Hello again.

When I woke up I set aside my night time musings of a far off goal, and instead focused on the most immediate problems facing me here and now.

Most notably, Julius had gone missing.

He wasn't on my stomach as he usually is when I wake up, and I quickly checked both the throne and skull pile to no avail.

I scrambled from room to room, in a tizzy. Shouting out his name and checking every nook and cranny for so much as a whisker.

No luck.

It wasn't until I paused my frantic search that I found a clue of where to continue it. A small echoey squeek. Bouncing around the caves and tunnels.

I proceeded quietly then. Tracing the occasional squeek and chitter I knew so well.

Finally I was led to a blank wall. Uninteresting in the extreme if not for the squeeks and churring I could hear my little buddy making behind it. Since he didn't sound distressed I took my time takng a gander at the wall.

It took far longer than I care to admit before I found the trick. A torch had been lit on the wall. Now since me and julius make out own fire we had been ignoring the torches that filled the pirate fortress and not lit a single one. So a lit torch was suspicious. If I had been less worried I probably would have noticed it way sooner. A surly yank on the torch produced a click and the whole wall and a small section of floor rotated to show a new tunnel.

Curious I gave it another tug and rode the wall around again. I only did that five or six more times before I figured out why the torch was lit. When you tug on the torch outside the hidden area a engraved plate set on the wall across from the torch lights up and sets the torch on the inside on fire.

I guess the plan was that a suspicious or curious pirate may see the unlit torch outside once the wall is flipped and fiddle with the switch to 'fix' the problem. Seems like a lot of work to hide a spinning wall but pirates are weird I guess.

I followed the tunnel and found Julius happily nibbling on some strange red glowing moss that was growing on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the tunnel barring the way forward. I tried some.

Its not bad. A little spicy and salty on its own, but it would make a fine addition to any duller meat dishes I happen to make as a garnish or seasoning.

I scraped and shoveled the moss into my satchel. Leaving a patch for Julius as he was giving me a baleful look for snatching his new snack. I ruffled his ears, happy he was okay, and went along the tunnel to see where it went.

In the end it led to a room containing the two most precious resources a pirate could have.

Rum and sea charts.

Barrel upon barrel of aged rum sat dusty and disused nearly filling the large cave besides a small chest and writing desk where the sea charts detailing the coastlines, currents, and caches of the pirates. These charts were what had allowed a clan of disreputable sea rats to hoodwink and out run the various navies that had hunted them. Painstakingly complied from hundreds of years of piracy and smuggling.

With these I finally had a glimpse of the world. It was larger than I had anticipated. This wave wolf pirate fortress was far further out to sea then I had expected. Nearly a weeks sailing with the wind in your sails. And that's if you aren't caught in a storm or becalmed.

That sucks. I was planning on just flying away to land. But I don't think I can cover that distance without rest. I could try island hopping but the closest island is still a good two days away. Iffy. I don't want to be leaving this to chance. Some of those pirates memories had very clear images of the kind of creatures living in the sea. Cold dead eyes and far too many teeth, or those horrid massive tentacles with barbed poisonous suckers. I will not relish having to swim with them.

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I spent some time sulking and trying to find a way out off this. In the end the best idea I could come up with was building or finding a boat small enough to fly with and/or propel at great speeds with my tingles. So it needs to be small and light enough for me to at the very least carry down the mountainside. And big enough to hold me, Julius, and weeks supply of drinking water. 

Interestingly enough, the satchel cannot contain unbound liquids. They just don't go in. I guess I could just load the barrels of water into my satchel. If I can find any. All the food and drink besides this hidden cache of rum was consumed by the pirates before their death. Not even the rats aboard their ships were spared in the siege-like enviroment of being trapped in their fortress.

I hope I don't have to rely on rum to stay hydrated. I tried some and I can't say I am a fan of the taste. Better that nothing I suppose.

I headed down to the mystical pirate memory grave and looked for memories detailing shipbuilding. The more tusks belonging to a single person the better. See, a tusk has a limited amount of room. And they are carved with experiences the wearer finds important or formative. So a man who lived an exciting life for fifty years may have more tusks than a boring old geezer who lived a hundred years.

So I was looking for a man who built ships for many years, or built many ships he thought were important for a few years. Getting multiple tusks from the same person is important too, as it deepens the memories of the previous tusks for every other one there is and allows me to recall more and in greater detail.

I finally found a man named Iver. He lived a very, very long time and was a shipwright for most of them.

He had eight tusks. An enormous number for a single man showing he had lived a full and rich, or at least busy, life.

Iver was a good man. He was born to the pirate clans and took the tusk of a mors as is tradition as a coming of age ceremony. But his story was different from most pirates, Iver hated to kill. He was a simple man who enjoyed sailing and ship building. But hated the things his ships and crewmembers did. One day it all became to much. And Iver ran. He fled up a river in a shallow drafted boat of his design. He stopped at a great lake.

Iver got to know the people of the lake. They were subdued and quiet people who where under attack by their neighbors who were envious of their fertile land and the rare gem mines in the hills bordering the lake. Iver taught the lakemen to fight like pirates. Dirty and vicious. Striking from the shadows and leaving dead sentries to be found in the morning. Although the fighting disgusted Iver he saw this as defending his friends, and therefore better than assaulting strangers as a pirate. Iver built them boats to ferry their warriors from one village to another. Allowing the distant villages to support one another and stand as one against their invaders.

Time passed and the invasion was repelled. The infamy of the lakemen had grown enough to give other greedy minds pause. Iver and the lakemen worked together. A dream of peace and freedom prompted Iver to start a grand project. Building long bridges and barges on the lake which became the roads and buildings of a town that floated on the water. Iver built a whole city that drifted on the great lake. Secure from invasion by the landlubbers greed. Many lakemen brough their families to live on Laketown and it was here that Iver met his wife-to-be. They settled down and years passed with children appearing as they tend to.

And that was when the pirates attacked. They burned Ivers Laketown to cinder and ash. They imprisoned the lakemen as oar-slaves and Ivers family that he had made among them was held hostage to force him to make more great ships for the pirates.

Iver continued to make ships of war for the rest of his life. In his spare time he would meet with his imprisoned wife and doodle plans for odd little ships from his dreams of sailing away from his captors with his family. This went on until his death.

It was a sad life. But it had the experience I needed. I decided on a design for my ship. A simple and small little thing to small to even really be called a boat. The rudder will be metal, and extend behind the boat a little further and deeper than normal. If I run tingles through it the heat should be extreme enough to pull off a controlled steam burst to propel the boat forward quickly. I may have to make some changes to get it to work but I am sure I will manage. I will begin dismantling and salvaging the three large pirate ships tomorrow to make it.

I will call my ship 'Ivers Dream' for I intend for it to embody the idea of freedom he so craved.

Tonight I used a makeshift fishing pole I crafted to catch some fish for dinner. They tasted great when baked while stuffed with a handful of the red moss I shall from now on call fire moss.

My head aches from all the new memories. But my belly is full and I feel I will soon drift off.

Ah, now that I think of it. How did Julius open the hidden tunnel?

Mystery.

Goodnight.