Part 16 --Sea Trials--

*We sat on the same sofa when he told me about his past. He explained to me everything, as I waited, for the final drill, four months after the talk, and I'm actually 13 now, how amusing.*

*Everybody's waiting for this. The sea trials, where we actually test our sailing ability.*

*We were told to gather at the docks.*

*"Stand in rows of twenty boys, you are now about to become men" The director, wearing a brown overcoat and white waistcoat instructed. "Attention please . . . stop talking! Alright, so, good morning, I am here to instruct and guide you through this. First, everybody, pick anyone you want to go with, if only they agree, and once you do that form a separate line from everybody else, to avoid confusion."*

*It was obvious who I picked, the entire King's Ferriston Attack, and obviously Victor, Relish, Henry, Esther and all agreed.*

*"Alright, so, you will all be given Cutters of your own, captained by the elected and will watched by a Lieutenant from the navy or an elder. So basically, you have to set sail from this dock in Ferriston to the Lenore Islets and then from there to Martinsville and then back to Ferriston, understood?" "Yes" everyone said. The director continued "Now get in any Cutter you'd like"*

*Henry pointed at a Cutter a couple piers away and said, "That one looks good, the rigging might make it faster and it also appears to be made of Levashian mahogany, that type of wood makes the ship stronger and faster"*

*"How do you know that?" I asked, a question who's answer I already knew. Henry pointed at his head.*

*"Oh" I said, trying to look like I didn't know that before. "Then why are we standing?"*

*A Cutter is just a sloop with a topsail, our Cutter was nothing different. It also had an orange-black paint scheme. Something what all Cutters in the Valereenan navy have in common. It was armed with a lot less cannons than a regular navy Cuter would do, five 9 pounder long guns, two each side, and one as the stern chaser. We also had two swivels, one mounted on each side. In the barrels there were five muskets, three cutlasses and two unattached bayonets. On the mast there was a strange belt like thing wrapped around it containing throwing knives. I counted all of them and they were twelve, throwing knives. Near the bowsprit was something that confused me. Ten harpoons, each attached to a piece of hard and long rope. I don't think that they will come to use for is because as I am aware of now, there are no whales, orcas or sharks in the Bay of Valereena and near Martinsville.*

*It doesn't take too much thinking to know what we did next, we heaved the capstan, raised the anchor, climbed the masts to unfurl the sails and we were in motion. It was good to be back at sea for almost a year, it felt like the place where I belonged to, where I was born to be in.... About that.*

*Our watchman was a navy Lieutenant, and his name was Lord -very important to add that as he is a Baron - William Boris Hardegras. Lord Hardegras had white skin, just like everyone of us, he had simple brown eyes and had a perfect looking stubble. He was wide, almost too wide, but still managed to avoid looking fat for some reason and looked just like your average historian. He had some simple short hair hidden under his beautiful black tricorne with a silver design on the front, the design was about what seemed to be a Falchion or a Gladius pointing upwards, I'm not quite sure which sword it was. The sword was surrounded with a strange design that looked like flowers and fire or water along with a couple of fancy designs. He wore a sandy gray overcoat and a really light-yellow waistcoat which was unbuttoned on the collar area which revealed his white blouse. Quite the normal Lieutenant that is not wearing his uniform.*

*"Now we must elect a captain, and you can't vote for yourself. We'll see who shall be the chosen one" Lord Hardegras said.*

*"Anakin" Henry joked.*

*The voting ended in the favor of Relish, who I must say really deserves to replace Valereena's currently terrible King, King Jacob II. Relish, what a leader! Relish now got the captain's hat, a compass, a fancy grey overcoat, a decorated flintlock pistol and a Sabre, -and if you don't know what that is, then nobody also doesn't know you, you are a cheese smelling monkey, depart from the book, ye that work iniquity-. All what a captain needs.*

*"Yar" Relish murmured sarcastically. "I am Captain Clemence now"*

*And then what happened next was just some basic rigging. It was when I started to get bored. So, to entertain my and your brain which looks more like a ball of worms, I decided to open my mouth. "Lord Farte-" clearly I was failing in the "formal guy" impression. "Sorry, Lord Hardegras, may you tell something about yourself" I tried to say that nicest and most formal way possible, but it didn't work.*

*"Shut, you and I are the same level in respect, I don't like when someone speaks formal, because I am just like you, a King and a drunkard living in and drinking gutter water are the same thing, a human. You can call me Lord Fartegrass. Heck, remove the lord, just call me Fartegrass or Silly Willy. From now on talk to me like I am your friend"*

*"So, Mister Grasshopper-" He started laughing "-Answer my question"*

*"I am a person" He replied*

*"Something more detailed"*

*"I am a lieutenant of the Valereenan navy"*

*"Something I don't know about you"*

*"I am a Lieutenant in the navy that never saw battle and I am a terrible person, as said by noblemen in the house of the lords, I'd rather be in a pig-pen that that place, even if I don't do drugs, do immorals, I just talk horribly and informally, that's what those nerds don't like"*

*"Oh" I was expecting something a lot more, but it just turns out that Grasshopper is not interesting just like all Grasshoppers are. I asked him if he knows any myths and legends or does have any deep wisdom about the secrets of Ansaria. And in fact, he does know. "This has made this journey a lot, and I mean a lot more interesting. You see, there are many myths, legends, rumours and stories in all of Ansaria, the Eigean Falchion, my favourite of them all, you can even see it on my tricorne," That clears it up what was that sword type made on his hat, not a Gladius.*

*"The countless legends about mysterious rocks, The Whispering Rocks, Kasper Wells" Blah blah blah blah. "Most of these are busted and are just myths, they are not real, it may be just a made-up story, hysteria, or a hallucination. There are also many stories about ghostly ships and monsters, Sir Redmond's Double-Decker, Stephan Kaurtchner, The Tacken, John's Bay Silhouette," Blah blah blah blah. "Again, quite a large number of these mysteries are solved and are fake by a certain Treyton Wilder. And there are hundreds upon hundreds of stories, legends, myths and legends I can tell you about. Which one do you want to hear about?" Captain Clemence, Esther, Henry and Victor where all listening to our chat, that's why Victor interfered.*

*"Stories about the Bay of Valereena". Hardegras raised his eyebrows*

*"Do you really want to-"*

*"Yes" Victor interrupted.*

*"None of your business"*

*"Our business" Esther, Captain Clemence and Henry all said at the same time.*

*"Alright then" Hardegras scratched his head. "There are none" But it felt like he was hiding it, just maybe me.*

*"Creepy" Esther said sarcastically, while climbing the ratline.*

*"Ah you vermin, I hate sarcasm" I grunted. Everyone laughed.*

*In the meantime, we were getting bored of listening to legends and myths from Hardegras, so were decided to do something else. While we were discussing. An island appeared in the horizon, it was quite large, had a mountain and a river flowing from it, and by God it was beautiful.*

*"Marcel's Rest" Hardegras murmured.*

*"What" Esther said.*

*"Marcel's Rest" Hardegras said loudly.*

*"What is that?" Esther asked.*

*"You twit, the island" Hardegras pointed.*

*"It shall now be called Relish's Rest" Captain Clemence said.*

*"I am starving right now, the berries and animals on this island look delicious, along with those pelts, Ahh" Victor's mouth was getting overflooded.*

*It was silence for a moment, until Captain Clemence shouted "Drop the Anchor! Raise the Sails, come to a Halt!"*

*"Aye Captain!" Together we released the anchor, raised the sails and made the ship come to halt. Esther even climbed up the ratlines aloft to raise the topsail.*

*"Let's land now, shall we?" Hardegras said. We carefully jumped from the ship into the island trying not to accidentally fall into water or hit a rock. "You chaps forgot these" Hardegras handed us muskets, but not melees, no bayonet or a Cutlass. Each of us got a musket and a few cartridges, except Captain Clemence because he already had a firearm, and he also had a Sabre.*

DISCLAIMER: Nerdy moment.

*The musket was the Charleston, of Serpish design, but it is proven so effective and cheap that the Valereenan Navy adopted it as it's standard weapon for a few regiments of the army, the second most popular only behind the brown bess. It has stunning accuracy for a smoothbore musket, it has a slightly longer barrel than an average musket making it the best weapon there is for bayonet combat, it also is the cheapest musket in the world, a doubloon and eight shillings, that is. The only downside is durability and the incredible misfire rate, the musket breaks after an average of fifty-two shots fired and misfires at a rate of six shots in perfect weather. We are lucky to have it present in our Cutter.*

*Back to Marcel's Rest.*

*We were exploring the island for a while, it was huge, but not enough to be included in a map of Valereena, we realized that we hadn't eaten in long and we didn't have food onboard the ship, so we decided to pluck some wild berries in the gorgeous fields full of flowers, tall grass and some orange-tan rocks. I know the stories of poisonous berries killing many great travelers and explorers in history, but these berries where, let's just say too familiar, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries and Huckleberries. Hardegras told us not to trust the Raspberries and Blueberries because there are some poisonous berries that look deadly similar to them. So, we munched on the Huckleberries and Blackberries. We also found an apple tree and a walnut tree. And you can already guess what we did. We shaved them off of edibles one by one by climbing them.*

*But we were still hungry. So, we decided to find more food.*

*There were still many, many berry bushes and fruit trees but we knew we can't feed our stomachs with just that.*

*"Rabbit!" Henry started loading his musket.*

*"Where?" Hardegras said.*

*"In the bushes" Henry pointed, while ramming the cartridge down the barrel.*

*"Wait for it to come out" In the meantime I loaded my musket and Victor did the same. And that's when the Rabbit came out. "Don't shoot now, only when it's stationary" Henry said, while he cocked his musket.*

*The Rabbit hopped to a patch of grass and started nibbling.*

*BANG!*

*Off goes Henry's musket. The Rabbit was no more.*

*We cheered "Nice shot".*

*I stared closer at the Rabbit to see where it was hit and I must say Henry really has the skill of a sharpshooter or a marksman, a shot straight at the head, it was a perfect Rabbit's-eye.*

*"How in the world do we skin that thing?" Captain Clemence wondered.*

*"Easy" Hardegras said. "I have throwing knives; they will work the same as a hunting knife"*

*Hardegras stepped towards the Rabbit, we followed behind, and he pulled out his knife, and for a moment I thought he was going to skin it, until he confessed, "I don't know how to skin a Rabbit".*

*"I know how to" Henry snatched the knife from him. He began skinning the rabbit, until the pelt was completely removed.*

*"That's your prize, Hardegras" Henry handed the pelt to Hardegras. "Sells for a noble, quite a lot for a rabbit pelt actually"*

*"Thanks"*

*"We need to start a fire" Captain Clemence ordered.*

*Henry pulled out the twigs he had collected and stored in his pocket. "Then what are these in my pocket?"*

*"A match? Anybody?" Captain Clemence asked.*

*"Aye sir" Victor said.*

*"Thank you" Henry dropped the twigs and Captain Clemence ignited his match. A large fire started.*

*"A stick for a spit?" Henry asked*

*Captain Clemence drew his Sabre out. "A sword"*

*"But-"*

*"No need it will work just as fine" Captain Clemence stabbed the Rabbit meat with the Sabre like a kebab and started cooking it over the fire.*

*In a few minutes, it was looking nicely cooked. "Take the legs, and feast on them, and also eat the body, don't worry, Henry cleaned it" Captain Clemence said.*

*I plucked a hind leg out of the Rabbit and ate it, it was my first time eating non-spiced meat, it didn't taste good as the spiced one, obviously, but meat is meat, delicious in every way.*

*After we were done, Captain Clemence cut the body in equal pieces for all of us and we all devoured them. After the Rabbit was done, we headed back to our cutter, until I spotted a Red Fox in a distance.*

*"Fox!" I pointed.*

*"Very well Arthur" Victor cocked his musket.*

*"Don't shoot now, it's moving, chasing something, seems to a-"*

*"Rat" Esther interrupted me.*

*"Yes, that"*

*"Nature in action" Hardegras said. "Beautiful"*

*The fox continued chasing the rat and caught it, killed it, and started eating it. It was also just the exact time Victor fired . . . I mean misfired. The fox continued to chew its prey as if it where any other day. "Surely no one tried to kill me" It may have thought. BANG! I discharged the musket.*

*"Nice" Captain Clemence said. "You own that pelt now"*

*"How much is one worth?" I cleaned my barrel.*

*"Red Fox pelt, let me think, hmm, if it's fine, then it'll cost 8 shillings and seven pence" Henry said.*

*"I'm going to be rich!" Then Esther turned to Henry.*

*"Where you a hunter before?"*

*"Then what? when I fled from the Valereenan soldiers that burned my father's manor, I lived life on my own with my Uncle, we survived the Valereenan wilderness by doing what we are doing now and made a living by selling the pelts and meat of Bears, Wolves, Foxes, Rabbits, Deers and livestock that fled the barn. I even caught wild horses, tamed them, and sold them, making huge money."*

*"If Valereenan soldiers burnt your house then why are you now trying to serve them?" I asked.*

*"It's a long story" Henry sighed. I didn't ask anything further than that, because I thought he would literally start crying if I asked more by seeing the look on his face.*

*"Let's head back to the ship" Captain Clemence said.*

*"After I skin the fox" I said.*

*"After you skin the fox" He repeated jokingly*

*"After Henry skins the fox" I corrected myself.*

*Henry smiled, he went towards the fox and dragged it towards us.*

*"I'll skin later, first, let's head back to the ship"*

*"Of course," Hardegras laughed.*

*In the way back I looked around the absolutely beautiful island, such scenery. The Monarch butterflies, the wildlife, the trees gently moving in elegance by the breeze, Mount Marcel standing there in full glory, such bright green and yellow grass, the paved ground surrounded by flowers, bushes and grass that lead towards the turquoise domain of Poseidon. For a moment I thought that I was in heaven, until I felt something like a rope under my shoe, but it was moving, hissing, slithering. A snake, but not all of them are poisonous, so I didn't care much. I took a look on it, it was long, and it had a strange and different head. "AHHHH!" I screamed. "COB- SNAK-" Words jammed my throat, I then sprinted towards the opposite direction of the snake. "Don't be scared" Captain Clemence said. Then came a loud bang, he shot the cobra with his fancy pistol then proceeded to reload. Then we continued our way. The birds chirped beautiful sounds, I think cuckoos were involved. It was peace, and quiet, and calm, then something loud was heard, a growl, which scared the soul out us and Esther even fell to the ground in fear. The thing was that trouble seemed to get bigger and bigger as the ship got closer and closer. "What's that?" Hardegras cocked his Charleston, and pointed towards the bushes.*

*"I think it's another fox" Relish thought.*

*"Foxes are wimps, this one is too daring" Victor protested.*

*"A wolf?" Henry thought.*

*"Likely" Esther said, getting up from the ground, dusting off his clothes.*

*"TOO BIG AND HAIRY" Hardegras screamed.*

*He pulled the trigger, and the shot discharged, but the brown grizzly didn't die, it needed to take a lot more shots to fall, or maybe he just shot somewhere else accidentally in fright.*

*"Form a line everybody! I hope all of your muskets are loaded" Captain Clemence ordered.*

*I took a look at the bear and I saw that it was running as fast as it could to end us, like a cat chasing a mouse.*

*"Aye sir!"*

*"Make Ready!" Captain said. We cocked our guns as the bear got closer*

*"Present!" We took aim at the bear confidently, knowing we won't miss.*

*"FIRE!"*

*BANG! BANG! BANG!*

*The muskets of Henry, Esther and Mine fired, all landed at the grizzly, who was just meters away from us. The puff of smoke made it harder to see it, but the wonderful thing was, it was dead, and an even greater thing was. We were rich, and also, we used some precious ammunition.*

*"Fantastic" Hardegras said.*

*"Not fantastic, Epic" Esther corrected*

*"Well, two doubloons for us to share evenly" Henry smiled, the scar on his face shined in the sun as bright as silver. After he skinned it, I saw something unordinary. I'd never seen a raw piece of meat larger than that of what I just saw. When Henry skinned the bear and showed us the pelt, there where four holes visible, all large, similar to a musketball rather than a pistol's lead ball, that meant that Hardegras did hit the bear and Captain Clemence missed or hit the head. "Don't worry" Henry said. "That doesn't mean it's price is reduced, I can just cut four pieces of skin from the head and stitch it to the pelt with a thread and a needle, no one would ever notice!". Henry then chopped of the head of the bear. "This is going to cost six shillings and would look very good as a decoration in the house, I think you know that we'll get a shilling from this" Then Henry cut off the bear's claws "Half a shilling each, fair deal considering there are nine of them. Would be a tough time to divide this evenly"*

*"Keep it to yourself" Esther said. "Or distribute it to Hardegras, Captain and yourself" "Agreed, I'll share it between myself, Hardegras and Captain." "What about the meat?" I asked. "Leave it" Henry said. "It's dinner and lunch combined for the wolves and the foxes" "Let's now head back again hoping that we'll have no trouble whatsoever" Captain Clemence said.*

*Wrong. A flock of birds decided to give us rain with their droppings, forcing us to seek shelter under a tree.*

*When we arrived at the Cutter, we climbed the ladder. Henry carried the bear pelt on his back like a cape and I must say he looked so good and sweaty in that. The pelt must've weighed a lot.*

*Now with all the pelts onboard, we heaved the capstan, lowered the sails and set off course to Lenore's Islets.*

*Also, the fox was skinned for clarification.*

*"How far away is Lenore's Islets" I asked Hardegras.*

*"Not too far away, about thirty or forty minutes if the winds are fair"*

*The world then seemed to pause for the next ten minutes, absolutely nothing happened, just the sound of the waves, and the beautiful view of the sea.*

*"Will anyone mind if I sang a shanty to pass the time?" Hardegras said.*

*"Yes please" All of us said.*

*"Ahem"*

*Then he sang in an absolutely glorious voice.*

*"Oh, We're outward bound from F'rr'ston town"*

*"With a Heave Oh, Oh"*

*"And now we're away from Marcel's Rest"*

*"Good morning Islets All!"*

*"And now were sailing fore ahead"*

*"With a Heave Oh, Oh"*

*"While crushing the hard bread"*

*"Good morning, Islets All!"*

*"And soon we'll gather at Lenore's Isle"*

*"With a Heave Oh, Oh"*

*"And exchange our pelts for a doubloon pile"*

*"Good morning Lenorians All!"*

*"Then we'll sail for Martinsville"*

*"With a Heave Oh, Oh"*

*"And there we'd eat the barbeque grill"*

*"Good morning Lenorians All"*

*"And then we'll turn and head to our home"*

*"With a Heave Oh, Oh"*

*"Sailin' the Bay, all alone"*

*"Good morning undeads All"*

*"Best shanty I've ever heard, brutally-honestly." I appreciated. "Same for me" Captain Clemence agreed. "Same for me as well" Henry also agreed. "Same for all of us, even me, right?" Victor said. "Yes" Esther said.*

*Hardegras wiped a tear "Really? Do you really think?" "Yes" We all said at the same time. "I can't believe I-" He shed into tears of joy.*

*"You're better off as a shantyman than a Lieutenant, now stop crying" I said.*

*"Yes, I would if it were possible, I'm so, I mean I'm too happy, thank you all from the bottom of my heart"*

*He then continued his crying and thanking which was over the top, no one should cry this much when they are told that they are outstanding. After a few minutes of weeping, he stopped . . . for thirty seconds, then he started crying again, for thirty more seconds, then he stopped after he heard something, when we all heard something. A terrifying screech, like a knife scraping against a rock with a mix of the sound of an elephant and a dying donkey.*

*A wicked scream.*

*We all stared at them in awe, unable to believe what we where seeing, I mean our eyes might be playing tricks on us, but after  enough blinking and rubbing, there was nothing to deny.*

*The more we approached them the worse the weather got, stormy, dark, rainy, with thunder. Either Zeus is angry or it always followed them wherever they went. “I’m afraid that this is what I didn’t tell you” Hardegras murmured. “What is um” I had no idea what to speak of just, them. “The Undead Shallops, I like to call them catboats, this is the myth I was talking about earlier, and we have sadly fallen into, there is no choice but to fight, if we do, then we’ll forget about this eventually”*

*”So cool!” Captain Clemence said.*

*The Undead where green and transparent, just like their boats, with where single masted and single aft-sailed. They had no helm, and they had to turn by pushing or pulling a stick that was connected to the rudder or use the oars, which they had six on each ship and three on each side of each ship. They had just one cannon, but it was an 18 pounder Carronade in the bow to make up for it. They also had two swivel guns. The "undead" or "figures" themselves where half skeleton half man, they had random pieces of muscle ripped off, bearing the bones. The "figures" only moaned, screeched, and screamed, and produced no other sound than that. They where armed with muskets with bayonets, pistols, daggers, even just regular bayonets but they where attatched to a stick or where put on their fingers like a ring, of course the bayonet is large and all so they had to put two fingers per bayonet, they looked like claws, just really huge claws, they where also armed with boarding axes, spears and Cutlasses. Some of them where entirely skeletal with just a few patches of flesh and skin and some of them where entirely human with a few patches of removed flesh revealing the bones. All of them had eyes, but the creepy thing was, no pupils, just the iris which was a flickering . Some of them that where entirely skeletal also had eyes, and just imagine this, a skeleton with eyes and no pupil, just the veins and the blank white. It was disgusting, creepy, gruesome, gross, it grieved all of us an awful sore. Victor even vomited, he has a weak stomach I think..*

*"Load the guns! Nine pounder!" Captain Clemence ordered. The gunnery drills now finally where coming in use.*

*“Don’t just try to sink them, they have an overly precious thing, it’s the Undead necklace” Hardegras said. "There it is, the necklace!" Victor pointed at the larger sailboat's mast, the ship looked more of a Sloop without a quarter-deck rather than an Catboat type of vessel. It was even armed with four six pounders on the side and of course the Carronade.*

*"Load the guns! Don't delay" Captain Clemence ordered.*

*Victor agreed to be the ventsman. We quickly swabbed the bore, placed the gunpowder charge and the cannonball and the wadding inside the guns, rammed them deep inside. Then we inserted the pricker and the quick match. Victor took his thumb out of the touchhole. Then the stick and rope bathing in potassium nitrate was ready. The process was repeated in the other guns while off came a BANG! from the nine pounder, a deafening blast. "Too loud" I panted holding my ears "Too loud!".*

*The cannon fired at one of the “Catboats”, that’s what I’ll call them now from then, and it destroyed it's mast, the weird thing was, it disappeared in a green puff of smoke, not a single debris fell from the mast, it just, disappeared... in green smoke... too weird for me to handle. I thought it will just fly through it, even transparent things are solid . . . strange.*

*The Undead fired back. The rounds came right at us. Luckily they all missed and landed just short of our ship. We fired a full port broadside, at the de-masted "Sail"-boat, and it went under the waves, the Undead swam towards our ship, in the meantime our starboard battery rattled towards the other Sailboat, decimating it, although it was somehow still floating. Hardegras got on the swivel and began sniping the sailors that where swimming towards our Cutter while Henry was busy doing the same thing but with a musket, he had good aim, and took care of the ghostly swimmers. Our was position was that we where now surrounded by two sailboats and a sloop on all sides. The carronades and swivels fired from the undead. Hitting our Cutter, and causing a leak in the cargo hold. I opened the vent and jumped inside the cargo hold with basic carpentry tools. It was dark there, too dark, and the ceiling was too low, making me claustrophobic. The cargo hold had nothing in it except an empty barrel. I looked forward and saw the leak. I ran towards it with a plank and four nails. And I hammered it and fixed the leak. I grabbed the bucket and filled it with all the seawater that leaked inside the ship. I then handed the bucket to Esther and climbed upwards. Esther then dumped the water back to where it belonged to.*

*While on the weather deck the guns where getting loaded, we almost prepared a full broadside of double shots but we were stopped by an incoming volley of round shots. The first one hit the hull, causing another leak, and causing me to go back again. The second made a hole in the sails.*

*We continued in our loading and then aimed the guns right at the sloop, knowing that we had the advantage in caliber. Then Captain Clemence ordered.*

*"FIRE"*

*Two bangs, Two blasts, Two holes on the sloop. Captain Clemence turned the wheel towards the sloop. "Get a firearm, and load it!" He said. I took a Charleston and loaded it with a lead ball. We then began focusing on loading the starboard guns. Just as our starboard and their port was about to meet. We both fired . . . everything. The muskets, the swivels, the cannons, the pistols, even the throwing knives. They did little damage to us and we did a lot to them. Then their hooks landed. The other sailboat that was decimated also boarded us. It was just a matter of time of thinking before they landed. I spotted a sailor gliding on a rope just about to air assassinate me before Victor fired and killed "it" mid-air.*

*"Thanks chap"*

*"No problem"*

*I then focused on the ghosts that where already on the ship. I saw a completely skeletal figure but with all of his internal organs in place, too gory, too gruesome. I ran my Cutlass through it's chest, running it straight through his heart. My best skill, swordsmanship, was better than ever before, or maybe that the Undead were absolutely horrible at fighting, which most likely was the case, considering I got so many of them.*

*After that I focused on the main scene attacking us. I glanced at the floor, bones and flesh everywhere. I saw Henry struggling against four undead. I kicked one in the back. He fell to the floor, I then stabbed another from behind. The others noticed me and turned their blank eyes at me and stared. They didn't realise that they have exposed their backs to Henry who stabbed one from behind and tried to do the same to the other before he turned his back to me and faced him. Such fools, I stabbed him from behind. It was also the time when the guy I kicked got up and he never lived to see another day.*

*The other undead where slowly getting butchered, but they just seemed to never end. I was fighting one undead until someone aimed and fired a swivel at me, in just a millisecond I was forced to dodge it, but how? I had no time to think about it and I sidestepped the swivel and then it fired, a bit late. But I sidestepped the wrong way. I sidestepped into a crowd of ghosts. I was attacked from each side with everything. Axes, spears, cutlasses, firearms everything. Luckily they had bad aim. And ended up shooting or stabbing their own kind. I took that as an advantage and . . . I was shot in the leg. I fell to the ground and was now attacked from each side. I parried all of their attacks and tried to get up but I was kicked back to the deck again, and I was kicked, again, and like rain, I was kicked upon kicked. I had no hope, even if a friend tried to save me. I would be done while he would still be fighting the first undead. I was kicked upon kicked. I couldn’t slither out of the way. Until . . .*

*"Oy stinky boneymen!" Victor insulted the undead. "I got your stinky princess-y thing!" He teased them. He'd somehow sneaked onboard their sloop and had stole the necklace.*

*The undead moaned. They ran towards their own ship, forgetting about kicking and attacking me. I managed to get up. I lifted my head and looked forward and saw Esther coming for my aid.*

*"Are you alright?"*

*"Obviously no"*

*"Let me wrap you with band aids"*

*"Yes but don't make me a mummy"*

*Victor was now about to get swarmed so he threw it towards Henry*

*"Catch!"*

*Henry caught the necklace. The Undead changed there direction and "skulled" towards Henry, who handed it towards Hardegras and Hardegras ran towards the bowsprit and ran ON the bowsprit. Somehow he kept his balance. Obviously the Undead followed suite. But they bared their backs.*

*"Form a line everybody!" Captain Clemence ordered. We obeyed orders, Victor, Henry, Captain, Esther and I formed a line.*

*"Make Ready!"*

*"Present"*

*I took aim at at an Undead that was from the waist up a human and from the waist down a skeleton.*

*"FIRE!"*

*Five shots where heard. Five Undead had shattered into pieces. You see, the Undead are "undead", nobody dies thrice. Once you die you die, and once your name is last said you die twice, but never thrice. The Undead where simply immortal, but once they where "killed", they shattered into pieces, still alive, I even saw a severed head moaning and a skeletal hand crawling like a spider. They where moving and where very much alive. But not in one piece, pretty creepy.*

*"Catch!" Hardegras alerted Esther.*

*The necklace flew towards us,  just as the Undead turned their backs on Hardegras, he fired at them. One Undead was shattered into pieces, then he switched to the throwing knives, Hardegras surprisingly has amazing aim with throwing knives. Knocking out most of the Undead that where chasing Esther, we quickly reloaded, and then Esther threw the necklace towards Henry, it fell just short of him and an Undead picked it up. For the first time I've heard one of them say anything other than grunting, moaning and screaming. And the Undead laughed in joy, disappointing.*

*Now that the Undead got the hold of a necklace again they focused on Esther, who was now on the other side of the Cutter, shots where heard. I saw one of them stab Esther on the stomach and one who ran his spear through his left wrist. Them they began to kick him, hit him with the pistol's clubs, try to torture him and I even saw one of them chopping his already wounded left hand's fingers off. In a few moments he would be killed, poor Esther. So Victor thought sharp and quick, he rammed his Charleston's bayonet through the Undead and took the necklace and whistled towards the Undead.*

*"Oy, what's this piece of junk?"*

*For the second time Victor saved someone. The Undead left Esther -who was also in blood like me- and charged towards Victor.*

*Captain Clemence then ordered a line.*

*"Make Ready!"*

*. . .*

*"Present"*

*The eight remaining Undead produced all sounds they possibly can, moaning, laughing grunting and screaming towards us. Devilish, I must say.*

*"FIRE!"*

*Five of them shattered into pieces.*

*"CHARGE! BAYONETS, CUTLASSES, DAGGERS!"*

*Captain Clemence held his Sabre upwards towards the sky.*

*I planted a bayonet on the tip of the musket and charged towards the Undead. I stabbed one wearing a hat and it shattered into pieces. Hardegras got the hold of the other and Captain Clemence took care of the last one, We had won against the Undead.*

*"One huge mess to clean up." Hardegras sighed.*

*"One great moment of joy" Henry said.*

*"Sadly we'd only remember it for half an hour" Victor wrapped a bandage around his left wrist.*

*"Not exactly, the one who gets the necklace remembers it all" Hardegras explained.*

*"Yes Grasshopper that's good and all but I am thinking that so many large warships pass through this area, they could easily smash them to bits and get the necklace, how has that still not happened until now, like they left the Undead alive just for us" I said.*

*"The Undead prefer to attack smaller ships the size of a sloop or a Cutter as they can easily destroy them" Hardegras answered.*

*"Come on everybody, let's clean these creepy crawlies out!" Captain Clemence said while sweeping the deck with a broom and throwing the bones and the heads overboard."*

*"What about Esther?" Victor asked.*

*"Oh he . . ." Hardegras thought "He's fatally wounded, leave him to die"*

*"But he's important! We must save him, I'm still going to amputate his left hand and heavily bandage him if you wont help!" Victor protested.*

*"Hmm, let me remember, in 1694, Captain Olivier Jacques used the Verdantium of this very necklace and used it on his dying First Mate-*

*"No need of history talk, save him now!" Victor shouted.*

*"Okay, so let me try, this may work or not"*

*Hardegras walked towards Esther, who could barely move. He took the necklace from his brown overcoat and held it tightly, he closed his eyes in full concentration, his lips started moving, like he was uttering a chant or a prayer, for some reason, and I might be day-dreaming, his skin turned slightly red and his eyes meshed into one. From his back I even swear I saw something red and slimy peeking out, I took a good look and they where eight little bits of them. The necklace shone extremely bright in a strong shade of lime-dark green and for some reason it gave me slight nausea, as if it were poison. It shone so bright at one point that I couldn't even see Esther and Hardegras. I covered my eyes with my hand and made a slight gap between my fingers so that I can see. It then it began to cool down, I saw the last pieces of green mist float into Esther's wounds. Hardegras then started to come to look normal back again. It was normal again, I mean perfectly normal. Esther was still dying, The fingers of the Undead were still crawling in my shoes and all that. For a few seconds it was all normal, until a THUD, followed with a massive BLAST of bright neon green air, the shockwave was so powerful I almost fell overboard, but before I went to Hades the rim blocked me from falling. When the mist cooled down I took a look to check the damage the blast had done, except, it had done the opposite. All of the holes on the Cutter where gone and where replaced with fine wood, my bandages fell loose, revealing unharmed regular skin, I suddenly felt normal, I was healed, even the bear pelt's bullet holes where patched, and most importantly, Esther was completely healed, like me, he was just back to normal. Not even a hair was different, except for his eyes, they where green, like the Verdantium. Before he had brown eyeballs, now he has green eyeballs, beautiful neon green eyeballs . . .*

*We where all shocked, speechless, but Hardegras was speech-full, despite looking more shocked than us.*

*"Oh my . . ." He stared down at the necklace "For the second time in history Verdantium has been used for this . . . I- I can't believe what I have done!" Hardegras smiled, still in shock.*

*"Hardegras" Relish called. "How did you . . ." Too many words may have jammed up in his throat, he stuttered constantly. "L- Save- Do- Look like that? I mean holy- how- um-"*

*"Yes, yes, yes" Hardegras interrupted, still looking stunned. "The person who does that begins to look different in the process, I didn't notice I was turning into something, some of you may have seen a fish, or a  squid, or a crocodile, or even a beast. It's normal"*

*"Like this has been done many times before" Henry argued.*

*"Some crewmen of Captain Jacques saw him turn into a fish, some of them saw him turn into a goat, some saw lizard, and some accounts saw Chameleon, read the individual accounts of the 'The Jacques-Lancelot Journey' to understand, what a journey"*

*"Oy e'eryone, remember what I said? Clean the creepy crawlies out!" Captain Clemence reminded us the order.*

Each of us grabbed a broom and started getting rid of the shattered immortals. One skeletal foot even crawled up into my sleeve. It was obviously and terrifyingly terrifying. I had to wait until it came out from my collar and I threw it into the sea.

*"What about the last remaining sailboats?" I asked.*

*"They had to flee away from us" Hardegras answered, while holding the necklace.*

*After a few minutes everything went normal, we where moving peacefully and silently.*

*"What's the purpose of that?" I eyed at the necklace.*

*"This?" Hardegras held the necklace.*

*"Yeah"*

*He took a deep breath. "There is too much to explain in a brief amount of time. This is the Necklace of the Immortal, the bright green shiny thing in the middle is Verdantium, if you wear it or tie it to the mizzenmast or the only mast of your ship, you, your ship, your crew will become just like the Undead after you die. That is one of the properties of this necklace that makes it cursed. But their are more good in it than bad. The chain of it is made up of Charged Sapphire that's why it glows as well, just blue. The beads hanging from the chain are Skyrite, an extremely powerful and rare metal, it normally doesn't glow at all and looks like silver with a tint of grey, it's powers will be similar to Frosteel in day and in night, but at sunrise and at sunset, that's when Skyrite shows it's true power. It glows greyish pink with feathery touches from yellow and red. It can cut through anything in that state except other glowies and steel. You would be able to slice a man like cake and it would be a piece of cake to change the course of a battlefield, of course, you would need a weapon to to be made out of it to make this possible, this necklace-"*

*I had enough of it, I needed to know everything about this field*

*"What is Charged Sapphire, Skyrite and Verdentium? Tell me, please"*

*"Glowies" He answered.*

*"What are they?"*

*"Supernatural metals with unique and strange powers"*

*"Where to get them?"*

*"You are not supposed to own one at Thirteen, too young and inexperienced to handle the power"*

*"So can you explain to me something else about glowies"*

*"Glowies are a strange and difficult to explain topic, only the highest can get their hands on them, by that I mean the best in battle, like generals, admirals, they can handle the power, not a puny little Yorkston hero like you." I very must agree on that statement made right there, I'm not even a midshipman and I want the General and Admiral stuff.*

*"How does one get one?" I asked.*

*"The Jagged Rocks of the Glowies, it's location is not yet leaked to the public, only the higher ups know it. It's rumoured to be in the South Deshi Sea. You must carefully navigate through each rock which are mostly underwater mountains with their peaks above water. You stop at a rock you'd like and start climbing them, and they are very steep, extremely steep. You can choose to stop climbing anywhere and stay there while holding on to something and then you start mining the rock, and hope you find something glowy. Some rocks are only found in some circumstances, Electrosteel can only be mined during a thunderstorm, the miners refer to it as an 'Electrostorm'. Skyrite can only be mined during early morning and during evening. Santanite can only be mined during winter. Magmite only in summer. Stalinium can only be mined as a Thosrian. Once you get a good amount of a preferred glowy you mined, you forge them and make a weapon or a tool out of it."*

*"Can you tell me everything about every single type of glowy"*

*"Later when we have time" Hardegras pointed at an island in the distance.*

"The Lenore Islets" Captain Clemence murmured.

As time went by the islets where getting clearer and clearer until I could clearly understand them.

They where islets, six of them, surrounding a larger island, about quarter the size of Marcel's Rest. So in total there where seven chunks of land. The islets where pieces of rock that looked like they where floating above the water but obviously they where the peaks of underwater mountains. These "peaks" where triangular and had patches of grass on the very top and near the water where a couple of buildings that where half on land and half suspended in the air supported by tall logs. Each house had it's own personal dock sticking out of the door, a rowboat, a Sloop or a Simple Sailboat of their own. On the main island, named "Lenore's Isle", which had a nice town going on. A small church surrounded by many houses and what seemed to be a tavern. Around the church where many small shops, they mostly sold flour, rice, fruits, vegetables, and all of that general stuff. Outside of the church area was the downtown area. Large one and two storey buildings and sometimes just a regular house but with a sign indicating that it's the shop. The all buildings had different purpose, furniture stores, clothes, carpentry, lumber mill, warehouse, blacksmith's station, Governor's office, stonemason, fishing, etcetera etcetera. There was even a barn for livestock.

We came closer and closer, towards the docks.

"Raise the sails, Release the anchor, Come to halt!" Captain Clemence ordered.

We stopped the Cutter in the perfect spot.

"Docking fees" A man came towards our ship.

"Here you go" Hardegras gave the man three pence.

We threw the plank and formed a bridge between the pier and our ship and walked off our ship and entered the town with our pelts.

"Identify" The dockmaster said.

"Ferriston youth academy trainees" Hardegras answered.

'Stamp'

"What will we do next at Lenore's Isle?" Victor asked.

"Sell our pelts for a doubloon pile" Hardegras rhymed and made a reference to his shanty.

We all laughed.

"Where is the furniture store?" Hardegras wondered.

"Pelts are . . . furniture?" I thought

"Then what? They are used in curtains, towels, decoration, carpets, bedsheets, blankets and just about any other fluffy thing" Hardegras explained to me. The thing is that the answer already popped up in my head just after I thought that stupid thing.

"There it is" He pointed towards the furniture store, we followed him and entered it.

"How much for this rabbit pelt?" He said on the counter

"Hmm, a noble"

"How about this fox pelt?"

"Looks good, eight shillings and five pence"

"And this bear pelt?"

If you could, then you must have seen the face of guy on the counter when he saw the bear pelt, truly amusing, extraordinary.

"I'd give three in doubloons" He quickly spoke.

"Really?" Hardegras raised an eyebrow. "That's insanely much, we will be swimming-" I gave a wicked pinch to Hardegras, I needed at least a doubloon profit from this voyage.

"Oh yeah I forgot" He whispered to me. "I mean that's too kind, but I'lll accept your offer". Hardegras then pulled out the bear's head. "What about this severed bear's head?"

"A mark"

The look on Hardegras' face said it all, he knew that he was going to be rich.

"These bear claws?"

"Five pence each"

We left the store all smiling knowing that we are now rich. We equally distributed all profit except the claws and the teeth. I ended up getting a doubloon, eight shillings and four pence from everything and Henry and Hardegras got the most out of it.

"Let's get back now shall we" Captain Clemence said.

"Aye sir"

We boarded our Cutter and heaved away towards Martinsville. Our final destination.

The voyage was boring. Nothing to do. We where rotting until on the coast we spotted a sheep that may have fled from the flock, and you can guess what we did to it, if you still didn't get it, then we basically formed a line, and fired at it, and what we got was a dead animal that we couldn't even shear or skin it or eat because we had to sail to the coast and stop which we where too lazy for, instead we just sailed away in joy. And after twenty minutes of boredom, we spotted another animal on the shore, this time it was a deer, a huge one. And guess what we did? We blew it into pieces with a cannon. Then came a really boring time, for like forty minutes we where rotting on our Cutter, just the cold and gentle sea breezes to help the mood and the soothing sound of the waves, the creaking of the hull. The Ballast may have been slightly imbalanced or something. Hardegras, seeing the fungus that was growing on our skins decided to sing a shanty to help the mood.

"Now your bored to sail for the horn"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"The Anchor's onboard and the cable is stored"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"Heave a Paul a Heave away"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"The Anchor's onboard and the cable is stored"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"Soon we'll reach the piers and the docks"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"Unless we crash into a rock"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"Heave a Paul a Heave away"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"The Anchor's onboard and the cable is stored"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"At Martinsville we'll eat the grilled steak"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"And after that we'll take a break"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"Heave a Paul a Heave away"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"The Anchor's onboard and the cable is stored"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"After that we'll head back home"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"In middle of the bay all alone"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"Heave a Paul a Heave away"

"Way-hay roll and go"

"The Anchor's onboard and the cable is stored"

"To be rollicking Randy Dandy Oh"

"Very well" Captain Clemence clapped.

"Beautiful" Esther applauded.

Hardegras took of his his tricorne in respect. "Thank you"

After that nothing happened, obviously . . . for an hour, until, Henry spoke. Yes, someone speaking was the most interesting thing in an entire hour of my life that could've been used for something useful like reading eight hundred books about maths.

"Land!" Henry said.

"Where?"

"Look!"

Martinsville had arrived. But Hardegras worded it in a different way.

"The grilled steak has arrived."

"Brilliant choice of words, Will" Captain Clemence laughed.

"Ah finally, someone calls me by my usual name, Will, and not my horrible surname, Hardegras"

"Hey Will" I called him

"What?" He turned around.

"You know that dog is a bad insult-"

"Mm hmm"

"-and I once read a poem, 'William De Conigsby came from-"

"Aight' shut up you bloody rat!" Will interrupted me. "I know that poem too well and you should not spread it amongst everyone on the ship"

Everyone laughed.

"I also know that poem as well but I have to take mercy upon you so I am stopping myself" Victor confessed.

Hardegras looked very angry "Ah crap!"

If you don't know what the poem is, then let me tell you:

                William de Conigsby came from Cittany,

                          Along with his wife Tiffany,

                          His maid named Brass,

                          And his dog Hardegras

Truly humiliating for Lord William Hardegras and his family.

"What will we do there?" Esther pointed at Martinsville.

"Visit Jean Taylor's restaurant, Jean is the best cook in the world. His special Venison stew, Cheese soup and Grilled Steak are the best in all of Ansaria" Hardegras said.

"What else does he sell?" Henry asked.

"Jean loves cheese, he believes it's a gift from god, he puts it into everything, Mozzarella tea and coffee, Grilled Cheese -I mean, literally, cheese cooked on a grill- Scrambled eggs with Mozzarella, Cheese bread, Cheese pudding, Toast and Cheese, Cheese cake, and by that I mean a filled circle of cheese, you know what I mean, sugared and creamed, You can even order a "Brick" which is a Jean's special. It is just a large brick of cheese the size of your entire foot seasoned and flavoured with various spices, sauce, salt, pepper, peri peri and all that good stuff, I've tried it and its amazing. Even the water has some pieces of mozzarella blue cheese sprinkled on it. You can also order a plate or a bowl and spoons made entirely out of cheese and after your done with your food you can eat your plate and spoons, but only the rich can afford that."

I already know what I am going to order before we even dock, and speaking of docking, we're now just a couple minutes away from halting. As we reached the piers we lowered the sails, dropped the anchor and put the plank. We where now in Martinsville. I've never been here before, shocking as a Valereenan myself, but I've been to it's so called "Sister island" which is Perisburg multiple times.

Perisburg is made for tourism and enjoyment. It's a beautiful island with lots of mountains, flowers, crystal clear lakes, beautiful trees and wildlife. It still looks very medieval, mythical and looks kind of like your living in a fairytale. The largest city is home to only seven-hundred people. Because most people live deep inside the forest and live in log houses and cabins. You can stumble across some of them while your walking in the forest. It is calm and peaceful there. Most people go there for hunting and some explore the secrets of it and climb the tallest peaks. The island is kind of like the size of fifteen Marcel's Rests, 594 square kilometres. And by the way I got that from a geography book I stole from the library (Don't tell anyone!)

Anyways we docked on Martinsville. The first thing I thought was "Woah, this place really is a cheap copy of the port we docked on Artuva". It was exactly what I though. The long piers and docks coming out of the cobblestone pathway with wagons and horses going. One storey buildings built in rows upon rows, drunkards laying on the street with wet pants, I having a mental breakdown. Truly what a perfect eighteenth century town should look like. I knew I had a lot more to see, but before that, we must identify.

"Ferriston naval academy trainees". Hardegras said.

'Stamp'

Before getting crushed by horses I saw a massive building from the corner of my eye. It was a third the size of my academy. It's walls where painted cheesy yellow and the roof was meaty red. It had some nice decorations on it too.

"There" Hardegras pointed at the building. "That is where we want to go".

Now I had to try not to die, which I almost failed because I almost got crushed to death on the way by four horses galloping in the pathway, I took a glance at one of them and for some reason I recognised one of the horsemen, he had a stubble and brown hair, similar to someone I previously saw. Anyways after a lot of careful stepping, we arrived at Jean Taylor's "Cheese World". Yes, that's literally the name of his restaurant.

"It's been long since I came here" Hardegras stared at the building. "Jean's got so rich now, his restaurant has completely changed".

The gate was nicely and richly decorated with silver, gold and bronze, and I know what my mother will always say: "God! This could have been used to help the homeless, we must boycott this restaurant because of blah blah blah".

On the left and right sides of the gate where silver statues of one of those winged baby things you see in paintings, I think they are called cherubs. Except that instead of a bow or a musical instrument, they where holding cheese on a stick and had one of those fancy twirly moustaches, and for some reason their eyes where always staring at us. Weird and oddly uncanny.

We entered the gate and Oh my Rennet. The place smelled entirely like cheese, because it WAS cheese, not entirely, only the floor, which was made entirely out of cheese, most of it was molding and rotting, but still hard as a rock, and not squishy somehow. There where a lot of people there, and many tables and chairs, a whole lot of tables and chairs made of dark oak with a whole lot of people sitting on it, there was even an upstairs section which might go for two or three floors considering the height of the building. There was a massive chandelier in the middle of the roof which I was surprised of because it was not made of cheese. The walls where made of dark oak, same with the roof. On the very corner, behind a set of table and chairs, was a rope, curled around for so reason at all. On the right was the counter, and that's where we headed towards. "Everybody pays for their own food, it's capitalism in my crew" Captain Clemence said.

On the counter was a man with a fancy twirly moustache, plain and nicely combed and oiled black hair, pure white skin and big grey eyes. He wore a regular work shirt, a white full sleeved checkered shirt layered with a lederhosen and a black tie. It was the man himself, Jean Taylor. A Serpish immigrant, a Serpish accent.

"Good Afternoon Gentlemen, I expect you are from the naval academies right?"

"Yes" Hardegras replied.

"Ah, what would you like sir, my special brick, the famous grilled steak or perhaps... some venison?"

Hardegras hunched over at us. "What would you like everyone?"

Each of us had his own orders, I was the only one that ordered  the brick, which costed me an expensive shilling.

We sat on the only empty table there was, which just so happened to be the closest to the strange useless rope, with enough chairs for five people, and there where six of us, that meant that, someone had to stand and eat, and it was of course me.

"Can you stop doing that?" Esther complained about. "I don't like it, it's annoying"

"I'm just knocking on the table!" Victor said.

"But what's the need?"

"I'm just bored, there's nothing to do!"

Victor continued to knock on the table with his fingers.

"Stop!" Esther shoved his hand.

"Enough of it!" Hardegras tried to put a stop to it. "If you're bored, then come to me, I've got a plenty of pretty interesting knowledge about naval lore and stuff"

Esther was quick to speak "Those are all made up stories and are fake, Silly Willy!"

"Well, how about real ones?"

"Eh"

"Shut it Esther, no one likes your arguing" Henry said.

"Arguing? I'm speaking the truth!"

"Democracy is the law in my crew!" Captain Clemence jumped im.

"Relish, as soon as you've been given this 'Captaincy', you've been a bigger boss than Terry Hanson!"

Hardegras' eyes turned pure red, and after a few more bit of toxic arguing, he erupted.

"ESTHER! SHUT IT!"

"You shut"

"I'LL DROWN YOU IN INK!"

"Oh you can? You narrow street!"

I could see his face turning red with anger, and then he released it, not his anger, but the rope.

It sprung from it's resting place where it might have lied for a million years, and with the speed that of a Falcon, it wrapped around Esther like a python wrapping around it's prey and covered his mouth, he tried to move but the rope tightened more and he fell to the floor, and no one even seemed to notice that, maybe because we where so far away and probably that the food was so good their attention didn't go anywhere but the food.

As he fell, Hardegras released his anger, and the rope began to untie and it slithered back to it's resting place and curled up. Esther then got up, dusted off his clothes and then became motionless, we all became motionless. All jaws dropped. Shocking more than thunder.

Victor was shaking more than anything in the world. "What . . . just . . . uh . . um-" He stuttered a lot. "Ha- Hap-p-end??"

Hardegras uttered in a bold voice "You don't know who I really am, don't you?"

"Y-Yes" Henry said, shaking more than Victor.

"It's better not to tell you, otherwise I'd be plagued with questions, except for one nephew of mine"

His eyes rolled towards me, but I am sure he could also be looking at Relish, who was just besides me.

"Who?" Relish asked.

"Not you" Hardegras said.

A chill went down my spine, but I knew, it wasn't me. I was taught my entire genealogy till my Great Great Grandfather. And I am a million percent sure as a fact that no one was named "William Boris Hardegras".

"I'm not an evil villain though" Hardegras calmed the mood "Rather my father was, and I chose to be the opposite of him, like my mother" He adjusted his tricorne. "My father was, an absolute monster, you might say, he was a sorcerer, he taught me that, but at 9 he abandoned me and my mother, and for the first time in decades, I have used it to do just that to the one who's life I saved."

"B-but, I mean your scary now" Relish managed to speak.

"Only when I'm angry, to the one that's angered me, you all are safe always around me, I can protect you better than anything"

Ring Ring

"You're food is here"

A man in a checkered work shirt informed.

He and three other workers prepared the table for us to eat. We all shared each other's food and by god that's the damn best thing I've ever ate, forget Trufiya.

When we finished Hardegras said, trying to regain his friendliness status.

"Well it's time to go, I suppose"

"Alright Willzard" Victor joked.

Hardegras laughed. "Nice one".

We headed towards the dock. I really wanted to stay more on Martinsville but Hardegras said that there was not enough time left for it and that we just did the best thing there was to do in the entire island. So I gave up on my hopes of "exploring" the island.

We boarded our Cutter at and set of course to Ferriston, for the first ten minutes of sailing and moving completely out of the harbour and into the open sea, we were moving crosswind, great speed, but when we actually turned hard to starboard where Ferriston was. The wind became ugly. We were moving backwards. Hardegras told to trim the sails which we did but it was no help. Until Captain Clemence got an idea.

The Harpoons.

They could be used as oars. And that was enough. We rowed a literal Cutter with harpoons until the wind blew the right way, which took a painful hour and a half, by that it was already around 8 o'clock, and we were dead sleepy and tired, and let me tell you, Hardegras waking me up saying "Ferriston is here!" was one of the best things ever.