Landing on Umbra Island

Sat. June 11, 2011

The Umbra Island explorers finally reach their destination, and quickly discover that they are not alone...

Characters Involved: Silver, Byronn, Biff, Holly, Fishtooth, Arden (Byronn spoof), Wydran

The Bilgerunner - Main Deck

Wydran is once again leaning over the side of the Bilgerunner, staring out over the sea... though there is not much to see today, as everything is shrouded in fog.

Silver is siting on the deck of the ship once again fishing with the rod he found when cleaning up the ship when they first got on it, since than it has had alot of use.

Wydran looks over at Silver. "You've been enjoying fishing on this voyage, haven't you?" he comments with a smile.

Silver looks at wydran and nods."Yes I am, gives me something to do...Still with I was back at the abbey...miss ryan and lacey...."

"Well, we should be landing on the island soon, and the sooner we get there, the sooner we get home," Wydran says.

Silver nods."I hope we find something on the island..."

Wydran looks out over the side of the ship again and something catches his eye. "Silver... do you see that?" he asks.

Silver looks up from his fishing and shrugs."It looks like fog."

Byronn peers out in the distance. " What is it?"

From out of the fog, a large, dark shape appears...

Wydran exclaims, "I think it's Umbra Island!"

Silver pulls the fishing line back in and nods."Well its something and anything is better than being stuck on this ship!"

Up in the crows nest is biff who was napping tell everyone started shouting about something, but no one wakes biff up from a nap so she does what any normal hare would do, finds a plank of wood and throws it at silver."Shut up, I am trying to take a nap!"

Byronn smiles and sighs. " Maybe there'll be food Biff!"

Wydran blinks at Biff's reaction, but points out and calls up to her, "Look, Biff! It's the island!"

Silver is knocked out by the wood...

Biff laughs and climbs down from her napping place."Well you should have said something, lets find a place to land the ship and get off!"She thinks for a second than frowns."Umm...how do we stop the ship?"

Byronn shrugs and looks at Wydran "D'you know how?"

Wydran shakes his head. "Umm... maybe Silver does?" He looks over the knocked out hare.

Silver who was the only one who knows how to stop the ship is still knocked out and does not look like he will be wakeing up anytime soon.

Biff hmms and gives silver a poke with her foot."Wake up silver, its not nap time!"

Byronn dumps a pail of water on the hare, hoping to revive him

Silver is hit by the water but does not wake up...

Biff ties a rope around silver than throws him into the sea...

Wydran yells out, "BIFF! What are you doing?!"

Byronn stares at Biff in confusion. "wouldn't that just make the problem worse"

Biff laughs and says to wydran."Don't worry, he swims like an otter!"

Silver his the water and sinks down for a few seconds than comes back up on his back still napping and is being pulled along by the ship...

Wydran runs over to the side where Silver was thrown off of. "Not when he's unconscious!"

Biff hmms as she watches silver."He looks fine to me!"

Silver opens his eyes and looks around."When did the ship get so wet?"

Byronn looks down at the overboard hare. "Think we should pull him up now?"

Biff starts to pull silver back onto the ship and says."Lets just call this payback for making me think the ship was sinking!"

Wydran helps Biff pull Silver aboard.

Byronn grins " is your nose better?"

Silver coughs up some water and shrugs."It has been broke before."

Biff hmms."Did I thit you that hard?"

Silver asks."Why did you need to wake me up anyway?"

Byronn says, "well besides tge ship heading tiwards crashing...wydran wanted to see your eyes"

Silver laughs."Well that's a bit creepy wydran, and about stoping the ship."He wasks over to the side of the ship and kicks the anchor into the water.

Biff hmms."How did we forget how to do that?"

Wydran stares at Byronn oddly, then looks completely confused...

Byronn chuckles " Only joking my otterley friend" he narrows his eyes, trying to see through the fog

Biff hmms."Should we go see wots on the island?"

Byronn smiles and grabs his rucksack " Yes!"

Wydran grins. "Of course, now that we're FINALLY here!"

Silver nods."Yeah, you guys go I will grab some food!"

Biff says."Lets go!"

Byronn hops out of the boat

Wydran follows Byronn.

Umbra Island: Sailor's Grave

Biff climbs off the ship and looks around the island."Wow...its so big..."

Wydran splashes into the water from The Bilgerunner. He looks in surprise at the two shipwrecks. "We're lucky we didn't end up like that!"

Byronn wades a little through the water, eyeing the silhouette of a ship. "Oh it's so nice to be off that blasted ship!"

Byronn says, "but i wouldn't want to be on that one"

Biff nods."Looks like they forgot how to stop..."

Wydran blinks, as he remembers something. "That must be the 'Sailors Grave' mentioned in the Captain's journal!"

Byronn picks up a small plank of wood that was floating towards him. "Or they were attacked..." he shows the plank to the others which is revealed to be marred by deep and vicious gashes

Biff frowns but says."It could have just been the rocks."

Byronn says, "yeah, your probably right"

Wydran swims forward. "Shall we head ashore?" he asks.

Biff nods."Yeah, lets get a good look at the land!"

Byronn nods

Umbra Island: Tabuor's Campsite

Byronn says, "eerie place isnt it"

Wydran walks onto the shore out of the water. "What's with all the fog on this island?" he asks as he looks around.

Byronn stumbles ashore and looks around, seeing a figure that looks like Wydran. "Would the fod be everywhwre here?"

Biff walks onto the sand and looks around."Where did you guys go?"

Wydran looks around, trying to make his way safely through the dense fog. "Over here Biff!" he says and waves a paw in the air.

Biff runs over to wydran and asks."Where is byronn?"

Byronn frowns as a brief gap appears in the fog, it was only a jagged mess of rotted wood. "Hello?!"

Wydran calls out, "Over here, Byronn!" He waves his paws in the air again.

Byronn heads towards Wydran's voice, nearly bumping into Biff. " oh there you two are!"

Biff laughs."Lets hope the fog goes away...where has silver gone?"

Wydran frowns. "I don't think he left the ship yet... anyway we should stick together so we don't get lost."

Byronn nods "Good plan!"

Biff nods."Yeah...hate to get lost on a island that no one lives on..."

Wydran says, "We don't know that no one is here... those monitors might still be around. We have to be careful."

Silver walks out ontho the shore and frowns as the fog makes it to hard to see anything,"HELLO?"

Byronn hears silver and shouts. "We are here Silver!"

Biff looks around and yells out to silver."We are over here!"

Silver runs over to where he hears the yelling untell the trips over something in the sand...

Byronn sees something trip and raises his brows. " Are you okay?"

Silver nods."Yeah...I think i am ok."He pulls the thing out of the sand and looks at it."Well look at this, its a sword!"

Biff laughs."Only you, silver would find a sword under some sand!"

Wydran smiles. "Is that going to replace your old one?"

Silver nods."Yeah, it looks nice!"

Byronn nods "Interesting find."

Silver asks."Where are we going by the way?"

Wydran looks around. "Nowhere in particular, we just wanted to explore a bit, but the fog is making that rather difficult."

Byronn says, "hmmm"

Biff hmms."Would a fire help?"

Silver shrugs."We can give it a try!"

Byronn feels the sand until he picks up a small stone, he hurls it northbound and hears the rustling of leaves. " Hmm a fire would be nice, it's rather. chilly"

Biff finds some wood and starts to make a fire.

A small fire jumps to life on the pile of wood...

Byronn sits near the fire and helps Biff keep it alive. " Well, it's better than being on the boat"

Biff nods."Yeah, lets hope we find wot ever we are looking for soon..."

Wydran thinks for a moment and asks, "Speaking of the treasure, did anyone bring along the journal?

There is a sharp snap off in the woods...

Biff sighs."Gupthie has it i think."

Silver hmms."Did you hear that?"He asks.

Byronn eyes the direction of the noise but shakes his head, ignoring what he thinks is paranoia

Wydran looks out at the woods and frowns, remaining silent.

You see a flash of something green but it is gone to quick to tell what it is.

Biff is watching the fire so she did not see anything.

Silver shakes his head."Did you guys see something or was that just me?"

Fishtooth watches the group from behind a tree.

Wydran quietly says, "Be careful... somebeast may still be on this island..."

Byronn shrugs " I didn't see anything..."

Biff looks up from the fire and asks."Wot are you guys talking about?"

Silver shakes his head."I though I saw something..."

Byronn frowns. " you're certain it's not just sea water in the brains?"

Biff laughs."Yeah, just calm down silver!"

Wydran remains silent but on high alert, in case anything does happen.

Biff hmms."Whats up with you guys, its just the wind!"

Byronn warms his paws at the fire. " Maybe they need food?"

Fishtooth steps out from behind the tree and lets out a long hiss."Yessss. foood sounds...nice."Than he swings his club at byronn...

Biff frowns and hops up as soon as the lizard comes out."Wot do you want."She pulls out a dagger when the lizard hits byronn and throwns it at him.

Byronn is unaware of the lizard behind him and takes a club to the head. He slumps to the ground, quite unconsious

Fishtooth starts to pull byronn into the woods as the dagger his him in the arm, It is a small dagger so he pulls it out easy than frowns."You...should not have...done that long earss.."And with that he runs up the the hare and stabbs the small blade into biffs chest...

Byronn lies still at the edge of the forest

Silver blinks as the lizard knocks out byronn and stands up."Let him go!"Than as he stabbs biff he starts to yell."GET YOUR BLOODY PAWS OFF OF HER!"The hare runs up to the lizard and starts to stabb him with his dirk again and again...

Fishtooth is stabbed in the ribbs but does not even seem to feel it."Anotherr long eared mousesss?"Than the large lizard grabs silver with one paw and throws him at a tree...

While the lizard is occupied, Wydran runs over to Byronn and drags him away from the fight so the monitor can't take him.

Byronn groans

Silver hits the tree with a crack and slumps donw on the ground...

Biff just lays here, she is breathing but it is not very deep and there is blood on here lips showing that the lizard might have hit her lung...

Fishtooth looks at wydran and starts to pull byronn back into the woods as fast as he can."You should help your frienddsss...and leave...."

Wydran silently curses the fact that he left his sword on the ship, but remembers he still has his dagger and pulls it out. He runs after the monitor.

Fishtooth just keeps runing off with byronn , he is much faster than the otter...

Byronn brieifly opens his eyes before his head hits a tree trunk...

Wydran continues running into the woods, but the dense fog makes it difficult to see and the monitor gets too far ahead and disappears. Wydran finally stops when he realizes it'd be hopeless to try to track down the lizard now, and he turns around and runs back to the fire. He finds Silver and grabs the hare's arm. "Silver? Are you alright?" he asks in a distressed voice.

Silver is still knock out and does not feel the shakeing...

Biff lays on the ground and lets out a sighs."Oh..."She pulls her self up some and looks at the dagger with a laugh."Well...good thing...it missed...everything....I think..."She blinks a few more time than slumps over again...

A certain little mousemaid has been off doing her own stuff all day. And so Holly really has no idea what's going on as she toddles toward the area where everything's going on. Her big boots scuff a little in the sand, as she swings her arms merrily to either side and hums a little song.

Wydran looks up at Holly as she arrives. "HOLLY!" he cries out. "Byronn's kidnapped, Silver's unconscious and Biff is stabbed!"

Silver still just lays there not moveing...

Byronn is carried further into the wood

Biff lays in a pool of her own blood.

Holly finds a shell and drops down into the sand to pick it up, admiring it with a huge smile. At least, until Wydran starts shouting. "Huh?" she asks, poking her head up to offer a wave of her paw to the otter. She's still too far away to hear anything. "What!? I found a shell!" she shouts as she bounces forward.

Silver starts to wake up."Ugg...wot...wot happend?"

Wydran shakes his head, completely unable to believe Holly's reaction. He back to Silver. "SILVER! You're awake! You have to help Biff!" he exclaims.

Holly is starting to figure things out as she gets closer to the group and sees.. well. Silver on the ground. And Biff on the ground. And.. Wydran is really freaking out. And the girl stops entirely in her tracks, mouth falling a little bit open as she just looks between everyone. And freezes. Her features pale several shades as she just stares.

Silver blinksn a few more times."Wot...wot happnd?"

"Biff is stabbed! She needs medical help!" Wydran says, completely panicking. He attempts to drag Silver up into a standing position.

Biff opens here eyes again."Ugg...Does....does anyone plan...to help...me...?"She closes her eyes again, you can tell by her face that she is in ALOT of pain...

Silver frowns as he is pulled up and falls on his face as soon as he is pulled up."Ugg...not so fast...wot happend?"He asks again.

Holly drops her seashell and runs the rest of the way toward the group. "Wydran! We gotta help Biff!" she states, as if finally kicking into her mode. Even if she looks remotely terrified. "We gotta carry her back to the ship or somethin!" Holly's much too small to carry Biff. But she sure tries, dropping to the ground and saying in a quiet voice as if talking to a scared animal, "It's okay! It's okay. We're going to help you."

Wydran frantically drags Silver over to Biff. "You're a healer! Help her!" Due to his lack of medical knowledge, this is now the only thing he can do to help Biff.

Biff is very small so holly does move her a good bit, but she trys to get her to stop."No...stop...that is makeing it worse..."

Wydran blinks, as if realizing for the first time that Biff is actually awake. "What should we do then?" he asks, remembering Biff is a healer as well.

Silver snaps awake as soon as he sees his wife covered in blood."Wot happend?"He looks her over and lets out a sigh."Well...she will live...looks like the dagger just missed...well everything, its alot of blood but it is not to bad..."He pulls his backpack off and starts looking for something to clean the blood off of biff with.

Biff who is still just trying to stay awake says."Just...do wot...silver says..."

Holly kind of jerks away as Biff says she's making things worse, and she plops back down to sit on the ground with her paws held in her lap. She's very quiet.

Silver pull out some herbs and a rag and says to wydrna."Ok wydran, When I pull out the dagger I am going to put some herbs and stuff to clean out than after that I need you hold a rag on the wound!"He throwns him the rag than pulls out the dagger and starts to clean it out...

Wydran nods and waits for Silver to finish before applying pressure to the wound with the rag to prevent more blood from escaping...

Silver looks at wydran and nods."Ok do it."

Wydran follows Silver's instructions and asks, "What next?"

Silver says."Just keep doing that."He says digging on in his pack untell he pulls out some bandages."Hold her up wydran."Than he gets redy to wrap the bandages around her....

Holly doesn't seem to be a whole lot of help at this point, and she's kind of freaking out a little at all the blood. She is a little girl, after all. She gets back to her feet and scoots a few steps away to plop down in the sand with her back facing the others so she can look at the seashells and the sand again. Or maybe she's just really bothered by all this.

Silver says."Lets get her back to the ship."Than he pulls off his cloak *Yes he still has it on* and slides it under biff to help pick her up with."Easy now."

In the distance a figure approaches...Walking at a fast pace

Wydran moves aside to allow Silver to take Biff back to the ship. When the hares are gone, he collapses onto his knees, holding his head in his paws. He's barely aware that Holly is near him.

Holly is poking at the ground with a stick, drawing little pictures with an otherwise melancholy look on her face. And as Wydran drops down nearby, she looks over to him with a frown. "Silver said she was gonna be okay."

The figure moves closer, it's breathing is deep and harsh

Wydran doesn't look at Holly as he replies, "I know... but... I'm so useless." He is completely unaware of the figure coming toward them.

The figure growls menacingly, just behind Wydran

"You're not useless," Holly says, looking to him and offering up a smile. It's halfhearted, but still. And then, as she looks toward him, she suddenly lets out a shout of, "Wydran!" as she sees.. well, something just behind him. And hears it growl. The little mousemaid is already darting to her feet and grabbing the dagger Silver gave her.

At Holly's shout, Wydran immediately turns and stares up at the figure behind him.

The figure becomes clear and you see a tall rat, clad in a torn red tartan tunic tied around his torso and ripped trousers. his headfur is long snd matted with dirt. He looks at the two beasts with his good, blue right eye as the left is badly scarred. " Alright, no need to get yer nickers in a twist!"

Holly bolts in between Wydran and the rat, brandishing her little dagger as she shouts, "Back, beast!! Back!" Seems someone's already gotten her knickers in a twist.

Wydran frowns, and blinks as he watches Holly, but looks back to the rat. "Who are you?" he asks.

The rat chuckles and looks at Holly. "Ho there, young one, I'll not harm yeh" He eyes Wydran calmly. " I remember my name be Arden. Who might you be?"

Holly frowns and looks between the rat and Wydran, before finally lowering her dagger. She still doesn't look completely won over. "I'm Holly. That's Wydran."

Wydran nods and says, "We're travellers who've just arrived on this island, though we were just attacked by monitors."

( Arden growls slightly " Aye, the blighters stole me eye." He sniffs the air. " I smell blood" )

"Monitors!?" Holly looks back toward Wydran with wide eyes. That's right. She hadn't actually been here when any of this happened. "That's what happened to Biff?!"

Wydran nods slowly. "She was stabbed, but thanks to Silver she'll pull through," he explains to Holly.

The rat takes a seat and mutters to himself about noses. Arden furrows his brows "So, yeh were attacked by the lizards.... and yer friend got hurt?"

Holly plops back down in the sand, picking up a stick again to draw in it. "I guess. I wasn't here when it happened. I'da gotten those stinky monitors!"

( Arden chuckles and smiles at the mousemaid " Yer a very brave mouse, Holly." )

"And I've got a knife, too," Holly states, nodding her head as she lifts up the dagger to show the rat.

The rat brushes some hair out of his eyes to take a look at the knife. " Tis a very good blade miss!"

( Arden draws his long sword etched with a beautiful floral design in the blood channel. " I vowed to plunge this blade into the heart of the monitor that took out me eye" )

Wydran watches Arden and Holly talk, he realizes there's still one occurrence that Holly may not be aware of, but he doesn't bring it up. He remains seated on the sand, deep in thought.

Holly looks at the long sword with big eyes. "Oo. That's a really pretty sword!" she states. Yeah, she's quite oblivious to the other thing that happened today.

( Arden turns to face Wydran. " Are yeh alright there lad?" He smiles and thanks Holly kindly )

Wydran looks up at the rat and nods wordlessly before looking away again.

The rat frowns and opens his mouth to speak but cannot find any words at the moment.

Holly rolls her eyes. "Oh, he's just all upset cause he thinks he's useless. But he's /NOT/." DUH. So says the indignant little mousemaid as she picks up a rock and tosses it a few steps away. "You didn't get stabbed or nothing. Gosh. AND. You helped Biff!" It takes a kid to put things bluntly.

( Arden sighs. " Yer not useless, sounds like yeh did a fine job of helpin this...Biff" )

Wydran shakes his head. "No, it was all Silver, he is the healer after all. And something else happened... Byronn was kidnapped," he admits.

Arden's expression turns grim. "surely yeh don't mean the monitors took him?"

Holly lets out a little gasp. "Oh no!" She hadn't heard that part, and her features turn crestfallen. "Well, we've gotta find him, then!" With this, Holly jerks upright, raising up her knife.

Wydran bites his lip, before finally saying, "It won't be that easy. There are probably more of those monitors out there, and they could easily outnumber us if it came to an attack. And we don't even know where they're holding him."

The rat clears his throat before saying. " I stumbled across their camp a while back..."

( Arden scratches his head " But that was...a long time ago" )

Wydran is silent again, then asks, "Maybe you could show it to us? Or tell us how to get there?"

the rat nods, " Aye, i could shows yeh"

Wydran blinks a few times. "Really? When?"

( Arden shrugs " Whenever yer ready to go of course!" )

"I think we should wait a bit, if you don't mind. The others will want to come along, and they're still on our ship," Wydran explains.

( Arden nods "That's quite alright, I'll need to jog me memory for the proper path to the camp" )

Wydran asks, "How did you come to be on this island? If you don't mind me asking."

The rat closes his eye and sighs. " Tis not a happy tale, but I'll share it if ye'd like"

opening his eye and staring into the fire, Arden begins his story

Many seasons ago, I lived in southern mossslower among a band of rats. We pillaged passing caravans and raided villages for many nights. I was second in command to Killney, the leader i suppse, of our group. And it was my job to punish those who disobeyed or desterted

( One bitterly cold winters night, Killney had ordered me and a few others to ransack the home of a mouse who had won a bet against him. )

Drunk with the promise of gold, I made my way to the house. The place was peaceful, I could see a mousemaid place her dibbun into it's cradle. Once the lights were out, my mates and i rushed inside, killing the two bodyguards. We charged up the stairs and pulled the mice out of their beds,

We gave the rich mouse a fair beating...I suppose I got carried away and did him in...His mate screamed as the rats I thought were my ffiends did away with her as well. We trashed the home, stealing anything of wealth and setting fire as we went

on the way out i heard the dibbun cry, my mates ran off without me as I rushed to free the dibbun from the home. I carried the little mouse to the camp where we stayed, kept him hidden and gave him food.

I continued to keep the dibbun until he was a mere half a season. Onr of the rats had heard him laughing and questioned me about it. we were brought to Killney's tent and he ordered the dibbun to be left in the woods

So I disobeyed, I told them I'd rather die than leave this poor baby in the cold unforgiving forest. I ran, i don't knkw how long or how far until I came upon a gypsy camp

I stayed with them for a few days, they told me of a place, an abbey in the north. I knew I was being hunted so what choice did i have? I walked for weeks, staying awake at night to keep the mouse warm and dry. I was sick with fever and had to get tge dibbin safe soon. We reached the abbey and I left him at the doors, I couldn't let my hunters come here for us.

so i left, I boarded a ship to sail somewhere far. We were caugt in a storm and I ended up here...alone and ill

The rat falls silent. " nine seasons ago..."