User blog:Brushfen the Wanderer/Break of Day

Prologue
It were a dark and moonless night and wild were the weather, as it always is in these kind of tales. The rigging whipped and sang as the small vessel ploughed through the restless seas and the rain poured so thickly a beast couldn't see his paws in front of his face! It was on this ship, the Iron Queen that seventeen souls kept counsel among themselves in the dim light of a flickering lantern belowdecks.
 * "Weren't for the rain I'd have me a clear viewin of the lay of the seas and if there be land, cullies!"

Said the lookout, a right weathered looking feller, a hedgehog by species.
 * "What'll we do now, mates?"

Asked a young otter lad.
 * "Just sit tight an wait for the seas to calm. We've battened the hatches and locked the doors, so every beast to his bunk! All exceptin you three!"

Said the strong otter captain, pointing out two otters and a squirrel.
 * "Into me cabin and there we'll talk of our mission"

Gredd, the young otter who had before spoke settled into his bunk that dark, fearsome night. He thought of his home, Oh! how he wished to be back under his father's roof! Snug in his bed! But he had joined up with this salty crew, running away from home and toward what he imagined would be great adventures! So far there had just been cleaning of bilges and swabbing the decks and days of seasickness. The crew jeered at him for that, because he was an otter, by golly! This youngbeast had never set foot in the sea before or upon a ship's deck, so he wasn't accustomed to it at all. The first few weeks were hard enough for him, and they got a little better when he gained his sea legs, but the older members of the crew expected him to do everything! 'Learnin the ropes' they said. He sighed as he lay on his back, lulled by the constant rocking and creaking of the ship he now called his home, but his thoughts were far from there.

In the night, the sea calmed, but that was the least of their worries. When the fog and rains cleared, they could see clearly against the cold night... a hulking great ship with four masts and painted solid black with a blood red scar along its hull! If there were anybeast abovedecks, they would have warned the crew. They would have swung the ship around and sped away, before the great ship's evil crew spotted them! But everybeast was belowdecks, snug in their beds but for the captain, who pored over documents and plans with his three close friends. No one saw, and so, no one knew...