me 'n Warben 'n Globespree."
"What happened to the rest?" Koldo croaked.
"All dead. There was some kind o' poison in the food, and drinks. We had to throw it all out. We also had to jettison the bodies. Gave 'em proper funerals. Now it's only you, me Globespree, an' Warben. I didn't 'ave any breakfast, since you had me look for Cyfe. Neither did Warben of Globespree. Warben was to busy cookin' an Globespree was watchin' the tiller." Gykojo sniffed.
"Where are Cyfe and Rukoe?"
"Don't know. We searched the entire ship, but they weren't there. Must have been taken prisoner by whoever poisoned the food."
"What about Tigoye? Is he gone to?" Koldo asked.
"Yes." Was Gykojo's quiet answer.
"I'm sorry, Gykojo. I know he was your good friend." Koldo comforted Gykojo.
"Just a minute. I'll be right back." Gykojo left the cabin to go outside soon he was back carrying Tigoye's gleaming battle sword. "I know Tigoye wouldn't want this to go to waste, so I'm gonna give it to you. I can't use it, I already got myself a ax. But I noticed that you always just used what was close to hand, so I though you could use this."
Koldo lifted the sword. It had a keen blade, with a black bound handle and red pommel stone. "I'll always remember Tigoye." He said. "He was a good warrior, and a nice fellow to have around." Koldo let out a sigh. "Now, lets get to tracking whoever took Cyfe and Rukoe. It was probably pirates, don't you think?" Koldo started to get out of bed.
Gykojo pushed Koldo back down onto the hammock "Probably. But you'd better stay here for a while, until you are better. Besides, we aren't in any position to go tracking, we have to do all we can to find an island, with food and water. The pirates poisoned all of ours, so we had to throw it over."
"Well, I'd better come and help with that." Koldo persisted, sitting up again.
Gykojo pushed Koldo back down onto the hammock again. "Well there is some more bad news, the dirty pirates busted the rudder, so we can't steer."
"Now that is a problem. But you'd better let me up, there is a lot of work to do. My grandpa always said, if you can't steer with the rudder, then steer some other way. We can figure something out I'm sure." Koldo sat up again.
Gykojo pushed Koldo back down onto the hammock again. "I'll do that. You stay here." Koldo reluctantly stayed in his bunk.
Outside on the deck, Gykojo looked around for ideas to help steer the ship. Globespree walked up, looking down at the ground. "What are y' dooin' Gykojo? Y' look like your lookin' fer somethin'."
"I was just trying to find ideas t' help steer the ship. Do you know of anyway?"
"If I did, Mate, d' you think I'd be sitting here, letting the boat go all over the place? I've been thinkin' and trying to think of a way t' steer."
Gykojo and Globespree paced back and forth on the deck, with their hands clasped behind their backs. Gykojo's tail thumped the wooden deck, making hollow sounds. Try as they might, neither of them could think of a good solution.
"I've got an idea!" Globespree said. "We could drape sheets off the side, and they would pull the boat to that side."
"No that wouldn't work, they'd just float on the top o' the water."
Just then Warben stuck his head out the door of the galley and called them over. "Say boys, d' you think y' could help me with this here table. I want to move it out o' my kitchen, its getting to crowded in there."
Gykojo and Globespree both came over to help. "Now I think if we turn it on it's side, we could push it through the door much easier."
"Sounds good to me. All right now, Warben you get on that side, and Globespree, hold on here." They all took up their positions around the table and lifted. They quickly had the table on it's side. "Now, Warben and I will push, and you pull, Globespree."
Soon the table was outside, on the deck, and all three were sitting at one end of the big thing.
"My I could do with some food." Globespree said, rubbing his stomach. "I haven't eaten since dinner last night."
Warben shook his head. "And it's a good thing that you haven't. If you would've eaten breakfast, there'd only be three on this ship. By the way, Gykojo, how is Koldo?"
"He's awake now, but I told him that he had to stay down in his hammock and rest. He sure didn't want to. Lucky for him he only swallowed a bit of that poison, or he'd have ended up like everyone else."
Globespree changed the subject. "My, this sure is a nice table. What's it made of, oak? It sure is heavy enough."
"Actually it's made of some foreign type o' wood that Koldo an' I picked up down south. It's very strong. We sure had a hard time cutting it and pounding in the nails to make this table." Warben felt the smooth table top. "It's not much use any more. All it does is way the ship down. It's much to big for us four."
"Hey, I just got an idea!" Globespree slapped the table. "We can use my first idea of the sheets, only with this table instead. We can cut it in half, and drape one half over the side and into the water. That would turn us!"
Gykojo frowned. "But wouldn't that still float on the top a little? We need some way of securing it."
Globespree was irrepressible. "Well we could drill holes in both ends, and attach ropes. One rope we'd drape across the ship, an' the other we'd put underneath. Then we could tie 'em nice and tight, to hold the plank steady. Isn't that a great idea?" Globespree beamed.
"All right. Sounds like it might work, lets get to it."
The wood work was quite hard. Globespree bent up an ax and two swords trying to cut the table in half. "Well, I guess we'll just have to leave it like that." He finally said. The next problem was drilling holes in the ends to put the ropes through. Warben tried to burn his way through with a hot metal fire rod, but that didn't work, so Gykojo tried another sword. It bent up to.
"Well, do we have any other long planks on board?" Gykojo finally asked, but he knew that they didn't. "Well I guess there's only one thing to do then. I'm going to get Tigoye's sword. I've never seen it bend or even get scratched."
Gykojo tip toed into the captain's cabin. Koldo was sleeping in his bunk, and the sword was lying below him on the ground. Quietly Gykojo brought it out to the others.
"Here, let me do it. I'm going to go nice and easy, just in case the wood is even stronger than this metal." Gykojo pressed the point of the sword into the wood, and gave it a push. The sword slipped a little way beneath the wood. "Yippee, It's working!" Gykojo said. It took him a half of one hour for him to bore one hole with the razor sharp blade.
Finally the wood was ready. They put one long rope in each side and dropped it over the side. "Wait a minute." Warben said. How in the world are we going to get this piece under the ship?"
"I've already thought o' that, mate." Globespree said. "We'll drape it over the prow and then pull it back."
I am stil Writing More. PLEASE write reviews. I have only gotten one so far fromsomeone I don't know. (Thanks Mariel) It makes me very sad to get no Reviews. I knowIt's not exactly Redwall but I wanted to write it and put it here. Adios
The island of Depollo had been the home of the Splicken for as long as any records had been written. It used to be a beautiful green with no sign of inhabitants anywhere. If you had looked closely enough you might see a cunningly hidden door in some rocky outcrop or a lone hill. The Splicken loved to keep to themselves, never telling anyone where their island was and never allowing anyone to find it.
They were known for their excellent swimming abilities, which they would use in the following manner to discourage ships from coming to their island. They would boat out in a small boat until they were barely in view of an oncoming ship. Then they would swim the rest of the way, without being spotted, to the back of the boat. When there they would add a small piece of wood onto the tiller to make it turn slightly. If they started this far enough away the boat would completely miss their island. The occasional boat made it to the island however, but they would only see the rolling green hills, gray rocky outcrops, and waving forests. The Splicken hadn't been able to do this however when the blood red boats, bearing the morning-star symbol, had been spotted. This was because there were only three of the splicken left, and these were old and gray. At first these three were able to hide, but when the Lord of the ships had decided to make Depollo his permanent home they were quickly found. Two of the three were slain, and the other was thrown into a deep dark dungeon.
* * *
Lord Vokspar stood at his high chamber window. From here he could either look into the parade ground of his castle, or past the castle walls to the north port. From the other side of his room he could look south to the green hills, forest, and gray rock quarry, where he had his slaves gather and cut rocks for his fortress.
The fortress was half finished, the outer walls were done, except for the corner towers, but it was the inside that was being worked on the most now. The building process was slow. At first it had actually gone quite quickly, since the slaves were fresh and fast. But now there were less slaves, and those that were left were broken, and worn out.
"I need some fresh new slaves." He thought to himself. "Young and strong." Vokspar walked to the door and opened it quickly. The startled guard outside jumped to attention, standing as straight as the spear which he held at his side. His burnished metal breast-plate shone in the light.
"Anythin' I kin do for you M'lord?" The guard stammered nervously, looking straight forward. He didn't dare to look into Vokspar's evil eyes.
"Yes. Bring up the captain of the good ship Crymsonblade. I want to have a little chat with him." The guard took off at a quick pace down the hall to the mess. Vokspar re-entered his room and looked at the fearsome weapons lining it. There were numerous sharp swords, heavy maces, and spiked morning stars. He picked up one of the morning stars. Vokspar didn't like them as weapons much. They were heavy and clumsy. They looked quite frightening though. Vokspar much preferred a weapon of his own design that had taken the blacksmith weeks to produce. Vokspar went and picked his special weapon up from a stand on the ground. One might call it a spear, but it really wasn't that. It had the same type of long shaft, but a little shorter. In stead of a spear head there was a longer blade which almost resembled a slightly curved sword. Vokspar whirled the weapon around his body. He called it a naginat Yes this was the weapon for him.
The head Captain, Rapskov, of all of the other captains strode into the room. He was dark, and wore a red tunic, black pantaloons, black leather gauntlets, and a swirling cloak, black on the outside, and red on the inside. A black baldric, with a brass buckle, supported a schiavona, which hung at his side. He drew his schiavona in fine military fashion and saluted.
Vokspar turned around. In a quick motion he had disarmed Rapskov, and was holding the blade of his naginat against his throat. Rapskov's schiavona spun across the room and flew out the window. There was a small clatter from the top of the battlements as Rapskov gulped.
The naginat blade tickled Rapskov's throat as Vokspar spoke. "You should always be on your guard, Captain. You never know who may want you dead." He pulled the naginat blade back and let out a chuckle. "I won't kill ye."
Rapskov had known he wasn't going to be killed. After all, he was the head captain of all the Joule-Scuttlers. "Thank you M'lord. Now, what was it you wanted to see me about?"
"Well as you have probably seen, the fortress is far short of slaves. I need you to thake the Crymsonblade and scout around for more. Look on islands, or on ships. Try to get young ones. Not to young mind you, just young enough to be strong and healthy. That can take a full days work." Vokspar said.
"As you say, Lord. When do you want me back?" Rapskov asked.
"Be back in three weeks. Or until your ship is full of slaves. A good Idea would be to go to the western shores of the continent." Vokspar said. "The Rima aren't very strong there, so you should be able to get a few slaves quite easily."
"Yes master. I'll get the crew ready and be off at once."
Rapskov turned and was almost to the door when Vokspar spoke again. "Oh, and Rapskov, look about for any pirate ships that aren't under the sign of the Joule-Scuttlers. Especially galley ships. Those are usually loaded with galley slaves that also make quite nice buildin' slaves. You can toss the old ones overboard. They wouldn't last a week out here. Just bring the fine strong ones back."
"Yes M'lord." With that Rapskov was out the door and down the stairs to rally his crew. First he went into the mess hall. There he found only a lot of empty tables, and spilt things on the floor. Next he went down another flight of stairs to the barracks. Here he found his first mate, Grimere sitting on a bunk with a flask in one hand and a long sword in the other. He upended the flask onto the blade. Some kind of sticky resin dripped out, which he promptly whiped all over the blade.
Grimere looked up and saw his captain walking towards him. "Ahoy there Cap'n! what brings you into the lowly common barracks?"
"Get yourself all packed and ready to go, Grimere, were shippin' out on his lordship's orders. Goin' to catch us some more slaves to help the buildin'."
"Alright Cap'n." he said. "But the crew aint goin' t' like this. We just got into port yesterday, and got assigned guard duty and what does he do? Says 'Ship out again you lowly worm buckets who aren't worthy to lick the scraps off my table.' I think ol' Vokface is getting' to big fer his boots if you ask me."
Rapskov drew his schiavona and tested it's edge on his thumb. "You'd best watch your tongue, Grimere, one morning you might wake up to find it missing if you keep talking like that when his lordship is around. Or you might just not wake up at all."
"I'll go get the rest o' the crew and tell them we'll be leavin' soon." Grimere put down his sword and walked past Rapskov, towards the door. Rapskov went over to the sword to find out what Grimere had been putting on it. It turned out to be a long burning pine resin from up north. It was a common trick of the Joule-Scuttlers to light their swords on fire. It not only helped to panic the enemy, but also one could thrust his sword into a sail, or deck to light it on fire.
Rapskov and his crew were on the Crymsonblade within two hours, and were ready to sail.
* * *
Cap'n Sholabar and his crew slid over the side of the deck without making a sound. Quietly they all drew their weapons and looked around the deserted deck. They were a crew of about forty, with five remaining on the other boat, so that they could make a fast getaway if need be.
Cap'n Sholabar winked at his crew of cut-throat pirates. "All right boys, here's what we'll do. You ten, go below deck and see what kind o' grub they gots around here. Make sure you take as much as you can. Poison the rest." The ten slipped of to the hatch. "You boys scout around for prisoners, to put down in the galley. Make sure they're strong, but would be easily broken." Sholabar whispered his orders. "Me 'n these fellows will be doin' our work at the back o' the boat just in case the poison don't work. If you get any resistance, kill 'em. Try an' keep it quiet for once in yer stinkin' lives. The last o' you, try an' find some barrels o' oil to spread around the boat. Don't wake anyone up."
The crew of Cap'n Sholabar split up, all going to their assigned tasks. Cap'n Sholabar and his group headed to the back of the boat. Soon they were done with their task and they headed back to the mainmast.
"Cap'n lookit what we found!" one of the pirates said, holding a pair of unconscious captives.
"Not so loud, you blithering dolt!" another whispered. This whole ship is full o' big creatures, both humans and meatures! We should probably get while the gettins good, Cap'n. I was down in the bunk place an' I saw this huge meature, wid an ax the size o' my arm!"
"Aye, Cap'n. We'd best get outta here fast, afore they wakes up!" another agreed.
Cap'n Sholabar agreed and the crew of cut throats left the boat quietly. They took with them as much food and supplies as they could carry from the hold, and the two figures, bound in ropes. As soon as they were gone, the mist settled back into place, and when the sound of oars had gone, there was complete silence.
* * *
Koldo woke up the next morning to find that the rain had stopped, and the clouds had moved away. He climbed out of his comfortable hammock, with it's thick blankets and onto the cool wooden deck. Bing, bong-bing. The breakfast bell tolled out from the deck, muffled by the walls of the captain's cabins. Koldo put on his dark green, baggy shirt, black pantaloons, boots and vest, and then draped his blue cloak around his shoulders to ward off the rain.
Breakfast was good, fresh muffins and toast with honey, all washed down with milk. Koldo sat on a small wooden bench, which was attached to the rails all around the deck. He started to eat a piece of toast as he looked around for Cyfe. "Hey Gykojo, have you seen Cyfe around?" he called to Gykojo. "He's usually first in line at breakfast, especially when we have sourdough toast."
"You put him up in the crows nest with Rukoe, remember." Gykojo called back from across the deck.
"Oh, that's right. Would you climb up there and get them? They probably are asleep from staying up all night."
Gykojo was halfway up the rope ladder when Globespree came from the back of the boat, where the tiller was located. "Koldo, somethins wrong with the tiller. No matter how hard I turn it the boat keeps sailin' willy-nilly."
Gykojo had reached the top of the mast and he called back down to Koldo. "They aint up here, Koldo. They must be runnin' around down there somewhere."
Just then one of the sailors, a meature, who had been sitting next to Koldo, and eating huge amounts of food, toppled onto the deck. A cry rang out from another part of the deck. "Help, Tomen just keeled over! And he ain't movin'!"
Koldo shook the sailor who had fallen next to him. "Smolr! Smolr! Get up!" Leaping to his feat he ran around the deck shouting and knocking food to the ground. "Stop eating! The food's been poisoned!" He really didn't need to say stop eating, since everyone was gathering around bodies on the deck. Members of the crew began dropping like flies, doubling over and falling on the ground.
Koldo felt a slight pain in his stomach, and he ran to the side of the deck. Shoving his fingers in his mouth, he made himself throw up his breakfast. He then collapsed onto the deck, and the calmness of being unconsciousness took away the pain in his stomach.
Koldo struggled to open his eyes. All he could see was a dark brown thing hovering over him. Sitting bolt upright he hit his head against it. It jumped back and Koldo collapsed back onto the hammock, because of the pain in his stomach.
"Watch it there, Koldo. You almost took out me eye with your nose." Koldo recognized Gykojo's voice. His eyes focused to see Gykojo standing next to his bunk. He rubbed his head. "Just lie still now. Lucky for you, you only had a piece of toast. Lucky for me. If you hadn't woken up, it would just be me 'n Warben 'n Globespree."
"What happened to the rest?" Koldo croaked.
"All dead. There was some kind o' poison in the food, and drinks. We had to throw it all out. We also had to jettison the bodies. Gave 'em proper funerals. Now it's only you, me Globespree, an' Warben. I didn't 'ave any breakfast, since you had me look for Cyfe. Neither did Warben of Globespree. Warben was to busy cookin' an Globespree was watchin' the tiller." Gykojo sniffed.
"Where are Cyfe and Rukoe?"
"Don't know. We searched the entire ship, but they weren't there. Must have been taken prisoner by whoever poisoned the food."
"What about Tigoye? Is he gone to?" Koldo asked.
"Yes." Was Gykojo's quiet answer.
"I'm sorry, Gykojo. I know he was your good friend." Koldo comforted Gykojo.
"Just a minute. I'll be right back." Gykojo left the cabin to go outside soon he was back carrying Tigoye's gleaming battle sword. "I know Tigoye wouldn't want this to go to waste, so I'm gonna give it to you. I can't use it, I already got myself a ax. But I noticed that you always just used what was close to hand, so I though you could use this."
Koldo lifted the sword. It had a keen blade, with a black bound handle and red pommel stone. "I'll always remember Tigoye." He said. "He was a good warrior, and a nice fellow to have around." Koldo let out a sigh. "Now, lets get to tracking whoever took Cyfe and Rukoe. It was probably pirates, don't you think?" Koldo started to get out of bed.
Gykojo pushed Koldo back down onto the hammock "Probably. But you'd better stay here for a while, until you are better. Besides, we aren't in any position to go tracking, we have to do all we can to find an island, with food and water. The pirates poisoned all of ours, so we had to throw it over."
"Well, I'd better come and help with that." Koldo persisted, sitting up again.
Gykojo pushed Koldo back down onto the hammock again. "Well there is some more bad news, the dirty pirates busted the rudder, so we can't steer."
"Now that is a problem. But you'd better let me up, there is a lot of work to do. My grandpa always said, if you can't steer with the rudder, then steer some other way. We can figure something out I'm sure." Koldo sat up again.
Gykojo pushed Koldo back down onto the hammock again. "I'll do that. You stay here." Koldo reluctantly stayed in his bunk.
Outside on the deck, Gykojo looked around for ideas to help steer the ship. Globespree walked up, looking down at the ground. "What are y' dooin' Gykojo? Y' look like your lookin' fer somethin'."
"I was just trying to find ideas t' help steer the ship. Do you know of anyway?"
"If I did, Mate, d' you think I'd be sitting here, letting the boat go all over the place? I've been thinkin' and trying to think of a way t' steer."
Gykojo and Globespree paced back and forth on the deck, with their hands clasped behind their backs. Gykojo's tail thumped the wooden deck, making hollow sounds. Try as they might, neither of them could think of a good solution.
"I've got an idea!" Globespree said. "We could drape sheets off the side, and they would pull the boat to that side."
"No that wouldn't work, they'd just float on the top o' the water."
Just then Warben stuck his head out the door of the galley and called them over. "Say boys, d' you think y' could help me with this here table. I want to move it out o' my kitchen, its getting to crowded in there."
Gykojo and Globespree both came over to help. "Now I think if we turn it on it's side, we could push it through the door much easier."
"Sounds good to me. All right now, Warben you get on that side, and Globespree, hold on here." They all took up their positions around the table and lifted. They quickly had the table on it's side. "Now, Warben and I will push, and you pull, Globespree."
Soon the table was outside, on the deck, and all three were sitting at one end of the big thing.
"My I could do with some food." Globespree said, rubbing his stomach. "I haven't eaten since dinner last night."
Warben shook his head. "And it's a good thing that you haven't. If you would've eaten breakfast, there'd only be three on this ship. By the way, Gykojo, how is Koldo?"
"He's awake now, but I told him that he had to stay down in his hammock and rest. He sure didn't want to. Lucky for him he only swallowed a bit of that poison, or he'd have ended up like everyone else."
Globespree changed the subject. "My, this sure is a nice table. What's it made of, oak? It sure is heavy enough."
"Actually it's made of some foreign type o' wood that Koldo an' I picked up down south. It's very strong. We sure had a hard time cutting it and pounding in the nails to make this table." Warben felt the smooth table top. "It's not much use any more. All it does is way the ship down. It's much to big for us four."
"Hey, I just got an idea!" Globespree slapped the table. "We can use my first idea of the sheets, only with this table instead. We can cut it in half, and drape one half over the side and into the water. That would turn us!"
Gykojo frowned. "But wouldn't that still float on the top a little? We need some way of securing it."
Globespree was irrepressible. "Well we could drill holes in both ends, and attach ropes. One rope we'd drape across the ship, an' the other we'd put underneath. Then we could tie 'em nice and tight, to hold the plank steady. Isn't that a great idea?" Globespree beamed.
"All right. Sounds like it might work, lets get to it."
The wood work was quite hard. Globespree bent up an ax and two swords trying to cut the table in half. "Well, I guess we'll just have to leave it like that." He finally said. The next problem was drilling holes in the ends to put the ropes through. Warben tried to burn his way through with a hot metal fire rod, but that didn't work, so Gykojo tried another sword. It bent up to.
"Well, do we have any other long planks on board?" Gykojo finally asked, but he knew that they didn't. "Well I guess there's only one thing to do then. I'm going to get Tigoye's sword. I've never seen it bend or even get scratched."
Gykojo tip toed into the captain's cabin. Koldo was sleeping in his bunk, and the sword was lying below him on the ground. Quietly Gykojo brought it out to the others.
"Here, let me do it. I'm going to go nice and easy, just in case the wood is even stronger than this metal." Gykojo pressed the point of the sword into the wood, and gave it a push. The sword slipped a little way beneath the wood. "Yippee, It's working!" Gykojo said. It took him a half of one hour for him to bore one hole with the razor sharp blade.
Finally the wood was ready. They put one long rope in each side and dropped it over the side. "Wait a minute." Warben said. How in the world are we going to get this piece under the ship?"
"I've already thought o' that, mate." Globespree said. "We'll drape it over the prow and then pull it back."
I am stil Writing More. PLEASE write reviews. I have only gotten one so far fromsomeone I don't know. (Thanks Mariel) It makes me very sad to get no Reviews. I knowIt's not exactly Redwall but I wanted to write it and put it here. Adios