It was midmorning, and I clung to the deckrail and felt the strong wind in my face. Life was good. I was the captain of my father’s old ship, The QueenDarksea, and a more loyal crew could not be asked for. The skilly’n’duff was delicious, the fat searat who was cook was experienced. Our supplies were plenty, and we would arrive at Fort Scarfire in about half a season. All I wanted to do now was get to know the sailors, so I walked over to the main cabin and grabbed a seat at the main table. I looked around the room. The majority of the beasts were searats, but there were also ferrets, stoats, weasels, and two foxes, one of which was Rubelle the seer. I didn’t know there were two foxes, or who the second one was until he appeared in front of me, as if out of no where. He was a marlfox. He was black, with pale amber eyes. He looked at me for a moment, then held out his paw in greeting.
“Hello, I am Rubelle’s mate. My name is Kaxon.”
I shook his paw and remarked, “I didn’t know that Rubelle had a mate,” He nodded, a bored expression on his features. “Yes. We have. . . had a son who was named Blackpaw the Poisener, but he ran away and became a wanderer when he was five seasons old. We haven’t seen him since.”
Then Kaxon disappeared, as marlfoxes do, and I walked over to meet the rest of my crew. I even joined them in their game of acorns and shells. I had a quick spar with a ferret named Mekro. He was pretty good, but I disarmed him in the end.
By evening I was fully in charge of my crew, and was giving orders as a proper captain should. If they had a problem, they soon came to me or Diringe the first mate. I was sitting in my cabin, leaning back in a chair with my feet on the table and drinking some elderberry wine when Rubelle came in. I poured her some wine and shoved the chalice toward her.
“What is it, my faithful seer?” I asked, motioning for her to sit down. She didn’t sit down, but remained standing. She shifted from paw to paw uneasily.
“There is a fleet coming toward us. The ships are black.” She met her eyes with mine and waited anxiously. I shook my head, puzzled. “So? How close are they? I’m sure the QueenDark can outrun them if they plan to do any harm to us. How many are there, anyway?”
Rubelle seemed to relax. She sat down in the seat and took a sip of the wine.
“There are fourteen of them M’lady. They aren’t in sight yet, but-,” She stopped. I nodded. “Go on,”
“But my shells say that the black searats are coming. Have you not heard of them?” I shook my head. “No, actually, I haven’t.”
“Well, there is a band of big, savage, black searats. No one is sure if they are all naturally black or if they color themselves somehow. But anyway, they have fourteen ships, and all they do is raid other ships, kill the beasts on them, or take them as slaves.”
I shrugged. “I’m sure we can outrun them,” I said again.
Rubelle shook her head. “You should see the sails on their ship. Much wider than ours. Besides that, if the wind dies down, they have many, many oarslaves, more than we have.” She sighed. “We can’t outrun them. As fine as the QueenDark may be, she is not as light as the black rats’ ships, or as well built.”
I stood up. “Looks like we have a problem. But what makes you so sure they are heading towards us?”
“My shells told me,” She replied, emphasizing each word. “If you come up above deck, they might be in sight by now.” I sighed and walked out the door, leaving Rubelle behind. “I guess I better see what the big deal is,” I said, rolling my eyes.
~to be continued~