Chapter 4

The Game Begins


The wind howled powerfully, forcing beasts to the ground. In the darkened sky, Borsen saw beasts clamouring and yelling to get stuff done as fast as possible. Checking the sails, steering the ship, tying things down, and many other tasks Borsen did not understand the reasoning for. The rain was pouring down, drenching the unlucky crew of The Twilight Serpent in its frigid downpour. Borsen grinned as he looked over the edge of the ship watching the blackened waves crash violently against the side of the ship. It was clear from the grim expressions of the other crew members that some of them thought their lives were in great danger.

An unrestrained sense of elation exited Borsen in the form of a loud cheer. This was amazing! He gripped onto the railing tightly as the ship swayed and rocked beneath him. He cackled loudly as he watched a stoat slip on the deck and slide down the ship. Unfortunately for Borsen, the stoat grabbed onto the mast in time and didn't fall off the ship.

It was then that he remembered that Durkfor was in the lower parts of the ship. Still giggling from the rush, Borsen carefully made his way inside the ship. On his way down, he stopped by his cot and grabbed his blanket. Once he got to the lowest level, he saw a group of beasts bailing water as best they could. Borsen ignored them and walked straight to the brig hallway.

He opened the wooden door that led into the hallway and immediately heard a panicked scream. Slightly confused, he walked towards the large metal door and peeked through the bars. Whether it was because it was dark outside, or because there wasn't a light inside the brig, Borsen couldn't see much inside the room. What he could see, however, was a terrified-looking otter child staring at him.

Borsen scoffed and rolled his eyes, kid probably jumped at everything. Borsen hated children, he constantly had to fight the urge to snap at the dibbuns back at Redwall Abbey whenever they bothered him.

He rolled up the blanket as thinly as possible and tossed it through the bars towards Durkfor. The hare caught it and looked at the door, surprised.

As he stared deep into his friend's eyes, Borsen felt guilty. "Umm…" he didn't even know if Durkfor wanted to talk to him right now. "Durk, stay warm. If anybeast 'sides Durk touches that blanket, I'll ki-" Borsen stopped, noting the sorrow-filled expression on Durkfor's face, "... They'll be in trouble. That blanket is fer Durk only, bye."


The rest of the prisoners watched as Borsen exited the hallway, leaving them alone. Toran breathed out with relief, that scream worked, and the sea otter didn't suspect a thing. He watched the door like a hawk, ready to call out when the door opened. Once Borsen had left, the beasts with the files, Yos and Midwyng, continued to saw at their chains.

At least, Yos tried to. She couldn't figure out what she was supposed to be doing, and her paws were too numb to file effectively. To make matters even worse, the place Vhynias told them to saw was under the rainwater that started to leak in from the storm. She timidly placed the file against her chains when she dropped it. Yos yelped as the file splashed on the floor. What am I doing here? I never did anything wrong to anybeast! I'm just a tailor, I'm not a criminal, so why am I chained up in a room with all these miscreants?

Yos looked to her right as she heard somebeast start to snicker, her face grew hot with embarrassment. The stoat, Bolgash, knelt down in front of her and grabbed the file.

"Don't worry yerself, I gotcha. Just be glad that I'm here." Bolgash smirked as she quickly started to saw at Yos' chains.

Yos stammered nervously, "Oh, um…"

Bolgash chuckled and looked up condescendingly, "Whatcha bein' so quiet fer? I ain't gonna bite, c'mon, say thanks already." Sitting nearby, Vhynias could only groan in embarrassment.

"Err, thanks?" Yos felt like if she said no, Bolgash would only keep pestering her about it.

Bolgash grinned, "That's what I thought." The stoat continued sawing and eventually cut through the chain. Whistling, she tossed the file back to Yos, who failed to catch it. Why can't she just hand it to me?

Yos looked backwards and passed the file towards Kallius. "Thank you," the hogmaid said as she grabbed the file. Yos mumbled something and turned away.

Kallius smiled meekly towards Farshawn, who was sitting behind her. "See, things are going alright," she said, trying to cheer up Farshawn.

"Yeah, you're right," Farshawn looked tiredly towards the door and shivered. Just seeing Borsen was enough to ruin her entire day. It couldn't be helped though, Borsen came most days to check up on Durkfor, whether the hare realized it or not. "You think they're going to come in here and do something about the water?"

Kallius tapped the water with her footpaws, "Maybe, I'm not sure. I don't think the water in here is high enough for them to be concerned. Besides, I'm pretty sure if it does get high enough, they'll help us. I don't think they'd want their captives to die before we get to wherever we're going."

Farshawn wasn't convinced, "Are you sure? I mean… nevermind." She stopped, consciously glancing toward the group of vermin in the front of the room.

"I mean what? What do you mean by that?" Kallius asked, not understanding what Farshawn was getting at.

"I mean," Farshawn began, "We've been captured by vermin, you know? Maybe they might just let us die for fun!"

Kallius looked down at the floor, "Nobeast is that cruel, I think. Call it intuition, but unless something happens, I think we're fine."

Farshawn began to envy Kallius, who was definitely a lot calmer about this than she was. "I think trying to escape counts as something happening," the squirrelmaid said nervously.

"... Right, but we must have been captured for a reason, right? I don't think they'll just kill us."

Farshawn shook her head, "But what if we've been captured just to be killed?"

"I don't think that's the case," Kallius began, "And would anybeast do that? You'd have to be a really hateful person to want to do that, and while I know-"

"Hey, you two with the file, can you hurry it up!" A voice, Thaddeus, called out from the back row. Art aggressively shushed him. "Wow, okay, I'm going to be quiet," Thaddeus replied defensively.

"Yeah, I sure hope you're gonna be quiet. We're trying not to get caught trying to escape, especially with an otter outside that could break our spines in half, so stop yelling," Art snapped in a hushed tone.

Thaddeus grumbled spitefully. Who is this kid to tell me what I can and cannot do? I already know not to yell, you don't have to order me around. The mouse drummed his paws on the bench nervously. Looking at the order the files were being passed around, he'd be one of the last ones to be freed from his chains. It didn't help that Kallius was sawing slowly as she talked with Farshawn while Midwyng was taunting Toran by holding the file out of the otter's reach. Thaddeus groaned dramatically, it sure was going to be a while until he would be freed.


Borsen sat at a table in the mess hall, polishing his knife with a stone he brought with him. Once he determined the knife was sharp enough, he placed the stone back in the bag slung over his back. To be honest, Borsen didn't really care about sharpening his knives or anything. To him at least, a dull knife was just as good as a sharp knife. He just liked any excuse to be holding his knife.

Just as Borsen secured his bag, he saw Tiviko walking around the hallways. Shrugging, he decided to run up and see what he was doing. "Hey Tiv, what are ye doin'?"

Tiviko laughed humorously, "I'm going to sleep. I barely got a wink of sleep ever since we left Mossflower. Oh, and in case something happens with the storm, just do whatever Ayers tells you to do, tall ferret, long coat, you'll know who she is when you see her. If they do need me for something for whatever reason, knock on my door before coming in, Borsen. Believe it or not, you're the only one here that doesn't do that. I thought you were raised in an abbey, you should know to knock. But I guess a bloodthirsty otter wouldn't care about that, so what did I expect?" Borsen wasn't the best at understanding humour, but he couldn't tell if Tiviko was trying to make a joke or not.

"Can't you just lock your door?" Borsen asked.

"Well, my door doesn't have a lock, I'd have to add one somehow. Besides, I trust everyone here to not enter unannounced. This might seem weird considering the work I do, but I know nobeast is going to do that, and if they do, I'll send them to the bottom of the ocean." Tiviko laughed dryly, but when he turned to look at Borsen, the otter was gazing at him with his usual blank expression. Tiviko scoffed, "Really? I thought somebeast like you would find death threats funny, oh well."

"It was funny I guess. By the way, can I go in the brig wit' a bucket and drain the water a bit? I don't want Durk to get cold."

Tiviko rolled his eyes, "Just give him your blanket or something."

Borsen cocked his head, "I did."

"I was being sarcastic. You actually gave him your blanket? You're not supposed to give the prisoners anything, I don't care how much you trust him."

Borsen grumbled irately, "I don't want 'im to be cold."

"Touching. I'm not going to force you to take the blanket back because I feel like you'd rip my face off, but just don't give them anything. From personal experience, some beasts can be really crafty."

"I guess, but what about the bucket thing, ye didn't answer."

"No. As I said, you can't go in there for any reason." Tiviko said firmly.

"But-"

"Oh my- I'll talk to you about this tomrrow, I really want to sleep. Good night." Tiviko slammed the door to his room shut. Borsen looked around, he wasn't sure what to do now. Guess I'll help out on deck. That's fun at least.


"So what do we do now?"

In a matter of a day or so, the ten remaining prisoners were freed from their chains. Unfortunately for Vhynias, the other prisoners expected him to have some sort of plan afterwards.

Vhynias grabbed his temple with his paws, uncomfortable with the number of beasts talking to him. "I dunno, I wasn't even plannin' on giving out the files, but somebeast-"

"You're welcome, I saved everyone," Bolgash interrupted.

"Ye better have a plan past this," Ulfrad said pointedly.

"Don't blame Vhyn fer this," Gurnilal said in Vhynias' defence.

"We're not blaming anyone, right?" Kallius looked around at the others for confirmation. She didn't get any.

In the back, Farshawn was looking at the door in a panic, "If they see this, they'll kill us for sure!"

"You put us in a point of no return and you don't have a plan after that?" Rianne asked in disbelief.

"Ah, just shut up, all of you. At least we did more for our escape than everyone here combined," Tornear barked.

"We're totally going to die here!" Thaddeus cried out.

Ahlrath stood up, trying to get everyone's attention, "Nae we aren't, if we 'avent been spottit yet, we won't be anytime soon."

"Who knows, knows, knows," Midwyng sang casually, "Maybe that otter that checks up on us everyday might see, see, see. Then we'll be slayed, slayed, slayed."

"Do ye ever say anythin' useful?" Ahlrath snapped. Midwyng only giggled in response.

Art rested his chin on his paws, "The hare's right, this room is dark, and we sawed down there. I don't think we're getting caught anytime soon."

"More importantly, we need t' figure out what we do now," Miena pointed out.

"Easier said den done," Crookedfang complained, "Dat door is metal."

Yos was muttering to herself, not contributing to the conversation.

Kallius hummed to herself, "How would we get past that door?"

"Maybe the file?" Toran murmured quietly.

Noruth looked sceptically at the door, "Oi don't think 'ee kin cut that."

"Isn't it a bit bloody dangerous to escape in the first place?" Durkfor asked nervously.

Tornear rolled his eyes, "You don't have a right to talk, you are probably the only one here the guards won't kill."

As if to prove Tornear's point, Durkfor wrapped himself in Borsen's blanket, muttering uncomfortably.

Vhynias looked around worriedly, there were too many voices, and the argument was getting heated. There was a foreboding feeling growing in the air. He didn't like it, but as time passed, that feeling only grew more and more until it felt like his head was about to burst from the stress. He rationalised it was because he didn't like being around this many beasts, nothing bad was going to happen to them, right?


Tiviko was jolted awake by the sound of something large slamming into something nearby. Groggily, he rubbed his eyes and slowly looked up. Standing right in front of his bed was Borsen, who was knocking impatiently on the wall.

"What the-? Borsen?" Tiviko mumbled, "I thought I told you to knock."

"Ye did, but ye weren't answering so I went inside."

Tiviko rolled on his side, groaning, "Second time you wake me up, I…" the wildcat yawned, glancing up irked at Borsen. "Seriously, what do you need from me?"

Borsen was characteristically unconcerned as he spoke, "Do ye have yer map on ye? The one wit' this part o' the sea on it? We looked everywhere and couldn't find it. We've been sailing okay fer a while, but the wind is starting to pick up, and it's getting bad. That ferret wants the map to just check where we are."

Tiviko sat up, looking around his small quarters. "I thought I'd put it out for Ayers. Guess I forgot, maybe you should let me sleep so I don't keep forgetting stuff." As Tiviko stood up, he was immediately thrown off balance by how much the ship was rocking. A tinge of worry showed on his face as he balanced himself.

"That's bad, that's actually really bad. Any casualties?" Tiviko asked.

There was a faint smile on Borsen's face as he answered, "A couple fell and hurt themselves, nothing too major. But aye, there was a fox that fell off the ship, prolly ended up drowning."

Tiviko growled nervously, "Somebeast drowning is major, what are you talking about? I'll help sort this out." Although he was still pretty tired, the storm was getting worse. Tiviko opened the highest drawer on his desk, pulling out a map and placing it on the desk.

"What are ye doin'?" Borsen asked.

"Trying to find out where we are. Well, kind of." As Tiviko looked at the map, Borsen got curious and looked over Tiviko's shoulder. It was a map of the ocean and nearby landmasses, with ten marks in various locations. To the side of the map was another sheet of paper with ten names listed in surprisingly neat handwriting. Borsen recognized one of the names to be Art's, but he didn't know who the other ones were.


Noruth Peltameo

Rykeld Burke

Midwyng Coeptigo

Yos Peonymaid

Arthur Swiftpaw (There was a name scribbled out to the side, but Borsen didn't care enough to see who it was.)

Ahlrath Palaechia

Aviya Firepool

Puck Attenor

Lametongue

Silentsnout


Tiviko suddenly turned and started walking out the door. "Of course, a map is only useful if we have an idea where we are, like nearby landmarks and such. I'm assuming it's too stormy to use stars, so we can't use that. Say Borsen, how far could you see outside?"

"'Tis dark, but ye can see," the otter responded.

"Oh that's helpful," Tiviko stated dryly.

Tiviko pulled on his tailcoat and started heading outside with Borsen following behind. "Were the sails taken down?"

It took a moment for Borsen to realize Tiviko was talking to him, when he realized, he quickly responded, "Hm? Oh, aye."

"Are we still on course?"

"I don't know."

"Didn't Ayers tell you?"

"Who?"

"The- really? The ferret I put in charge while I was asleep?

"Oh. No."

"Any nearby dangers?"

"Some islands."

Tiviko looked at Borsen warily, "How many?"

Borsen shrugged, "I don't know."

Tiviko was starting to get annoyed by Borsen's answers. He picked up speed and ran up through the hallway, his paws pounding up the main stairs that led to the deck. At the very top was a large door, he opened the door outwards. The door was immediately flung open by the wind. Tiviko growled as he stepped out on the deck, instantly getting assaulted by high winds. His coattails seemed to fly behind him as he walked up more steps towards the helm, where Ayers stood.

"Ayers! What in hellgates is going on?" Tiviko yelled out amidst the howling winds.

"'Tis a great storm, isn't it cap'n?" Ayers said with a grin.

"No," he responded bluntly, "Where are we right now?"

Ayers looked around as she explained, "Uhh, let's see, there's a couple o' islands 'round, but I don't recognize them. Do ye have yer map? I wanna try to find where we are."

"I have the map, I'll do it.' Tiviko then started to look around, eyeing a couple of small islands that were nearby.

As he stood there, Ayers looked on, bored. "Y'know, I can help, that's why-"

"No no, I can do it myself." It wasn't easy with the ship constantly rocking, but Tiviko mentally mapped out the islands nearby in relation to him. One island in particular concerned him as it was too close for comfort. "Thanks, I'll be back in a bit."

Tiviko walked back towards the door that led inside the ship, but before he went through the door, he yelled out, "Keep the masts intact, keep everyone on the ship, and most importantly, stay away from that island!" With that, Tiviko walked through the door.

Tiviko shivered, shaking the rainwater off of his fur. Borsen, who was sitting on the stairs waiting for Tiviko to come back, was snickering.

"Shut up Borsen. Now, in case I forget, can you remember a really tiny island Northwest that's far away, a small-ish island South-southeast that's closeby, and a medium-sized island East-northeast closeby." As he spoke, Tiviko pointed in the directions he described as if committing it to memory. "Alright, follow me."

Borsen followed disinterestedly as Tiviko led him back to his room. He wanted to be up on the deck in the wind and rain. But helping Tiviko was probably more important in the present, even if he didn't actually need the help.

The two of them eventually entered Tiviko's room, where the wildcat sat down at his desk and went to work trying to figure out their location. Meanwhile, Borsen just stood near the doorway watching Tiviko. None of this was particularly interesting to Borsen, so he turned around to leave-

CRACK!

The room suddenly lurched backwards with a loud crack, throwing Borsen, Tiviko, and anything that wasn't secured to the floor. Tiviko yelped with surprise, "What was that?"

Borsen looked around silently. As he stood up, he noticed that the rocking had stopped. Rain could still be heard drumming against the hull of the ship. "Is the ship still moving?"

Tiviko narrowed his eyes, getting up off the floor and picking up a candelabra that had fallen. "Yes, but…" The wildcat's ears pricked as he heard something peculiar. The sound of wood scraping and breaking could be heard from below. Tiviko's eyes went wide as he realized what room was below him. He dove underneath his bed and pulled out an ebony black longbow with matching arrows. Whipping his gaze in Borsen's direction, he yelled out, "Catch the prisoners, make sure they don't escape!"


Art groaned in pain as he slowly got up. He felt ice-cold water rushing over his entire body. That's gonna leave a bruise, ugh, my head. What just happened? Wait, why is there so much water? Turning his head to the left, he saw a sizable hole in the ship's side big enough for even the largest prisoner to get through. The other prisoners stared dumbfounded at it as the room slowly started to fill with water.

"Is- is that a…?" Even with the water getting in, nobeast wanted to go outside. It was only when they heard the sound of somebeast approaching in the hallway that someone decided to make a move.

Kallius, who was closest to the hole, cautiously moved outside, jumping out of the ship and onto the rocks that had torn it open. She couldn't see much outside on account of the storm, but she could make out a rocky shoreline that sloped up into a large forest.

"What's out there?" Tornear snapped.

"An island with a forest," Kallius answered.

Before the other prisoners could join her, the door swung outwards, knocking one of the shrews, Puck, onto the floor. A small pine marten entered the room, axe in paw. As Puck stood up, the pine marten swung his axe, slicing into his chest with a sickening thud.

The prisoners began to scream as they fled, leaping out of the hole. "Run!" Kallius called out.

Midwyng lunged forward, pushing Kallius to the side as they flew outside. From there, it was pandemonium as the prisoners scrambled to get to safety. The pine marten finished the prone Puck off with an axe to the head before running out the hole after the prisoners. Many other guards followed.

The rocky shoreline was alive with both prisoners and guards. The heavy downpour combined with the winds didn't make it easy to run, but fueled by fear, they moved quickly.


The sound of frantic screaming echoed throughout the beach as Art ran across the rocks. The young squirrel flinched as he heard a familiar voice cry out, but he was too overtaken by fear to look behind him. He could see very little, the inky black darkness of night encapsulating his vision before a brief flash of lightning illuminated the desperate scene on the beach.


Thaddeus screamed like a banshee as he ran, clumsily moving across the rocks. This is insane! What is going on!? I just want to go home-!

Thaddeus was interrupted when he collided face first with Kallius, knocking the two to the ground. Kallius looked behind Thaddeus and shrieked, before standing up and running off. Confused, Thaddeus looked behind him to see a sword illuminated by lightning. Screaming, he hobbled to his footpaws and sprinted off.


Miena looked around for some sort of weapon. A sudden cry for help caught her attention and she turned around, where a weasel was advancing on Noruth. Running up behind the weasel, Miena pushed her to the ground.

Noruth turned around and tipped his snout, "Thankee marm, oi must-"

"No problem, just run!" She practically yelled before taking off.


One of the guards, a rat, waved his axe wildly as he ran after a shrieking Yos. The rat was suddenly knocked to the ground by something heavy. As he struggled to push his assailant off, a cackle could be heard before fangs ripped through his throat. Midwyng smiled grimly as they ripped a good portion of the rat's throat off, blood splashing down on the rocks below them. Before Midwyng could even gloat about their kill, however, they looked over their shoulder and saw two more guards running after them. Grunting, they took off into the dark skies.


"Laddie, where are ye?" Ahlrath ran about the shore blindly, his eyes scanning the beach for Toran.

"Toran!" He saw him, running slowly compared to the other prisoners. He leapt across the slippery rocks with all his might and scooped him up in his paws. Toran let out a terrified yelp before he realized it was just Ahlrath. Smiling reassuringly, Ahlrath ran towards the forest.


"Vhyn! Tornear! Where are ye?" Gurnilal ran around the beach, desperately searching for her crew. An ermine wielding a cutlass barreled into her, pinning her down. With a grin, the ermine raised the cutlass.

"Tornear, help!" She cried out. From the side, an axe was brought down suddenly on the ermine's arms, spraying blood all over the surrounding area. The ermine cried out in pain as their cutlass fell to the ground. Tornear appeared over the ermine with a bloodstained axe.

"Are you okay Gurn?" Tornear asked as he helped Gurnilal back up. Gurnilal picked up the cutlass and nodded.

"Should we wait fer Vhyn?" Gurnilal asked.

Tornear looked behind them. Many more guards were being dispatched to capture the prisoners, "There's no time, run!" Thunder boomed overhead as the two weasels ran away from the beach together.


Farshawn screamed loudly as she ran on the beach. She slid on the slippery rocks and fell to the ground. Whimpering, she looked up, marginally relieved that none of the guards was chasing her. But as she stood up to run, she noticed something lying on the ground. She quickly ran over to investigate and let out a gasp.

The other shrew, Pinero, was lying on the rocks, her body bent awkwardly as an ebony black arrow protruded from her temple. How good do you have to be to accurately shoot somebeast in this storm? That's crazy! Who could've-

Farshawn was interrupted when she felt something slam into her right shoulder. She let out a scream and fell to the ground, turning her head to see the same ebony black arrow lodged in her shoulder. Fueled by adrenaline, she pushed herself up and ran far away from the beach.


Bolgash looked around calmly. Everyone was screaming and panicking, not her. A stoat charged at her with a dagger in its paw. The stoat, not expecting Bolgash to have a weapon, was surprised when she pulled out her file and jabbed him in the face. The stoat recoiled, allowing Bolgash to snatch the dagger from his paws. Bolgash kicked the stoat to the ground before leaving.


Durkfor tripped on a rock and fell to the ground, Borsen's blanket still wrapped around his body. Dazed, he looked up, his heart pounding in his chest wondering if he'd be killed in the confusion. Not having the best night vision, he looked around blindly. He was so blind that he couldn't see when a large figure grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him off into the forest. "Durk, c'mon!" The figure urged.


Rianne grumbled nervously to herself as she tried to pull her leg out of a crevice in the rocks. Her head whipped around as she realized not many prisoners remained on the beach. As lighting struck once more, she saw a rat charging at her with a sword. She cried out with fear as she felt her blood run cold. Crookedfang suddenly appeared, barreling into the rat and wrestling for the sword. Rianne looked on in confusion as she finally got her leg out. She ran off, but not before taking one last look at Crookedfang, who was now being chased by the rat with the sword.

"Thanks, idiot," she mumbled.


Ulfrad couldn't see, his vision before all this was bad enough already but with the pitch black darkness, he really couldn't see anything. He heard footsteps coming in his direction, when he turned, he saw the silhouette of a fox faintly outlined with the beached ship as a backdrop. Ulfrad snarled as he pushed the fox down before running off.


Vhynias got back on his footpaws, cursing out whoever just pushed him. He stayed around the beach as long as possible trying to gather his crew, but it appeared to him that they all ran off before they could reassemble. In fact, he was the last prisoner on the beach. Vhynias growled nervously. Why'd y'all run off? Nothin' better happen to you guys.

Left without his crew, Vhynias ran off into the forest to join the other 17 prisoners that were now running around the island.


Down in the brig, Tiviko was examining the damage done to the ship. He let out a humourless laugh as he looked at the hole in the side. "Amazing. At least we're not going to sink because the ship is on land, exactly the place where ships belong." Turning around with disgust, Tiviko kicked aside Puck's corpse and headed back to the mess hall where most of his crew were sitting.

Most of them were arguing, trying to assert that it wasn't their fault. Blames were thrown around left and right, and Tiviko could only watch in silent fury.

Tiviko started to clap, which quickly got the attention of the crew. The wildcat started to grin ironically as he clapped for a couple of more seconds, not saying a word.

Finally, he stopped, placing his paws behind his back, "Well, good job all of you, really, I mean it. We couldn't get our act together, now there's a hole in the hold, we're beached on some stupid island, there's still a massive storm going on, and best of all, all of the prisoners are missing! Congratulations!"

In an attempt to raise Tiviko's mood, a stoat raised a paw and pointed out, "Not all of them are missing, two of the prisoners are dead." She chuckled awkwardly as she looked around at everyone.

"Yes, true…" Tiviko went over the list of contracts in his head. Out of the 18 remaining prisoners, 9 of them were captured because of a contract. While that meant they had to be returned alive, Tiviko recalled that for the most part, this batch of prisoners was getting captured for one of two reasons: the client wants to torture and then execute them themselves, or for revenge (which would probably end up like the first reason).

The prisoners were easy to capture before, but that's because we had a lot of planning and intel done beforehand. They're much more dangerous running around on this island. They're on high alert, they're working together, and I think some of them stole weapons. I swear on my honour as a bounty hunter that I'd complete these contracts, but… if most of them are going to end up dead anyway, it's fine if we kill them, if our clients get mad about that, I can always smooth things over. Besides, capturing them is going to take a lot more effort, especially when our brig has a giant hole in it.

"I've come to a decision," Tiviko began, "So here's how it's going to work from now on, we need to repair the hole. There's some spare lumber in the hold, and if we need more wood, there's a forest right over there. I realize that's not a permanent solution, but there's an island fairly close by with an old hag that fixes up ships. In terms of the prisoners, I will split you off into groups, and you will go hunt for them."

Tiviko gestured with his paws as he spoke, making sure everybeast in this room understood clearly, "Kill any prisoner you come across. Don't worry, I'll smooth things over when this is all done, this is an emergency anyways. Actually, scratch that, if my memory serves me correctly, there are three prisoners that must be alive no matter what, those two that I told you all about, and that hare that Borsen kept visiting."

There were some concerned murmurs from the crew, was it really fine to kill most of them?

Tiviko clapped his paws together, "Let's get started then. I'll lead the ship repair team, and Borsen'll lead the hunting party… where is Borsen?"

Everybeast in the mess hall looked around, Borsen was nowhere to be seen. Tiviko sighed in annoyance. Oh well. He's probably running around the island, which is kind of what I wanted him to do anyway, but I wish he stayed here a bit longer for the briefing.

"Change of plans, Ayers, you lead the ship repairs, and I'll go lead the hunting party."

Ayers nodded in understanding, "I won't let ye down this time cap'n!" She said as she saluted smartly.

Tiviko smiled, "Good, now, a quick message for you all. Despite everything that happened, don't worry. We will get out of here alive."

Some of them will die, but they don't need to think that.

"I didn't pick a bunch of cowards and slackers for my crew."

Yeah, I picked a bunch of blind followers and lackeys.

"You are all fighters and warriors!"

Even though a couple of you got killed by the prisoners outside.

"It's us against them, they're powerless, hungry, tired, and scared. Killing all of them will be a breeze!"

But sometimes, beasts are more dangerous when they're backed into a corner.

Tiviko jumped onto a nearby table, scaring some of the beasts that sat there. With a gleam in his eye, Tiviko looked around the room and raised his longbow, the rest of the crew followed, raising their weapons and letting out a determined roar.

For the 18 prisoners out there, I hope you're ready. It's only us and you on this island. No matter what you take from us, we're going to end up on top. Let the game begin.