Blood & Carrots - Silverpaw Ep. 04

"Look Sarnai... I know you are excited about this sort of thing, but this could be a big issue. What if we-"

"Take her? Oh, I was thinking the same thing, my lady," I cooed the words and showed my teeth in a hungry grin, still staring upon the galleon on the horizon.

Lorelai bleated out, "What? Take her how?"

I cocked my brow and grinned. "Are you a good swimmer?"

"Well... yes, I love swimming. I've had to flee sinking ships a few times in the ocean actually." She folded her arms in thought.

"May I take the lead for a moment?" I showed her an excited grin.

The sheep put her hands on her hips and frowned. "Fine sister, you know more about this than I do. I will follow your lead."

I quickly made my way through the ship and gathered all of our newfound family members. Counting Lorelai there were fourteen of us in total. I put my hands on my hips and gave them all an appraising grin. "Alright brothers and sisters. We've got the church coming for us in that mighty big ship off in the distance. She will no doubt sink us in one volley too."

They all murmured to themselves and I wagged a finger. "It's a fine ship though. I say the church doesn't deserve such a beauty, and I aim to have her for our own." I showed my teeth and thrust my hand out. "Those bastards cost us your former lord and now they mean to sink the lot of us and finish the job. Are we going to stand for that?"

I heard several of them snarl and spit out curses. I growled and clenched my fists. "I'm sorry, I thought house Silverpaw was full of strong brave warriors, not kits. I'll ask only once more... Will we show the church what fore, or will you belly up and whimper like pups!"

They all shouted their curses and agreeance towards me. I showed them a proud grin. "That's more like it!" I thrust my hand out towards the approaching ship and thrashed my tail around excitedly.

"They will be on us within the hour, but I say we don't give them the chance. Those that are confident in your swimming, join me and we simply swim out to them. We'll take them by surprise before they know what hit them." I showed them all another hungry grin. "There will likely be sixty or so on board, quite a feast would you all not agree?"

"Sarnai, can a group our size man a ship that size?" Lorelai asked me curiously.

I nodded. "It will be difficult but we're only half a day from Ceuta, we should be fine if everyone follows my command. I've already explained the situation to the captain of this ship."

"Wait, you told the captain what we are?" She gave me a shocked look.

"Don't be absurd. I explained that the church is obviously going to board us thinking we're fugitives or smugglers. The Spanish acolytes have a reputation in these waters of being cruel, so it didn't take much convincing to get him to agree. We will take the ship and some of their crew will help us man it until we get to port." I wagged my tail furiously now, feeling the excitement build within me.

"Well you're the one in charge, so tell us what to do, right my family?" Lorelai spoke out to the small group before me, all of them cheering and nodding at me.

"Got it! Those of you that know how to swim in the angry sea, you're with me. The others take one of the skiffs. Silverpaw is about to be the proud new owner of a Spanish Galleon!" I barked the orders out sharply as my makeshift crew formed and we all armed ourselves.

"You're, really into this, Sarnai." Lorelai yelled out to me from the stern of the ship as we stood there with six others. The rest were already in a skiff and lowering to the water. The Spanish ship was now nearly atop us, she would be within firing distance within half an hour or less.

I gave her a wide grin and nodded, then called out to all those near me. "Remember, we're not mundane. I want no sniveling or excuses, the church has cost us dearly and it's time we paid them back!"

I jumped onto the railing and shoved my fist into the air. "For Ra's and for Silverpaw!" I barked the words out and the others parroted my words as I simply fell backward, arms spread wide as I plunged into the black salty water below.

Thankfully, the family member that was manning the small skiff was an experienced fisherman that frequented the ocean currents in his mundane life, so the small band on the boat easily navigated with us through the rolling angry waves. Lorelai was right beside me as we swam on a collision course for the galleon. An assault like this was the last thing they expected, so they didn't even have any spotting lanterns on the waters to detect our approach.

My heart was pounding as I grabbed hold of one of the portholes as the large ship dipped into the water and I went down with it before coming up once more. A sailor below the deck saw me and gave a horrified look before scrambling out of sight. I giggled as my eyes flashed red and scurried up the side of the ship.

Saber in hand I came over the side soaking wet and ran the nearest soldier through with my sword in a surprise attack. Lorelai launched onto the deck right behind me, easily taking the head off one acolyte with a sweeping slash of her sword. The sheep then grabbed another by the head and plunged her teeth deep into his throat. She pulled deeply from the soldier before throwing his half drained body to the ocean below.

Heartbeats later over a dozen vampires were swarming the deck of the ship. Death came quick and ruthless as we tore the acolytes apart, feeding as well as cutting our way through the ship mercilessly.

I showed my bloody teeth as I kicked the door to the cabin open, my eyes widening as I saw the captain standing there with a flintlock pistol drawn upon me. He fired and I jerked my head to the side with supernatural speed, the small iron ball flying past my cheek. I set my saber as he fumbled to reload his gun. "I offer you the chance to say your prayers to your gods with your final moments, but if you wish to spend it reloading, that is your choice."

He gave me a shocked look before he shook his head, dropping his gun and clasping his hands together. I gave him a few moments as he said a prayer for himself and his crew. Then I was atop him and snatched his head to the side baring his throat. "Who says I'm not a merciful vixen? Go to your gods..." I plunged my fangs into his throat and drank deeply of him.

The last of the bodies were cast into the angry sea and I met my new family at the deck all of us covered in blood and looking satisfied with all the feeding. "She's all ours my family, let's get her to port!" I shouted the words and raised my bloody saber to the air, my brothers and sisters cheering at our victory.

"What are you going to do now, Captain Sarnai?" Lorelai hummed the words playfully as we both leaned against the railing at the bow of the ship, seeing the port of Ceuta coming into view.

I grinned childishly and shook my head. "I would like to say we can take this beauty and go wage war on the church, but... well, she's one ship and a big one at that." I gave a shrug. "Ceuta is a neutral port more or less. We will strip her down and sell her and the cannons off. It will fetch a very pretty penny for the family."

"And so ends the career of the Silverpaw pirates?" Lorelai showed me a grin, her small fluff of tail wagging about.

I tapped my nose and grinned. "If you can get me a few capable servants and some of our new family want to stick around as crew. I could get a small fast ship like a caravel. We could occasionally prey upon the church for fun and profit. A caravel would be fast, small and cheap. We could take them by surprise, board them late in the night. We would get payback, turn a tidy profit for our court, and the ship would be easy enough to hide away given its size."

"A compelling and exciting proposition." Lorelai smiled as we drew closer to the docks. "We can speak with the family at large once we are home and see."

I gave her a nod then stood to yell out towards the small crew manning the massive warship. "Alright my hearties, let's prepare for docking! Also, you lot from the other ship, stick around in port for a time, I will be giving each of you a proper reward for your help after we finish with business. Captain Silverpaw always shows her appreciation in the most important way, with coin!"

The sheep shook her head at me as I looked at her out of the corner of my eye, seeing her smile as my cheeks darkened. I lifted my ears and returned my focus to the crew as we prepared to dock.