Twila followed Auntie Charlie through the long tunnel, wooden supports flaring with purple light as they walked quickly toward the cave with the Endeavor. Everyone had weapons ready; Becca, a pistol; Carter, a pair of daggers; and Charlie, her gun.

As they reached the tunnel’s end, Twila stopped the group. She had to show she was in charge, not Auntie Charlie. “Okay, crew. Last time, we snuck around the outside and got to the ship’s hull–or really close. Let’s do that again.”

The others nodded and followed. Carter whispered to her as they crept forward. “That ship’s skipper must’ve been a madman. There’s no way it’d fit in here.”

“Yeah. Seemed confident, though. Who knows how far he’d have gotten Hourglass in here?” The Endeavor clearly hadn’t had problems until the very end; most of its gray paint hadn’t even been scratched, except where its side had caught on a stalagmite that ripped it open.

Twila darted from one rock to another. She crouched and crept toward the sundered ship’s side. Confident no one had seen her, she slipped silently over to the rock they’d hidden behind.

“Twila,” Auntie Charlie said.

“Not now, Auntie,” Twila whispered. Now wasn’t the time for the woman to be so loud; she rolled her eyes and kept sneaking.

“Twila, no one’s here. One ship rat keeps looking over the railing–yes, I see you. Come on down, and we won’t shoot–and there might be one more inside, but there are no real pirates.”

Twila stood up, face hot, as a boy raised his hands on the deck. “Okay, I’m comin’ down. Ellie, come out too.”

A brown-haired girl in a [Ship Rat’s Harness] poked her head out of the hole in the ship’s side. She stared at the three pistols pointed her way before slowly putting her own gun down.

“Alright, out here. Sit on the cave floor,” Charlie said. The two ship rats came out. Their wide, shaky eyes had dark rings around them as they looked at Twila and her crew.

“Well, skipper? Got any questions for our prisoners?” Charlie asked, gesturing at the two rats.

Twila thought. She’d been expecting a fight, not a surrender. “Where’d Vayne go?”

“Wait, she’s not the skipper?” The girl–Ellie–pointed at Auntie Charlie.

Carter laughed. “No, she’s the quartermaster. It’s Twila’s ship, so she’s–”

Charlie cleared her throat and narrowed her eyes in Carter’s direction, shutting him up. “Answer the question. Where’s [Sky Captain] Vayne?”

The boy shrugged. “He went deeper into the cave. Took two of us rats and a pair of pirates with him. He told us to rig up the ship’s boat, but that won’t take more than a few passengers.”

“So Sam and I are probably getting cut loose in this cave,” the girl finished glumly for her fellow ship rat.

“Maybe not. There might be space–”

“Kids, could we focus on–” Charlie tried to interject.

“--on the ship’s boat if Vayne has to use Karl or someone to find a trap,” Sam continued.

As the two ship rat prisoners and Charlie talked over each other, Twila tuned them out. Instead, she pulled her [Myst Lens] down and stared at the ship.

[Endeavor–Brigantine]

Why wouldn’t her lens tell her more than that? Was it because she wasn’t the Endeavor’s skipper? She tapped on the lens in irritation, but nothing changed. Sighing a long, loud sigh, Twila pulled her lens back out of her eyes and held up a hand until the arguments and interjections stopped.

“So no one’s aboard the Endeavor?” Twila asked?

“No, just us ship rats,” Ellie said.

“That…isn’t true. There’s the seal lady,” Sam interrupted.

Ellie looked like she was about to say something, but Twila’s glare shut her up. “Coatless is on board? Did your skipper give the coat back?”

“No. He threw her in the brig,” Sam said. “Said we were to keep her there until they got back, and not to listen to her. Not that I would have, anyways. She gives me the willies, with her weird hair and no ears. I dunno where the coat is.”

“Charlie, Becca, stay here. Keep an eye on the ship rats. Carter, we’re exploring the ship.” Twila sheathed her sword but kept one pistol in her hand as she climbed up into the Endeavor’s cracked and shattered hull.

After the musty odor of the caves, the sweat-and-myst smell of the Endeavor’s hold felt like home to Twila. Maybe twenty hammocks hung, nailed, or tied to every possible post, wall, or upright face–more hammocks than Twila had thought the Endeavor had crew members. The two heavy cannons sat with ropes keeping them tight to the ship’s hull, though the cartridges seemed to have rolled free in the crash–and no one had bothered looking for them.

“Carter, check the hold. We’re looking for a selkie, the brig, or for the skipper’s room.” Twila said. “If you see any interesting contraptions or ship’s weapons we could take for Hourglass, remember them for later.”

“We’re stealing from them?” Carter asked. “I’ve got no problem with it, but I bet two wheels we won’t get most of it off this wreck.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Doesn’t matter. Rosie will be around with Hourglass. We can load her up then. Find that brig.” Twila climbed the ship’s stairs onto the next deck up, leaving Carter behind in the hold.

The upper floor of the hold was crammed full of empty barrels and crated filled with slightly moldy hard tack and cured meats. Twila wrinkled her nose at the yeasty, mildewy odor pervading the storerooms. She tacked through the messy room toward the ship’s bow. The skipper’s room on the Hourglass was in the back, so that was probably where Vayne’s quarters were on the Endeavor.

Which meant the brig was probably in the ship’s bow. The Endeavor’s bow had partially crumpled in its crash landing in the cave, but the ship rats had said that Coatless was in the brig, so it couldn’t be too badly damaged.

Sure enough, as Twila opened a warped wooden door, Coatless’s quiet, sad sobs filled her ears. She was in the brig with the cell door shut.

The selkie woman looked, if anything, worse than the last time Twila had seen her. She lay on the floor, curled in a ball–there wasn’t a bed, or even a chair, for her to sit on, though she probably wouldn’t have used one if there were. As the door opened, she flinched and stared at the floor, but her eyes flicked up to Twila a couple of times before locking on the girl’s gaze.

“He took my coat. And he locked me in here. I need my coat…” Coatless mumbled. Her eyes were unfocused, and she looked back down at the floor. Then she looked up again, hope in her eyes. “Are you going to let me out? I need my coat.”

“Are you gonna run away again as soon as we’re not watching?”

“No. No, I’ll stay close this time, I promise,” Coatless said, groaning and putting her hands on the brig’s bars.

Twila looked at the selkie. “I want to trust you, but I’m not sure I can. I’ll be back soon, though.” She turned and left as Coatless started sobbing again.

Making her way back down to her shore party, Twila thought about Coatless. She wanted to help. The selkie needed her help. But she couldn’t have her running off and tipping Vayne off early–not if she was going to get the treasure without killing the man. And she couldn’t keep killing, either.

“Hey, Twi, check this out!” Carter interrupted her thoughts as she worked through the lower hold. “They have a crane!”

“So? Hourglass has winches for repair work.”

“No, not a winch. A crane. It's busted, but it looks like they used it to pick up cargo. The hull’s got a big opening near the bow. Come look,” Carter disappeared into the bow, just below the brig.

“We don’t have time right now, Carter. Show me when we get back.”

After a moment, Carter poked his head out. “Fine. It’ll take some work to fix if we even decide we want it. Reminds me of the fishers Becca and I used to work on back home….” He drifted off. Before he looked away, Twila thought she saw a tear running down his face, but he wiped at it and hurried back out of the Endeavor.

“Rats, did either of you see if Vayne had a gray coat with him?” Twila asked.

Sam shook his head slowly and shrugged. “Like I said, I dunno. But the selkie’s a big prize. We…they, I mean…didn’t capture any when Endeavor attacked their village. I doubt he’d have left the coat here.”

“Can we join your crew? You’ve got a ship, and that makes you safer than–” Ellie started, until Sam interrupted.

“You promised we’d talk about this more before we asked!”

“You’re stupid! They have a way out of here, and their skipper’s a kid!”

“That’s not the point–you didn’t listen, and you broke our promise!”

“Enough!” Twila shouted. “We’ll decide what to do with you later. Becca, take them back to Hourglass and lock them in the girls’ room.

Sam looked at her, aghast. “You don’t have a brig? I’d rather be locked in the brig!”

“Aww, you’ll love the girls’ closet,” Carter teased as he gestured at the two prisoner ship rats to stand up. “They locked me in there a week or so ago. The only problem is that Rosie and Twila are filthy!”

“Shut up, Carter,” Twila glared at him as he winked back at her and grinned. “We’re racing Vayne to the treasure!”

[Twila Tighe, Ship Rat Mystgineer, Equipment Level 1.33 (Myst 1/15, Hit Points 1/1)]

[Head - Empty]

[Eyes - Myst Lens (lvl. 1) Myst Sight (passive) See own status block and others’ classes]

[Chest - Ship Rat’s Harness (lvl. 0)]

[Waist - Apprentice Mystgineer’s Bandolier (lvl. 1) Deep Pockets (passive) - Equip an additional Gizmo]

[Legs - Canvas Overalls (lvl. 0)]

[Gizmo #1 - Loaded Dice (lv. 2) - Roll the Bones (active, 1 myst/roll) - gain a random myst enhancement; Skill - Trickery]

[Gizmo #2 - Anton’s Pocket Watch (lvl. 4)] Redo (active, 5 myst/5 seconds) - redo the last five seconds of time, with knowledge of what’s happening (1 minute to reset); Skill - Piloting]

[Gizmo #3 - [Pocket Condenser (lvl. 1) - Condense Myst (passive) - Condenses 1 myst/5 ticks; Skill - None]

[Gizmo (Belt) - Mystwork Lantern (lvl. 2): Mystlight (active, 25% failure chance, 1 myst/attempt) - start the light; Adjustable Light Aura (sustained, .5-2 myst/tick) - light a variable area; Skill - Perception]

[Myst Battery - Myst Battery Mk. 2 (lvl. 1) Myst Storage (passive) - 15 myst maximum, requires condenser to refill]

[Weapon/Pair - Anton’s Paired Pistols (lvl. 2) Smoothbore Myst-Shot (active, 1 cartridge/shot) - fire a ray of heated myst; Rapid Shots (active, 2 myst/shot) - fire twice/tick; Skill - Marksman]

[Weapon #2 - Heatblade (lvl. 2) Heat (active, 1 myst/tick) - cause the blade’s edge to superheat; Skill - Acrobatics]

[Weapon/Pair - Empty]

[Skill #1 - Trickery 2]

[Skill #2 - Perception 2]

[Skill #3 - Piloting 4]

[Skill #4 - Marksman 2]

[Skill #5 - Acrobatics 2]