My Name is Jonas (Lady Tara Starblade)

[Substitute Author]

"Come sit next to me,
Pour yourself some tea.
Just like Grandma made
When we couldn't find sleep.
Things were better then,
Once but never again.
We've all left the den.
Let me tell you 'bout it."

Something abrasive and gritty pressed against the side of Doctor Jonas Lowri's face. He stirred, wincing as his sea-battered flesh scraped against the cold sand. The pine marten's heavy lids slowly opened to see a dark shape standing over him, the glint of steel in its paws.

"Sableclaw! What are you doing?" he croaked.

The black rat sheathed her long dagger with a grunt of annoyance. "Oh. You're awake. Thank the bloody Fates," she said flatly.

"What were you doing with that knife?"

"None o' your business, Cap'n!" Sableclaw snapped.

She stalked away and Doctor Lowri sat up, groaning as his limbs ached with every movement. Lowri shuddered slightly, glad he'd come to when he did. He wished the Emperor hadn't assigned him to Sableclaw's ship. Corsairs generally made him feel a tad uneasy, but he'd always been a little terrified of the black searat. Unfortunately all of Malachite's fleet had been off on raids at the time, save for the Black Brine, so there really hadn't been much choice in the matter.

Lowri wondered what the fate of the brigantine had been. The answer became clear within a few seconds' observation. Assorted flotsam littered the pebbly beach all around the various recovering bodies. Sableclaw had rounded the oarslaves up, and thankfully that big badger was still out. His chains were still intact, and someone had driven the shattered half of the oar that they were connected to into the ground.

After a few moments the pine marten got to his footpaws rather shakily and began looking for his daughter, picking his way carefully through the mass of shattered timber and groggy figures. Dyera Lowri lay on her back in the sand as one of the crewbeasts attempted to revive her. Jonas checked that all her vitals were in order, and though he wanted so desperately to stay by her side until she awoke, he knew that as captain he had other, more pressing responsibilities.

Dawn had just barely broken, and the grey light cast a definite pall over the scene. Their expedition had failed. He, Jonas Lowri, had failed his crew, his family, and his Emperor. With a pang of loneliness mingled with fear, the marten thought of his wife, Lourna, and baby son, Hugo, waiting at home for their return. Would they ever? Lowri could only hope his messenger bird had survived, and if it had, that it would find him soon.

It was obvious at a glance that they were nowhere near Sampetra still. But where were they?

Lowri inspected their surroundings a bit better, wishing he had some dry parchment to take notes with. The beach was fairly narrow between the sea and the high cliffs inland. Craning his neck, the marten could see what looked to be a great stone building of some kind perched atop the cliff. Perhaps they weren't doomed after all. But getting up onto that cliff would be their first task. The rock face looked unrelenting, but there must be a path or passage somewhere.

Doctor Lowri didn't even notice the rat standing at his side until it tugged on his sleeve. The marten jumped. This was no crewbeast. The unfamiliar creature was one of the skinniest rats Lowri had ever laid eyes on, and he was clad in a rough brown tunic belted with some sort of kelp rope cowl.

"Oh! And who might you be?" Doctor Lowri asked.

"Fluffytail talk funny," the rat said.

"Er, what?"

"Who is that?" Sableclaw demanded from across the beach. The searat strode across the littered sands, kicking timber and creatures aside indiscriminately. "Who is it?" she repeated, glaring at the scrawnier rat.

"I don't know," said Doctor Lowri patiently. "Who are you, friend?"

"I Nikku. We sees ship sink, so we waits 'til light time, then I comes out to bring you to Safe Place!"

"We? There's more of you?" Sableclaw asked.

Nikku stared at Sableclaw curiously. "Fat rat talk funny too. You come Safe Place now!"

"Fat? I ain't--"

"Do you mean that building up there, Nikku?" Doctor Lowri interjected over Sableclaw's indignant sputtering.

"Yes yes, come now! Not safe here."

"Not safe? What ever do you mean?" asked Doctor Lowri.

The rat's eyes widened and he began to shudder slightly. "E-evil," he stammered.

Sableclaw and Doctor Lowri exchanged glances, then turned back at Nikku, who continued to shake, his bony paws rubbing together furiously.

~

Something about the strange rat's behavior had compelled Lowri to follow him. The beast looked as though he were truly terrified by something. Once the survivors had recovered sufficiently and all that could be salvaged was packed up, they followed the pine marten and Nikku along the beach. Sableclaw took up the rear, her fearsome scimitar out, daring any of the former oarslaves to try and desert.

They finally rounded a bend and reached a cove. Piles of driftwood lay all over the rocky ground. Nikku took them a bit beyond the cove, and showed them a steep pathway winding up the cliff face. It took a while for all of them to make it to the top, and Sableclaw had to snarl more than a few dark curses to keep the tired and underfed oarslaves going, but eventually they made it and stopped to take a bit of a breather.

Doctor Lowri inspected their surroundings. He supposed he could kind of tell what the rat meant by "evil," as this wasn't the most desirable of islands to land on. There were hills dotted sparsely with grass, gorse, and a few other wildflowers, but not a lot else. It was also eerily silent save the light wind ruffling his fur and the panting and gasping of the Black Brine's former crew and slaves.

Carrying on, Nikku brought them around to the south wall of the stone structure, in the middle of which was a large, crudely constructed driftwood door. A large stone fort towered over the southwest corner of the wall. A smile crept slowly over Doctor Lowri's face as recognition began to dawn on him.

Nikku waved to a rat on top of the wall, who turned and signaled to someone down below on the other side. Slowly the door creaked open, and Nikku led the way inside. Many gardens had been planted across the grounds, though not much appeared to be growing at the moment. Barrels and gourds had been set up to catch rainwater. Gaunt rats passed by the group of newcomers, eyeing them all warily and not venturing too close as they went about their various errands. All the rats were dressed in the same rags and carried driftwood javelins, plus whatever actual weapons they'd been able to scavenge from flotsam and jetsam that washed up on Terramort's shores.

It was when Jonas spied the shattered north wall, which had been patched inexpertly with a mixture of driftwood, rocks, and other solid material, that he gave a triumphant shout of laughter. Every island rat within hearing range squeaked and cowered.

"Why make big noise? Scare us all, Fluffytail," Nikku whimpered.

"I'm sorry. And my name is Jonas, not Fluffytail. I've just realized where we are."

Dyera clutched her father's arm excitedly. "Ooh, where?"

"Terramort, my dear. This used to be quite the searat haven. And this fort is named Bladegirt. I had always assumed this island was deserted. Dear oh dear, we must really have gone off course to have hit Terramort instead of Sampetra."

Nikku shook his head furiously. "Too much funny talk! Come with me, we see chief."

~

Fort Bladegirt's once proud banquet hall was now only a shadow of its former glory.  The floor stones had been rubbed clean of their smoke stains by countless footpaws, but the walls and ceiling still were coated black. All the doors had been replaced by the same kind of makeshift driftwood one at the south wall.

The Chieftain of the rats was a bit taller than the others, though not any less skinny. "My name Obligo!" he announced to them all.

"It's good to meet you, Obligo. My name is Jonas, this is Sableclaw, my daughter Dyera, and this is my crew."

Obligo cocked his head curiously to the side. "Why you tie up them?" He pointed to the oarslaves.

"Oh, er, because they're our slaves."

"Sl...slaaaves? What slaaaves?"

"Well, you know," Lowri flustered, "they sort of. Serve us. They do things for us."

"You not do things yourself?"

"No, we do, but..."

"They like be tied up?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that precisely, but..."

"Then why you tie up them?" Obligo repeated.

"Because it's our business an' not yours!" Sableclaw snapped.

"YOU!"

An ancient rat, her heavily painted, tattooed, and pierced flesh hanging off her gaunt limbs, tottered over to the party, shaking a gnarled and twisted wooden staff with many strange charms tied to it with kelp rope.

"Me?" asked Doctor Lowri.

"Wakeeha see you before. See you in her head! See all of you!" Wakeeha began dancing an eerie jig in front of them, the charms of her staff clacking and tinkling furiously. The pine marten was surprised by the amount of agility the old creature still had.

"You have many troubles ahead!" she intoned, crouching low and swaying back and forth, then standing and doing an odd hop-skip from paw to paw, her aged body writhing ceaselessly as she hummed a tuneless song.

Suddenly she stood rigid, the song ended, her wide and yet unseeing eyes fixed on the party as words gushed from her mouth like water through a shattered dam. "Many troubles! Many big troubles! Many hurt! Many bloods! Many dead!"

"Daddy?" Dyera whimpered, clutching her father's arm once again. "I'm kind of scared."

"Not to worry dear, pay no attention to the rat's words. There's nothing at all logical to support them," the pine marten murmured back.

Still, even as he spoke, Doctor Lowri couldn't help but feel an inexplicable chill run down his spine.

~

In the end, the rats had allowed them to stay, but fervently pleaded with them not to venture outside the "Safe Place." That was out of the question for the moment anyway, and they spent the next three days resting and getting their bearings. Doctor Lowri had managed to salvage parchment, ink, and quill, and began taking all kinds of notes on Terramort, the fort, the plants, the rats, all kinds of things.

Lowri was overjoyed when he awoke on the third morning to find his messenger bird, a black-backed gull named Kakeel, perched on the window sill of his room. He quickly scribed a letter explaining everything to the Emperor, said his goodbyes to Kakeel, and watched as the bird flew off into the distance.

"Sir! Cap'n!"

A stoat hurried into Lowri's room. The marten turned. "What is it, Domlin?"

"It's Dyera, Cap'n!" he panted. "She's missin'!"

Lowri's heart plummeted into his stomach. "What?"

"Sableclaw said she saw her slippin' out o' the fort early this mornin'!"

The marten donned his red cloak. "Where is Sableclaw now?"

"In the banquet hall," said Domlin, "but why?"

"Because I'm going to kill her."

Sableclaw saw her slipping out? Not likely! That rat had had it in for the pair of them since day one, and now she was going to pay dearly for booting his daughter out alone into an unknown, most likely dangerous environment.

Lowri stormed down the steps into the banquet hall, where the rest of the crew and the slaves had been camping. Sableclaw sat against the wall, eating some sort of gruel from a gourd, her face twisting distastefully.

"What d'you want?" she sneered.

Lowri didn't answer. Instead he kicked her in the side as hard as he could. Sableclaw roared in pain, stumbling to her footpaws. Her scimitar was at Lowri's neck in a trice. All other activity ceased in the hall, and a deathly hush fell over all present.

"Y' crazy hellspawn!" The rat snarled. "I ought to take your head off right now!"

"Wouldn't be hard for you, would it, murderer!" Lowri yelled. "You sent my daughter to her death!"

"I didn't do nothin', you clod! I on'y saw her leavin'!"

Domlin managed to separate the pair of them, though they continued to glare daggers at each other. Sableclaw kept her scimitar in full evidence; Lowri struggled to regain his composure, though his paws shook with rage.

"You're going to find her," he said, his voice verging on a growl. "You're going to find my daughter and bring her back to me."

"I'll do no such--"

"I order you to find her!" Lowri shouted.

As the last echoes faded, Sableclaw scowled darkly. The rat was silent for a moment, then slowly she said through gritted teeth, "Yes. Of course. Captain."

She turned and stiffly marched away, tail whipping furiously back and forth behind her. Doctor Lowri knew he couldn't send her alone; if she didn't actually have it out for them before, she certainly did now. He had to send someone on this expedition that could be trusted. Jonas allowed himself the faintest of smiles. He knew just the beast.