Don't Rock the Boat
✧ ✧ Reavers ✧ ✧
- Bafaloukos, Aibne, Kevi, Coaxoch, Adyna, Otto, Twitchtail, Ferilla, Lee
- The River Moss
The River Moss carves a westerly path through the forest, broad and indomitable. Its water is almost crystalline at shallow spots, revealing the fish and algae-addled stones of its bed; where deep, it clouds to pale green, dappled by the froth of waves as they break over logjams or stony protuberances. A ramshackle flotilla has made use of its swift flow, likely shrew in origin by the look of the craft. Each comprises a log, huge and hollowed and halved, with intervallic planks for mariners to sit as they row. Stylized monsters and stripes festoon the boats, rendered in bright paint. But something is awry. These craft aren't helmed by shrews, but vermin, a motley company of them at that.
Bafaloukos sits aft in one of the boats, naked except for his trousers, and appears somewhat sunbaked because of it. They have sailed for two days, after absconding from the makeshift camp in any ship they could steal. The old fox uses an oar to adjust course around a rock, then looks over his shoulder, wary of what might materialize behind them. "Any sign we're being tracked?" he asks of those within earshot, whether in his boat or another. "Watch fer birds, mates. If they're gonna' scout us, they're likely t' do it from th' sky."
Aibne has been searching the river for days now, searching and mostly on his own. In fact he stayed out more than any other beast did and now he looks for signs, anything.
Kevi is standing because why not? The vixen scratches her scarred arm, kicking her brother as she steps over the planked seats of the craft and brushing her tail across Baf's shoulder and back as she swings around behind him, plonking down on the other side of him, "So, what's all this now about we're running away west? I still don't get why this romantic river-ride, as lovely as it is, really." She leans forward and across, toward Timeon, ruffling his headfur, "Be a good fox and no questions about being 'there yet'." She props her footpaws up on the vacant plank in front of her, leaning a shoulder back on the stern.
In another boat is Coaxoch, the lizard having at least a little experience with going down rivers. He sits dead center, barely moving at all except for occassional flicks of his head, glancing this way and that, looking at the shoreline and trying to pick out possible pursuers. Though really he'd given up on the group being trailed; after all, it's quite difficult to track someone through water. Every now and then he'll push a stick into the river, steering the boat more like a puntcraft than a genuine logboat. He calls out to the fox ahead of him. "Can't track through water. Have to have sssight of usss to follow."
Adyna sits silently at the opposite end from Bafaloukos, with a dirt-crusted bottle for company. The jill's not handling the water well -- she hasn't spoken a word, and rarely lifts her eyes from the bottom of the boat.
Looking about as green as his leggings, Otto looks miserable but looks upward at the skies as he sits in the boat with Kevi and Baf ahead of them, scanning it for any signs of birds, "Nay, ain't see a bloody thing, " He sits at the front of Coaxoch's boat.
When the vixen hefts over Bafaloukos, she causes their logboat to momentarily destabilize while its stern negotiates extra weight. The old fox digs his oar at the water to the side opposite Kevi, belting her with an irritated stare. "It was time t' move," he grunts. Some of the crew may yet be unaware of what came of their otter captive; Bafaloukos, though, chanced upon the aftermath on his trek to the river. He does not care to describe the scene to her. "Aye," he shouts to Coaxoch. "But a beast might have noted th' lifted boats, and... other evidence of our flight."
Aibne is on the shore and he travels down the shore along the river. It didn't take long for him to find something he rather not of found, and put two and two together. Now he is peeved and has managed to find his blade that was in a pike's now dead body on the river bottom, and now he huts for the vermin and blinks as he sees movement, and then boats and those are too large to be shrews. He yells out"Vermin Scum!!! Back here you cowards!"
"Ah." That answer seems to satisfy the vixen while she's briefly turned to the direction of the answer from behind, and as she turns to the older male sitting next to her, her paw walks gently up the nearest sunbaked shoulder, "I didn't know that, about tracking. I don't really have much need of hiding and running, I suppose. Exciting, though..." She cracks her neck, blinking at him, "How far does this river go? Do we camp on the banks, or go straight through? I didn't bring my fishing rod.." She grins.
Kevi blinks and her head snaps in the direction of the cries, "What the..."
"Coaxoch isss sssorry. He wasss wrong," says the lizard with a shrug as the otter starts to yell at them as they pass. The lizard takes out his blowpipe and slips a dart between his lips, ready to load it and shoot it at first opportunity. But for now, he just continues to navigate with the boat, keeping his eyes open and trying to spot the otter. It's harder than he thought it was.
It isn't hard for Otto to put two and two together. There is angry Otter shouting at them after all, they're fleeing, and the other Otter he saw a day or two back was didn't come with them when it was made clear that they needed to flee. Still, Otto simply doesn't care one way or another. This is partly because this is his first time in a boat of any kind, and his uneasiness shows it. So he sits at the front of the boat feeling useless by trying to keep any eye out.
Bafaloukos removes the uninvited hand with a jerk of his shoulder. "Shh!" Red ears prick, and the dog fox promptly plucks their oar from the river. Somebody is hollering. Somebody found them. And even if this hunter came alone, others will surely follow. Adjusting his grip on the shaft of the oar, Bafaloukos holds it like a bat, ready to strike if anything bursts from the water. He squints to survey the nearby banks, desperate to locate their heckler. "Would if we could, mate," he returns, "but we're at the mercy of the river, and she's got us goin' westways." With luck, Aibne will shout again, exposing his position.
Aibne is still running and he can run fast, and being an otter he can also dive into the river and swim towards them, he surfaces once "Ya vermin slime will die soon, mark my words!" He dives under again as he keeps his blade at his side for now and tries to catch up.
"Should we get down? Can you see his weapon?" Kevi, perhaps admirably, climbs forward to block the otter's line of sight to her brother, looking aft at Baf and Coax, then forward at Adyna. The vixen grips at her bone dagger with white knuckles, but she's not about to lose it on a beast with only a sword until he's at close range--even then she'll make sure the only thing lost into the water is this creature's blood. She sees him dive into the water and raises herself up in a crouch, still low in case of projectiles, but high enough to see into the water behind them...
The voice keeps changing direction... and the river isn't exactly quiet, but once the shout comes from almost directly behind him, Coaxoch knows that the otter is likely swimming to try and follow them. Makes sense, otters are one of the few creatures that's faster swimming than running, after all. Though he still can't see the otter, he knows, at the very least, which direction he can expect something to attack him from. Tossing the punting stick at Otto, Coaxoch turns so he can look behind the boat, calling over his shoulder. "Otter'sss in the water behind usss! Haven't ssseen him yet!" The lizard raises his blowpipe to his lips, tonguing the dart inside and preparing to blow.
The throw of the punting stick in Otto's direction is nearly missed, but grabbed just in time as Otto is distracted by the situation as much as anyone else. With weapon in paw the cat hisses, "Show yourself ya waterdog!"
Huddled down behind Otto, ducking because Coaxoch just threw a punting stick forward, Twitchtail grumbles, glancing back over her shoulder. Chased along a river by an otter with murderous intent; not such a fun activity. She curls her fingers around a hilt, tapping her claws for the reassuring solid feel. "I hate runnin'..." She grumbles, watching the water and listening for the otter's words.
"Aye," the dog fox tells the vixen, fixing her with a look that demands compliance. "Stay low. Th' boat has a heavy load as is--get stupid an' move around too much an' we'll capsize." Then comes the sound of a body hitting water, and Bafaloukos spins to face the boat behind them. "Fight or fli--" He starts to shout to the other boat, but gold eyes spy something dark and fast beneath the surface of the river. Flight no longer looks to be an option. "There!" A hand leaves the oar only long enough to jut a black claw at the specter. "Comin' up behind ye'!"
Aibne is coming and fast, he is under the last boat and then tries to surprise them and jumps out of the water to slice at the nearest beast he can, he is a bit off balance on the edge of the boat and could easily fall back into the water.
Kevi shoves Timeon down, to much complaint from the teenager--"Don't argue it, your mother would kill me. She'd kill me anyway, but I'd rather not wilt in shame on top of it." She plucks her dagger from out of the waist of her loincloth, craning her neck to see what's going on and jolts back in surprise at the sudden surfacing and boarding of the rear boat and the attack, seemingly all at once. "Good thieving crows...!"
Looking at the rear of the boat, Coaxoch doesn't even have any hint that the otter swam closer until he hears the sound of the beast surfacing. The flailing sword catches him in the flank, and if the lizard were leaning any closer to towards the otter, no doubt he would have been cleaved open far worse than he got. As it is, he snarls in pain and clutches his wounded side, a puff of pain sending the dart out of the pipe... and into the boat about an inch from Kevi's footpaw. Lashing violently with his tail, Coaxoch half-turns, half-falls away from the otter.
"Nah, running ain't too bad. Its fighting I ain't got no taste for, " Otto holds the stick defensively, ready to take on the otter as he scans the river. He turns to look down at the weasel, "So what's your name eh?" His question is interrupted by the Otter breaking the surface of the water and attacking Coaxoch, "Keep your head down!" He says to Twitchtail, and he tries to whack at the Otter over Twitchtail's head with the stick.
Aibne eyes are, thier not the right color! He even snarls and thats very unotter like indeed as he balances on the back of the boat and still holds his blade in his paw, "Who wants to play tag your dead?" That voice is cold as ice.
Those on the first boat are no real help when the otter makes his attack. Bafaloukos' eyes widen when the dart thunks into the wood by his and Kevi's feet, way too close for comfort. He then motions for his crew to brace, and plunges the oar back into the river, holding fast against the current. "Kill 'im!" he roars as the distance between the two boats shrinks. "It's jus' one bleedin' otter. Kill 'im!"
"Y'r askin' me name, lad?" The jill, Twitchtail, glances back at Otto with an incredulous frown, but then the otter is getting onto the boat and attempting to carve up lizards. "Somebeast's desp'rate f'r a new belt..." She mumbles, unsheathing one dagger and holding it up defensively, standing up and trying not to back up onto the cat while keeping some distance. She tries to shuffle a little to the side, to find an opening past the lizard on the floor in case she needs to thrust her blade at the lutrine attacker. She doesn't seem interested in tending to the reptile's wounds.
Kevi's eyes follow the dart the entire time, in slow motion, her head snapping down to it sticking out of the wood of the seat, the dart touching her /claw/. She fights light-headedness at the pure adrenaline of almost being poisoned, landing on her butt half on and half off the seat and slipping backward into the space between. She looks up at Adyna, "Hey there, could I have a paw, dear? Can anybeast see? What's going on?? Baf, hon?" She stares between her sprawled legs at the dart, still stuck into the wood.
From the ground, Coaxoch grabs for his macuahuitl, gripping the stone-studded wooden club by the haft and, half blinded by pain and anger, almost blindly swings it in a wide overhead arc, towards what he thinks is the otter's head. Of course, he doesn't react before the otter teeters backwards a bit, and misses him entirely. There's a sickening cracking sound as the weapon neatly lodges itself in the side of the boat, though sadly not in an otter's skull.
"Aye, I'm asking your name. I'm Otto, " Sitting at the front of the boat but facing aft, the cat wields a stick and tries to hit the otter with it. While making sure he doesn't hit Twitchtail with it, since she is between him and the lizard. Between the two of them towards the front of the boat though, they at least have a defensive footing in case the Otter decides to advance.
"Oi! You blink'n' 'alf witted scalebag, donnae you go sinkin' our craft now! I ain't got nae pressin' need for a bath!" Twitchtail admonishes Coaxoch after he seems to be done trying to kill the boat. "Twitchtail." She grunts, for Otto's benefit, and then her eyes bug as he's been waving the stick past her. "Will you bloomin' well be careful you puddin' headed cat!" She's glad to see the otter lose his balance, and presses forward, jabbing in case he hadn't fallen quite out yet.
Bow is probably not the correct term for such a small craft, Ferilla figures, but she's in the bow anyways, putting a little distance between herself and the ill-looking Adyna. She's not particularly happy about being crammed in with a drunk and a lascivious thief with a penchant for strange black powder, but Bafaloukos is an alright sort, for their line of work, at least, and it's far better than the alternative, with two strangers (to her) and the cannibal lizard. Sitting with her paddle rested across her knees, her choice in vessel is only confirmed when the others are boarded by some sort of mad otter. "Baf, what's goin' on back there?" she asks, more of a formality really, as the older todd's yell and the scene playing out across the water tells her most of what she needs to know. She feels the boat slowing, and shoves her paddle in the water, making sure the long narrow boat stays parallel to the stream's course. She doesn't have the spare paws to grab any weapons just yet, but she's really the furthest from the nautical scuffle.
Aibne gets hit with the stick and tumbles backwards into the water, but before he does he goes to stab downwards at one of their footpaws! He sings into the water and manages to barely swim to shore where he takes a last look at the boat and then he slumps to the shoreline into an unconcious heap.
Kevi launches herself up out of the space between seats and ignores Bafaloukos, straddling both boats as the rear one catches up to them, wobbling a bit, but finally able to see what's going on. She sees the otter escaping, "Good riddens to THAT." She looks down at the lizard, shaking her head, "Are we alright back here? Bleedin' lizards! Timeon, get the healing bag, this one could use a tight wrap around 'is middle." She steps into the rear boat, looking at Otto and then Twitchtail and back down to the lizard as a bag is tossed to her from the other boat and she goes about wrapping around his wound.
For the kind of wound that it is, Coaxoch is able to deal with the pain shockingly well... not so much the blood loss though. Plenty of it has spilled out of him and onto the bottom of the boat, and his eyes look somewhat unfocused. Forgetting to try to pull his weapon out of the side of the boat, he instead leaves it lodged there, clutching at his side with his claws. Deliriously he asks, "Did any meaty bitsss ssspill out? Ssshove them back in, if they did! Coaxoch can't sssee them..." Thankfully he doesn't have any kind of footpaw wound to go along with it. It'll be hard enough to walk with his side split open.
Aibne has lost his blade again, this time its on one of the boats, possibly in a footpaw or a tail maybe he hopes. He made it barely back to shore but has scraps, cuts all over him and a rather nasty looking cut on his side from being hit with a weapon. He lays almost face down on the shore now, unconscious.
"Crazy blinkin' waterdog..." Twitchtail mutters as she watches the otter go, and glances down to the scoremark in the boat from the otter's last stab. She then glances at the damage the lizard did; the weapon still lodged there. "Flamin' 'eck, this vessel's 'avin' a rough day..." The weasel's eyes track Kevi as she crosses into the boat and clicks her tongue. "Tch. Aye, you patch 'im up good. Blood's gonna flamin' stink, give us away f'r miles..."
"I am being careful! Ain't gonna hit you silly Jill, " Otto advances as Twitchtail does, carefully filling the space she was occupying before him and in a stabbing motion his stick goes past Twitchtail towards the Otter. He gives out a whoop as the stick contacts with the Otter and Aibne goes overboard into the water, "See! Was being careful! Nice to meet'cha Twitchtail, " He turns his attention towards the lizard, "Good that ya ain't dead yet lizard!" Then suddenly there is a fox in the boat, "What the hells?" The cat hisses, suddenly worried that Kevi will destabilize the boat after the boat reacts to the fox's movements in crossing over to their boat.
By now the craft are side by side. Bafaloukos uses his oar to hook the edge of the other logboat--a makeshift tether. "We could float over there 'n finish 'im off, but..." The fox peers into the dusky forest around them, ears sinking against his head. "Others could be jus' behind 'im, though." Craning to inspect Coaxoch's injury, Bafaloukos adds, "We shoul' likely put a plug in that an' scoot."
Kevi looks at Otto, grinning as she tightens the wrap up nice and comfy around the lizard, "Sorry, don't mean to give you folks more of the motion sickness. You don't look well at all, cat." She hears Baf and her paw is up, "I've got him, dear, he'll be weak for a while but back to his self in a few weeks' time. There is a lot of blood in lizards, 'll give him that. We might attract more than otters with the stench of this wound, though, if it isn't closed up. I don't have the tools with me."
The woodlands are still again, after the wild otter attack. A bird call here or there. Utter stillness. Unfortunately, another otter was out scouting the forest, on the hunt for stray vermin and the like. He knows that Camp Willow needs help, and volunteered his services. With his keen ears, he heard the full commotion, and made his way rapidly to the river bank, keeping himself hidden from view as he catches sight of the vermin boats. Retrieving an arrow from his quiver, the otter takes aim, drawing back the bowstring before releasing, the arrow sailing through the air toward its mark. [Lee]
Aibne is still on the shore, and starts to be a little semi conscious now as he groans weakly. But he makes no signs of getting up right now.
"Calm your whiskers you daft cat, she ain't tippin' the flamin' the boat, and she's gotta patch up ol' Mister Bleedy 'ere, got it?" Twitchtail does not return the 'nice to meet you'. The jill's tail twitches as she sheathes her dagger, just in time for more another attack to start. Apparently. "Blinkin' 'eck..."
Working to keep the log dugouts even with each other and out of a dizzying spiral, Ferilla isn't able to play close attention to the commotion in the other boat. In fact, she doesn't much care that Coaxoch got sliced up, even if she hadn't been doing anything. She's not even particularly good at her current job, the joined boats starting to veer to the left and circle a bit. One otter in particular seems especially critical of her boating skills, as an arrow thunks into the end of her paddle, slicing across the bottom of her paw. "Aagh!" she lets out a confused yell, looking around for her assailant, waving her injured paw while the other fumbles with the oar. "There's more!" she snarls to the others.
"I'm well enough to dispatch one of them waterdogs, " The cat says defensively to Kevi, though indeed he looks uneasy/illish and clutches the side of the boat tightly with his left paw as he holds the stick in the other paw. Otto chuckles at Twitchtail's remark, "I hope not, I can't swim." He admits. Then suddenly his attention is drawn towards another attack and he tenses as she looks everywhere along the shore for threats and in the sky, "Bloody hell, again?"
Lee spots the other otter on shore, but doesn't reveal himself yet, very carefully hidden in the brush. With a quick, fluid motion, he reaches back and grabs yet another arrow, notching it to the string and taking aim, waiting for a good moment to fire. He follows the boats' circling with his eyes, aims for the jill, and lets go, the arrow whizzing out over the water.
Kevi's head pops up out of what she's doing, "Timeon!!! Get down, you little fool!! This isn't the time to sit up and get a better view! GET! DOWN!!" She finishes up what she's doing and dives into the first boat, shoving her brother like a rag doll, who is always grumbling and swearing complaints of his over-protection and general unfairness, "Sis, what in hell's got you angry at me noaa--uggghffff!!" She tackles him. "Quiet, stay here until I say. Didn't I tell you? AAAGGGHHH!!!" She's grazed by the arrow just outside her collar bone and it loses momentum, dropping into the boat. She grips the base of her neck.
Aibne tries to get up only to pass out again after crawling a few feet. He is worn out and sore, any insaneness that came over the otter has died down and he passes out again, this time deeper.
At this point, Coaxoch is too dazed to realize that he needs to stay down and sit still, so the lizard does what comes naturally. He picks his blowpipe back up and fumbles around in the pair of quivers for a dart. In his delirium, he ends up taking the wrong one, picking out one of the nonlethal knockout darts instead of the poisoned ones. He loads it into the blowpipe and looks in the direction of the fired arrow, waiting to see another otter he can try to shoot at.
"Oh 'eck! Blimey!" Arrows are flying, foxes are jumping about, lizards are popping up with sticks in their mouths and cats are telling her they can't swim; what a lovely day... And the boat just shifted when Kevi jumped, enough to unbalance Twitchtail. This is probably fortunate in one way as it forces her to get down, but equally unfortunate in another as she knocks her head against the wood, and jill is knocked out cold on the floor of the boat.
Lee can see the lizard doing something, which probably isn't good, so he remains perfectly still, only making the slightest movement as he slowly draws out a third arrow and takes aim. On the plus side, though, the reptile makes a very large target, and the otter is confident he won't miss with this shot. He draws the bowstring back, and fires again, the arrow making a bee-line for Coaxoch.
"Row!" Ferilla yells, adding in a few choice expletives, "We're gettin' out of here, sharpish!" she looks over at the other boat worriedly. Otto's up, but shaky, and everyone else in the boat is wounded, unconscious, or panicked. "Baf, row!" she yells at the fox, who is no doubt already doing this if he has any sense. "Keep 'em tethered." she says, giving Baf her oar so his can be used for the makeshift tether. "Cat, row, now!" she orders Otto, hopping over into the other boat, rocking it perilously. "Get the kid to the other boat." she snaps at Kevi, provided she's present enough to take action with her light injury. Her foot trods heavily on the lump of bleeding lizard as she slides down in the stern, making herself low as she sets about paddling furiously, first straightening them out, then aiming to propel them far out of range.
"He stays with me--he's fine right where he is!" Kevi grips her neck wound, eyes squinted shut--she's just a yelling pile of angry pain right now, taking her dagger and sticking it into the seat above her, rummaging in her bag while the two siblings are nestled in between the seats, shielded at the moment from the onslaught. She ties a bandage around underneath the opposite arm and across to the base of her neck, to tighten as much as possible and not choke herself with it around her neck. She bites it off and applies a thick molasses-like glue to keep the end in place. "Ughh.. good thing I had this out already."
The cat doesn't look good, he looks decidedly ill and he hisses whenever a fox or jill jumps into his boat or from his boat and rocks the boat. Still he grabs a paddle and starts to row at Ferilla's orders. He looks over his shoulder to make sure Twitchtail is all the way in the boat, pushing her down so she's out of sight and not a target. Meanwhile he goes back to rowing, "Just a lovely ride down the river with bloody thirsty otters after our hide, what could go wrong?'
The arrow hits its mark... just not very well. It tears easily through Coaxoch's frill and lodges there, though it doesn't hit anything else. Truth be told, he doesn't even feel it considering the much worse pain in his side, but he DOES see where the shot came from. Taking a deep breath that comes dangerously close to an injured wheeze, he blows as hard as he can on the blowpipe, sending the knockout dart straight in the otter's direction, and hopefully not short of its mark. That was about all Coaxoch had in him though, and after he blows the dart, he collapses back into the bottom of the boat.
Lee immediately ducks as soon as he fires at the lizard, having some suspicion what the reptile was about to pull. The dart sails over his head, and the otter is smart enough to move from his original position. He can see what the others are doing, and readies another arrow. He was just starting to have fun, he can't let 'em escape so soon. Spoil sports. The otter grins to himself, and aims at whoever is still upright. He gets an idea, which makes him laugh again, and starts bellowing out, "Halt, ye scurvy scumbags. We 'ave ye surrounded on all sides, ye scumbags." He throws his voice in such a way that it seems to echo around. "Ye have kidnapped somebeast I know, an' ye'll pay for yer crime." He draws the bowstring back, preparing to fire again.
"Haf to shift the weight, you move or you row." The ermine tells Kevi, holding out the oar in an offer to switch places with her. It's not nearly as dramatic as Ferilla makes it out to be, but with the weight of four beasts and a big bleeding lizard, this boat is starting to droop in the water under the load. "Need a rower in tha back." she points out, drawing from her nonexistant vast wealth of riverboating knowledge. "Listen to me, or be a pincushion, jus' be sure ta fall overboard whe ye do it!" she snaps at the vixen, her violet eyes glinting viciously. She's not dying just so Kevi and her useless clod of a brother can hold paws the whole trip.
Kevi scowls at Ferrilla, "Somebody should toss an oar at that riverdog's skull! Oh fine, give it me!" She takes the oar and helps paddle, squinting but using her good arm, perhaps this gives just enough of a speed boost to drive them with the current and well out of any ability to run the boat down from ashore? She doesn't know--she just rows! "An' is somebeast calling us fat? We could chuck the dead weight over there bleedin' his guts out and seasickness over there too. That boat's dead weight, mostly."
Coaxoch tried the best he could, but he didn't hit the otter and he's not going to be able to fire another dart for a while. He lays in the bottom of the boat, his claws pressed against the hole in his side to try and keep at least a little bit of his blood in. Dazedly he looks up at the sky, wondering just how long it'll take for them to get wherever they're going so he can get sewn back together.
Lee releases his latest arrow, aiming at Kevi, this time. "Ye 'ave Mint, ye scum. Release 'er, an' I will spare yer lives. If ye don't... Ye will ALL DIE." The boat is not nearly moving fast enough to get away from the otter yet, due to all the crazy rowing. He starts to seriously wonder if the idiots have ever rowed a boat before in their entire lives. "Ye won't escape the WRATH o' Camp Willow, scumbags. They will find ye, an' will KILL ye, ALL. So have I spoken, fools!"
Crazy rowing? Ferilla thinks they're doing pretty well, all outside forces and flukes considered. With the river lending a much appreciated paw, they're cascading down stream, forcing the otter to full on sprint if he wants to keep up, and leaving him little time to launch more than vengeful, but ineffective, arrows at the moving target. "I think we've lost 'im." Ferilla pants, the frantic rowing not lending support to her statement. She's not convinced on Lee's bluff that they were surrounded. Just two stupid otters trying to be heroes. "Lizard." she nudges Coaxoch with her foot. "You dead?"
Kevi has an arrow whiz past her ear, knocking it down! She has had enough of this! She takes the poison dart from out of the wood plank finally, the one originally shot at her, reaches over and hands it to Coaxoch, "Stop missing that stupid fletching ruddertail. You're the only one of us who's ranged!"
Bafaloukos, a creature who knows when to shut his mouth and row fast, has been doing just that. His ship is moving right along, coming up fast on a bend in the river. Now and then, he glances back to check on the other dugout, but this skipper's primary focus is to get the hell down river. He dips his head in a moment of visible relief when Ferilla announces their escape.
Answering Ferilla, Coaxoch groans, "Getting there... No, not dead yet." Struggling to wiggle his way up so that he's leaning against the edge of the boat, and just barely propped up enough to see over the side of the boat, Coaxoch dimly takes the dart, pushing it into the blowpipe and having another try to get the otter. He takes a deep breath, thankful that he wasn't hit in the chest where such a thing would be far more difficult, and blows fiercely into the blowpipe, sending another dart Lee's way, this time with something more crippling than an anaesthetic.
As the vermin get away, certainly out of range of any poison dart, the otter drops his quiver and bow, and dives right into the river, but doesn't make a pursuit. He only surfaces several moments later, and watches the boats depart. Lucky for him, he knows what they all look like.
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