Brutoin and his fellows, having chosen the pixies as their first target, went to work investigating them further. They had collected, read, and reread as many legends about the place as possible. Most were quite old. They had done reconnaissance at the island itself one time too. They had borrowed a canoe of Lilah’s and taken it with them on a ferry, arriving on a larger island relatively near the pixie one. From there, Brutoin and Yu had rowed over to Molil. Their reconnaissance had been done on a weekend afternoon, when the ferries were easy to catch and when a boat ride in the sunshine was ideal. Unfortunately though, due to these idyllic conditions, Molil was being visited by vacationers. There was a boat docked, and there were probably people strolling all around, where they would be witnesses to any action taken by Brutoin. He would have to come back another day.

From this failed attempt at searching the site, he did learn one new piece of information though. There were only two practical positions from which to approach the island, either at the dock on the east, or else the north beach. The east dock would draw attention to any vessel docked there, but the beach shore was a little rocky and might prove challenging to store a boat at.

Brutoin would go back and make another attempt at the Molil pixies. In the meantime though, while they planned these future scouting attempts, Brutoin also wanted to obtain a vessel of his own.

Lilah wasn’t sure about needing their own vessel. She proposed an alternative. “Why not just get a ferry again or something, or pay a service to bring us out there?”

“What happens when someone spots us? What if someone interferes and tells the ferry captain to STOP? How could we make them keep going? How would we keep them quiet after it was all done?” Mara challenged Lilah.

Unconvinced, Lilah defended, “Threaten them. I can threaten them in a way that they’ll take it seriously. I’m confidant I can get anyone to suppress their will to my own.”

Brutoin added his opinion, “Yes. Yes. I have full confidence in you to make anyone see the righteousness of our actions, but should we have to? And besides, we’ll need a vessel. We’ll need it for future voyages.” Brutoin envisioned himself, the captain of a vessel, standing aboard and looking out to the ocean. It was an image of the glorious future they they were moving towards.

Lilah liked Brutoin’s idea. “Ok,” she said. “So what? We raise money for a boat? Or steal one? I’m sure I could get my hands on one of my parents’ friends’ boats.”

Then Tristan had an amazing idea. “We took down the guy who ruined our lives, right? He had all the stuff, right? Cars, houses… boats.”

Brutoin saw the cosmic puzzle piece snap into place. To reclaim the wrongfully earned goods of the evil and use it to restore balance. This was it. The future was coming into clarity. “Yes. I’m sure he did. We just need to find where it was docked.”

Taking possession of the man’s vessel ended up being more of a challenge than Brutoin had expected. They learned that he had owned a yacht which he kept docked at a large dock in the city, one with astronomical cost per moon cycle. The vessel itself, though a little cramped for five people and all the loot they expected to claim, was a fine vessel. It was said to be top of the line and perfectly maintained. They managed to steal a key to the yacht. When they went to collect it though, it wasn’t there.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Deeply frustrated, Brutoin told his group to split up and find out what had happened. He walked up to another offensively rich person who was spending the fine day washing and maintaining their vessel. Brutoin demanded that they tell him what happened about the owner of the missing yacht. The cleaner explained laughingly that that yacht owner had recently gotten caught by the people he’d scammed and had run off. He’d obviously taken off on the yacht. It was one of the man’s few possessions which had been taken. Furious, Brutoin stomped away and paced in circles. How could his image of the future have been wrong? It was crumbling before him. Only a moment later though, Lilah strode up to him, communicating by her posture that she had found the solution to his problems.

“Down there, with the tacky tourist boats. One of those is his. You’ll love it,” she pointed down the dock to where a few tour boats and ferries floated waiting for tourists.

They strode down to an ornately decorated boat. It seemed to be a sort of house boat, a two-story tall one. The base level was completely enclosed except for a small section at the front and back where one could walk on from the dock. The top story was a sort of tiki bar, all open air except for the shaded covering above the bar itself. Brutoin didn’t have context to know if this was a relatively large house boat or not, but was large enough for his crew at least. The whole exterior was decorated in the conflicting styles of a tiki hut and a pirate ship. It was pained with a brown husk-like texture. It was a ridiculous thing.

There was a young, pimple-faced teen standing in front of the boat. He wore a cheap, mass produced pirate costume. He even had a fake sword hanging from his side. He was startled by Brutoin and Lilah’s approach.

Brutoin confronted him. “What are you doing with this vessel?”

The girl, Lilah, had already come and grilled him, which had made him very nervous. Not only was she very pretty, but she was scary too. She made him feel like he was in the wrong somehow, and he wanted to please her. The new guy with her was intimidating in a more tangible way. He seemed capable of kicking very hard and with much fury. The teen was made more uncomfortable by the knowledge that he had no satisfactory answer for them, which the scary girl knew already. “Well…” his voice cracked, trailed off, and then started again. “Well, I work here, as tour guide… but… You can see, I’m not on a tour.”

Brutoin looked away from him to Lilah. “What is this?” he asked her in frustration.

She explained, “His boss’s boss’s boss has been gone for a while, but the one who actually pays him wants him to stand here anyway. Is that right?” she spoke at the teen.

“Uh, yeah. I don’t even know where they keys are or anything. The set that used to be in there is gone. But, my boss just told me I was already paid through the end of this moon, so I had to be here,” he explained.

Brutoin wanted to survey the vessel right now. He wanted to get rid of this boy first though. He gave the task to Lilah, “I’m going to look around. Can you deal with this kid?”

“Happily,” Lilah answered.

Brutoin didn’t know what she’d done with the kid, but shortly later, she joined him on the top level of the boat. They looked around. It was kitschy and absurd. He could see its virtues though. He was beginning the life of a sort of pirate. Why not embrace it? Besides, this was even better. It could be a floating headquarters. It was big enough for them to live on, for short term at least. These tour boats were also a common sight in the islands where the pixies were. His mental image reconciled itself. He became as confident as ever.

Before he even had the chance to be concerned about how they would take possession of the vessel, Lilah had already found keys and led him down to enter the bottom level.

“I know where these people hide the keys,” she explained. “So where are we going to keep the boat?”

“Your folks have a spot we can dock it at? We’ll need a more remote place later, but for now that will do.”

“Yeah. We’ll just do a trade-sies with their yacht.”