Hey, I'm back again! Just couldn't wait for this chapter because it's another one I've been waiting for since before I even started the story, so wanted to upload it ASAP! :D And anyway, I entered a talent show last Sunday called Next Big Thing (sung A Thousand Years by Christina Perri - and failed miserably!) and I'll find out by next Monday if I got in or not (probably not!), but I'm soo nervous so I want to take my mind off things for a bit. BTW, you know how two of the cubs were nicknamed 'Razzy' and 'Shi-Shi'? Well, you sort of have to read 'Dreams' to understand that... but I'll save you the work and say that basically when Raz and Shira were younger they had little nicknames for each-other. You should be able to figure the rest out.
I only own my OC's, like I said in the disclaimer in the summary.
Mikayla: That means me!
Me: Shut up you, you're not even in this chapter!
Mikayla: I know, that's why I'm here! So my adoring fans can still see me!
Me:... You know almost everyone hates you, right?
Mikayla: WHAT?! Why?!
Me: Just read the reviews and you'll find out. But like she said, this is an all-pirates chapter. Sorry!
Mikayla: You should be!
Me: Ugh! Does anyone know how to get rid of a sabretooth?!
Shira lay on the floor of the cell, stroking her sleeping cubs. Raz sat beside her, watching the seven little fluffballs as they slept heavily. They hadn't opened their eyes yet, as they were only a few days old now, but Gupta and the rest of the crew still hadn't seen them. The Captain had kept them busy organizing everything after the raid, but Squint had told them many stories about the cubs behind Gutt's back. The crew had planned to come down that night, so Raz was expecting them any minute now. As if on cue, the sound of claws on ice and flapping wings reached the kangaroo's ears, and she grinned as she saw her brothers come running towards her.
"Zip i', you guys!" she whispered quickly "Ya don' wanna wake the kids, do ya?"
The crew hurriedly slowed down and spoke quieter, but their faces lit up at the mention of cubs. Even Flynn was there, because despite his stupidity, Shira was certain he wouldn't tell the Captain - either accidentally or on purpose.
"Aww, look at the cute little cubbies!" exclaimed Flynn, his voice too loud. It woke up Diego Jr. and Ranger, but neither reacted much until they picked up Squint's scent. Diego Jr. gave a toothless little grin, while Ranger groaned again. Everyone - minus Squint, of course - laughed at this, finding it quite amusing that for some reason the three-day-old cub couldn't stand Squint, even though he'd delivered him.
"Wow, Squint," sighed Silas, laying a wing around Squint's shoulder "Ze child really does hate you."
"I know, what did I ever do to him?!" Squint waved his arms around as he spoke, showing his exasperation, but managed to effectively hit Shira in the face as he did so.
"Well, the fact that you just hit his Mom in the face probably won't help," commented Boris, ending in everyone but Squint in stiches laughing - even Diego Jr. and Ranger! As a result of this, Shi-Shi and Ghost woke up, mewling to show their dislike of so many people crowding around them. Shira cuddled them protectively, but accidentally woke Lightning while doing so. None of the cubs had opened their eyes yet, but everyone could tell as soon as they woke up.
"I guess we might as well wake up the others," said Shira with a shrug, licking Razzy awake. The cub's eyes stayed closed, but she yawned quietly. Shira nuzzled her, while Raz leaned over and gently patted Tiny awake. But Tiny did something none of the others had ever done. Her eyes shot open, revealing her azure orbs, just like her mother's. Everyone stared at her, gobsmacked, as she turned her little head from side-to-side, observing the world for the first time. She then looked Shira in the eye, a toothless smile spreading across her face as she recognised her mother.
"Her eyes," breathed Shira "T-Tiny opened her eyes..."
"She got 'em from ya, Sheila," Raz told Shira with a grin, stroking Tiny on the head. The young cub blinked a couple of times, memorizing the kangaroo's face. She recognised Raz's scent, and briefly recognised her voice. Tiny still couldn't hear very well, as she had only started to hear the night before, but Raz and Shira talked a lot so Tiny was fairly used to both of their voices. Shira carefully lifted her youngest cub to her chest, cradling her.
"Little Tiny," she sighed into the cub's silver fur "Sweet, little Tiny."
Raz silently lay down beside her sister, hugging her close. Shira's other six cubs cuddled against her stomach, nursing painfully. Tiny started mewling too, so Shira set the cubs beside her siblings, where she started nursing as well. Flynn flopped down beside Shira, on the opposite side to Raz, so Shira and her cubs were protected on all sides.
"INCOMING!" yelled Gupta and Squint at the same time, to be quickly shushed by Shira, and leapt through the air. Gupta landed on Shira's stomach, startling the hungry cubs, while Squint landed against her chest, snuggling down into her fur. As revenge for being jumped on, Shira licked Squint fondly, causing him to try to wipe it away and mime puking again.
"Your fault for jumping on me, bro!" giggled Shira, with a casual shrug. Silas carefully flew over to Shira and settled on her shoulder, nudging her affectionately with his beak. She nuzzled him in return, before turning to her last brother.
"You coming over?" she asked Boris, who looked up all of a sudden.
"Huh - me?"
"Yeah you!" laughed Shira, gesturing for him to come closer. Raz nodded and patted the space next to her invitingly, which Boris gladly accepted. He lay between his two sisters, enjoying their body warmth, as it comforted him in a way he wasn't used to. Raz stroked his head, which made him laugh, even though it came out kind of snortish, his siblings knew what he meant.
And there they fell asleep, all cuddled together. Rather strange for pirates, but perfectly normal for brothers and sisters. Which they were, of course.
"Aww, that's it Kitty. Enjoy it while it lasts," drawled a hairy ape from the sidelines "Because your precious family will be all gone tomorrow."
The next morning, the pirates awoke to a certain monkey's battle cry. The groggy crew quickly rose, fearing their Captain. The cubs started whimpering, and little Tiny closed her eyes in fright. Shira tried to cradle all seven cubs, which is obviously impossible, but Raz helped by cuddling Lightning and Shi-Shi, which effectively calmed them down. The rest of the crew hurried above deck, hoping that Gutt didn't rip into them for not being there. Squint instantly began forming an excuse, but he couldn't think of any way to get out of the situation without blaming Shira, which he definitely wasn't going to do!
"Captain!" called the rabbit, getting Gutt's attention once the whole crew was above deck.
"First-Mate Squint!" snapped the ape "Where were you all?!"
"Oh, uhm..."
"Answer. The question, Mister Squint," hissed Gutt darkly "Where. Were you?"
Squint blushed, unsure of what to say. He didn't want to be punished, but the only way that could happen would be if Shira got punished instead, which would be unacceptable, because then Gutt would surely find out about her seven cubs! The poor hare was so confused...
Back below deck, a kangaroo and a sabre listened intently to the conversation, hanging on every word. Raz got to her feet.
"Where are you going?" asked Shira fearfully.
"Ta help our brotha ou', tha's where," she answered.
"I want to come too!"
"But Sheila, the cubs..."
"I'll just have to leave them down here!" declared Shira, but she didn't seem happy about it. Suddenly, an idea hit Raz.
"Alrigh' Sheila, 'ere's wha we'll do," she said firmly "Ah'll take the weapons outta mah pouch, an' then ya can put the cubs in there 'til the battle's over."
"B-But, won't the guys need the swords?"
"Yeah, but Ah'll carry the swords up to 'em. There, problem solved."
Shira nodded, and carefully took Lightning and Shi-Shi from Raz and hugged them to her chest. Tiny stared up at Shira, blue eyes glowing with intelligence and worry. Shira licked the cub's head fondly, trying in vain to calm her down. Although her efforts didn't calm the cubs down, it did distract them, which is what she wanted, because it gave Raz a chance to empty her pouch of weapons before she put the kids in.
She picked up Ranger first, as he was the biggest, and carefully lay him down in the bottom of her pouch. Next came Diego Jr. and Lightning, who both snuggles into the sides of Raz's pouch happily, not questioning the new enviroment as it was warm and still had Raz's familiar scent. Then, Razzy entered the pouch, giggling at the new sensation of being placed into a kangaroo's pouch. She started reaching out with her paws to find out what this new enviroment felt like too, but she scratched around a little.
"Now, now, no clawin' ya lil' ankle bitah's!" Raz warned them, bending down to pick up Shi-Shi and setting her down inside the pouch, where she joined her sister in a giggling fit. Raz rolled her eyes at the small cubs, before scooping up Ghost and Tiny in one go and sliding them both into the pouch with their siblings. Although the cubs seemed comfortable enough, after some wriggling around of course, Raz worried that there wasn't enough space for all seven of them, and the fact that she could see the shape of all seven cubs when she looked in the ice didn't make her feel any better about squashing them all into her pouch.
"Stop fussing, Raz! They're fine!" Shira assured her sister, who never had understood how the silver sabre seemed to read minds like that. Raz sighed.
"'Kay, Ah guess i' should do fer now."
Shira nodded, and got to her feet. Raz collected her weapons, struggling to hold them all. Shira noticed that the weapon Raz really couldn't hold was the spiral-shell spear, which she couldn't even get off the floor.
"Here Raz, I'll carry the spear in my mouth and give it to you when you've given the guys their swords," offered Shira, to which Raz nodded and thanked her. The sabre bent down and carefully picked up the spear by the shaft with her mouth. With a nod from Raz, who hurriedly hopped up above deck, Shira followed her sister up to the fierce battle that was sure to ensue.
Squint backed away from an extremely angry Captain Gutt.
"P-please Captain, I can explain!" he begged.
"Ugh, been there, done that, Squint!" Everyone turned to see Raz and Shira standing together, putting up a united front "Trust me, you should just save your breath little bro, he's not gonna listen!"
"Little. Bro?" hissed Gutt, to which Shira raised her eyebrows as if to say "Did I not just say that?!" and the others nodded firmly "There is no relation between you two. There is no relation between ANY of you! You're all a bunch of dumb animals who I've saved over the years, who've all got the ridiculous idea into their thick skulls that somehow they're siblings! Do you understand?!"
By this time, Gutt had leaned so far forward Squint had to lean back to avoid the Captain's bad breath. He pretended to wipe spit off his face before speaking.
"I understand that you spit when you talk, that you have no idea of the concept of family and that you REALLY need a mint!" he stated simply, propping himself up on his knife when Gutt backed off in surprise. The monkey reached behind him and started picking up whatever bone swords were lying on the deck. Raz cleared her throat pointedly, and the crew stared at her.
"Boys! Catch!" she shouted and threw them all their weapons, which they deftly caught, and Shira gave her the spear. To Gutt's surprise, the crew crowded together and stood there, all guarding each-other.
"Okay guys, I guess I'll just have to-" Gutt grinned at the pirates maliciously, pointing his swords at them "ATTACK!"
Out of instict, Shira roared and ran forward, but Gutt expected that. Despite the fact that she was a girl, and that she was the youngest of the crew, Shira always attacked first, because she was typically the one people were most afraid of. Gutt threw his swords in the air and grabbed the sabre's leg, yanking her off the deck.
"SHIRA!" exclaimed the whole crew, but only Boris noticed that the swords were falling quickly back towards the ship. Gutt noticed too, and purposely held Shira above his head so that they would stab her instead. Well, they would have, if a small, slender possum with soft fur and a dark fringe that fell over one eye hadn't appeared out of nowhere and started clawing at Gutt's eyes.
"What the-" Gutt dropped Shira on the deck and swiped at the possum, missing by miles as she'd climbed up on top of his head.
"Haha! Failure!" laughed the possum, brushing her fringe out of her eyes with one paw and resting the other on her hip. The crew all stared at her, heads tilted to one side, until Shira groaned in pain. Gutt went to grab her again, but the possum whacked him in the eye with her tail. He stumbled back, mumbling in pain, and the possum leapt off his head. He fell off the edge of the ship, only just gripping the edge with his claws.
The little possum ran over to Shira, carefully checking the sabre for bruises and cuts. After satisfying herself that Shira wasn't in extreme pain, the possum turned to the rest of the crew.
"Hi everyone!" she called cheerily, waving. The crew stared back at her, confused.
"Uhm... hi?"Squint decided to speak since no-one else had "I'm Squint... what's your name?"
"Tasmin. But everyone calls me Taz," she grinned at them, offering her paw. Squint hesitantly shook her paw, watching her warily the whole time. 'Taz' rolled her eyes. "Okay, let me clear this up right now. I am on your side, okay? I'm against the monkey!"
As if on cue, Gutt climbed back up onto the deck, attempted to stand in a threatening pose, and cleared his throat for their attention. Taz raised her eyebrows at him, giving him that "Dude, no-one's buying it!" look.
"Aww, a cute, little possum!" drawled Gutt "I hate cute, little possums!"
"And I hate fat monkeys with stupid hair, what's your point?" asked Taz, folding her arms and tapping her foot, as if awaiting an answer. The crew couldn't help chuckling at that, which caused Gutt to glare at them.
"Alrigh' guys, iss' mah turn now," declared Raz, before charging forward with her shell-spear. Taz leapt out of the kangaroo's way just in time, afraid of being stood on. Gutt grabbed a random weapon (which turned out to be Buck's dino-tooth knife - worst luck!) and prepared to fight Raz, but he didn't need to. Forgetting about the seven cubs squashed into her pouch in the heat of the moment, the kangaroo lunged, but little Tiny slid out and landed on the deck of the ice-ship. Her azure eyes blinked uncertainly as she tried to work out what was happening, before widening dramatically when she spotted the ape running towards her.
"Not gonna happen!" shouted Taz, grabbing Tiny by her stubby tail and pulling her out of Gutt's way. This caused the Captain to face-plant the ground, and left him slightly dazed. Raz, preparing to make the dramatic, final stab to end Gutt's life, hopped forward a few times, before promptly tripping over nothing and falling forward. Her shell-spear imbedded itself in Gutt's back, and blood soaked into the monkey's fur. He didn't make any sounds or movements, so they all assumed he was dead. For good this time.
The crew, plus Shira, the cubs, and Taz, stood at the front of the ship, watching the herd's island approach.
"Finally," breathed Shira "I'm finally heading home!"
"Hey, Taz?" the small possum turned to see Squint looking at her.
"Yeah... uhm, Squint, right?"
"Yeah, that's right. I just wanted to say that, well... you were great back there. Ya know, fighting Gutt and stuff."
"Thanks," Taz grinned "But I can't take all the credit. Raz was the one who actually killed him!"
"Oh yeah, I meant to thank you for that Raz!" Shira nuzzled the kangaroo "You saved all of us! You were amazing!"
"Nah, Ah wasn'," sighed the kangaroo dejectedly, stroking the little Razzy "Ah messed up real bad... Ah almost got Tiny killed!"
"Yeah, but you didn't!" Shira tried to reassure her "You beat Gutt! You had the bravery and courage to walk, well hop, up and stab him with that spear!"
"Ac'ually, Ah didn' do tha on purpose, Ah jus' tripped an' fell," she confessed, blushing under her purple fur.
"What did you trip over?" asked Taz curiously, as she hadn't seen any trip hazards on the deck. Raz blushed even more.
"Nothin'. Ah tripped ovah the air!"
Shira rolled her eyes playfully, licking Tiny, who was between her paws, on the head. Taz sat on Shi-Shi's back, while the blind little cub batted at the possum with her paws. Razzy squirmed in the kangaroo's arms, trying to find Raz's face so she could smile at it. Raz dropped her head dejectedly, embarressed.
"Don't worry Raz," Squint assured her "There's nothing wrong with falling over! In this case, it was a good thing!"
"He's right," agreed Shira "You saved all of us when you fell!"
"And it proves you have skill!" added Taz. Noticing the strange looks she was getting from everyone, she explained "It takes SERIOUS skill to fall over air!"
For some reason, the crew started laughing at that statement, and they couldn't stop. It was as if they were letting out all the laughter they'd bottled up during their years at sea, and they all felt great for doing so. Shira, cuddling a very giggly Tiny, watched as her siblings genuinely laughed, enjoying it. She'd missed this side of them; the real side. While they were violent, scary pirates, they did still have their family moments, and Shira had always treasured them. Now that Gutt was gone, Shira could always appeal to this kinder side of her siblings, and she need not fear punishment. She was so happy with her family at the moment, but she couldn't wait to get back to her other family.
She just hoped that somehow, her two families could be combined.
Okay, what did you think? Good? Bad?
Taz: How could it be bad? I'm in it!
Me: Oh, that reminds me! I don't own Taz either, scoobs5601 does, but she requested that she be included, and I agreed (I LOVE Taz!) so that's how she got here. Hope none of you mind, and if you do, I'm sorry. And she doesn't have the Charlie background either, she's a full possum in this.
Taz: Explaination for anyone who hasn't read Inside A Red Notebook by scoobs5601: In IARN I was a human but I became a possum. No more spoilers!
Me: *rolls eyes* Thanks for reading and please review!
Taz: Review, review, review!