There was a clearing. There wasn't anything particularly remarkable about it. It wasn't peculiarly large nor absurdly small. The light filtered through the trees to illuminate it gloomily the way it did in every other part of the Woods. There was a rotten log in the middle overgrown with moss and some small weeds that had brightly coloured flowers. The grass was perhaps waist deep. The clearing wasn't even all that circular.

Yet there was an unmistakable figure sitting off to one side under a warped tree.

Surely he is aware of our presence? In the mind of the owner the thought seemed to reverberate because it was so quiet and was instantly regretted. The figure didn't even twitch. They had been skulking in the shadows for the last hour or so watching the figure apparently staring into space. Because they had both fear and reverence for this particular denizen of the woods they hadn't budged since, but it was beginning to get quite uncomfortable. He glanced at his companions and they looked back at him. He was the leader, the looks said, how should we behave? Without giving it more thought he acted. Whatever forest creatures that had not fled from the other figure now fled from his pack as he approached.

He was stared at, those cold yellow eyes boring into his own and he hesitated, then thankfully those eyes turned to the rest of his pack, all eight of them. He continued a little further coming to a complete stop about two metres away from where he sat. Those eyes were on him again. 'Lord Balthazar.' It was a statement filled with awe. His voice did not stutter and he sank immediately into the pose that visibly showed that he accepted who was master in this situation. His pack followed suit immediately.

Not a breath of air twitched in the age it took for Balthazar to reply. 'What is your request?'

Those eyes were back on him, he could feel it. His fur stiffened in response. 'Our request is simply to know what it is that has brought you to our patch of the woods. Perhaps we may be of assistance.' The phrase our patch contained a strong note of pride. He raised his head slightly, and moved into a comfortable standing position at an almost imperceptible movement. His pack followed after a spilt second of surprise.

'I am looking for someone. A strong Lupe. Arrange the Koulorn.' He turned and began to gracefully move away. 'And involve some of your fellow pack leaders…'

'Alizarin, Lord.'

He received a single nod in reply. 'You and your pack shall be responsible, Alizarin.' And suddenly Balthazar was swallowed by the shadows beneath the trees leaving Alizarin's pack to carry out the orders they'd been given.

A glack chirped.

Repeatedly.

It was pierced with a glare. The glack insolently decided not to notice and kept on chirping.

A black claw swiped down towards it and the glack rapidly decided to find someplace else to chirp. And someone else to irritate.

Balthazar sighed in annoyance. It was not going well. Alizarin's pack had not been the first with whom he had accidentally encountered but he had finally had enough. He needed some entertainment and a Koulorn sounded like exactly the right idea. He might even find an apprentice at the end of it. The only downside was that it took a few weeks to prepare.

He was seated on an outcropping of rock which began a vertical cliff of about ten metres. The vegetation was much lower to the ground here and it was completely open to the sky above, allowing the warm sunlight to soothe him. He stretched appreciatively.

Not a single Lupe he'd come across had had the right combination of qualities. Some were too strong; not strong enough, too stupid, too lazy, too hesitant, too eager, too clumsy. Too disrespectful. This was an important point. It was hardly blatant but in a limited number of Lupes it was there. When this current issue was resolved he'd have to do something about that.

His eyes suddenly became attracted to the forest spread below him. He twitched ever so slightly to improve his view but otherwise his strong form remained motionless. No movement was wasted. He inhaled sharply as he spotted it again and began to slowly reach for his equipment. The tiny speck of light that flitted through the trees didn't appear to notice. Good. One that was young, stupid and probably impressionable. He had the net in his hands and a clear, round bottomed bottle ready and so he waited as the little faerie worked its careless way towards him, oblivious to him as it was to the terrain around it.

Faeries loved the sky; the higher, the better.

This one was singing softly. Something peaceful. Balthazar could hear it as it approached the ledge. That would soon change. It moved higher and a brief gust of wind blew it closer to his position. As it glanced up in annoyance it suddenly realised that he was not just another rock. The net trapped it as it gave its first yelp.

Balthazar grinned in pleasure as his strong fist grabbed the Light Faerie and pushed it expertly into his glass bottle. 'Before you go on to the market, Light Faerie, we are going to have a discussion.' He said as he brought the bottle up level to his eyes.

The faerie's thin wail of fright could be heard through the air holes.

There was a very loud, very sharp crack. Despite his fear, Rayden started involuntarily. The two sailors who had found him cursed loudly and ran towards the cargo hold. Rayden was dragged along swinging in the Draik's claws. He was beginning to feel very sick. Abruptly he was thrown to the rolling deck and landed hard on his side. 'Stay there!' Came the yelled instruction. 'The Captain's going to have to wait until we're out of this storm for the pleasure of your company, Lupe!'

He dared to open his tightly shut eyes and saw what had broken. It was one of the cargo crates, spilling bagged plant material around the place. A few of them had broken. Rayden winced at the pain in his paws as he struggled to remain as flat on the deck as possible, not moving. He was terrified not only with his upcoming 'meeting', but the violent movement of the ship.

The two crew members looked as though they were trying to secure the rest of the crates more firmly. They seemed to be rolling with each pitch and yaw. That didn't prevent them cursing however, when they managed to fall against the cargo they were trying to protect. What little light there was left flickered erratically, casting changing patterns on the wooden beams and planks.

The Korbat let out a high pitched screech and a few more crew came down to help. They missed him braced against the hull, more concerned with what they saw had happened. 'The Cap'n'll have our hides if we lose any of the cargo!' One bellowed.

'After all we went through to get it, you're right he will!' Another replied. Quite quickly it became obvious that the crew had succeeded in resecuring everything. Rayden tried to remain as still as possible in the hope that he might just disappear.

'Get up Lupe.' Rayden glanced up quickly. It was the Korbat and he looked angry. The other members of the crew were leaving the cargo hold to return to their duties above deck. A few were giving the renewed confrontation some interest but none paused. 'Brings bad luck to have a stowaway aboard,' came a muttered comment. He tried to get to his feet, but swayed almost immediately. The Korbat reached out with a grimace to steady him. 'No sea legs either. It's just a storm.' Rayden couldn't utter a sound.

Without warning, Rayden's stomach gave a heave. It must have shown on his face for he was dragged rapidly over the rocking deck through to the place where he had hidden and brought to a small porthole that had been latched shut. Once his stomach had finished its protesting, he fell to the deck, wet with spray and groaned. 'I give it a few more hours then Terius will decide what to do with you.' The Korbat grinned. 'Try and enjoy it while it lasts.'

The sea was finally calm again and there were only the rags of the storm clouds left. Loharn was again up the rigging reefing the storm sails and releasing the others along with several other ships' boys. He had also been one of the ones who had had to climb up in the storm to take care of the sails. It had been swinging more wildly than the bucking uni ride at the fair last month, not to mention the strength of the wind.

No one could doubt his courage or his strength. Too soon however he was back down below and ordered by a higher ranking deckhand to check the cargo. 'Yessir!' He answered promptly and ran to take care of it. 'Some storm wasn't it Jacob?' He called to his friend and fellow ships' boy.

'Aye, that it was Loharn.' The blue Acara gestured to one of the numerous hatches. 'You first or me?' Without waiting for a reply, he dashed down the ladder and began to do an inventory of the cargo. 'Nice ridin' up the rigging by the way.' He called over.

'It was nothing.' Loharn said, bursting with pride as he joined his friend. He scowled playfully at him. 'Didn't even give me a chance to come down the ladder. Bet I check more than you do.'

'You snooze you lose,' Jacob replied with a glance before disappearing between the crates. 'And what do you have to bet?'

Loharn proceeded to imitate his friend as he began the stock taking. 'You get to be the hero in my next story and I'll take your duties if you win. You'll do mine if I win.' Someone would be coming after them to check that they'd done a proper job. Most ships' boys had a problem with numbers, but it would still possible to get an approximate tally for the bet. Loharn didn't know why they bothered to make ships' boys do it really.

'Deal,' came the echoed response. The light was dim and filled with dust motes from the crates which tended to muffle sound, so he hadn't noticed two of his fellow shipmates having some time alone in the next isle he came to. They were of his own rank. He smirked; time to collect some blackmail material. They turned around startled and Loharn quickly got what he expected - lighter duties for the next few days which would offset his bet with Jacob. As soon as the Cabin Master finds them they'd be put off ship anyway, he thought as they hurried away.

They'd be making landfall within that time period at Mystery Island, flying legitimate flags of course and seemingly legitimate cargo. Just a short trip. It wasn't that far from home base. 'See, told you I'd win!' Jacob's voice surprised him from the other side of the cargo bay.

'There's still the next hold!' He answered and hurried to catch up with his friend.

Time to stop day dreaming.

Finally the rocking stopped. Well mostly. Rayden could hear the wind slapping water from the gentle swell against the hull. He certainly felt that he was going to be alright for a while if he made it through the interview with Captain… Terius. He uncurled himself and looked resignedly up at his guard, fear replaced by exhaustion. 'Get going Lupe. Cap'n's quarters.'

He began his trip as fast as he dared with the Korbat behind him. Once on the upper deck he looked around at the organised chaos, then up at the flag on the mast and froze. A sharp shove sent him sprawling to the deck and he hurriedly got up to avoid the following kick. He gulped. He was in more trouble than he'd thought.

A sharp rap on a solid wood door came before a call to enter. The door was pushed open and Rayden was frogmarched into the tiny room. He took one look at the Captain and nearly fainted. Terius was a Halloween Ixi!

'And what exactly do we have here, Norax?' Terius' voice grumbled low and frightening. There was a hard light in his eyes and a pronounced frown on his face.

'Stowaway sir!'

Rayden watched as the Captain flicked his eyes over him and trembled when their eyes met. Terius began tapping out a rhythmic beat on the wooden desk. He quietly asked, 'And do you know exactly how he managed to get aboard?' At Norax's negative response, his eyes settled back over Rayden. 'Well?'

Rayden dropped his head and opened his mouth to speak but fright had again returned and froze his tongue. Norax shoved him again and he managed to give a vague account. 'It-it was dark… I couldn't s-see anyone… went to the front of the boat a-and saw that there was a rope… almost reached a window. I swung onto it and climbed up,' his voice faded but returned enough to strangle out the last sentence, '…found the cargo area, climbed into the rafters and hid.' He held up his paws with their splinters. 'See?'

During his recital, Terius never stopped his tapping. His gaze slipped away from Rayden and he sagged slightly in relief. 'Norax, exactly why had no guards been placed to secure the hold? Or for that matter, why were there no sentries posted?' Terius' demeanour, which had been intimidating before became downright menacing.

'The ship was made secure and in our grasp. All the crew had been… removed successfully. We felt that all possible avenues of entry had been sealed off!' Norax was looking rather panicky. 'Besides, you'd have to be very agile to repeat that manouver!'

Rayden felt a bit bewildered by the references to goings on that he had no knowledge about. Somehow, his finder was in trouble and he got the feeling that he was not going to be thrown overboard to try and make his own way back to shore.

Terius partly rose out of his chair. Rayden noticed a large map adorned the wall behind the Captain and that it had been annotated. 'A meeting with your fellow officers appears to be in order Norax!' The Captain returned sharply. 'This will not happen again!' Norax got himself under control very quickly and nodded smartly. 'As for the Lupe, he can join the cabin boys until we get to the Haunted Woods. We will take appropriate measure there. He might as well make himself useful. But he is to be restricted to the bunking area at all times unless supervised by the cabin master.' He paused. 'Get out.'

Norax obeyed dragging Rayden with him and muttered, 'Doesn't even have any sea legs.' He closed the door behind them.

Back down in the bunking area he was pushed roughly into a corner. 'We don't have any spare bunks. The corner is free for your use. The others will be down after the work is down to show you your place.' He grinned harshly. 'Enjoy Lupe.'

After the Korbat had left, he felt more miserable than before. What did that mean take appropriate measures? It was bad enough that he'd been caught stowing away on the ship. What made it worse was the fact that it was a pirate ship.

He'd been captured by pirates!