Viand Blacktooth looked out over the beach and surrounding dunes with
not one whit of thought to beauty or thoughts of nature. He was doing what
he almost always did-thinking. If you didn't think, you got careless. If
you got careless, you made mistakes. If you made mistakes, you died. He'd
sent hundreds of his enemies to the grave that way, because he didn't make
mistakes. If he did, these were instantly corrected and learned from. The
last time he had wanted to do a pirate enemy of his in, he had ambushed his
ship while his crew celebrated on shore, using the sound of a windy night
and thus larger waves as cover for putting his beasts in position. The
last thing he needed was for someone to pull the same trick on him.
Satisfied that there were no attackers moving about the dunes, Viand
turned his attention to what part of the deck he could see from his private
quarters. Sentries were neatly spread out and at attention-wait one was
dozing-there, Viand thought to himself, he fell asleep. The rat would be
whipped for it, flogged in front of the whole crew-then, all at once, Viand
stopped and looked closer at the immobile weasel. He wasn't breathing-then,
outlined against the slightly reflecting water, he saw an arrow shaft.
* * *
Swarth, Viands fox first mate, was the first to hear Viand's yells. He knew what was happening almost immediately. "Attack! We're under attack!" Swarth dropped to the deck just as a pair of arrows sang out over his head and lodged themselves in the mast just behind them. "Sentries! Drop! Get to Cover! Wake the crew!" While Viand's crew weren't, with a few exceptions, the smartest vermin on the seas, they were the quickest, and the best at sailing and fighting there were. One other rat groaned in pain and toppled over with an arrow in him, bust the rest dropped down and scurried over towards the cover of the bow, pulling out slings and bows, yelling for the crew to wake up and help. But by the time the crew came up on deck, bloodthirsty and armed to the teeth, the arrows had stopped. The archers were gone, but not before slaying one more beast-Swarth, with a lucky shot that caught him in the forehead as he peered over the side of the ship looking for a target.
* * *
Rilar and the warrior mice slid down the side of the dunes back towards their camp, following the shoreline back as soon as they went around the bend in the coast. Viand's trackers were talented, and the exposure of their camp would be disastrous. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Zacharius went over the success of their sortie. "Well, none of us are hurt, but I don't know if any of the vermin are, either. Did anyone see any of them fall?" Louis shook his head. "But even if we didn't slay anybeast, we'll still hurt their morale. An invisible assassin shooting arrows at you in the middle of the night is enough to upset almost anyone, even Viand." "But no need to worry," interjected one of the other mice. "I saw one of the vermin fall anyway. I don't know who shot him. One of the sentries." Cheered at this, the party jogged on in silence for awhile. Eventually Rilar spoke. "We'll have to kill Viand eventually, you know. If we want to make this worthwhile, we must wipe that piece of scum off the earth once and for all. He can't harm any goodbeasts from behind the gates of the dark forest." Louis nodded and the other mice murmured their general agreement. "But it will be difficult. Viand might be evil and undeserving of life, but he's smart. And once we do get to him, who will take him on? All of us have good reason to want him dead. I'm sure all of us would like the honor." Rilar jogged along deep in thought. On the one hand, seeing the vermin die at his own hand would fulfill the entire purpose of his life. To do it himself would be the greatest thing he would ever do. On the other hand, after hearing the story of the mice, who had lost just as much as he had, his heart had gone out to them. Surely their hate for Blacktooth was as great as his. "Though I would love nothing more than to kill that vermin scum, it is more important to me to see him dead than to do it myself. Louis, Zacharius, you have every right in the world to be able to do this yourselves. I won't get in your way." Louis patted Rilar's arm twice, gently. "Thank you, friend. We appreciate this more than we can ever explain." He looked at the group of mice surrounding them as they arrived at their camp. Louis squatted down and, as all of the mice that didn't have first watch got ready for bed, reviewed their strategy. "Tomorrow morning we'll head back to their ship and see if anything's changed. We might try to steal some supplies or something like that. I also want to check to see how many more guards they'll be posting now that they know we're here. If everything goes well, we'll do another quick volley or two after nightfall and come back here. This time though, we'll wait between volleys. I want to draw more crew and especially officers onto the deck.." Everyone nodded their agreement and Rilar slept with the rest of the mice, dreaming of the pine grove, and of other squirrels, and of the days to come. Chapter Five The sun beat down on the heads of the vermin as they bustled about on the beach, loading supplies and watching as their slaves hauled in a few trees for timber, used to repair part of the underbelly of the ship, which, despite the attack the night before, had been beached to give the carpenters room to work.. The biggest, meanest, dumbest members of the crew had been put in charge of the chin gangs, beating them with a whip as they hauled the logs painfully slowly through the thick sand towards the Nightshade. Flipjaw, a particularly dumb, big, mean ferret, had been placed in charge of the chain gangs just this morning, and was immensely enjoying his new job. There was practically no work, except to beat the slaves, which he did, almost non-stop and with great vigor, cursing the workers and calling them fat and lazy, telling them they would have to work for their food. He wasn't worried about attackers, not while they had so many wonderful hostages chained up right on the beach. He sat back and relaxed for a while, happy that, for the first tie in months, he didn't have to work..
* * *
Rilar squinted down onto the camp from behind a small bush atop a dune and muttered quietly to Zacharius beside him. "We can't risk an attack, not like this. We've got to free those slaves first. There must be some way. And when we do, we could recruit them, somehow, I'm sure of it." Zacharius answered back just as quietly. "I know what you're thinking, and my heart goes out to those slaves just as much as yours does, but there's simply no way to save them without risking the safety of everybeast here-those slaves, you me, and the rest of our group. I'm not willing to take that chance." Rilar's breath hissed between his teeth in frustration.
* * *
Swarth, Viands fox first mate, was the first to hear Viand's yells. He knew what was happening almost immediately. "Attack! We're under attack!" Swarth dropped to the deck just as a pair of arrows sang out over his head and lodged themselves in the mast just behind them. "Sentries! Drop! Get to Cover! Wake the crew!" While Viand's crew weren't, with a few exceptions, the smartest vermin on the seas, they were the quickest, and the best at sailing and fighting there were. One other rat groaned in pain and toppled over with an arrow in him, bust the rest dropped down and scurried over towards the cover of the bow, pulling out slings and bows, yelling for the crew to wake up and help. But by the time the crew came up on deck, bloodthirsty and armed to the teeth, the arrows had stopped. The archers were gone, but not before slaying one more beast-Swarth, with a lucky shot that caught him in the forehead as he peered over the side of the ship looking for a target.
* * *
Rilar and the warrior mice slid down the side of the dunes back towards their camp, following the shoreline back as soon as they went around the bend in the coast. Viand's trackers were talented, and the exposure of their camp would be disastrous. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Zacharius went over the success of their sortie. "Well, none of us are hurt, but I don't know if any of the vermin are, either. Did anyone see any of them fall?" Louis shook his head. "But even if we didn't slay anybeast, we'll still hurt their morale. An invisible assassin shooting arrows at you in the middle of the night is enough to upset almost anyone, even Viand." "But no need to worry," interjected one of the other mice. "I saw one of the vermin fall anyway. I don't know who shot him. One of the sentries." Cheered at this, the party jogged on in silence for awhile. Eventually Rilar spoke. "We'll have to kill Viand eventually, you know. If we want to make this worthwhile, we must wipe that piece of scum off the earth once and for all. He can't harm any goodbeasts from behind the gates of the dark forest." Louis nodded and the other mice murmured their general agreement. "But it will be difficult. Viand might be evil and undeserving of life, but he's smart. And once we do get to him, who will take him on? All of us have good reason to want him dead. I'm sure all of us would like the honor." Rilar jogged along deep in thought. On the one hand, seeing the vermin die at his own hand would fulfill the entire purpose of his life. To do it himself would be the greatest thing he would ever do. On the other hand, after hearing the story of the mice, who had lost just as much as he had, his heart had gone out to them. Surely their hate for Blacktooth was as great as his. "Though I would love nothing more than to kill that vermin scum, it is more important to me to see him dead than to do it myself. Louis, Zacharius, you have every right in the world to be able to do this yourselves. I won't get in your way." Louis patted Rilar's arm twice, gently. "Thank you, friend. We appreciate this more than we can ever explain." He looked at the group of mice surrounding them as they arrived at their camp. Louis squatted down and, as all of the mice that didn't have first watch got ready for bed, reviewed their strategy. "Tomorrow morning we'll head back to their ship and see if anything's changed. We might try to steal some supplies or something like that. I also want to check to see how many more guards they'll be posting now that they know we're here. If everything goes well, we'll do another quick volley or two after nightfall and come back here. This time though, we'll wait between volleys. I want to draw more crew and especially officers onto the deck.." Everyone nodded their agreement and Rilar slept with the rest of the mice, dreaming of the pine grove, and of other squirrels, and of the days to come. Chapter Five The sun beat down on the heads of the vermin as they bustled about on the beach, loading supplies and watching as their slaves hauled in a few trees for timber, used to repair part of the underbelly of the ship, which, despite the attack the night before, had been beached to give the carpenters room to work.. The biggest, meanest, dumbest members of the crew had been put in charge of the chin gangs, beating them with a whip as they hauled the logs painfully slowly through the thick sand towards the Nightshade. Flipjaw, a particularly dumb, big, mean ferret, had been placed in charge of the chain gangs just this morning, and was immensely enjoying his new job. There was practically no work, except to beat the slaves, which he did, almost non-stop and with great vigor, cursing the workers and calling them fat and lazy, telling them they would have to work for their food. He wasn't worried about attackers, not while they had so many wonderful hostages chained up right on the beach. He sat back and relaxed for a while, happy that, for the first tie in months, he didn't have to work..
* * *
Rilar squinted down onto the camp from behind a small bush atop a dune and muttered quietly to Zacharius beside him. "We can't risk an attack, not like this. We've got to free those slaves first. There must be some way. And when we do, we could recruit them, somehow, I'm sure of it." Zacharius answered back just as quietly. "I know what you're thinking, and my heart goes out to those slaves just as much as yours does, but there's simply no way to save them without risking the safety of everybeast here-those slaves, you me, and the rest of our group. I'm not willing to take that chance." Rilar's breath hissed between his teeth in frustration.