Mina and Camdyn left Breaker Island behind them and after a few hours of uneventful flying, landed in Port Parides. Parides was a pirate town, literally. The pirates, smugglers, and legitimate traders worked the docks in the town. The pirates converted their stolen goods into cash, the smugglers smuggling whatever they happened to have, and the legit traders making a fortune from the people the pirates stole the cargo from in the first place.
Farther away were the businesses of the town. They were rougher than most places, they had to be when half of their clientele had sticky fingers and wouldn't mind stealing what they couldn't buy. There were several bars as well as places for unwitting weary travellers to lose their money and belongs overnight should they decide to stay.
The bearess and her protoge arrived right in the middle of some sort of dispute between the pirates and the smugglers. A large crowd was gathered around and as Mina shoved her way through, Camdyn caught sight of...police officers?
"All right, all right...you give 'em back what you took, and don't try and tell me that you didn't take nothing, 'cause I know better." a golden retriever grumbled at a small group of rather worn looking pirates. They shuffled their feet and the ferret, who appeared to be their leader, mumbled something.
"Wot do you mean 'we sold it'? That was me rightful property!"
The retriever waved his paw, silencing the smuggler.
"Then give them the money you got for it!"
The ferret held out a paw and gave the irate smuggler what had been in her pocket.
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"That was worth three times this much..."
"Mangos ain't worth nothing...and we ate some of 'em." The pirates suddenly turned and ran, dispersing into the crowd and losing anyone who might be trying to follow them.
"Why those sneakin' little-"
"Be glad you got what you did. Now, get! Before I start takin' names." the retriever growled.
Camdyn followed closer to Mina.
"What? Didn't expect law enforcement did you?" Mina laughed at the look on her face.
"Well, frankly, no. I thought pirates were all about breaking rules."
"Everyone elses rules. Not our own. Though sometimes we stretch them a bit." Mina craned her head to see where she was heading.
"Where are we going?"
"To find an old friend of mine. She'll help us out."
"Huh?" Camdyn asked, but Mina grabbed her by her coatsleeve and hurried her along. When she stopped, they were standing in front of an unremarkable gray building. Mina knocked on the door and a muffled voice answered.
"Who is it?"
"It's me. Mina."
"Well, why didn't you say so?" the door opened to reveal a female antelope. She looked at them. "About time you came to visit your old friend Faun. Come in."
Camdyn was pushed inside, Mina following her. Faun pushed the door back closed and locked it while Camdyn stared at the interior of the building. It was draped with expensive looking fabrics of every color, silver, gold and crystal glinted in the dim lighting. There was a stage set back in the far wall, with tables and chairs in front of it. A bar stretched along another wall and a curved staircase led upstairs into the gloom.
"Leaves you kind of speechless, don't it?" Faun asked the vixen. "We're not open right now, as you can tell. Everyone needs some time off, don't you think?" Every time the antelope moved her head, the tiny gold bells attached to the ends of her horns made a merry jingling noise.
"And you most of all." Mina said, pulling out a chair at the nearest table and sitting down, Camdyn sat next to her.
"So true. It's so hard running a place like this." Faun said sitting on the edge of a nearby table. Camdyn already had an inkling of what exactly a 'place like this' was. "Well, you never came around without needing something, so what is it this time?"
"Just a place to stay."
"Really? For how long?"
"A few months."
"Hrmph."
"Well?"
"Well, I need some sort of payment. I could let you stay a week or two without worrying, but, months?" Camdyn didn't like the way the antelope was looking at her.
"No." Mina said firmly.
"No? Really. It's not hard work...once you get used to it." Faun said in a wheedling tone.
"No." Camdyn said.
"You can't live on the street here you know." the antelope said, completely unaffected by the vixen's growl.
"I have a plane. I'll find somewhere else. I won't do it. It was the one thing I promised my mother I would never do."
"It's the second oldest profession in the world, you know. Followed by piracy and preceeded by medicine."
"I don't care how long people have been doing it. I won't." With that, Camdyn stood and started toward the door. Mina reached across the table and thwaped the antelope on the hand.
"She dances." Mina whispered.
"Really? She dances?" Faun said loud enough for Camdyn to hear.
"What of it?" Camdyn asked over her shoulder. Her defenses were still up.
"I was just thinking that we haven't had a good dancer here for ages. Can't keep them, you see. Always running off." Faun had dropped her wheedling tone and was all business. "Perhaps you'd be interested?"
"What would I have to do?"
"Nothing much really. Just a little dance-"
"With clothing, correct?"
"Of course. No free shows here. As I was saying it's just a little song and dance, a bit silly if you ask me, but the gents seem to like it well enough."
"And I wouldn't have to be available after the show?"
"No. You wouldn't have to be available."
Camdyn looked back at Mina.
"It's your choice." the bear said.
"I'll stay then."
"Splendid. I'll round up the rest of the chorus and let them show you the routine!" Faun was already up and moving.
Camdyn sat back down next to Mina.
"I'm sorry. Sometime Faun forgets how people feel about, her...business. I didn't think she would press the matter, and I don't think she meant to offend you." the bearess said.
"What about you?"
"Me? Are you kidding? I've got better skills than that." Mina said. "I never told you I can mix drinks did I?"
"No, you didn't. I'm beginning to suspect that there's a lot more to this than I first thought."
"This?"
"You know...the whole thing. I mean, at first I went with you because I was scared of what those people would have done to me, and now, I just want to show everyone I can do this."
"It's not gonna be pretty. There's still a whole lot you have to learn. Stuff I can't teach you."
"Why can't you teach me?"
"Well, 'cause I don't know myself, or it's something you have to apprentice for."
"Apprentice? What in the world could be so complicated that you'd have to do that?"
"Oh, well, captaincy for one. Say you decide to become a captain, well, you'd have to find someone will to teach you and you'd serve under them for a predetermined amount of time, then you go off on your own, gather some crew and bam, your Captain Camdyn. Ha. That's kinda cute you know."
"Haha. Better than Camdyn the Cockroach...that's what the kids were calling me when I left."
Faun came back down, breathless.
"Hey Mina, you aren't going to guess who I just saw."
"Don't make me guess Faun. I've had a rough day."
"Ok, ok, well, The Rabbit is headed this way, followed closely by that crazy wolf of yours."
"Karnage? He's here?" Mina asked, standing up abruptly.
"Sure. Unless there's another phsycopathic wolf running around."
At that precise moment there came a muffled shout from outside. Faun rolled her eyes and opened the door.
"Rabbit, I swear, you are so...so...STUPID. How many times have I told you not to bother Karnage? How many? Huh?"
"I don't know! Just keep him away from me!" said Rabbit was now running through the tables in an effort to get to the other side before Karnage.
"Where are you running? You are a disgusting flea-ridden mangy excuse for an easter bunny!" Karnage finally caught up with the rabbit.
"Aiiiiie!" a blur of black fur came off the stairs and flying tackled Karnage.
"Run run, Rabbit...I've caught this one. He's so cute when he's angry." the blur, now distingusable as a black-furred squirrel, sat on Karnage's chest.
He growled at her.
"So cute."
"Are you possessing all your chickens in one egg?" Karnage asked, struggling to get loose.
"Yep."
"Well, why do you not go make me an omelette?!"
"OK!" the blur bounced to her feet and trotted away.
"I hate that squirrel!" Karnage shouted, then noticed Mina and Camdyn for the first time. He looked at up at them, somewhat baffled. Mina laughed.
"Well, it was probably all just a ruse to let the rabbit get away."
"What are you doing here?" Karnage asked. He looked absolutely furious as he got up from the floor, dusting himself off.
"I might ask you the same thing."
"Do not play the word games with me."
"I'm not a member of your crew while I'm here. Remember? Oh, and by the way..." Mina moved quickly and pushed the wolf backwards before he had a chance to react. "Just when were you planning on letting us come back? It seems to be a point you neglected to mention before." Karnage was pinned against the wall by Mina, she held him there by the front of his coat.
"What?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Diego. I know what you're up to. You were hoping that I'd lose her, weren't you?"
"I am not knowing what you are talking about. Kindly remove your large disgusting paws from my person." he pushed Mina's hands away. Mina growled, and Karnage's hand twitched as though he'd feel better with his cutlass in it. It was evident from his expression that very few people had ever tried that, and even fewer had lived to tell about it.
"He's a tricky one." Faun said to no one in particular.
"I was hoping she might run away." Karnage admitted as Mina backed off. "Then I would not have to take on a-"
"A woman?" Mina challenged. Karnage scowled at her.
"Another worthless idiot." Karnage finished.
"Hey...I'm not an idiot." Camdyn said, taking a step forward.
"I do not remember speaking to you." Karnage growled.
"Well, I don't appreciate being insulted. I'm not one of your lackeys." Camdyn crossed her arms and scowled back at him defiantly. Mina seemed somewhat surprised by Camdyn's outburst.
"Not yet." he said, scowling.
"So tell me, did you come all this way just to harrass us?" Mina asked.
Karnage smiled wickedly. "No, no, not at all. My wonderous self came here because I am looking for something." With that, the red furred wolf turned and disappeared outside.
"I wonder what he's looking for." Faun mumbled.
"Who knows. It's probably another one of those hairbrained ideas he gets. You remember the one where he stole all of the cats in town and was selling them back to people at twenty dollars apiece, don't you?" Mina said.
"How could I forget. He kept them until the mice were doing jigs on peoples tables, then played the Pied Piper and got rid of the mice. You know, I don't think people even realized he was the one who stole the cats in the first place!" Faun said. "Hello, Rabbit."
"How'd you know I was here?" Rabbit said glumly. He looked more like a hare than a rabbit.
"The smell! Did Karnage chase you here all the way from the docks?"
"Of course! That crazy wolf, I swear...he was trying to get me to let him have a look through one of the planes down there."
"Really? Somebody steal something from him?" Faun asked as she pushed the winded hare into a chair.
"Naw. He was just being nosy I think. He seemed to think the person had, get this, maps."
"Of course people have maps. It's how they get from here to there to everywhere."
"Oh they weren't just any old maps, apparently, they're supposed to show the location of every single hideout of the Hunter. Not to mention all his research into trying to find Karnage's island and several other places."
"He's nuttier than peanut brittle."
"That's what I said...well, not in that way."
By now Camdyn was absorbed in their conversation. It was obvious that the two knew each other well. They bantered back and forth without seeming to think about it.
"How did you tell him?" she asked, her ears perked.
"Oh, I looked him straight in the eye, and I says, "You're blinking crazy." Really sets him off for some reason."
"Wait just a minute...you said he was trying to get in a plane?" Mina asked.
"Yeah. A little white one. Said it was Johnson the Hunter's plane."
Camdyn jumped as Mina suddenly bolted out the door.
"Where are you going?!" she yelled after the bear. She could scarcely believe Mina could move that fast. The bear didn't answer, just kept going. Even though the street was crowded she easily slipped through. Camdyn looked at Rabbit, then after Mina. With a sigh she tore off after Mina.
She trailed the bear down to the pier. Once she saw the state of her plane she understood what had happened.
"Karnage tricked him, didn't he?"
Mina nodded. Camdyn stepped through some of the mess and looked at it.
"Did you ever go through that stuff?"
"No. I didn't really think about it until now. What do you suppose they were after that map for?"
"Well, I assume it had some sort of importance. Maybe it showed Johnson's hideouts, maybe it gave away pirate havens...either way, we'll never know." Mina let out a huge sigh.
Camdyn just stared straight ahead. There was a sort of anger building inside of her. She had been duped. Outwitted. Outfoxed, even. And she didn't appreciate it one bit. She unconciously let out a growl.
Mina looked at the angry vixen. "Whoooooa there...calm down." Mina stepped over and gripped Camdyn by her shoulders.
"I'll...I'll..."
"You'll do what? Catch Karnage and demand the map back? Fight him for it?"
"If that's what it takes to make him respect me..."
"That's what it'll take to get yourself killed. You don't have any clue how to fight. The best advice I was ever given was to avoid a fight and when that wasn't possible, to choose them wisely."
"He's still here then." Camdyn pulled away from the bear and began stalking down the docks.
"Hey! What do you think your doing? Get back here..." Mina started off after the vixen, muttering under her breath.
Don Karnage was indeed still in the city. But Camdyn wouldn't find him. Her anger burned out before too long, though she searched for the better part of an hour. In the process, Mina started to show her around the city. Camdyn later suspected that the bear had led her away from her target and vowed not to let it happen again. She was learning.