Welcome back to the sea. On this era of wooden sails-ship, cords, flint pistols and brave extrapolation of far, far regions, our ship and its crew is on a wild adventure where they already encountered wonders of life, strange new worlds, mirages, phantasms, hallucinations and several monster. They are something like a free sailors, sailing under neutral flag and emblem, but sometimes people calls them pirates instead of merchants. So, it's not uncommon for them to cross blades and exchange fired bullets with a competition from another ships. Following visions of freedom and economic enterprise, they proudly follows their Captain over the horizon.
One day, this Captain opened the door to his cabin to see a whole group of mice/mouses finishinghis dinner, that was left there for him to eat latter. But, that was not going to happen when the plate is nearly empty. The mice noticed his presence, but instead of running to hide, they stood up to stare at him. Exasperated by their mocking expressions, the Captain angrily called for the Cook.
When the big belly in the kitchen apron rolled up onto the Captain's cabin, hardly fitting through door, he had the expression of someone who didn't want to hear any complaint. His stone-serious expression of a head waiter in a pro-restaurant, tells that there will be no refunds. But, when he saw withhis own eyes whats going on here, his expression change to show that he understood perfectly. The mice didn't fear the big guy,so he called out forTomcat.
The cat, dressed like a French musketeer in leather boots, with a cord behind his belt and with a wide leather hat decorated with a large feather, walked proudly on his hind legs into Captain's cabin like a person. His head held high, like a true warrior, or cord to hire. Seeing the situation, his furry expression changed to one that said, that he understood perfectly. So he shout. "Ah!!-- An old acquaintance of me!!!"
His loud comment alerted the group of mouses, but they still didn't flee. Instead, some of them engage the dinner, hasty trying to devour any leftovers, not leaving single crumble, only the plain empty plate.
This provocation clearly played on the nerves string of the Captain, Cook, and even Tomcat. "Such a daring...You clearly must understands what will comenext." After he commented the happenings in front of him, he lowered the front of his hat onto his face. No he lowered his head a little to create theillusion of weakness. "I knew this day would come. Well then!--" As he rise his head, his gaze was one of the predator seeing his prey and today's dinner. It was a time for a punch line: "En garde!!" [Defend yourself!] He called out to the mice, pulling his cord, already in battle stance.
Suddenly, many other mice left their hiding places to join they companions in standoff against the challenger. Standing on their back legs, they armed themselves with everything that can be found around-- from cutlery to a letter-opening knife, to anything that could be used as a weapon.
Both Captain and Cook wide opens they eyes in disbelief at the events in front of them. As they stared silently, it was the Tomcat who protested. "What is this (Out-of-character) daring approach? How insulting!" Understanding that the mice were serious, he called to his colleagues in clothes to join in fight. "Fine! Gentlemen, if you will: draw your weapons!" Both of them exchanged a dead serious expression before they reached for they armament.
A fight broke out in the cabin, and the clanking of (weapons) was accompanied with stomping of feet or boots onto the floor and battle shouts from both sides. Even though the trio was noticeably better at swordsmanship, the numerical superiority of the mice was enough for them to hold their position.
The fighting tumult attracted attention of red-nosed drunkard. He dashed into the Captain's cabin demanding an explanation as to why there was such a fuss. In a shock, his eyes too got wide open to the point that if he had a glass ball prosthetic instead of a real one, it will fall out from the eye socket, without him noticing anything. He watched for half a minute as the mice stoutly defended themselves against the attacks of the Captain, the Cook and the Tomcat. He then looked at the bottle of cheap booze in his hand and nodded his head in agreement. With all grandeur, he pompously [showily] left the cabin, like an extravagant aristocrat walking away in a dance-like steps, shaking his hips.
Because the sides were somehow equally matched, the fight over dinner finally died down with an agreement initiated by the captain. The next day, during the Captain speech, the embarked crew shook their heads in disbelief at a group of mice that, led by a cat, proudly expanded their ranks. Somehow, they showed a real deal of intelligence, fulfilling several tasks that seemed impractical for other crew members, filling the skill gap that seemingly didn't exist at first glance.
Even the parrot, who at start had the most to say, eventually accepted their stay. But after this, the bird decided to level up its importance in the crew by doubling its effort in learning different languages, becoming the ship's linguist and translator. Capable not just spying on others' dialogues, it managed to read letters and notes. However its master's degree education in foreign tongues, lead to its ability to speak even to other animals and fishes. Latter, this bird admitted that it was a mistake to learn insect communication, because now it complained that occasional snacks spam talking gibberish.
On the other hand, when a duel with a rival crew was approaching in classic style: (two ships, two crews, but only one sails away from this encounter); The competition (after seeing armed mice and a cat in the ranks of the opponent garrison, enthusiastically welcoming the upcoming clash); the rivals decided, that the crew of this particular ship was below their level of what they willing to deal with. Making a decisive decision, the competitive ship and its crew, set sails for the wind and boldly headed in a random direction somewhere else.
End