Author's Note: Abren is a weasel, something that's actually kinda important. ;)
Also, this is easily the most light-hearted chapter in the whole story. Enjoy it while it lasts- two chapters from now, everything goes to hell. Ha ha ha.
XXIX: The Ship
Captain Tronto fancied himself to be the most feared searat of all time, even though he really wasn't anywhere close to being that. Still, he was no pushover. He had risen to power by being the biggest and most cunning rat in the entire crew of the Bloodrider, the fine craft that Wemys and Limptail had seen and that Conrad planned to steal for himself. Tronto knew neither of those things, however, so he continued doing things the way he had always done them: four or five rats left behind to guard the ship, while the rest of the crew, numbering about eighty, went onshore to plunder and pillage.
That's just what they were doing now. At least, that's what they were trying to do. They had been aimlessly wandering around in this forest for the entire day, and hadn't yet found a single, solitary anything.
"Yarr, mebbe nobeast lives in these parts, cap'n!" exclaimed the steersrat of the Bloodrider, Coldfur, "We ain't seen a single soul this whole time!"
"Be quiet, ya fool!" Tronto shouted, "I betcha we ain't seen nuttin' cuz yew keep scarin' 'em away, shoutin' like that an' all!"
Coldfur said nothing, instead opting to slink away from his captain. Tronto continued romping through the trees, searching for a village to pillage.
However, his crew was complaining. A flurry of moans and groans came from the center of the crew, where Tronto wouldn't be able to see who had the gall to whine about his orders.
"We've been walkin' all day!"
"There ain't nuttin' out here!"
"Let's move on farther north!"
Tronto turned and snarled at all of them. What was so good about the far north? It was just cold and snowy! But now, they were complaining in full force. And they were partly right; it didn't seem like anybeast inhabited this part of the world.
"Fine, then!" he shouted, "We're goin' back! But I don't wanna here a peep outta any of yew on the way back, ya got that? Not one peep!"
---
The Bloodrider sat unmoving in the water, just a bit off from the beach. Wemys had been watching it intently for a day or so now, waiting for Conrad to show up. If the fox came now, then they wouldn't even have to do the complicated plan he had made in order to steal the ship, which included a lot of diversions, risks, and good acting, since there were only about five rats guarding the ship. There were even a bunch of little boats on the beach that they could use to get to the ship.
As if on cue, Conrad made his appearance. "Hello, Wemys," he exclaimed to the young stoat, whose back was turned to the fox, "Good job on findin' that ship."
Wemys jumped and span around. Conrad had given him a bit of a scare. "Uhh… Yeah, I guess. Look, there's only five rats on there, guardin' it. The rest are out, doin' something. I dunno what. But if we move now, we should be able to take the ship without any trouble whatsoever."
Behind Conrad appeared the rest of the group- Limptail, Weltsnout, Swiss, Davian, Jeld, and the rest, along with the twenty-three prisoners, who were being goaded along by Garland and Yugu. There was also somebeast Wemys didn't recognize; a weasel dressed in very large clothing.
Abren saw Wemys, too, as he massaged the lump on his head. He had reacted jovially to his injury; it had just been a misunderstanding, that was all. The rest of the group had all expected there to be a big fight between him and Garland, but there wasn't. Garland had breathed a sigh of relief after that.
The navigator froze. Wemys looked exactly like a stoat he had used to know. Perhaps… No, he couldn't ask now, and maybe blow his cover. He had to keep under his alias as long as possible, or something bad could happen.
"Who's that?" Wemys asked, pointing at Arlen.
"It's just our navigator. We met him last night," Conrad replied quickly, "Now, Wemys says that there's very few guards up there right now, so I say we don't waste any time and get going. Any complaints?" There were none. "Good. Now, we're gonna get to those little boats right there on the beach, an' row 'em towards the ship. Weltsnout an' Davian, make sure none of the slaves try to escape, okay?"
"Alla the slaveys are chained together," Weltsnout pointed out, frowning, "We can't fit 'em all on one liddle boaty, no way."
"Then fit 'em on two, or three, or however many it takes," Conrad said, "Just keep all the boats close enough, and you shouldn't have any trouble. Now, I'm gonna be on the boat on front, which is the boat that's gonna have to take out the guards. So I don't just want ya to scramble on willy-nilly, I want the best fighters with me. Weltsnout an' Davian, once ya get the slaves on their boats, get yerselves on my boat. Garland an' Yugu can watch the prisoners, so don't worry. Jeld, I want ya with me as well, an' also Curvetail. An'… Kleid, yer good with a bow, yew can take out the guards as we're sailin' up to 'em. So, you five will come with me, ya got that? The rest of ya, I don't care where ya go, as long as ya get on a boat an' don't muck anythin' up. Any questions?"
"Uh, one," interjected Curvetail, a tall, lanky weasel, "How're we s'posed ta get up onta the boat from those liddle tiny boats in the water?"
"Good question," Conrad replied, realizing that he didn't quite have an answer to it, "Does anybeast know how we could get up there?"
Everybeast began shrugging or murmuring among themselves. Jeld, however, opened his rather large pack and began fishing through it. He sifted amongst all of the things he had won over the seasons by gambling. There were medals, pieces of gold, heirlooms, all sorts of things. What he was looking for wasn't there. Undeterred, the stoat realized he must have put it with all the weapons he had won. He grabbed a second, even larger bag that was being carried by a creature named Tadds, a weak, wimpy rat that Jeld had pressed into carrying all of his stuff by claiming it'd be promotion from "Regular Old Rat" to "Assistant to the Supply Chief".
Jeld opened his second pack and looked through it as well, this time much more carefully. Many times, the creatures he gambled with didn't have any heirlooms or trinkets to give him when they lost, so he had taken their weapons. He had all sorts of things in there: Swords, throwing knives, regular knives, a couple of axes, a pair of bolas, a bow with a set of arrows, and a hammer. Finally he found what he was looking for. Cautiously reaching into the pack, he pulled out a steel grappling hook attached to a long rope.
"Will this do?" asked the stoat, tossing the grappling hook to the floor. Conrad examined it carefully, and then nodded, a sly smile on his face.
"Now, are we ready?" asked the fox. There was a murmur of yes and a lot of nodding. "Then, let's go."
The forty of them suddenly began running down the beach towards the set of small boats. The prisoners stumbled and tripped, holding up the entire line, but Weltsnout and Davian kept them going.
Conrad, who was in the lead, leapt onto one boat, followed by Jeld. The five rats guarding the boat had all noticed them now, and were frantically trying to figure out what to do in the face of the approaching army.
Davian forced the first few prisoners onto a boat. They collapsed in a heap over each other. Garland jumped on top of them, pushing the boat out of the sand and into the water. Yugu pushed two empty boats into the water, jumping into the second one, and the two of them tried to get the three boats close enough as the rest of the prisoners were shoved onto them.
Weltsnout, who had been urging the slaves on from the back, was beginning to get annoyed with the straggling prisoner at the rear, Buvul. The panicked stoat kept tripping and falling and screaming like a madbeast. Weltsnout, tired of this, simply picked up Buvul and began running along with the prisoners himself. He threw Buvul onto the third boat, with the stoat still screaming.
"Push it off!" yelled Conrad from his own little boat, which now also had the two weasels Curvetail and Kleid on it as well. As Davian and Weltsnout ran to join them, Garland and Yugu began paddling the three boats as fast as they could, which wasn't very fast. "Get the slaves to help you two!"
Garland followed Conrad's orders, yelling for the prisoners to paddle as well. Chained together, it was difficult, but there were enough of them to make up for that. The slaves had all been successfully put on the boats and were now heading for the ship in one big caravan.
Davian and Weltsnout jumped onto Conrad's boat, which also had taken off. Jeld, Conrad, and Curvetail began paddling rapidly as Kleid readied her bow. Next to them was a boat that was filled with Wemys, Swiss, Limptail, and Tadds, as well as both of Jeld's bags. The last boat was being led by Abren, and had the other four members of Conrad's group on it.
One of the rats on the deck of the Bloodrider had grabbed a large horn and began blowing into it, creating an ear-splitting noise. "He's callin' fer help!" Conrad shouted, "Kleid, take him out!"
"Aye, aye, Conrad!" Kleid replied. The weasel pulled back her bowstring and let an arrow fly. It struck the rat in the chest, and he toppled over the edge of the ship, taking the horn with him.
The other four rats, not having any projectile weapons, had smartly moved into the center of the ship, unable to be hit by arrows. Conrad urged the others to paddle harder, as they'd have to fight the rest paw-to-paw.
The three boats filled with the prisoners were lagging behind. "We shoulda gotten a fourth boat!" yelled Yugu. Garland noticed with dismay that his boat was slowly sinking.
Conrad pulled his boat alongside the ship. Jeld threw his grappling hook up. It hit the side of the ship with a clinking noise. "Who's gonna go first?" he asked nervously, hoping it wouldn't be him.
"It's yer rope, yew go up," Curvetail shouted. Jeld frowned.
"Don't worry," Kleid reassured, notching another arrow to her bow, "I'll cover ya."
"An' I'll be right behind ya," Curvetail added. Begrudgingly, Jeld grabbed the rope and began climbing up. When he had gotten half of the way to the edge of the ship, Wemys' boat had already paddled up.
Jeld reached the edge of the ship. He was almost completely into it when one of the rats charged at him, cutlass poised to lop off Jeld's head. He didn't even get close before one of Kleid's arrows buried itself into his neck.
Jeld climbed into the ship and drew his saber. The other three rats all converged on him, running in a triangle formation of sorts. The formation was shattered when another of Kleid's arrows took out the rat to the left. The other two dodged back to the center of the ship, out of Kleid's line of fire.
Curvetail then climbed into the ship and drew his own sword. The two rats backed up against a mast, not daring to charge them.
"Lay down yer weapons an' we'll letcha go," Curvetail announced. The two rats exchanged glances, and then threw down their cutlasses. Jeld quickly seized them, wanting to add them to his collection.
"Now, yer gonna let us go, right?" one of the rats asked.
"Yeah, o' course," Curvetail replied, "I'll let yew two go straight ta Hellgates." He quickly ran both of them through, then pushed the bodies unceremoniously over the edge of the ship, laughing to himself.
Weltsnout was in the ship now. "What?!" he exclaimed, "No ratties left fer me? No fun!" He stormed to the other side of the ship angrily.
Conrad, Davian, and Kleid followed. "So this is my ship now, eh?" announced the fox, "Yes… I am now Captain Conrad! How's that sound, Weltsnout?" He turned to his second-in-command. The rat simply shrugged quickly. Curvetail discovered a set of stairs to belowdecks and walked down them.
"I owe ya one," Jeld said to Kleid, "Ya saved my life back there, twice!"
The weasel simply shrugged, shouldering her bow. "How 'bout ya give me back that bracelet ya stole from me in that one dice game? It belonged to my grandmother," she muttered.
"Uh… I'll think 'bout that," Jeld replied as Wemys climbed onboard.
Curvetail's voice echoed from belowdecks. "'Ey, Conrad! Ya oughtta take a good look at wot's down here! These rats had their own galley slaves, it looks like!"
Conrad hurried down, followed by the others who had made it onboard already. The stairs led to a room where the galley slaves were set to do their paddling. In pairs of two where dismal-looking mice, voles, otters, squirrels, hedgehogs, and other such creatures, all chained up. There were about forty of them in all.
"Why'd we need our own slaves, Conrad? There's plenty o' 'em here already!" announced Curvetail, shaking the shoulder of a squirrel that was ragged to the bone. "We can use those ones we caught as our crew!"
"No, ya idiot!" Conrad shouted, "Jeld, find the keys for the chains they're all stuck in. We're settin' 'em all free. The whole reason we got rats an' weasels an' such to be the rowers was because we didn't want the Long Patrol or Redwall to find out an' get all mad at us! An' I still don't want that! Jeld, you find those keys yet?"
The stoat handed out a huge set of keys, which jingled and jangled wildly. "Wait, so you're really going to let us go?!" exclaimed a mouse in disbelief.
"Yeah, yeah, ya don't have to paddle any oars no more," Conrad said, unlocking a lock and setting a whole slew of creatures free, "But I ain't gonna let ya stay on the ship, there ain't enough food. So, yer gonna hafta swim back to shore yerselves. Think ya can do that?"
The former slaves nodded as Conrad unlocked another set of chains. "If we can survive the conditions those dirty searats put us through on here," announced an otter proudly, "We can swim a few feet to shore."
"That's easy for you to say, you're an otter!" shouted a hedgehog, "How am I s'posed to get to shore?"
"Oh, be quiet," Conrad snapped, "We have a few small boats you can get in if ya can't swim." He unlocked a final set of chains. "Now, get out of here!"
"Conrad!!" shouted Swiss and Limptail in unison as they dashed down the stairs. Swiss tripped and fell flat on his face.
"Conrad!" Limptail repeated, "It's the rats! They're comin' back fer us! They're getting' into the rest of the little boats an' sailin' straight at us!"
"Ah, great!" Conrad spat. He pushed past Jeld and Kleid and marched up the stairs, stepping over Swiss as he tried to get back up. On the top of the deck now was Tadds, who had somehow managed to get both of Jeld's bags up the rope, and Abren, who was helping up the other four members in his little boat.
On the shore was Captain Tronto, who was fuming and yelling in an absolute furor as he ordered his crew to board the remaining boats and regain the Bloodrider. They had been moving back slowly, but when they heard the horn of alarm, Tronto had dashed back. What he saw had made him furious.
Abren helped up the last one of the creatures on his boat, and Yugu attempted to pull her small caravan against the side of the ship, without much avail. The prisoners were all screaming and yelling hysterically, despite Garland's best efforts to calm them down. Yugu finally got the boats close enough, and swiftly shimmied up the rope, her lithe and thin body making the task easy.
Garland tried to clamber past the distraught prisoners to get to the rope before them, but he was too late, as the first of the prisoners (Reyla, being helped by her mate) had already begun to climb up. Garland became nervous. Now he'd have to wait for every single prisoner to get up before he could, considering that they were all connected. And there were about eight boats filled with searats paddling right at him.
As Tronto stayed behind on the beach while the rest of his crew fought, the bosun Coldfur had been stuck with the unfortunate job of leading the first boat back to the ship. His little boat got only about halfway there before he was struck down by one of Kleid's arrows. The weasel had grabbed her bow again and was firing like crazy. The rats were so closely packed together on the boats, though, that it was hard to miss.
Jeld opened up his pack of weapons and reached his paw in quickly. He cut it on a sword, but ignored the pain as he fished out his own little bow. Running up beside Kleid, he notched an arrow and pulled back the bowstring. The arrow fell out of the bow before he had even let go. He scrambled down to pick it back up, but Kleid snapped, "If yew don't know how to arch, then don't try! See if there's some other creature here who can use a bow!"
The stoat rushed back, yelling, "Is there anybeast who can arch?!" He was not getting any responses.
Conrad turned to the former galley slaves, who were still down belowdecks. "Yer all goin' overboard, now!" he yelled.
"What?! We'll just be recaptured!" shouted a vole, "You got to let us stay here for now! You can always just drop us off somewhere later! It doesn't matter where, as long as it's far away from that wretched Tronto!"
"Conrad, we don't have time to argue!" Wemys exclaimed, "We need to get Garland an' the rest up here, right now!"
"Fine, then!" Conrad snarled, "You all stay down there an' don't get in our way, okay? An' then we'll let ya go!"
Half of the slaves had managed to get on board. Weltsnout and Curvetail were now heaving them up by the chains one by one. Down below, on his half-sunken boat, Garland helped by pushing them up. Of course, Buvul, in the back of the group, was giving them immense trouble.
"Get over here, ya stupid stoat!" Garland growled at the shivering Buvul, who was curled up in one of the boats, "Get over here or we're all gonna die!!" He yanked on the chain angrily. Buvul didn't budge.
"Garland, get that slavey over here!" Weltsnout yelled, "He's holdin' back the rest of 'em!"
"Everybeast, DUCK!" shouted Kleid. Instinctively, every creature on board did as instructed. A flurry of arrows passed by overhead, embedding themselves in the bowsprit. "They're shootin' arrows now, too!"
"If ya aren't helpin' out up here, then go belowdecks!" Conrad ordered. Swiss ran up and looked ready to say something. "An' no, Swiss, ya aren't helpin'! Get below, now!" In a frantic dash, most of the creatures abovedecks ran for the stairs. Most of the chained prisoners got down, but the ones that still hadn't climbed up were holding a lot of them back, creating a stretched line of chain. Weltsnout, Curvetail, and Jeld all helped to pull chain.
Buvul suddenly felt his chain begin to tug against him hardly. "It's a sea monster! It's a sea monster, it's got it's tentacles on me! It's goin' to eat meeeeeeee!" The chains became very tight and Buvul was lifted off from the small boat, screaming and wailing. As Buvul, the last of the prisoners, was finally lifted over the edge of the ship, Garland began his ascent.
Another flurry of arrows came. One struck Weltsnout in the leg, another nicked Curvetail's ear, and about five went right for the still-climbing Garland. The ferret hugged the rope tightly, closing his eyes. The five arrows soared right past him, not a single one hitting him.
"You'll hafta do better 'n that to kill me, sea scum!" Garland shouted in triumph. He resumed his climbing, only to find that the rope he was holding onto had partially been severed by one of the arrows. Garland stared at the half-cut rope dumbly for a second. Then the rope broke. "Ah, why does this always happen ta—"
Garland hit the ocean with a loud splash. "Garland!!!" shouted Jeld. The ferret resurfaced, thrashing around wildly. He couldn't swim. "We need another rope, quickly!!"
Jeld ran back to his dual packs, looking for another rope to throw down to Garland. Weltsnout, however, had a better idea. Pulling the arrow out of his leg (and muttering "stupid arries"), he picked up the sniveling Buvul and threw him overboard.
"Gaah!! The sea monster is pullin' me back in!!! Help meeeeeeee!!!" Buvul screamed, dangling a few feet above the ocean surface. Garland spat out a mouthful of water and grabbed Buvul's tail. The stoat screamed in both fear and pain and he was suddenly jerked back up, along with Garland.
Both of them crashed back onto the deck, Garland soaking wet and Buvul spouting frenzied gibberish. "Get rowin', now!!" Conrad shouted, "I don't care who does it, just get us out of here!!"
Down belowdecks, a myriad of creatures jumped onto the seats and began rowing. Swiss, Wemys, the new slaves, the old slaves, all of them began rowing as fast as they could in a haphazard, crazy manner.
The ship began to move away, much quicker than the small boats were going. Very quickly, they began falling behind, until not even their arrows could reach the ship. Back on the beach, Captain Tronto, now stripped of his ship, screamed, "I'll getcha fer this! Nobeast crosses Cap'n Tronto and lives ta tell the tale!! Yarr!!!"
On the deck, everybeast began to laugh jovially.
Second note: Captain Tronto never reappears in this story, EVER. He doesn't even get a cameo in the Epilogue, like pretty much every character in Part II and all the other characters who had some loose ends to tie up. Just another funny thing done with another random minor character. You'll notice a lot of weird junk going on with the minor characters in the Part (and there are a lot of them). In fact, there are very few minor characters in the part WITHOUT some kind of strange quirk.