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The most daring escape in the history of escapes is made, as well as a murder attempt.

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As soon as the door to Pil’s workspace was closed, Pil whirled on the four. “I have a plan! No, don’t sing my praises until you’ve heard it!”
He threw chairs at them and once they were all seated, Pil launched into his explanation. “Ok! I have Drifrasa’s Dagger, it’s in the lobby being polished. All we have to do is wheel it up the hill and down the other side, to the docks!”
Marten stopped him, having very little knowledge of geography. “Wait, we’re near the ocean?”
Pil nodded impossibly fast. “Yeah! Yeah! And there’s a huge dock with ships aplenty! There’s bound to be one fully loaded and ready to depart.”
Kathresh grinned. “Stealing a ship? This ought to be fun.”
Marten cut in. “Wait a minute, that’s all well and good for you, but what about me? I need to liberate Frostblight, not sail away!”
Pil poked him in the nose. “It’s all taken care of, Marten! You’ll see! It’s genius!”
Marten frowned. “That’s not good enough.”
“Oh, come on, Marten! Let it be a surprise!”
He sighed. “Fine. But if whatever it is is not satisfactory, I’m turning the ship around and sailing back to the capitol.”
“Fine! Fine! Whatever! Now, there’s something I wanted to give to you, Arbalest. A gift for bringing this back to me.”
Arbalest was about to ask ‘for bringing what back’ when Pil reached into Arbalest’s cloak and pulled out the wood thing with the metal tube sticking out of it. He raised an eyebrow. “What is that, anyway? It’s been bugging me this whole time.”
“This, my friend, id Drifrasa’s Toothpick.”
The four blinked slowly in unison, clearly not impressed. Pil shrugged. “What? They can’t always be winners, you know.”
Pil shook his head and turned around, rummaging in a chest. He took out a large pouch and an identical object to the one Arbalest had. He gave both to Arbalest. “They’re smaller versions of the Dagger. Let me show you how to work it.”
From the pouch he pulled am animal horn with a stopper in it. It was very deep, and when he opened it, there was a foul smell. Arbalest eyed it suspiciously. “What is that?”
Marten stepped back. “It’s very dangerous, is what it is. Fire in solid form.”
Arbalest watched carefully as Pil poured the powder into a small receptacle in one of the Drifrasa’s Toothpicks. He then pulled a wad of paper from the pouch and ripped off a small quantity. Using a stick attached to the outside of the pouch, he rammed the paper down into the tube, then pulled out a round stone from the pouch and rammed that down too. He then handed the thing to Arbalest very gingerly. Arbalest took it and turned it over in his paws. “Um, what am I supposed to do with this?”
Pil pointed towards a wooden board that was nailed to the wall. “Point the end towards whatever you want to put a hole in, and press that button!”
Arbalest snorted. “Oh, alright. Sure.”
He aimed at the wooden plank, pushed the button and click! Springs inside the toothpick sprang to life, slamming the two sparking rocks together violently. Sparks poured into a tiny funneled hole in the side of the toothpick, igniting the powder. With a bang a column of smoke erupted from the end of the toothpick, and Arbalest stumbled back, dropping the toothpick and holding his paw in pain. “… Whoa…”
Marten laughed, and uncovered his ears. “See!? Amazing, isn’t it?”
Arbalest walked through the smoke and examined the wall. The ball was lodged deep into the wood. The hole smoked a little. “This is incredible! Pil, you’re a genius!”
Pil smiled. “Don’t I know it. Now, let’s rest here for a few minutes (I’ve not had my lunch, you see) and then we’ll head out on that escaping business. Oh! And you keep that pouch and those Drifrasa’s Toothpicks, Arbalest. You’ll probably put them to better use than me.”
Arbalest’s eyes widened. “Thank you… But can I rename them?”
“What’s so wrong about Drifrasa’s Toothpick?”
“How about Drifrasa’s Tooth?”
Pil laughed. “Now that’s genius.”

~~~

Tezar and Zik strolled along the streets, having no luck whatsoever. Tezar kicked a stone across the street. “I’m sure we would have found something in the last house we searched. I had that gut feeling. Guess not…”
“We’ll find them… Hey, what’s going on there?”
Father Abbot of the church of Laroja was stepping out of the church, accompanied by a soldier. The church building itself was rather unassuming, but the father was not. He was very, very tall, and wore the same gray robes the brothers wore, except he wore a folded cloth cap. It was vibrant red, and framed his face perfectly. It was unclear exactly which sub-species he was, though he was some sort of feline. His eyes blazed red, and when he looked at you it was as if you were catching fire. However, his face had a sort of paternal warmth to it, the kind of look you see in someone’s face and everything seems like it’ll turn out alright in the end. His face that day, however, was marred with a frown. He stopped Tezar and Zik. “You two, there are a couple of impostors about. Bring your soldiers, we need to arrest them.”
“Wait, we have a job of our own you know.”
The soldier who was with the father held up one of the newly completed wanted posters. “They were dragging him along on a rope.”
Tezar turned around. “Let’s go. Quickly now!”

~~~

Around the same time Harimau and Rita were being dragged through the streets by a couple of slave drivers, after being handed over by the patrol. They were tied tight, gagged and totally unable to resist the two cackling felines. One pulled on Rita’s ropes and made her stumble. He laughed. “Come on! The hill’s not that steep!”
Harimau growled low in his chest, but neither feline took much notice. The climb wasn’t steep, that was true, but both travelers were worn ragged and tied awkwardly. Soon they would be separated, Harimau to a ship and Rita to the palace.

~~~

Pil poked his head out of the door, burped, and ducked back inside. “Clear. C’mon.”
Having gathered supplies, weapons and other supplies together, the five escapees walked casually down towards the lobby. Off the spiral stairs they took a right, and entered a circular room with many hallways leading off from it. Against one wall was a strange sight. Drifrasa’s Dagger sat there, in a sort of train. It had three sections, one for various sorts of ammunition (contained withing a huge crate on the cart), one for the powder (contained in a less huge masonry jar), and one for the metal body of Drifrasa’s Dagger. It wasn’t as big as Marten had imagined, but it was still a sight to see. Pil ran up to it and chased off the last blacksmith. “I told you you had the day off! We’re going to take this to the king now, so run along!”
The blacksmith yawned and grumbled as he trudged away. Pil ran his paw along Drifrasa’s Dagger’s body, and chuckled. “It’s perfect.”
“It’s heavy looking.” Arbalest said.
Pil gave it an experimental push. “Ung! … It rolls fine.”
Kathresh picked up one of a pair of ropes attached to Drifrasa’s Dagger’s main carriage and beckoned. “It’s going to take all of us to move this thing. Come on, we don’t have all day.”
Marten grabbed the other rope as Bronze, Pil and Arbalest positioned themselves on the sides of the carriage. With one mighty push, the wooden train began to move. Kathresh and Marten steered it towards the hall as they slowly built up momentum. Marten grumbled. “This is a terrible idea…”
Pil was puffing already. “Not… at all… I came up with it… so it’s perfectly sane!”
“Flawless logic.” Arbalest muttered.
Soon they got Drifrasa’s Dagger to the door. Marten made sure his hood was down all the way before opening it. Pil brushed by him before he could try and talk to the guards outside. “Hey!”
The guards turned around. One spoke up. “Yes?”
“We’re filling an order made by the king. I’m taking it up to him now, so if you don’t mind scooching over a bit…”
The guards shifted out of the way and Pil gestured to the others. They pushed Drifrasa’s Dagger out into the street, and made sure it wouldn’t roll down the hill. One of the guards approached Marten. “Wait a second… We can’t let you leave yet, t-there’s something-”
Marten snapped his jaw at the guard. “Whatever it is I’m sure it’s not as important as this!”
The guard stepped back and cowered. He knew he would catch hell if he let potential impostors go, but he deemed it not worth the risk. He watched as they began hauling the thing up the hill, towards the palace. They were already near the top, but Drifrasa’s Dagger was so heavy they barely made much progress with it. Bronze grunted as he got another paw forward. “I agree with Marten… Ung! … This plan may have some flaws we could have worked out.”
Pil hissed at him. “We can’t leave without Drifrasa’s Dagger! We can’t risk it.”
Kathresh had little trouble with her load. “We can make it, as long as no one-”
“THERE!”
Bronze looked back, wide eyed. “Oh, crap! It’s those trackers! Run!”

Tezar spotted them and yelled. As soon as she did, everyone broke out into a run. Father Abbot bared his fangs. “Impersonating brothers of the church! I will strangle you with your own entrails for this!”
Tezar felt the anger rise within her once again, and she snarled, putting on a burst of speed. “MARTEN!”

Their pursuers had motivated the group to push Drifrasa’s Dagger much faster, and they were almost at the crest of the hill. Marten could almost feel Tezar’s claws digging into his back, as though she was jumping on him. His fur stood up, and he clenched his teeth, pulling with all his might. Within seconds they were on the top of the hill, overlooking a breathtaking sight, one they had no time to appreciate. “What now?!” Bronze panted.
Marten looked behind him. The door guards, their trackers and Father Abbot were charging up the street fast. They would be there in no more than a minute. To his right was the path to the palace, further up. Before him was a very straight shot through the city directly towards the blue-green ocean. He could see people in the way, but he would have to risk it. He had a plan. “Get on!”
Arbalest looked at him in confusion. “Get on what?!”
“The Dagger! Jump on!”
Arbalest jumped and perched on the masonry jar, while Pil and Bronze climbed into the ammunition crate. Kathresh straddled the cylinder of Drifrasa’s Dagger and clung on for dear life. “Marten, this is a terrible idea!”
He pulled on both ropes. Painfully slowly, the train began to crest the hill. When more than half of it was over the top, it began to roll on it’s own. Pil glanced back down the street. “Marten!?”
“Here we go!”

~~~

Myri hadn’t had a full night’s sleep in days, so it was no wonder she slept so long. She woke up slowly, not thinking about much. The events of the previous night slowly wafted into her mind, and she smiled to herself. As more details emerged, her feeling of satisfaction slowly turned to fear. He arm reached out for Redrick, but he was not there. She jumped up, throwing sheet, blanket and pillow aside in a fruitless attempt to uncover him. She fell out of bed, scrambled to get some clothes on and dashed out of the room.

Redrick placed the food onto the table and began setting it. He watched the Regent out of the corner of his eye, waiting for his chance to strike. The shiv weighed heavily in his clothes. “What did you bring this morning, Redrick?”
“Just what was being served, sir. Glout spiced with pepper flowers and steamed arrowroot. Oh, and alcoholic cordial, sir.”
The regent grinned. “My favorite.”
He walked over and sat to Redrick’s right, his back to the door. “Excuse me, sir.”
The regent nodded. “Yes, go on. Get out of here.”
Redrick walked for the door quietly, then stopped and turned to the regent’s exposed back. He took a step forward, but faltered, Did he really want to do this? He stood there, watching the regent eat, then glanced at the open door. He could leave right then, and return to Myri. He very much wanted to, but in captivity, what kind of life could they live? Indeed, what kind of life could they live with the regent dead? Even if he wasn’t caught, they would just bring in another and start a witch hunt. He then thought of Fray, a much smarter man than him. He thought of what he tried to do, and stepped towards the regent once more. What Fray had tried, and failed to do, was the right thing. This time, however, he would get it right. He slipped out the shiv, raised it above his head and thrusted- “Say, Red- ARRG!”
The regent half turned in his chair, and instead of being stabbed in the back of the neck, the shiv was driven instead into his shoulder with a sickening squelch. Redrick jumped back as the regent roared in pain. He made a run for the door, but bumped into the night watchmen and slavemaster as they entered the room with haste. “There he is!”
“Get him!”
Redrick backed up, and tripped as the two advanced on him. He felt the regent’s claws dig savagely into his back. “You backstabbing canine bastard!”
Redrick cried out in pain at the regent lifted him by the shoulders. He managed to speak through the pain. “I’m a bastard?! I’m not the one who reduced Myri to a scarred hopeless mess!”
The regent dug deeper, the shiv still embedded in his shoulder. “She deserved it. Her only purpose was for my amusement, and she was more trouble than she was worth! I would have killer her by now if public sympathy wasn’t so high.”
Redrick spat on the regent’s shirt. The regent recoiled sightly, then grimaced. “Alright, you…”
The slavemaster and night watchmen looked on in amusement as the regent opened the window and stepped onto the balcony. It was then that Myri appeared in the doorway. She saw the three felines with their backs turned and froze in place. The regent dangled Redrick from the balcony. Myri saw him look down and tense up. It was a long, long way to the snowy floor below. The regent brought his face close it Redrick’s. “What did you hope to gain?” He simply asked.
Redrick looked to the door, and met Myri’s eyes. He mouthed something as the regent let go. It was all she could do to not scream as Redrick dropped like a stone in water. She heard a thump, and then silence. The watchman and slavemaster stepped forward and looked over the edge. “Ouch.” one said.
The regent straightened up and began to turn. Myri ran. She ran down the hall and chose a door. The linen closet. She threw herself onto the floor and curled up into a ball. She cried so hard she could barely breathe.

The regent gritted his teeth as the shiv was removed. “Someone go down there and get his body. I don’t want anyone finding it.”

~~~

At first, Marten ran out in front of Drifrasa’s Dagger, still pulling it. But soon it picked up enough speed to catch up with him, and he was forced to jump onto the cylinder with Kathresh. He landed with all four limbs clinging to the cylinder, and with his back turned on the ocean. Kathresh’s windswept face looked terrified as they gathered speed. “Marten!”
“What!?”
“How do we seer this thing?!”
He flipped himself around and saw that they were drifting slightly to the right. They broke up a crowd of felines as Marten pulled out his sword. He held it to the ground on the left side, and steered them away from the right buildings with flying sparks. Arbalest had plenty of room on the masonry jar, but he wasn’t stingy with using it, sprawling as securely as he could. He looked behind them as their pursuers crested the hill at a run. They were quickly getting further and further away, however. He looked forward. They were gaining way too much speed. “Slow us down! We’re going to crash!”
Kathresh followed Marten’s example. Grabbing the sword from him, she drew her own and dug both into the stone on either side of them. She almost lost control of the train, but she managed to slow them some. Not enough to make the ride safe, though. Another group of screaming civilians jumped out of the way as they thundered down the road towards the ocean.

Harimau stumbled, and fell to the ground. The slaver tugged on his ropes. “Come on! We need to get you two to the palace for processing, no time to… What’s that?”
The slavers dropped their lines and moved to either side of the road. Harimau jumped up with some difficulty, to see Drifrasa’s Dagger barreling towards them. He had been working on freeing his gag, and he chose now to spit it out. “Rita! Jump on that thing!”
She had no time to argue. Harimau tensed up, and a split second before the thing passed, he jumped, landing in the masonry jar with a thump. He almost rolled off, but Arbalest grabbed him. “Whoa! Who the hell are you?!”
“I’m a friend! Rita!?”
Rita was in the ammunition box, in a heap with Bronze and Pil. Pil poked his head out of the pile of their bodies. “This isn’t part of the plan! Who is this woman?!”
Bronze pulled her upright and pulled out her gag. “I’m Rita! Nice to meet you!”
She looked forward. “AHHHHH!”
In a shower of splinters and round green vegetables they rammed into and demolished a flimsy food stand, the owner yelling after them. Marten sat up and brushed splinters off himself. “What’s going on back there?!”
Kathresh steered clear of another group of people. “We have some visitors!”
Marten had no time to worry about that, so he kept his eyes glued straight ahead. Soon they could see a huge crowd. A problem. “Kathresh?!”
“I don’t think I can get around them!”
Marten started yelling at the top of his lungs. “Hey! Get out of the way! OUT OF THE WAAAAAAY!”
The group of people began shuffling to one side. The slope of the road became less severe, and their speed slowed significantly as they passed Marten looked at the people. The sight sent a shock through him. They looked like refugees, starving, tired, and broken. Some had no clothes, others were thin and frail, and most had some wound or another. A startling portion of them had burns on their bodies. All were felines. Marten looked back at Kathresh. Her eyes were closed, and he could see tears flying out behind her. He looked back to their front, gulping. The docks weren’t too far off. After rolling another few hundred feet, Kathresh stopped them altogether, and they sat there for a moment. Marten tumbled off the cylinder and groaned. “I have the worst plans… uuhhhh.”
Harimau jumped off, his ropes freed by Arbalest. “Thanks for the ride. Where are you headed?”
Pil pointed wildly. The docks were huge. Where the rocks met water a huge wooden boardwalk had been constructed, with piers for ships to dock and plenty of space for moving cargo around. The ship Pil pointed too was a big one, three tiers of oars, three massive sails, a catapult and smaller scorpio (large swivel crossbow). Harimau shrugged. “Alright. Sounds good to me!”
Bronze hopped out of the crate and drew his blade. “Um, we’re going to have company soon…”
Up the street, the uproar made by the trackers had alerted the dock guards to the runaways, and they now advanced. Kathresh tossed Marten his sword. “You guys get that thing aboard, we’ll hold ‘em off.”
Arbalest was having some trouble loading his Tooth. “I’ll be there in a moment…”
Rita, Harimau and Pil pushed Drifrasa’s Dagger towards the loading ramp. Harimau was pulled. “Sir, why do we have to take this thing?”
“It’s important! Now get pushing!”
The guards clumped together and came at them in groups of five. Kathresh backed up slowly, and the others followed. “There’s too many…”
They attacked, and it was all they could do to parry and stave off their wheeling blades. One jumped for Marten, but there was a loud report. The guard didn’t seem to notice until he was flat on his face, having missed Marten. He tried to get up, but blood was pooling around him. Arbalest fired the second Tooth into another group, and one fell. The guards regrouped, wary of Arbalest’s weapon. Soon they realize he could no longer fire, and charged. The defenders ran to the loading ramp, backs to the laboring Harimau, Rita and Pil. The guards could not advance up the plank en masse, and fought a stalemate sword fight with the three. As soon as Drifrasa’s Dagger was on board, Harimau took hold of the loading ramp and yelled. “Get on!”
As he heaved it over the edge, Marten, Arbalest, Bronze and Kathresh were just able to jump on the ship in time. Marten ran to the sails and began wildly flailing about with the ropes. “How do we cast off?!”
Kathresh knew nothing of ships. “I don’t know!”
Harimau and Rita were pulling up the anchor, and Bronze was pacing the deck. A crossbow bolt wizzed by, and he hit the deck. ”Everybody down!”
There was a rush for cover, and Harimau was almost hit and he threw the anchor onto deck, then dove for it himself. Bronze thought he heard something below decks. A cough. He dragged himself to the door and snuck inside. After descending a flight of stairs, he arrived in the bowels of the ship. Before him were the unblinking faces of hundreds of oar slaves. “Um… We’re stealing this ship.”
One shrugged. “Fine by us. Long as we go free.”
Bronze nodded. “Yeah, but we need to get out of the harbor first. Mind giving us a paw?”
The man grinned. “Alright, boys! Let’s row, this time for our freedom!”
There was a cheer, and everyone went for their oars. With a mighty heave that almost sent Bronze toppling, they were underway. Above deck, Some felines had jumped on board, and a battle was taking place. Harimau was dodging swipes from one, unable to defend himself because of a lack of a weapon. The feline made a particularly bold swipe, and Harimau was able to punch his face so hard he tumbled off the side and into the drink. Kathresh dispatched another as more bolts wizzed by. “We’re moving? How!?”
Bronze came up on deck. “This vessel is fully loaded - rowers and all!”
Rita cheered. “Ya! Thank Drifrasa!”
Soon the bolts began falling to the water, and the archers stopped wasting bolts. The fighters gathered in a circle, the felines disposed of. Harimau smiled and placed a paw on Rita’s shoulder. “Now that that’s all out of the way, my name is Harimau, and this is Rita. We’re survivors of a feline ambush just south of frostblight. We journeyed to the capitol to warn out brethren of our failure, but… well we can’t do that now.”
Rita spoke up. “We were caught outside the city. Thanks for rolling by.”
Marten nodded. “No trouble. We need every paw we can get.”
She walked over to the railing, catching her breath for a moment. “Where are we headed?”
Marten looked over at Pil. “Yes, where are we headed?”
Pil smiled. “Let’s see, shall we?”
He ran towards the cabin, Marten and Kathresh following. Bronze and Harimau joined Rita on the rail. “So you got ambushed? Any other survivors?”
“Yes, my father.”
Harimau said nothing. Bronze nodded. “Well, I hope you find him after all. I’m going to make friends with our rowers.”
Harimau smiled the best he could given the circumstances. “We’ll join you.”
Down below, the rowers worked effortlessly and in near perfect sync. A few newer slaves were still unused to the work, but they were diligent with the promise of freedom. Bronze spoke to who he assumed to be the leader. “Hello, my name is Bronze. Thanks for the help, you can all slow down now.”
The leader signaled, and the rowers slowed considerably. “My name is Beel. Good to meet you, sir.”
Rita began walking down the aisles. She nodded to the men as she passed. “Thank you all.” She said.
She reached the last row, and turned to walk back, satisfied she had thanked everyone. Her eye caught someone sitting on the higher level. Her eyes widened, and she let out a gasp. “Garth?!”