A/N: Whaddaya know, finally another chapter! I hope you all have been able to be patient with me over the past few months. Life has been tough to write around. And please don't hate me after the last chapter. I didn't mean for it...okay yes, I did, but it was fun and I have no regrets about it. Anyways, leave that follow/favorite/review if you enjoy!

-Eragon

P.S. I changed the some of the dates so the time frame makes a bit more sense in this chapter. Originally Wilde left August 9th and attacked the Storm August 10th, now he attacks on August 15th. I hope this doesn't cause too much confusion!

Disclaimer: I only own my stories and OC's, Zootopia is still owned by Disney.

ZOOTOPIA: SEAFARER'S TALES-THE CHOSEN SIX

CHAPTER 5

LOCATION: THE WILDFIRE, VESSEL IN THE FOXBLOOD WATERS

DATE: AUGUST 15th, 1800

A folded piece of paper. Really? That's what he risked his own fur and the lives of his crew for? The fox captain sighed. He had been hoping for gems or gold or something, anything, of real value. Taking the paper out of the box, he opened it and his eyes grew wide as saucers. Wilde hastily brushed the papers and maps on his desk onto the floor before smoothing out the paper on the desk. It was a map of the Animalian colonies. But not only was it just that. Emblazoned on the map in the mountain range just west of Billydelphia was a light purple symbol. Two triangles connected in an hourglass shape, with the points of two more smaller right triangles connected to the upper triangle. It seemed both strangely familiar as well as completely foreign to the fox. While that was interesting in itself, that wasn't what had caused his extreme reaction. Written in black ink at the top of the map was the phrase, "Find your way, little Wildfire."

Wilde sank into his chair as a memory flooded the fox's mind. He was just six-years-old. He was running through the forest, but not out of fear or necessity, purely because he was enjoying the nature around him. His parents were chasing after him, grins on their faces and laughing as they all weaved back and forth between trees. His mother had fur color to match his own and was wearing a simple brown dress that reached to about halfway between her knees and her feet. The vixen's eyes were a dazzling sky blue and her face was lean and sharp, matching the rest of her body. She was tall for a fox, with a small smile that remained at all times, barring only a few exceptional situations. His father was the average height of a fox, but was definitely a bit thicker in build. With broad shoulders and a smirk that would have let all knew where Captain Wilde had gotten it from, he wore a brown vest and pants along with a light purple cloak. The most distinct feature he had, however, was not the smirk, but his vibrant emerald eyes filled with life and joy.

Young Wilde weaved between the trees, trying to gain some sort of lead so he could hide and attempt to jump out at his parents. He glanced behind him to see he had lost his parents in the thicker trees. Turning to look for a hiding place, he ran square into an animal. Falling gracelessly on his tail, he gave off a small yelp of pain before looking up, expecting it to be one of his parents about to scold him for running out of their sight. What he saw terrified much more. It was a pig in a red coat that the little fox knew too well. The coat only Britantlan soldiers wore. The coat he and his family avoided at all costs. The pig scowled at the fox, then grabbed him by his arms and lifted him up to his feet less than gently. "What are you doing out here, kit?"

Just then, his parents came barreling through a group of bushes, still smiling, until they saw the pig holding their son by the shoulders. The Britantlan soldier recognized his father immediately and drew his rapier. The pig then turned young Wilde around so he was facing his parents, who stood just a few feet from him, and held the blade to the kit's throat. "Don't move, Wilde! You are under arrest by the order of King Lionheart IV! Place any weapons on the ground and surrender immediately!"

"Mommy! Daddy! Help me!" Young Wilde called out to his parents, tears beginning to fall down his cheeks.

The blade was pushed a bit tighter to his throat, "Shut up, kit! Surrender now, Wilde!"

The older fox crouched down to be at eye level with his son, "Nick, do you trust me?"

Young Wilde nodded, tears now streaming down. His father spoke again at the answer, "Then I need you to be calm and stop those rivers in your eyes, okay?"

The kit nodded again, taking a couple deep breaths and slowing the tears as he watched his father. His mother had barely moved, tears running down her cheeks and paws over her muzzle as she watched the whole conflict. The pig was fed up with waiting, "Right now, Wilde, or the kit is dead!"

His father had his smirk back along with that gleam in his eyes. "You got it, buddy."

He drew his cutlass and held it out with both paws before slowly setting it on the ground. Next, he pulled out his two knives and also placed them on the ground slowly. Finally, his flintlock. Slowly, he upholstered it and held it in his paw. He began to bend over, and was about to put it on the ground when he shot straight up again and fired the pistol. Young Wilde would never forget the crack of the gun and the smell of gunpowder that filled the air in that moment before he heard a Thunk!

The rapier held against his throat dropped down to the ground. Then the hoof holding his shoulder disappeared. He heard something hit the grass behind him, but he never turned around to look. As soon as the blade and hoof were gone, he ran to his parents. He dove into their arms as they held him close, he and his mother both extremely watery-eyed. His father still just smirked as he held both his wife and kit close while they shed enough tears for all of them. When the kit finally felt comforted enough, he looked to his parents, who smiled down back at him, "I thought I was going to die. Daddy, you saved me."

That got the tod to give off a barking laugh, "Of course I did! You think I would let anything happen to you, Nick?"

His mother quickly added to his father's words, "As long as we're around, you will always be safe. We will never let anyone hurt you ever. Do you know why?"

The kit shook his head "no." The tod and vixen looked at each other before speaking again to their child. This time, his mother started, "Because you are our son. You are the one who will live on when we are long gone and the one we are fighting to create a better life for."

His father took over placing a paw on his shoulder, "And most importantly, you are the one who will carry our torch when we move on to the heavens. You are our little Wildfire, Nick."

The memory faded away as quickly as it began as Wilde dropped his head into his paws, eyes red as he rubbed at them fiercely. He looked back at the map. Part of him wanted to revere it like a gift from the gods and the other part of him wanted to burn it to oblivion. It was all too painful to bear. He looked back at the map, focusing on the symbol in order to ignore the words at the top of the map. There was something at the very edge of his mind about the symbol. He knew it from somewhere, he just didn't know where. Something about the triangles and the color. That light purple. The same purple as dad's cloak.

Growling in frustration at the memories again trying to invade his thoughts, he punched down on his desk. He needed a distraction from all this. Something to keep his mind off his parents. Where had the map come from? Ah, that's it. He would talk to that rabbit. She had been guarding the box, so she must know where it was from. And if he could find out where it was from, he could get his contacts to find out more information for him. Yes, that would work. That would keep him distracted for at least a little while until he could get his memories and emotions in check. He grabbed his coat, which Herm had kindly left by the door to his cabin on a hook, and threw it on before marching down to the brig, map in his pocket.

She had cried at first. Cried because of her failure. Cried because of being captured. Cried because she was stuck on this stupid pirate ship. Cried at her entire situation. Then she had thought about it for a little bit, and realized she had a chance to do something here that no Britantlan marine had ever done. She was alive on the Wildfire. Which means she had a chance to learn about the ship, the crew, and, most importantly, the captain that had evaded capture for so long. The information she could gather would be priceless to her superiors. After thinking about that for a time, she thought back to everything she had seen and learned so far. Eventually getting to the duel with Captain Wilde. From his first demeaning words to her, to when he finally defeated her with that last gunshot. She knew his fighting style, at least with his cutlass, as well as some of his ploys. As much as she hated him, she had to respect him. He was always confident, wearing that infuriating smirk even when it seemed he had no hope. He always had a plan, normally pretty darn good ones at that. His agility was astounding as well. The way he had ducked and dodged his way through the battle on the Storm was unbelievable, and then his jump from one ship to another was amazing. No animal she had ever met was so quick and clever with his technique. It took every trick and bit of energy she had to pull off nearly defeating him.

But she hadn't won. Because of that tricky play on words...wait. She shot up from the ground. Pacing in thought and talking to herself, "He may have said he wouldn't use his guns, and he didn't, but he also said he would 'only use his trusty cutlass.' That mangy fox did lie!"

Then she sunk back down, anger dissipating. She had been the dumb bunny to fall for it. And now she was stuck here because of it. Fine then. She just had to be smarter from now on, and make sure to be wary whenever around that cunning, slimy, sneaky, no-good son of a-

The wooden door leading to the brig creaked open, and she heard quiet footpaws begin to make their way down the stairs and towards the cells. The rhino guarding her cell quickly shot up at attention as the animal turned the corner on the stairs and revealed themselves to be the fox captain himself. The size of the stairs in comparison to the fox would have been comical had he looked the same as she had last seen him. However, his smirk was gone, replaced by an expression of determination and seriousness. He waved his paw to the rhino, "Cullen, you may excuse yourself for a quick break. I would like to have a few words with our guest."

Cullen nodded and hurried his way up the stairs. As soon as the large mammal was gone, the captain opened his mouth to speak, but Hopps beat him to it, venomously spatting at him as she stood up, anger returning in a flash, "You did lie, you bastard. You said you would only use your cutlass, but you didn't. You used those guns, all because you knew you couldn't beat me fairly. You had to cheat, but I shouldn't be surprised since pirates like you don't know anything about having honor."

"Lieutenant Hopps, while I would love to have a thrilling discussion about the honor of pirates, there is something of greater importance I need to speak to you about."

The rabbit was taken aback by the use of her full title. Something was off here. "Well what do you need, Captain?"

"Where did you get the map?"

Now she was really confused. "The map?"

A spark of frustration briefly passed through the fox's eyes before going back to normal. "Yes, the map."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes, you do! You were guarding it on Bogo's ship."

She finally realized what he was talking about. "Oh, so that's what was in the box, a map. Interesting."

The fox captain gripped the bars of the cell tightly. "Don't play stupid with me, you know exactly what I'm talking about!"

"I honestly haven't got a clue. Only the Commodore knew what was in that box. He merely told us it was something that needed utmost protecting."

Wilde slammed his paws into the cell bars and growled in frustration, causing Hopps to jump a bit. He unlocked the cell and opened it, stepping inside and pulling the map out of his pocket. He unfolded it and showed her the detailed, paw-drawn map of Animalia, including the purple symbol and writing. "You have no idea where this map came from?"

She briefly looked it over before looking the fox in the eye and giving her answer, "I've never seen this map, Wilde."

He sighed and turned around slowly, folding the map and placing it back in his pocket as he did so. "I was afraid that was the answer you would give me."

In a flash he held a knife to her throat. "This is the last time I'll ask. Where is the map from?"

Hopps' breathing started to become panicked at the blade being pushed to her throat. "I...don't...know."

His eyes showed sadness for a fleeting moment before they closed, only to reopen with fiery determination, "Then I have no further use for you on my ship."

He sheathed the dagger and pulled her up by her bound wrists before pushing her out the cell and starting up the giant stairs one jump at a time. The finally made it out onto the deck and the captain yelled to his crew, "Prepare the plank!"

A series of cheers went up as a hippo began turning a crank near an opening in the railings and a board large enough to hold an elephant began to make its way out over the open sea. Wilde roughly shoved Hopps out onto the plank, but the rabbit lost her footing at the change from the deck to the plank, falling flat on her face to quite the amusement of Wilde's crew. She scrambled back to her feet, turning to face the fox captain. His eyes were emotionless as he held out an open paw to his right side. A long spear was placed into it, and he brought the sharp spear tip down and held it directly in front of Hopps' throat. He slowly began to walk forward, forcing Hopps to take steps back towards the edge of the plank or face a spear blade to the throat.

Hopps yelled to Wilde as he continued forward, stepping down onto the plank himself. "Wilde, you don't have to do this!"

"You're right. I don't have to do this. But I have done far worse and you are only a useless mouth to feed. Better to pull out the thorn now than wait until I get an infection." He still held that emotionless stare the entire time.

She stopped backing up and stared right back at Wilde. Desperation began to creep into the rabbit's voice as she continued to argue for her life, "I have a family to go back home to! Parents and siblings and nieces and nephews!"

That froze Wilde for a moment. A slight break in the emotionless stare. But whatever emotion briefly broke his demeanor quickly vanished, leaving Wilde smirking and the emotions again wiped from his face. "Well it seems to me that they've got enough rabbits around. They won't be missing just one."

The spear darted outward just enough to barely pierce her throat, causing a slight trickle of blood as the crew erupted into laughter. Hopps stumbled backwards a ways, glancing between the edge of the plank and Wilde as she frantically tried to think of a way to save her fur. Then she had it. It was so obvious she couldn't believe she hadn't already thought of it. "You're going to need me Wilde!"

This brought a barking laugh out of the fox as he kept stepping forward. "I will never need the help of a little bunny. Especially not you."

The spear shot out again, but this time Hopps quickly stepped back and out of the way of the blade... only to find herself at the edge of the plank.

She looked down into the ocean below her. She would be lucky just to survive the fall, not to mention having to either swim to land or happen to get rescued. No, she had one more shot at saving her fur, and she needed it to count. "Are you so sure of that, Wilde? You don't need an animal who happens to have memorized the patrol routes, both on land and sea, of the Britlantan military in Animalia? You don't need an animal who can help you navigate that map to get to that weird symbol? So how about a deal, Wilde. I'll help you get wherever you need to go without being captured, or even bothered, by soldiers, but after that you let me go free back home to my family."

The tip of the spear was lifted, then the spear itself thrown to an otter on deck. Wilde made a signal with his paws to the hippo, who began cranking the plank back towards the deck. Eventually Wilde and Hopps both stepped on deck, only an arm's length apart. Wilde was glaring daggers at the rabbit in front of him. "Fine, Carrots, I'll leave the thorn in for a little while."

He drew his dagger and pressed it to her throat while he held her over the edge of the ship with the other paw. One move on either paw would mean her death. He growled his next words to her. "If I even think you are doing something that endangers me or my crew in any way, I will yank out that thorn on the spot. Do we understand each other?"

The rabbit nodded the best she could and Wilde let her go back on deck. He motioned with his paw to two of his crew, the rhino, who she now knew was named Cullen, and a sleazy looking koala. They immediately did as their captain wished and brought her back to her cell in the brig, and the captain slowly walked to his cabin. As soon as he was gone, Finnick began yelling orders to the crew, getting everyone back into position for sailing and setting a course for somewhere called Tusk Island.

LOCATION: THE WILDFIRE, VESSEL APPROACHING THE DOCKS OF TUSK ISLAND

DATE: AUGUST 18th, 1800

She hadn't been let out of her cell since she almost walked the plank. Not that she was upset about that. She wanted to avoid Wilde after that whole incident. She was fed twice a day and had a guard all around the clock. Most the time it was Cullen. He was a friendly rhino who actually went out of his way to talk to her and create conversations. Wilde had actually saved him when he was stranded at sea. His ship had been under attack and was sinking, so he and a few other crewmammals jumped aboard a rowboat and escaped. They were at sea for over a week. He had been the only one to survive when Wilde saw the boat and brought Cullen aboard. The rhino had been fiercely loyal to him ever since and spoke very highly of him. Hopps didn't say much when the rhino tried to talk to her, but she at least acknowledged his presence and gave her gratitude for him trying to make her poor situation a bit better. The other guard she had wasn't nearly as amiable.

This was the koala that had been with Cullen to bring her back to the brig after the incident. She had come to know his name was Liam, and it was a name she would hate to hear even mentioned while she was captured. Whenever he came down to switch with Cullen, she didn't have to see him for she could smell his stench coming down the stairs. He reeked of booze along with sweat and grease. She doubted that he had ever bathed in his life. Liam would sway a bit as he walked and his voice slurred just barely enough for an observant animal to know he was nearly always drunk. As soon as Cullen would be up the stairs and resting he would begin cussing and yelling at Hopps for being part of the Royal Navy. After the first day of it she had decided to just ignore him and let him drunkenly rant at her. After the first three days of him screaming and yelling it seemed to finally work, as he stayed silent after Cullen left.

She was facing away from Liam, attempting to sleep on the wooden floor. She had at least been given some cloth to lay her head on so it wasn't impossible to get some shut eye. Then she heard a clatter of keys and the cell door opened. She turned around and shot to her feet, but then was slammed back into the hull of the ship by the paw of Liam. He may have been revolting, but he was strong after years of working on a ship. His breath, reeking of booze, came out in barely above a whisper as he held a long knife to the side of her face. "The captain is blind! He doesn't see that you are a curse and a plague on this ship. Well I'll handle this before it gets out of paw."

The knife moved down to her throat, then was stabbed into the wood of the hull between Hopps' ears. The koala looked Hopps up and down before chuckling maniacally. "Well, maybe there is a use for you before I kill you. I could have myself a little bit of fun."

One of his paws slowly traveled down her left side, but as he did this Hopps brought up her leg into a powerful kick between Liam's legs. This caused him to stumble backwards and keel over in pain. Then the rabbit used the wall to propel herself and bring up both legs in a strong kick to the koala's face, knocking him into the cell bars. She grabbed the knife and prepared to defend herself when the koala finally recovered and snarled at her, drawing a flintlock from his belt. But as he drew his gun there was a small cough as Wilde entered the cell between the two mammals. He looked at Liam with absolute disgust and disappointment. "You were about to break two of our codes, Liam. Do you understand that?"

"Captain, this wretch shouldn't even be alive. You should have killed her in combat or made her walk the plank, not be waiting for her to get us all hung!"

"And I can respect the breaking of one code for that reason, even if you would still be punished for it. But you also should know that I do need her to get through Animalia to what will hopefully make us all rich and finally fund the camp."

Liam looked down, realizing what his captain said was true. He then took a knee, head still bowed. "I'm sorry, Captain. I should have left the bunny alone."

He smirked and grabbed Liam's paw, bringing him to his feet. "Apology accepted! Now, we are home, so lets go and share a couple drinks at a good bar!"

He wrapped an arm around the koala and motioned for Hopps to follow as they climbed their way up the stairs. The reached the upper deck surrounded by Wilde's crew. They sounded excited as they approached a foreboding island surrounded by fog. Wilde looked back at Hopps and winked before announcing to the crew. "Oh, I forgot something, Liam! Under no circumstances do I allow the breaking, or attempt of breaking, of the second code from my crew!"

At that he shoved Liam out towards center deck and drew a flintlock. As soon as Liam turned to face him, fear in his eyes, Wilde shot the flintlock. The sudden sound caused the whole crew to look and see Liam with a bullet in his chest, blood seeping into his clothes as he fell backwards, eyes already glazing over. Wilde, still smirking, then continued speaking to the whole crew. "You all know our codes! We do not break these codes except under extreme circumstances! And by no means do we ever, and I do mean ever, break the second code! Let Liam be a lesson for this! Am I understood, my good animals?"

Every crew member either saluted or kneeled to Wilde at this, shouting "Yes, Sir!" or "Yes, Captain!" Wilde nodded in approval as the ship docked onto the island. The crew quickly exited the ship and began making their way into the pirate town. The fox turned to face the rabbit, who was still standing just behind him. "You're welcome. Now, since I don't want you to have to worry about something like that happening while I'm away, you'll be staying with me for the next couple days while we prepare for the long trip that is to Animalia. Don't try to escape because I will know and I will kill you without hesitation, got it?"

Hopps nodded, which was enough for Wilde. "Good. Now come come. I have some animals to introduce you to."

And with smirk firmly set onto the fox's face and confusion on the rabbit's, they jumped onto the dock and began making their way to the place Captain Wilde called home.