A/N: Hello, everyone! I can't thank you readers enough for giving this story a shot and dealing with my sporadic writing habits and hectic schedule. I greatly hope that you are all enjoying it. Leave a follow/favorite/review if you enjoy the chapter!
-Eragon
Disclaimer: I don't own Zootopia, but I do own the story and my OC's.
ZOOTOPIA: SEAFARER'S TALES-THE CHOSEN SIX
CHAPTER 3
LOCATION: TUSK ISLAND
DATE: AUGUST 9th, 1800
Captain Wilde stood leaning against the ledge of a guard tower overlooking the ocean as the sun slowly set on the horizon. He would have to leave tonight. Not that he wanted to leave, but the cargo ship would be going through these waters within the next three days, and he needed to get that cargo. It was a necessary evil that he would have to deal with if he would be able to go through with his plan. Glancing to his left, he saw the reason it was so hard for him to leave the island. The three kits all leaned on the ledge with him, eyes transfixed by the beautiful oranges, purples, reds, and yellows that swirled around each other, painting both the sky and sea as one. The canine smiled to himself and went back to looking at the sea as he reminisced on the last four weeks. Four weeks of joy, of struggle, of tears, of friendship, of anger, and of love. He had learned so much over the last four weeks, both about the kits and himself.
George was the oldest of the three, being ten-years-old. He had quickly taken on the older brother role as well as become the leader of the other two kits, and they willingly wanted to follow him. Being a great role-model as how to lead others, Wilde had no problem with this. It actually came as no surprise to Wilde, as he was the most emotionally and physically strong and stable. The thing that did surprise Wilde was that George maintained all these traits through a terrible first ten years of life. The wolf pup had never met his parents, as he and his older brother had been sold into slavery when they were just born. George managed to stay out of trouble for most of his time in slavery because his brother would protect him and take the beating for him. His brother died when George was eight. George had broken one of their owner's prized vases and when the owner, a tiger from Britantler, but living in Tortugal since slavery was more widely accepted there, had been about to whip him, his brother stepped in and clawed the owner. The owner turned on him, tied him up, and whipped him to death. After that, the young pup could never escape the punishments. He had scars on his back from the whippings, and he was just ten. A few months back, pirates attacked his owner's town. The owner was killed and the pirates brought George back here, but George ran and managed to hide in the alleys to avoid those pirates until they left, and he had never seen them since. Yet George kept up a positive attitude and cared for his siblings anyways. The only reason Wilde could think of for him being this way was that George wanted to be like his older brother, a protector.
The next oldest was Robyn, who was nine-years-old. She was stubborn, strong-willed, and suspicious of anyone she didn't know well, but behind all that she was fragile and desperately in need of someone who loved her. Having a family was probably the best thing that could have happened to her and had brought out a joyful and energetic side of her that she had hidden for the first week or so when Wilde had brought her to Honey's, not to mention her newly found love for playing tricks on everyone in the odd family. She had been an only child, and the reason she was so suspicious of animals, Wilde found out, was that her parents were murdered in front of her just one year ago. They had been tradesmammals in Britantler, most likely wealthy ones. A kudu and an antelope had stopped her and her parents along a road in town and when they pulled out guns, her parents told her to run. She had watched as they were both shot and then ran into the nearest building. There were two more shots after she had turned to run. The building she ran into was merely a small clothing shop, but it had kept her safe until morning. When she went back outside the next day, her parents were gone, not even bodies on the street, only two nearly dry puddles of blood. After that, she wandered the city, living abandoned place to abandoned place. Eventually, the kudu and antelope had found her and while she was running from them, she had snuck onto a ship to escape. That ship happened to be a food ship that was traveling to Tusk Island and now here she was.
Then there was Axel, the youngest of the three at seven-years-old. A quiet and introverted kit, he barely talked, but he was the most caring and good-hearted kit Wilde had ever met. He was always the one to comfort anyone in the family when they were having a bad day and help everyone he saw, even strangers, without saying a word. It had taken Axel the longest to tell Wilde about his past, and even then it was fairly disjointed. Axel could never remember a time where his mother was around, and his father had been, in Axel's words, "A very mad animal." Based on what Axel told Wilde, the fox assumed the father had been a terrible drunk. Axel had siblings, but had never been too close with any of them. That may have been because Axel seemed to be the outlet for his father's anger. Even now, Axel had bruises that were still healing from his father's latest outburst. After the last beating, Axel had ran away. He jumped from foster home to foster home, but had never truly fit in anywhere due to being so quiet and withdrawn. One day, he was crying on the side of the street and a friendly old polar bear had stopped and talked to him and brought him to Tusk Island to live with him. After that Axel broke down in tears and could go no further with the story. Since Wilde knew of no polar bears who lived on the island, he could only assume that this mammal had died, which would be why Axel was left to the streets again.
Each an every one of the kits were different in both background and personality and Wilde loved each one of them completely for that. So, he quickly began teaching the kits how to survive on the island without him around to help. From spotting hustles to having a secret hideout to making allies through mutual benefits, he taught them everything he had learned over the years of having lived on Tusk Island. The kits loved his shoreline cave backup hideout. The cave was in a beautiful and secluded part of the island and was well stocked should anything happen to Honey or the house. A list of rules was made for while he was gone. It wasn't very detailed, as there was only so much he could guarantee that they shouldn't do under any circumstances, such as go to the bars. He made sure they knew the merchants they could trust and the ones they couldn't as well as introduced them to his crew and every friend he had on the island. They had been particularly fond of Finnick, his first mate, especially his ears. Finnick had acted tough and emotionless at the time, but Wilde could see through the fennec's façade that he adored the three kits.
Finnick had been Wilde's friend since before he was a pirate, but had only in the last couple years joined him in his adventures. Finnick was the red fox's partner in his plan and that was how Wilde had convinced the fennec to join him at sea. It took him years of nagging the older fox, but Wilde finally got Finnick aboard the Wildfire one day and the old friend decided to stay. The fennec didn't start as his first mate, but as he proved not only to be a great friend, but also extraordinarily talented at pirating, especially when planning how to attack a ship, he worked his way up the ranks into the inner circle and eventually into the role of Wilde's first mate. He was Wilde's greatest confidant, advisor, and ally both on shore and at sea. It warmed the captain's heart to see that his kits all loved Finnick and the fennec's hidden adoration of the three children. Thinking about this, he realized he had to meet up with his first mate very soon to discuss the plan for attacking the cargo ship, and to check and see if the Wildfire's crew was prepared to leave.
The sun had finally finished setting. The kits looked to Wilde, knowing that it meant it was time to go home, and that it was also time for Wilde to leave the island. The fox turned to the kits, his kits, and crouched down to get on eye level with all of them, "I can't tell you three how much I'm going to miss you. You're the three greatest things to ever happen to me and it's tearing me apart knowing I have to leave you behind. But I have to do this. In order for us to leave this place, I need to go for a while. You three are going to be okay, though. You've got Honey, you've got your brilliant brains, and most importantly, you've got each other. Look out for one another and never leave each others' sides. I love all of you so much."
Tears dripped down the older fox's muzzle as well as were streaming out of all three kits' eyes as they nearly tackled the pirate captain in an enormous hug. They just stood on that guard tower for a few minutes, taking time to remember this feeling. The tears had just finished when Axel said something that got the waterworks going again, "We love you too, Papa."
George and Robyn repeated the statement, tears in all four animal's eyes. After the loving moment, Wilde took them back home. He had Axel riding piggy-back and held Robyn and George's paws the whole way. They reached the house and the fox tucked his three kits in, kissing all three of their heads before slowly closing the door to their room. He talked with Honey for a while before finally giving her a long hug and telling her to take good care of the kits. She promised she would and Wilde finally walked out of the house that had become his home. Walking down the street and toward the docks, he glanced over his shoulder one last time, remembering that now he had something to fight for, something to stay alive for. And with that final glance, he turned and purposefully walked to his ship. He had a job to do.
LOCATION: THE STORM, CARGO VESSEL TRAVELING TO MANE
DATE: AUGUST 15th, 1800
Just over four weeks of travel and the voyage was nearing its end. But, this ship was also nearing its most dangerous stretch of the journey. Lieutenant Hopps was currently with Commodore Bogo, finalizing preparations for the ship's passage through the "Foxblood Waters", which had earned the name through the vast number of sunk ships at the paws of the infamous captain of the Wildfire. When Bogo had told her that they would be guarding an extremely special cargo, she had expected some sort of weapons or precious gems. The cargo hold was empty however, and only four animals on the ship knew where this cargo was. Hopps being one of them. What they were guarding was a very small box, hidden in a safe behind a secret door of the cargo hold. Only Bogo knew what was in the chest, but it must have been something of the utmost value for him to regard it in the way he did and to have brought so many of his crew aboard the cargo ship to guard it.
The ship had lost some speed due to the large crew, but Bogo said it would be worth the slight loss of time in case of attack. As they passed through the Foxblood, most of the Minotaur's crew, including Bogo would go below deck and hide in the cargo hold and the rooms surrounding to ambush anyone who came through. A few would be above deck manning cannons and making it look like the cargo ship had only had a small guard crew on board. Hopps would be one of these animals, but only because she would be in the crow's nest with an ocelot that only went by "Jax." They would be the ears and eyes to warn of incoming ships, specifically an orange-sailed one. With preparations set, all the animals on the Storm could do was wait.
The sun was had just risen over the horizon and sitting exactly in the direction they were heading. Suddenly, the wind slowed to barely a breeze and the current disappeared. Normally, this would worry a crew, but the Foxblood was known for this, which was probably why the fox captain had chosen these waters to be the ones he preyed upon. The crew below quickly changed the sails format so that they caught every little bit of wind they could and continue moving at a decent speed. Hopps and Jax were on high alert in the crow's nest as they entered these waters. Jax periodically scanned in every direction, on lookout for anything out of the ordinary, and Hopps had her eyes shut as her ears swiveled back and forth, listening for any sounds other than their ship. Sound would carry along the water, so all she could hope was that she would be able to hear a mistimed shout or crash from another ship.
As they worked, Jax got more and more jittery and began talking to the doe, "So, Lieutenant, how come your out here on the sea, wouldn't it have been easier to just stay back on the land and raise a family?"
While she knew he didn't mean to offend her, the question hurt with how little biased he was being towards both her being a female and towards her species, "Well, I wasn't content with just having a family and not doing anything meaningful with my life. I wanted adventure and I have always been drawn to the sea. With hard work and determination, I made it here. Why are you here, Jax?"
"I never liked my family and I had a knack for spotting things others couldn't. I met a captain of a ship and he offered me a job as lookout. I took the job to escape my parents more than anything else. Apparently I was good enough at it to make it here with the Commodore."
Eyes still closed for listening, Hopps was curious about what he had said, "Why don't you like your family?"
"Well my father was always up my ass about everything I did and my mother never really showed any love to me. So one day I just ran off and-"
"Jax, shut up.", the rabbit had heard something. Maybe it was nothing, but she had to listen closer.
The ocelot noticed her focusing intently and understood immediately, turning back to his job and scanning the ocean. He didn't see anything yet, but that meant nothing with the ship they were looking for. Hopps ears swiveled before finally facing towards the east, where they were heading, and realized the sound came from directly in front of them when she heard it again. It was a shout. There was no way to make out the words, but it was definitely a voice she was hearing. "Jax, focus on the east, that's where the noise came from."
He immediately listened and did just that, staring towards the sun, paw trying to shield as much sunlight as possible from his eyes. "Of course it's directly in the damn sun."
Suddenly, Jax saw sails crested the horizon. Orange sails. "Shit! Lieutenant, it's the Wildfire!"
The rabbit reacted to this news quickly, ringing the alarm bell to let everyone know what was coming. They couldn't change their course now, they were heading straight for the pirate ship. Crewmembers hastily began loading the cannons and preparing guns and swords for battle. They were horrifically outgunned, but they had to do as much damage as possible to the opposing vessel if they were to at least stand a chance. Hopps slid down the ropes, grabbing her flintlock and sword from a fellow crewmember and shouting orders around, getting animals moving into position for battle. "Harrington, get that cannon loaded! Woolsly, bring up swords from below deck! Jax, get the hell out of the nest and get down here! Roland, I want the sails in shape for a fight! Quill, steer us north of those pirates, we will not be able to withstand a head on go with them! Everybody be at the ready for them to try boarding! We need to survive the first pass and then outrun these bastards to the shore, that is the best chance we will have! Crest, I need my telescope!"
A squirrel quickly brought the item to her and she peered through it at the incoming ship. The orange sails had the telltale sign of the fox skull in flames and the vessel itself was black as the darkest night. The Wildfire was a massive and beautiful ship that struck fear into any animal that crossed it other than its crew. Every part of the ship was meticulously cared for. It was a war ship that rarely left ships still floating. And it was nearly upon the Storm.
LOCATION: THE WILDFIRE, VESSEL IN THE FOXBLOOD WATERS
DATE: AUGUST 15th, 1800
Something seemed off the Captain Wilde. A cargo ship with no escort and only a small crew on board. It just didn't sit well with the fox. He brought the telescope down from his eye and stored it away as they approached the vessel. His crew was already prepared and knew the plan. Wilde, along with a small group would swing across to the cargo ship as they passed by and the cannoneers would fire chain shots to take out the enemy's masts. With those down, Finnick would be able to steer the ship back around and a larger party could board the cargo ship. All Wilde and his group had to do was buy time, which meant improvising, the thing the fox captain did best. Wilde slowly strolled to the ladder up to the ropes and began climbing up the mast as they continued to approach the smaller ship. He had six animals with him, all around his size since that would be the best for swinging from the ropes across. The fox captain was armed head to paw in every weapon he found could be of use in the impending fight. He had four flintlocks holstered, two on each hip, a blunderbuss strapped to his back, and his trusty cutlass and a short sword also on his back under the blunderbuss.
The ships finally reached each other and the first cannons on both sides went off with thunderous booms. Adrenaline filled the captain as he and the others jumped from their perches, swinging across the gap between ships with rocketing speed. All seven landed gracefully on the deck of the cargo ship and drew their weapons. They were quite surrounded by approximately twenty animals, most of them larger than himself, while about another thirty on the crew were still firing cannon shot after cannon shot. Wilde's animals didn't move after drawing their weapons however, waiting for his move. The fox held two flintlocks loosely at his sides and gave a giant smirk to the crowd around them, all pointing various guns and swords at him and his crew. "Well, is this any way to treat guests? You should all be ashamed of yourselves."
A voice from the wheel of the ship spoke up, a rabbit, "Shut your damn mouth, fox! Tell your crew to put down their weapons! You are all under arrest by the Royal Navy of Britantler!"
Wilde chuckled at the foe, "Oh, how low the Royal Navy has fallen! With cute little rabbits now in command! Hah!"
The cannons continued to thunder all around and splintering cracks from busted wood accompanied the booms. The rabbit jumped down and got right in Wilde's face. "My name is Lieutenant Hopps and you will drop your weapons or you will all be killed right now!"
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen, Carrots."
"Fine.", Hopps had had enough, and drew her flintlock, pressing it to the fox captain's forehead. And yet still he had that infuriating smirk, "Why the hell are you still smiling?!"
The smirk only grew at that, "Because I'm merely stalling right now." He winked, and as if on cue, a chain shot fired straight through the main mast. That mast then fell into the next mast, which fell onto three of their cannons, crushing the crewmammals firing them and knocking the cannons overboard.
With a smirk ear to ear, Wilde just kept on talking, "Well that was quite the chain reaction, don't you think, Carrots?"
The lieutenant was shaken from her frozen stupor by the question and she turned her head, prepared to shoot the fox's brain out. But she was only met with the handle of one of his flintlocks, which quickly brought the world to black for the rabbit as she collapsed onto the deck. The fox turned to the remaining members of the cargo ship's crew. "Now, where were we gentlemammals? Oh, that's right, we were about to kill all of you and take your cargo. Or you can surrender and we'll still take your cargo. It's up to you."
When none of the weapons were lowered, Wilde's smirk changed to a scowl at the fact that he would have to kill these animals, "I see how it's going to be."
He brought the flintlocks up and fired two shots, killing a rhino and hippo in the front of the group. At the shots, his crew charged, firing their own shots and drawing swords and daggers to fight up close. Holstering the two flintlocks, he brought out the blunderbuss and charged, firing it and killing three smaller animals in one go before throwing it back over his shoulder and drawing his swords. Two of his crew members were taking care of the remaining cannoneers, who were still hopelessly firing at his ship, cannon by cannon while he and the other four would fight the remaining animals. He wanted this over with as quickly as possible and furiously slashed his way through animals, leaving nothing but death around him. He had killed six animals when an ocelot charged him, bearing his own cutlass. The ocelot swung downward, which Wilde deflected and slashed back with his other cutlass, surprised to find the ocelot quick enough to block the counter. The ocelot the feinted a slash left and went right, which Wilde barely caught, but he quickly parried the swing before spinning and slashing low and taking the ocelots hind paws out from under him. Before the ocelot could move, the captain drove his short sword into his chest, and pulled it out quickly. He looked around and noticed the rest of his crew had killed or knocked unconscious the cargo ship's crew. Only one of his crew had been lost. He then turned back to the ocelot in his final moments of life, "I must say, you are quite the fighter. Rarely any animal can even attempt to keep up with me. I give you credit for that."
The ocelot only hissed at him, "Go-*cough*- go back to hell you demon."
Wilde smiled sadly as the ocelot passed into death. "I'll meet you there one day, but that day is not today."
Finnick had brought the ship around and more of his crew began boarding the cargo ship in safer ways than how Wilde had first boarded. Wilde called out to his crew in excitement, "Well, my fellow animals, let's see what this ship has for us!"