“SHIP AHOY!” A young beagle pup with brown, floppy ears poking out of the black bandana on his head called down from the crow's nest of a wooden vessel.
The call reached the ears of every hound on the ship, their attention turning to the small soul up top. The beagle boy folded the telescope in his hands closed, before hefting himself onto the edge of the nest and jumping to a stray rope. With reflexes no normal child his age could have, the boy slid down from the top of the mast to the bottom deck, landing on his feet with practised grace.
The beagle boy ran across the deck, pushing past the canine crewmen and up the stairs to the ship’s stern, passing the helmsman until he was at the door to the captain’s quarters.
“Captain Fetch! Captain Fetch!” The young pup banged on the door frantically until it finally opened. A look of pure awe and delight graced the small beagle’s face as he stepped back, allowing his captain to step out into the light.
The golden retriever’s fur glowed in the sun, his ears poking out of a red bandana over his head. He wore a brown coat over a white shirt, which reached down the back of his beige-coloured slacks to the heels of his black boots.
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“What’s all the commotion, Yipper?” Fetch spoke sleepily, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes with his fingerless gloved hands. “I was just having the most heavenly nap.”
“It’s a ship, captain! Three-master off the starboard bow!” The beagle boy, Yipper, pointed in the direction of the vessel in the distance.
The retriever reached his hand out to the pup, indicating for him to hand over the telescope, which Yipper was more than delighted to do. The captain lifted the piece to his eye, his gaze landing on the ship sailing innocently across the waves.
“Good eye, Yipper!” The captain patted the beagle boy’s head, the pup’s tail wagging from his hero’s praise.
Fetch then called out to his first mate. “Checkers! Raise the flag!”
A tall Dalmatian wearing a yellow vest over a red shirt saluted his leader. His white fur was decorated with mixed-matched spots of black, the biggest patch being over his right eye.
“Aye-aye, sir!” Checkers saluted before grabbing a rope as he started to pull.
A black flag slowly rose to the ship’s main mast, catching the wind and flying free, revealing the symbol of two white bones crossing behind a dog skull.
“Alright, you filthy mongrels!” Captain Fetch cried out with a grin, taking out his cutlass and raising it high. “Let’s go sick ‘em!”
A rallying cry from his crew followed his words, all of them ready for the fight to come.