Hidden Rat Worried Otter Part Four

Characters: Kentar, Aikuen, Sinway, Mayuel, Will, Fira

Location: North Path

The six pad there way south, up until the point where the sun was beginning to set in the west. Aik yawns a bit, but continues onward. He has put his arm around her middle, and she the same to him. They have learned to talk very quietly... Which isn't very hard considering all he has to do is mouth the words, and she understands him. They chuckle about something as they continue on.

Kentar was talking quietly with Garnet as well, the two stoats making extreme quiet conversation, like the otters, only they didn't care if anyone heard them.

Aikuen looks back and smiles at the Stoaty pair. He asks aloud, "Hey, do you think its time to set up camp, or can yah go a few more..."

Kentar shrugs. The two stoats talk for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, sure. Er. Camp I mean." he says.

Aikuen and Fira laugh, as the make for the side of the road. He drops his pack, and takes out the tarp, Fira begins to roll out the bed. Will does his duty and make the Fire pit.

Kentar yawns and sits down with Garnet after unrolling their bedrolls near each other's.

Aikuen sets up the lean-to, and he tosses the packs into it. Will begins to work on his burrow, after he finishes the pit. Aik grabs some logs and dry leaves and starts to make a fire. Mayeul has gone to scout out the area. Fira sits, waiting for him to finish with the fire. Aik blows on the fire and it light with a whoof! He nods at it, and goes to sit next to Fira, placing his arm around her. She leans into him and closes her eyes. Aik looks to the other pair, "Nice evening, isnt it...

Kentar yawns and looks over to the otters, both stoat's nodding some. "Yeah. All we need now is a ship, and to be out on the open sea. Then its perfect." Kentar says.

Aikuen snorts, "Sounds good mate... Havent been on a ship in three seasons... Wanted to go south on a ship last season, but the rat i hired didn't want too..." He sighs

Kentar grins a bit and nods. "Well. I know a beast with a ship. He owes me a few favors. If you want, I could attempt to get the ship for a while. Let me captain her for a few seasons as my favor. If you wanted to go sailing again."

Aikuen nods, "Depends on what happens, But im all for it mate! I love being on a ship... brings back memories of when i was... back at home..." He was gonna say something else, but changed it at the last minute, "Will would probably like it too..." He looks to the rat-burrow, and small clods of dirt are still being tossed out.

Kentar nods and smiles. "There's just one problem though. We'd have to be on the western shores. Quite far north to get there."

Aikuen shrugs, "That's fine with me...I landed in Mossflower on the western shore...And itll just be another trip for us... Like we have been doing." He thinks about it then asks, "Is there anything we should be worried about on the shore, where we're going."

Kentar nods slowly. "Lots of vermin. Me, Garnet, and Will would be safe. But you two...would have to pose as our slaves every time we ran into a group of vermin. But it wouldn't be too bad. Once we had the ship, nothing else to worry about."

Aikuen sighs and nods slowly, "I guess that be all right..." He scratches his head, think about it.

Kentar nods slowly. "But once the ship is ours, we can go wherever we want." He smiles.

Will sticks his head out of his finished burrow in time to catch the end of the conversation, "We're swiping a ship?" Darn soundproof dirt.

Aikuen shakes his head, "How long could we have it?" He sees Will, "No were not stealing it..."

Kentar shrugs. "Probably until we wanted to give it back. Could be ours for good. I did save his life and he did tell me he would do anything to repay me."

"We might have our own ship?!" the ratling is thrilled at this possibly and he look to Kentar for the answer.

Kentar shrugs. "We might get our own ship. Not sure though. We'd first have to make it up the shores without getting killed."

Aikuen nods and adds that fact to his mind, and asks another question, "Could it be crewed by five? And how dangerous..."

Kentar hrms. "No, we'd have to get a crew. Or keep the current crew. And quite dangerous if you two aren't convincing slaves." he nods at the two otters. "But Aik, you already look pathetic to be one..." he grins

Aikuen is ready this time, got a rock already for launching. He tosses it quickly at the stoat.

Ching! It bounces off his armor plate, leaving the stoat laughing. "Haha! What is it with you and rock throwing!?" Kentar asks.

"Well we probably won't be heading back north for a while so we can think of a good way to get to th ship and not be dead before we go," the rat says at last siting down by his burrow."

Kentar chuckles. "Don't worry Will. As long as those two can pose as slaves every time we run into a group of vermin, then we wont get hurt." he smiles. "But if we want the ship, we'd have to go soon after we got back to the abbey. He wont be there for much longer I think." he shrugs.

Aikuen scratches his chin fur, "That's an awful quick turn around..."

Will chews his lip a bit, "You and Garnet can go and get a crew or whatever you want to." Having said this he crawls into his burrow but keeps near the entrance to hear the others as best he can.

Kentar nods and hrms. "Well. Its only a few weeks return. We'd be there for a few weeks before we had to leave again.

Aikuen ahs, "Okay, that would be better... I thought we would arrive then leave the next day or something. Alright..."

"If you and Fira want to go with Kentar and Garnet that's fine but I'll be at home or th Abbey," the rat says from his burrow.

Kentar chuckles and blinks before tilting his head. "Why is that Will? You don't want a ship of your very own?" he asks.

Aikuen also looks to Will, "Thought you wanted to go on a ship?"

"I /do/ want to ride on a ship but I /don't/ want to take another long trip so /soon/ and I /don't/ want to pretend to be a /slaver/ cause I won't be any good at it and I /don't want/ to be good at it. We get attacked whenever we go on long trips, heck I /lost an eye/ walking from Camp Willow to /my own tunnel/! Right now I just want to go /home/. I can wait for the third or fourth ship to come by or longer then that if I have to," Will says turning around in his burrow so he doesn't have to face the others, his ears tilt backward to listen to them out of habit.

Kentar frowns slowly. "Well. We could just fight our way up the shores. If you wanted. I mean, once I get to the ship's captain, I could ask for the ship itself then we can take it anywhere. Then it will be ours. How about that? I know a few short cuts, but...Yeah."

Aikuen shakes his head at Kentar, "Don't push it mate... I know why he doesn't want to... at least another reason why..." He looks to the burrow, "Will? I'm not going, I'll have other things to worry about anyway..."

Will sighs,"Kentar, if you want that ship that much /you/ can go fight for it. I'm a potter not a warrior or a fighter."

Aikuen says, "If Will is not going, then I'm not... Sorry mate, maybe another time... If it wasn't so dangerous to get it, then im all for it..." He leans back just in case Fira is awake, "And I may have a wife to take care of..."

Will comes out of his burrow to face the stoat, "We don't want to get rid of you. But I thought it over and I'm not going. I have my reasons for it but what it comes down to is I'm not going."

Kentar frowns. "Whatever." he growls before standing and vanishing into the woods.

Aikuen reaches for Kentar as he goes, "No wait mate..." He sighs, and places his head on top of Firas. He stares into the fire, "So matey... Gonna be a potter eh? Good choice..."

"I make stuff with clay all th time anyway and I've sorta been apprenticed under Benar since before he joined th Order or maybe right after one or the other, but it's been a while now since I started though it'll take a while for me to make up for lost time after losing an eye and being gone so long but that's ok. Working at th kiln helps me keep my temper, I can always make easy stuff like bowls and plates and things like that that are of some use if I've nothing else to do. .... Benar used to be a slave, so did Zen, so did Racky and that's why Racky can't talk .... I do want to ride on a ship or a boat but not if we have to pretend you and Fira are slaves to kill a lot of beasts first to do it .... it's not worth it. You and Ma taught me that," Will says.

Aikuen nods, as he takes in that mouth load, "Being slaves I could do... don't want too risk it though... As for killing beasts... I have made my decision on that... Kentar can understand that..." He smiles "I still think we can hire, a boat... or maybe buy one...without all that other junk we would have to do...

Will nods, "Or we could ... well you could maybe make a raft or something or we could see if there's any shrews around. They're said t be good boat builders, aren't they? Maybe they could help us some and we wouldn't have to go very far ... we could just ride along th Moss River some ...." He lays down on his back by his burrow look at the upside down otters, "What was it like when you were a captain and on your ship? Did you like it?"

Aikuen smiles to his son, "Well i wasn't a captain of my own ship, i was just a crew mate then. I was the forward end spotter. I sat at the Bow of the ship, or the front for you land-lubbers, and looked at the ocean all day, looking for shoals, reefs and schools of fish. I loved every minute of it... to the long boring hours of windless days, to the hard and stormy nights, were we spent hours tacking line. We sang shanties, and if there was a good haul, we would have feasts... all on board the ship." He sighs, "My days as a captain in the Militia... were awful... I wasn't captain of a ship... I was captain of three-hundred infantry beasts or so..."

Will ohs, "Was the captain of the ship you were on a good captain?"

Aikuen nods some, "I guess so... If we did all our work, he was the nicest beast ever... But if we were slacking off, he'd tie a rope to our middle and chuck us overboard..." He laughs, "That was fun... But yes i mean he wasn't like a 'slave driver' captain, but he was stern when he needed to be."

Will nods some then smirks, "How often did you get thrown overboard?"

Aikuen grins back at Will, "Only five times because i was slaking off, fifteen times cause i wanted too, and sixteen times for being drunk...All in all, about thiritysix times... in a span of about a season." He chuckles.

"Must have been fun if you did it on purpose so much," the rat grins.

After a little while, Garnet vanishes in Kantar's direction, leaving worriedly.

Will glances toward where now both stoats have vanished to, "Hope they don't met any swans."

Aikuen watches Garnet leave, but doesn't say anything. He turns back to Will, "It is fun, being dragged along by a ship, like swimming without doing anything!" He chuckles and nods, at Wills last statement, "I hope not either... Swans are a beast i wont even tangle with... Im sure they will be fine... Kentar needs some alone time, and Garnet...well... is Garnet." He picks up the now sleeping Fira, and places her on the bedroll, giving her a quick kiss, before sitting next to her on his.

Will rolls over onto his belly and watches the otters for a moment, "You think she'll make a good stepmum?"

After a little while again, the two stoats return, Kentar not looking happy, Garnet looking annoyed, but they both just sit down and talk quietly to each other, Kentar not acknowledging the others.

Aikuen nods, "Aye, she will... She already likes yah... Though it may be hard at the beginning for us to be parents, but we will get there." He places his paws behind his head, and leans back on his roll, "She will be an excellent 'stepmum'..." He chuckles. He can see movement of the Stoats, but seeing there faces, he just doesn't ask what happened, its too late in the day to be thinking about that.

"She didn't act anything like a mum at first but she's getting better at it all th time now," Will looks over that the stoats briefly, "We should make it to the bridge tomorrow and once we cross it we'll be back on th dirt road."

Kentar again just ignores the others, not in a good mood. His words to Garnet are harsh and he even pushes her away before laying down on his bedroll.

Will looks to the stoats and then to the otters, "I'm going to bed. Night, everyone," and with that he crawls back into his burrow to go to sleep.

Aikuen says, "Well, before that probably didn't even cross her mind...that she would be a 'stepmum' in a season." He can see what happened, and he grunts and shakes his head. He nods to Will, "Night Will!" He turns on his side, and thinks about tomorrow... He has a few choice words for the stoat.

Garnet just lays next to Kentar and sighs, drifting off to sleep. Kentar isn't far behind, and soon he's snoring quietly.