Mission:
Running towards them, I was nearly knocked flat as I tried to separate the two wild creatures, each one considerably larger than I am. The two each had dreadful injuries, yet continued fighting with all of their immense strength. It was time for action. Feeling a deep anger stir deep inside, I punched the Monitor in the head and kicked out into the wolf’s body. Each one staggered back, stunned momentarily. Dusting off my Captain’s cloak, I glared until both stood and saluted.
“What just happened here?” I asked. Sounds of commotion continued within the tavern.
The wolf glared dangerously at the lizard, responding coldly. “The Monitors have wronged us, I am merely defending my species, sir.” His ending word dripped contempt.
“Zzzzir, it iz the wolvez who have wronged uz, and I wazz fighting for my brethren!” The Monitor flicked his tongue at the wolf, claws clenched tightly.
I signaled a nearby trident rat to watch those two as I investigated the tavern they had come from. Perhaps this wouldn’t be as relaxing a day as I thought.
Inside the scene was of utter chaos. Walls were stained with blood, furniture had been broken and shattered, and all around wolves and Monitors were fighting and beating each other. I had had enough. “Hey! Stop this right now!” I demanded, shouting at the top of my lungs. Hardly an eye turned. I tried something else. “Continue, and deal with Ublaz himself!” This got attention. None of these combatants eager to confront the Emperor, they stopped their rampages and turned towards me. “Good,” I said. “Now listen up, I want all of you to come with me. You may not have to see Ublaz personally, but I’m taking you there anyway. Come on, let’s get moving.” There were growls and snarls but each one obeyed, not daring to contend with a Vice Admiral. Taking in to custody the two I had contended with earlier as well, I marched the unlucky group off to the palace looming high overhead to the South.
Ublaz was of course not particularly pleased with this dilemma. First of all, his prized Monitors were involved in the conflict with the growing and powerful wolf population, and so either way he would be losing a very strong ally should either destroy the other. Second, because each of the respective groups of combatants and their overall strengths, should outright war become prevalent it would not stop until most of the island’s forces were decimated. Pawing at his brow, the Emperor of all the Seas motioned for me to bring in the prisoners. Signaling to the guard Trident rat, the doors were opened and a few dozen wolves and Monitors shuffled into the immense throne room. The apparent leaders of the combating factions walked slowly towards U! blaz, averting their eyes and mentally going through their heads what they would say.
Immediately, of course, the two began speaking at the same time, causing great confusion and anger. Before even Ublaz could stop them, the two towering, hulking creatures began to brawl and fight with every scrap of strength in their bodies. As the two fought at Ublaz’s footpaws, scratching and biting furiously on the floor, the Pine Marten’s features could only be described as a grin. He let them fight until near exhaustion, their minions only able to look on as their leaders fought to the death, until in what seemed like an instant the silver dagger was drawn and both wolf and lizard were dead upon the cold floor.
Blood sprayed upon his paws and robe, the Emperor looked coldly towards the dumbfounded underlings of the deceased. Fluidly wiping his dagger upon a silken kerchief, he relaxed his gaze upon what seemed like each and every one of them, totally disregarding those who he had just slain. I stood silently in the shadows behind him, unmoved by the display of savagery before my eyes. The Trident rats hurried forward to dispose of the bodies, and everything remained eerily silent for several tense moments.
Had I have been in Ublaz’s situation, I would not have been so brash as to slay the leaders of the two most powerful factions within my empire, but then again I did not hold the power of his eyes. Ublaz decides he can control them, so as the carcasses were hauled to the cliffs I could do nothing but observe.
But those eyes could not tame the fires within the feral foes of which Ublaz had just made. Primal rage within the collective wholes were unforgiving of what had just occurred, and disregarding any attempts of control the wolves and the lizards rebelled. They did not do so together, of course. Fighting amongst one another and destroying what could come to claw, the masses closed upon each other, ripping and biting and smashing and tearing as with the help of Trident rats they were driven from the palace of Ublaz. They spread to the hills to regroup and swell their numbers, and only moments after it had began Ublaz stood in his ruined hall with myself behind and beside him. As of yet not a word had been spoken.
“My friend, Rakesi, I am afraid I have made a grave mistake.” he said, quietly. “This is now beyond my complete control. You must assist me to settle this, or we shall be overwhelmed. Grant me this, my Vice Admiral.”
“Of course,” I replied, “O mighty Emperor.” With that I trotted off to get to the bottom of things.
I could still be
considered one
of the
Wave Brethren, simply because I was enlisted
and not
in a
command position.
This allowed
me to get some
interesting information
on this matter. Returning to the tavern where this scuffle
originally took place, I looked around the main room. It was one established by the growing number of
wolves, quite recently, as a refuge from the rest of Ublaz’s
minions. Wolves had all of a sudden
started to show up on the island in large numbers, and from this sudden
influx they had been treated with scorn and disdain by several other
species. After talking to the
bartender, a big retired trident rat, I learned that the Monitors,
large, powerful, and native, had !
taken a special dislike to these rivals of strength. Things usually had been fairly calm between
the two sides, neither interacting with each other nor acting
aggressively, until just recently when several Monitors had appeared at the
tavern. A fight broke out, and
that’s when I came in.
Something didn’t sound
right to me. The rat at
the bar seemed to be hiding something, I didn’t know what, though. I shook it off, looking around
the tavern for any sign of a clue, and I just thought about the
situation. The search was fruitless,
of course. Nothing seemed to help
me one
way or
another. My thinking,
however, did prove to be worth the time, as I realized
what had
gone missing.
Each side
has said
that the other has wronged
them, which
is quite clearly the reason for conflict
in the
first place. Wolves had
invaded monitors, wolves discriminated
on byMonitors. That made sens!
e, but
whatI
didn’t likeiswhy the two strongest species on the isle would happen to be
the only ones fighting.
Surely this couldn’t be solely about dominance, because Ublaz had that over
all anyway. Also, why had
sides not been taken out before?
The two factions surely would have been gathering up allies
before the opening fight, so why had it just been wolves and lizards? The only solution I had for the
two questions I had were that the events leading up to the fight could
only have been swift and sudden.
Possibly occurring o!
nly moments before violence had erupted. This brought me back to that rat. Why had he been so calm? Before I could turn to question him, I felt the
blade of a knife at my throat. “Don’t even think about moving!”
Gagged and bound in the most despicable manner, I was dragged unceremoniously down to the cellars of the tavern. It was dark and wet, but with the lethally serrated knife blade to my throat I didn’t particularly mind. As my captor took me by surprise, it came to me immediately who this was. I wasn’t shocked, as I was thinking about him only moments earlier. The old retired trident rat.
He was certainly larger than most rats I knew, and I knew quite a few, and he was also stronger than most. Of course being a ferret I was larger than he was, but this particular individual was cutting that span very close. Burly as he is, and considering my situation, I had no chance of breaking free.
He spoke to me in a gruff, surly voice. “Yew stay here. I knows you’ve figured it out already, and I can’t have the likes of you jawin’ off to Mad Eyes.” He glared at me. “I was in his service way back, an’ I know how close he keeps his minions.” With that, he left me by myself, the door slamming behind him. There was a slight trickle of sunlight from the cellar windows, but they were high enough that I had no chance of reaching them, bound as I was. Lying back, I sat on the cold floor and thought furiously of ways to escape. It took a while, but eventually, it came to me.
The trident rat closed the door to his tavern, walking out into the open air. It was nearly evening, and the sun was setting brilliantly on the western horizon. The moon hung in the sky, a waning crescent soon to become nearly invisible in the sky. Oblivious to it all, the rat trundled off towards the northeastern shore, where there was business to attend to.
When he got there, it was past dark and the stars shone brightly above him, illuminating the island as if twilight. A small cove sheltered a small vessel, beached on the sandy shore. Cooking fire lit, a hare and an otter sat crouched over it, preparing food for themselves and their soon to be guest. Raising his head, the hare saw the rat with his paws raised up to signify he was unarmed. Beckoning him over to join them, the hare nudged his companion and they both rose, greeting their informant.
“Well, Hookpaw, I take it you have good news for us, eh?” asked the otter, her tail thumping on the sand anxiously.
“Yeah, I’ve got some good news fer ya’,” replied the rat, “It’s all taken care of. Wolves and Monitors are at each other’s throats, and if I know the two there’ll be none left within a few days.”
“Good work, chap,” said the hare, pawing at a small bag at his belt.
Hookpaw eyed the small sack longingly. His eyes looked up at the hare, who cocked an eyebrow at him. “I say, should we give him the reward or what?” he whispered to the otter.
“Why not,” said the otter, equally as quiet, “He’s earned it.”
The hare nodded and took the bag into his paws, eyeing the rat still. Tossing it to Hookpaw, he sighed at the methods he was being forced to use. “Here, use it well,” he said.
Hookpaw opened the sack and poured the contents into his paw. Out came a dozen or so gold pieces, the markings on them signifying their make. They were badger markings.
The otter interrupted Hookpaw’s glee. “So, shall we say three days?” she asked the hare. He nodded and went to the fire to grab some torches.
“Rat,” he said, giving Hookpaw a lighted torch, “take this and stand over by that rock. Streambuck, stand by the boat.” He took his position between the two. “This oughta be enough for his Lordship to see, wot?” The three torches were raised high into the air, until off in the night three yellow points of light were seen on the horizon. The message had been received.
Back in the cellars, I had realized my predicament fairly quickly, but it still had taken me some time to figure a way out of it. Eventually, however, I had been able to cut my bounds on a barrel saw and free my paws. Then, finding a large bung mallet, I had smashed the door open and ran outside, the darkness of the night surprising. Had I really been held captive for so long? Discarding the mallet, I picked up a nearby sling and stone pouch and searched in the dim light for any trace of that rat. Seeing some assorted corsairs and searats grouped together and staring off at the northeastern coast, however, proved to be the most helpful clue I had found all day.
I looked over in the same direction, scanning the horizon as I searched for what it was. Suddenly, I saw the torches from across the island. It was very dim, but it was plain to see somewhere off on the seas three distinct points of light. The ships had to have been fairly far out from shore, but something bothered me. Who were they signaling? Surely three flames wouldn’t scare an entire island, and so it seemed as if they were communicating, possibly with some on shore.
I turned around, counting the ships on the jetty and in the harbor. Mentally checking off each ship, I concluded that none were unaccounted for, and therefore were not off of the northeastern coast. Turning back, I fearfully realized that these were not vessels of His Majesty. They belonged to some unknown force, and with wolves and lizards at each other’s throats it would quite simple to completely overtake the island.
With the sling wrapped around my waist, stone pouch thumping at my side, I took off as fast as I could to a run in the direction of what I saw. Heart pounding, legs aching, mind swimming, I knew at once that I had to put down this threat immediately. Should I falter, or hesitate, or fail at all, we would all perish. Ships such as the ones I saw only group in massive fleets. Those ships were from Salamandastron.
“Oi, Hookpaw, we’re casting off,” yelled Streambuck, “Rockpaw and I will be back in two days to pick you up. After that we’re taking the island, understand?”
The big rat nodded, an evil grin on his ugly features. Soon he would be rid of Ublaz, the wolves, the Monitors, and the island. Soon he would be living better, and soon he would be free. Cackling silently in the night, he saw the small boat make its way to the fleet, and he turned around. Out of nowhere, a stone cracked on his nose, and he staggered backwards and fell on the sand, half-stunned. Another stone hit his paw, and he lifted it up to suck it gingerly. Fear gripped his cold heart, and before he could call out to the hare and the otter a shadow fell upon him.
“You traitor,” I growled, swinging the loaded sling as my cloak billowed in the cool winds. “You’ve betrayed our empire for what, a bag of gold?” I landed a few kicks in on him as he cowered on the shore. “I won’t deal with you, but Ublaz certainly will. But tell me, was it you who turned the wolves and lizards upon each other?”
Hookpaw cringed in the sand, stuttering a mix of excuses and pleas for life. Glaring at him, expressionless, I launched the stone full force, landing it a hairsbreadth from his right eye. “P-p-please…” he cringed, “Don’t kill me, sir, I’ll t-tell you everything! Everything!”
“Good,” I said, “But why don’t you first tell these friends of mine?” I pointed behind me, bringing Hookpaw’s attention to the horde of wolves and Monitors who had joined me on my flight. Jaw wide open, he shrieked and tried to run away, but I tackled him before he got very far.
“Fine!” he screamed, “Okay, I’ll talk! Wolves, Monitors! I told you that the other had wronged you, I knew of your honor as species, and that you would t-t-try to protect that, so that there would be a fight large enough to draw attention away from the… the…” he gasped for breathe, looking fearfully out to see, “The massive fleet gathering to kill us all!”
I was surprised at his openness, but was even more surprised when I was nearly impaled with a flying javelin. Its point buried itself into the sand, and I looked up to see the thrower. A female otter had jumped off the prow of a small boat and was swimming swiftly to the shore, and a male hare was taking aim with a longbow. Throwing myself to the beach, I saw Hookpaw take the arrow through the chest and fall, his face an expression of fear.
Streambuck leaped clear of the water and swung her sling at me, hurling a large stone at my head. Diving off to the side, I hurled my own sling and caught her on the back of the head, and she collapsed into the sand. Rockpaw was more surprised than anyone, seeing the masses of wolves and Monitors on the shore. Realizing that Sampetra was not at risk of being enveloped in civil war, he turned and lit his arrow, firing it high into the sky. Grabbing the javelin from the shore, I hurled it and it took the hare in the back. He splashed into the sea, dead.
His boat thudded into the sand as the otter came to. She picked up her head and saw around her many faces, including many of wolves and Monitors. Looking into my eyes, she mouthed something about the mission and passed out again. Willingly picked up, she was hauled to the Palace of Ublaz by the new alliance of those who had been recently at war. I saw numerous signal arrows launched from the ships as they realized that Sampetra was not at risk. The night became light as I saw the ships sailing east to home. The Imperial Navy Serving Ublaz was currently safe from attack.