On the Western Sea, there was one vermin name that was feared above all others.
Blacktail the Overlord!
Across the water in his ship, the Pikeshaft, he caused terror and fear wherever he sailed.
Blacktail the Overlord!
Black-furred and muscular, with a piercing stare in his black eyes, the stoat ruled over the Sea Hordes with an iron paw. His word was law. Unquestionable law.
Blacktail the Overlord. Fierce, intelligent, and out for blood.
The Sea Hordes were a collection of large ships with crews numbering at least twice as many as the average size of a crew, making the amount of fighting beasts eight hundred. Despite this, they did not have enough strength to take the Western Sea by force, and that was why Blacktail was calling every corsair, searat, Coast Raider, Rapscallion, Sea Rogue, and any other sea vermin to him, to unite under his banner for conquest, plunder, and slaves. More ships were arriving every day, swelling the already large horde's numbers. Sloops, galleons, brigs, and many other ships too numerous to count arrived in the far northern sea, near a collection of tall rocks sticking up out of the ocean as if to prick the sky and make it bleed with their tops. Blacktail stood at the prow of his ship. His advisor, the pine marten Solan, boarded the ship quietly and stood at the stern, waiting to see if his lord had noticed him. The pine marten was male, with light brown fur that belied his true nature of a born killer. In addition to being deadly with the saber at his waist, he was a crack shot with any weapon that could be shot or thrown, be it sling, bow, spear, or crossbow. The marten was so trusted that he captained his own ship, the Raven's Beak. Solan had ordered the ship painted black, to attune it to its namesake, and for camouflage when ambushing ships in the middle of the night. When the lamps on the ship were extinguished, the Raven's Beak became almost invisible. Only if the moon was out or a ship ran into it would the ship would be exposed. So far, the Sea Hordes had not ambushed any goodbeast ships, as very few ships came to this section of the sea, because of the cold. As Blacktail looked out, he saw at least a hundred ships. Masts punctured the air like a forest of spears, their furled sails fluttering in the weak wind. A blade flashed in the sunlight whenever a crewbeast moved, creating sporadic flashes all over the vast armada. Solan approached Blacktail quietly, his black cloak slithering across the ship's deck. Blacktail, hearing the noise, looked behind him. He smiled to himself. "So, you finally broke from your cabin, Solan?"
Solan smiled briefly. "Space in the armada is tight, lord. More ships are arriving by the hour, and, weeks from now, I wager that the armada will stretch to the horizon, and number at least as many as Ungatt Trunn's armada did."
Blacktail had always admired Trunn. The stoat was northern, so he had heard of the wildcat conqueror, but had despised his arrogance. The wildcat had let his pursuit of conquest cloud his judgment. That would not happen to Blacktail. Not the terror of the seas. He would not be overconfident again, after the squirrel's son escaped. Nobeast escaped him. The loss had tarnished his reputation, lost fame that although he had quickly regained it, still lingered. Blacktail walked past Solan, motioning for him to follow. The pine marten went into Blacktail's cabin, which was hung with weapons, maps, charts, and a list of enemies that was accumulating a very large amount of X's. Among the rows of vermin captains, whom where Blacktail's rivals, there were two pictures of goodbeasts. One fully grown squirrel, whom had a large red X drawn over him, and a younger squirrel, which, although Blacktail did not know yet, was a younger Ryon Oakleaf. The other squirrel was his father, whom had been slain by Blacktail many seasons ago.
Ryon was in his study on Vale Island, reading a large book with tears of anger in his eyes. The squirrel captain still remembered every detail of his father's death as clearly as if it were happening to him every day.
Sorry this is so short. I'll post another chapter to make up for it. Also, sorry about the delay in postings. I haven't had much time to get on this lately. R and R!