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Shuffling of heavy bedsheets and little foot pads across the room drag Jason back from his slow descent into sleep. His ears swivel a little at the sound of the heavy lock on the crew's quarters door being set into place followed by silence.

Just as the feline's heavy eyelids begin to cast over his eyes again, his bedsheets are shuffled and a fuzzy little wolf cuddles up to him. He turns to his side and wraps his arms around Nick while nuzzling the top of the little wolf's fuzzy head between his pointy ears. Nick wraps his arms around Jason and the two shipmates settle back down.

"Sorry... I just don't want to be alone tonight." Nick half mumbles into the panther's neck. Jason wraps his legs and tail around the little wolf.

"S'okay."

Cuddling closer together, the two shipmates breathe in each other's scent and breathe out in tune with the soft sigh of the sea.

-The next morning-

Light and fuzzy dreams give way to a sudden crashing sound that rocks the entire crew's quarters and sends Jason's pleasant dream shattering into a million pieces, forcing him back to a suddenly alert and dazed reality. Nick had also been rocked awake in Jason's arms and perks his ears up as his heavy lidded eyes quickly dart around the room to orient himself.

"Wha..." Nick's sleepy, cracking voice is interrupted by sudden yelling and heavy footsteps coming from the main deck. None of the voices are from Jason's parents and both shipmates look at each other in confusion and fear for a moment until another crashing sound accompanied with a sudden and hard jerk almost makes them fall out of the top bunk and onto the hard wood floor below.

"LET ME GO!" The screaming voice of Jason's mother rings clear from above and the young panther instantly leaps from the covers and over Nick to the floor below. Barely taking a step, he crashes through the crew's quarters door and sprints to the stairs leaving Nick fumbling to get off the top bunk and slip pants on.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Jason's father can now be heard shortly before a loud gun blast followed by a loud roar. Nick can hear scuffling above deck as he runs to the bottom of the stairs and stops dead in his tracks when he hears Jason's voice roaring back at whomever is up there.

"LET MY MOTHER GO!" Jason's growling voice shouts out again followed by the ragged and deep laughter of at least ten or fifteen others above deck.

"Look, take what you want -huff huff- just leave my family alone!." Jason's father shouts out, seemingly out of breath.

Instinct pushes Nick to take a couple steps up to attempt to save them but fear grips hard to his ankles as he hears one of the deep voices cackle above.

"We take what we want, boy!" The strangely accented voice states with a hint of malice.

Another surge of courage gets Nick a few more steps before he is stopped by another roar belonging to Jason and a sudden scuffle.

"LET HER GO!" The young panther roars amidst the scuffling.

"Shut him up!" That deep voice yells out again followed by a loud 'CLACK' and the scuffling stops. Nick finally gets a few steps from the top deck and peeks from the darkness. Jason lays unconsious on the deck with a tall, lanky looking dragon standing above him holding a rifle.

"NO!" Jason's mother screams and tries to struggle out of the grip of at least three other dragons all wearing various ragged and weather worn clothes. Just as Nick tries to gather up another surge of courage and step up on deck, a very large, black dragon steps just in front of the open doorway to the stairs below deck. Facing away from the dark doorway where the shaking little wolf remains hidden, the leather clad dragon slashes his huge tail across the deck and slaps it against the wall. A metallic jingle drew Nick's attention to the end of the scarred tail where golden rings are rung through piercings in the tough hide.

"Where is it?" The pirate captain, Nick assumed from his commanding demeanor and iconically large hat with horns piercing through it at odd angles, demands while stepping toward Jason's father whom is being held to the floor now.

"Look, just take what you want! Please leave my family alone. The gold is in the captain's quarter's down below... below the bottom drawer, far right side." He said, whining out the last bit pitifully.

"I want the map! Where is it!" The pirate captain shouts as he stomps across the deck and swiftly kicks Jason's father in the gut, sending him reeling across the deck and curling up in pain. His wife screams again for them to stop and struggles uselessly against the larger, scaly males holding her.

"Tell me where it is or you get to watch her die." The black dragon growls as he grabs the coughing elder panther and yanks his head up by his headfur and points it towards his wife. One of the dragons holding her, a muscled brown dragon wearing little more than a pair of tattered jeans and a leather belt slung over his shoulder with a sheathed machete, pulls the blade out and holds it to her neck.

"It's with the gold! Just please! -cough cough- let us go!" Jason's father screams, coughing up a little blood in the process.

Terror takes hold in Nick's chest and almost pushes a yip out of him as he realizes that the map isn't there anymore. His and Jason's late night pirate play shenanigans were going to be the cause of the elder female panther's death. As quietly as he could, the little wolf sneaks back down the stairs and towards the crew's quarters.

"Sir!" A shorter dragon wearing square framed glasses and a leather vest turns the attention on the deck to him as he comes clamoring up the boarding ramp that was tossed over onto the rails of the sail boat from the weather worn looking tug boat now lazily bumping up against it.

"Sir! Coms are lighting up. Coast guard wants to know what our cargo is." He pauses to look at the struggling female panther and the unconsious youth on the deck before looking back to the grinning captain as he roughly lets go of the other elder panther he was holding and steps towards the communications officer. The shorter dragon tries not to show it, but the intimidating aura of the larger male makes him shrink away a little as the big, black scaly stops just in front of him and swishes his jingling tail behind him.

"Derelict ship. We're salvaging today boys!" He yells as he turns to his ragtag crew. They all laugh and shout as some of them start to spread out and crack open some of the storage boxes on the top deck.

"No! Pillage later! We need to get this oversized dingy hooked up to the tow line! Those annoying little waterbugs will be out here soon enough if we don't get moving. They get suspicious easily." He growls to his crew. They all immediately stop and go about retrieving towing supplies from the tug ship and hooking it up to the Spanish sailing ship. Turning back to his communication officer, he grins again.

"Just give 'em a smoke screen number from the books. We need to get by until we get farther south." The smaller male nods and quickly stumbles his way back across the boarding ramp to the idling tug boat. With a chuckle, the pirate captain turns to Jason's father.

"Alright now, boy. We're going to show you what happens to those who get in our way! Boys! Take this wretch down to the hurt locker!" As commanded, two of the scaled hooligans grip the still coughing elder panther and begin dragging him towards the boarding ramp along with an unconsious Jason in the arms of another large black dragon and finally Jason's mother still kicking and screaming between three more scalies.

Leaving his crew to deal with hooking up the tow line, the captain makes his way down below deck and towards the captain's quarters, his jingling tail bouncing off each step as he descends into the dimly lit corridor. After helping himself to some of the food left on the counter from the breakfast the two elder panthers were enjoying before they were boarded, the black scaly spits some of it out onto the floor as he makes his way down towards the stern of the ship.

Slowly creaking the door to the captain's quarters open, the first thing he notices is the faint smell of something burning. Eyes widening, he suddenly kicks the heavy door open, nearly smashing it to pieces against the wall next to it, and draws his large revolving pistol. Inside the room he notices a candle holder with a few candles, still lit, had been knocked off the large dresser adjacent to the rather plush looking bed and were smoldering the treated wood floor a little.

Figuring it was from bumping against the ship, he grunts as he slips the pistol back into it's holster and picks up the candles. Using them as a torch, the captain steps in front of the dresser and reaches down to begin pulling the bottom drawers out in search of the gold and precious map he was promised. Frustration mounts as he pulls out all of the bottom drawers and finds nothing.

"EERRAAGHH!" He shouts as he kicks the bottom of the dresser and breaks the wood there, gold coins spilling out over his scaled foot. Quickly finding the false bottom of the dresser, the big black scaly opens it up and peers inside. Sitting atop a pile of gold coins, jewels and various precious jewelry, is the long box containing the map.

"Haha ha!" Bellows the captain as he pulls out the box and holds it up.

"Finally! You're mine."

It was at about the time the black dragon was running a claw over the latch of the box that he notices the very fresh and distinct scent of wolf musk and pauses, slitted eyes thinning for a moment. Casually, he sets the candle holder back down on the dresser with the map box, walks over to the door and closes it. Still in the room, the scaly draws his revolver again and turns to face the room with a chuckle.

"Fear has a very potent flavor you know." He states with a little growl as he begins slowly walking towards the middle of the room.

"You stink of it!" The dragon yells as he slaps his large tail against the dresser, almost knocking the candles over again. An almost inaudible whimper sounds from under the large bed and the pirate captain grins as he steps towards it.

"Sleep little child, rest your head-" He begins in a deep, creepy lullaby tune as he circles around to the side of the bed.

"See the nightmares, fangs painted red-"

Underneath the bed, Nick grips hard to the wood framework holding up the mattress and does everything he can to force his body to not hyperventilate from fear and keep his lithe body pressed up against the underside of the bed and off the floor.

"Run if you can, scream if you dare-" The captain stops right next to the bed and looks down at it, continuing his disturbing lullaby.

"For I am the one hidden under your bed, the bloody nightmare!" He shouts as he grips one end of the bed frame and lifts it up off the floor. Momentary confusion washes over his scaly face as he points his large revolver at bare floor.

The subtle vibration from Nick's body involuntarily shaking with fear is what prompted the captain to lift the bed up a little farther and peek under the frame.

"A stowaway eh?" He growls at the shaking little wolf.

"Please don't kill me!" Nick pleads, unable to bring himself to let go of the bed frame or look at the dragon captain.

"What were you doing in here boy?" Nick doesn't answer but, instead, cringes away as if it would make him disappear into the bed frame. Annoyed, the captain shakes the bed a little.

"Off, boy! Now!" Jolted by the large dragon's commanding voice, Nick drops off the bed and backs away against the wall as the captain drops the bed back down to the floor.

Glancing from the large revolver to the big scalie's toothy grin, Nick flattens his back against the wall.

"Answer me boy! What were you doing in here."

"H-hiding! Just hiding. I d-didn't want to g-get caught." Nick trembles as he speaks and sinks down the wall a little bit.

"Well, no need to hide now, boy! Why don't we go up and say hi to everyone?" The captain cackles as he slowly rounds the bed towards Nick, still holding the revolver to prevent the little wolf from escaping over the bed.

"W-wh-what d-do you wa-want with us?" Nick yips out as he stumbles backwards against the corner to try to further distance himself from the large black dragon closing in on him. For a moment, he contemplates trying to escape under the bed but doesn't get the chance to complete the thought as another dragon enters the bedroom.

The tall, slightly thinner brown dragon steps in the doorway holding a large, curved Kukri knife.

"Cap'n, we're just about ready. Tow line is set."

"Good! Take this stowaway to my quarters." The captain states as he slides his revolver back into it's home on his belt and walks back over to the dresser to retrieve the map box.

"Why don't you just let us go!" The little wolf screams at the captain as he walks past the other dragon and out of the room. The sudden outburst, fueled in part by adrenaline and the image of Jason unconsious on the upper deck, surprises Nick but he gathers himself again and growls at the approaching scaly whom he recognizes as the one that knocked Jason out earlier.

"Now, now little one. Wouldn't want to struggle and get cut would we?" The larger male chuckles as he approaches Nick with the knife.

Nick flinches as he struggles to overpower his drive to flee for fear of being sliced in two by the heavy looking knife the grinning pirate dragon was wielding. Instead, he curls up in the corner, closes his eyes and begins whimpering a little, hoping that the dragon would take pity on him and let him go.

No such luck.

Nick yips as the dragon grabs him by the arm and yanks the poor little wolf off the floor and practically drags him, struggling and growling, across the room to the door.

Above deck, Nick can hear the other pirates hooting and howling as they get ready to tow the Spanish sailing ship off to whatever fate their captain sees fit. As the little wolf and his captor emerge from below deck and make their way through the commotion to the boarding ramp between the two ships, Nick glares at the big black pirate captain whom stands by the ramp waiting for them.

"Welcome aboard, little one. Don't worry, we have use for you." The captain grins ahead of them as they make their way across the ramp and to the tug boat. Once the last of the pirate crew hopped across the ramp, the large length of wood is lifted away.

Thick black smoke plumes out of the exhaust stack as the tug chugs to life and churns ahead of the sailing ship. A sharp tug confirms that the towing line set by the pirate crew holds fast as they begin their journey to where, Nick didn't know. The fear and gravity of the situation suddenly overwhelms him as the large brown dragon, still holding his arm, tugs him to a dark doorway.

Below deck of the loud tug boat, some of the other pirate dragons growl and snicker at the little wolf as he is led through a narrow corridor towards the bow of the ship by the thinner brown dragon, whom Nick gathers, from some of the other dragons talking to him, is called Naera. Upon reaching the furthest door to the bow, Naera opens the door and tosses Nick inside, whom stumbles and lands on his tail.

"Your cap'n will be with you shortly. Don't move or touch anything or you're fish bait!"

With that, Naera leaves, shutting the large metal door behind him and leaving Nick in the dull glow cast over the room from the fancy looking mini chandelier lazily swinging above him. The first thing the little wolf notices is the heavy, musky scent of dragon followed by the realization that the room is filled with what looks like museum artifacts. Still in a daze and trying to deal with the reality that he and the panther family had been abducted by a bunch of dragon pirates posing as a tug salvage crew, Nick lurches forward both to catch himself from a shipwide jerk and forced by his body from an urge to puke. All these sudden and violent events had sent his mind into a spiral and he began to feel faint.

The loud 'clack' of the door handle as the pirate captain finally enters the room jolted Nick back out of his sickened daze and he stumbles backwards away from the big black scaly only to run into a wall adorned in various spears and sharp instruments hanging above him. Prompted by the sound of the deadly wind chimes clanking around above him, Nick looks up and gasps at the sight of so many blades seemingly aimed at him.

"What's the matter, boy? You look like you've seen a ghost."

The captain's voice seemed like it was coming from another room; fuzzy and almost incoherent. The edges of the little wolf's vision began to blur into blackness as he looked back down at the dragon captain. Before the fuzzy blackness overtook his vision, Nick could have swore he saw black ink lines like those on the map creeping from behind the pirate captain through the doorway and snaking towards him before he lost consciousness and passed out.