Chronicle XX

Anger flooded Daddy Chill as he realized EmBark was his attacker. She acted to defend her master, the mad-man launching bladed shells as the pair. DC looked down at her as she growled, taking an offensive stance, ready to strike again. He was hurt seeing the friendship he built dissolve as he defended her as well. She was overtaken by the sight of Seven Seas, who she couldn’t understand was absolutely bonkers, warped from time in this strange region of the ocean.

Daddy Chill dared not retaliate against the little pup, so he arose a wall of ice between them and continued expanding it as he stepped out of the boat and walked on the crystal sand, heading home, done with the journey now that the dog captain found her target. EmBark stood down when he left and directed her ship toward Seven Seas. His onslaught was unending. The ship grew closer, skimming over sand and shallow water to get to the crazed seaman.

“SHE’S REALLY GOING UP TO HIM!” stated the disembodied voice in disbelief.

“Quiet, you!!!! ENOUGH!!!!” responded Seven Seas, screaming to the swirling flame sky. Grabbing shells with one hand, passing them to the other and launching them in random directions over and over.

EmBark began to see the change in Seven Seas. His eyes were dark and darted around like he was afraid something would attack him. She stopped the boat just shy of him. Seven Seas checked out the small vessel and stopped his freakout.

“That ship. I know it. Yes, I know it.” he spoke to himself.

“WOOF!” EmBark barked to get his attention. He glanced quickly at her and then his eyes returned to their movement.

“And that dog. I know it. I do know it.” he gestured for EmBark to follow him. “Come now. Come now. Follow me.”

Seven Seas stepped haphazardously up his tower of massacred sea creatures. Bits and pieces and exoskeletons cracked or fell and rolled down to the sea floor. EmBark rode her boat just above, focusing hard to fly it, not wanting to disturb the tower. The madman stood beside the throne he had built out of boat masts.

“I tried to get this ship. I told it to come to me. But so many others came. Not this one. Not this one.” he rambled. “So many others came. Not this one. So many captains. So many crews.”

EmBark noticed Seven Seas wore a captain’s hat similar to her own; his old hat. She dipped her head down to drop the hat and catch it with her mouth. She stepped to the edge of the ship and nudged Seven Seas’ arm with it. He looked down and his eyes planted on the hat. His eyes then darkened further and his face became tense, with a frown growing that would cause EmBark to back away in fear and return the hat to her head.

“You took it. I searched the world for that hat before I EVER EVEN SAVED YOU.” his words grew louder as he spoke. “I SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU THERE TO STARVE. YOU PUT ME UNDER A SPELL AND TOOK FROM ME MY POWER.”

EmBark backed up her ship. Seven Seas took hold of one of the helm handles and swung it high over his head and then down onto the front of her boat. It crashed into the tower she hovered over, causing everything to begin sliding down. She took control of the ship and backed away further, watching as Seven Seas surfed the sliding debris, his eyes locked onto her the entire way to the sand.

Seven Seas stood hunched in front of the collapsed tower, madness in his eyes and called upon the ocean. From his sides and behind the rubble came every possible sea creature, rising upon a wave that stuck in the air. He summoned from beneath himself a ship that picked him up as he charged forward at EmBark, who began to evade the oncoming attack. She abandoned all hope of saving her former captain. There was pure malice in his eyes where she once saw adventure and bravery.

“WOWZA!!!! THAT LITTLE SHIP’S IN TROUBLE!!! GO LITTLE SHIP, GO!!!!” said the voice.

EmBark gave up flying the ship and commanded the ocean to rise to her. It did so, but weakly, as if Seven Seas’ had a stronger influence over it. She scanned around for cover, but aside from the tower, she was in flat water and sand. Nowhere to go. Seven Seas moved his arms forward at his sides gently, which sent water shooting out from behind the creatures riding the wave that followed him. They were propelled onto EmBark’s ship. She hid in the wheelhouse as best as she could while they searched for her.

Closing in, the creatures chittered and sped up once they spotted EmBark. She felt the ship communicating to her. It gave her the defense she needed. The pup captain closed her eyes and the wooden deck of the ship opened up beneath lobster/stingray amalgamations. They slipped right through the floor and into the sand below. Seven Seas was gaining on her as both vessels sped through the ocean, though sending the sea creatures at her became futile. EmBark quickly learned to deflect any attacks by reconfiguring the ship.

Seven Seas got close enough to leap from his ship to EmBarks. The boat he left crumbled into the wave that subsided. All the creatures he summoned returned to whatever life they had in the strange ocean, losing all interest in the battle right away. The mad seaman stepped towards EmBark, who was stepping backwards into the wheelhouse. She opened the floor beneath him and his legs were through the ship, his feet skidding on the crystal sand. His face didn’t change, even in such a vulnerable position.

The boat stopped as EmBark moved towards the trapped madman. Seven Seas quickly grabbed from his back a large knife and he held it out towards EmBark, making eye contact as he reached forward and grabbed her beard with his other hand, pulling her to himself and closer to the blade.

“You could never be captain, dog.” he said with a low, evil tone. He swung his arm with the blade out to put an end to EmBark, who was failing to remove his hand from her.

A flash of blue filled the ship. A sheet of ice originated at Seven Seas’ forearm which blocked any motion at all. From the side of the ship, Daddy Chill calmly slid on an ice path to retrieve the knife from Seven Seas’ hand.

“HEY THAT OTHER GUY CAME BACK.”

“QUIET! YOU HAVE TO BE QUIET!!!!!” Seven Seas screamed into the air, more upset about the voice than being thwarted.

“You alright, captain?” Daddy Chill asked EmBark while he peeled off the madman’s fingers from her beard. She didn’t respond, seeming to be embarrassed by her attack on him.

“Listen, I got kids who tell me they hate me daily. This was nothing. Wasn’t gonna let this guy do anything to you.” he turned his attention to Seven Seas, whose body was half in the ship still. “Silas, what happened to you? You’re here attacking a dog? A dog who came to save you? You’re no captain.”

Daddy Chill removed the hat from Seven Seas’ head and saw on his head a decent sized mushroom being just laying there. EmBark and him looked at each other and then back at the fungus.

“What’s this?” DC asked Seven Seas, pointing to his head.

“I have something on my head?” he asked.

“You have something living on your head.” he replied.

The Very Magical Mushroom stood up and the voice came from the air again, “UH OH THEY FOUND US.” DC reactively encased it in ice and blasted it with frost, sending it far into the horizon. As soon as it was out of sight, the world around the trio started to change. The sky filled with blue again and the crystal sand vanished. The debris of Seven Seas’ tower disappeared and the madman himself began to transform from the wild captain of the ocean back into Silas Stone, the modest crabber. EmBark watched with tears forming in her eyes as her captain became the frail, old man that he truly was.

“None of this was real?” Daddy Chill asked him.

“It was real. It isn’t anymore.” Silas replied, his voice shaky and withered compared to the power he had moments ago. “The part of the ocean I was looking for wasn’t a place on the Earth. It was a place in my mind. My perfect destination. But the voice. It just wouldn’t stop. I’ll fight sea monsters for an eternity, but listen to that? No.”

EmBark released Silas from her ship and he fell into the water, struggling even just to stay afloat. Daddy Chill froze true ice beneath him, providing him a boat he could sail in, as both he and EmBark felt unwilling to provide transport for the man who risked both their lives. As they parted ways with the old man and headed back towards Big City, DC felt that EmBark was still feeling bad about how she treated him. As they arrived back at his house, he told her to wait as he went inside.

In his backyard, Daddy Chill made a boathouse the perfect size for EmBark’s ship to be stored. He motioned for her to come look. “You don’t have to use it… Just figured you may want somewhere to come home to.”

EmBark looked on with eyes glistening. She backed her boat into it and paced around, seeing out how she felt. A door opened at the back of DC’s home and his kids ran outside and excitedly came aboard, petting and hugging the captain. Her little nub tail wagged happily as she got all the attention.

“You’re free to come and go.” DC offered. His kids came back to surround him. “I know they’d love it.”

EmBark nodded humbly and laid down, enjoying not being in motion for the first time in a long time.