Chapter 3

And Then There Were Twenty


Borsen's brown fur glowed in the warm, golden sun. He leaned on the ship's railing, gazing in awe at the sea that stretched before him. They had been sailing for a day or so now, and Mossflower was completely out of sight. About seven hours after Borsen and Tiviko arrived at Tiviko's ship, The Twilight Serpent, the other group returned with their prisoners. Borsen was asleep by this time, however, and they set sail while he slept. When he woke up, the first thing he did was go and look at the ocean.

"Is this your first time being in the ocean, Borsen? With you being a sea otter, I thought you'd seen it before." Borsen looked behind him, where Tiviko was eyeing him amusedly.

"Nay, but it's been a while," Borsen answered without elaborating further.

"Hm." Tiviko walked to Borsen's side and leaned against the railing. Now that they were safely away from Mossflower, Tiviko was curious about what Borsen wanted those beasts captured for. "Say Borsen, last night, the other group returned with the rest of your prisoners. I gotta ask, are you going to do something to them?"

Borsen smiled a little, "Who knows, I might just let them rot in the brig fer a while 'fore I do anything to them."

"How long is a while?" Tiviko asked, counting how much food they had for the prisoners in his head.

The otter shrugged, "When they've given up I guess."

Tiviko gave a short bark of morbid laughter at that response. "Well, okay. In that case, I gotta check how much food we have for the prisoners since you added seven of them."

Borsen raised his eyebrows, he added seven? Art was already a target, but he only requested Farshawn, Kallius, Thaddeus, and Rianne's capture. So who were the other three?

Sensing Borsen's confusion, Tiviko added, "Oh right, you were asleep so I couldn't tell you. The other group ran into a bit of trouble with capturing the prisoners, and they captured three more beasts."

Borsen didn't particularly care, if anything, this was probably a good thing. He loathed everybeast at Redwall anyway. "Who are they?" He asked.

Tiviko left the railing and walked towards the door that opened into the ship. "I don't know their names, how about you just see them for yourself." Borsen shrugged in response. He followed Tiviko as the wildcat walked down the steps, going deeper and deeper down the ship. Borsen looked around at all the unfamiliar hallways. There were quite a bit of vermin about, each of them having some kind of reaction to the new sea otter walking around. Reactions ranged from hiding in a nearby room to glaring at him with their weapons drawn. But all of them had one thing in common: fear. Borsen relished in that sense of fear.

They eventually stopped in front of a large wooden door with a couple of guards posted at the side. The door opened into an empty hallway with a large metal door at the end. They walked down the hallway and stopped in front of the door. "Here we are," Tiviko said, hitting the metal a couple of times. "This door leads into the brig, you can look through those metal bars if you want. But don't go in the room. They're chained up in there, but it'd be a bad idea to go in anyway." Tiviko then moved out of the way, allowing Borsen to look into the room. With a wicked smirk, Borsen walked up to the bars and looked inside.

Almost immediately, his smirk faded. Borsen's eyes went wide as a whimper came from his throat. Tiviko was confused, but before he could question Borsen, the sea otter lunged, slamming him into the wall with a cracking sound. Borsen's whimpers morphed into an enraged snarl as he roared out, "What the hell is Durkfor doin' in there!?"

Tiviko growled as he struggled to get away. He was worried something like this might happen. When the other group arrived with the prisoners, Tiviko saw the hare that Borsen spent the entire day with. Borsen seemed to genuinely like spending time with him, which is why Tiviko was nervous. But it was too risky to go back, so they just put him with the rest of the prisoners.

Still though, from what he'd seen of Borsen thus far, he didn't expect his reaction to be this extreme. "Let go of me, Borsen! He was yelling and attracting a lot of attention, so they captured him. I promise you he won't be harmed. We can even give him better food if you want, but we can't put him back, not yet at least." Borsen's large frame quivered with anger as Tiviko continued, "Look, we'll bring him back unharmed once we're done settling the contracts."

"I swear if ye lay even a single paw on 'im-"

"We won't," Tiviko affirmed, "I'll even tell my crew to not hurt him under any circumstances, okay?"

Borsen growled. His head turned towards the room where Durkfor was being kept. Letting go of Tiviko, Borsen slowly walked up to the door. Looking through the bars, he could see Durkfor chained to the bench, hunched down dejectedly. He wanted so badly to hug him, but he wasn't allowed in the room.

But as he looked around, his eyes locked onto Art. The young squirrel stared at him back. A burning fury shone in Art's eyes unlike anything he'd ever seen. The two glared at each other for a while, neither one saying a word. Borsen snickered, they'll see if Art stays angry after a couple of weeks of imprisonment. With a low chuckle, Borsen walked away, leaving the prisoners alone once again.


The brig was a fairly large room. Multiple rows of sturdy benches were set up, though only three of the rows were in use. The room was dark, with the only source of light being the light peaking through the metal bars of the door.

"Come back here you coward! You'll pay for what you've done to us!" Art roared out at Borsen's retreating figure. He wanted to run and pound at the door, but the chain and collar clasped firmly around his neck didn't allow for much movement. Every single prisoner had a chain and collar attached to the floor just below the bench, limiting their movement severely.

Rianne, who was sitting next to him, sighed grumpily, "Give it a rest Art, we can't even move. Just calm down for a bit."

Art grumbled and crossed his arms. He attempted to do as Rianne suggested and took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down. Right, in times like this, I have to think rationally. I can't get too angry at that worthless low-life traitor, I hope he dies for what he did to us. "Forsake all unnecessary forms of violence" my tail. If I can somehow kill Borsen, I'd sure like to know what it is, it'd be so worth it, even if we don't escape… I'm doing it again, aren't I? Calm down Art, just stare at the wall or something, that usually works.

Art looked around for something to focus on. It was then he realised that he never paid close attention to the other prisoners. If he wanted to get off this ship somehow, he assumed he'd need to learn a bit about the other prisoners first.

There were three rows of benches that were currently in use. The bench in the very back of the room was taken up by Art and some of the other abbeydwellers. Being in the back, Art could get a look at every prisoner in the room. There was Farshawn on the far left, with Kallius sitting in front of her. Art never really talked to the two of them, but Kallius knew a lot about botany, while Farshawn was very book-smart. Though how much those skills will come in handy, Art didn't know yet.

Sitting next to Farshawn was Rianne. Rianne is someone Art thinks will be invaluable to the group. She is an amazing healer and is pretty smart to boot. From what Art has seen, Rianne is sensible enough to stay out of trouble. Or at least, he hoped she was. He knew she was quick to anger sometimes and that isn't exactly a good quality.

Next was himself… There wasn't any point in trying to analyse his strengths and weaknesses since he knew he was horrible at judging himself fairly… But he knew he was pessimistic, stubborn, made bad decisions, and was horrible at dealing with negative emotions, among other things.

Sitting on his right was Thaddeus. Art didn't like him. Thaddeus often found some way to skirt his chores at Redwall, and the chores he did do himself, he always managed to screw up in some way. To Art, there wasn't any point in paying attention to him if he wasn't going to be useful in their escape.

Miena and Ulfrad were next. It looked like the two of them were talking to each other. Art wasn't close enough to hear, but he guessed they were coming up with an escape plan. In this kind of situation, Art trusted the two of them implicitly. They had experience and were skilled both physically and mentally, for that, Art found them valuable.

Then at the very end, there was Durkfor. Art liked Durkfor, he was very friendly, if overly emotional at times. There wasn't a single beast at the abbey that didn't like him. But what was going on with him and Borsen? Everyone heard Borsen yelling outside and knew Durkfor wasn't supposed to be here. Did Durkfor know this was going to happen? How much does Durkfor know about Borsen compared to everyone else? Does he know anything that could help them escape? Art looked silently at the hare. Whatever Durkfor knew, the hare wasn't in any state to talk. Ever since Durkfor was taken to this room, he hadn't uttered a single word.

Resting his head on his palm, Art looked ahead to the next row of prisoners. To be quite frank, Art thought of them as an odd bunch. Sitting next to Kallius was a portly mole, and whenever the mole looked to the side, he could see two scars extending from the ends of his mouth to just past his eyes. Yet, the mole didn't seem as concerned compared to the others.

Next, he could see two shrews, probably around his age. Art assumed they were Guosim shrews given their bright bandanas and kilts. One of the shrews was clearly zoned out and not interacting with anything around him, while the other shrew was pulling on her collar to no avail.

The next three prisoners made for an odd sight. The first was the largest beast in the room; they were a powerful-looking hare with striking white fur. Art assumed they were a mountain hare. The mountain hare was comforting a river otter who, from the looks of it, was younger than Art. Art buried his face in a paw, growling. What kind of monster do you have to be to kidnap a child?

The final prisoner in this row was a strange sight to behold. Art wasn't entirely sure what it was, but it was a black bat, with large, jutting fangs. Their left wing was wrapped around their body. While he could barely see the other wing as the bat was trying to hide it, the right wing had some sort of brace attached to it.

While Art was somewhat comfortable with the first two rows of prisoners (save for the bat), the third and final row made Art nervous. There was a small vole sitting on the end; an unnaturally bright red poncho hung around her shoulders. The vole was glancing around nervously, particularly towards the five beasts sitting on the same bench as her.

Art couldn't help but frown. The final five beasts were vermin. With how they were acting and the way they were dressed, Art guessed they were a small band of corsairs, so Art immediately didn't trust them.

The first one was a tall stoat. It was blatantly obvious she had no concerns about this situation whatsoever. The cocky smirk on her face plus her relaxed posture seemed careless given the circumstances. She casually looked over to her right, where a lanky fox sat hunched over. The two of them were wearing ornate-looking blue armour.

The second vermin was a tall and lanky fox. A dark captain's coat was draped over his blue armour. Art wasn't sure what to make of him. The fox seemed bored, resting their head on his paws. He was looking down as if he was focused on something beneath him.

The third and fourth vermin were two weasels. The two of them were whispering to each other, making sure no one heard them. Their hushed conversation was interrupted by the fifth vermin, a rat.

The rat was pulling and shaking his chains pointlessly, causing them to clank loudly. One of the weasels got annoyed by this and smacked the rat upside the head.

Art went over the prisoners in his head. There were 20 of them in total. Eight from Redwall Abbey, two Guosim shrews, five corsairs, and five other beasts. Art sighed, would escape be easy with this group of beasts? Actually, scratch that. Could they even escape in the first place? He growled in a mix of frustration and fear as he racked his brain trying to come up with an idea, but there didn't seem to be anything in the room that could help him.

Looking past Thaddeus, Art asked Miena, "Skipper, got any ideas?"

Miena looked over at Art, shaking her head apprehensively, "Not yet, Ulfrad 'n I were talking 'bout it, but we couldn't think of anything. But there's a lotta beasts here, one o' thems gotta know something."

Art looked sceptically at the other prisoners, "But it looks like they've been here longer than we have. If they had an idea, don't you think they might've said something to us by now?"

"Maybe so, but…" Miena glanced over at Durkfor. The sound of Borsen's yelling through the door was still fresh in her mind. "I wouldn't blame them if some o' them didn't trust us after what just happened."

"I guess, but I still think they would've told us. And if their concerns were about somebeast hearing, there doesn't seem to be a guard standing directly outside the door, and this room has a hallway between this and another door. So I feel like they shouldn't have concerns telling us."

Miena went silent. Her expression hardened as she looked at the other prisoners. "Maybe they have one that they aren't telling us, or maybe they don't have an idea. But whatever the reason, Ulfrad 'n I are trying to make our own plan, wanna help?"

"Sure," Art said, a twinge of dread in his voice. If these other beasts were here longer and they couldn't think of a plan, how could they? Even as Art joined the conversation and discussed with the two otters, he thought about how none of the prisoners had a plan to get out and wondered if the situation was hopeless.


Little did Art know, some of the prisoners, in fact, did have a plan to escape, or at least part of one. Sitting in the front of the room with blue armour and draped in a captain's coat was Vhynias Sharptail. He was the leader of a band of vermin. Well, calling it a band might be overselling it. There were only five of them, and curse his luck, they were all captured and taken prisoner. More than anything right now, Vhynias was scared, scared for the four other beasts in his crew. They had their faults and flaws, and he knew that all too well. He wanted to make sure nothing bad happened to them.

Vhynias looked over to his crew. His second in command was a stoat named Bolgash, identifiable with the blue armour that Vhynias also wore. She was brave if that was the right word for it. Sometimes, she was so cocky that it bordered on stupidity.

The two weasels, Tornear and Gurnilal were mates, which was surprising given how different the two were. Gurnilal was born and grew up in a corsair crew (just like Vhynias had) and was pretty amiable, while Tornear ran away from a royal family of weasels and could be quite cruel at times.

Tornear looked over at the rat sitting next to him with disgust, before smacking him on the head again. "Knock it off, that's not going to work." The rat, Crookedfang, glared up at him, before continuing to pull at his chains.

"Don' hit me! I almost got dis stupid chain off!" The chains in his paws clanked loudly, causing Tornear to smack him once more.

"No you didn't. You haven't been closer to getting that thing off since we got here." Tornear sneered

Vhynias sighed, massaging his temple with a paw, "I ain't gonna listen to y'all arguing. Crooked, stop trying to pull your collar off. Everybeast gather 'round and listen up."

"How're we gonna gather 'round ya? We can't move," Bolgash joked casually.

Vhynias' expression flickered with annoyance, "Stay focused. Now, Gurnilal, 'member when ya insisted we get a backup plan in case we got captured?"

Gurnilal's face brightened as realisation dawned on her, "Aye, I said since we're a small crew, we shud hide a file on us."

Tornear patted Gurnilal on the back. "Good job Gurn!" He smiled, before his expression turned to concern, "Didn't they frisk us? Do you still have that file on you?"

Vhynias nodded. The fox lifted part of his chest plate to reveal a small metal file. "Bolgash's got a file too. But we're not gonna start sawing now, we're gonna wait 'till we're far away from Mossflower."

The two weasels looked at each other in understanding. Even if they remembered the files earlier, there was no way they would escape to Mossflower. Before the ship docked, Tornear overheard a guard say they landed at Mossflower. Even though they have never been there, they knew enough to know that it was a really bad place for vermin, especially with a mountain of hares and badgers being so close to the shoreline. They assumed that even if they did land there, they'd probably be executed on the spot.

"But in short, next time we dock, we're gonna saw off our chains and… make it up from there." Vhynias rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly, he didn't have a plan fully thought about, but it was better than nothing. It didn't matter though, the other beasts in his crew were all in. Well, except for one.

Bolgash scoffed, "But didja see the new prisoners? They're wearing robes. Who do we know wears robes 'n are from Mossflower? That's right, scum from that one abbey, that's who. If we start sawing, do ya think they're gonna rat us out?" Vhynias looked back at the new prisoners. Redwall Abbey was infamous for being anti-vermin.

"Mebbe they wouldn't snitch on us if we get their chains off too?" Gurnilal suggested. Tornear grumbled, not enthralled with the idea of helping abbeydwellers. Vhynias just wasn't fond of the idea of helping anybeast that wasn't a part of their group. But given the circumstances, it was at least worth considering.

"I guess it's worth a shot," Vhynias murmured. "But we're still not telling anybeast yet. Don't want them tellin' or nothin'." The rest of the crew nodded. But as Gurnilal glanced behind her, she realised their conversation had caught the attention of a couple of the prisoners sitting behind them, namely a certain mountain hare, otter, and bat.


Narrowing his eyes at the group, the mountain hare, Ahlrath, scoffed, "Tch. what're they schemin'?" He mumbled, crossing his arms. The five vermin sitting in front of him went back to planning, though they made more of an effort to speak quieter this time.

The young otter that was sitting next to him, Toran, hugged himself tightly, "Dunno. Escape, maybe?"

"Good fer them," Ahlrath said dryly. "Escape is impossible." Toran looked visibly crestfallen at the mountain hare's proclamation. Ahlrath saw this and quickly added, "Ah mean, 'tis no' impossible, just… very bloody difficult."

Toran still wasn't satisfied with that response and looked around for some kind of solution, "Maybe one o' them could help," Toran mumbled, looking at the back of the room toward the abbeydwellers.

Ahlrath looked back at the abbeydwellers, but his confidence in them already wasn't that high. Six of them just looked depressed, and the only ones talking in that group were the two otters and one of the squirrels. Even then, it was clear they hadn't come up with anything.

Then again, they've been here less than a day, give 'em a rest, aye? "Hm, maybe we should wait a wee bit," Ahlrath muttered.

Toran slouched down sadly but didn't say anything after Ahlrath. Suddenly, a high-pitched voice spoke up from beside Ahlrath.

It was the bat, who was looking at the abbeydwellers with a look that could only be described as contempt, "I wouldn't bet on them being able to help, the loons, loons, loons." The bat, Midwyng, snickered scornfully.

Ahlrath grumbled to himself. Midwyng had only been captured recently as they were also from Mossflower, but Ahlrath was already sick of them. "Now why wouldja say that?"

Midwyng leaned backwards (or as much as they comfortably could while chained to a bench) and smirked, "They look like a slight breeze could knock 'em down, down, down. Outta all of us here, they'll prolly be the first to die, die, die."

"Don't even joke 'bout that," Ahlrath growled.

Midwyng shrugged, "Killjoy. Why not have fun while we're here, here, here? We're all prolly gonna die, die, die here anyway."

"Fun?" Ahlrath asked in disbelief, "Ye want us tae play 'I Spy' or somethin'? How is guessin' who's gonna die any fun?"

"Do you really think we're gonna die?" Toran suddenly asked, his face full of concern.

"We're no' going tae die, lad," Ahlrath glared at Midwyng, "Ah'll make sure o' that. Ah promise"

"Ooh, wow, I'm getting chills, chills, chills," Midwyng deadpanned.

Ahlrath grunted in annoyance, "Are ye always like this?"

"When I'm feeling nice, nice, nice." Midwyng giggled at themselves.

At this rate, it was clear their argument would only get worse. Looking for a quick way to end the interaction, Toran noticed that Midwyng was making a conscious effort to hide their wing. Toran quickly interjected and asked, "What's on your wing?"

Midwyng stopped, rolling their eyes. They held up their right wing, which had a brace secured to it. "What do you think, think, think?" They asked irately.

Toran blinked owlishly, "What happened to it?"

Midwyng narrowed their eyes at Toran, "It got chopped off by a mouse, mouse, mouse."

"Really?"

"No. If you keep being a nosy brat, I'll slap you, goodbye, bye, bye." They grumbled and went back to facing forward, refusing to look at the otter.

"Heh, ye got 'er tae shut up," Ahlrath grinned. He turned back to Toran, who shrugged.

"He was trying to hide his wing, so I-"

"I can still hear you, you, you," Midwyng snapped. Ahlralth chuckled, patting Toran on the head. Toran smiled and looked down at the floor. With the argument over, Toran decided to look for something else to do. More out of boredom than a desire to be helpful, Toran knelt down on the floor, inspecting the chain that led from his collar to the floor.


This was way beyond her. Nothing she had ever done in her life could remotely compare to this. Yos's eyes twitched nervously around the room. The room was terrifying, the other prisoners were terrifying, that otter that peeked through the door was terrifying, everything around her filled her with fear. Even for a vole, she was small. In fact, out of all the prisoners, she could see that she was one of, if not, the smallest one here.

"Why am I even here?" She whimpered to herself. She regretted speaking as soon as she heard a voice behind her.

"Dun't worry marm, oi be a serpint we'll be foin." Sitting behind Yos was a portly mole named Noruth. The smile on his face probably wouldn't be so creepy if it wasn't for the large scars on both sides of his face, extending from the ends of his mouth to past his eyes.

Yos was off-put by Noruth and glanced back nervously, "Ah, erm, I'm fine." Yos wasn't scared of the mole for any rational reason. Out of all the prisoners, he was probably one of the nicest ones here, encouraging and comforting the prisoners that needed it. It was just down to the fact that Yos had a hard time trusting anyone.

Even though Yos obviously didn't feel like talking, Noruth wasn't good at understanding social cues. "So, doin' gudd?"

Wanting the mole to just stop talking, Yos suggested, "Why don't you check on the two shrews sitting next to you?" Noruth looked to his right. Two shrews wearing colourful bandanas were sitting next to him, but he doubted they would even respond. The two shrews, Pinero and Puck, hardly said a word the entire time they were here. Even when they did, or more accurately, when Pinero did, it was mainly to chastise Puck. Puck had not said a single word or even acknowledged anything going on around him ever since he entered the room.

"Thurr'll talk when thurr ready," Noruth said worriedly, but he wouldn't be surprised if he never got to talk to them.

Yos and Noruth fell into an awkward silence. Yos was completely fine with it, but like a lot of moles, Noruth enjoyed conversation, good or bad. He looked around, everyone sitting next to him was either talking to someone else or just refusing to talk altogether. Except for one beast, the hedgehog sitting behind him wearing the red and gold habit.

"Hoi marm," Noruth greeted, tipping his snout. Rianne confusedly waved back but didn't say anything.

Still attempting to create conversation, Noruth asked, "So you'm be from yurr, oo arr?"

Rianne blinked, "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"So you'm be from yurr, oo arr?" Noruth repeated, slower this time. Rianne didn't respond, she could barely understand the mole.

"Uh, no?" She guessed.

Noruth nodded, "Noice, oi not be frumm yurr arlso." Rianne sighed, this conversation was going nowhere. Ignoring the mole, Rianne turned to Art, who was sitting next to her.

"Any ideas yet, Art?" Art turned away from Miena and Ulfrad and shook his head.

"Nope. We don't have a single idea." Art buried his face in his paws, growling. "I hate this place! I want to burn this ship to the ground."

Rianne rested her head on her paw, "We're not getting out of here anytime soon, are we?"

"Unless for some reason somebeast outside helps us, we're screwed," Art grumbled.

Rianne scoffed, "Nobeast is coming to save us. Borsen is the only one that would help, and even then, I'm pretty sure he only cares about Durkfor."

Art was shaking. Rianne couldn't tell if it was because of anger or fear. "Why us? What did we ever do to him that made him want to help kidnap us? If I see him again, I swear on my life, I'm gonna kill him. Just," Art then did a stabbing motion with his paws, "Right through the neck."

Rianne looked at Art uneasily before looking away, "I don't know, did Borsen ever have a reason to do anything? He's probably just crazy or something." It was weird, it was more than reasonable to be mad at Borsen, she was furious at him too. But hearing Art proclaiming he was going to kill him seemed… off. Granted, she too had a penchant for threatening violence (to many complaints), but she always made it clear she wasn't being serious. The thought of actually killing somebeast has always made her queasy, and that look in Art's eyes… he wasn't joking, was he?

"He's not…" they heard somebeast mumble. Surprised, they turned right to where Durkfor was sitting.

"What did you say?" Art asked, his voice tinged with annoyance.

Durkfor looked up, his voice shaking as he spoke, "I know he's not crazy! I'm… sure he had a good reason fore doin' this. I just know…"

The rest of the abbeydwellers looked at Durkfor in disbelief. Was he being serious?

Art stammered, "Are- are you kidding me?"

"You're really trying to defend him?" Rianne asked angrily.

"Borsen hated everybeast," Farshawn added. Kallius nodded in agreement.

Durkfor whimpered, hugging his legs tightly. Was this really the same Borsen he'd been friends with his entire life? No, it couldn't be… But then again, Borsen never liked talking about himself. Was this side of him always there? Why didn't he notice sooner? Was it always there and he just didn't notice, or did he know deep down inside and didn't want to face it?

His breathing grew laboured; guilt piled onto him like a heavy weight. Borsen did something evil, there was no question… So why wasn't he angry? No part of him wanted to condemn Borsen at all, why? Why does his heart hurt so much? Why was he still asking in his mind if Borsen was doing okay?

Durkfor looked solemnly towards the metal door, Borsen was somewhere beyond those doors. I don't care what anybody says, Borsen isn't crazy. I won't stop until I find out why he did this. What happened to him to make him like this?


One week later…


In contrast to his normal watchful and alert demeanour, Tiviko slept like a log. Running around Mossflower, stalking and capturing beasts took a lot out of him, and making sure they weren't being followed by some overly-heroic moron from Redwall or Salamandastron took some out of him too. All of that combined with the fact that he hardly slept in the past week meant he was out like a light.

Faintly, he could feel a paw harshly prodding his side. Groggily, he reached at whatever was prodding him before he was suddenly pulled off the bed and pinned to the ground with a thud. "Gah! Borsen, get off of me, what are you doing?"

Borsen got up off of Tiviko, sitting down on the floor silently."Y'know, there's better ways of waking me up," Tiviko yawned and stretched his body from his position on the floor, "Tell me everything that happened."

Borsen looked confused, "Well, 'tis been a week since we left Mossflower, ye showed me 'round the ship-"

"I didn't mean that when I said everything," Tiviko said flatly. "I meant, why did you wake me up?"

"Oh." Borsen stood up, pulling Tiviko up off the floor as he did. "Yer crew says 'tis urgent. Remember that storm that started yesterday?"

"Yeah? What about-" The room flashed with light as a loud thundercrack roared from above. Tiviko raised his eyebrows and looked out his window. The ship was rocking, way harder than what he was comfortable with. The storm that started yesterday grew much worse than what anybeast was anticipating. "That's… pretty bad. I'll be up in a little bit." Tiviko grabbed his coat which was hanging on the wall. As he pulled it over his shoulders, he grumbled, "Can those guys seriously not think for themselves? They need me to order them?"

"They were discussin', but they got into a huge argument. None o' them knew what to do. They sent me down here to ask in case ye got mad fer waking ye up."

Tiviko growled, "I swear to- Okay, Borsen, grab a bunch of beasts and make sure the lower areas of the ship aren't flooding. Check the supplies and make sure none of them are wet while you're at it."

Borsen crossed his arms, "I was already doing that, but okay." He nodded before running out of the room, a thin smile on his face.

As he watched him leave, Tiviko looked down at the floor. "I should really start locking my door," he muttered.


The constant sound of heavy rain and waves hitting the sides of the ship, and the thunder cued the prisoners into the fact that something wasn't right.

"What's happening?" Kallius asked nervously.

Rianne looked left at the walls, she was pretty sure this room was on the very side of the ship. "A storm? What else could it be?"

"Is it going to get worse?"

"I don't know, I can't predict the weather," Rianne snapped.

Meanwhile up ahead, Vhynias was getting pretty nervous about the storm. The other members of his crew shared similar concerns.

"This ship isn't going to sink, right?" Tornear asked worriedly.

Gurnilal looked at the left wall, "A ship big as this ain't gonna sink easily."

Looking at the wall, it didn't take long for Bolgash to make her decision. To the surprise of Vhynias and Gurnilal, Bolgash pulled out her file. She grabbed the chains attached to her collar and placed the file against it.

Tornear however, looked merely disappointed. "Bolgash, what are you doing?"

Bolgash grinned, tapping Vhynias' collar with her file a couple of times, "Gettin' this off, if this room starts ter flood, I'm getting outta here."

"Oh my…" Vhynias buried his face in his paws. Bolgash was holding the file out in clear view. With an annoyed sigh, he turned and looked behind him at the other prisoners. To nobody's surprise, most of the prisoners were looking at them. Some were surprised, some were angry, and a couple of them were confused. Great. Thanks, Bolgash.

As he was unable to stand, he simply turned around in his seat. Addressing the prisoners with a paw to his temple, Vhynias grumbled, "Um… Right, so, pretty sure y'all saw the file. Just uhh… somebeast watch the door, we're gonna pass the file 'round. This next part is important." Vhynias pulled out his file and placed it against the chain closest to his neck, "Do not saw here, saw there if ya want all o' us to die. Saw down at the chain closest to the floor, that way it'll be hard to notice even when they go in to give us our food. So…" It sounded like Vhynias was going to say more, but he abruptly stopped, turning back around and beginning to saw at his chains. Talking to strangers was never his strong suit.

Tornear scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Great job Bolgash, now we got to keep watch on those abbeydwellers in the back." Beasts like that say they're nice and will pat you on the back. But they wouldn't hesitate to stab us vermin in the back if it helped them even a little.

Bolgash held out her arms casually, smirking wryly.


"This is going to take forever, isn't it?" Art asked flatly to Rianne.

"Maybe? I don't know, I've never had to cut myself out of a slave collar before," She responded. "But we only have to cut part of the chain off, and we can just drag the rest out, right? That's how it works I think."

"But even if we get our chains off, then what? We can't even get out of this room, that door has a lock. There's nowhere to go either since we're in the ocean."

Rianne was about to respond when she saw something in the corner of her eye. One of the weasels sitting in the front, Tornear, was watching the pair like a hawk. "Art, that weasel is watching us. What a creep."

Art grunted, "Why us? Does he think we're going to do something?"

Rianne gazed at the ferret suspiciously. Why is he looking at us like that? If anything, we're the ones that should be worried. Sure, he's helping us now, but vermin have done nothing but cause trouble back at Redwall. As soon as it's convenient for them, they'll leave us for dead.

Gurnilal tapped Tornear on the shoulder with the file. Tornear grabbed it and looked away from Art and Rianne.

Rianne looked around at the strange assortment of beasts around her. Whatever happens in the next… however long we're stuck in here, it's going to be very interesting indeed.