Ratty Driftwood

[Wylder Treejumper]

Cpt Cardilon

The Captain's face remained as cold and still as stone as he listened to the searat captain try to extract himself from his precarious situation. The vermin was a shrewd sort of beast, and while his gamble was desperate, it was well-played. With a different hare, it might even have worked.
"There is only one choice, vermin. Yours." His voice, in taking on an razor edge rarely heard among hares, had lost part of the trademark accent. "That is, to live, or to die. Your crew has already been nearly routed by my patrol. If you harm the squirrelmaid, or try to leave with her, I will cut you down where you stand, and then your crew will be hunted down and utterly destroyed. You will have taken her life, yes- but you will never take another. If her death is enough to console you on your way to Hellgates, so be it. Or, you may release her, and you and your crew will be allowed to leave the village peacefully. As for guarantees, the word of a Long Patrol Officer is renowned enough that you may trust it. Or not, in which case you and all your associates will die- no great loss." He gaze bore into the searat captain. Suddenly, he whistled sharply from between his teeth, and all of the hares not in the heat of combat turned towards him. "There is no escaping fate, captain. What will it be- life, or extermination?"


--------------------------------------


Elgon

Elgon ventured forward slowly, sliding between the trees to the area indicated by the unintelligible, but apparently harmless searat. The camp appeared deserted, but there was a bit of a racket at the far end. Moving quietly along the edge of the clearing, he got moved into sight of a couple of very bored-looking vermin guards, tossing dice and idly stirring a tiny fire. There were a few more vermin tied to the trees behind them, but they were obscured by the guards and a bit of brush, and didn't seem to be doing anything.

Well, time to make a go of it! But I'd better jolly well not botch the job, or Cap will have my ears, wot wot!

Striding boldly into camp, Elgon drew his rapier casually and pointed it exaggeratedly at the two flabbergasted vermin. "Har har, me 'earties! Surrender yer booty and join up with the great corsair Elgon the 'Orrible, er prepare ter face the 'orful consequences!" Contorting his face into an awful, twisted expression, he began to spout off the most horrible things he could think might terrify superstitious sea vermin.  "I'll shiver yer gizards and lilly yer timbers, asides from keelhauling yer miserable remains and then letting me pet sea serpent flay yer hides from yer rotting carcasses! So, wot'll it be, me lads- me crew, er the plaaaaaank?!"

OOC: Someone want to take over the poor vermin guards here? You should be able to have a bit of fun with them XD

[shisteer of nothing much]

Sliteye:

  Sliteye rolled his eyes as the other weasel charged through the trees, entirely oblivious to the tracks which showed their target turning and heading back the way he'd come, a few metres parallel to his previous path.
  Good ridance! Stoopi' beast. the tracker thought, frowning as he noticed a new set of tracks following the other. Sniffing the thread that had caught on a nearby twig, the weasel screwed up his nose in disgust. The scent was of a hare, and the hare in question smelled clean and vaguely of flowery soap.
  Yuck! 'o would use such disgistin' poshuns an' wotnot? 'e mus' be no' righ' in th' 'ead, proly why 'e's not joinin' the fight. 'is mates mus' be scared 'e'll kill them, 'stead o' the enemy. Either tha' or 'e don' 'ave no fightin' skills anyways. Harharr!
  Despite his scornful thoughts, Sliteye moved more cautiously, knowing the reputation of the infamous Long Patrol as well as anybeast. To vermin corsairs, the mention of the Long Patrol was far more terrifying than mention of ghosts or sea monsters. In fact, if it weren't for the fear of his own captain, Sliteye would have turned and made a run for it.
  Still following the tracks, he approached camp again, spying the rat he'd been tracking first. Now he got a good view of him, the weasel recognised him as a member of Keelteeth's crew. Specifically, the same one he'd caught on the sand dune.
  'e wants ter be knocked on the 'ead again, huh? I moight as well oblige 'im.
  Sneaking up on the beast, Sliteye drew his knife and held it by the blunt edge in his teeth, tapping the rat on the shoulder.
  "'ey dere, make." the grinning weasel whispered fiercely around his knife.

Captain Mharbrow PhantomPaint:

  Mharbrow's eyes glinted fiercely as he listened to the hare's counter offer. If he did try to cut him down, it wouldn't be easy. Many beasts had tried to kill him in that past and none had succeeded, or lived to see another sunrise. If it came to a fight between the two, Mharbrow had no doubts as to who would win, but the hare was offering him another alternative.
  The word of a Long Patrol captain was renowned, though, all the times he'd heard of it, the hare in question had sworn to never stop hunting a particular vermin down until he was dead, and he generally succeeded, though occasionally he died in the process, in which case his friends finished the task for him. Even if the hare captain was dead, Mharbrow had no doubts that, should he harm the squirrelmaid in any way, he and his crew would be hunted down without mercy.
  "So, should I choose to let the squirrel go, I have your word that you will not come after us and, if I do harm her, I have your word that you and your friends will stop at nothing to see us dead. Either way, I will get to find out how good the word of a Long Patrol captain is. It is a hard choice, but I will go with the first option. I doubt you'll succeed in killing me, but I'd rather not have to watch my back that thoroughly."
  The fox released the squirrelmaid slowly, making sure she could support her own weight before removing his paws from her completely and stepping back.
  "There. I have fulfilled my half of the bargain. Tell your hares to stop fighting and we'll be on our way."
  Dyemhar watched the hare carefully over the head of the young squirrel, taking another pace back and dropping to his haunches to show his submission, though every muscle in his body was tensed and ready to move in case of treachery. In the vermin world, the only promises given by Long Patrol hares that he'd heard of were ones of certain death for the recipient of the promise. He had no knowledge of how trustworthy a treaty of peace was, and he wasn't taking any chances.

[Kade Rivok]

Firestripe wasn't sure if he'd been upset or relieved about being left behind; raiding peaceful creatures had never been his favorite thing to do.  Of course, he'd always done his duty without question, and more than one innocent creature had fallen under his blade, but deep down he knew that this wasn't the kind of beast he wanted to be.  Life, however, had left him little options, and so he did what he had to in order to stay alive.  Pushing pointless thoughts out of his head, the large, black fox sat under the shade of a nearby tree, nearly disappearing from sight, as he awaited the rest of the crews return.  However, the distant sounds coming from the village started to sound more like a battle and less like a raid.  After thinking for a moment, he ordered Fanggrin and Rangfur to quietly make their way to the village to see how things were going.  He didn't think some woodlanders could give the captain much trouble, but he figured it was better to be cautious.  Hopefully Belladonna, Mharbrow, and the rest were fine. 

As the ferret and fox vanished into the brush, Firestripe ran his good eye over the prisoners; they were pretty quiet for the most part, but some had a strange look in their eye as if they were expecting something.  He was about to get up and go inspect their bonds when he heard a noise to his right.  Seconds later, a hare waltzed past him from a yard or two away and straight into the middle of the camp where Grunt and Webneck had been playing dice.  The two looked exceedingly confused as the hare, naming himself Elgon the... 'Orrible, menaced them with rapier and silly accent alike.  Firestripe had more interaction with hares than most vermin, having been captured by a small patrol when he was younger; they'd been one of the groups of goodbeasts he'd tried to peacefully approach after he'd lost his parents.  He wasn't sure why they'd kept him alive rather than killing him, but not too long after he'd been captured, some... things happened that he'd rather not think about, and he'd managed to escape.  Elgon here definitely seemed to be your average hare.  He was obviously brave, and obviously reckless, treating danger as a joke.  And the way he handled his rapier was pretty par for the course, meaning that he seemed to be quite good with it.

Firestripe silently rose to his footpaws, one saber in paw, and approached the hare from behind.  "Plank walking is old fashioned, friend.  Nowadays, we just gut ya and then toss ya overboard.  I can show you what I mean, or you can drop your blade.  Your call."

[Faclan]

Looking extremely confused as the grand hare rescuer just walked into the camp and started to try and act like a terrible Pirate Tul just kind of stood there. Really unsure of his plan here. Like...these were actual vermin pirates. They would know what and Pirate sounded like. And there were more of them than the single hare. What did he think was going to happen really? But as he was still bound there wasn't a whole lot he could do besides try to hide from the big fox left in charge and peak out every so often to observe the happenings.

That was until he was tapped on the shoulder. Expecting it to be another Hare asking what the doodle was going on his confused faced quickly went to fear as the weasel was there from before. Looking like it was time for rat noses for dinner. Tul just squeaking and being momentarily frozen.

[shisteer of nothing much]

  Sliteye chuckled maliciously at the fear in the rat's eyes, reaching a paw down and grabbing hold of the conveniently pre-bound beast while his other paw retrieved the knife from his mouth.
  "Don' ye worry, mate. Sli'eye'll look h'after yer. Jus' don' make a'noise an' everythin'll be a'righ'. Come 'round 'ere an' git back ter yore mates. They be'n missin' yew, y'know."
  The weasel shoved his face close to the rat, smiling reassuringly in such a deliberate way that he looked anything but reassuring. He kept his face close until the rat answered, his yellow fangs showing around the vile scent of his breath, which came out in heavy gusts as he purposely bullied the helpless creature, his knife held casually in one paw to dissuade defiance.

[Verdauga]

Wrackfur stopped in a clearing. The voices he heard had to be nearby, so where were they? He had to find the rat and bring him to the captain--
The captain.
"Ohohoho!" His sides shook as Wrackfur realized what he had done. He'd escaped. "Ah got some food out o' them, an' got 'em busy, an' Ah got 'way from 'em!"
A gruesome smile showed on his face as Wrackfur twirled his axe in his paw, heading out of the reach of the badger lord and his army, and Pirate and crew.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Cpt Cardilon

The Captain put up his saber and signaled to the alert Long Patrol soldiers to disengage- which they did, with some reluctance. He then shifted his gaze to glare at Mharbrow. "Now, leave here peacefully with all your crew, quicklike, and be gone from this region. Find some honest work to do- because by the left, if I ever meet up with you and any of your vermin plundering or murdering again, there is nothing this side of the dark forest gates that'll keep me from removing you scum from the Earth."

----------------------------

Elgon

Well, this is just what I was bally well worried about. You've done it again, Elgon- put your hindpaw right in your jolly big mouth. And this time the situations got a point to it, wot! Elgon let out a tiny, dejected sigh as he heard the searat's words and felt the swordpoint between his shoulder blades. He dropped his rapier, but couldn't resist having the last word.

"I say, a bit barbaric you modern pirate types are. We great corsairs have a flair for the dramatic, doncha know- there's a sense of style to it that you overly practical types will never understand. Leave it to commercialization to ruin the arts, wot!"

[shisteer of nothing much]

  Mharbrow smiled and sheathed his weapons, coming upright again and crossing over to where Belladonna lay.
  "Mind if I carry you, vixen? You look slightly too wounded to walk and we're going to beat a rather hasty retreat."
  Not waiting for a reply, the captain scooped the wounded beast up, slightly surprised at the weight of the female, though he wasn't in need of help. He considered asking the hare for her weapons but decided it probably wouldn't go down well. He'd just give her one of his scimitars if it came to a fight.
  "Well then, good day to you, longears. Crew, gather the dead and wounded and come along. I'm not leaving anybeast to the Long Patrol's tender mercies. Hurry up."
  The captain paused as he passed the squirrelmaid, who was still standing where he'd left her.
  "Thank you, fluff bottom. You saved my healer's life and provided a way for us to disengage, even if it wasn't intentionally. I won't forget that, though the chances of me being able to repay you are probably slim."
  Having said his piece, the captain moved on, calling orders to the vermin under him and gesturing with a free paw and his head.
  "Get moving you blaggards! Hurry up before the hare changes his mind!"

[Ebantu the Kararehe]

  Belladonna hissed in pain as Mharbrow lifted her, closing her eyes and concentrating on not screaming. She opened her eyes when her captain addressed the squirrelmaid and flicked her gaze to the creature who had saved her.
  "Thank you, miss," she whispered. "If I live-" She gritted her teeth in sudden pain before continuing. "And if I ever see you again, I'll remember what you did for me."
  Mharbrow kept moving and the vixen shut her eyes again, wincing as her captain shouted to the crew. Fates and seasons, this I say, let us live another day and that squirrel I'll repay. She vowed silently as Dyemhar carried her away from the battleground. 

[Faclan]

Tul would just nod at the deal that was laid out to him. How he would get to live through all this. Thankfully he was told to stay quiet so that was nice and easy to do. If he were a more daring skilled fighter he may have tried to move on the Pirate. Despite his bound paws he may have been able to surge forward. Shove that dagger into his mouth before grabbing another weapon and swinging. But he wasnt that. At all. He was just a short navigator who was soon shoved on the ground next to the other members of his old crew as they grumbled and shook their heads at him. Some rescue this was. It looked like the hare was going to be joining them soon as well!

The group just had to hope that the hares found them before the foxes got back.

[Kade Rivok]

As Firestripe menaced the hare with his blade, he noticed out of the corner of his eye Sliteye returning with the run away rat.  Good, that's another problem solved, he thought to himself.  Without looking away from the hare, he called out, "Sliteye, tie that one back up with the rest, and check him for a blade, for goodness sake.  We don't need more escapes." Firestripe then gestured to Webneck, who quickly retrieved the fallen rapier from beside the hare; there was no sense in leaving the weapon within easy reach.  Keeping the tip of his blade pressed against Elgon's back, the black fox spoke in a menacingly calm manner.  "Smart choice, friend.  Now would you mind telling me what exactly a patrol hare is doing out here?  I somehow doubt you're alone.  Oh, and before I forget, get on your knees... Mr. 'Orrible."

[shisteer of nothing much]

Mharbrow

  Dyemhar surveyed his group, sighing at the sight before him. Three dead, one injured badly and two fit, not counting himself.
  "Cutsnip, you can take Tornpatch and Baretail, Fret, carry Fet. Let's go."
  Without a further word or backward glance, he marched away from the village, heading on right angles to where the camp was until he reached the trees. The method was virtually useless, since nobeast was covering their tracks, but it was a formality that he liked to take care of anyway.
  "Cap'n, what 'appened? Firestripe sen' us ter see if'n ye needed 'elp."
  Mharbrow sighed with relief at the sight of the two beasts, thanking fate silently for his blessed first mate.
  "Firestripe's a good beast. Rangfur, give Cutsnip a paw with his load. Fanggrin, cover our tracks. I'll brief everybeast back at camp."
  The fox and the ferret hurried to do as they'd been instructed, casting shocked glances at Fet'n'Fret, one of which was carrying the other. They couldn't imagine having only one of the brothers around. They were inseparable.
  Stepping out of the bushes into the clearing, the most prominent feature that took the fox captain's attention was a young hare, his rapier at his footpaws and Firestripe's blade between his shoulder blades.
  "What- Webneck, Grunt, get a stretcher set up. Rangfur, help everybeast who survived with whatever they need to do, including sorting out what provisions they got, then make a start at digging some gra- Scratch that, get Keelteeth's crew to dig some graves. Firestripe, what on earth happened here?"
  The camp immediately came alive, everybeast rushing to do the captain's bidding. Mharbrow approached the black fox, Belladonna still held as gently as possible as he studied the first mate's captive.
  "What's your name and what in season's name are you doing here? Webneck, hurry up with that stretcher! This vixen needs a decent place to rest."

Sliteye

  Sliteye checked the rat for weapons and, confirming that he had none, attached his bound paws to the line of prisoners, hurrying back to help with the dead and wounded who had just arrived with the captain. At his order to have the captives dig graves, he hurried back to them and selected two from the line, attaching a lighter rope to their footpaws and bringing them into the main part of the camp.
  "'Ere, I'll git these beauties starded on th' graves. Thems love diggin'."

[Wylder Treejumper]

Elgon

Elgon knelt, grimacing as the pirates snatched up his rapier. The searat-no, fox, he saw now, craning his neck to glance behind him- who had captured him gazed at him with a self-satisfied look on his face. Well, here's a pretty pickle, wot! I've made a bloomin' mess of the plan, I have. Hmph, talked meself into it, and I suppose I'll have to bally well talk meself out!

"Well, me fellow pirate chum, I was a patrol hare, wot! But I've had quite enough of marchin' all over the bloomin' continent from north to south, wearin' out the ol' hooves and gettin' nothing to show for it. So I struck out fer myself to have a lark at this corsairing business- sailing the sea, saving 'elpless maidens from marriages with crusty dukes and other such unsavory types, liberating gold aplenty from unscrupulous bodgers.. anything better than split footpaws four days of the week, wot wot!" He twitched his whiskers primly, imitating a somewhat snobby major he had often seen during his service in the Officer's Mess. "And by the by, that's Captain 'Orrible to you, mate!"

[Kade Rivok]

The grip Firestripe had on his blade tightened as he saw the crew, or what was left of it, return; the defeated look in the eyes of those still alive told him enough of what had transpired.  Things like this were bound to happen from time to time, they were pirates after all.  He knew this, just as well as he knew that there wasn't a single good creature among them deserving of a better fate.  Even so, the sight of Fret carrying his dead brother made his blood begin to boil.  And then he saw Belladonna, and the the wound that had nearly taken her, and he felt himself go light headed with anger.  Gritting his teeth, he reached down and wrapped his claws tightly around the hares neck from behind, shoving the tip of his blade more firmly into the defenseless creatures back.  It took all of the will Firestripe could muster to keep himself from simply running the hare through, there and then.

"Enough of your games, rabbit," his voice growled through tightened jaws as his hot breath ruffled the fur on the hare's head, "Answer truthfully!  Don't think I won't send you screaming in agony to the Hellgates."

[Ebantu the Kararehe]

  Belladonna forced her eyes open and carefully turned her head in the direction of Firestripe and the young hare. She saw a faint red stain on the fabric where the fox's swordpoint met Elgon's back.
  "Please, Firestripe," she said, her voice tight and low. "If you're going to kill him, do it quietly. Pounding headaches aren't helped by screams."