Chapter 143

Whoever You Want To Be

The late day sun made the shadows of each fleet lay long on the sea. From the crow’s nest, I glimpsed goblins fishing, swabbing, sleeping, eating, and cavorting. Stumble-not dumped out the contents of a bucket starboard.

“What a success!” I said. “Next thing we need to do is show Bailey.”

Ella was leaning over the rim of a bucket. Her groans echoed up from the bucket. She lifted her head with what seemed like tremendous effort and said, “I can’t wait to get to Lavenfauvish. I’ve been craving gillagrubs for days!”

She crushed her eyes from what could only have been extreme discomfort. She groaned again and clutched the rim of the bucket even tighter. Then she dunked her head into the bucket and heaved. I bounded over, and my tail followed me like that of a squirrel’s. Gently, I rubbed her back.

“Are you okay? Can I get you anything?”

“Gillagrubs.”

“Can I get you anything else?”

“It’s okay. I just want gillagrubs.”

“We’ve picked up speed since the Admiral leveled up the fleet. We’ll get to Lavenfauvish in no time.”

Ella moved off of the bucket and put her back against the wall. She slid down to her butt. That sigh that she let out ruffled my fur. It was so nice to see her smile, that my tail twitched.

“I can’t wait to eat gillagrubs,” she said, “and see the red besties again, and show Bailey our game, and spend time with you in the city.”

A goblin cry rang out below. It was the Admiral.

“Attention snots!”

“Please thank you!”

Ella bolted to the bucket, leaned over the rim, and retched.

“Will you stand in as Captain, please?” she forced out a moment later.

I stomped a foot and saluted. “Aye, aye, most favorite bestie!”

I scampered to the open hatchway of the crow’s nest and peered at the assembling goblins. Barnacle-eyes stood on the shroud of the main mast.

“Change of plans!” she said.

“What’s going on?” said Ella.

“I don’t know, I don’t know.”

“We’re going to skip Lavenfauvish and go north to the Mist Hidden wall,” said Barnacle-eyes. “We’ll come down to Lavenfauvish after.”

“What did she say?” said Ella.

The gulp that I made felt like I’d swallowed a sharp rock. “We’re not going straight to Lavenfauvish.”

“That can’t be right. Let’s have Barnacle-eyes say it again.”

“Um, looks like we’re going to see the blue besties first.”

“But the blue besties don’t have gillagrubs!”

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“I’ll get Stumble-not. He’ll bring us some more fish-on-sticks.”

“I can’t take any more fish-on-sticks. They’re not gillagrubs. And what about the red besties? And Bailey?”

Ella broke free from the bucket. She slumped to her hands and knees. I was at her side just when she started sniffling.

A large shadow fell over us. Stumble-not had arrived, and he filled the open hatchway. He set the bucket on the floor, and it scraped the wood as he pushed it in. I switched the buckets, and Stumble-not went on his way to empty another one.

“Is there anything I can do?” I said.

I fluffed out blue fur from my coat, made a big poof, and combined it with hers for an extra comfy pillow. Then I helped lay her down on the poof.

“No,” said Ella, relaxing into the poof as she’d been a week without sleep.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

While I smoothed her yellow fur, Ella fiddled with the skewer of a fish-on-stick. It was stained where the small fry had been. She twirled it in her fingers as she seemed to look through it.

“Pickled shark eyes,” she said. “The squishy little ones that had this incredible pop with every chew. Remember those?”

“From Knot-knuckles? …Yea…”

“I want pickled shark eyes.”

“I’ll be right back!”

“Be careful!”

Halfway down the rope ladder that bounced against the mast, I ran into Stumble-not. I climbed onto his shoulder.

“Do you know where Knot-knuckles is?” I said.

“Want me to take you to him?”

Stumble-not first returned the bucket to the crow’s nest. I held onto the strap of his hammered flower backpack as we then descended.

We found Stumble-not in one of the goblin’s quarters at the bottom deck. He was alone, and it looked like at least thirty other goblins lived there too. He had his own loot chest, and there were scratches and scrapes in the wood above and below the lock and latch.

“I’m off duty,” was the first thing out of his Knot-knuckles mouth.

“I just need one moment of your time,” I said. “I am standing in as Captain after all…”

“Fine. Make it quick.”

“Please tell me you have some pickled shark eyes left. I really really need some. Really bad.”

“I have lots, but they’re for me.”

“Let’s shoot some dice. I’ll put tourmaline in the pot! Ruby zoisite too!”

“I’m not giving these up for anything. Not until we hit Green-fin. And it looks like that won’t be for a while.”

“Okay, you’re—Oh, you’re asking for it! I’ll throw in one dreambon.”

“If I open another jar, goblins are gonna know. Whistle-spit will want some, Split-tongue will want some, Back-hair will want some. I can’t risk it. I’m holding onto what little I have left.”

“You just said you had lots left!”

“No I didn’t.”

“Yes you did,” said Stumble-not. Good Ol’ Stumble-not!

“Who do you think you are, sloop-bestie?” said Knot-knuckles. “Cause I’m not giving up anything unless Slime-tooth almighty tells me to.”

I put a hand to my chest. “Is that so?”

Knot-knuckles turned around until his back was to us.

“Enjoy your break,” I said through gritted canines.

Pickled shark eyes were so close! I could almost smell them…I think I did smell them. Geez, some goblins were such….such…Ah, I was so close…

I climbed up onto the Stumble-not’s shoulder. We made our way back above deck and checked on our craft swinging from its davits.

I should have used some Thrush tactics. What I should have done was pay more attention when Thrush was leveling up his Merchant skills. I could have used some techniques to get Knot-knuckles to share with me. I could have threatened him…But maybe not…What if it backfired?

“Is your game final?” said Stumble-not.

“The board game? Yeah, I think we’ve finally finalized a final version.”

“I liked being the elephant. And the jellyfish. But I think my favorite was when I got to be Slime-tooth.”

“Well, that’s the whole point, you see… Ella and I wanted to design a game where you could be anyone you wanted to be without a single restriction!”

The sun slightly changed hue as it continued descending. Then it hit me. In our game, you could be whoever you wanted…And Knot-knuckles had just told us he wouldn’t give up anything unless Slime-tooth himself told him to. By the elder besties! I slammed my fist onto my palm.

“Stumble-not!”

“Aye, Aye, temporary Captain!”

“I need you to go below deck to the barrels filled with planks and find me a nice, big, thick piece!”

I leapt down from Stumble-not’s shoulder while he dashed away. The sun was like a fire in my eyes. I wrung my hands together and chuckled.

I’ll get those pickled shark eyes, no matter what. Even if I have to play dirty. And I have the perfect idea!