Slaves on the Highseas

Story by Janus Wolff on SoFurry

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All characters copywrite to me, Janus Wolff

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Captain Cubs sat at his desk in his cabin, reviewing the map in front of him. The iguana scratched the frill

at the top of his head distractedly and looked up at his first mate, a parrot named Darax.

"Now, which way be this vessel come'n in?" Cubs asked gruffly.

"Right ‘ere cap'n," Darax said, pointing a clawed right hand at a point on the sea map.

"Vessel's course brings ‘er through the straights ‘ere, ‘eading towards the Indigo Shore there."

Darax pushed a small miniature ship over to block the entrance of the straight he had indicated.

"in we block th' path, we can trap ‘em an board th' ship, givin' them no hope of escapin' cap'n." Cubs grinned evilly.

"Good. Tell th' crew t' be ready fer action."

"Aye Aye Cap'n!" Darax turned sharply and left the cabin

~~~One hour later ~~~

Captain Cubs slowly mounted the stairs to the quarter deck above his cabin. The helms fur,

a thick witted tiger with an eye patch, nodded gruffly at him as he appeared. Cubs nodded back and

approached the rail, over looking his crew below. They were ready to board the merchant ship about to appear

in the straight they were blocking. Cubs' crew was a vast assortment of furs and scales; reptiles, canines, felines, avian,

bovines, rodent, you name it. Most were male but there were one or two female members of the crew. Silvia the Red, a

crimson vixen, was one of them. She had all the crew's eye and the only thing that staved off constant sexual attention was one,

she was a lesbian, and two, she carried more knives then the ship's cook.

Darax, Cubs' first mate, and the boson Tiris, a huge muscle bound bull with massive horns

and a deadly pair of bull whips, both stood on the quarterdeck with him. Even Dong, the ship's overweight,

greasy cook, a fat bear with long matted fur, was up on the deck, dressed in the chef whites and hat that had earned

him the nickname, "The Butcher of the Highseas." "Is th' crew ready mister Darax?" Cubs asked.

"Ready and eager Cap'n." the Parrot replied with a brisk nod.

"Good...be ready as soon as the ship appears t' fire th' cannons."

"Aye aye cap'n." Darax moved down to the lower deck to instruct the crew.

"Boson Tiris,"

"Aye cap'n?" the bull turned his big heavy head in Cubs' direction, two bull whips wrapped tightly over his shoulders.

"Keep th' crew inline. We are t' board, kill, and loot. No rape'n till I say so."

"Aye aye cap'n." the boson said with a nod, moving down to the deck below. A shout from

the look-out nest high in the main mast above caught the whole crew's attention suddenly as the small rodent up there called down to them,

"Ship ahoy cap'n! Ship ahoy!" excitement raged through the crew below.

"Ya ‘ere that men?" Cubs shouted to them, "Ship ahoy! Now git t' it!" with a surge, the blood thirsty crew

surged into place. As the merchant vessel appeared around the edge of the cliff face, the cannons on the pirate ship were brought to bear.

"Fire th' cannons!" Cubs shouted. "Fire th' Cannons!" Darax shouted.

"Cannons firing!" The cannon crew shouted. Then the sea erupted in lead.

Below deck, the floor lurched suddenly, throwing Rin into his sister, hard.

"What was that?!" Fi asked in panic. She was about twelve years old, a cute little vixen girl.

Rin shook his head in confusion. He was a small cat boy, about eight, though he was much more emotionally stable then his friend Fi.

"I don't know..." he looked up at his older sister Sara, but she also shook her head. The three kids sat in the

hold of what looked to be a merchant vessel, but in reality was a cleverly disguised slave ship bringing fresh children

to the Indigo shore for sale. Rin, Fi, and Sara were only some of the children on board, ages ranging from six to eighteen years old. The oldest

was Dominic, a big black Doberman boy so strong that he had to be restrained with steel chains. The youngest was Stephy, a little mouse girl of about

six years old who cried constantly.

There was a tremendous boom and splash, and the deck rocked again. The door to the cabin opened and Jason, a seventeen year

old black panther walked in, looking worried. Jason was the self designated father figure of the group of future slaves, keeping their

hopes up and taking care of them. "Everyone alright?!" he asked nervously.

"We're fine Jason," one of the other slaves said, though the sounds of weeping and crying could be heard all over.

"What's going on Jason?" Sara asked. Jason closed the door behind him and walked closer.

"I think the ships under attack..." he said. Another boom rocked the boat. "That's cannon fire." He said confidently.

"Cannons?!" Fi cried. "they'll blow us to bits!" suddenly there was a crash from above, and the sound of running paws, screaming,

howling, laughing, bangs and clangs. Jason looked grimly upwards.

"Someone's just boarded the ship..." he whispered.

Battle erupted all over the merchant slave ship when Cubs' crew boarded. The slavers

were panicked, though they hadn't actually been hit by the cannon fire, and when the blood thirsty

pirates boarded it was all over almost before it began. There was no mercy though. Even the slavers that surrendered

were cut violently to pierce by howling pirates. Cubs strode confidently onto the bloodied deck to survey the carnage.

Silvia was holding one slaver to her chest, arm around the cat's neck, using his own sword to beat another slaver into a corner

as they desperately tried to defend themselves without harming his comrade. She ran him through then broke her prisoner's neck.

Dong the cook was covered in blood, hunched over a screaming canine slaver, hacking him with a bloodied cleaver.

That man made the captain's scales crawl, yet he was a good fighter and an even better cook, disturbing as that was.

Tiris the Boson wasn't even bothering to use his whips, throwing slavers over the side of the ship or breaking their bodies in his powerful arms.

A desperate, frightened man charged at Cubs, cutlass in had. The iguana simply pulled his pistol from the sash about his scaled waist and fired.

The rodent died in a cloud of gunpowder smoke, his momentum carrying him over the side into the water. The fight was short and bloody.

Soon the ship was entirely under pirate control. "The ship is ours Cap'n." reported one of the pirates as he approached them where they were dragging the merchant captain's headless corpse

out of the cabin he had barricaded him self in. the pirate was a sleek, slinky looking ferret, his comrades a pair of heavy, muscular dogs.

"Very good. Where be me First mate?" Cubs asked, looking coldly at the trail of blood leading from the dead captain's body.

"Mister Darax? Last I saw ‘im ‘e was ‘eading below deck." The ferret said. Cubs nodded.

"Very good. Carry on." Cubs walked briskly away to find his first mate.

It wasn't long before he found him, searching the hold of the vessel with a couple other pirates;

Warran, a large draft horse, Maris, a scraggly grey wolf, and Donnagan, a rat. Darax looked up when he heard the captain enter the hold and nodded to him.

"this ships supposed t' be a slave ship in disguise. We're lookin' fer Th' slaves Cap'n." Cubs nodded

"Carry on then Mister Darax. But be quick about it. We best be shipping' off soon."

"Aye aye Cap'n Cubs Sir!" Darax belted out, going back to work with his team searching the hold. Rin and the other would be slaves huddled silently in their hidden chambers deep in the hold of the ship.

They could hear people moving and talking outside, shifting boxes and crates around.

It wasn't until they heard someone named "Mister Darax" say that they were looking for the slaves.

Rin's heart had leapt, thinking wildly that these furs who had attacked and killed their captors were here to save them. Jason shushed them all however.

"No body move..." the panther said softly.

"But why Jason?" Sara asked "they killed the slavers..."

"They don't talk right..." the panther explained "something about the way they string their words together isn't quite right..." he pondered this a moment.

He didn't have long though because at that moment Dominic, chained to his post, lost his patience.

"Screw you Jason." The Doberman barked viciously. "I aint waiting any longer in this hole!"

"Dominic, no!" Jason hissed desperately, but it was no use.

"HEY!" Dominic roared as loud as he could. "OVER HERE!" the noise outside paused, then the movement came closer.

Rin could hear crates being moved aside, then the wall in front of them opened, revealing the rest of the hold and... "Pirates..." Jason said softly.

"Oy! Cap'n! We found th' slaves!" Darax cawed gleefully, sneering out the cowering children before him.

The other pirates with him chuckled, spanning out to block any escape that may have been formulating in the kid's minds

. Captain Cubs turned from the open crate he had been inspecting and walked over to his first mate, grinning widely.

The room was filled with children spanning ages six to eighteen.

The little cat boy directly in front of him was white, with a small brown patch on his forehead, same with a teenaged cat girl standing a few feet behind him.

There was a little grey mouse girl sniffling in the corner, an, aggressive looking panther standing protectively near the front, fur standing on end,

a muscular Doberman chained to a post at the back, and a multitude of other fur children. Cubs grinned.

"‘Ello children. My name's Cap'n Cubs."

"Get me the fuck outta here!" the chained Doberman snarled from his post. Cubs looked inquiringly at Darax.

"Do we allow that sort of talk ‘ere Mister Darax?" Cubs asked sinisterly. "No Cap'n, we don't."

"Well then give the bastard a beating Mister Darax."

"Yes Cap'n," Darax said, not even bothering to mention that it was the boson's job to deal out beatings to insubordinates.

"Take him men." Darax ordered the other men. The pirates pushed violently through the frightened children who rushed hurriedly

to huddle behind the panther boy who pushed them protectively back. The Doberman grinned. The pirates drew their cutlasses and

used them to break the locks on the chains. As soon as the steel chains fell from the Doberman's body, he let out a howling laugh and launched

himself onto the pirates. The two let out a cry of surprise as the big dog landed on them and the brawling began. Cubs and Darax

stood back and watched a look of shock on their faces and the other two pirates cried out in surprise and ran to help their comrades.

After a brief struggle the Doberman stood, bloody cutlass in one hand a loaded pistol in the other, aiming at the second set of pirates

to join the fight. Out of the first, one was clutching his bleeding neck and gasping for air, his throat obviously having been slit by the cutlass,

the other lay unconscious, a bloody lump on his head where the Doberman had bashed in his skull with the butt of the pistol.

"I win." The Doberman snarled viciously. Cubs and Darax glanced at each other, thinking. "What's your name boy?" Cubs asked curiously.

"Dominic." The Doberman replied. Cubs smiled.

"Well, Dominic, how would you like to join my crew..?" Dominic thought for a moment, and then slowly lowered his cutlass and pistol.

He grinned, showing all his teeth.

"Why not?" there was a collective gasp from the other children.

"Dominic, no!" gasped a little raccoon girl near the back of the group.

"You can't do this," snarled the panther, taking a threatening step forward. Dominic pushed him violently backwards.

"Fuck you Jason. Worry about yourself and your "kids". I worry about me, I couldn't care less about the rest of you." He turned back to Cubs and Darax.

"I want to join your crew."

"Good!" Cubs laughed happily, his frill swaying. "First assignment matey, take these slaves prisoner and drag ‘em above deck." Dominic grinned viciously.

"Gladly Cap'n..."

"You bastard!" the panther, Jason, cried, launching himself at Dominic.

"Stop him!" shouted Darax. In an instant the two remaining pirates leapt at Jason, smashing him in the head with a pistol handle and wrestling him to the ground. "Get them outta ‘ere..." Cubs said coldly, turning and walking away.

Rin and the others were forcibly moved from the hold in the base of the ship to the upper deck.

The whole ship was filled with the dead bodies of slavers, pools of blood, and pirates dragging loot and bodies back to another, larger ship.

A huge bull with a pair of large whips stood at the edge of a boarding ramp between the ships, over seeing the transport of loot to the pirate ship.

"This is Tiris, the Boson of my crew." The big scaly iguana said, turning his long head to regard Dominic, who was dragging a little lemur girl Rin didn't know.

"Mister Tiris, this is Dominic, our new crewmate." The bull nodded at Dominic and allowed them to pass onto the ship.

"What's going on Jason?" Fi asked the bruised panther nervously.

"We've just been made slaves to pirates..." he said softly, looking darkly at the Doberman.