Chapter 39

Big Big Hug

I peered down over the edge of the floating isle. Clouds mutated by. Every now and then I was afforded vistas of the wilderness far below. The trees were different so far in the east. Their trunks were bronze and white. The leaves were purple and many were different shades of blue.

There were people in the castle, and most of them were weeping. None were adventurers; they seemed to be servants in various capacities—like Riggvelte. I paid them little mind and let my feet dangle off the edge of the floating isle. While my belly gurgled and settled, I thought.

The chase had brought me to new places in the world. It had taken time, but time meant nothing to me. That wasn’t entirely true. Time was very important when smoking fish or elodon ribs. Too much time made the meat go dry. Not enough time meant the smoke would be light and the cook would be insufficient for a proper melt-in-your mouth meal. My belly rumbled.

Smoked meat made me think of Hawkin, Boggo, Barnacle-eyes, and Abigail. Each of them had been seeking my presence over the past few weeks. I had ignored all their dreambon libations. Notification after notification had popped up from various locations. Barnacle-eyes had been the last to pour a dreambon ale. I knew that she and Boggo needed me to sell beer.

I felt the effects of the morning's Anti-gravity ale suddenly wear off. The earth of the isle cracked beneath me, and then broke away from the rest of the land. I tumbled through the air beside a dozen chunks of earth and rock.

As I ripped through layers of bulbous clouds and the air rushed through my fur, I activated my orb. I magnified the western horizon and cut through the world. I stepped down on Lavenfauvish’s boardwalk. People scrambled away screaming. I happened to interrupt a farmers market. There were shaded booths all over the place. One of the booths was manned by a handful of goblins. They were selling colossal onions and garlic that were bigger around than I was. Each of the goblins wore hammered flower dresses. The goblins dove behind the giant produce. Belut came out from behind them.

“Thrush!” he said. “We’ve all been waiting!”

“Me too. I had to wait for my meal.” I sniffed the air.

“Barnacle-eyes is at sea. She’s got a few sloops with her.”

I opened my orb, magnified the vista of the sea, and cut through the world. I arrived over water and I fell into the sea with a great splash. I surfaced and spotted Barnacle-eyes’ ketch nearby. Perhaps one hundred goblins cavorted about on her ship. They all pressed against the taffrails and peered at me.

“A fish!” one goblin said. “A fish!”

I arrived at the ketch in moments. After I chugged a barrel of Anti-gravity ale, I dug my claws into the hull, and climbed.

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“Admiral! The hairy fish is climbing!”

Above, one of the giant white trumpet flowers was pushed aside to reveal Barnacle-eyes. She peered down at me.

“Thrush! Come aboard!”

On board, Barnacle-eyes stretched her arms out wide. She smashed into me and hugged me tightly. I saw all the goblins over her shoulder. Their eyes were wide. They shrunk back when I smiled at them. They hid behind giant garlic and giant onion and giant flowers.

A faint voice shouted. “What’s going on?”

Barnacle-eyes leapt off of me. “This way, Thrush.”

She sped off toward starboard. I picked my way through the jungle of overgrown plants on raised beds. I ducked under stems and stepped over vines. I shouldered giant flowers out of the way. 2 pairs of goblins moved giant cosmos flowers aside like they were double doors.

Along the way, Barnacle-eyes had a lot to say. “Where have you been; I’ve been waiting, we’ve all been waiting; beer isn’t going to sell itself you know—especially when you have all of it, but now we can sell it; guess what—we’ve been fishing for sloops; Wide-neck, meet Thrush; Thrush, meet Wide-neck; So many pieces of ships and I even commandeered a hoard, can you believe it? I’ve hired so many goblins; Flaky-Lips, this is Thrush; Sun-burnt, wake up, this is Thrush; hired so many goblins; Boggo’s been underground a lot and playing games and he brought a yellow friend aboard—she’s been really nice—they laugh and laugh and laugh; did you see our booth at the farmers market? I said, Belut, please help sell big onions, and he said okay Admiral; we get to sell beer now that you’re back! We’re very behind schedule; Flop-ears, this is friend Thrush, say hello.”

“What?” said Flop-ears. She lifted a floppy ear.

“Hello!” Barnacle-eyes said.

“Hello!” Flop-ears said.

We moved on past Flop-ears, and Barnacle-eyes continued. “We’ve been repairing sunken ships, just like you used to do, remember? The problem is that I need lots and lots of mana; do you have mana beer?”

“Lots of it,” I said.

We reached the starboard taffrail. I withdrew a few barrels of mana beer from my inventory and slammed them on deck.

Barnacle-eyes leaned over the taffrail and said, “Pinky-chew! This is Thrush! Thrush, this is Pinky-chew. She’s my first Captain.”

Pinky-chew was startled when she laid eyes on me. She slunk into the shadow of her sloop’s mast. The sloop was tethered to the ketch. It looked like it had been severely damaged in some places and beautifully repaired in others. There were about a dozen floating rafts behind the sloop. Each one was leashed to the ketch. They struggled against the waves.

A pop drew my attention to the barrels of mana beer. Barnacle-eyes had uncorked the bunghole of one barrel. She filled a tankard with mana beer, and then chugged it. She then threw herself over the taffrail and began descending the rope netting.

She paused and looked at me. “Do you still have wood?”

“Like a forest.”

I removed a full grown pine tree from my inventory and dropped it in the sea. Goblins threw lines over the branches and heaved it to the side of Pinky-chew’s sloop. Barnacle-eyes began alternating between using her Boat Builder skill and sipping mana beer to repair and rebuild the sloop, then the rafts. I unloaded tree after tree as we worked late into the day.

Lavenfauvish lanterns and windowsill candles made the city come to light in the distance under dusk. The Admiral had by then moved onto repairing the rafts. She shouted commands as she worked. “Aye Aye, Admiral!” was the only sound that beat the crash of the sea and rose from the ships like the constant beat of a drum.

“Long-neck! Wrinkly-butt! Please start building raised beds for the new sloops!”

“Aye Aye Admiral!”