Edoropolis Emporium

Cats of the Sea or "Sea Kats"

In all the big sea there aren't bravest pirates than
the "Sea Kats", what can be more valiant
than a cat that isn't afraid of water?

Chapter 1: Swords, papers and bombs!

This was one of the lowest points in their career, stuck in one of the most pathetic, smallest of the one-hundred islands, and being forced to be on land because of the Royal guard!   
   
To top it all, they where working on a bar, YES, WORKING ON A BAR!   
   
Yet, the captain had just keep the smile on her face most of the time, it was a somewhat scary smile, so many teeth, so long and sharp, and a mouth bigger than the average, no wonder Captain Aflan was know as the "Shark smile of the big sea". Of course she wasn't a captain anymore, you cant be a captain with a very small ship and a crew of two counting herself, but he had seen her get out of worse situations. And even with the scary smile, she was a beautiful, not that he was interested in her, despite don't wanting to admit it, Silva saw her like a bigger sister, a strong, tall and very manipulative sister.   
   
A blue furred cat was strangely quiet siting on a table inside the bar, with eyes that didn't move yet seemed to look everywhere. Silva had to go to the little pirate's room, and so he went, it took him only a few minutes, But when he came back both the captain and the blue cat where missing. The manager was knocked out, Aflan wont do this kind of stuff If it meant leaving him behind, not while he still was the only member of her crew left, so he guessed the blue one had done it. Yes, the money was missing, he helped the manager, a human, to get up, and told him not to worry, Aflan had gone to get the thief.   
   
"But she is only a girl!, he will kill her!"   
   
"I have seen her defeat bigger guys than that cat, do not worry..." he said   
   
Meanwhile, the blue thief was stuck in an dead end alley, and it was too tall to climb. In front of him was the biggest tigress he had ever seen, and that smile!, It didn't scare him but he didn't wanted to get a bite from those long teeth. He had thought it would be easy when the small cat had gone out and the tigress seemed to be distracted, only now he realized she had followed him too soon to have been distracted, is like she had pretended to being minding her own business to see if he was going to do something bad.   
   
"Now, you can give back the money and run away, or I can beat the crap out of you, is your pick!" she said, letting out her claws, what an arrogant pussycat she was!   
   
"Or I can just kill you and then run away!" the blue feline said, unleashing the two swords he had in his back   
   
"Okay, attack then bluey!" she said, why the heck she looked so confident?   
   
The male cat didn't waste any more time and attacked her with his two swords, she jumped back to avoid the attack, and then threw a knife at his chest!   
   
The cat saw the knife coming at him and jumped, but he wasn't fast enough and the knife got him, thankfully it only hit his leg. But he got distracted for a moment to see where the knife had hit him, and the next thing he knew was that something had hit him in the stomach, throwing him right into the wall behind him. As he took out the knife from his leg and stood up, he fell drowsy and he could barely heard something about "What? Cant you resist a bit of sleeping herb?" from the tigress before fainting,   
   
Hours later he woke up in a small wood room that barely had any light, all tied up, his swords where also nowhere to be seen. But at least they had put a bandage in the wound caused by the knife. The tigress was in front of him, and there was a small gray cat, with greed eyes and a tail that looked like a bottle brush, next to her. That was the same cat he had seen on the bar, and like in the bar, it was only wearing a pair of blue pants.   
   
"Now, now Mr Rotofu, I am really glad you finally decided to woke up" she said holding a poster in her hands and read it out loud "It says here that there is a reward of 1000 golden coins for you on the continent, yet you try to rob a bar while the royal guard is on this small island, not very smart of your part" she said, put the posted down and smiled, now her shark like smile did look scary to him.   
   
"But you wont give me in to the royal guard, or you would have done it already" The blue cat said, trying to look like he wasn't scared   
   
"True, to make a long story short, after you fainted I tied you up and hid you in the alley. Then I have back the money you stole, the manager gave me a very poor reward, after that we both quit the job pretending to be enraged. Then we brought you here. I happen to be a pirate Captain in search of a new crew, and I need someone good at using swords" she said, then got closer to Rotofu and have him a fast kick to the face "And you aren't in a good position to negotiate"   
   
"Ouch!, you aren't very diplomatic, aren't you?" Rotofu said, that kick really hurt, and it didn't seem like she used her full strength   
   
"I will take that like you accept joining my crew, or maybe you want more torture, this time using sharp things?"   
   
"Okay, okay I join!" Rotofu said, he was thinking in escaping as soon as at least one of those two fell asleep   
   
"Good, see ya in two days..." said the Captain, and left the room, closing the door loudly, Rotofu could barely take a glimpse of what was outside, was that a mast?  Damn - he was inside a ship!, and he didn't know how to swim!. He guessed they where already in the open sea, or at least in the port. And members of the royal guard were all over the port. Any way he looked at it, It seemed he would have to play pirate for a while.   
   
"What the hell she mean with "See you in two days", aren't you going to untie me?"   
   
"Oh no, to be part of the crew the Captain Aflan decided you have to take an endurance test, if you don't die after two days without food or water, you are in!"   
   
"What? And what if I have to go the little pirate's room?"   
   
"Well, you will have to do it right where you are, don't worry, you will able to clean yourself after the two day test is over... and don't cry or shout or anything.... she was serious about using sharp things... plus we are in a shark zone, my name is Silva by the way, bye!"   
   
"You cant be serious!" Rotofu said, but the gray cat left just like the tigress, only he didn't treat the door like it deserved to be punished.   
   
"Oh damn, this just cant be happening, damn pirate tigress, I hope she..." Rotofu started to say, then remembered about the sharks and decided to shut up.   
 
Rotofu was not the kind of cat who liked to lose time, and since he couldn't do anything else, he started to think. He was a skilled swordsman (or swords-kitty) and thief, how the hell had he been defeated so easily?. Maybe he was a bit overconfident, when he saw her unleash her claws he didn't think it would use a weapon, plus since he was facing a girl, he thought it would be an easy victory. In the same situation, if he was facing a guy, he would have easily blocked the knife with one of his swords. But no, he tried to show off and jumped! 
 
He was also used to facing more than one opponent at a time, so when facing only one, he relaxed a bit, letting his guard down, he would have to work on correcting that. He had to admit, that tigress was fast, she had used the brief moment he got distracted to hit him in the stomach, he didn't even saw if it was a kick or a punch!. But maybe the sleeping herb on the knife had also slowed him down, otherwise he was sure he would be able to see that coming. 
 
Now, his paws where very well tied, in a way he couldn't use his claws to cut out the ropes and escape, that was natural since both that tigress and the boy where felines, Had he been captured by humans, maybe he would have been able to cut the ropes. And even if he managed to escape, he would have to deal with the tigress and the boy, and with the sea or the royal guard!. To top it all, he didn't know where they had hidden his swords, yeah as he thought before, he WOULD have to play pirate for a while. 
 
With nothing more to do, he tried to fall asleep, and he did, he was a feline after all...

Two days later... 
 
Silva untied Rotofu and have him a bucket of sea water and a soap so the swordsman could clean himself. After he was done, Silva have him food and a bottle of Ron, Rotofu still smelled funny, but not more than anyone who had spend a few days in the open sea. While Rotofu was eating and drinking, Silva opened a big chest he had brought in. And took out  a towel, clean clothes and new bandages for Rotofu leg wound.   
 
"So, let me guess, we are still in the same island?" asked Rotofu, after drying his fur, putting new bandages in his wound and finishing getting the clean clothes on.  He suspected that, because the ship haven't moved like it should if it had set sail.   
 
"Yes, the royal guard seems to want to construct a base here, so they haven't leaved. We are going to need traveling papers to get the hell out of here"

"Easier said than done" said Rotofu, who didn't understand why his clean clothes consisted in a black tuxedo, a red tie and black shoes "How the heck are we going to get those things? Does the suit I am wearing have anything to do with it?" 

"The captain knows someone, just that we need to make that person a favor first"

"What kind of favor?" asked Rotofu, resisting the urge to lick himself clean, because then it would be really hard to take the bad taste out of his mouth.

"Get him out of jail" said the tigress captain named Aflan entering the room "Can I trust you for this?"

"Do I have any other chance?" said the blue cat with his ears down

"Not really bluey, is us or the royal guard, and you know how "nice" they are with pirates" she said smiling 

"And how the hell are we going to do that with a crew of only three people?" asked Rotofu, he haven't heard anyone inside the ship besides those two, so he was pretty sure there weren't more pirates in the ship.

"The captain has done things more difficult than this" said Silva looking confident

"And I have a plan..." said the captain moving to the big chest, that had the clothes that Silva had given Rofotu and looking inside "Umm... no, this wont work, no too ugly, yes this will do"

"Now get out of here you two, I need to change" she said, so the two male cats left. Rotofu fell great as the salty fresh air filled his lungs, two days inside that room really had made him appreciate the outdoors better.

Hours later, Aflan looked very different, with a cute long red dress, smell of perfume and a pink veil covering her face (and her teeth) and  expensive looking white woman shoes, she was what most people would call beautiful. Silva also had done the best he could with the tigress hair and fur, since the clothes alone didn't make the trick, so the captain had to take a bath with clean water and soap. Then sit patient as Silva dried her fur, and combed her hair, Rotofu had got a black eye for trying to peck. But all that time wasted had worked, no one would think Aflan was a pirate by looking at her. And a lot of felines in the town where giving her dirty looks, some even tried to make a move on her, but Rotofu was more than good at keeping them away. 

Rotofu was unable to hide his disgust for having to wear formal clothes, plus the fact that his leg wound had not still fully healed, but pleased to have some gold coins in his pocket, even if he knew he wont be able to waste them on himself

"So Miss Dona" said Rotofu to Aflan  "Are you sure you want to go to visit your cousin? A jail is not a good place for a dame"

"He may be low class and a criminal, but he is still family" she said, as a few royal guards where passing by and noticed her. Something not too hard as she stood up like a burning tree in the darkness. 

"Hi Miss, can we help you with something?" asked one of the royal guards, a human "Is this guy bugging you?"

"No, he is just my bodyguard" said Miss Dona. "It seems this dump of a town is full of uneducated people, he has been keeping away perverts of me all day!"

"Well Miss, this is not a place for the likes of you, maybe we can escort you to a safer place?" said the other guard, a white tomcat
   
"Miss Dona has insisted to visit a poor relative that is in this island jail, so we would greatly appreciate if you could escort us there, since as you can see by my black eye is not being easy for me alone"
 
"Not a problem dude" said the human, being informal because of his smell and look, despite the tuxedo, Rotofu looked just as what he was pretending to be, a body guard. So there was so need to be formal.   

"May we please escort you Miss?" said the tomcat guard offering his arm

"Yes, thank you soldier" said Aflan, trying to sound as polite and interested in the guard as possible and taking his arm.

And so the two where escort to the jail, while Silva was watching them from a rooftop,  dressed like a regular kid, so he didn't get unwanted attention. So far the plan was going good, but they where just in the part of contacting the person they needed to free from jail. Aflan pretending to be a rich cousin who seemed to care about her family, most likely her family name, was a good plan because of the low status of the island. Had they tried the same thing in another island, the guards would have been harder to persuade and they would probably have need fake papers that showed that "Miss Dona" really existed. But being stuck in such a dump, the guards where almost desperate to kiss all the assets and tails necessary to get translated to a better place. 

As they reached the jail, Rotofu have the two royal guards a gold coin to each one, being sure the gatekeeper saw him, that was more than enough to fool it into believing Aflan, or should I said Miss Dona? Was a high class woman.

As the guards leaved, Rotofu politely asked the gatekeeper  if "Mr Till" was in the prison, the gatekeeper said he had never heard anyone call Till a "Mr" before, but that he was a prisoner there, and would gladly let them visit him... for a price. The blue "bodyguard" gave him a gold coin, the last one he had, and the gatekeeper let them in and called a prison guard to guide them. So they soon where in front of a cell that had a tall white tomcat with brown spots inside, but of course he was shorter than Aflan, since he was not a tiger like her.

"May you leave us alone?" asked Miss Dona to the guard, and so he quickly left, probably thinking he was going to get a gold coin if he was nice to them.

As the guard left, Miss Dona said "Hey Till, want to get out of jail?"

"No Aflan, I am happy here, they make me do illustrations for the local newspaper, and I only have five years left" the tomcat said

"Then sorry about this" said Aflan taking out a round black bomb from under her dress, and lighting it up with  metal cigarette lighter

"What? Please don't!" cried the cat named Till, but it was in vain, he had to jump away as Aflan bomb destroyed the bars of the cell, and then jump again as a second bomb teared a hole in the wall. Rotofu carried the protesting Till on his back, and both he and the captain got running the hell out of there!

As the prison bell rang over and over again, alarming everyone of the escape, Silva created a distraction by acting as someone that was just "passing by"

"Okay smart boys, you trow your weapons to the ground of this small kid gets a pretty cut in his throat" said Aflan getting him, Silva cried pretending to be scared.  After they dropped the weapons, the gray cat quickly ran and picked all up, they where seven swords, and then the pirate cats ran like the wind out of there. As they where getting to a cliff, the unarmed guards thought they had got them, but the pirate cats jumped and landed on a ship mast, it was Captain Aflan ship!

Yeah! That's the problem of some cliffs being too low, with feline agility they got down the mast and prepared to set sail. The ship was all ready for that and they only had to rise the anchor, by the time the guards has brought a cannon they where out of range, so the cannon balls just landed meters away from the ship.

"That was crazy, all that set up just to get this guy out by blowing stuff?" said Rotofu and lowered a now strangely silent Till to the ground

"Those two royal guards and the prison gatekeeper are sure gonna get in trouble!" said Silva smiling

"What can I say? If I can mess up the royal guard name and get someone out of prison at the same time, I do it" said Aflan, taking out the veil and smiling, at least now her shark like teeth where cleaner.

"You!" said Till standing up and looking at her "You just have to ruin everything don't you! Five years, only five damn years more!, And now I am traveling with pirates, if they ever catch me again the least they will do is hang me!"

Rotofu fell a bit sorry for the guy, and he had just meet him, this Aflan woman must be very cold to have done that to the guy. But again, it would have been an useless waste of three beautiful gold coins if they didn't get him out...

"Look Till, you can pick me, the sea or the royal guard, and I know you cant swim!" the captain said "By the way, the gray cat is the chef, bluey here is a good swordsman, and I think that you will make a good navigator, you are Jason grandson after all"

"Didn't we just got him out of jail so he could make us fake traveling papers?" said Rotofu angry "And now the royal guard will send a ship after us!"   

"I don't fear the royal navy, besides, by the time they get all the paperwork done, plus the trial of those two royal guards and the prison gatekeeper, is going to be at least three days, thanks King Godoth and his bureaucracy!"

Rotofu mouth opened wide, amazing, he had just thought that tiger plan was crazy then he noticed she had done it like that to slow down the ship they where going to send after them.

*End of chapter one

interesting...it was fun to read and i like the story pretty much....even thought i got to say that i dont like silbur, it looks like hes just quietly doing whatever aflan wants him to do.Aflan is pretty cool but her size irritates me a bit,okay shes a tiger and stuff but still.
Even if he just saida few words:till is my fav till now...i dont really know why ::)
oh yeah and i like how rotofus name is rotofu XD and the whole "has to play the pirate"-thing and the character itself is also great.
so at the moment I like till the best cause he seems to be the only one who dares to yell at aflan.
2nd is rotofu. 3rd is aflan....like i said,it irritates me that she is so big.4th is silbur

Thanks for the feedback, it was imposible to give much "screentime" to every character as this is only the first episode.