User blog:Ferretmaiden/Zaroc book 1. the beginning

Lightning flashed across the black moonless night and thunder cracked the earth with an ear shattering roar. The crew of the Stormhawk was below deck sleeping the storm away. Not like that would help, Zaroc thought. He stood on deck and let the rain wash his face of the grime and grit which had collected on his body all the seasons on deck. With him was his only friend, a tall, slender, dark furred young rat, whose name was Darktan. Zaroc turned his face to Darktan. “You’re the best at predicting the weather, when do you think the rain will stop?” Darktan faced the place where he surmised the moon would be, and shook his head miserably. “Hard to say cap’n, but it would probably be best to lie low until it clears.” The young ferret grinned cheekily at his friend “Lie? I was hoping we could tell the truth for once.” The rat tweaked his friend’s ear playfully and was about to start a wrestling match on the ship, when an ear splitting boom knocked the two young beasts flat. They both pulled themselves up and gasped. The ship was on fire!!!!! Downstairs the crew was scrabbling to the door to see what had happened, but before they could do much else the boat crashed into some rocks and the mast broke off and fell on the crew’s cabin, blocking the door so they could not get out. But two creatures had fallen over board. Captain Zaroc and first mate Darktan.

Chapter 2. Zaroc lifted his head with a groan. He looked up and stared around him. Where was Darktan? There he was, pressed in between those two rocks. He raced across the sandy beach toward his friend. The sun was peeking through the clouds. Dawn had come shedding new light and chasing the fears of last night away.All the hope and peace of the end of a storm was wasted on Zaroc as he raced to help his friend. He could not lose his only friend after what had happened to his sister. Memories flashed through his mind: the pains of the torture instruments on his flesh. The sobs his sister gave every time he screamed in agony. Being tied to a tree and watching the vermin stab his sister. The feeling of whips hit him as he screamed his sister’s name, over, and over. “whitepaw! Whitepaaaaaawww” he pried his friend from the rocks, sobbing as he tried to get his friend breathing and the memories engulfing him. Darktan sat up coughing and then went rigid with shock “wholy-!?” Zaroc whirled around and gasped. The biggest mountain he’d ever seen was looming over them from the shoreline. A sound of footpaws from behind them got their attention. The last thing the two of them saw when they turned around was a score of hares when one of them brought his club crashing down on their heads, sending them into blackness.