Chapter 87

Beached

Thrush

Fat flurries of snow sprinkled the sea and slowly melted. The black beach became speckled with white. I listened to the crackle and crinkle of each breaking snowflake. I also heard the busy hurlicorns, and the gentle wind. The goblins were loud and active. I heard soft sleepy breathing up the beach. Pinky-chew was laid in a fetal crumple as she slept. I could hear how deeply she slept, no doubt from all her constant work to grind her skills. Remember-not was there with her too, assigned to study under the commodore. The goblin bounced on her toes as she blew spit into the wind and flapped her tongue and lips.

A wave came and foamed over my paws. The sea was cold enough to kill a human, but its temperature would not stop me from diving for fish. I needed a good supply to put on the smoker, and my inventory had a lot more space for fish. It was time to return to my little happiness.

I found myself purring. As I waded farther into the sea, I popped dreambons into my mouth by the handful. I crushed them with fangs and tongue and the roof of my mouth. Their shells cracked. Their honey-like juice oozed out. I felt their colors swim through my body. My fur darkened. My ears rounded. My eyes pulsed like beating hearts. The sea crashed against my chest and spit in my mammoth unblinking eyes.

There came a growling sound from up on the shore. It sounded like it came from a yelping raccoon. “Thrush, Thrush, Thrush!”

Barnacle-eyes was bounding toward the sea. Her hands were cupped around her mouth. “Thrush! Need your help!”

Gabby came clomping down after her, taking wide strides in her overly large black boots.

“Please thank you!” said Gabby, cupping her mouth.

I returned ashore.

“We need trees,” said Barnacle-eyes. “Lots and lots of trees.”

“Please thank you.”

“More ships?” I said.

“I’m fixing up Come Here Goblin Inn and we need more wood.”

I followed the skipping goblins to Goblin Come Here Inn. There were piles of driftwood and foraged sticks. More and more goblins wore hammered flower dresses. They were all gathered around a far wall of the inn and staring. As it turned out, Barnacle-eyes had tried to repair the wall, but it seemed her Boat Builder and related skills were useful in only building boats. Some of the wall was repaired, but most of the planks were bent out in the construction of half a jolly boat. It was like the jolly boat had been cut in half and stuck to the wall.

“I messed up somewhere between here and there,” said Barnacle-eyes.

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I ate a whole barrel of Anti-gravity beer. Goblins gaped in awe. Then I leapt into the half jolly boat.

“I’m not sure you did mess up,” I said. “It’s some of your best work. It’s sturdy.”

“Oh yeah; sturdy, sturdy! But it was supposed to be a wall.”

“Are there not walls inside the jolly boat?”

“Thrush, they’re too small. I needed to make one big-big wall.” She stretched her arms to frame the wall of the inn.

“I’ve seen you make walls before. Your galleon has the biggest walls.”

“Oh yeah. Those are huge. So something like that.”

“You just need to evolve the jolly boat. Then the walls will get bigger.”

Barnacle-eyes gasped. She stood stupefied for a moment. Suddenly she said, “More trees!”

“Please thank you!”

I unloaded tree after tree from my inventory, and laid them through the doorway.

“Perfect!” said Barnacle-eyes. Then the trees shredded apart into planks and splinters. The wood moved like debris in a tornado toward the jolly boat. Goblins fled the inn. As the jolly boat evolved, growing longer and wider and deeper, it began also absorbing the wood of the inn. Goblins fled from the second floor. Some fell through new gaps in the ceiling. I caught them and threw them away. Soon, the jolly boat was no longer a jolly boat. It was a sloop, and it was much larger than the inn had been.

“More trees” said Barnacle-eyes.

I gave her more trees, with hundreds to spare.

The jolly boat evolved into a sloop and then a ketch, and it sank into the sand at a very small angle. For the moment that it took to hear my own breath, it was silent. Wide-eyed cautious goblins began filtering back in. Quill-quill-quill bounded in and hugged Barnacle-eyes.

The Admiral held out a glowing turquoise stone. Goblins climbed over each other to get a closer look.

“Quill-quill-quill, I am promoting you to Captain of this ship. I have to promote someone; my system said so.”

“Please thank you!”

“I can’t,” said Quill-quill-quill. “I want to stay here. I can’t go sailing.”

“We should leave the ketch on land right where it is. Now it can be Goblin Come Here Inn and you can be its Captain. …All my ships have to have Captains or else I can’t reach my next fleet evolution milestone.”

Quill-quill-quill stood a little straighter. She grabbed the stone. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head and came back down.

“I’m on an adventure now!” she said. “I’m officially an Innkeeper! I got to see Peg-tooth and Fork-spear, too! I picked Eat-sleep! Guess who I picked? Eat-sleep! Oh, he had such good things to say! Eating… And sleeping too…”

And though there were no longer chairs for sitting on, nor benches for sitting on, nor tables for sitting on, nor window sills for sitting on, nor a bar for sitting on, tankards were filled with goblin spit beer and passed around. Raw fish was shared. Gigantic slices of onion and fist-size chunks of garlic were passed around. Each chunk of garlic had buttery bite marks in them. Goblins explored the ketch from top to bottom. During the celebration, Quill-quill-quill pulled the smaller Quill-quill aside and promoted her with a newly sewn hammered flower backpack and a pair of black boots. Quill-quill was blind with tears. She bumped into everything the rest of the day.

“We need a new sign,” said Quill-quill-quill, amid the celebration.

I snapped a tree in half, and in half again, and peeled away the wood until I was left with a rough, curved plank. With her charcoal utensil, Barnacle-eyes helped scrawl Come Here Goblin Inn on the board.

“Can Slime-tooth bless my new inn?” said Quill-quill-quill.

It didn’t take long for the goblins to settle on one of Slime-tooth’s sayings. Barnacle-eyes leaped onto the shoulders of a staggering green ladder and scrawled “If lost, close eyes. There u are. Good luck. Said Slime-tooth” along the wall above the portholes that faced the sea.

“Slime-tooth was the best,” said one of the native goblins.

“You knew him too?” said Barnacle-eyes.