Chapter 10

The vermin were rats who were lone wanders, docking where they pleased, and plundering everything. And that was their idea of fun, the next victim, Death Island. And little did Saucony know that his own brother, Halfeye, was attacking him. They had been born as twins, but a few days after they were born, their parents had had a fight. It was decided that his mom somewhere else would raise Halfeye, while Saucony stayed with his father at the island. Their mom had died at sea, trying to find land, leaving Halfeye to fend for himself. He had survived off the ship's food until he eventually drifted to land and formed up a band of roaming vermin. When he heard of the goings of his brother, he set his crew of beasts to build him a boat. It took him three seasons to build the boat and it was so large it could hold his crew and fifty score more. It was a deep crimson red, with a row of spikes at the front sharpened to sink any boat they rammed into. It was so long it had to have five main sails to even slowly move the boat. It included 3 galleys, not including the main deck. For the ship to run at maximum speed, it would require 540 slaves to row 180 oars. However, they only had their crew, they didn't have any slaves. So they set out to get slaves. They never actually found any slaves, as the island where the ship was built had been deserted. In the end, without any slaves to row their ship, they decided to cut up the big ship to make 3 smaller ones they could row themselves. That is when they finally set out. It took them nearly eight seasons to roam around to the island, but when they did see the island on the horizon, they neither slept nor ate until they reached the island. When they reached the island they decided to have a feast on the rest of their supplies. For each ship it was a meager feast, consisting of but a few bowls of skilly and duff, and half a bottle of wine, except for the captains ship. The captain had a full feast with roasted duck, wine, ale, cheeses, and even some fresh bread. He took a liberty upon himself to keep a special food storage for when food was of short. He enjoyed his meal, knowing it may be his last, depending on his brothers personality. He had guessed that his brother would be as evil and crafty as himself, so he told his crew to hide two of the boats, and all of the crew on them. After he made sure that all was in order, he headed up to the castle.