“Hurmph, 27, drop anchor!” Stibs announced.

As the noble rushed to complete the order, Stibs jogged over to Drek and Colb. “Hurmph! What do you see?”

Drek handed the telescope to Stibs, the pointed out towards the sea. “Hurmph, this telescope’s crazy…” Stibs mumbled as he put his eye up to the enchanted item.

“Hurmph! Good eyes,” Stibs praised as he looked out at the sea with the eyepiece. “I’m impressed you two saw this. That’s an octopusduck right there. They’re almost invisible… waiting for ships to come too close, then gobbling them up. I’ve never seen a live one before.”

A clinking chain sound could suddenly be heard as 27 dropped anchor. “Oh no…” Stibs grumbled.

“Hmmm, what?” Colb asked. “It’s just sitting there, yes? We can just go around it, yes?”

“They’re rather intelligent beasts,” Stibs worried. “It looks like it’s noticing our anchor dropped… and it’s realizing we aren’t planning to keep sailing towards it… and yep, now it’s coming right for us. Uh oh, it’s swimming really fast, too.” Stibs handed the telescope back to Drek, then turned to face the elf sitting on the main deck. “Kashmir!” he ordered. “We’re going to need some defense over here.”

“Against what?” she replied in Elvish, not moving from her spot on the ground.

Within moments, an enormous, feather-covered tentacle reached out of the water with a boom, then latched onto the bow of the ship. Wood crunched and crushed as the boat lurched forwards, and started sinking into the sea.

Kashmir’s ears perked up and she stood, staring at the now-revealed monster destroying their ship. After another second, the boat trembled, and a loud screeching, crunching sound came from the lower deck.

27 opened the door to the boat’s basement, and stared wide-eyed down the staircase. “MMmMmmmm, there is large beak eating through bottom of the boat, yes there is,” the noble reported. “It’s flooding down there. The ship’s going to sink, yes it is. I’m going to pack up my Yiklar Folding Cabin, yes I am.” The noble shut the door, and rushed to retrieve his mobile vacation house.

“Okay, okay, I can make this go away,” Kashmir announced frantically. The boat suddenly lurched forwards again, making Kashmir slip on her own puddle of ice that had formed under her feet.

“Hmmm! Let me help, yes?” Colb commanded, rushing to Kashmir’s side, and drawing his shield. “I’ll hold you still while you blast the octopusduck, yes?”

“Hurmph, I take back what I said about the defense,” Stibs retracted. “If the octopusduck has started consuming the lower deck, we’re going to sink no matter what we do. At this point, it’d be best to abandon ship and get out of here. Drek, find the escape boats.”

“Um… they’re all gone,” Kashmir worried, looking at Colb. “They were attached by ropes, and… and Stibs told me to cut all the ropes a few days ago… so pirates wouldn’t be able to climb after us on the ship… I mean to say, I… I cut them all down when we were fleeing from the pirates…”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Hmmm, there are none, yes?” Colb translated, raising his voice so Stibs could hear him. The old goblin let out some Goblish curse words in response.

“But… um… I can’t swim,” Kashmir added.

“Hmmm, it’s okay, Stibs will figure something out, yes?” Colb comforted. “Maybe he can build us a raft, or we could buy something from 27?”

“No… I mean, I physically can’t touch water,” Kashmir clarified. “It always freezes. It’s not ideal, but if I jump overboard, I think I can make us a way out of here.”

“Hmmm, jump overboard?!” Colb cried. “With an octopusduck right here, that doesn’t sound safe, yes?”

“Hurmph, everyone!” Stibs suddenly announced as a layer of water started pouring onto the main deck from the pirate ship’s shattered bow. “Octopusducks like to eat wood. If we can construct a small raft of some sort, it should ignore us in favor of eating the bigger meal – that is, the pirate ship.” He glanced at 27, who had just finished retracting his Yiklar Folding Cabin.

“MMmMmmmm, the Yiklar Floating Cabin does not float, no it does not,” 27 said, pocketing his doorknob as he regrouped with the crew. “It would not make good raft.”

Abandoning Colb, Kashmir ran over to what remained of the ship’s bow, and put her hand in the thin layer of water that was flowing onto the main deck. It began rapidly solidifying into a block of ice. She then looked at the other goblins, as if silently asking them for permission to do something.

“Hurmph, what? You think you can make a raft like that?” Stibs guessed. Kashmir nodded. “Well obviously, go for it,” he ordered. 27 and Drek nodded in agreement as well.

The young elf put her hands together, then dove off the side of the boat. “Woa!” the three goblins said in unison, running to the boat’s railings to see where she had fallen.

Colb rushed to the ship’s edge as well, dodging a falling rod of mapleoak wood as he did so. When he reached the rest of the goblin crew, he looked down into the sea. What he saw was Kashmir, staring back up at him. Below her, a wide iceberg had formed, breaking her fall, and keeping her out of the peppersalt waters. The ice-platform she sat upon looked solid, and was slowly but surely drifting eastward.

Kashmir waved her fingers welcomingly, gesturing for the goblins to join her. One-by-one, as the pirate ship crunched and sank behind them, the goblins leaped into the water and swam up to Kashmir’s iceberg.

By the time it was Colb’s turn, the pirate boat had sunk so low that he only had to drop a couple of inches before landing in the peppersalt sea. As his small body naturally floated in the dense waters, Colb swam with all his might, eventually making land on Kashmir’s cold, slippery mound of ice.

Colb then looked back, watching as the pirate ship sank into the octopusduck’s embrace behind him. “Hmmm, this is working!” he cheered. “It’s ignoring us, yes? We’re safe!”

“Hurmph, as I foresaw,” Stibs added. “It’s too busy eating the larger ship to notice we escaped! Not to mention, those things only like eating wood, from what I’ve read. It’s not going to care about this iceberg.”

Colb looked at Kashmir, her long bluish-black hair covering one of her eyes. “Hmmm, you were right, yes?” he praised. “I’m proud of you! Your quick-thinking got us out, and we didn’t even have to fight, yes?”

“Um… thanks,” Kashmir said, looking out at the waters before them. “Although, I can’t really control where this thing goes. We’re pretty much adrift at sea until we hit the next body of land, and I doubt it’s going to be the Frosted Wastes.”

As Colb translated this revelation to the others, Stibs pulled out his Yiklar Map of Finding Location. “Whereami…” he mumbled. “Hurmph, based on this map, it looks like landing in the Elvish Kingdom is very likely.”

Kashmir let out an audible gulp. “I was worried about that,” she muttered.

“Hmmm, but we’re safe, yes?” Colb comforted. “It’s better to be on land in your home kingdom than underwater with a monster, yes?”

“Um… I’m not sure if I agree with that,” Kashmir worried. “Queen Eylbella is much scarier than that octopusduck.”