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Nothing happens: the filler chapter.
Just kidding, some things go on on the ship and Redrick breathes his last

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“What do you mean, there aren’t any ships ready?!”
The dock manager was utterly unfazed by all the yelling and the aftermath of the earlier violence around him. He shrugged, his paws in the pockets of his greasy overalls. “My apologies, miss, but the one they stole was the only one set to depart today, and so it was the only one that was provisioned.”
Tezar jabbed him with her sword. “Then get one ready! We need it by yesterday!”
The dock manager slowly shook his head. “It’ll take a good long time to provision another ship, not to mention getting the oar slaves together.”
Zik looked around at the ships that were docked. He pointed to a fast looking two tiered ship. “We’re commandeering that ship. Get it provisioned as fast as you can.”
“What about slaves-”
“Dammit we can row ourselves! Get moving!”
The dock manager nodded and loped off. Tezar followed Zik as he raced aboard the ship, the footfalls of their soldiers making an almost musical sound on the deck planks. Zik gestured to the hold doors. “Get down there and get into position. Rowing is just like making love. You’ll get the hang of it!”
Some of the soldiers grumbled, and reluctantly descended into the holds, most shedding their weapons. Zik stopped Farl before he ducked into the door. “Wait, I need you to find my brothers, and round up any stragglers. Hurry! We don’t want to lose sight of them.”
Farl nodded and vaulted off the side of the ship onto the dock, where he landed in a run. Zik and Tezar both gazed out into the horizon, where the stolen ship floated, caught in some current, and drifting. The Father stepped up as well. “I wish you luck, and I will be looking forward to watching those blasphemers’ public execution.”
He wobbled slightly. “I hate water.”
He left hastily. Zik and Tezar exchanged glances. “Funny.”
“Yeah, felines love water.”

~~~

Redrick’s life was not over, but it would be soon. He could feel the last drops of life seeping from his broken body. He coughed, the snow under him doing nothing for the pain from his broken bones. The crunch of snow could be heard nearby. Two felines walked up. The slavemaster and night watchman. “Hey! He’s still alive!”
“He’s tough, I’ll give him that.”
The slavemaster’s boot landed before Redrick’s dimming eyes. He reached out and grabbed it, finding the little strength he had left in him to speak. “You… Were the one…”
“What? What are you saying?”
“You…”
His arm went limp. The slavemaster only had to glance at his face to know he was gone. “Strange. Ah, well. Bury him here, the earth is soft and unfrozen.”
As they began shifting the earth with their weapons, the slavemaster frowned. “Hm… I think he had a sister, right?”
“I don’t remember. We’ve disposed of so many of these things it’s all a blur.”
The slavemaster shrugged, and pushed Redrick’s corpse into the shallow hole they dug for him. As they packed the earth down, Redrick’s dead hand was shoved further down into the earth. It came into contact with another, and he was finally reunited with his kin.

~~~

Pil, Marten and Kathresh entered the cabin, where an impressive array of navigational instruments awaited them. The room was large, but most of it was taken up by a long table with a hand drawn map on it. Marten had no idea what any of the accoutrements did, but Pil seemed to know his way around. He pulled down a long lever with a creak and a clang, then stood on the map and opened a shutter in the ceiling. A series of mirrors and slits in the ceiling combined with the suns’ unhindered rays allowed for a projection of the suns onto an empty space on the table. The empty space had a dial on it, with the four cardinal directions carved into the wood. The suns made a line, one orange, one blue, and one was always touching a carving. Pil compared the map to the dial. “We need to head south.”
The ship was apparently pointed west. Marten looked around. “How do we steer?”
He pointed to a door. “Steering room is there. You two start turning, and when I say straighten out, you straighten out. Our momentum should hold long enough to turn us.”
Marten expected a small wheel like he always imagined they looked like in stories, but what he got was four very large wheels half sunken into the ground. Kathresh spat on her paws. “This is going to take some doing, this is a huge ship we need to shift.”
Marten cracked his knuckles. “I’ve worked as a blacksmith for thirty years, my muscles are ready for anything.”
Kathresh grabbed one, and Marten another. “Ready!”
“Alright, my left, hard!” Pil yelled, unnecessarily loud seeing as he was standing in the doorway.
With two mighty heaves Marten and Kathresh were able to slowly turn the giant wheels. They felt the ship turn gently as Pil ran back to the compass. After a few seconds, he yelled back. “Alright, straighten it out!”
Marten had no idea exactly how many turns he made. He started turning anyway. “Kathresh? How many turns did I do? I can’t remember…”
The chuckled. “There’s a symbol on the wheel. When its straight, the symbol is on top.”
Marten frowned. “Oh…”
Soon he saw the notch, and held the wheel steady. Pil nodded. “Alright, we’re on course.”
Marten and Kathresh joined him in the map room again. Marten looked at him, worried they may never get back to his home. “Alright Pil, time to tell me where it is we’re going.”
He grinned, and placed his claw on the map. “Why, we’re going to Frostblight of course!”

~~~

To Garth, he lost at life. He was too greedy and too manipulative, and he lost. After running, broke, cold and hungry, from the canine army’s camp, he thought he was home free. But then, as he stumbled through the woods towards Frostblight, he realized he wasn’t supposed to live. Of course, this was obvious, but he was too preoccupied with more immediate problems to realize he couldn’t safely return to the regent. He stopped, now unsure of what to do. Where would he go now? He had no survival skills, he was just a city boy. He decided to just try and rough it in the wild. Turned out he didn’t need to worry, because within two days he was found by some capitol soldiers and hauled off as an oar slave. At that point Garth had given up. Of course, to his surprise, the ship was stolen not long after he was thrown down into it. And by Rita no less. Harimau was between the two in an instant. “What are you doing here, traitor?”
Garth’s mind started spinning and his dishonest gears began to turn. He had to mentally suppress them. “Um… I’m a slave now…”
“I can see that… I suppose it’s a fate fitting you.”
Rita put her paw onto Harimau’s arm. “Harimau, come on, don’t be like that.”
“Like what?”
“He’s chained up, he can’t hurt me. You don’t need to protect me all the time!”
Garth gulped. “It’s not like I’m going to try and jump you-”
“Shut up, Garth.” Rita spat.
Harimau shuffled uncomfortably. “Sorry.”
They looked at each other for a while, until Harimau spoke again. “What do we do with him?”
“Throw him over the side.”
Garth shook his head. “No! No, wait, I really-”
“Did I tell you you could speak?! I can’t believe I slept with you, you disgusting bastard! How could you do such a thing to your own kind?! Harimau- don’t touch me! I said I didn’t need protecting!”
Harimau had to restrain Rita. “It’s not you I’m protecting!”
She untangled herself from Harimau, and stormed off. At this point, everyone was looking back to the spectacle. Harimau stared back, and everyone went back to minding their own business. Bronze walked over to Harimau, glancing at Garth, who was hiding his face. “What was that?”
Harimau cast one last disdainful glance at Garth before walking to the front of the ship with Bronze. “Let me tell you. No, don’t worry about Rita. I expect she would like to be left alone.”

~~~

“Really?” Marten said, with disbelief.
Pil nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I created Drifrasa’s Dagger to aid the war effort for the canines, and you want to liberate your town from the felines. We kill two insects with one stone like this!”
Marten grabbed Pil’s paw. “Thank you, thank you so much…”
Pil waved his paw, pushing Marten’s away. “It’s nothing. Now, I’m going to look at these maps. They’re quite expansive…”
Marten stood dumbstruck, until Kathresh grabbed his ear. Marten and Kathresh exited the cabin and looked back at the Capitol, now facing their broadside. “Let’s get the sail up, the wind is favorable.”
Kathresh looked up at one of the giant masts. A little flag on top of one confirmed Marten’s observation. “How?”
“Pil!”
A shout came from the cabin. “What?!”
“How do we raise sails?!”
“I don’t know!”
As Pil answered, Rita stormed from the staircase and ran across the ship, entering one of the doors on the other side. Marten had no idea where it led. Kathresh approached the mast and began untangling the ropes as she worked out how they worked. “I was never in the navy…”
Marten wanted to help, but there wasn’t much he could do. He just watched. Slowly a few things surfaced in his mind. One, Pil was a feline. And two, what would happen once they got to Frostblight? Drifrasa’s Dagger was a potent weapon, and in the right hands would be the deciding factor in any battle. Honesty, Marten didn’t see the point in continuing the fight. More senseless violence. Felines killing Canines on and on through history. Marten shook his head. They have to die. Sure, a few, like Pil and Fray were good people, but as a general rule, felines must die. If that was true, though, how then would he explain everything he’d experienced? An excited cry from Kathresh snapped him out of it. “Got it!”
“What?”
“Take this.”
She pressed a rope into his paw, then ran to the other side of the ship with her own rope. “Pull!”
Marten hesitated for a moment, then pulled down as hard as he could. He felt something give, then a shadow fell over him. The sail dropped quickly, filling with wind and pushing them onward. Marten almost lost his balance as they accelerated. Kathresh was able to pull both ropes on the second sail herself, as it was much smaller. She wiped her brow and turned to Marten. “Well, that should do it!”
“Yep. What was that girl who ran by a minute ago upset about? Rita, wasn’t it?”
Kathresh shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe you should see?”
Before he could answer Kathresh glided up the stairs and disappeared into the cabin. Marten looked at the door Rita had gone into. He decided he wasn’t feeling particularly helpful.

~~~

The room was very dark. A good place to gather one’s thoughts. Rita walked until she found a wall, and slumped against it. When Rita was alone, she often spoke to herself. It was a habit that died hard. “Why do you follow me, Garth? I don’t need to deal with your shit right now… You stalk my dreams, must you stalk my physical being as well?!”
The darkness said nothing in response. Rita crossed her arms. “Well I’m not letting him screw with me again. No foolish notions of love this time, no betrayal…”
This time, the darkness did respond. “My name’s not Garth…”
A candle was lit, illuminating Arbalest’s face. He was perched atop a tall chest. Rita sprang up, reaching for the sword that no longer hung by her side. “What?! Who?!”
“Calm down, Rita! It’s only me…”
She relaxed slightly. “You were on deck… I didn’t catch your name.”
“Arbalest is what they call me.”
Rita cocked her head. “Odd name. Was your mother a crossbow?”
Arbalest laughed. “Very funny, never head that one before. What are you doing in here? And who’s Garth?”
She sat back down. “He’s a little bitch is who he is.”
“Okay…”
Rita yawned loudly. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
She looked around the room, seeing it was lined with weapons on one side, and armor on the other. The room extended towards the rear of the ship, and ended in a staircase further down. “Whoa…”
Arbalest nodded. “Yeah. This is a warship, sure enough.”
Rita rubbed her stomach. “Warship or not, it’s giving me motion sickness…”
Arbalest jumped down off the chest. “Let’s see what this thing’s got in it, shall we?”
Rita staggered up. “Sure… just as soon as I find my legs.”

~~~

The ship was loaded in no more than thirty minutes. Zik, Zif, and Zip were all aboard, as well as most of the soldiers (a few still slept somewhere in the city, and would wake up with their commanding officers gone) and a few police officers. Zif yelled down into the ship. “Start her moving!”
There was a collective grunt as the first stroke was taken. The sails flapped, not catching the wind yet. Zip was in the cabin. “Hard left, boys.”
On this particular ship, the steering wheels were in the same room as the navigational equipment, and there was less room to move around. As the soldiers turned the wheels with ease, the creaking ship turned to pursue the escaping fugitives. Zik and Tezar stood on the ship’s prow, examining the horizon. Their quarry was to their right, but that was not what they were focusing on. They were looking at the thin gray line that sat just above the horizon. Tezar’s mouth barely moved. “Ominous…”
Zik brought the telescope down from his eye. “It’s a storm alright. A bad one, too.”
Tezar gave him a sideways glance. “How bad?”
“If you mean to ask if we will we be safe, I can’t tell.”
Tezar felt a sudden shock through her body. She clutched her stomach, but kept a calm demeanor. “At least they’re in a similar position.”
“It’s not much consolation.”
He shook his head and turned around. “Oh, Tezar?”
“Y-yes, sir?”
Her hormones made it difficult for her to speak. Zik chuckled. “You’re putting on a little weight.”
He laughed and walked off. Tezar glanced around quickly, then slumped to the deck planks with a sigh. It wouldn’t be long until she couldn’t hide it anymore.

~~~

Kathresh and Marten watched their pursuers launch. Watched with grim faces. Marten muttered. “Thy are persistent, I’ll give them that.”
Kathresh simply huffed. The other ship caught the wind on it’s sails. Marten took this momentary lapse in action to relax some. He’d been on edge for a long time. A though sprang into his head. “Hey…”
Kathresh looked over. “Hm?”
“You remember those felines we passed on Drifrasa’s Dagger?”
Kathresh averted her eyes. “Yes, I do.”
“You… seemed to know who they were. I was curious because it seems hard to believe that the feline king would neglect his own kind like that…”
He trailed off, the expression on Kathresh’s face said he was wrong. “Those were fugitives, Marten.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Why were you crying?”
She pushed away from the rail. “Guilt.”
Marten watched as she disappeared into the cabin.

Kathresh shut the cabin door, and sat on a nearby bench. Pil took a minute to notice her presence. “Ah! Kathresh, what is it?”
“I travelled a long way and deserted my unit to find you. I don’t even know why I searched for you, specifically I mean.”
Pil sat on a bench on the other side of the room, clearly not comfortable sitting still, even for a brief period. “Well I try my best at things. What is it you want? I owe you.”
“Absolution.”
Pil tapped his foot quickly. “I’m no priest…”
Kathresh waved her paw. “My god has offered no answers. So I thought I should find the most logical down to earth person to tell me what’s right.”
Pil nodded. “Ya, ya. That’s me, I guess. What’d you do, then?”
“I fell in love.”