As Oak laid on the grow, his vision faded in and out. Every blink of his eyes was a fight to stay awake. He looked around as best as he could. He noticed the snake slithering back towards him. With a very lazy swing of his arm to hit the snake it fell short of his target and went limp. The last little effort he had to keep his eyes open came to the weight and Oak lay there motionless on the ground.
Captain Oak awoke in a desolate land. The sound of endless wind slowly passing by him. He stood up and attempted to walk around, but his feet were locked in place. As if he was held down like anchors down on the sea floor. As he tried to keep his balance, he finally took a moment to assess where he was. This isn’t Parley Cay, where am I? Captain Oak thought to himself. Captain Oak was about to rub his nose when he noticed a small crustacean-like creature in the palm of his hand. He stared at it for a moment, when he reached to touch the creature, it snapped at his finger. Captain Oak flinched expecting pain, but he felt nothing. The creature dangled on his finger. Its mossy eyes stared at Captain Oak, then looked down at the ground. Captain Oak looked down too and saw that the desolate land started to grow wet. Water from the ground started to spray up and soon raised up over his head. Captain Oak was now looking at the bottom of the sea floor.
Fish and other sea life started to appear. The colorful display of bright fish swam around him. Their swimming felt free and enjoyable, they came in and out of different coral reefs that were popping up from the ground.
Then one by one the fish scattered from Captain Oak’s location. He looked behind and saw what looked like a swarm of similar crustacean creatures fastly approaching. As they rushed past him, they swam upwards to the top of the ocean. The bottom of a ship was in the pathway of the creatures, and in a quick flash the ship snapped in two. Sailors, passengers, deckhands, children, and the remains of the ship scattered from the crash. Captain Oak furiously struggled to swim up to the wreckage. His eyes were determined to help any survivors, but the more he struggled the more he watched as other ships came into view suffered the same fate.
When the destruction had stopped, Oak looked around to see if anything changed in his view. A small silhouette crossed over him and he saw a young girl floating on a piece of driftwood. Captain Oak’s feet became unstuck to the sea floor. He slowly floated up to the girl. He reached out to grab the driftwood and see if she was alive, but the moment he reached out to check the swarm engulfed the girl. They dragged her down to the sea bed where she laid curled up. Captain Oak quickly swam to her. Then stopped as she got up from her position, she did not float and she did not swim. She walked as if the sea itself gave way to her every step. She picked up one of the creatures and looked at it for a long time. It climbed across her arms and on to the back of her neck. Where it dug into her and hid beneath her skin.
Captain Oak’s body was pulled up out of the sea and landed on a shore. The sky, which Oak was relieved to see, started to gray and soon blacken from smoke. Off the shore, ships were blown up from cannon fire. People started to scream and run from the attacks. Oak ran with the people who were heading uphill to a fortress. The people all banged on the gates begging to be let in. Royal guards were fortifying the fortress and shoving people away.
Oak looked up to the sky again, he saw parts of ships crashing into the fortress. People were starting to be crushed by the falling debris. When he turned around he saw the crustacean creature, but this time the size of a mountain, picking up more pieces of ships and flung them into the air. As a piece of debris fell onto Captain Oak, his vision went dark.
When he awoke, he laid on the ground with a mountain of sunken ships stacked up. Each ship in their own wreckage faintly depicted animals of some kind. At the bottom of the wreckage a little blue crab scuttled out. Its climb passed the bottom ship that had a very familiar hog appearance. As it scuttled up towards the top of the sunken ships, the crab grabbed a crown off the figure head. The crab put on the crown for it to turn into a little girl. She cried atop of the sunken ships, and her cries turned into laughter. The only words that came out of her mouth was, “You never deserved it!”
Captain Oak came to, he saw Tiko and Ash knelt down beside him. Tiko bandaged up Captain Oak’s ankle and splashed water on his face. Ash gave out a large sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness. I thought I would have to kill you.” Ash said.
“I think I would rather be dead.” Captain Oak said he yawned and attempted to move his arms, but realized they were tied.
“Sorry sir, you were convulsing and I had to keep you still.” Said Tiko, he focused on draining the ankle.
A sharp pain came over Oak and he yelled out. Ash stuffed a wad of cloth in Oak’s month to help him bite through the pain. The syringe Tiko had filled from Captain Oak’s ankle had a strange blue coloration to it.
“This venom is nothing I have ever encountered. Do you recall the snake that bit you, captain?” Tiko asked.
“I can’t remember. Maybe red, maybe black.” Oak said in between bites of the cloth.
“Never in my years of being a veterinarian have I seen a species go through as much damage as you have.” Tiko said as he packed up his gear and cut the rope that bound Captain Oak. Tiko continued, “You truly live up to your name Captain Oak. Strong as an oak tree and you might live as long as one too.”
“Where we come from, our names have meaning.” Ash chimed in. She helped Captain Oak to his feet.
“Ash?” Tiko said, he thought for a moment. “Flexible, power, and shock resistant. Many of my tools are made with ash wood. I take it power with all the pistols dangling from you.”
The crew chuckled to themselves for a second. Once the laughs subsisted and a dull quietness fell upon the group Captain Oak searched in his bag for his bottle of gin. He took a bigger swig this time and stared in the bottle.
“I think a pirate war is coming,” Captain Oak said with a deadness in his voice.
Ash stood up, “What do you mean? Did Ol’Randy tell you something?” Ash asked.
“No the dream or vision I had while passed out makes me believe one is coming,” Replied Oak.
Tiko flung his medical equipment over his shoulder. He then picked up a dead bird that lay alongside a tree. Captain Oak watched as Tiko wrapped the bird in a piece of cloth and stuffed it in his bag.
“What do you plan to do with that?” Captain Oak asked.
“This is a bird I have never seen before, I would like to study its anatomy . If I come across another one I can help it,” Tiko said, unbothered by the statement of a pirate war.
Tiko went on his way back to the direction of the Seven Chairs. He hummed to himself as he left. Ash looked back at Captain Oak and took his arm over her shoulder.
“Let’s go, captain. You can tell me about your vision when you rest up in your quarters,” Ash said.
When the crew all made their merry way back to the Rhytidome, laughter and singing filled the air. Enough drinks and a hot cooked meal could make any pirate happy, but the Rhytidome crew had just an extra pep in their step. Captain Oak could only smile faintly at the sight. When he finally made it on the ship the crew's merry behavior fell and confusion replaced its mood.
“Captain, what happened? Did Ol’Randy knock your head a little too hard?” said Boso to break the silence. His drunken state tried to hide behind his face like a toddler playing hide and seek.
“No, but I’ll make sure to tell Ol’Randy you be lookin for him for a brawl,” Captain Oak replied. He tried to give a big grin to not worry the crew about his condition. Given their drunken demeanor they didn’t seem interested to investigate any further.
“Don’t be sending that crazy bastard after me. I still have scars from his stupid traps,” Boso said. He went back to talk with the other crew members.
Captain Oak and Ash made it to the captain’s quarters where Ash put Captain Oak to his bed. Captain Oak still had a small fever and little sweat droplets rolled off his forehead. Ash grabbed a rag and soaked it in water and placed it on Captain Oak’s head.
“You really ought to cut your curls Oak. They’ll get in the way someday, and I’ll just laugh and say I told you so,” said Ash.
“You leave my hair out of this. Besides, ladies love to run their fingers through them,” Oak was just about to play along with running his fingers through his hair till he remembered the bird’s talons. He shook his head at the thought.
“Now tell me about this vision you had, Oak,”
Captain Oak began to tell Ash everything about his vision. The strange crustacean creature that attacked everyone. He talked about the little girl who seemed to be saved by them, and a kingdom that seemed to be under siege by a giant creature. Captain Oak took a moment to catch his breath. Ash went to dip the rag back in the water.
“How does any of that scream pirate war?” Ash asked.
“Well, that's it. Before I woke up, seven sunken ships towered over like a mountain. Each one looked like an animal. One of those animals looked like a boar.”
“Gulliver?! Good, the pig deserves to be sent to the bottom of the sea,” Ash flung the rag onto Captain Oak’s head. The soggy sound made Captain Oak laugh. “You are a child sometimes,” Ash put her hand on her hip.
“I can’t help it. I either lost too much blood in the last two days or this fever is getting the best of me. Either way, the crew is happy, we have a map to the western islands, and all the sweet treasures are just waiting to be found by us,” Oak said as he laid back down on the bed.
“You have the map?!” Ash quickly ran up to Captain Oak. She reached for his bag and started to look for it.
“It won't be in there,” Captain Oak said.
“Where did you hide it?”
“I stuffed it in my shoe. I learned the last time about keeping valuables in this bag. I’m still upset about Davey’s key being swiped from me.”
“I heard the chest was empty.”
“That’s not the point. Our adventure was cut short and we didn’t get to discover anything new.”
“It’s for the best, captain. I can’t stand an empty surprise, but what I wouldn’t give to see the disappointment on whoever's face it would be.”
“Well take a look at the map now, and tell me where you think treasure would be and where you think this plant would grow.”
Ash took the map out of Captain Oak’s shoe. The cloth texture surprised Ash, then she noticed the language on it.
“I have never seen this kind of manuscript before. It must be old,” Ash said.
“Or forgotten,” said Oak.
Ash continued to look at the design of the island. She gave a small smirk and held up one hand, pinched the air and clicked.
“Now who’s the child,” Captain Oak said.
“We have the Blue Crab, coming from a crab-like island. You would almost say it's too good to be true, but the western Martean Seas are still yet to be explored,” Ash said as she put the map on the table.
Ash sat and studied the map, she pulled out some tools to help her measure the distance between islands and how large the islands were. With a couple of markings to note where the best spots would be to bury or hide treasures. With a few more notes guessing where plants would grow with the placement of the sun.
“I think I got it. We should come in from the north and land here,” Ash said as she pointed to the top left side of the middle island.
“Sound’s good–” Captain Oak started to say when a large bang came from outside the door.