Yea Though I Walk Through The Valley (Old VI Thread)

[Jeshal the Ironclaw]

(Warnings for gore and zombies. The crew of the Golden Hide run into trouble with a mysterious (but bizarrely curable) plague. Characters of note: Gabriel & Jaylan Moonwhiskers; Talaith Trueshot; Anithias & Julia Freedom (with baby Falun Furotazzi); Jeshal the Ironclaw; Rynn; Sorrona Ashpaw; Armina Rogue; Xhavek Mokorai; Tanya Keltoi; and Will Wanderpaw)

YEA THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY

First post Notempre 17, Yr. 1728, 11:14 am



Gabriel Moonwhiskers/Jaylan Moonwhiskers
The fog was unlike anything Gabriel had ever set eyes on in his many years abroad... a cloying blanket of white nothingness that revealed nought before the Hide on an empty Notempre morning. Even the clouds of breath that flowed into the fog blended with the mist unseen, even by the breather, it was so complete.

On his knees above the port edge of the forecastle, Gabe kept silent, paws under his chin as he rested against the railing; days like these deprived him of sleep even further. He could recall too many bad experiences involving a heavy fog to care not. Using his axe haft to raise himself up, the todd paced to the starboard side, visibly restless and agitated.

"Kinnae see yer paw fore yer face, canne?"

Gabriel whipped around, shaking his head in slight relief when Jaylan showed himself from the stairway down to the maindeck, "Gates, Jay..."

Standing beside his brother, Jaylan Moonwhiskers was slightly shorter than his kindred and a bit leaner, balancing his own axe opposite Gabe's, an intricately forged bearded piece that outdid his brother's in every way save size. Flicking a piece of lint from his simple but elegant vest and topcoat, the fox spoke to the fog, sporting a heavy Irish accent and a touch of snobbish pride.

"Ye have nought t' do but stan' here and freeze, d'ya?"

Gabriel turned back to the fog, filling his pipe absently, "Hello to you to, Jay... didn't even know you were still a crewmember."

"Ya, that ah am," Jaylan replied, slowly buffering his nails on his coat, "Didje nah bother to look meh oop ye buffoon, eh?"

Ignoring his brother, Gabe kept his eye straight ahead, squinting intensely. Leaning over the edge of the bow, the todd shook his head a few times before turning to jog towards the mainmast.

"'Ay, Gab, where ye off tae, eh? It ehn't nice tae ignare ye kin..."

Gabriel whistled up to the beast camping the all but invisible crow's nest, "Can you see anything from up there, mate?"

"Nay, matey, 'tis blank as a bloody sheet, it is."

Gritting his teeth, Gabe pushed back past the still talking Jay, making his way back to the forecastle. Retrieving his pipe and lighting it irritatedly, the todd took a long draw, eye peeled for anything... anything like that. Dropping his pipe at the sight of a dark mass filling his vision, Gabriel sprinted for the maindeck, grabbing his axe and yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Land ho! Somebeast furl the sails and drop anchor, we're right on top of it!"


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith uncurled from her nest in the crook of the barrels on the deck of the Hide. Her first voyage wreaked unholy things on her stomach, making her unable to eat or drink anything but sips of water, so her chosen bed was a matter of convenience as much as a sign of distrust of the crewbeasts aboard.

Her journey at sea was spent in long bouts of scrubbing, mopping, scrubbing, tying odd things to other things she had no clue as to their purpose or function, scrubbing, and being sick over the railings at least a dozen times. She had balled herself up in a miserable wad of orange fur today at sundown, catching wisps of broken sleep until now, when hushed pawsteps disturbed her rest.

She stifled a groan as she pulled herself up and peeked out over the tops of the barrels that sheltered her. Her balance was flawed on this blasted boat; she scrambled to keep her paws beneath her as she squinted through the rags of mist strewn across the deck. Voices, sounds, light... Everything was distorted and strange in this fog.

Her ears flicked as she caught a hint of a familiar voice. The todd from her first night aboard the ship was nearby.

Talaith crept clumsily towards the source of the conversation, sacrificing stealth for simple balance as she clung uneasily to the railing to find her way.

She found the todd accidentally as he ran past her, squeezing herself into a silent shadow to avoid notice, then losing her footing again and almost tumbling over on her chin in his wake.

"Land ho! Someone furl the sails and drop anchor, we're right on top of it!"

Talaith's stomach curled in an agitated knot at Gabriel's cry. Her pupils grew to black coins as her heart surged with something she could only compare to the fury of battle. Scrabbling to her feet once more, she dashed off after the fox's enormous black shadow, wildly ignoring obstacles that made themselves known in the soupy mist only as she tripped and climbed over them.

Keeping to the side of him that didn't brandish an axe, Talaith cried out to Gabriel's smudged form, "What?! What's going on? What ken I do?"


Anithias Freedom/Armina Rogue
Anithias had been asleep when the cry came to furl sails and drop anchor. Thankfully the fox was a light sleeper, so he woke almost immediately. He listened to the shouting from the deck, frowning. That wasn't good. Quickly he rose from the bed he and Julia shared, pulling on his officer's jacket over his shirt as he marched out the cabin door. Surprisingly, no one below decks had begun to stir. Anithias was going to change that.

"Everybeast, on deck now!" he shouted down the companionway, walking up to the deck as he did so. There were three beasts on deck: Gabriel, a wildcat whom he didn't recognize, and a fox who looked strangely similar to Gabe. Anithias nodded at Gabe, half in acknowledgment of his presence and half in thanks for having kept his trousers on.

"What's going on?" he demanded, walking to the side of the ship. A huge land mass had appeared on the forward horizon, blocking out all else. "Why in 'Gates are we trying to sail through an island?" He frowned for a second as a thought entered his head. "What course are we on?" Anithias was not one to believe in uncharted islands. The sea had been explored heavily, and they were well within charted territory. So where in 'Gates were they?

A streak of black caught his eye, and he turned to see Armina swiftly climbing the rigging, nimbly using her one good paw to climb while her broken arm hung uselessly in its sling. A stab of grudging admiration went through Anithias, but he didn't show it.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Having heard the bellowing from the first mate only moments earlier, Jeshal had hurled himself from his bunk and cleared the stairs, cutlass in paw. Seeing that there was no battle on deck, no fire and only a few beasts loitering about in the thick translucent air, he sighed and lowered the blade.

"Well roast me a badger an' call me Penelope. Wot beast's scared o' a bit o' fog? Is this boat run by blackguards or a troupe o' woodlanders out for a picnic?"

The unimpressed fox sheathed his sword and swaggered along the deck, trying to make out the faces of those about him. He narrowly avoided smacking his nose on one of the masts as he passed.



Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Cursing colorfully, Gabe threw caution to the wind and sprinted for the wheel. Having had a few bad experiences with "abrupt commandeering" as some called it, the todd was slightly hesitant to do things himself around the ship, but the current situation left him with few options besides. Yanking the rudder full to starboard, he yelled down to Anithias and Talaith without thinking.

"Drop anchor, to Gates with precaution, drop it!"

Latching the wheel down, Gabriel leapt for the mainmast, climbing the riggings like a madbeast in an attempt to aid Armina with the sails. Nodding in thanks to the vixen as he passed her, the todd heaved mightily at the canvas ties, glancing down at what he hoped was a deck finally being manned by a few heavy sleepers.

"Ahoy, wake yourselves up! We're about to go aground, for Emperor's sake!"


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith watched the chaos around her, beasts tugging on clothes and whirling past in the fog, some climbing to unspeakably perilous positions on the rigging, others bolting to important duties she had no grasp of.

Lost as to what to do (scrubbing, mopping, and scrubbing had ill-prepared her for anything but the mundane), she found a piece of railing to wrap her paws around tightly and clung to it, unable to turn her enormous eyes from the imposing blackness rushing towards the ship. The crew's shouting went unheeded by her; all she knew was this island and the fog.

She growled unconsciously in apprehension. This was not what she ever imagined signing up for when she joined the crew of the Hide. She felt the boards of the deck groan as the ship began to grudgingly turn but it was hopeless; if the vessel missed this mass it would be by a whisker's breadth.

The waters lurched the Hide as it labored to alter course. Talaith nicked her claws into the railing, almost flung over the side because of her unsteady footing into the invisible waves below; salty vapor roared up through the mist, the only hint besides the ground ahead that they were sailing in a real sea and not one existing in the terrors of a nightmare. Screeching, Talaith pushed her chest up from the rail and fell to her knees, humbly useless in her fear. She was not a swimmer of any sort and in this deadly fog she would disappear unnoticed into the depths.



Rynn
"Drop anchor, to Gates with precaution, drop it!...Ahoy, wake yourselves up! We're about to go aground, for Emperor's sake!"

Her eyes flickered open, the reality of the shout forcing her from her bunk. Rynn stumbled drowsily among the somewhat violent to a fro the ship was performing. She threw on a vest over the longsleeve she had worn to sleep, while she hastily pushed her paws deep into her dark brown boots. She ran a paw through her headfur (now disarranged), and headed out the door. Her eyes beheld a dark mass quickly approaching the Hide.

That hadn't been the captain’s voice, but good job to whomever had been on watch, the she-cat thought to herself. She headed towards the anchor, in hopes of avoiding what exactly they were going aground on. She hardly stumbled, though the ships movements were becoming more tumultuous. Rynn paused at the sound of what sounded like a scream. No, more like a screech to her left. The small huddled bundle of orange fur clung to the railing, trying desperately not be swept into the waters. He/she fell to the deck, apparently unused to sailing. Rynn reached out to the new crewmember, latching her claws onto the loose white laced shirt.

"Not used t'this type o' travel, mate?" she muttered to the beast, the sea's crashing and the fog, made it nearly impossible to view the type of vermin she was helping. Her paw grabbed a hold of a damp shirt, drawing the now identifiable marmalade feline away from the possible danger of being cast overboard. "Now's not really th'time f'introductions, but m'names Rynn. From what I can see yer new here, so f'now try to 'elp me with th'anchor." Rynn nodded to the little wildcat, not bothering to see whether or not she would follow, and resumed her rapid pace to the anchor dropping it with the aid of a few helpful paws.

She sighed, her sleepiness now completely dissipated, and turned her attention to the Bow "What's goin' on?"


Talaith Trueshot
"T-Talaith." Trying to throw off her muddled state, she staggered after Rynn, latching onto any slice of sanity she could find.

"What's goin' on?"

Talaith shook her head, her voice steeled to be as ferocious as she could manage. "There's an island or somesuch. I don't know what it is. This is madness! What ken I do ta help? What's this about tha anchor?"

Almost losing Rynn in the mist, Talaith found her again, flailing her tail and paws around her in sloppy spirals to keep her balance. Her claw hooked the hem of the cat's sleeve and she pulled herself closer, as distasteful as she found the proximity.

"Show me! What ken I do ta help?"


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Gates, Gates, Gates...

Straining to fasten the sails, Gabriel glanced to Armina, wishing a one-armed beast hadn't risked life and limb in this kind of a situation; if they ran aground, he doubted she'd be able to keep hold of the mast...

With the sound of the breakers crashing in his ears, the todd frantically scrambled towards Armina, certain they had only seconds before impact; swiftly retrieving a scrap of rope, Gabe pushed the vixen into the mainmast as he worked on tying her safely to the beam.

"Just relax, this isn't going to feel good..."

Feeling the ship scrape bottom, the todd whipped around to see a mountainous wall of black approach the Hide far too quickly to avoid. Jaw dropping, Gabriel turned and screamed to the beasts on deck.

"BRACE FOR IM..."

The resulting collision with unmoving rock catapulted the todd from the rigging like an onager round, enveloping him in the mist as if he'd never existed. Groaning like a dying beast, the Golden Hide listed painfully on her side, coming to a stop within moments. With a final shriek of tortured wood and metal, the silence of the fog returned to the battered ship, as if waiting for movement from the crewbeasts.


Talaith Trueshot
"Show me! What ken I do ta help?" Talaith's words were abruptly cut off as she heard Gabriel's scream.

The Hide began grinding against the rocks below. Losing all semblance of sanity, Talaith fell to her knees and frantically latched her claws into the deck, her worn-down boots scrabbling for traction on the slippery, mist-slimed boards. What am I thinkin' on this boat? I'm a cursed idiot! I can't swim! I don't want to die from drownin'... There's a better death fer me fightin'!

The deck slammed to a sudden impossible angle beneath her. Talaith's muscles contracted in terror as she was flung into the railings that were now skewed beneath her boots, her quiver saving her from a broken spine as it absorbed some impact. For a second she thought she would die from suffocation, the breath knocked from her body like never before. She labored to gasp some air into her lungs, paralyzed for the few moments she had stability on the rails.

She didn't have a chance to take even a single breath before she slipped silently off her perch, falling with a soundless plea into the violent wake far beneath.

Cold. Black and indigo.

Talaith flung herself to the surface of the waves with one final burst on desperation. She drew an agonizing breath; her ribs were bands of fire. Gagging on salty water, she glimpsed the tortured form of the Hide before the sea swallowed her again.



Jeshal the Ironclaw
Up to the moment of impact Jeshal had hastily been heaving on a line to furl one of the great sails, making a determined but futile attempt to lessen the speed. All the while he could hear the shouts of his fellow crewbeasts echoing in the smog.

A wave of shadow engulfed the deck. His hackles rose at the overhead cry:

"BRACE FOR IM..."

The ensuing din of deathly splintering combined with the sheer shock of being smacked full force across the deck was almost too much for Jeshal’s inner trauma. He snarled as he tumbled, his iron talons whipping out to secure his hold upon the slanting floor. He kicked out at a barrel that had taken its opportunity to show it deserved to be a candidate for corsair, altering its potentially skull-shattering course.

As the Hide settled around him, he became swiftly aware of a shrill voice nearby. Squinting through the fog, he staggered upright and meandered until his paws touched the side. Through the coiling mists he could spy the glint of the waves. Some beast was splashing around, but he could not make them out.

At first, Jeshal reached to remove his gauntlet and he half-clambered upon the rail. He scanned the surface of the water before peering back along the ship for signs of life. The fox sneered.

"Anyone out there fit ter leap in and retrieve our beast overboard? Touchin’ as it would be ter do it meself, I ain’t the hero type."



Rynn
Rynn hadn't actually expected Talaith to follow her, (crewbeasts rarely did) but as it turned out she had, and here she was latched onto the tawny's shirt, trying desperately to be of some use. "Just... help me lift th'anchor t'keep us from runnin' aground!" Rynn all but shouted over the sound of the crew’s hasty shouts and the creaking of the Hide’s timbers.

A few more of the crew came, anxious to keep the ships from the imminent danger. Unfortunately they weren't quick enough, and the tan she-cat's breath was caught in her throat at the sound of Gabriel's cry. She was whisked around in the collision, everything becoming a blur. Rynn could hardly see what was happening around her. All she knew was the alarmed cries of those around her and the black veil that eclipsed the sun, and overshadowed the deck. "Bloody..!" She was slammed on her back, nearly winded, but alright. The confusion stopped and her breath returned. She sat up trying to get her bearings, trying to make sure every body part was accounted for, and nobeast around her was harmed. Wait, where was...

"Anyone out there fit ter leap in and retrieve our beast overboard? Touchin’ as it would be ter do it meself, I ain’t the hero type."

"Talaith..." the feline murmured, and rose to her feet. " 'old on!" She called, untying the rope from an unaware crew member. "I'll get this back to ye." She mumbled to him. Tying the rope to the ship’s rail she slipped past the copper fox, whispering, "And why aren't ye the heroic type, mate?"

Rynn dove into the water, rope about her waist, opening her eyes in the blue blackness to see a frantic Talaith flailing underwater. One she-cat grabbed the other and headed back towards the surface. She wasn't too long under-water, and as her head broke through the ocean to the air, the tawny gave yet another call. "Pull us up!" she hollered, shivering.


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith was settled on the idea of her own mortality. This acceptance was what gave her the courage to be an utterly distasteful creature when presented with confrontation, even though her size made her a disadvantaged opponent in the battles she often made for herself.

But drowning? This was not the glorious and honorless death she had imagined for herself. She relished the idea of taking down a dozen or so of her enemies, blood-stained and half-blind with entrails, as she finally collapsed from exhaustion. This was a rather unspectacular death, she mused as she lost the strength to find the surface again. There was no air, only water... crushing her breath from her lungs and the life from her body on every side.

She got peeks at the mist-shrouded surface in the fractions of an instant that her head was pushed over the surface too swiftly to sip a breath of air; her limbs went limp as she resigned herself to sink into nothing.

Her mind clouded as her lungs throbbed. She parted her lips to take in an impossible gasp of water, her involuntary drive to breathe taking over. Grinding her teeth, Talaith resisted for one more moment.

And then a paw snatched her shirt. Blurs of water and spray and fog... Talaith took a huge gulp of air and water, gagging and spitting and groaning in agony as she clung weakly to Rynn.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Am I dead?

Gabe unconsciously chuckled at his first thought.

Why is that always the first thing that runs through my head?

Opening his eyes to a blanket of white, he began to wonder if his first thought was the correct one. Then he felt his chest pulsing in agony, letting him know with brutal finality that he'd not quite left this mortal coil. Sitting up with a ragged gasp in the deep sand, Gabriel coughed painfully as he felt his ribcage, noting without much surprise a couple of fractured bones. With the sound of the surf filling his ears, the todd forced himself to his feet, nursing a massive bump on the crown of his head.

Gates... can I just die already?!

Staggering towards the booming tideline, Gabe arched a sand-clotted eyebrow at a sad sight bequeathing itself upon him from the fog. The Hide had run itself onto a massive line of rock maybe twenty yards from the shoreline, opening a hole in her side that wouldn't be easily patched. Merely glad the ship was still floating, the fox slowly turned himself towards their inadvertent destination. For all he could see, Gabriel figured the island was some extinct volcano or somesuch, with heavy jungle vegetation populating the silent slopes as far as he could see into the mist.

Turning back to the Hide, Gabe instantly fell flat on his face; now nursing a sore muzzle, he looked about irately for the object he'd tripped over, quickly becoming relieved when he found his own axe haft sticking from the beachfront. Shouldering his weapon, the todd waded out towards the ship, calling out to anybeast on board.

"Ahoy! Tell me someone made it through that... it's Gabe, anybeast still aboard?!"


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Grinning throughout Rynn's preparation and action of her valiant dive, Jeshal made no reply to her question. Heroic types were for the stuff of legends. By and by, legends tended to wind up dead. A bit like saints really, and he did not fancy himself to be of their ilk. White wasn't his colour.

It was not long before he heard the she-cat's cry from below: "Pull us up!"

He eyeballed the foggy deck, believing himself to be the only one about. A small voice in the back of his mind made a compelling argument for drawing his sword and severing the rope, whispering all manner of tales he could tell the officers of the vessel how he 'bravely tried to save them but it was too late...'. But the proximity of land rendered it folly, and besides, he did not think he could stomach it. Pretending to be brave, that is.

Jeshal sighed, flexed his arms, and gripped the rope that Rynn had secured. Slowly he reeled them back towards the ship. Although he was not a particularly strong beast, they were lighter than he had expected.

Another hailing rang out from the mists.

"Ahoy! Tell me someone made it through that... it's Gabe, anybeast still aboard?!"

Three paws bolstered against the askew railings, Jeshal bellowed back, "Didn' know ye were so eager to get ashore, Gabe, ye ol' lubber. Am I the only one 'round 'ere knows a scrap of the art of balance?"



Rynn
Rynn waited in the chill waters, a half-aware Talaith gripping her body as if the sea would swallow them up at any moment. She bit her tongue in regret. Why was it taking so long? Was Jeshal the only conscious beast aboard? Had he taken her comment to heart? The tawny whipped her head to and fro, hoping that they had actually landed near land and not just a reef. Perhaps she could swim to the shore, but all she could see was a sheet of white cloud. Even the ship was barely viewable. How long would it take for them to get taken back aboard? She opened her mouth ready to give out another cry for help.

A firm tug at her waist, gave her reason for relief. She half swam half paddled closer, supporting Talaith at her side all the while, as they were pulled back on board. Gabe’s shout rang out in the silence.

"Ahoy! Tell me someone made it through that... it's Gabe, anybeast still aboard?!"

"Didn' know ye were so eager to get ashore, Gabe, ye ol' lubber. Am I the only one 'round 'ere knows a scrap of the art of balance?"

"Yeh, I'd say so," she smirked. "Thanks f'helping th'elpin' paw, Jeshal." She pulled herself the rest of the way back onto deck. "Now where in gates are we and is anyone else awake?"


Sorrona Ashpaw
There came a scuffling sound from the stairs to the crew quarters and, a few moments later, out peered the hood-encased face of the wildcat Sorrona. Not that anyone could see in this weather, but her paws were covered in flour, as was a good portion of her cloak. She had been asleep in the galley from a long session of toxin testing and the crash had caused chaos. Shelves had broken loose and tumbled their contents upon her.

She yowled into the mist: "What in 'Gates happened? Wherre arre we?"

Her paw held aloft above her eyes as though it would help her make out anyone on deck.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
"Didn' know ye were so eager to get ashore, Gabe, ye ol' lubber. Am I the only one 'round 'ere knows a scrap of the art of balance?"

Chuckling painfully, Gabriel swam the rest of the way to the ship, pulling himself to the deck by way of some loose riggings. Glancing around, the todd limped towards Jeshal, gesturing towards the hull with his open hand.

"She's decently breached, nothing a few good timbers wouldn't fix though. The island's well stocked with good trees, which'll make getting the Hide seaworthy again relatively easy. Thanks for keeping your head about, mate."

Offering a small smile to the fox, Gabe made his way quickly to the feline pair covering the deck with seawater and bile. Kneeling down, the todd quickly began pushing the water from Talaith's lungs, hoping she hadn't swallowed enough to do some damage. Glancing up from his task at Rynn and the newly awakened Sorrona, he shrugged slightly.

"There's no one else awake but us and Armina," Gabriel muttered, motioning towards the mainmast, "Emperor protect her if she didn't stayed tied up there..."



Jeshal the Ironclaw
Jeshal folded his arms and wrinkled his muzzle at the amount of retching being made by the two sodden wildcats.

"How in 'Gates did this happen? Who was s'posed ter be navigatin' while we was all gettin' some well-earned kip, eh?"

The chilling air ruffled his fur in more ways than one. There was something he could not fathom about these rocks that he could every so often see beneath the curling fog. It was heebie-jeebie material, which of course was a sense he would never voice. He put it down to the natural anxiety of being stranded.

But he could not help but think that he was going to be asked to go on a wood-retrieval mission. In the dark. In a foreign place. No thanks. Count me out. Why in 'Gates did I sign up on this ship again?


Gabriel Moonwhiskers/Jaylan Moonwhiskers
Gabe turned his head as Talaith began to spout water like a fountain, glancing at Jeshal with a vexed look on his face.

"We have no choice, Jeshal... apparently the captain is still asleep... unbelievably... or out cold in her cabin. Now, if we hurry this up, we might be able to get under way within an hour or two, the breach isn't that bad..."

Pausing at the sound of the hatch to the hold opening, the todd turned to see Jaylan poking his slightly saturated head from down belowdecks.

"'Ay, gots beasties werkin on patchin' an' the like, gemme a few and'll 'ave er fleutin free, I will, ye ken?"

"Keep her on the rocks for now," Gabe called back, standing shakily to his feet, "We don't want any more water then we have now."

'Sure, sure, ah nought 'un fer argerrin, mark meh, but I ma'ht as well get hoppin', ye new..."

Waving his brother back to the hold, Gabriel helped Talaith to her feet before making his way to the longboat. Loosing the small vessel, Gabe called back to Jaylan before he disappeared, "Throw us up some boarding axe, would ya?"

Letting the boat swing free of the ship, the todd spoke to the rest of the crew as a bag of random weaponry flew from the hatchway and landed at his feet, followed by some intelligible curses.

"So? If you don't want to come along I won't think less of you, but it'll go faster the more beasts in on this."


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith would never be able to recall her fall from the decks of the Hide in anything but disjointed fractures like faces seen in the popping sparks of a campfire.

There was Rynn, freezing water, curdled mist, a rope, and two todds hauling them out of the bitter sea. Her clearest impression of being revived was a dark gray fox's eyes; they were nearly empty, devoid of light in the deepest parts.

Her whole body ached as she spewed acid sea water from her lungs. She sputtered and choked for a few moments, gasping for more air as hungrily as a kitten whimpering for milk. She allowed Gabe to take her elbow and help her stand, her normal distaste for contact forgotten for now as she shook her head to clear her muddy thoughts.

Staggering drunkenly, Talaith turned to nod at Rynn shortly in thanks. She had no words to offer the cat yet but perhaps a time would come when Talaith trusted her enough to thank her. She scanned the shrouded deck for the beast that had pulled them into air but was unsure who to credit so she shrugged off that brief notion.

Automatically she patted down her sodden body, water still oozing in her eyes. Nothing felt like it was jutting out of place, which was lovely, but her back and ribs throbbed in washes of fire. Her purse was still tied tightly to her belt and her quiver was at her back, devoid of arrows. Her bow? Where was her bow?!

It took her some time to comprehend what was going on. The Hide was broken in the belly on some rocks but she could be fixed.

There was an offer to go to land; every hair of Talaith's fur stood on edge at the prospect of laying her paws on solidity again and escaping this ever-tumbling death trap. Unless she saw signs of a prosperous settlement here there was no chance of her staying onshore but the idea of scouring the sand for her bow, her traveling companion for as many seasons as she could recall, appealed to her greatly at the moment. Plus she could scavenge materials to fletch new arrows. They might only have tips fashioned from the sharpened shafts but at the moment she couldn't be choosy.

"So? If you don't want to come along I won't think less of you, but it'll go faster the more beasts in on this."

"Ken I come? That is, if I ken get ta tha shore," Talaith called up to the todd, her voice raspy from the abuse of sea water. She bent over halfway, coughing up another sputter of brine, but hauled herself up as quickly as she could manage. "I'm a mite small but I ken haul things fer ya and keep an eye out fer danger."


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Conflicted in his desire to stay aboard by the sight of even the little marmalade offering assistance, the iron-gauntleted fox growled soundlessly to himself and took an impulsive leap over the side of the Hide. Jeshal landed in the longboat a second before it touched water, earning a faint squeak of protest from the winch. His sandalled footpaws stinging from the jump, he began to unhook the ropes whilst ensuring the boat did not drift.

"Sooner we get 'er seaworthy, the sooner we can get off this patch o' rock," he called back up to the beasts on board. "We got any tools in this thing? If not, chuck 'em down careful like an' we can get to it."

He smirked perilously up at Talaith.

"An' since she'd rather not 'ave her paws wet again, best toss me the kitten an' all. If she can 'old 'er insides in, that is."


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith watched the todd's vault over the side of the Hide with wide eyes. This was madness, but possibly that was one of the core fundamentals of being a sailor. Risking death was a necessity, perhaps?

Creeping to the railing with exaggerated caution, Talaith peered down into the boat.

"There'll be no tossin' o' Talaith, mind you!" She planted her little paws on her hips. "An' I make no promises about my belly. Tha's a bit beyond my control. How good do ye think ya ken catch me if I lose my grip?"

Without waiting for Jeshal's reply, Talaith steeled herself, gritting her teeth as she climbed with wobbly awkwardness onto the rail. Dangling over the side, her nose going pale in anxiety, she caught hold of one of the ropes that was still firmly anchored to the boat.

Pinching her eyes shut she took a deep breath, gasping rustily as her lungs heaved up the last drops of sea water. She coiled one slender leg and an elbow around the salt-slimed rope. With a glance at the foggy sky for courage, Talaith slowly slithered down the rope.

The descent took ages to Talaith but only moments to anybeast watching her bravest move. The unseen sea lurched and sighed beneath her boot toes, a cold tomb for her if she lost her hold on the rope, which swayed slowly in the tide. She could barely see the coppery coat of the todd in the longboat from the deck but he quickly came into view as she tentatively lowered herself.

Her already-unwound nerves finally frayed to discord as her boots dangled over the longboat. She squeaked unwillingly as she let go of the rope and dropped the last few feet to relative safety, falling to her rump gracelessly and sending the longboat swaying.

She took a moment to clamber to her knees at least before she looked up at the todd, pasting a bright smile on her face. "Now did that look like a kitten tha' needs tossin'?" Talaith clung to the side of the longboat, shivering at the nearness of the murderous sea as she squinted into the fog towards the shore.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
As Talaith took her time creeping down to the longboat, Gabriel watched the procession with a wry smile. Grabbing the bag of tools and his axe in one hand, the todd grasped the rope and rappelled swiftly doen the side of the ship, alighting softly upon the floating wooden craft as to not upset it or the cat's stomach.

Glancing back up to the nearly invisible deck, Gabe called out, "Anyone else? We'll head on out if this is it."


Sorrona Ashpaw
Peering over the railings at the boat about to make way, Sorrona shook her silvery head to Gabe.

"I will keep watch and inforrm any who come enquirring afterr you. Perrhaps I will also hang a lanterrn to light yourr rreturrn?"

As usual, the wildcat's eyes were averted in her passive manner.

"I wish you luck, my frriends."


Anithias Freedom/Armina Rogue
Anithias had taken the precaution of tying a lifeline from his waist to the mast, ensuring that he would not be thrown to far. He would have tried the same with the rest of the crew had the hull not picked that moment to impale itself on the rocks. The fox tumbled along the deck, the rope causing him to spin wildly as he reached its end.

Anithias was pulling himself together through Talaith's near drowning and all the subsequent events, wincing as he pulled himself to his feet. His back had never been quite right after he had been thrown from the rigging during a storm, nearly dragged to the stormy depths by a broken mast, and had to assist in carrying a new mast a full kilometer along a beach the next morning.

Dealing with an ex-goddaughter who was more an overgrown kit than anything hadn't help him over the months.

High ahead, Armina struggled against her bonds. It did not help that she had one good arm. She had been pretty shocked when Gabe pushed her against the mast and tied her to it, though the shock was quickly replaced by gratitude – and worry. What would he do about himself?

That was answered as Gabe was catapulted from the rigging, somehow miraculously surviving the fall. Armina observed from where she was. Though Talaith, who did not seem to possess even a single sea leg, had nearly drowned and had needed rescuing, everyone was mostly fine. Pulling her favorite knife from a pocket, Armina sawed at the bonds holding her, eventually breaking through them. She descended awkwardly to the deck via the rigging.

Gabe called out from the away boat, "Anyone else? We'll head on out if this is it." Sorrona declined, while the rest clambered in. Anithias climbed in after them determinedly.

"I'm in this to find out where we are, and how on earth we got here. Wherever we are, we aren't supposed to be, and there are going to be a few heads rolling when I find out who made the gaff. Understand?" Anithias was not a very tolerant beast, especially for sloppy work, and someone had obviously messed up their charts on this one. Of course he did want to see the Hide sail again, but understanding how such a mistake could happen was also prevalent in his mind. If things went extremely well he would someday command this vessel, and he wanted to know here and now how such a mistake could occur so that it could be avoided during his reign.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
As Anithias climbed down out of the gloom to join the landing party, Gabe counted how many beasts had volunteered to follow him ashore. Hmm... four's better than none, I suppose... Fondling his injured ribcage carefully, the todd cast off the ropes that held them to their home.

"Should be an easy ride to shore, it's pretty calm once you're past the breakers. Jeshal, go ahead and carry the bag for us, seeing as you're the only one in perfect shape here."

Shivering as the longboat slowly weaved towards the seemingly soulless expanse of land, Gabriel clenched his jaw in anxiety and pain. He didn't want to spend any more time here then they had to; hopefully they could cut enough wood within the hour, quick enough to get away from this place and avoid the wrath of the captain, giving she hadn't already awakened from a dead sleep...

Feeling the craft scrape against the sand, the todd climbed into the water, pulling the longboat up onto the beach with a grimace crossing his face. Retrieving his axe, he motioned towards the fog-covered landscape before them.

"I've no clue what we'll find here, so everyone stay close..."

Pawing through the sand towards the jungle-like vegetation, Gabe peered into the mist anxiously, hoping the rest of the party would stay close as possible until the fog lifted, if ever. Gates, I'm not liking this at all..." Stooping slowly to look over the plant life, Gabriel started to his feet as a faint shriek, tearingly brutal as if of the damned, reached his ears from the blank expanse before them. Furrowing his brow, ears flat against his skull, the fox turned back to the group, obviously spooked.

"Please tell me you didn't hear that."


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith was proud of herself. She shuddered from cold and stress as the longboat approached the shore but she didn't make a sound of complaint, merely clinging to the side, her twitching tail the only sign of her anxiety.

This was a rather undersized landing party for an adventure that appeared to be as perilous as this one. As the longboat foundered on the shoreline, she ticked off on her claws the number of crewbeasts for this expedition. There weren't enough of them to make even a pitiful meal for whatever savages might live in this place.

She splashed clumsily to the beach as soon as she was sure the waves wouldn't drag her back to the deeper waters. Visibility was almost a myth here; luck beamed on her like a golden sunrise as she stubbed her booted toe against her miniature bow tangled in a mess of fish-stinking seaweed. There was no way in this fog that she would have found her weapon unless she stepped on it!

Snagging her bow and cradling it to her like a kitten, Talaith appraised it for damage with a critical gray eyes. It was so battered that any new scratches were invisible in the wood that she so carefully maintained nightly. The string was sodden and frayed; likely when it dried out it would be frail and easily-broken. But, she shrugged to herself, it was better than losing it for all time to the likes of jellies and seahorses.

Falling to the rear of the group, Talaith followed Gabe as he made his way towards the black stand of forest. The fever of a good fight thrummed through her veins at the windblown shriek; now this was a situation she felt she could easily master.

"Please tell me you didn't hear that."

"Are ya daft? Didja get yer skull knocked in?" Talaith looked to the todd for only a moment before stooping to scour the dead brush at the edge of the jungle for a few suitable sticks.

This would be suicidal, fletching arrows with no real tips or feathers to guide their flight; shaking off the thought, Talaith went to rapidly and efficiently carving down a few shafts with a rusty blade she produced from her purse. Satisfied for the moment when she had half a dozen to tuck in her quiver, she turned again to Gabe.

"How did ya miss that? Somethin' is waitin' there, either for us or for something else for supper."


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Having remained silent for the journey to land as he rowed in sync with the others, Jeshal studied the behaviour of those around him. It was a hobby. He was particularly enjoying picking out the tell-tale signs of Talaith's fear. The fact that she was suppressing it made it all the more sweet.

When they arrived, he helped bring the boat across the sand, ever so slightly allowing Gabe to take more of the weight. Checking his cutlass was in his belt, a chopping axe in paw and his cavalier on his head, the copper fox traipsed onwards through the fog.

He heard Gabe muttering nearby, and then a bloodcurdling shriek pierced the mists. His iron claws flexed, ears pricked.

"Please tell me you didn't hear that."

Gabe's response to the noise was swiftly succeeded by the marmalade cat's voice. Amidst her reply, Jeshal made out the noise of knife scraping against wood as she carved.

"How did ya miss that? Somethin' is waitin' there, either for us or for something else for supper."

Jeshal gripped the axe tightly, his eyes narrowing.

"Then why don't we go out there an' show it who'll be eatin' who? The bigger it is, the better. More vittles fer us, aye?"


Talaith Trueshot
"Then why don't we go out there an' show it who'll be eatin' who? The bigger it is, the better. More vittles fer us, aye?"

Talaith turned to the copper-colored todd with a scowl. "That was merely a question, mind ya. There's likely plenty o' wood and whatnot here near tha water. Use yer wits and don't show yer foolishness just yet. I'm still impressionable as ta what yer crew is like, aye?"

Firmly planting her boots in the sand, Talaith crossed her paws defiantly over her chest and glared up at Jeshal with the sparkle of challenge in her eyes.

"Cleverness is how I survive and if ya show some ya might make it back ta tha Hide." With a snort of disdain, Talaith looked at each beast on the beach in turn, one eyebrow arched.


Anithias Freedom
Anithias felt a chill run down his spine at the unearthly shriek, though he didn't show it beyond that his knees began to tremble slightly in his pant legs. His face remained calm, though if one listened closely they could hear the galloping of his beating heart.

Anithias remained impassive as Talaith, Gabe, and Jeshal squabbled over whether to challenge the beast or to keep to the beach. It was only when Talaith snorted "Cleverness is how I survive and if ya show some ya might make it back ta tha Hide," that Anithias finally shouted, "QUIET!"

The other beasts turned to look at him. He gazed stonily back at each in turn. "The best wood will be deeper in, and that's the wood we're going to need if we're going to get more than an hour from this Mar'kan-forsaken rock," he said, his tone making it clear that argument was fruitless. "Whatever is in there we may or may not meet. Keep alert—" here he glared at Talaith, "and you may survive. Keep bickering, and something out there is going to be dining out tonight."

He nodded at Gabe. "Gabriel, lead the way."


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Use yer wits and don't show yer foolishness just yet.

It had taken quite some doing to hold in the chuckle as the feisty cat mistook Jeshal's bizarre wit for recklessness. He was not as cowardly as he had once been, but he would never be impulsive or stupid enough to rush blindly towards an unknown foe. If Anithias had not stepped in with a command, the copper fox would have had to bite his remaining paw not to laugh at Talaith's next comment.

"Cleverness is how I survive and if ya show some ya might make it back ta tha Hide."

He turned his attention to the first mate as he moodily issued them with instructions. Seeing that it had been left up to Gabe to lead the landing party, he then looked expectantly at the todd in question.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
"The best wood will be deeper in, and that's the wood we're going to need if we're going to get more than an hour from this Mar'kan-forsaken rock. Whatever is in there we may or may not meet. Keep alert, and you may survive. Keep bickering, and something out there is going to be dining out tonight. Gabriel, lead the way."

Shaking his head at the bickering that had ensued, Gabe shrugged and turned quietly back to the forest.

"Let's just get this over with, shall we?"

Pawing forward quietly, the todd squinted into the fog, trying to avoid scaring himself. As his eyes began to see shapes in the mists, the fur on the back of his neck began to rise. I'm imagining things now... gates... Raising his paws to his eyes to rub them, his ears picked up distant footfalls ahead of them. Freezing in his tracks, the todd turned quickly to the group, making a slashing motion across his throat as he looked for somewhere for them to lay low for a moment. No sooner had he hit the dirt next to some shrubs that a shape loomed out of the fog, sounds of ragged, wheezing breathing reaching him. Praying that the others had heard and avoided the beast, Gabriel tried to examine the rodent, failing as the fog erased all hope of distinguishing features.

As the rat sped away from him, the todd stood quietly, pawing his axe handle tightly as he listened to the quickly vanishing rasping creature. Daring a whisper, Gabe called to the others.

"Everyone still here?"

Without time to hear an answer, the large fox was launched forward as a manged, shrieking mass of fur cannonballed into his spine, sending him to the ground. Crawling on all fours away from his attacker, Gabriel glanced back to see a weasel, eyes dilated and bloodshot, gnashing at his footpaws with foam flying from its mouth. Swinging his axe wildly with one hand, he caught the beast across the crown of the skull, removing a slice of bone and sending it rolling away from him. Jumping to his feet, the fox sprinted away from the thing, gazing wildly into the fog, yelling for the rest of the group.

"Back to the ship, hurry! Forget the wood, we'll..."

Crying out as a weight fell atop his shoulders, Gabe fell to his knees, pulling the mass from his shoulders to slam it squirming to the ground. Gaping at his former foe, the weasel, he lurched back as the creature, brain matter exposed, crept swiftly after him. Stumbling back to his footpaws, Gabriel brought his axe down in a huge overhead swing, splitting the creature's skull like a lemon and effectively ending the nightmare. Pulling his weapon from the body, the todd ran forward, utterly lost in the fog and yelling like a madbeast.

"Retreat, make for the ship, everyone!"


Anithias Freedom
Anithias was surprised when Gabe made a motion for everyone to hit the ground, but he obeyed quickly. A wheezing beast ran past the small group, and Anithias didn't get a chance to look at him. Gabe stood quietly, looking around for a second before whispering, "Everyone still here?"

Anithias didn't get a chance to answer – a large, shrieking weasel collided with Gabe, knocking him to the ground. Anithias caught a glimpse of foam spraying wildly from the creature's mouth before Gabe's axe collided with the offending beast's head. A chunk of skull flew away, and the creature fell for a second. Gabe turned to the group, eerily silhouetted in the fog. "Back to the ship, hurry! Forget the wood, we'll..."

He was cut off as the same weasel that he had hit now leaped atop his shoulders. Anithias lost track of them in the underbrush, but soon Gabe brought his axe down on the creature's head, splitting it in half. Gabe had barely pulled his axe from the creature's skull before dashing towards the ship, yelling wildly, "Retreat, make for the ship, everyone!"

Anithias followed instantly, drawing his cutlass as he did. The sword, though it would have glittered in the sun, now barely had any sheen to it beyond a ghostly pale one. The party ran through the fog, hoping they were headed in the right direction.

Anithias felt his spirit freeze over with fear. This was beyond scary – this was a nightmare. Anithias had heard Julia tell medical horror stories of islands that had been overrun with madness, eventually being completely quarantined. These islands were marked on charts with a skull, and landing on them was considered to be suicidal. Many ships landed once on these islands, were attacked, and retreated, only to be overtaken with madness once at sea. It only took one bite to be infected, and once you were infected there was nothing for it but death. Anithias made a note to seal Gabe in the brig once this was over, along with anyone else who might have been bitten. Even himself, if he was attacked.

Anithias ran up beside Gabe. "Do we even know where we're going?" he shouted to the fox. For all they knew, they could be headed further into the island.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Jeshal had thrown himself flat at the sound of the strange rat that passed them. He lay still, listening, before Gabe called out for an acknowledgment that their party was still intact. Any responses were cut off as a madbeast leapt upon the large todd. From his position the copper fox could not see the fight, only hear the slice of Gabe’s axe as it collided with bone. There was a brief interval when it seemed that the attack was over, but Gabe’s yell for retreat was cut off.

Jeshal raised his head and squinted through the fog at the snarling tussle, glimpsing the faint silhouette of the insane ferret atop Gabe. The iron-pawed fox scrambled to his feet as the creature was at last dispatched and another call for retreat rang in his ears.

But which way was the ship? The turmoil had erased his sense of direction. At first Jeshal dashed along with the others, but the fog became thicker and he could barely tell who was beside him. Fear took its hold. He no longer trusted anyone other than himself. Anything that moved was now a threat to fight or flee from. In the event of being found to have deserted his post, the wily fox faked a cry of distress and struck out alone as fast as his paws would take him.

Deep down he knew it was a very bad plan. Staying together was probably the best chance of survival, but he could not risk not being able to tell who was what in this weather. Jeshal dashed through the undergrowth, his cutlass drawn, not knowing where he would end up.

Every beast for himself.



Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Running silently, inwardly terrified, Gabriel gasped for air in the painfully humid atmosphere. He'd never been scared like this, ever, and he'd seen things that could put the bravest beast away for life; but having your seemingly defeated enemy crawling back after you was too much. Far too much...

Stumbling over a root protruding from the thick undergrowth, the todd slid down a incline to come to a stop against a stone object. Lying silently for a moment, Gabe cried for breath, lungs on fire as he seemingly breathed soup instead of oxygen. Listening quietly, the fox stood quietly, taking in his surroundings. Apparently he'd fallen into a valley of sorts, with the fog oddly thinner about him. Able to finally see a bit sent a slight rush of relief to Gabriel's head, despite his morbid surroundings; keeping himself on his feet by means of an aged tombstone, the fox began to stroll between two rows of graves, seemingly pristine in the contrasting setting. As he continued along, the graves gradually appeared fresher, markers turning from stone to wood as they appeared to have risen in amount in a short period of time.

Pausing in his tracks, Gabe sniffed the air quietly, gritting his teeth as the cloying smell of decay reached his nostrils. Ears pasted against his skull as he continued, the fox crept silently between the quickly degrading graves, most now only piles of dirt and rock. Squinting his eyes as he stopped at another steep incline, the fog seemed to part in a cruel game, revealing a sight that brought Gabriel to his knees, retching uncontrollably. The mass grave contained around fifteen corpses, all loosely covered in lime and obviously disturbed from their rest. Averting his eyes from the strewn body parts that burned an image into his brain, Gabriel spotted a group of housing across from the grave. Making his way disgustedly around the hole, he quietly and desperately jogged towards the small, roughly made buildings, pushing a door in and shutting it behind him.

Daring to audibly fight for breath, the todd slid down against the door frame, energy completely sapped by the excursion gone horribly wrong. Nursing his broken ribs with an agonized expression on his face, Gabe froze as a noise reached him from the other room; pulling his axe to him, the fox spoke in a weak whisper, not caring who or what it was.

"State your name..."


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith found herself completely engrossed in practicing her finely-honed "Honorless Retreat" when the first sign of confrontation ensued on this bizarre island.

"Back to the ship, hurry! Forget the wood, we'll..."

She caught snatches of the todd's mad scuffle with the unseen beast and took off madly into the foggy nothingness, branches and briers tearing her shirt and hide as she pinwheeled her forepaws for balance. Her tired boots caught little purchase on slimy rocks and fallen logs wearing fine layers of exotic moss that appeared instantly out of the cloud that shrouded everything from view.

Sounds echoed like cries for freedom in an asylum, bouncing with mad reason from tree to rock to the surface of a brackish stream. The mist distorted all sense of direction for the source of the sounds. Talaith's own breath, pulsing in frantic tides from her still-throbbing lungs, echoed back to her ears and convinced her that something was nearby, gasping for air in tune with her.

"Retreat, make for the ship, everyone!"

Gabe's cry reached her in battered pieces, warped into a shrill whisper as Talaith scrambled through the sticky undergrowth of the jungle. Pausing for only a moment, her eyes orbs of battle-lust bordering on panic, she debated retracing her steps back to the beach and begging a ride to the relatively secure decks of the Hide. She whirled around, her bow locked in one steeled paw, and watched as the fog swirled in mockery to close the path her wake had just opened. There was no visible sun to guide her direction; her tracks were so minute in the resilient foliage that it could take her hours to discern the steps she'd taken in just moments.

Setting her jaw in determination, Talaith darted off to her left. If she died now, it would be in the way she'd always imagined, locked in the embrace of blood and elation that she dreamed of in the still-dark hours of the morning.

She bashed herself against boulders and trees, blindly plunging onwards. In motion she'd make a target that was harder to pounce upon. As her searing breath became more intense, she leaned over her knees in a coughing spasm that nearly stole her consciousness; black haze darkened the mist and sent whirls of sparks dancing in the corners of her sight. Blasted sea-water won't let me breathe!

Staggering ahead, Talaith launched herself, to her utmost surprise, off the edge of a steep gulley. Sliding down on her rump, she clawed at brambles and loose stones to slow her fall. She nearly tore out one little claw on a shard of rock before coming to rest at the bottom amongst a stand of lonesome graves.

She awkwardly glanced about as she stumbled through the markers, every millimeter of her body on alert. Gagging in the deepest revulsion, she daintily skirted the uprooted cairn that graced the graveyard. Her senses were so overwhelmed by the raging adrenaline in her veins that she came a half-moment from losing her life.

A hulking black form lurched from the pile of corpses, hissing in undiluted hatred. This beast was once perhaps a cat like herself, or perhaps a wolf or fox; now it was garbed in blood and ichor that disguised its former state with a perfection glimpsed only in night terrors. Agape and paralyzed in shock, Talaith actually watched the beast take four lumbering and loosely-jointed steps towards her before she remembered the bow in her paw.

Licked lips in preparation. Drew pathetic arrow from quiver. Squinted in a blend of prayer and concentration. Loosed arrow with no hope of survival into the throat of the dark monster.

The gory creature howled breathlessly in anguish as the blood spouted from the tiny wound. It batted a paw at the crooked and pitiful shaft jutting from beneath its jawline. Talaith whipped around and darted towards the barely-there shape of a low shelter. Too late. A claw caught the strap that lashed her quiver to her back and jerked her from her hindpaws.

Talaith wrenched the dagger from her sash and in one continual motion planted the blade in the monstrosity's eye socket. Jelly oozed from the hole and the beast, now apparently a fox of some sort, dropped her to the ground to clutch at its bleeding eye.

Talaith landed in a twist of panicked feline on her right hind leg. Something felt out of sorts as she gained her footing and tore away to the shelter; she did not look back to see the creature slink away into the misty forest.

She slipped in the first door she found in the tumbled mud-brick buildings. Heedless of any danger inside, she tossed herself behind some moldy remnants of rough furnishings in the smaller and rearmost of the two rooms. Her energy was spent and only the threat of extinction could move her now.

A few moments passed. Talaith whimpered almost silently to herself as she became aware of her place. The shelter was once the dwelling of perhaps the grave-digger here and crudely appointed with long-unused furniture; a table on three legs, two scattered piles that once were chairs. The bedroom boasted an unhinged cupboard and a sad rope bed upended on one side that she now cowered behind. There was a cold hearth in the main room, the most mournful sight she could imagine as she now took inventory of herself in the slivers of light that seeped in through the shaggy thatch on the roof.

She bled from a dozen cuts. There were thorns tangled in her fur and the scant remainders of her trousers and shirt were black with filth and blood. She wasn't sure if it was her wine that stained her clothing or that of the beast in the graveyard; clots of blood glued her paw to her blade and bow. Shivering, Talaith forced herself to pry her claws from the weapons, her joints creaking as her muscles disobeyed her will to stop fighting.

At that moment the door of the ruined house opened and a shadow entered her dim world. Her claws snapped around her weapons again but only the vaguest sensible thoughts capered around the perimeters of her mind. Kill or die. Kill or die. This mantra pulsed with every heartbeat.

Talaith tried to put her boots beneath her and rise up in a furious pounce. She mewed in pain as her right leg refused to support her; this was one little injury in her daze she had not accounted for. Her paw and leg from the knee down were swelling to the point of straining the seams of her trousers. Broken, perhaps. Fractured, more likely.

"State your name..."

Talaith watched the sheen on the axe blade that the intruder raised. In her state she made no connection now between voice and sanity; she knew this was a crazed creature like the one outside. It was likely the very same one, back to finish her! She pushed herself farther back into the corner of the room with her good hindpaw and drew her bow, her arms trembling so furiously that she dropped the arrow she whisked from her quiver first and had to produce another one.

Her paws still quaked as she nocked the arrow on the string. All she saw was enemy. With a sharp scream of fury, she loosed the arrow.



Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Holding his side in pain, Gabriel's gaze was glued to the figure that graced his vision, body sillouetted by the deep shadows that owned the house. He didn't have the strength left to fight off another one of those... things... but Gates if he wasn't going to do it anyways.

Squinting into the darkness as the creature began to move into the light, Gabe opened his mouth to speak, managing a weak whisper.

"State... your name..."

As the meager light at last revealed his companion's features, Gabe felt a cold chill go down his spine, "Tal... what are you doing..."

Watching the crazed feline drop her first arrow, the todd shook his head slowly, not believing what was happening.

"Talaith... stand down... just... no..."

Ears spiking at the cat's scream, Gabriel gasped, wide eyed, muzzle quivering as the arrow stapled him firmly to the door. Jaw ajar as he stared wide-eyed at Talaith with an arrow through his shoulder, the fox tried to speak.

"What... in Gates... is wrong with..."

Hearing more scuffling coming from the outside, Gabe let his chin fall, passing out cold.


Anithias Freedom
Anithias had lost track of everything in the fog. Everybeast had disappeared, though shamefully that wasn't what concerned him at the time. What he was most worried about was getting to the Hide. There were rabid beasts on this island, and he had to get to the Hide for one reason only – to protect his wife and child. The thought of Julia and Falun being attacked filled him with so much sorrow and rage that it overtook all his concerns for the crew – a vital flaw in a First Mate, who was supposed to put his crew first in all situations. But Anithias was a mortal like everyone else, and the people he held dearest came first.

Anithias found himself in a graveyard. He walked through the graveyard, his blood chilling as he saw the progression that the disease had taken. He could see it now – originally the villagers had passed it off as madness, or a curse, and had restrained those who were infected until they died, getting several wounds in the way. Gradually, the disease had spread, until the villagers began to hunt the infected. But it didn't stop there – it continued to rage through the village, until it was a desperate few fighting for survival. Whether they had been killed, or had joined the infected, Anithias didn't know. Still, his soul merged with those of all who had gone through that ordeal for a moment, and who were still going through the ordeal. They had felt terror as they fought, and horror as they themselves began to succumb. Their souls, if they still had any, were trapped now, no longer in control of their body. Perhaps they were merely hibernating inside their shells; perhaps they looked on in horror as their bodies, no longer theirs, hunted for flesh like the meanest of their ancestors.

Anithias perked his ears. He could hear the sounds of a fight coming from one of the abandoned huts, but whoever it was was speaking coherently. Anithias listened for a second. It sounded like-

"Gabe!" he shouted, running to the hut. The door was open, and through it he saw Gabe slump, pinned to the door. Two things immediately popped in his head – the first was that whoever had fired the arrow could not be possessed, for they would have lost that knowledge with the madness. Therefore whoever it was had to be either a survivor or a member of the crew. The second thing was that they were obviously scared to death to shoot someone perfectly coherent.

Anithias kept to the side of the door frame, just out of range. "STAND DOWN! STAND DOWN!" he shouted in, keeping his cutlass at the ready. "TALAITH, IF THAT'S YOU, THEN FOR MAR'KAN'S SAKE, STAND DOWN!"


Talaith Trueshot
"TALAITH, IF THAT'S YOU, THEN FOR MAR'KAN'S SAKE, STAND DOWN!"

Anithias' cry punctured the fog that had apparently crept into Talaith's twitching ears and overwhelmed her mind. She blinked twice slowly, the silence that settled over the hut eerie in its perfection.

Then she looked from her paw to her bow to her arrow planted in Gabe's shoulder with a muddy thickness bordering on idiocy. Then from Gabe to her bow to her paw... The connection was made and her eyes were gleaming sapphires in her shock and horror.

"Y-You? Gabe?"

Growling deep in her throat in pain, Talaith dropped her bow and fought her way to her knees then labored to get her paws beneath her. She threw herself across the little room, crying out softly as her leg almost buckled beneath her. The door caught her from tumbling over on her chin.

"Gabe? I killed ya?" She noticed Anithias now for the first time, eyes narrowing at his cutlass. "Did I kill him?!"

Whimpering quietly, Talaith reached up and grabbed the shaft of the sad little arrow. She choked down the urge to be sick from pain and anxiety at the sight of the rivulet of blood oozing down the todd's chest. She squeezed her eyes shut and gave the arrow one ferocious yank.

Gabe slid to the floor with something approaching grace, leaving a creeper of blood smeared on the weathered wooden door. Talaith flopped onto her rear beside him with the arrow clutched loosely in her claws. It was whole; there would be no infection in Gabe's shoulder from missing shards or an implanted tip if he wasn't merely cooling next to her.

She looked up to Anithias pleadingly. "What's goin' on here? Did I kill him? I... I didn't mean ta kill him. I ain't a murderer!"


Jeshal the Ironclaw
A fair distance from the chaos that had occurred in the graveyard, shapes scrapped over one another in a cave beside a long-abandoned vermin camp. Rusted weapons lay strewn about the scattered ash of a fire, forgotten by their mind-ridden owners.

There came the gruesome crunch of solid metal thumping into faces and Jeshal burst out of the writhing mass that had ambushed him. His eyes wild with fear, his gauntlet bloodied, he resumed running blindly through the unyielding fog.

Against all likelihood, his damaged sandals sloshed into water. He had reached the shore. He let out a laugh not unlike one of the whooping crazies and waded into the sea. Caring not for the weight of his metal paw, he did not stop until he had reached the hull of the breached Hide. Seeing that the rope they had descended with was still attached, he heaved himself aboard and finally collapsed upon the deck. His eyes rolled back, he shuddered, and lay still.


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith's voice came shakily from within the cabin.

"Y-You? Gabe?"

Growling deep in her throat in pain, Talaith dropped her bow and fought her way to her knees then labored to get her paws beneath her. She threw herself across the little room, crying out softly as her leg almost buckled beneath her. The door caught her from tumbling over on her chin.

There was the sound of something wood being dropped in the room, and Talaith stumbled to the door. "Gabe? I killed ya?" She looked desperately at Anithias. "Did I kill him?!"

Quickly she grabbed the arrow, pulling it from Gabe's shoulder. He slumped to the ground, and Talaith flopped herself on the floor beside him, looking up at Anithias pleadingly.


Anithias Freedom/Julia Freedom
"What's goin' on here? Did I kill him? I... I didn't mean ta kill him. I ain't a murderer!"

Anithias knelt, quietly pressing a pawfinger to Gabe's neck. He located he vein, pressing against it, and felt a pulse running through. He watched Gabe's face as he spoke in even tones, not looking at Taliath.

"You aren't a murderer, Talaith. Murder is killing with the intention of doing so. You were simply defending yourself against an unknown foe." He pulled his finger away. "In any case he's still alive, so you have nothing to fear. Next time, though, make sure you don't shoot if the target is talking coherently to you."

Anithias quickly checked the wound. It was clean, but it still needed treating. "We need to get him to the ship. Julia and Kiptooth will be able to take care of him." Grunting, Anithias picked up Gabe, heaving him over his shoulder like a sack of flour. The strain was evident on his face.

"We're going to have to make for the ship. I won't be able to defend myself, so –" He grabbed his cutlass, sliding the blade from its sheath. Grabbing it carefully by the blade, he held out the hilt to Talaith. His brown eyes looked at her somberly. "I know you normally use a bow, but you might need this." He didn't tell her how much it cost him to part with the weapon- it had been his brother Enulli's, and had been a last gift from him before his suicide. He'd never let another soul except for Julia touch it, and that was because he trusted his wife completely. Still, perhaps it was time he began to let go a bit.

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

Julia had been woken by the crash, as had Falun. The kit had immediately commenced wailing, and it had taken Julia twenty minutes to get him back to sleep again.

Once he was settled down and contentedly sucking on his pawthumb, Julia ascended to the deck just in time to see a wet fox crawl over the side of the ship, heaving himself overboard and collapsing on the deck. "Nithy?" Julia called, rushing to the beast. However, this was a copper fox, not a golden one. While this relieved her somewhat, it did not abate her fear.

"Jeshal? Jeshal, where's Nithy?" Julia asked, shaking the todd by the shoulder.



Gabriel Moonwhiskers
"You aren't a murderer, Talaith..."

Gabriel felt a slight tug as his wound was cleared.

"We need to get him to the ship. Julia and Kiptooth will be able to take care of him."

Sensing his equilibrium go awry, the todd blearily cracked open an eye to see the ground rushing by him as he floated forward.

Am I... no, I'm not even going to hope...

Raising his head slowly, Gabe found himself looking straight into Anithias' eyes as the fox carried him on the run.

"How in Gates..."

Dazed and impressed by the other todd's strength, Gabriel rolled from Anithias' shoulders as his ears picked up the sound of pursuit, sliding to a stop in the lush, fog-kissed grass. Crawling slowly to his feet, the todd offered a small smile and two words to the remainder of the landing party as the shrieks of the seemingly damned rang from the jungle behind them.

"Just go."

Motioning them away with his free paw like two wayward children, Gabe shifted his death-grip on the axe handle, the oak seemingly grafted to his hand, before stepping to the left and swinging his one hand in a huge arc behind him. As if on cue, a wildcat came flying from the trees, crying like a banshee as the blade sheared through muscle and sinew and beheaded the thing effortlessly. Turning back to Talaith and Anithias, Gabriel shouted in their faces.

"GO!"

Standing his ground as the feline head rolled from sight, the todd brought his axe back up, ignoring his wounds as he prepared himself for the rabid wave of eternal hunger that would soon wash over them like a river.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Aboard the Hide the copper fox endured a good deal of shaking before he stirred. Jeshal's gauntlet scraped across the boards as he rose in an almost mechanical fashion. His muzzle dripped with seawater, giving him the horrid impression of salivation.

He looked at the anxious vixen with a void-filled stare, his dark brown eyes faded to a dull grey. At the chest of his frock-coat was a long gash through which his blood-matted fur could be seen.

A low, guttural noise emitted from Jeshal's throat. The concept of language had been swallowed. His fur prickling savagely, he lunged mindlessly at Julia.


Talaith Trueshot
"We're going to have to make for the ship. I won't be able to defend myself, so –"

Talaith took Anithias' cutlass with something approaching awe. This was a gesture of either trust or sheer idiocy; weighing the chances that she would make it back to the Hide alive on her own, she decided not to assassinate the pair of todds.

She mewed softly in pain as she took off after Anithias, brandishing the blade that was so over-sized for her she looked like a kitten. Talaith was nothing if not stubborn and determined. Her paw throbbed and she could feel her leg from the knee down swelling to almost bursting as she stagger-ran behind him but she gritted her teeth and kept up.

Talaith watched Gabe slither from Anithias' grasp with a wash of relief, soon erased by the shrieks coming from the forest. Her ears pricked in horrified fascination. As the feral wildcat darted towards the injured gray todd, Talaith crouched in anticipation, her aching hindpaw forgotten as the sweetest thrill of battle overwhelmed her. If asked only a few moments ago in the shelter, the little cat would have said there was not strength in her body to move from her hiding spot, but here she was running through the wilderness and ready to slaughter anything that came into her sight.

"GO!"

Having ignored Gabe's first polite request to remove her presence from his company, she merely blinked at his desperate shout. She turned to Anithias and tossed him the cutlass blade-up, hoping he would instinctively snag it from the air. She didn't watch to see if the todd even retrieved his weapon, turning her full attention to Gabe's skirmish with the mad creature before him.

"I ain't leavin'!" she barked as she drew her bow. She had four crooked missiles to spend and then only her battered little dagger to rely on after that. "I'm no coward!"

The foliage in front of the doomed crewbeasts shuddered almost delicately. There was no sign that this would be the battlefield that extinguished Talaith but her foresight told her that would change. It was almost peaceful in the field of silvery-green grass as the todd next to her heaved his axe high in the air.

A moment passed and then another, stretched as thin as wire and humming with longing and dread for movement. A raving, drooling rat burst from a stand of pretty head-high ferns directly ahead. The abomination's eyes were not even what she'd call "cold." They were merely empty in his lunatic skull.

Talaith drew her bow, her paws trembling in terror and exhaustion, and nocked her pathetic excuse for an arrow. She had no time to fire it before a half dozen more creatures roared from the forest in a disarray of foam-clotted fangs, bleeding and stinking pelts, rags that were once clothing, and a sense of hatred and starvation so intense Talaith felt her eyes actually tear up in fear. They moaned and whined in their depravity, lurching in a steady wall of death towards them.

Blinking away her weakness, Talaith turned to the todds, her face a mask of bravado. "Back ta back, aye? An' maybe we ken take 'em if we stay close, or at least wipe a few o' these forsaken monsters from the earth!"

She edged closer to Gabe and set her jaw, unsteady again on her fragile hind leg. Drawing her bow once more, she readied herself for the fight of her life.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Gabriel grimaced as he brought his axe down again, increasingly frustrated by the cat's stubborn attitude.

"Curse you, why can't you just listen?!"

Watching Talaith ignore him completely, the todd growled in pain and irritation as he let a rabid creature throw itself on his axehead.

"Back ta back, aye? An' maybe we ken take 'em if we stay close, or at least wipe a few o' these forsaken monsters from the earth!"

Smashing another beast's snout in with a bared fist, Gabe strapped his axe up roughly as he bodily threw Talaith over his shoulder like a tiny sack of flour. Taking off at a breakneck speed, the fox shook his head, holding back cries of pain.

"You're a bloody thorn in my side, do you know that?!"

Leaping awkwardly over a fallen tree trunk, Gabriel ignored his agony, the shrieks of the possessed pushing him onward as he sprinted blindly through the fog. Flying past a dead beast to his right, the todd realized he was nearing the shore that they'd landed on. Almost sobbing in relief, Gabe tried to filter out the sound of breakers from the cries of their rabid pursuers, giving up as his hindpaws thankfully dragged water. Throwing his feline passenger ahead of him, Gabriel screamed to her as he swam like a madbeast towards what he hoped was the ship.

"Go, hurry, look for the ship!"

Looking back to what he could see of the shore, the todd spotted several shapes that seemed wary to follow their quarry into the sea, giving Gabe a huge sense of relief. It was short-lived however, as two silhouettes passed the others and dove right in. Turning back to the open ocean, the todd strained his vision to spot the Hide's bulk in the cursed fog. Swimming with all his might, Gabriel's ears picked up the sounds of breakers at long last, pushing his stamina to the limit as he made his way towards the wonderful noise. As his eyes finally made out the shape of the ship, Gabe shouted up to the deck, hoping to the Emperor that the Hide had yet to be visited by the accursed.

"Ahoy! Someone answer me, please!"


Xhavek Mokorai
Xhavek groaned with pain, his head had been hit pretty darn hard and he now had a sizable lump on the back of it. Rubbing the tender spot ruefully Xhavek made his way to the deck. They must have hit some rocks or something because the Hide was rolling with the pitch of the waves like it should be. He could barely see with all the fog but that didn't hinder his sense of smell or hearing. For out of the gray blanket came a familiar voice, Gabe's if he remembered correctly.

"Ahoy! Someone answer me, please!"

"Ahoy! I hear you! Let me get a rope down zere for you!" The diminutive monitor Aide stumbled his way across the deck and found what he was looking for, a rope. With a satisfied grunt, Xhavek grabbed it and walked towards the place at the railing which he judged to be the closest to where the voice had come from. The lizard tossed one end of the rope over the side and heard it splash into the water.

"Ahoy if zat be you Gabe follow ze zound of mine voize! I've got a rope over ze zide for you! Vhere are ze otherz? I didn't find Talaith, Anithiaz, Jeshal or Rynn!"


Julia Freedom/Anithias Freedom
(Auto on Jeshal with permission)

Julia felt a cold shiver of dread run through her as Jeshal rose, seawater dripping from his snout almost like saliva. His eyes were no longer the cocksure ones that Julia knew, but ones lacking all concept of love, hate, emotion itself. They were the eyes of a beast.

A low growl rumbled from somewhere in his chest before he lunged at her. Julia screamed as she was tacked, pinned to the deck. Instinctively she lashed out with a leg, kicking a place she knew it would be difficult to recover from. Jeshal only snarled further at this, raising a claw-extended paw to strike –

— only for the hilt of a cutlass to suddenly collide with the back of his head. Snarling, Jeshal turned to see a very angry golden fox forgoing his weapon in favor of his paw, which was rushing quickly towards Jeshal's snout. Anithias had, to his later shame, abandoned Gabe and Talaith in the fog. The decision was not an easy one for him – did he protect the crew he led, or did he try to save his wife and kit from a savage death? It was the type of decision famous in history, usually forced on a beast at the hands of a mad villain. As much as Anithias cared for his crew, his love for his family had proved too strong. And so he had dashed for the ship, praying that he would arrive in time to save them from a rabid death.

He had arrived to find a feral Jeshal pinning his wife to the deck, and though he trusted the fox, he instantly assumed the worst. Enraged, he attacked his fellow crewbeast. If Anithias was anything, he was protective of his family, and finding Julia attacked in such a manner was a clear cause for murder in Anithias' eyes.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
"Ahoy if zat be you Gabe follow ze zound of mine voize! I've got a rope over ze zide for you! Vhere are ze otherz? I didn't find Talaith, Anithiaz, Jeshal or Rynn!"

Gabriel let out an audible sigh of relief at the sound of Xhavek's voice; unable to see Talaith anywhere near him, the fox began to worry that his throw hadn't been the best idea. Grasping the rope tightly, the todd pulled himself paw over paw up the side of the ship, his pain nearly forgotten.

"Thank the Emperor... we need to get the ship away from this accursed place as soon as possible. Has the ship been attacked yet?"

Looking back over the side, the todd peered into the fog, "No sign of the others..."

Cut off by the scuffle happening somewhere about the ship, Gabriel followed the sound of the attack to see several figures in a pile. Unable to distinguish one beast from another, the todd yelled at the tangled limbs, reluctant to be laying about with his axe.

"Stand down! Stand down I say!"


Anithias Freedom/Julia Freedom
Anithias barely registered the orders to stand down – he was too busy strangling Jeshal.

"Stand down! Stand down I say!"

Anithias snarled, looking up at Gabe with a wild, challenging look in his eyes. "Stand down, Mar'kan's sagging left-" Before he could finish his gruesome description of the Emperor's posterior, a large rag of foul-smelling cloves was shoved in front of his snout. Anithias took an involuntary deep breath, inhaling the odorous substance. His brain began to fog unpleasantly, and he toppled forward onto Jeshal, unconscious.

Julia pulled back the cloves before Anithias could crush them, stuffing them back in the tight drawbag she carried in a dress pocket. It wasn't a very potent mix – it only lasted a minute so, enough time for her to escape in an emergency – so Anithias would recover soon enough. She wasn't sure why she'd chosen to knock out her husband instead of Jeshal, though she was pretty sure it had been to prevent her husband from killing the fox. Anithias wasn't cut out to be a murderer, after all.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
The dead weight of the unconscious first mate upon him, Jeshal scrabbled to get free. It was fortunate he had been squashed onto his front, else he might have tried to bite a chunk from the golden fox.

Foam beginning to collect about his snapping jaws, the mad todd gave out unearthly yaps, made hoarse from the choking he had received, and attempted to crawl towards Julia. His right paw scratched at the deck, his left opened and shut with a rusting screech, the metal claws clacking at his palm.

Jeshal's hat lay abandoned further across the deck. Having been knocked off during the fight, it was an ironic depiction of the copper fox's loss of self.


Xhavek Mokorai
Xhavek started with surprise at Jeshal's state of mind. He was acting, well like Xhavek did when he lost control of himself. This could only mean that something had caused the todd to lose what could have been questionably been called his mind. The pitiful creature reminded Xhavek sharply of himself, and it sickened him. One crazed beast was enough for this crew thank you very much.

Xhavek moved over to stand beside Julia and then went down on all fours, again looking like a creature from the age when all were beings of pure instinct. A madbeast was commonly just a throwback to this time and only communicating to them as they did would frighten them off.

Xhavek's eyes met the crazed fox’s and the reptile began to snarl furiously snapping his jaws back at the fox and presenting himself in a most horrifying display. He used his claws to knead furrows into the planking of the deck and lashed his tail and tongue in the air making Jeshal seem the more sane of the two. However Xhavek kept himself between the unfortunately lost Ironclaw and Julia giving the lie to his display to the other two. Hopefully Xhavek wouldn't have to actually hurt the fox, he didn't deserve it.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
The crazed fox's attention was snatched by the snarling monitor. Were he simply reduced to a primitive state, he might have responded to the curious behaviour that Xhavek displayed. Sadly, Jeshal's condition was beyond even animal reasoning. He was aware only of things that were not him and, if they moved, they were something to attack.

He squirmed to release himself from the Anithias trap, straining his muscles past the capacity of normal endurance. His eyes, as misty as the air, flitted from target to target. Jaws wide, he made a lunge for the Aide.

The move edged him further out of his position, but his hindpaws were caught and he slammed back down to the deck an inch from the monitor's foot. He let out a screaming yelp that echoed across the ship, threatening the eardrums of everyone in the vicinity.


Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor
(Permission granted t' auto Sorrona.)

Tox had been sleeping at her desk as per usual when the paperwork was high, marking out maps and filing reports as per usual for the third night running – with no land in sight, there was little else to devote time to anyway when the kits were sleeping. Gradually, the effects of fatigue managed to work its magic upon the diminutive fox and she had nodded off some time in the wee hours of the morning, unwittingly consigning herself to a painful fate as the initial crash of the ship had sent her face first to the deck beneath her desk, then connected her head powerfully against the immovable piece of furniture. The world had gone black before she'd even woken and only recently had she managed to return to the land of the conscious with the help of a purple-cloaked crewbeast.

She sat now on her desk nursing a nasty bruise on her temple with a vacant expression of anguish and confusion painted on her thin face. Sorrona had filled in her account of the action and the little fox had listened with a sinking heart and growing sense of dread. Where had she been during all this? Idiot, idiot, idiot.
"We need t' get out of here post-'aste. Take whoever's left and prepare for cast off and sound the bell to guide 'em back—"

The sounds of roaring and a scuffle on deck caught the Captain's ragged ears and she sprang up to her footpaws instantaneously, grabbing her longbow as she bolted for the door, flinging it open.

The sight drew her short. Emerald eyes expanded slightly at the sight and for a beat the fox was breathless. A groan escaped her lips.

"Bloody 'ell..."


Talaith Trueshot
It had to happen eventually. Talaith found herself for the second time in one day over her head in the sea. So the inevitable fact was that she could learn to keep herself above water or drown like a soggy kitten.

Gabe called her a thorn in his side; Talaith had the time to mull over this as she was hauled off her feet and dragged to the beach, too grateful for the free ride to express her humiliation by kicking the todd soundly in the chest with her good hindpaw. She also had a wide and horribly clear view of their pursuers as they manifested and then were swallowed by the fog, sometimes howling and clawing at the escaping pair with startling closeness.

She never meant to be a burden to this todd, but here she was, literally his responsibility as his paws splashed into the foaming tide. After she shot Gabe, she never imagined he'd spare her even a thought in favor of looking after his own pelt.

For a moment, Talaith almost felt some kindness to the gray todd and a sense of similarity, recognizing once in his eyes an emptiness that she carried as well. All tenderness was lost when he frantically launched her into the ocean.

"Go, hurry, look for the ship!"

The little cat had time to register Gabe's shout before her head was swallowed by a wave and she was tossed under the water, thrashing her boots to find the bottom. She would have howled in panic if she could have; seeing as this expression would likely kill her when she inhaled brine to do so and not air, she wisely made the decision to keep such sentiments to herself.

She cupped her forepaws and pedaled them insanely, struggling to push herself up and into the blessed, misty air overhead. To her utter shock, she surfaced almost instantly and heaved a great breath before being pushed under another wave. Salt burned her eyes but it was no matter. She'd already faced this once in the last two hours and now she would defeat the luck that wanted to kill her.

So Talaith learned a strange, rudimentary style of swimming. She flailed her way to the surface to catch a sip of air and ducked under again, only to repeat the process much to her pleasure. She didn't make much progress in any direction, her hindpaw useless to her even in the water, but managed at last to find a method of keeping her face above the waves.

As she clumsily splashed her way to survival, Talaith spied the huge shadow of the Hide through the mist, fortunate for her indeed since she had no inkling of which way the shore lay. Having no clue of the ways of the ocean might have doomed her; if she'd relaxed and let herself move with the tides she would have landed herself back on the beach. But she didn't understand the motion of tides and saw only one option, the safety of the deck ahead.

Choking on accidentally swallowed water, Talaith decided to make her way to the ship. She bucked insanely through the waves, kicking her functional hindpaw and dragging herself forward simultaneously. Only her deepest drive to survive kept her moving and breathing now. The hull of the Hide drew closer with deliberate slowness.

She didn't have the breath to call out for help when at last she thunked her forehead on the barnacled wood of the ship's hull. Now she was at a loss as to her next act, her forepaws failing her as her strength waned for the last time. She had a harder and harder time breaking the surface now that she'd reached her haven.

Gabe was nowhere to be seen. Now that she'd followed his direction and found the ship, what was she to do next?

Anger, that most delicious savior, overwhelmed Talaith. She let it surge through her chest and lend tingling energy to her limbs. This day had treated her cruelly and she was fed up with this madness.

Her paw brushed something not made of wood or the weird, crusty barnacles that latched onto the Hide. She grabbed the rope left hanging over the side with something approaching relief. And then she heard the voices overhead. Something was wrong, very wrong on the deck.

But Talaith was furious. Whatever the little disagreement concerned was trivial to her. She was going to find Gabe and abuse him thoroughly for tossing her like so much bait into the sea, if not shoot him in reality this time. Her vision clouded with raw anger as she hauled herself laboriously up the rope, clawing with one boot to help her trembling, failing forepaws.

As she dragged herself over the railing, a vision of almost-drowned, almost murdered, and incredibly raging kitten, she found the grace to silently drop to her knees. Dragging her useless leg and fuming in exhaustion, she followed the source of the voices and crept stealthily behind the unbelievable confrontation.

Jeshal's screech flattened Talaith's ears to her skull in aggravation. She was looking for one beast only: the todd who threw her to die in the waves. She registered Xhavek and Jeshal's deadlock with a dull hiss. This matter interrupted the half-crazed cat from loosing her anger on Gabe and so instead she settled for stumbling in a wide perimeter around the battling duo to the huge gray fox's side.

She unceremoniously heaved for breath, spitting gobs of sea water to the deck as she watched the scene unfold. Her strength was spent in its entirety and she fell to her rump at Gabe's boots.

She glared up at him, her eyes blue sparks of pure hatred. "What's this, then? An' I'm gonna shoot ya fer real once I find my breath."


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Disgusted at Jeshal's fall to primality and the quickly dissolving civility aboard the ship, Gabriel threw his axe from him. Ignoring his feline rescue, the todd angrily rushed to the pile, pulling Julia away from the madbeast before she could be harmed any more then she already might've been.

"Gates, Jeshal, I've bloody had it!"

Avoiding the snapping jaws of the rabid crewbeast, Gabe dropped his entire bulk onto Jeshal's back, entwining his limbs with the fox's, pulling him up in a full nelson fueled by an exhausted, fuming anger. Craning his neck away from the thrashing todd, the struggling Gabriel spotted Tanya at long last emerging from her cabin.

"Tox! Get everyone away from us, quickly!"


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith watched Gabe's bravado with something approaching admiration. Anybeast who would risk his own safety to protect the crew was either mad or a hero, or perhaps a touch of both.

As she used her sound footpaw to push herself back from the fray, Talaith realized the todd's actions on the beach, flinging her into the water where she might or might not drown, was meant to keep her from being dismembered by the insane monsters on that cursed island. Revelation dawned in her stubborn skull as Gabe wrestled with Jeshal; perhaps not everybeast was merely looking out for his own interests, or perhaps this one wanted to die in the middle of a good brawl.

She mewed softly in pain as she scooted herself on her rear farther and farther away from the writhing pile of beasts. Her will to fire a missile into the todd was quickly fading, overwhelmed by an urgency to tend to her grossly swollen leg. She'd battered herself enough for one day and wanted only to be away from this insanity.


Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor
This...Was madness. Struck still with confusion and horror, the ragged little fox took several seconds to catch up with the commotion on deck as she eventually managed to get her legs working. In mechanical fashion, she crossed the deck, deaf to the fighting as if in a daze, and stooped to pick up the tricorn that had been discarded in the initial charge. The world about her was distorting into the anarchy that she often tried to seek solace away from when the conflicting voices inside her skull became too much. To see this kind of madness, this kind of chaos, mirrored in the reality which she relied on so much as a comfort disturbed the little fox greatly.

She stood, swaying on her footpaws in bemusement as the hat was turned between her slender little paws, both green eyes fixed blindly on the faces of those ahead.

— Little like the inside of your mind, eh?
No, I gots more control than that – and you don' scrap neither.
— But you admit to it, then?
Well I can 'ardly deny it when chattin' with yer can I?
— Do you remember back when we didn't exist? Lonely time wasn't it, before you turned crazy?
No, no...I ain't crazy. I'm unwell. Kip told me so. He wouldn't lie.
— Oh yes he would, but believe what you will, if it keeps you happy.

It was, in fact, her stung pride at being commanded by the scrapping crewbeast that dragged her back to reality. The familiar keenness returned to the misted gaze and Tox jerked into life, slinging the longbow over her shoulder and, with nowhere else to put it, slipping the tricorn over her own tattered ears, regardless of whether or not it was too large for her. Nobeast else here seemed in any fit physical condition to risk fighting the crazed todd, being either half-drowned or half-beaten by the looks of things. It was surely only a matter of time before Gabe could hold Jeshal steady no longer.

"Xhavek, Julia, get back a piece and give him room! He's a danger, Gabe, but I won't have you turnin' into him, so you aren't getting away with riskin yourself. Keep him held and take 'im down to the brig!"


Anithias Freedom/Julia Freedom
Anithias' eyes blinked open. His vision swam before him, still distorted from the effects of the cloves. His brain was still foggy as well, unable to comprehend the swirl of colours before him. Where am I? he wondered hazily.

A sharp order cut through his mental fog. "Xhavek, Julia, get back a piece and give him room! He's a danger, Gabe, but I won't have you turnin' into him, so you aren't getting away with riskin yourself. Keep him held and take 'im down to the brig!"

Julia. Suddenly the events of the past few minutes came back to Anithias. Roaring, the fox grabbed his abandoned cutlass, rising to his footpaws. Julia was a few feet away, quickly backing away from the scuffle. Anithias ran to her, putting his right arm around her while his cutlass in his left hand pointed at Jeshal. Hatred shone clear in his eyes as he protected his wife.

"Let me kill him, Tox," he snarled. He was clearly beyond reasoning with – the desire to kill radiated from him like heat, creating an almost visible aura of murderousness around him. Anithias hugged his wife close to him, and Julia instinctively drew herself as close as possible to her husband's protective form. She'd initially thought that if Jeshal could be restrained he could be brought back to his senses. Now she was worried that there was nothing to be done for the fox but a merciful kill.


Xhavek Mokorai
"Xhavek, Julia, get back a piece and give him room! He's a danger, Gabe, but I won't have you turnin' into him, so you aren't getting away with riskin yourself. Keep him held and take 'im down to the brig!"

At these orders Xhavek stopped his furious display and got up nodding to his Captain. With another beast telling him what to do in regards to a fellow madbeast the monitor lizard would have told them to go fall in a ditch but Tanya was a little 'touched' as well so he could respect her orders. However now that Anithias was awake once more the Aide had an entirely different problem on his claws. Nithy would kill Jeshal before the one-handed todd had a chance to re-gain his sanity. This the small monitor could not allow.

"Anithiaz, no. Jeshal may be lozt at ze moment but I'm zertain zat between Julia, Kiptooth, and mine-zelf ve can come up vith a vay to zave him. I include minezelf becauze I vaz onze like him. A monzter vithout pity and vithout hope. But I'm ztill here and zane enough to zpeak to you. You vill NOT be killing zis beazt vithout ze Captain'z OK. And I don't care if you out-rank me. You don't have ze proper perzpective on zis. Now go take Julia to zomeplaze out of ze vay, pleaze. I don't zink either of uz vant to zee her hurt."

Xhavek moved a little to the side and stood protectively over Julia. Despite his words, the monitor wasn't sure if they would be able to get Jeshal back but he wasn't going to let Anithias kill him without trying everything at their disposal first.


Gabriel/Jaylan Moonwhiskers
Muscles burning from keeping Jeshal under control, Gabriel was panting from utter exhaustion as he forced himself and the mad todd to their feet. Grunting in exertion as he kept his neck and face away from the snapping jaws, the fox pushed forward towards Tanya and the stairway to the hold. Passing the captain, he whispered above Jeshal's snarling.

"I'm sorry for that, Tox, I know you hate it when I do it... We just needed control..."

Entering the stairwell and out of sight, the nigh-forgotten Jaylan Moonwhiskers revealed himself from the hold, stripped down to his loincloth and soaking wet.

"Weel, I gatcha hole up, bitta jury-riggin I'm prewd of and holdin ta, aye, good ta sail, she is... whatappened up 'ere?"

Before anybeast could make a reply to the todd, several screams reached the deck of the Hide. From the railings, it was obvious to see that the rabid beasts had finally overcome their fear of water with a need for food, swimming like lunatics towards the ship. To make things worse, the two figures that had dove right in were nearly over the railings already, a monitor and an otter of all things. With a shriek, the otter leapt at Jaylan, who instantly shut himself back in the hold, letting the otter slam down on the hatch empty-handed. Whipping to the rest of the crew, it crawled blindly towards Tanya, foam and seawater rushing from it's sagging jaw.


Sorrona Ashpaw/Jeshal the Ironclaw
The door to the Captain's cabin opened very slightly and the golden eyes of Sorrona peered out at the mayhem on deck. Quickly, she shut the door again and looked about the room for anything that might be of use.

Sedatives...poisons...cures...have to try...

She threw open anything that was not securely locked, searching for apparatus. The best she could find was an assortment of beakers and containers usually used for a child's painting playset. For water, there was a near-empty tankard of some liquor on a high shelf — presumably Tox had been conscious of the kits.

Hiding herself under the desk, Sorrona rifled her cloak pockets for any herb she could find and set about concocting.

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

The crazed Jeshal continued to writhe and kick within Gabriel's grasp. Hearing the cries of the other mad wretches made him wrench at his restraint with an unnatural strength. A roar burst from him and he pulled free his gauntleted paw. Teeth gnashing in deadly fashion, he flailed out in an attempt to crush his captor beneath iron.


Anithias Freedom/Julia Freedom
Anithias turned at the cries of the rabid beasts, who were quickly making their way through the water and onto the Hide.

"Quickly!" Anithias shouted to Julia, backing her into the companionway. "Go back to the cabin and barricade yourself in! If I'm not back by morning..." His voice wavered as he looked into his wife's eyes. They both knew that this might be the last time they would see each other.

"I love you," Julia whispered. And then the madbeasts were upon them.

Anithias turned, his steel blade separating a stoat's head from his shoulders. The head flew back over the deck, still gurgling a shriek. "GO!" Anithias shouted, putting his blade directly into a weasel's skull. There was a sickening crunch as the bone matter parted before the tempered steel, the blade piercing the brain. Behind him Julia scurried down the companionway to defend the third and possibly the last of the Freedom line.

Anithias turned back calmly to face his aggressors. Hopefully Julia would be safe. If he fell today, Julia might be able to make it to the longboats and escape into the sea, to take her chances there. That was what he fought for – the safety of his wife and kit.


Taliath Trueshot
Talaith watched the mayhem on deck through heavily-lidded eyes, panting in exhaustion and bordering shock. She had pushed herself into a little nook against the rails and between two crates with her smashed hind leg stretched out before her, hoping her hiding place would offer her some shelter from Jeshal's crazed state.

The flood of rabid beasts scrabbled over the side of the Hide in a wash of matted fur and tattered rags that once were clothing; if Talaith had the notion to look at herself in a mirror, she'd instantly see the similarity between them and herself.

A wildcat hauled itself onto deck not even a step from Talaith. She sat very still, her heart flying in her chest like a flock of startled gulls. She fought to control her breath, to slow it and make it silent. The raving cat was once gray, or perhaps white, but was now stained in blotches to an odd shade of rusted pink with clotted blood that not even a lengthy bath in seawater could erase. Half of the cat's face was crushed into a bleeding mass, one eye pinched shut with a swollen purple knot.

The beast did not join its companions in their atavistic attack. Instead it paused, snuffling through its cracked snout and spraying a fine mist of garnet droplets as it exhaled, apparently oblivious to its own pain. The wild-cat dropped to all four paws in its mindlessness. If Talaith had wanted, she could kick its muzzle with one tiny boot.

Talaith bit her lip so hard in anxiety that she tasted her own blood. Her pathetic hiding place was shadowed but not enough protection against the unexpected rush of madbeasts. And she was cornered, with no way out but forwards and into the waiting claws of this wildcat.

She was unable to turn her eyes from the creature as it growled, keening, seeking prey. She knew the cat sensed her presence. It snorted the air again, licking shards of fangs in hunger as it turned in a laborious half-circle to face Talaith directly.

Talaith met the wildcat's dead amber eye with her own glimmering blue gaze. Even crouching the monster was at a level with her own face; once again in her life, Talaith mourned being a runt.

She was startled to find her friend the dagger in her paw and held quivering before her chest. Her bow was still securely at her back but in her panic she forgot it even existed. Regardless, she had no arrows to fire and the weapon was useless at this range.

Yowling low in its throat, the feral cat took a step to loom over Talaith, planting one forepaw soundly on her swollen knee. If it had the consciousness to do so, the cat would have relished the agony and terror that masked her face.

With a shrill scream, the culmination of a day of unending fear and rage, Talaith slashed at the wildcat futilely, her vision blurred with a haze of tears. Her little blade flew in an aimless arc. She only knew to attack. Her mind was beyond the point of logical planning.

Fortune at last cast a brief glance at Talaith. Her frenzied slash caught the wildbeast's shoulder and it reared back onto its knees, freeing her useless leg from beneath its paw. Talaith acted instinctively, lunging forward and plunging her dagger as hard as she could into the wildcat's belly.

Bellowing insanely, the creature clawed at the knife as the blood began pouring down the remnants of its trousers. A flame of brutality sparked in its eye as she jerked the blade from flesh. As the cat lunged at Talaith for the final killing blow, the smaller cat thrust the dagger deep into the soft dent between its collarbones with a cry as savage as those of the madbeasts on deck.

A hot black fountain poured over Talaith as the cat gurgled deep in its throat, choking on its own blood in its hunger to live. The creature sagged from its knees and slowly fell forward, still snapping its jaws in the lust to kill as Talaith scurried to free herself from the falling body.

If Talaith had stayed in her little nook she might have been quite safe cowering behind the twitching corpse of the wildcat. Instead she climbed over the beast, screaming breathlessly in pain as she forced her hindpaw to support her again. Bracing herself on the railing as her consciousness almost failed her, Talaith took a long moment to scan the eerily foggy deck.

The clashing of weaponry and the howling of madness echoed bizarrely through the fog. She caught glimpses of motion and dark shapes and aimed her unsteady staggering steps towards the fray. She clasped her dagger as tightly as she could in one trembling paw before her belly, garbed in slick, dark blood and the ragged remains of her clothes. She sought violence and revenge against the injustices this long day had shown her.


Xhavek Mokorai
As the rabid beasts began to swarm the deck, attacking his friends, Xhavek could feel his control over himself slipping. Even as he weaved and dodged the crazed animal's attacking him, giving back twice as much as he got, Xhavek desprately tried to keep his own brand of insaity in check. Too bad he was losing that particular fight.

He stood over a still gurgling corpse of a fox, blood dripping from his jaws and claws he finally lost his self-control. He bellowed in berserker fury at a monitor lizard easily twice his sizeand charged the creature. The larger reptile met Xhavek's charge head-on and there was a loud thump as the two collided, slashing and snarling at each other furiously. Xhavek's claws dug into the mad monitor’s belly, spilling out its innards, and as it slipped on its own intestines Xhavek tore its throat out.

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGH!"

Xhavek had worked himself into the kind of rage that could put a badger in full Bloodwrath to shame. His normally icy eyes blazed with insanity and outrage. Now he was beyond pain and reason, the only way to halt his rampage would be to render him unconscious.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Slowly but surely losing his strength, Gabriel tried with everything in him to keep the madbeast in his arms. Reaching the bottom of the stairwell, the todd lost his balance as the flailing Jeshal managed a free paw, bringing it around to smash Gabe's skull in. Yelping in pain as the gnashing teeth found their way into Gabriel's shoulder, the todd was forced to release the wrenching creature. Pulling his head back to avoid the flailing fist, he received a glancing blow across the muzzle, drawing blood as his head craned away from the full hit. Straight-kicking his attacker from him, Gabriel sprinted back up the steps, sight greeted by the utter chaos of the upper deck.

Scrambling on all fours in search of his weapon, the fox miserably held a paw to his new wound, cursing his fate. His search futile, Gabe slipped on the mist-covered wood and fell face up before a rabid stoat. Looking up and meeting the creature's gaze, the todd lay unmoving, knowing it was over; however, as if it hadn't seen the injured beast at all, the stoat rambled off in search of other prey.

Gabe stayed silent, stunned beyond belief.

Oh Gates... I'm done in...

Knowing he had little time, the fox looked for something, anything to cheat the virus from it's victory. Nearly sobbing in fear and pain, the pathetic vulpine could feel himself dying, cursing his very mother for the end he was receiving. With a rasping cough, he raised his head up shakily, spotting Talaith crawling towards a clustered mass of bodies.

"T... Talaith!"

Keeping his sanity within him with an agonized roar, Gabriel ground his teeth as he held on for a few more precious moments.

"Kill me! Hurry! Please, Talaith..."


Talaith Trueshot
The little cat searched the infuriating fog for anybeast familiar. She glimpsed thrashing bodies in weird portraits of starvation; the crewbeasts hungered for their lives and the madbeasts craved only the extinction of the sane.

"T... Talaith!"

The todd's plea startled her nearly into losing her footing as she stumbled, almost blind, towards the center of the fray. Her ears flicked in the direction of where he lay. Talaith spotted one twitching paw sprawled on the boards of the deck. She half-limped, half-crawled to where Gabe had collapsed, growling in undiluted pain with each step.

Raging beasts thrashed and stormed all around her, barely noticed in the peripheral of her vision as she found a single purpose, to reach the big gray todd and repay her debt to him. He needed help, that was obvious, and she'd no longer be beholden to Gabe for at least one of her crimes against him if she could answer his call.

I'm coming. And I'll make sure you never have reason ta pay me back fer shootin' ya. Her thoughts were murky swirls and she plucked the one theme from among them, repeating it as a mantra as she dragged her spent body across the deck.

A screeching flurry of claws and fangs materialized at her side as Talaith was finally able to see Gabe clearly. She didn't spare the madbeast a moment of hesitation of even a glance as she ferociously slashed sideways with her dagger, eyes trained on the todd. The monster bawled in pain and retreated or perished; she did not care which as she smeared the blood from her blade down the front of her vest, untouched by anything but the beast's fury. An unstoppable growl rolled through her chest. She was bent on two goals, to reach Gabe and to kill all in her way.

"Kill me! Hurry! Please, Talaith..."

The todd looked up at her with such a pure look of misery that Talaith felt her stomach twist. She met his eyes steadily as she unslung her bow from her back. Her motions were fluid and somehow placid in the battle that ravaged the mists around them. She appraised him in a fraction of a moment; Gabe was sick, tainted like the feral creatures of the island.

She made a decision and set her jaw, still looking intensely into Gabe's eyes as she lifted her bow with trembling paws. Taking a deep breath to steady her resolve, Talaith parted acquaintance with her bow, her most loyal friend for all of her short life.

For a heartbeat it looked as if Talaith would spear the todd with the pointed end of her little shortbow. Instead, with a scream of fury and regret, she smashed the flexible wood across his muzzle. Sobbing, she lifted the bow again and again, squeezing her eyes shut as wood contacted flesh and bone, landing blows on his head, neck, and shoulders.

The supple wood snapped in Talaith's paw, ruining her most prized and beloved possession for all time. She glared at Gabe's prone form, deciding her work was unfinished. She almost lost the contents of her belly in agony as she braced herself on her fragile hindpaw and sent a sharp kick into the side of the todd's skull.

She cried softly in fear and exhaustion as she lost the ability to stand, falling as if she had no bones to the deck next to Gabe.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Jeshal tumbled across the hold, Gabriel's blood glinting wetly on his teeth. He did not notice the damage done to his ribs from the larger todd's kick. The copper fox had barely ceased rolling along the boards before he had whirled about, his blue-grey coat and broken sandals the only reminder of his lost personality.

The feral Ironclaw cantered up the steps on all fours and glared at the colourful flurry of battle. He bowled straight for the centre, the scent of the blood stirring his infected senses, the heat of other beasts calling for their flesh to be tasted.

Oblivious to something as orderly as the chain of command, he raced for the first mind-owning beast in his path, the captain of the vessel herself. All the more pity that his conscience was so absent as he bore down upon the object of his growing obsession and would not see his vengeance redeemed in clear thought.

Jeshal, without his trademark grin, launched himself towards Tanya, reddened fangs bared, metal and claws splayed to strike.


Xhavek Mokorai
The insane monitor crouched and growled over his newest victim, a bedraggled looking mouse, its footpaw bitten off and its throat missing. Both wounds had been the work of the mad Aide. And now his crazed gaze was set upon another creature scrambling up onto the deck of the Golden Hide. This one a newt foaming at the mouth and gurgling.

The feral monitor roared once more and charged at the newt, smashing into it just as its webbed feet touched the deck. Xhavek sank his teeth into its shoulder as he shoved it back at the railing, tearing out a large peice of its flesh. The rabid reptile howled but not in pain but in bestial fury. It rushed and Xhavek but found itself spat upon his ebon claws. With a ferocious snarl, the small lizard shrugged the deceased newt off of him and began to swing his head about, looking for another beast to kill.

This had ceased being a contest of strength between the crew of the Hide and the rabid beasts of the island. No this was now utter chaos and the only winner would be the collector of souls, the Grim Beast.


Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor
(Auto on Jesh with permission)

The fear-induced adrenaline coursing through the young captain's veins lent wings to her actions as the horde of mad creatures stormed the ship, all mutilated and in the same mindset as Jeshal. Slack-jawed, the vixen gave orders by reflex.

"Archers get in the rigging and pick them off, swordsbeasts pair up with spear wielders and use the distance they make to cut in! Give no quarter!"

Her words were abruptly halted as a maddened otter slammed into the deck nearby and began crawling towards her. Blinking, the scrawny vixen stepped backwards and melted into the weird shadows cast in this foreign land. With the darkness on her side, she swiftly made a few knots to her longbow's cord in the available time she had and with her makeshift garrotte in paw, slipped her bow over the otter's neck from behind and twisted it. As the bloodflow to the beast's brain was cut off and it spasmed oddly, the fox twitched her right paw, a switchblade appearing, and slit its throat. Without the time to wait for its inevitable bleed to death, the vixen shook thick, black blood from her paw and moved on.

She moved to the centre of the deck now, round-eyed and abandoned her bow. Whirling and slicing a charging stoat from gut to collarbone, the vixen ground to a halt and groaned as she watched the small archer feline try to destroy Gabriel, suddenly realising what she must be doing it for, and stepped backwards, bumping into a solid figure. Spinning about with a yelp, she almost struck out at her own Aide and, upon seeing him, gave no indication of relief.

"Xhavek!" she screamed at the monitor's face, intent to keep his bloodlust down long enough to help, "This thing must be contagious! Get Gabe to the brig and Talaith to the infirmary!"

Again, she found her words cut short as a weight collided with her, sending the knife from her paw and pinning her to the deck. Winded and stunned, the vixen brought her paws up to defend herself from... Jeshal. The growing sensation of sickness battled to contradict the numbness that welled in her stomach as she struggled to keep the snapping jaws of the rabid todd at bay. Head flat on the deckboards, the vixen spied the monitor again and she gave him a glare.

"Go, Xhav, Gabe'll be too dangerous out of the brig!"

Without bothering to check to see if he was following orders, the vixen focused on the fight. Claws, both regular and metallic, clamped into her shoulders, tearing gashes through skin and shirt alike and she found herself to be on the wrong side of an almost unstoppable force of instinctive aggression.

Considerably more dark auburn fur was flying into the foggy air than there was copper colour, and she cringed back, forepaws shaking with the strain of trying to keep Jeshal back without causing too much damage. Her shoulders, her sides, and her arms were bloody now from the gashes of the wildly flailing fox, the pain enough to have eclipsed any coherent thought. She still had her flexibility and, squirming, brought one knee up to the todd's stomach whilst her teeth tried to find his arm, tearing back into the fox.

No coherent thought necessary.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
((Auto of Tox and Anithias with permission))

The low-ranking fox scrabbled with the captain, his coat becoming more tattered by the second. Her struggles combined with the smell of blood drove him into a greater frenzy, which was only countered by the blow he received to the gut.

Jeshal tumbled away, automatically swiping out with his iron fist to smack Tanya from him as her jaws broke the skin. It was only a glancing hit, but enough to release himself. The mad fox would have leapt again upon his current prey, but the power in his retreat half-somersaulted him backwards beside the second-in-command as he battled.

The Ironclaw followed through with his limited attention span and sprang upon Anithias's back. Growling within a mob of mindless creatures, he sank his teeth into the first mate's shoulders.


Anithias Freedom/Julia Freedom
Anithias cried out in pain as Jeshal's teeth sank into his shoulder. Instinctively his free paw came up, hitting the fox in the face, but the damage had been done – Anithias was contaminated. Even as Jeshal's jaws released their hold Anithias' mind began to spin wildly, trying to comprehend. He was tainted. Soon he would descend into madness, a threat to everybeast – and his family. Anithias' heart threatened to break as he realized that even if the crew came through this ordeal safely, he would still never see his wife and kit again except through the iron lattice of a cell in the brig. Anithias felt shame overwhelm him as he realized that likely the last memory Julia would ever have of him would be of a poor, pitiable, unstable creature lashing out at her through the walls of the cell. It was enough to make any beast weep.

But Anithias knew that he could not afford to weep now, not while rabid beasts clashed around him and his lifeblood poured from his shoulder. Anithias launched himself on top of Jeshal, wrestling with the madbeast and attempting to drag him down the companionway. Anithias did not know how he managed to get down to the brig; his sight was growing fuzzy with loss of blood, and fighting the raging Jeshal took all his concentration. Finally Anithias dragged the still-fighting Jeshal down the aisle of the brig, grabbing the keys as he passed. His vision fuzzy, Anithias fumbled with the lock for a cell, finally swinging it open. Throwing Jeshal inside, Anithias followed, throwing the keys into the aisle before swinging the door shut, locking both himself and Jeshal in.

"Nithy?"

Anithias turned, horrified, to see Julia huddled in a corner of the cell, Falun in her arms. "Julia?" Anithias asked numbly. "What are you..."

"I thought it would be safer here, so I locked us both in." She noticed Anithias' shoulder. "You're bleeding. What happen—" She suddenly noticed Jeshal. Her eyes darted from Jeshal's bloody jaws to Anithias' shoulder, comprehension dawning on her.

"No!" she screamed, scrabbling back against the hull, trying frantically to escape to a place that wasn't there. Anithias quickly turned, reaching through the cell door for the keys, but they were out of reach. He turned back to face the cell, panicking. This was a nightmare situation, and it was all his fault. He'd locked his family in with two rabid beasts, one of them himself, and now they were all going to die.

Anithias slid his cutlass along the floor to Julia, shouting, "Take it!" She did so, clumsily trying to balance a kit and the weapon, which was heavier than the rapier she was accustomed to. Anithias launched himself on top of Jeshal, preparing to wrestle to the death. He knew that he would have to die, and it would have to be Julia who killed him. There was no other way around it – if he wasn't killed, then he would kill his own family against his will, and that was something that he could not allow to happen.


Will Wanderpaw
Will woke up to chaos and screaming. He had been caught unprepared when the Golden Hide had run afoul of something and the resulting impact had sent the cave rat headfirst into his bunk's wall. All in all it had been a rather unpleasant experience, getting his head nearly caved in that is. Rubbing his snout dejectedly he nearly jumped out of his fur when a loud bloodcurdling shriek sounded at his porthole window.

Eyes wide the young rat looked up and saw a horribly ugly specimen of a shrew. Its spiky fur was matted and blood-stained. Its once brown eyes filmed over with madness and hunger. Adn Will was fairly certain that he didn't need to know what that green gunk coming out of its ears was. The shrew snarled and snapped at him behind the glass of the window, desperate to get in and kill him. Will shuddered and turned his back to it, running towards the deck, he could hear fighting going on up above him.

Will's usually somber brown eyes widened as he beheld the utter chaos that was occurring on the deck. Madbeasts ran about attacking everything they could get their sickened paws onto. There were too few crew beasts on deck, far too few. The Hide would soon be overrun with the unceasing tide of insanity and Will knew it. Then he saw Talaith lying adjacent to the battered form of Gabriell, her bow shattered and useless lying next to her. And he wasn't the only one who noticed her, the grizzled and disgusting shrew he had seen early had finally made it over the railing and now it was head towards the wounded she-cat.

"TAL! LOOK OUT!"

Will shot off like an arrow, darting past ravening animals with the practiced ease of one who has done something many times before. Not that he HAD run through a horde of crazed beasts before but running through the darkness of the caves his colony lived in wasn't so different. He just barely made it to Talaith before the shrew did but even just barely was enough for him to get rid of the problem. Will halted and drew his wakizashi at the same time, using the draw strike called Reaping the Field, disemboweling the shrew. The rat finished off his opponent with a fluid transition into the Rising Swallow, slicing into the psychotic being's head almost completely off.

He sheathed his blade smoothly and knelt down next to Tal, concern etched into his visage.

"Come on Talaith, we've got to get you somewhere safe. You'll only get killed out here without a weapon and a wound like that." Before the cat could give back any retort Will continued," And don't argue with me, you and I both know that I'm right. Now let's get you below."


Talaith Trueshot
"TAL! LOOK OUT!"

Talaith's attention was drawn from Gabe's battered face to the rat who darted now across the deck of the Hide. She was oblivious to the shrew until the moment Will gutted the mad creature, her reflexes commanding her to reach for her ruined bow too late.

She growled in apprehension as the weapon fell to pieces in her paw. This rat was insane to risk his own life for hers; actions like that would only shorten his days. Where was Xhavek now, Will's companion and, in her eyes, bodyguard?

"Come on Talaith, we've got to get you somewhere safe. You'll only get killed out here without a weapon and a wound like that."

For the first time, the little cat looked clearly at her smashed leg and met Will's eyes for a second. "I... well, I... suppose yer right. Where's safe in this madness?"

Shaking her head to clear it a bit, Talaith struggled to her knees with a hiss. She flailed her forepaws around for a moment to regain her balance. She had no sea legs as it was.

"And ya, Master Will? How will ya keep yer head on yer shoulders? Fancy bladework there but..." Talaith shrugged, wincing, and gestured broadly to the frenzy barely visible through the mist, thrashed into whirlwinds around them by the battling beasts onboard. "Ken we make it somewhere? An' I have this." Talaith produced her trusty dagger from her belt, caked in drying blood and clotted fur. "I'm armed, aye?"


Gabriel Moonwhiskers/Jaylan Moonwhiskers
As the beaten body of Gabriel Moonwhiskers bled onto the decks of the Hide, ignored by madbeasts and defenders alike, a rain began to fall from the fog-stricken skies. As if parting a smothering veil, the mist began to lighten up, flowing slowly from the ship like a weightless blanket. With the ship in full visibility now, one could see the rabid monsters begin to pause in their mindless tracks, as if hesitating for some unknown reason. As the Hide floated in nothingness, madbeasts began to lose their feeding frenzy, diving from the decks as if they'd been frightened out of their non-existent wits.

And so, with a few splashes, the Golden Hide descended into an eerie silence.

Lifting a battered arm, Gabriel shuddered as he held it to his badly beaten head, cracking open one horribly bloodshot eye. Pulling himself up to his knees, the todd could feel his right ear hanging by a thread, torn brutally by Talaith's assault. Spitting out a few teeth from a miraculously intact jaw, he gingerly patted at several cuts and bruises covering his muzzle and neck.

Curse this headache... wait...

Blinking rapidly, Gabe sat stunned. He experimentally moved an arm, almost laughing in joy. I'm not infected! Oh Gates, this is incredible... the beating must've jarred me back! His badly battered head forgotten, the fox stood, grinning like a fool as he looked about for the rest of the crew, the grin turning to a slightly concerned frown at the nearly empty deck.

"Talaith... Tox?" Gabe called raspily, standing awkwardly, "What happened to the crazies?"

Feeling the deck beneath him shift as the Hide at last flowed free of the rocks, the fox turned as his brother reappeared from the hold, a smile on his face.

"We gottus off the rucks, she be's seaworthy, aye," Jaylan pointed out in his rapid, Irish accent, "Nice n' quitt up 'ere, it is... much be'er, yis. Der Gawd, Gab, whattappened ta yer face, 'uh?"

Distracted by the utter silence that enveloped them, Gabriel withheld an answer as he limped to the rails, glancing into the now slightly visible sea beneath them. Turning back to the nearly empty deck, the fox passed Talaith and Will as he looked about for the rest of the crew, flicking a bead of blood from his muzzle. Oblivious to the drama occurring beneath him in the hold, Gabe walked painfully back to the pair, breath coming and going in rasps from an injured throat.

"What happened? Where'd the madbeasts run off to?"

With an uneasy feeling creeping up his spine, the todd slid to a seat against the mainmast, running a paw gingerly across his face. Hoping someone had the presence of mind to unfurl the sails and speed them from this Emperor-forsaken place, Gabriel patted his face down with a discarded piece of canvas as he looked about with a paranoid gaze.

Shivering as the adrenaline of the fight began to leave him, the fox froze as the ship shuddered slightly. What the devil... With the fur on his neck beginning to rise, Gabe looked up at Talaith and Will, eye wide.

"Did you feel that?"


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Foam dripping from his uncontrolled jaws, Jeshal scrabbled against the greater strength harboured by his assailant. Being so mindless, he had no concept of trickery or technique and remained trapped against the cell floor.

Preoccupied only with the creature closest to him, he sank his teeth into Anithias's neck fur, missing any vital channels. All of his limbs battered in fury, feet kicking at the first mate's underbelly, claws of both natural and forged materials slashing in a blur.

Head pounding with insanity and bloodlust, Jeshal did not hear the decreased sound of rabble from above, nor did he feel the Hide make its terribly ominous groan...


Talaith Trueshot
"What happened? Where'd the madbeasts run off to?"

Talaith looked around the deck as puzzled as the todd was. The will to fight was gone for her, dissipated by exhaustion, terror, and pain. She needed a moment's rest and this odd respite was not to be argued with!

Wincing, she glanced from Will's face to Gabe's battered visage. Had she really done that much damage? Her memories of the day were blurring into a haze of blood and fear intermixed with swirls of cloying mist. Shivering, she pulled herself to her knees to scan the deck of the Hide, giving up on the motion quickly as her hindpaw sent lightning bolts of agony through her entire body and her vision went gray. Taking a deep breath to clear her head, Talaith steeled herself against the oncoming unconsciousness and fell to the boards once more. A moment passed and she glared at the rat and todd defiantly.

The ship's sudden shudder drained what was left of her energy from Talaith; her ears quivered and her eyes widened to huge silvery globes as she became alert to danger once more.

"Did you feel that?"

Talaith managed to grin jauntily at Gabe as she snapped, "O' course I felt it. I felt yer face beneath my bow just a short while ago. Why aren't ya mad like tha crazy beasties any more? And what was that?!" The undersized cat scowled at the todd warily, ready for any renewed attack from either his rabid ravings or the madbeasts who had so suddenly disappeared.


Anithias Freedom
Anithias cried out in pain as Jeshal sank his teeth into his neck. Pain like nothing he'd never felt before coursed through him. Similar pain coursed through his stomach as Jeshal attacked him there with all available limbs. Anithias was vaguely aware of Julia's sobs of horror as she watched her husband being attacked, though it seemed a world away from the pain Anithias was experiencing.

Anithias wearily raised a paw, and brought it down on Jeshal's face. A wave of pain shot through him as Jeshal's teeth sunk deeper into him, but he raised his paw and struck again. Anithias' world dissolved into one of pain as he maintained his repetitive abuse on the fox's skull, his consciousness slipping with ever blow. Eventually his brain, protesting against the abuse the organism it controlled was taking, it shut itself down until a more stable working environment could be established. Anithias' paw fell to the floor limply.


Gabriel Moonwhiskers
Pulling himself back to his hindpaws, Gabriel picked his way across the corpse-littered deck to the starboard railings. Looking over into what he could see of the deeps, the todd arched a bloodied brow, injured body tensed.

What was that... it wasn't the rocks...

Shaking his head to throw drops of blood from the tip of his nose, Gabe turned and gazed about him, the rain beginning to fall heavily upon the Hide. Looking to Talaith and Will, the todd motioned towards Tanya's direction.

"Go get the captain, something's not right here. We hit something else I think..."

Agitatedly walking to port, Gabriel turned his gaze down to see if the object was visible. With his mind as berated and weary as it was, it took him a moment to notice the slowly materializing wooden sides of a second vessel, practically attached to the Hide itself. It was another moment before Gabe realized that they were attached to another ship, not entirely certain how, but quite obviously stuck.

Raising his head to yell to Tanya, the todd froze as he found himself muzzle-to-muzzle with a badly beaten hare, who looked to be missing an ear and carried several bad gashes across its surprised features. The two looked at each other for a second, not able to comprehend what was happening, and both too tired to realize the situation. Then, like pulling back a curtain, the fog began to disperse rapidly, revealing a second galleon, commandeered by several injured hares who all looked as dumbfounded as Gabe and his newfound staring partner.

Gabe only shifted his vision when a dark mass revealed itself from the shadows of the bloodied mystery ship. Jarred out of his wits, the todd could only gape in horror and begin back-pedalling in a panic.

By the Emperor's bloody grave! We CAN'T be this unlucky...

Shouldering a gore-covered broadsword, the huge badger, fur slicked in entrails of the cursed, shook his head as if to see if he was dreaming. When the odd visage failed to dissipate, the beast almost reluctantly undid his broadsword and brought it forward in a sweeping arc, roaring as he did so.

"It's not over yet, crew, attack!!!"

And with that, the stunned hares of the mystery ship snapped to it and bounded for the deck of the Hide, yelling in renewed energy. Gabriel, shaking his head in disbelief, turned and began to crawl on all fours in search of his axe, eye panicked and body trembling. Gates... only on the Hide...



Jeshal the Ironclaw
As his opponent slipped out of consciousness, Jeshal released his grip, panting in response to his exhausted body. Managing a weak growl, he dipped onto a primitive four paws and crept towards Julia.

Halfway across the cell, he twitched. Pain seared through his skull where Anithias had been pounding upon it. A trickle of blood plummeted for the ground. The feral fox gave a yelp, acknowledging that he had taken damage for the first time since being back aboard the ship.

Limbs shaking, Jeshal stared at Julia and the kit for a good minute. The misty colour in his eyes adjusted to a faint glimmer of warm darkness.

"Ju..." he choked.

And collapsed only a few metres away from the first mate.


Julia Freedom
Julia watched, horrified, as her battered husband collapsed under the pain. Jeshal released his grip, crawling slowly towards her. Julia protectively held her kit close to her chest, panic setting in. She was going to die. Jeshal was going to kill her slowly and painfully, and then, when he was done.... Julia almost cried as she realized her kit would be killed as well, and she would not be there to protect him. None of them deserved this fate. Not Anithias. Not Julia. Certainly not Falun. And Julia was sure that Jeshal hadn't deserved his fate either.

Jeshal suddenly spasmed as he crawled toward Julia. Blood ran from a dent in his skull, the result of Anithias' attack. He let out an unearthly yelp, his limbs shaking uncontrollably. Blank eyes stared straight at Julia, and Julia, clinging desperately to her kit, stared back, afraid. Eventually the blank mist in his eyes disappeared, returning to a familiar warmth.

Jeshal let out a choking sound, as if trying to speak beyond an obstruction in his throat. "Ju..."

Julia leaned forward, her protectiveness wavering. Ju? Julia? Was he trying to speak her name? But she never found out— Jeshal collapsed at that moment, his blood tricking across the floor to join with that of Anithias.

Julia wavered there, torn between two choices. Both of them were hurt badly, terribly. Anithias was bleeding from the tears in his chest and from the teethmarks in his neck, but Jeshal had a skull wound, the type from which beasts rarely recovered. They were both in grave danger, but which one should she help? She was bound by the Kasalcratic Oath, and could not allow either to come to harm through neglect. And so Julia made a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Setting the miraculously-sleeping Falun down gently in a niche, Julia tore the hem of her dress, which she favored as impromptu bandage material. Rushing forward, she knelt next, not Anithias, but Jeshal, elevating him so he leaned back against a wall, his head elevated over the rest of her body. Wrapping the bandage several times around his skull, she tied it tightly, hoping it would hold. Then she rushed to her husband, tearing several large strips from her dress, which was fast becoming a skirt. Carefully she tied them tightly around the cuts on his stomach. She wasn't sure about what to do for the neck – she didn't want to strangle him, after all – but eventually she decided to just bunch the remaining material and, embarrassed, tied it with a string from her underdress. She made a mental note to wear more clothes from now on, since a medical emergency could fast turn into a modesty emergency.

Julia carefully splayed her skirt around her, walking over to retrieve Falun from his niche, in which he'd just begun to stir. Reassuring him with gentle cooing sounds, Julia cradled him gently in her arms as she knelt back on her ankles. She sighed as she looked at the two bloody, unconscious foxes on the floor. "It sets a great example for you, doesn't it?" she commented to Falun. "Uncle Jeshal going crazy, Daddy getting into fights, and Mummy in a short skirt." She carefully splayed the latter around her legs, trying to make the torn material go as far as possible.


Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor
Unfortunately for the crew still battling on the topdeck, the little captain was no longer visible to give orders on the hulking badger that was attacking; she had disappeared belowdecks almost as soon as she had managed to get back up, her staggered steps accommodating for the lurching vessel as she followed the bloody trail back down into the guts of her ship. Anithias. She needed that fox alive and well.

She sloshed down into the waterlogged brig licking blood from her shredded forearms and ignoring the rips at her shoulders and sides for the time being. Chunks of fur caught the weak light behind her as the diminutive Captain crashed through the cells, large eyes adjusting to the darkness just in time to find the single occupied space, and for several seconds Tox could do nought but stare dumbly at the scene with an open mouth as the gravity of the situation struck her.

"'Gates."

Without pausing, Tanya bolted unsteadily to the cell and began working at freeing the victims. Tired and dumbfounded as she was, the vixen wasn't an idiot: she only outranked both Jeshal and Anithias in the world with rules; when the ship was plunged into a melee of beast, she was certain without a doubt that if worst came to worst, the other mother would have far better chances defending herself against a single, scruffy little vixen then two comparatively large todds.

Bloody, shaking paws scrabbled against the lock frantically, trying to wedge one of her claws into the keyhole and spring the mechanism. Low alterations between agitation and pain filled the space as her fingers refused to obey the impulses her brain tried to send them.

"Gettin' you and Falun out, Julia. Not safe to be near them. Keep 'em locked in 'till Kip and Sorrona do sommat—" a claw snapped, and her bloody paw slipped on the cool metal "'Gates, why won't my paws LISTEN TO ME!?"

A spasm shook the vixen and her eyes flashed, a growl escaping her lips as she smacked a fist against the bars until they quivered. Hackles risen, the vixen ran a shaking paw through her headfur and glanced around the darkness.

"Where're the keys?"


Julia Freedom
The splash of footpaws moving through water reached Julia's ears, stopping a short distance away. Julia strained her eyes to see a stunned Tanya staring dumbly at the scene. Finally she let out a small "'Gates," rushing to the cell and starting work on the lock. Her claws worked frantically in the keyhole, trying to spring the bolt loose.

"Gettin' you and Falun out, Julia. Not safe to be near them. Keep 'em locked in 'till Kip and Sorrona do sommat- 'Gates, why won't my paws LISTEN TO ME!?" Her paws had slipped on the metal, slippery with blood. Enraged, Tanya smacked her fists against the bars, as if hoping they would give way before her. Running a paw through her headfur in frustration, she glanced about the darkness as if searching.

"Where're the keys?"

"I don't know," Julia answered frantically, sloshing across the cell to the door. "Nithy tossed the keys somewhere over there—" she waved a paw at a waterlogged space a little ways down the aisle, "but I don't know where."

The sound of shouts from above echoed down the companionway to the brig. Julia looked up at the ceiling, frightened. "What's happening, Tanya? Are we still under attack from those..." She shivered, not needing to finish her sentence.


Jeshal the Ironclaw
Noise exploded into Jeshal's head as it forced him finally into consciousness. It took time to make sense of the world, muffled like being underwater. Which was becoming an ironic possibility as the cell floor became even more inundated. His eyes opened gradually and he felt the panic of the unknown crawl through his blood.

Where? Am I in pieces? Did I come back wrong? What -?

He winced at the searing pain in his head, loath to move in case it was a fatal choice. He attempted to shift his paws but was unable to suppress the drawn-out whine that slipped from his throat as he did.

Are we still under attack from those..."

Jeshal tried to focus on the source of the voice and the scrabbling at the lock of the cell door but, at least for now, pain was the most pressing issue.


Talaith Trueshot
Talaith watched Gabe stagger to the railings with passing curiosity. Her biggest concern at the moment was finding somewhere safe and quiet to appraise her wounds; well, just safe. She could compromise on quiet.

With a shallow squeak of pain, the cat dragged herself up to a semi-standing position, swaying on her usable hindpaw and dangling the other limply and only putting pressure on it for balance's sake. She mewed each time her boot brushed the deck as her stomach knotted in agony.

Her ears laid flat on her head and belied her severe stress as she pasted a grim grin on her lips. She looked to Will with blurry eyes and nodded towards the todd across the deck.

"What's this, then, Master Wisp?"

Hopping in a feverish daze and trailing droplets of her own blood onto the decks, Talaith made it half the distance to Gabe before her toe snagged on something and she fell flat on her belly with a harsh yelp. She merely moaned and covered her eyes with her little paws, not even caring if she got back up again.

A ghost of a voice stirred in Talaith's heart. She heard it perhaps a dozen times in her life; always when she was needing in the most fundamental way. Her ears twitched slightly and to other beasts she would have looked a little mad as she purred a few garbled words to herself.

With a slow sigh Talaith uncovered her mist colored eyes and looked down to her hindpaws, a disturbing clarity sweeping her features. There was no more ironic smirk or sarcastic pleasure pasted on her ginger face; only a fierce focus and morbid determination.

She had tripped over a great axe.

"It's not over yet, crew, attack!!!"

Talaith was unsure who issued the cry. In her new state it was a trivial matter. She was ready to fight any who came near her to preserve her own life. Gritting her teeth and whining without being aware of it, the runty cat smeared sweat and blood from her vision and heaved herself to her paws and knees. She turned to the axe and with a deep gasp she heaved the weapon up to stand on its head.

With a crutch Talaith was on her hindpaws in a moment. She took in her surroundings with new focus, her mind narrowed down to one point: live. She turned her massive eyes to movement on the boards and watched as Gabe scavenged the deck on all fours. She shook her head for a moment, her brain struggling to decide if this was a target or an ally.

Luckily for the todd the axe was too heavy and large for Talaith to heave over her head because her rattled sensibility failed her. She did try to lift it, missing the connection from common sense to action in her shock, and with a tiny grunt she gave up. Brandishing instead her grimy knife, she met Gabe's gaze solemnly and limply whipped it at him, missing any contact with flesh by two feet.


Xhavek Mokorai
As the mist cleared it revealed a most grisly sight. For there was Xhavek coated in blood, a ring of half-eaten corpses around him. The monitor however was underneath the body of a gaunt squirrelmaid, her tail missing much of its fur and her throat still dripping her blood. With a shudder the small lizard awoke and opened frigid eyes, clear of the burning light of the madness caused by the plague-like infection.

He pushed the body off of him and took stock of his surroundings. Bodies were strewn about the deck and what crew was still there was shuddering with horror and in some cases pain. Xhavek's icy blue eyes finally found his blood brother and the Aide felt a wave of relief. Wisp was unharmed and sane, which was more than he could say for his own scaly self. Then again he hadn't been sane or whole to begin with.

Then Xhavek heard a roar of challenge. It was a sound he was familiar with though it had been a while since the last time he had heard a badger's cry. Instinctively Xhavek growled back then decided to just go for it and the growl turned into an answering roar. Shoving himself up off of the deck Xhavek swayed as he stood, but it was not from weakness but rather it was a purposeful drunken-like swaying. Roaring once more Xhavek charged across the deck to met the new enemy head-on.


Tanya Rainblade-Ryalor
As soon as Julia dared to wave her paw in the vague direction of the floor between cells, Tanya pounced upon the first patch of filthy water that fell beneath her, remaining on all fours as she scrabbled blindly for the keys with shaking paws, self-consciousness substituted for survival instinct as her splayed fingertips strived to touch metal.

Another spasm shook the vixen, forcing her to snarl and double up as lances of pain shot through her stomach; Jeshal's attack had infected her, but the deepness of the scratches and lack of bites meant that the venom was not in total control of her body, leaving the fox in a miserable limbo between enraged animal and sentient sailor. She whimpered, snarled and finally hissed in surprise as a whine came from the cell. Leaping back upright, the fox was right next to Julia in an instant, staring at Jeshal with an unreadable expression.

"Alright. Plan number two..."

Gritting her teeth in preparation, the vixen slipped her left arm through and between the bars up to her shoulder in order to get a closer fit, until she was as close to the bars as possible. Then, for no apparent reason, she bit one of them. Whining and growling, she anticipated the next spasm that shook her body, but this time bit onto the bar as she jerked backwards. A pleasing ping and muffled wince later, and the vixen gingerly spat into her paw, revealing a curved tooth, half of which was fashioned from steel, dull with a few drops of blood. Gripping it carefully, she once again began the frantic attempt to free the other vixen with this new lockpick.


Julia Freedom/Anithias Freedom
Julia watched Tanya's improvised lockpicking with a combination of grotesque horror and unwilling fascination. It was amazing how Tanya managed to make improvised tools using the strangest materials.

"Tanya, you didn't have to..." Julia began, but Tayna cast a warning growl her way. Julia shivered, suddenly frightened. There was a touch of something other than the captain she knew so well in that growl...

There was a horrible groan from the metal as the lock turned, scraping against itself in its unwillingness to move. With a final twist from Tox, the lock finally gave way, swinging open. Hastily Julia scrambled from the cell, Falun clutched to her chest. There was a sudden rush of air along Julia's back as the cell door was slammed shut and a feral roar as—

—Anithias collided with the door. Spittle flew from his jaw as he scrabbled madly at the door, trying to reach the beasts beyond. His eyes were large, mad, devoid of all emotion except that of the most primitive kind. Growling, he continued to scrabble madly at the door. Julia watched in horror, her heart breaking to see her husband like this, and to know that he was beyond returning, he was lost forever... A single tear ran down her face, and her lips formed one quiet, desperate plea:

"No..."


Jeshal the Ironclaw
The clanging of the newest mad-beast against the bars resounded in Jeshal's already throbbing head. He snarled instinctively and managed to raise himself to his knees in order to shake his muzzle. Blinking until his eyes could focus, he turned his face to see Anithias scrabbling manically. Beyond the cell he made out the figures of the Captain and Julia with her kit, the latter's face etched with horror.

Currently unable to recall a thing since going ashore in the mists — which seemed a distant dream — Jeshal found himself swaying stupidly to his feet. Angry with the pain of his skull, his paw wavered unsteadily near his sheathed cutlass.

Eyes darting from the baffling vision of the maddened first mate to the vixens behind the bars, he growled, "Wharr'in 'Gates is happening?"


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