Chapter 105

Let’s Switch.

Boggo

Whether we preferred to sleep while sailing, or to sleep while anchored was a tough one. Anchored at Lurk-murky port meant that the galleon didn’t heave or roll as much. But it also meant a lot more commotion on deck every day.

In the early mornings, just before the nesting birds sang themselves awake, Ella and I opened the door and hatches. When we chirped good morning and chittered sweet things to each other, the sound of our voices seemed to almost echo in the newly emptied crow’s nest. There was so much space now thanks to best pal Thrush. What a guy, that guy.

The murky air filled my lungs. “Ah! What a salty morning!”

“Almost warm enough to feel like spring.”

When I poked my snout out into the sunlight, birds leapt from the crow’s nest roof. Their flapping wings startled me and I fell back into the bedding of our fur. Ella giggled.

I rolled onto my belly. “How did you sleep, oh love of my life, best of the best, absolute favorite?”

She–wild like a weasel–tackled me. We rolled and rolled and rolled in the newly clear space. We giggled and cooed and lay in the sunlight that had stepped in. And as we stared into each other’s eyes, a strong breeze whistled up the center of the mast in the tunnel we maintained. It also carried the green and yellow scent of goblins from its entrance below deck.

“Can you believe it?” said Ella. “More besties!”

“I trust Thrush. If he says he can smell them, they’ve gotta be here. I can’t believe how everywhere they are.”

“But he said he smelled them up high in the bamboo tops.”

I lay my snout across Ella’s belly and gazed at the tunnel of the mast while the sun warmed my blue fur. It was a tunnel that we had clambered up and down thousands of times. On clear days at sea when the deck hatch was left open, it brought in fresh air. But there were eerie moments too when the cackling and grackle-voices of goblins echoed up. And one too many times we forever lost dice down the tunnel.

My eyes went half sail as Ella pet the bridge of my snout. From the change of pattern of her pets, I could tell whether she was thinking quickly or slowly.

She stopped. “Let’s go on an adventure. The weather is so nice!”

“You want to find those besties, don’t you?”

“Do you?”

I lifted my snout from her belly like I was a waking dragon from his pile of sun touched, gleaming yellow treasure. My gaze fell to the active goblins below who stomped about—some of them in big black boots. My gaze rose to the marsh, and my imagination went wild filling the grasses with danger. In the distance there were humongous white clouds piled like infinite beer foam. …Oh boy, was it a beautiful day! Yet that didn’t mean danger didn’t lurk in the tall bamboo that rose from marsh edges where the ground lay beneath deep water.

Like the sudden blaring of seagulls, I heard Barnacle-eyes’ and Gabby’s voices on deck. The Admiral and a trail of following goblins carried chests and burlap sacks up from below deck. They stacked everything high against the starboard taffrail.

If we did go searching for besties…

“I think we’re going to need some help.”

∞

The goblins did not stop carting chests and sacks from Barnacle-eyes’ forecastle. It seemed that they brought up everything they could get their hands on. Goblins gathered to watch as chests were piled high and sacks were slumped in, what seemed to me, a rugged burlap mountain. The wind and the rolling of the sloop made the piles seem to come alive as they tipped and creaked and seemed too close to falling overboard.

From the shroud netting which draped like a skirt around the main mast, Ella and I watched the commotion.

At last when all the chests had been piled scarily high, Barnacle-eyes cleared her throat and performed a pirouette of delight.

“All right, snots! We’ve got some new crew mates! That means it's promotion time!”

The shroud netting bounced like a spider’s web in the wind as goblins leapt upon it. They fit their butts into the holes of the netting, where giant vines had crept through over the months. Every one of them were out of their mind excited.

One by one, goblin names were called. Those that scampered over to Barnacle-eyes were given new hammered flower dresses and backpacks. Other rewards were handed out. Coin clinked every now and then.

The Admiral clapped her hands. “Snipper-snap, come forward!”

Gabby was ever there. “Please thank you!”

Ella ushered me into the white world of the inside of a giant trumpet flower. “Hammer?”

I rummaged. “Check.”

She bit her lip and gave what I thought was a dubious look at the hammer handle that poked from my bag. “Are you sure you want to bring that?

“It might be heavy and unwieldy, but it makes me feel just a little bit safer. And I’ll take all of those feelings I can!”

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The Admiral’s sea-salty voice rose again. “Long-spit, come right up!”

“Please thank you.”

Ella nudged me. “Boots and booties?”

“Check. Cloaks?”

“Check. Who’s wearing the backpack, and who’s slinging the waterskin?”

Barnacle-eyes’ voice pierced the sky like the call of a swooping seagull. “Pretty-nails!”

Although promotions were truly an exciting event aboard the galleon, I had to focus. “I’ll take the warm-warm beer and the backpack.”

“All right, I’ll take the dreambon ale. …Dreambon ale?”

“Check. And the anti-gravity ale?”

“Anti-gravity, check. Looks like we’re armed and ready, my dear Boggo.”

“Cloaks!”

“Yes, check!”

Barnacle-eyes sang like a falling bell. “Wise-eye! Come get promotion.”

“Please thank you!”

Ella pecked my furry cheek. “Let’s see if we can make things happen!”

She slid down the long petal of the flower and began descending the shroud.

“Right now?” I wrung my hands. Suddenly our adventure seemed so soon! My toes wrung themselves too.

But Ella was already halfway down the shroud, and goblins were shouting about the yellow sloop bestie! Then they began shouting about the blue bestie that tumbled down the shroud while bouncing from belly to butt to back to chin to belly.

A single misstep had me rolling down the shroud and I could only help myself by saying, “Excuse me; pardon me; squeeze right by; your foot—lift your foot; climb right over you; oop; if everyone could…please let me through!”

I landed upon the deck, and winced from the sting in my rib. With a gasp, I rose to my feet and skittered over to Ella and Barnacle-eyes who chatted before the wall of wavering chests. Gee, one strong wind would knock those into the water…

It seemed as though a whole conversation had been had between the goblin and my bestie while I had been racing to catch up.

Barnacle-eyes was holding her chin and nodding. “You make some great points; perfectly reasonable.” She promptly rode high at the top of a green ladder and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Pinky-chew, Spickle-spack! Calling my Commodores!”

Gabby’s voice always echoed after.

Pinky-chew arrived a moment later, bursting through the throng. There was an air about her, an actual air–a twisting breeze. her nose was twitching, and she was sniffling. Spickle-spack’s boots slapped the deck as he bolted between goblins.

Barnacle-eyes gestured to the teetering tower of chests and burlap sacks. “Handle promotions.” She handed them an illegible list on an unraveling scroll of canvas. “I’ll be right back!”

As if already agreed upon, Ella and Barnacle-eyes bolted toward the bow.

Oh boy, swinging over the heads of goblins was a lot easier than scurrying between their legs. And some of them wore big black boots that stomped the deck with sharp wet slaps. …Boots made me nervous…

By the best of the blue, it was incredible how fast Ella and the Admiral were…Or perhaps it was rather incredible how slow I was.

“Out of the way! C’mon! Let me through! Move, please! Move, move!”

Running beneath legs and bumping from green shin to green-ish shin was like tumbling from the top of a tree to its bottom. When I slipped over the shiny black leather of a boot, like I had to hurdle over a giant black beetle, my heart raced.

Please don’t kick me, please don’t kick me!

Barnacle-eyes and Ella were starboard near the prow, with the Admiral on her knees before a shifting pile of wood. The goblin placed a butt block between two boards at the stern of a little boat. The wood sounded like it was stretching.

Barnacle-eyes stood, clapped, and beamed down at Ella. “I hereto-hereby-wherewith promote you to Captain of this Craft. Congratulations, bestie Ella!”

Ella stomped one little black boot. “Aye aye, Admiral!”

“I hereby-wherein-overhere promote Stumble-not as Midshipman under Captain Ella.”

A sudden sneeze, loud as the smack of a whale tail on the sea blasted through the galleon. All the plants trembled. A gargantuan onion popped out of its raised bed. A sneeze of that size could only have come from Pinky-chew. A great clamor rose from down the dock. Chests and sacks were suddenly floating out at sea. Barnacle-eyes bolted off in a hurry.

Ella paid the clamor no mind; instead, she gathered a handful of goblins together under her new command. “Listen up snots! Let’s form a green ladder.”

The roundest goblin I had ever seen formed the first rung. Ella clambered up the big goblin and climbed to the very top.

She gave her little voice as much power as she could. “Stumble-not! Report for duty!”

The round goblin, seemingly unburdened by the green tower he carried, tilted his head up. “Present, Captain!”

If ever there was any bestie meant to be Captain, it was Ella. She masterfully requested Stumble-not’s help in putting the Craft in the water. Following Ella’s lead, I scaled the hull and leapt into the Craft. Paddling out, we turned as one to gaze at Stumble-not at the taffrail. He waved ferociously at us.

“Are you sure you’ll be ok?” he shouted.

“Aye aye, Midshipman!” Ella hollered.

“I’ll wait right here, Captain! No matter what!”

The Craft was the size of our crow’s nest. Ella paddled starboard, and I paddled port side. The sound of our oars dipping in the water offered a relaxing trickle. Ella veered our Craft toward the marsh. White clouds in the far distance hugged the horizon. They were magnificent and bulbous and cotton-thick.

We peered at the distant marsh for any sign of besties. Ah, it was such a gorgeous day. And with Ella near the prow, her fur gleamed like she was a fluffy ball of sunlight. She paddled tirelessly. Wow, what a bestie! If I could just ignore the stitch in my rib, I could match her strength and speed…But she wouldn’t be too mad if I took a moment to take a break would she? She must have felt the absence of my paddling, because she looked back and smiled.

“Take the break you need.”

I held my rib and caught my breath as I turned my gaze from open water, to goblins fetching floating chests, to the marsh ahead of us. And the water was so placid and quiet; perfect for thinking.

I cleared my throat. “How does it feel, Captain?”

“You know, Boggo, I never thought I’d work with goblins, not in a thousand bestie generations.”

“I’m your first crew member!”

“How are you feeling? Nervous? Scared?”

“My leg is shaking.”

The gunwale was much, much, much-much closer to the water than the galleon. Peering over the capping was nerve-racking. I’d seen so many creatures and monsters since leaving the blue besties. They could be lurking!

I sank back into the middle of the Craft by the stern. The sound of my oar dipping into the water joined Ella’s once more. The Craft picked up speed. The marsh seemed to be coming to us. Wow, what an adventure. And with Ella as Captain! Oh, I bet she was having a blast. And with it being a nice day too. There were barely any waves. Yes, a calm day, once again perfect for thinking.

“Ella?”

“Yes, crew mate?” She giggled. “Best mate?”

“Since it’s so nice out, and we’re close to the marsh, and we know there are besties around, and we have a dreambon ale, and I feel safe with you, do you think I could try being Captain for an hour? I’ll give it right back. I just want to see how it feels.”

Ella pulled her oar in and leaned it against the thwart between us. She scampered over, and the Craft jiggled. My stomach flipped and my heart beat hard.

She gave me a smooch on my snout. “All right, Captain Boggo, let’s switch.”