"What's wrong, pally?" Tony asked as Elise's lips trembled. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Or at least a very bad person."

"Don't worry," Archibell snickered. "The very bad person is outside, waiting for us to get eaten by the witch doctor. Fortunately, it seems you're safe with us, kiddo!"

"That's what I'm afraid of," Elise murmered. Her allies stared at her and she went. "I mean, that's what I want for dinner... alfredo!"

"What do I look like a short order diner?!" the Whoodoo Lady cried. "You already had your clam chowder, child. Now back to the prophecy…"

"Erm...uh uh," Elise said, shaking her head and cutting the old lady off. "Maybe some other time!"

"What's gotten into you, little one?" the Whoodoo Lady asked, narrowing her ancient eyes. The witch doctor turned to Archie and Tony. "She's acting weirder than a talking fish."

"Gee tanks," Tony barked.

Elise was almost ready to spill her gut about Archibell being the bad man in the prophecy when suddenly, there was a bang outside and Sugar marched in with her crew, spurs a-jingling. A smoking gun hissed from her hand. "Ya know," she said, "Little o'me gets tired of waiting. I'm a cowgirl so I know what bonafide horseplay looks like! What are y'all doing in here?"

"Having dinner?" Elise smiled, trying to remain chipper, holding up her bowl of clam chowder. "Want some?"

Sugar hissed and cocked her gun at Elise, causing the young girl to squeak and drop her bowl on her lap. "Fiddlesticks," Elise swore in her own special way.

"Lady…" the Whoodoo Woman muttered angrily. "What are you doing in my swamp?!"

The old woman's age elderly eyes glowed a sinisterly orange. The sight of Sugar threatening to blow Elise away with her gun prompted the Whoodoo Lady to react. Sugar's finger trembled on the trigger as the Whoodoo Woman rose up and her dark dreadlocks uncoiled like snakes.

"I will shoot her," Sugar cried. "If y'all don't sit down and give me what I want."

An ominous purple aura drifted around the Whoodoo Lady as she spread her arms apart. "What is it you want?" she rasped.

"The location of the Trident of Triumph! Your piece o' it that's been said to be here!"

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The Whoodoo Lady continued to rise like a possessive specter about to take control of Sugar's body, but right when she cocked her gun and moved it beside Elise's head, the old lady gasped and retreated back into her seat.

Elise was so grateful for the prophecy. At least, that made her important enough for Whoodoo Lady to want to protect her. There was no way out now though.

"You're such a big mean lady," Elise snapped at Sugar, but that only made the belle giggle more.

"Why thank you dah'ling. Being a big mean lady is how a gal like me gets any power round here."

Sugar pinched Elise's cheeks tightly. "Nice, sweet girls like you are always last. Big girls in boots are the breadwinners! Now tell me, Ms. Witchy Woman, where is your piece o' the Trident?"

"It's not here," the Whoodoo Lady said. "I misdirected this mediocre spell casters thunderbolt so you'd all come to Evil Lurks Bayou instead"

Sincirce put her hands on her hips. "Mediocre?! But I graduated top of my Spellarts Class!"

The Whoodoo Woman's wrinkled face widened into a toothless, haggard grin. "The true location of the second piece of the Trident is one of the most haunted places in the sea."

"The place in Sincirce's brain where da morality should be?!" Tony asked and the witch glared daggers at him.

"Since the beginning of the Four Great Oceans," the old woman stated, "The four capitals waged battle over control of the sea. One day, four of the greatest fleets did battle in a cursed place that soon came to be known as Fleet's Grave. Whether by curse or by bad luck, the ruler of the Everworld punished the four fleets by destroying them in a giant hurricane, leaving no one but the remnants of cracked and battered skeletons of bows and masts."

Even the braver members of the two pirate crews trembled over the concept of this place. And as the Whoodoo Lady continued to speak, her voice grew darker and more harrowing. "The cursed ghost ship, run by the current Reaper of the Sea is said to keep its domain there. Even after all these years, lost souls continue to haunt these waters and the reaper seeks them only to please her master."

"Her?" Archibell asked. "The current reaper is a she?"

"Yes," spoke the old woman, "Every new Season of the Reaper a new one comes to take the place of the previous. This one sports the visage of a female"

Elise wrinkled her nose remembering that demon in the mask. Its utmost hatred for Archibell and her crew reflected in the spiraling eye markings on the mask. "Could have fooled me!" the young girl remarked.

Archibell was silent. The Whoodoo Lady continued. "I'm good enough at sensing that the Reaper has acquired the second piece of the Trident. The Reaper herself waits there, and I caution you, this may be a trap."

"Well duh," Tito remarked, peeking out from behind Sincirce's skirt. "Sounds like this thing wants us to come to her."

The Whoodoo Lady placed her spindly fingers together. "It's entirely up to you about what you want to do. Will you brave the Reaper's trap and save the four oceans, or shall we forever exist in an age where the Sea King no longer governs the ocean. It's up to you.

Sugar began to snicker in her horselike voice. Everyone turned to her with an uncomfortable look on their faces. "Did the mean horse lady run out of sugarcubes?" Elise asked, still angrily glaring at her.

"I've got the perfect solution to this trap," Sugar guffawed. "I just happen to have the perfect bait."

"Bait?!" Archibell asked. "What bait?!"

Sugar thrusted her finger right in the direction of Archibell. "Your crew!"