Chapter 3 - A Seaworthy Encounter

Markem MacCooper
Chapter 3 A Seaworthy Encounter
 
Markem gets to the port and decides that he can’t sneak onto the ship. He’ll have to pose as a sailor, so he waits for one the right size to approach. About five minutes before shove off, one finally does. A fox, 5’6, golden red fur, and a beautiful sgian dubh in his belt. He leaps out of the ally, grabs the fox about the neck, yanks him in, punches him in the stomach, and slams his head into a trash can. “Sorry lad, didn't mean to hurt ya. But I have to get to Paris, and I like this way a lot more then buying a ticket.” He takes off his dark forest green T-shirt, homemade moccasins, and belt-sash. Replaces them with the foxes small, white and blue striped tank-top, old leather sea boots and brown belt. He also takes the fox’s sgian dubh and puts it in his belt. “Criminy, you are one scrawny fox with your small torso and all.” He puts his stuff in his haversack and walks to the ship. It’s one of those old-fashioned pirate like cruise ships, before he gets on, someone grabs his shoulder. Out of a reflex action, Markem flips the creature over his shoulder. “Ah, who, what, when.” He says confused. “WHAT THE HELLION IS YOUR PROBLEM!” Shouts the wolf Markem assaulted. “You dare attack Captain Ridd!” “I am sorry Cap’n, please forgive me.” “Very well give me your name, your on probation.” “Um Archie uhh… Blackstripe, yea Archie Blackstripe." “R-i-ight Archie you’ll be a swabby.” “A what Cap’n?” "A swabby, a swab, a janitor man.” As Ridd gives him the keys to the whole ship, Markem “Archie” gets a smile on his face a mile wide. “Thank ye sir, I shant fail you.” As he salutes he says to himself “Tis just like Christmas.” The ship sets sail, Archie sets about his false job casing the guest rooms along with everything else. Before too long he notices some suspicious activity he sees members of the crew going into the richer guests rooms and coming out with bags of loot disguised as laundry. “Oooo clever mates, very clever indeed.” He stalks them for a bit then they put their ill-begotten goods down this is the chance a young thief hopes for. “Ha-ha! Thank you oh so much.” He distracts them by throwing a bolt down the corridor. “What was that?” says the eye-patched mouse guard “Don’t know lets look.” responds a peg-legged weasel. When they disappear down the hall, Markem comes out of hiding. He goes over to the laundry bags, he manages to pinch two of them, but when he goes for the third, his paw meets another thief’s, a cute teenage squirrel girl’s his age disguised as a waitress. When he tries to snatch it from her, she slaps his hand with a knife blade. “No touch you rogue.” She sheaths her knife “Ow lass that hurt.” He rubs his paw. “That’s what ya get for stealing my loot.” “Your loot since when?” "Since I saw it duh.” “Don’t you duh me.” “What you gonna do about it huh. Would you hit a girl?” “No never not without good reason. And this is good enough.” He draws his sgian dubh and does a horizontal slash, but she is quicker and blocks it. “Wow aren’t we quick.” she immediately goes to stab him, but he is also quick and grabs her arm. “Ow that hurts! Let go!” He lets go of her right away “Oh sorry I didn't mean to hurt you alright?” “Ha-ha sucker!” She jumps up and kicks him in the gut, sending him to the hard wood floor. She grabs her two bags and runs down the opposite hall. “Oh I think I’m in love. I can’t dwell on love right now, though. The guards are returning from investigating my bolt throw.” He takes up the bags and makes a break back the way he came, after throwing some decoy bags in place of the real ones. After Markem stashed his treasure he went back to cleaning. Keeping a wary eye out for the squirrelly thief girl. After one last hour of working Archie is off duty so he is gonna look around and see what would be a good escape route if he gets caught. Because he wasn’t watching where he was going, thinking about an aerial escape instead, he didn't’t see the big badger sailor in front of him, and he crashed right into him. “Oyo watch where you’re going kid!” “Sorry.” replies Markem blankly. When the sailor got up he realized his wallet was stolen. He instantly knows that Markem stole it. “Hey, come back here ya little thief!” “Who me.” he says innocently. “Of bloody course, boy, who else?!” “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” he tries to run but is cut off by the other sailors. "I’ll have to teach ya some manners heh heh.” “Yea bust that little baby up Arthur!” “Show him whose boss!” “Nowhere to run kid ya can still beg for my mercy.” He crosses his arms and starts tapping his foot on the deck. “Please sir don’t insult my intelligence, I beg for no one. Besides, your not worth my time. I got gotta get my teeth cleaned." He jumps swiftly over the crowd and continues on his way. The crew grab and throws him back to the mad badger. “That’s it, time to say night-night.” He swings, but the ever nimble Markem ducks and gives Arthur a roundhouse kick square to the jaw. He goes spinning to the ground“What the, how?” “About five years of karate.” Arthur charges our young thief to no avail, young MacCooper runs forward and unleashes a series jabs and kicks. He uppercuts the sailor, launching him four feet into the air. “And that’s ten years of kickboxing put to use.” After that, the rest of the crew leaps on Markem, who untangles himself from the melee just to be attacked by an enraged Arthur. He comes after him with a wood stick, but our hero snatches the stick and wails the badger until unconscious then THUD! All goes dark.    To Be Continued…

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