Kaboom!

 

I jump awake to the blasting sounds of cannon fire cannon fire from above deck.

[What in the hell is going on up there?]

 

And almost as if to answer my question, I hear another cannon blast in the distance, soon followed by a large ball of metal tearing a hole right through our hull. The cell next to mine was demolished by that one blast, killing most of the prisoners inside at once, the humans.

 

Well fuck.

 

The rest of the humans are all stirring into a panic after having witnessed that, clinging to the bars and calling out for the guard, begging him to release them from these death traps. It's no use though, the guard doesn't even open the door to check on us. Though it's not as if he can let us out anyways, what's he got to do but wait for this to blow over and assess the damages.

 

"Mars!. .Mars!!"  In the confusion I hadn't even realised that Hati had been calling out to me. She's pressed up against the bars calling me over, trying to snap me out of my stupor.  I snap out of it and move quickly to her side.

When I'm over Hati quickly grabs my hand and ushers me to sit down together with her next to the bars, trying to make ourselves a smaller target and hoping that they could shield us from some of the larger of the flying debris that took out the other prisoners.

 

We just sit there as the cannon fire continues, explosions of wood and metal tearing through the ship from both sides, occasionally crushing a few unlucky prisoners nearby. But what makes things worse is that at some point smoke started seeping through the cracks in the floor, stinging our eyes and making breathing difficult.

And I really don't want to think about what a fire's about to do to this old wooden ship.

 

And as I'm watching the smoke and flames rise through the floor, the wall bursts open behind me. With a deafening crash a large cannon ball tears through room, smashing right into my cell door on the other side and tearing it apart.

 

After a bit of jostling from Hati I recover from the shock of what just happened. [Here's my chance, we're not going to burn in here!]

 

I make to run for the door but I'm stopped by Hati still holding onto my hand, she won't let go.

"Hati what are you doing!? We need to get those keys!" I ask, trying to pull my hand free.

"You're going to get yourself killed." She argues, and she's probably right, but a sword is still better than burning along with this ship.

"I'll be fine!" I exclaim, still struggling against her grip. [Just how strong is this woman anyways!?]

"Relax, cub. I'll let you go, I just need to know you're not going to get yourself killed first", she says.

 

Hati finally lets go of my hand after showing me a few things and I walk over to the cell door, carefully stepping through the twisted metal frame.

Gently headed towards the stairs the guard came down from, I'm not worried about making any noise since there's currently an active battle going on, not to mention all the screaming behind me. I just really don't want to trip over these damn chains again.

 

As I'm about to peek my head up over the stairs another loud blast sounds off and several smaller cannonballs pepper the room, mincing the walls with blood. I hear a brief groan coming from the room and I finally peek up to see the guard from before, minus a few bits. I couldn't describe the scene, those things are just too brutal. .

 

I walk up to the guard quickly before another round comes my way, searching him for the keys without looking up at the mess. I find them tied around his belt and I try to use my claws like Hati showed me, cleanly tearing through the leather cord. I quickly snatch the keys and undo my shackles before turning back toward the stairs.

 

I get down and smoke has filled most of the room at this point, the flames having made it to this level. Hati calls out to me and I rush to her cell, quickly opening her door and undoing her shackles.

"you actually managed it, I'm honestly a little proud", Hati boasts.

 

The other prisoners are also calling out at this point, "Hey little guy, let us out too, yeah?! Even just give us the keys since you're done, please!!"

I walk over to the nearest group, I throw the keys to them and they quickly get to work unlocking their own shackles.

 

I run back over to Hati, she's standing by the hole in my cell holding two large boxes. She shoves one in my arms, "Hold onto this for your life" she says. I hardly have the time to question it before she roughly pushes me through the hole, overboard.

 

I hit the water hard but I've somehow managed to hold onto my crate. The wind's been knocked out of me but luckily the box floats very well, and since im rather small it can support most of my weight, keeping me almost out of the water.

 

I hear another loud splash behind me and as I look over I see Hati coming out of the water holding onto the other box and some rope. She calls out and paddles my way.

 

As she's paddling over I get a look at the ship we were on, and boy it was huge. Nothing too fancy or decorative, just very large.

 

There are two other ships circling the one we came from, they're much more ornate in design. The  two ships are far smaller in comparison, but loaded to the teeth with weapons, and clearly much faster. I assume this is the local navy judging by the proudly flown matching flags.

 

Most of the larger ship is on fire at this point, and on the upper deck I even see some soldiers stripping off their gear and jumping overboard. However some are less willing to take their chances with the sea and surrender to the smaller two, a flag is raised and the cannon fire stops.

Some planks are set to get the crew off as the ship burns down around them, already half-sunken.

 

Hati finally makes it over and pulls out a rope from somewhere, tying us and our crates tightly together so can we move better and don't drift apart.

"come on now cub, we can't stop yet. We've got to get out of here before those ships spot us, and there's a whole lot of paddling to do before we reach that shore."

 

As we drift off I can see some of the other prisoners jumping through holes from the lower decks, some managed to grab a box on time, others weren't so lucky. I think I can see a few fighting over one even. .

 

From the screaming and the new holes in the walls I could tell there were a lot more rooms full of prisoners on that ship, they really had it filled to capacity; There's no way they've all made it out, probably still in there, still screaming. .

 

Seems like slavery would be legal in most places, but I guess these guys were trying to skirt around the rules somehow? Either way it's bitten us all in the backside here.

 

I try not to think about it as I paddle on my box, watching the coast grow closer.