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"We're sinking."

Clear seawater gently but persistently lapped over the side of the tiny sail boat and swirled around the legs of its occupants. The smaller of the two, a white rabbit named Sidney, tried to avoid his companion's glaring yellow eyes by unnecessarily adjusting the main sail. Sidney knew they were sinking. His little skiff was only designed to carry one or two regular sized sailors, not giant, thousand pound crocodiles.

"We need a bigger boat," growled Tooth, the crocodile, as he tossed another bucket load of water overboard in a half hearted and meaningless gesture. They had both given up trying to to bail out the water some time ago. Sidney weighed up pointing out to his reptilian partner that it was his immense weight that was causing the skiff to ride so low in the water, but decided against it. After all, his new friend could easily snap him in half like a twig if he so desired. Sidney gulped at the thought.

"I know, Tooth," said the rabbit calmly. "But all we can do now is keep sailing forward." The crocodile grunted in response and stared out to the horizon.

A nervous knot was starting to form in the pit of Sidney's stomach. Tooth was a hard man to read, and his normally terrifying visage was curled into even more of a scowl than usual. The rabbit was worried that their already tenuous friendship was beginning to strain and fray. This was not a great surprise to Sidney, as the two had formed an unlikely partnership during a daring escape from a pirate fort only a few hours earlier. Hardly the appropriate time to get to know one another. Either way, Sidney was starting to concern for his safety, not knowing if, or when, the crocodile would turn violent out of pure boredom. He could probably get away from the beast if they were on land, but there was no way the rabbit could hope to outswim a croc, even one of Tooth's enormous size.

A loud gurgle drew Sidney's attention from his thoughts. Tooth frowned and rubbed his thick gut as it rumbled. Wonderful, Sidney thought. Now I can add becoming lunch to my immediate concerns. He tried to focus on keeping a straight course and trimming the sails to catch as much wind as possible. They just needed a bit more luck. They just needed a...

"Ship!" Tooth called. Sidney's head snapped around in surprise.

"Really? Where?"

"Port side. About six miles." Sidney followed the croc's pointed finger and squinted.

"I can't see her colours from here," he muttered. "But she's our best shot for now. Tooth, if you would be so kind as to start bailing water? Let's gather as much speed as we can and see if we can't close that gap!" Hope started to needle at Sidney's mind, although it would likely be optimism rather than a sail full of wind that fueled their chase.

Tooth was glad to be working his bored muscles again, emptying bucket after bucket of water back into the ocean. They only gained a tiny fraction of speed from the bailed water but it was noticeable enough to drive him to work the bucket faster, despite more water splashing back into the skiff.

"Mind your head!" Sidney called as he tacked across the wind, aiming the skiff directly at the lone ship. Tooth ducked low beneath the swinging boom and shifted to the starboard side. He stared at the ship. It was definitely getting closer.

"She's French," Tooth called back to Sidney as he spied the red, white and blue stripes. "And heading in our direction."

"Perfect," said Sidney as a mischievous smile spread wide across his muzzle. He had run into the French only once before some years ago, and had won an expertly crafted rapier from the encounter that now hung proudly from his leather belt. It had certainly been an interesting and profitable adventure at the time.

The skiff was still only travelling at minimal speed due to the excessive weight, but the French vessel was going a good fifteen knots and would be upon them in minutes. Sidney wondered if they were heading towards the little skiff for a purpose, or if it was pure coincidence and the French sailors simply wanted to gawk at the two idiots floundering in a tiny sinking boat.

They could see now that it was only a small schooner, the perfect vessel for transporting cargo from island to island. And probably only manned by five or six crewmen, Sidney thought, a plan starting to brew inside his head.

"Tooth, let off the jib, we're going to let her come to us," he said, letting the main sail out, causing them to lose wind and slow down to nearly a stop. Tooth gave him a quizzical frown, but complied.

"Am I right in assuming that you are a good swimmer?" he asked the crocodile while removing his red bandana from his neck and tying it over his head and long ears.

"Yeah."

"Excellent. I have an idea."

* * *

Shouts and calls of "Arrêter!" carried over the water as the French schooner slowed and came alongside the abandoned and drifting little skiff. One of the crewmen had sworn he had seen at least two sailors castaway on the sad little boat and had convinced the captain to extend some charity to the poor souls. But as they slowly floated past the skiff it was plain to see that no one was aboard. The captain glared at the crewman whose eyes sunk down in embarrassment.

"Sacrebleu, Henri! Arrêtez de gaspiller notre temps!" the captain shouted angrily before yelling at the rest of the crew to get back to work. No one saw the dark shape that moved swiftly under the water and around to the opposite side of the schooner.

Sidney gasped in huge lungfuls of air as he surfaced just next to the port side of the French schooner. Tooth's head surfaced just below him, the rabbit having held tightly onto the croc's shoulders during their swim. Tooth looked to Sidney who nodded. He grabbed the rabbit around the torso with two hands and heaved, launching the rabbit into the air. Sidney reached out with nimble paws and caught the side of the ship near the very top. He glanced down briefly to see Tooth slowly climbing his way up the ship.

Sidney peeked over the side and saw four sailors dressed in matching smart dress coats and white leggings. One of the crew, a ferret, was getting a loud verbal thrashing from a wolf in a fancy hat that had to be the captain. The other two, boars, were pretending to pull sheets while they listened and snickered at the captain's abuse.

"I thought there'd be more," the rabbit muttered under his breath. He pulled his wooden blowpipe from his back and readied a sleeping dart. He prayed the leather pouch had protected the poison laced darts from his swim. If not then they would be forced to take a more violent approach to taking the ship, something that the rabbit always prefered to avoid if possible.

The two boars smirked at each other as their captain hurled more insults at the poor ferret. Suddenly, one of them slapped his shoulder and grunted in pain. He wobbled for a few seconds, trying to blink a haze out of his eyes, and then fell unconscious to the deck. His partner squealed in surprise and scanned the side of the ship just in time to see a rabbit's head aim a long stick at him, before a sharp pain in his throat suddenly made him woozy.

The boar fell onto a crate with a loud crash, drawing the attention of the captain and the ferret who looked around in panic. Sidney quickly stowed his blowpipe, leaped over the wooden rail onto the deck of the ship, and drew his elegant rapier.

"Surrender now and I'll allow you to live!" the small rabbit shouted, brandishing his sword and making it glitter in the hot sun. The captain simply shouted back in French, drew his own sword and ordered the ferret to do the same, before marching angrily at the rabbit. There was a loud thud as Tooth leapt over the side and joined Sweet on the deck, pulling out both his heavy cutlass and blunderbuss. The wolf captain paused, a nervous twitch passing through his eye.

"Do as he says," Tooth rumbled. "Swords on the ground. Now! Or I'll tear your heads off!"

The French captain did not understand a word Tooth had shouted, but he knew a threat when he heard one. Especially when facing down a monster of a crocodile who was obviously a bloodthirsty pirate.

"Déposez votre épée," he ordered the ferret. He obeyed, placing his sword carefully on the ground with the wolf's. Sidney shot the captain a very unfriendly smile, more than a little miffed that they had surrendered to Tooth, and not him. Although that was probably to be expected, he thought.

"Alright my frog-eating friends," he announced, pacing around the deck and swinging his sword around him, pausing by the hatch to the hold. "The ship is now ours. You can either-" Sidney was cut off when the hatch suddenly burst open and a weasel sprung from the hold, wrapping his arm tightly around the rabbit's throat and steadily holding a sharp dagger under his chin. Sidney's sword fell to the deck with a clatter. Tooth turned and pointed his blunderbuss at the weasel, but his arm wavered. The damn Frenchman was using Sweet as a shield. Sidney choked and gasped for air, his eyes bugging out at the strong arm around his neck and Tooth's giant gun pointed directly at him.

"Écume de pirate!" the weasel screamed, and followed with more words the two pirates did not understand.

"Let him go!" Tooth snarled. The weasel shouted something else, and pressed the dagger harder against the soft flesh under Sidney's chin, forcing the rabbit to tilt his head or risk getting skewered. Narrowing his yellow eyes, Tooth grabbed the captain with his powerful hands, and pushed his blunderbuss against the whimpering wolf's face. Nervousness crept into the weasel's eyes, his demands sounding a little less forceful, but he still did not release the rabbit. Tooth snarled and jammed the barrel of his oversized pistol into the mouth of the wolf, the metal of the gun scraping painfully against his teeth.

"Let him go. Or you'll be scrubbing the deck with your captain's face," Tooth growled quietly. Dagger hand shaking, the weasel's eyes darted from Tooth's piercing glare to the whimpering captain, panic spreading further into his brain and making him sweat. The crocodile jerked the gun inside the terrified wolf's mouth, chipping teeth and making him gag and whine. Finally the weasel quickly pulled the dagger away and let the rabbit go, stepping back with his paws in the air. Tooth threw the captain to the ground in a quivering heap. Rubbing his throat, Sidney coughed twice then turned and kneed the weasel hard in the stomach. The weasel doubled over and Sidney took his chance to deliver a swift punch that knocked him to the ground. He picked up his rapier, stood over the weasel and pointed the blade at his throat. The weasel shook in pain and fear, and stared up the shining blade that hovered barely an inch from his heaving neck. Sidney glowered with anger and hate, as he held the sword with an eerie steadiness. But eventually he sheathed his sword.

"You're lucky the rest of my day has been relatively profitable," Sidney muttered to the weasel, and then kicked him twice in the ribs for good measure. He looked at Tooth and nodded in thanks. That was the second time that the croc had saved the rabbit's life. At this rate, I'm going to have to start keeping tally, he thought.

"Alright," Sidney said, dusting himself off. "Let's get you fellows into something a little more comfortable. We don't want any more trouble."

A few minutes and several lengths of rope later, the five French sailors were tied up by their wrists and ankles, and kneeling on the deck of the ship. Even the two boars were now awake and seriously confused as to what had happened on their little ship.

"Now that you're all settled, I unfortunately have some bad news," Sidney announced, striding about in front of his prisoners. Tooth sat by the main mast in the shade, and simply kept an eye on them. The two pirates were very happy with their prize. A quick check of the hold had revealed, along with no other surprise crewman, a sizable cargo of sugar as well as a small crate of fresh oranges, another of dried fish, and two nearly full barrels of rum. Tooth and Sweet had immediately lay claim to a barrel of rum each, and agreed to split the sale of the sugar in half, as soon as they found a port to sell it at. Unfortunately, this had revealed a new problem.

"My friend and I don't particularly want to look after prisoners, but we feel it very unsportsman-like to just kill you. So we're just going to set you adrift on my old skiff," he paused for a second and placed his paw over his heart, smiling, "My gift to you. With any luck and a bit of wind you'll come upon an island or get picked up by the Spanish or someone. However! Me and my large friend cannot pilot this lovely ship on our own, so we need a volunteer to remain behind and help man the sails." Sidney stopped pacing and faced the defeated crew. "Any takers?"

The French sailors looked back and forth amongst each other with confused faces, muttering "Je ne comprends pas." Sidney could at least understand the shrugs and blank stares he was getting.

"Does anybody here speak English? Comprenday see-voo-play?" Sidney asked loudly, his arms spread wide. The rabbit's grasp of the French language was about as nuanced and solid as a handful of wet mud.

"Oui, er, yes," came a nervous voice. Sidney turned to look at the young ferret. "Small English," he stuttered.

"I hope you are referring to your linguistic skills," said Sidney with a grin. The Frenchman stared at him.

"Quoi? Please be speaking slowly?"

The rabbit sighed, and heard Tooth chuckle behind him. Sidney leaned over the ferret and, in the great British tradition of addressing foreigners, spoke very slowly and loudly, waving his paws around in what he hoped were appropriate and helpful gestures.

"All of you... The crew, French, sailors... Are going in the little boat, overboard, in the water. One of you... one, un... stays here with us, on the ship. Helps us sail to port, land."

The young Frenchman thought for a second, but then nodded and repeated what Sidney hopped was the right message back to his shipmates. The crew didn't look happy with what they heard and started to argue amongst themselves with the ferret, the unfortunate bearer of bad news, copping a lot of anger and shouted abuse.

"Hey, hey! Shut it!" Sidney shouted. Tooth stood and took a few big steps towards them. The crew fell silent. Sidney glared at them. "Who stays here?" He held up a single finger. "One of you, un, stays. Help sail."

The sailors looked silently back and forth between each other, none of them wishing to have anything more to do with the pirates. Eventually, the wolf captain barked an order at the ferret, whose face fell in open mouthed horror. But the young sailor got to his feet.

"I sail," he stammered, his whole body quivering. Sidney smiled and clapped him on the arm.

"Good man. Now what's your name, lad? Name? Nombre?"

"Je m'appelle Henri. Uh, Henri is my name," said the ferret, pointing at his own chest.

"Welcome aboard Henri, my name is Sidney Sweet. Now I need you to help my good friend Tooth with the rigging." Sidney pushed Henri towards the crocodile, making him stumble and bump against the massive stomach. The ferret looked up at the eight foot tall beast.

"Please no hurt!" Henri squeaked.

Tooth grinned. "I'll be gentle."