Chapter 191

One More Goodbye.

With everyone returned ashore, Barnacle-eyes wanted to return to sea where Slime-tooth’s pyre had bobbed. I didn’t know where the skiff had been, but Barnacle-eyes said she felt that it was right where she set anchor.

We sat together atop the deckhouse. The night was cool. Stars sparkled overhead, and one of them seemed to burst with light. The sloop was cast in a white glow for nary a second.

On deck, Remember-not rolled out from under her telescope, and she rubbed her eyes. She opened a journal whose pages were sparse with dots. With her finger, she connected the dots.

Thrush and Abigail asked Remember-not what buff she earned, but I couldn’t pick up her answer. Her entire crew cavorted over, and they sat on the deck to chat while Thrush passed around smoked meats and bowls of melted cheese.

“Bite-tongue is the only constellation I know,” said Barnacle-eyes. Her gaze still lingered on the stars. “Slime-tooth taught it to me.”

“Are there a lot of goblin constellations?” I said.

“I don’t know. Remember-not says there are. I guess so.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m so confused,” she said. “I’ve seen hundreds of goblins die before. I never liked it, but it was just the way of things.”

“You really looked up to Slime-tooth, didn’t you?”

“He was taller than me for sure. But I don’t think that’s why I’m so sad.”

“I was sad after my grandfather passed away,” I said.

“Was he a goblin? Probably not, but was he?”

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“He was a regular human, but there was no one else like him.”

A shooting star threaded between stars. Its tail was white, and the edges glowed yellow.

“Wow!” said Barnacle-eyes. “A sneaky star!”

“You know, my grandfather used to tell me that seeing a shooting star means that somebody you love is thinking of you. Maybe Slime-tooth is up there in the heavens and thinking about you.”

“That’s stupid. I saw his body burn all the way up. He's dead for sure. Dead, dead, dead.”

Barnacle-eyes sat up with a huff. She rubbed her eyes, and she seemed to stare more intently at the sky. Her eyes darted like she was trying to see everywhere all at once, just in case she missed something.

“Slime-tooth used to say that a thing in plain sight is the hardest thing to see,” she said.”

“That can definitely be the case.”

“He was so wise. More wiser than any other goblin I’ve even met. One day he said, ‘sometimes I understand and sometimes I don’t’. I think I get it now.”

Her crew had moved to the prow. They leaned over the taffrail where Slime-tooth’s huge figurehead hung. The goblins began to mimic the pose. In place of the little besties in Slime-tooth’s arm, they placed three bulbs of onion in their arms. When one of the goblins snatched an onion to eat it, they were wrestled to the deck and scolded like what he’d done was a damnable sin.

The commotion drew chuckles from both Barnacle-eyes and I. As we watched the goblins banter and erupt with laughter, Barnacle-eyes swung her feet. Her heels knocked the wood of the deckhouse, She chuckled everytime the onion-besties were gingerly passed around and protected.

“That was funny wasn’t it?” I said.

Barnacle-eyes cleared her throat. “Yeah, but you shouldn’t be laughing right now. No one should be.”

I regretted making her aware. “Did Slime-tooth ever say not to laugh?”

“He said that laughing wakes the heart and makes it jump.”

“Barnacle-eyes, I’m one hundred percent positive Slime-tooth would want you to feel happy.”

Barnacle-eyes wept. “I don’t even know how I feel, but I just wanna feel how I feel, however that feels.”

She sobbed, and I scooted closer to her. I rubbed her back and sat with her until her sobbing calmed to sniffles.

I couldn’t help but sniffle with her, and I worried over what I could do for her. Then I remembered. I withdrew the clipping of Slime-tooth’s hair, and I brewed a purely ethereal beer with it. I bottled the beer in a boot-shaped bottle.

“I have something very special to give you,” I said.

“I’m not too thirsty—or hungry if it’s got onion or garlic in it.”

I passed her the bottle. “This is a mausoleum beer. It’ll let you give Slime-tooth one more last goodbye.”

As if Barnacle-eyes was just handed a Fable Stone, she took it tenderly. She looked at it for a good moment before she hugged it.