Author's Preface
As the Rhytidome attempted to sail past the second Royal Guard ship, Oak and Magnus shared a brief glance with one another. The cool sea air blew past them both. The chill of both the environment and the suggestion Magnus gave was felt more than when the second ship headed in their direction.
Boso was the first to break the silence, “We can take on this ship head on. Our men are ready for a fight. Magnus is just trying to get us killed.”
“I’m offering safe passage. The Royal Guard won’t set foot into Gulliver’s territory unless they want a war with all the pirates of the sea.” Magnus snapped back at Boso, then turned back to Oak. “What do you say?”
Oak held on to the helm and stared at his crew. The weight of this decision made him wish he had another bottle of gin. Then, looking back at the Royal Guard fast approaching, he uttered, “If you can promise safety for my crew, we will set course to Gulliver.”
A devious smile came across Magnus’s face. Boso and the rest of the crew shouted their grievances at the idea of sailing into Gulliver’s arms. Ash walked up the steps to the poop deck, looking at Oak with concern, but understood that the captain had made up his mind.
“Alright, you planks of wood. Quit floating around and make way to the western parts of these seas.” Ash said to the crew down below. “The captain would rather you keep your throats than see them be hanged for the Guards' amusement.”
The crew started to make use of themselves, trying to make the Rhytidome move as quickly as possible. They needed to out run the Guard and force a chase. Eight of the crew went down onto the deck below and started to spin a contraption near the center of the room. As the contraption started to spin, a large propeller started to spin. As the crew built momentum and the propeller spun faster, the Rhytidome started to pick up more speed.
Nearly missing the oncoming ship, the Guard had to course correct and start making chase. Magnus looked at Captain Oak and said, “Would you mind untying me? I can get us to Gulliver. If they see me at the helm, they would be less likely to shoot.”
“Tiko, untie him and stitch my arm. Ash, watch over our guest.” Oak said.
“Ey, Captain.” Both crew members replied.
Oak and Tiko made their way into the captain's quarters just below the poop deck. The room wasn’t lavish, quite simple compared to other captains' and their rooms. All that was in the room were a few simple pieces of furniture. A bed, a desk, a dresser with a mirror on the top. There were a few shelves lined along the walls. Some held books, others held bottles of different contents, some liquid, some with plants and sand. The window in the back of the room was foggy and, in places, cracked from the different battles the Rhytidome faced out at sea. The fading outline of the Guards ship was still trailing behind.
“Tiko, please tell me you can fix this,” Oak said, holding out his arm and pulling the sash off his wound.
The now auburn and green wound took up a good size of real estate on the bicep of Oak’s arm.
Tiko put his medical equipment down on the table in front of them. He rolled out his equipment, and what was revealed were your normal surgical tools, but they were rusted and stained with dried blood.
“Don’t worry, they are sterile." Said Tiko, “A little hard to get Fredrik’s blood off of my tools. It's a shame, he was a good gunner. How is Khayri handling the new role as gunner?”
“He had no choice in the matter. He was the first powered monkey, and I told him to take charge of the others in Mr. Fredrik’s abrupt departure.” Said Oak, wincing from the pain that was about to come.
“Promotions come quickly here, don’t they?” Tiko said mockingly
“That’s right, you went from being an imprisoned veterinarian to the Rhytidome’s doctor and cook.” Oak jerked from the tools, grabbing parts of his flesh. “And that failed inventor you call a daughter-”
“That failed inventor is what’s keeping your precious boat afloat and being able to flee from that useless Guard back there.” Tiko pointed back at the ship still trailing behind.
“To think just saving her out of a tree would lead to an uprising from your village.”
“She is too smart for her own good. Making contraptions, as you like to call them, really can make a political figure head mad enough to want to hang a child. To think that a wanted pirate has more morals than someone who says, ‘fights for the town's safety.’ The world has gone mad.” Tiko said as he stitched up some flesh. “Now tell me, Captain Oak, my daughter and I owe you our lives for saving us, but why would you put our lives back in danger when you know we could either out gun or out run the Guard behind us?”
“I didn’t want to deal with fighting right now, and running back to Parley Cay would make more of a headache than it's worth with the other pirates.” Said Oak, tilting his head back and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Okay, but why Gulliver?”
“Magnus is one of his underlings who works directly with Gulliver, and with him on our ship we have a bargaining chip.”
“And if it doesn’t work?” Tiko stopped his stitching and looked into Oak’s eyes.
“It will work,” Oak said.
As Tiko finished stitching Captain Oak, he headed back to his post near the front of the ship to start working on other injured crewmen.
Moments passed as Oak laid back on his bed looking at the ceiling of his quarters. The thoughts of how he would negotiate with Gulliver rushed through his head. First, it was about threatening Magnus’s life to get the information he wanted. Then it was lying about how he saved Magnus’s life from the Guard as a sign of good faith from Oak’s debts. Then the one thought he feared most of all came to him: I might have to surrender the Rhytidome’s freedom to Gulliver and serve under his flag. Oak shook his head from that thought and went back to thinking about how he could get away from Gulliver and get back to investigating the Blue Crab.
Another bit of time passed. Captain Oak got up and looked out his foggy window to see that the Guard’s ship was nowhere in sight. He turned and walked out the door to the main deck. He looked up at the crow's nest and saw someone up there with a spyglass.
“Any sign of the Guard’s ship?” Oak asked to the nest.
“Can’t see anything, captain.” Replied the deckhand.
“Good, now keep an eye out for any vessels bearing a hog skull,” Oak said.
“Ey, Captain.” Replied the deckhand.
“It won’t matter.” Said Magnus, holding on to the helm. “We already crossed into his territory about twenty minutes ago. Every ship here will have a hog skull.”
“Well, keep us on course; the sooner we get to him, the sooner we can get this over with,” Oak said, leaning against the side of the boat, feeling the fresh sea air against his face.
That moment soon faded away as the smell of rancid meat and stale wine filled his nose. Oak looked over the side and could see the surface of the water was covered with half eaten remains of all different animals. Busted boxes of wine floated along the sea of remains, collecting pieces of animal flesh, as a welcoming gift to anyone foolish enough to sail into these waters.
“We are here,” Magnus said.
A few deckhands held their noses and fought the urge to vomit from the smell. The Rhytidome started to slow down as those who were spinning the wheel couldn’t hold on and instead held their faces.
“Alright, crew, get below deck. I don’t want Gulliver thinking we are a threat. It will be Ash, Magnus, and I to stay up top in view of him.” Oak said, waving his crew down.
“He won’t think you’re a threat. You might have a name for yourself, Oak, but you are fish swimming to a hungry shark, or should I say boar.” Magnus laughed.
Oak ignored his mocking tone and grabbed Ash to tell her the plan that had been stewing up in his head.
“I hope you understand why I picked to head to Gulliver.” Said Oak.
“To be honest, I don’t have the slightest clue why you would send us into the mouth of that disgusting excuse of a captain.” Said Ash, as she poked Oak’s stitched-up arm. “But I sure hope you have a good enough reason.”
“Ouch!” Oak said, grabbing his arm. “I know it's a long shot, but I think we can kill two birds with one stone.”
“How so?”
“I owe him a debt, and if we trade him back Magnus for safe passage to where these attacks are coming from, we take care of the attackers for him, find out more about the Blue Crab in the process, and finally resolve my debt with him for helping him out.”
“Is that the best you came up with? How do you know any of that would work?”
“Magnus is his son.”
“What!?”
“Well, one of many offspring he had, with one of many women he came across.”
“Do you even know if he likes this one?”
“That’s my hope.”
The air started to become thick and greasy. Each breath felt like filling up lead lungs inside the body, and each gulp moved slowly down the throat like hot tar running down the side of a ship. The thick unnatural fog rolled in, making it hard to see a few yards off the ship. What crept out of the food was a ship four times bigger than any man-of-war the Royal Guard could muster. The ship was a floating city mended together with parts of destroyed adversaries' vessels. The bow had a drawbridge that lowered, as if the ship itself had a mouth and was ready to eat. Captain Gulliver Quincee’s ship, the Sanglier, has found its next meal, the Rhytidome.