Blood and Gold: Ch. 4

Chapter 4

Basil didn’t remember much after they threw him back in the brig. Only that he must have passed out from the pain and exhaustion. When he woke up the next morning, he was thankful to find that the pain in his arm had lessened from a sharp excruciating pain to a dull throb. The sight of the bloody “R” burned through his fur and into his skin still nauseated him, not only because of the wound itself, but also because of what it stood for. Branded; like livestock. Now, even if he did manage to escape, anyone who saw the mark would know who he belonged to.

He shook his head and sighed wearily, leaning back against the bars of his cell. But then another smell caught his attention. To his surprise, Basil found a piece of bread and cup of water near the door. True, it was a bit stale, but at this point he didn’t care. He quickly snatched up the food and drink, downing the whole thing in seconds.

No sooner had he finished his tiny meal when the sound of footsteps reached his ears, and soon he was being half dragged up the steps and onto the deck, and was put to work with the rest of the crew. Luckily he knew what to do since he’d sailed under the Commodore himself.

However, as the weeks passed by, Basil found out that serving on a pirate crew turned out to be a bit more difficult than he anticipated; mostly because of the whip that the quartermaster kept cracking over their heads. The few times it made contact with Basil’s back took his breath away, but thankfully he learned pretty quickly. So long as he kept quiet and did his work well, he would stay out of trouble.

Basil was a solitary mouse, so he kept mostly to himself; but as he worked with the crew he began to learn more about them. He stayed away from Fidget, mostly because the creepy little bat made him uneasy, as well as Tommy and Jones, whose incessant arguing grated on his nerves. Bootstrap was usually scurrying up the rigging or up in the crow’s nest, so Basil didn’t come into contact with him much. The only one whose company he didn’t really mind was the helmsman, Justin, a young lad who, to Basil’s surprise, actually seemed to admire and look up to Ratigan.

Basil rarely saw the Captain himself, which he considered a blessing. Ratigan had refused to let Basil have a sword or knife yet, as he didn’t trust him, and certainly not a pistol. Basil didn’t blame him, because if he had a blade, he wouldn’t have hesitated to slip it between Ratigan’s ribs while he was sleeping, or put a bullet in his brain.

One day, Basil was swabbing the deck for the umpteenth time, his hands and knees rubbed raw from crawling about all day. He paused briefly and straightened his back, wincing as it cracked loudly.

“Missed a spot.”

Basil glared up at the source of the voice. It belonged to the first mate, who was reclining with his back against the mast, his feathered hat pulled down low; but not low enough to hide the smirk on his face. Basil muttered something under his breath, causing Ray to lift the hat and open his eye.

“What was that?” Ray asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Basil didn’t attempt to hide the sarcasm in his voice as he replied, “I said you must have amazing vision in that one eye of yours because I’ve scrubbed every inch of this hunk of wood— hey!” He had to jump back to avoid being hit with a wad of spit Ray directed toward him.

“Like I said, cabin boy,” Ray sneered, “You missed a spot.”

Enraged, Basil grabbed the nearest thing to him— which happened to be the filthy rag he was using to scrub the deck— wadded it up into a ball, and threw it with all his might at Ray’s head. Unfortunately, the mouse had settled back against the mast and pulled the hat back over his face, so he didn’t see the missile coming. Basil gave a satisfied smile as the rag thwacked against the side of Ray’s head, nearly causing him to lose his balance and fall from his perch.

Enraged, Ray leapt down to the deck with a growl. “You’ll pay for that!” Ray yelled, drawing his sword as he sprang at Basil. Since Ratigan had confiscated his weapons, Basil had to resort to grabbing the mop to defend himself. As Ray swiped down at his head, Basil used the handle of the mop to block, grunting as his hands stung from the impact of steel against wood. He jumped back as Ray swiped again, barely missing him, then swung the mop at Ray’s head. The mouse ducked just in the nick of time and struck at Basil’s leg, causing him to give out a sharp cry as the blade nicked his calf. Ray smiled darkly and continued his assault, driving Basil back.

However, Basil finally got a hit in and grinned as the mop handle made contact with Ray’s jaw. Temporarily stunned, Ray didn’t see it coming as Basil jabbed the mop into his ribs, causing the breath to whoosh out of him. He staggered backward a little bit and recovered just as Basil swung the mop at his head again, bringing his sword up to block. As he countered the blow, the force behind it caused his sword to cut clean through Basil’s mop, leaving two halves in his hand. Basil jumped as Ray swiped at him again, rolling forward and landing in front of Fidget, who yelped in surprise. As Ray ran at him, Basil quickly grabbed the stunned bat’s sword from his belt and blocked Ray’s attack. Fidget backed away nervously before running away, his peg leg clonking loudly against the deck.

By now the rest of the crew had gathered around to watch the fight, laughing and cheering the two opponents on, even placing bets on who they thought would win.

“Get the little runt, Lehmann!”

“Poke ‘is other eye out!”

“Cleave ‘im to the brisket!”

The two mice fought relentlessly, grunting and panting with effort as their weapons clashed together. Now that he was better equipped for the fight, Basil found it easier to parry Ray’s attacks, and he turned out to be quite the opponent for the Dane. However, Ray was the more experienced swordsmouse. Basil leapt back to avoid having his stomach sliced open, but tripped over a coil of rope and fell down hard. Before he could recover, Ray kicked his sword away and pointed his own at Basil’s chest.

“Looks like I win,” Ray said, a dark grin crossing his face as he pressed the blade closer to his heart.

Basil glared up at the first mate, gritting his teeth in aggravation before lowering his head in shame. But a sudden idea struck as his gaze fell on the bucket of dirty soap water he had been using to swab the deck. With a movement quick as lightning, he snatched the bucket up and threw the contents into Ray’s face.

“Agh!” Completely caught off guard, Ray spluttered and choked, clasping a paw over his eye as it burned from the soap. With his opponent temporarily blinded, Basil quickly took advantage of the distraction and hit Ray’s sword out of his hand, catching it deftly in the air with his other hand. Hissing in pain, Ray stumbled backward and fell down hard on his back. When he opened his eye, his mouth fell open in shock as he saw Basil holding both swords crossed at his throat, pinning him down.

“Think again, mate,” Basil replied with a smirk.

Hearing the row outside, the Captain, who had been trying to concentrate on charting a course, finally emerged from his cabin to see what all the commotion was about.

"What the blazes is going on here?" Ratigan growled.

"Lehmann is losing to the cabin-boy," said one from the crew piped up, causing the others to laugh.

"HOLD KÆFT!" Ray shouted back angrily.

"Is that true?" Ratigan asked, arching one eyebrow. The first-mate's face turned even more red in embarrassment. "You know very well that I don't want fights on my ship and that it's punished by what my mood now is to," the captain said looking seriously into the first-mate silver-grey eye.

"But--" Ray tried to defend himself.

"Is that understood, Mr. Lehmann?"

Flattening his ears against his head, Ray humbly replied, "Aye... sir."

“And you,” Ratigan said, turning to Basil. “Stirring up trouble again? I thought you would have learned your lesson by now, boy.”

Basil shook his head irately, pointing one sword at the first mate. “But he started--!”

“I don’t care who started it, I’ll bloody well finish it!” the rat yelled, snatching Basil by his shirt collar and swiftly relieving him of both swords before he could use them again. "Now ALL of you, back to work!" he shouted, shoving Basil forward.

The crew hastily did as commanded, leaving the rat and red mouse alone. "Heh heh, maybe I should reconsider my crew, when my first-mate loses to the cabin-boy,” Ratigan chuckled, tossing Ray’s sword at his feet before going back to his place.

Feeling his cheeks still burning from being completely humiliated in front of the crew, Ray retrieved his sword and placed it back in his belt. As he knelt down to pick up his hat, he glanced back at Basil, who was back on his hands and knees, taking his frustrations out by scrubbing the floor vigorously. He reluctantly admitted he had underestimated the mouse, who now posed a threat to his position; the only thing Ray had left. He would have to keep a closer eye on this one.

“This isn’t over yet, cabin boy,” Ray growled as he passed by Basil on the way to the helm. Basil glared back, his emerald eyes staring up into Ray’s steel gray one. When Ray was gone, he sighed in frustration. The last thing he needed right now was another rival. Now he feared he had two enemies instead of one. Which would make escape even harder.