Neko carried the flute. He’d made two cats dance the tango this morning and felt comfortable with how the thing worked. As the ship’s best musician, they’d decided he was most suited to be the one to lure the dragon back to the ship.

He had said that two cats had been more difficult than one, and given the mother dragon may not be with her babies it was possible they might not be able to get them all at the same time. But they had tranquilizers, ones that should work for small dragons at least, so worst case, they only needed to lure out the adult. And Sasha knew where the babies slept.

The crew brought along nets with which to carry the small ones. As they walked they sang, and eventually, a few cantaloupe joined them and danced among them. Not near as many as the night before, as most were probably sleeping, but a few nonetheless. The crew had all been warned about them, but still they looked around with awe at the sand wolves that dove among the air currents and rustled leaves in the nearby trees. But despite the extra audience, the crew continued their singing unabated in a jolly sailing rhythm. Most of them only knew the chorus but they sung it with extra enthusiastic vigor.

“I once met a girl as fine as can be.

She told me her name, she sat on my knee

She offered me a bottle or was it three?

But you know what I said?

I said,

You can't keep a good ship afloat,

No, you can't keep a good ship afloat,

When the rum and vodka are pouring,

Ye best be near a mooring.

For ye can't keep a good ship afloat,

When the rum and vodka are pouring!

And she said,

She said, only a drop or two my dear,

Then I’ll help you up the stairs,

Strip you right down to your pears,

And take off with all but your underwears.

And I said, I said,

Say what?

And she said, well she said,

You must’ve misheard me dear,

I said I’ll feed you pears,

Take you up the stairs,

Give you the cares,

And leave you there,

to snooze.

So I said, I said,

You can't keep a good ship afloat,

No, you can't keep a good ship afloat,

When the rum and vodka are pouring,

Ye best be near a mooring.

For ye can't keep a good ship afloat,

When the rum and vodka are pouring!

But she was quite convincing,

Talked me around with a lemon and gin,

Then a rum, vodka, port, and champagne.

Won't be drinkin them again.

Why? Because, when I awoke the next morn,

I squinted out and saw the dawn,

I noticed a hole where the ship had been,

And that was the last of her I ever seen.

You can't keep a good ship afloat,

No, you can't keep a good ship afloat,

When the rum and vodka are pouring,

Ye best be near a mooring.

For ye can't keep a good ship afloat,

When the rum and vodka are pouring!”

Dickie, a shapeshifter, had already transformed into a large ape, an animal that would give him some extra lifting strength, and he swayed in time to the crew’s singing. Sasha watched him with fascination. She had always been a little envious of shapeshifter magic. She turned to Bobby and asked, “Do you think Katrina would infuse some of Dickie’s magic into bracelet for me?”

“Maybe if you ask them both really nicely.”

Not far behind them, Amanda talked to Neko. “It’s mostly dunes and rocky outcrops between the canyon and the ship. There’s a couple of crevasses but they’re mostly obvious. I could spot them well enough in the moonlight when I took the dragon over it last night so we should be fine heading back.”

“You sure you don’t want to play the flute?” Neko replied. “You’ve done this once already.”

Amanda shook her head. “I need to focus on any fire the dragon might be spitting and you’re a far better flutist than I’ll ever be. That matters for this magic.”

Around them the small number of cantaloupe that had been playing in the wind, suddenly disappeared. Then a shout came up from the front of the group. “We’re here.”

Gemma had been leading the charge and now she stood just beyond where the forest ended, right at the edge of a sharp drop in the red rock. She leaned out and looked down. Then she gave a whistle. “That’s gotta be at least fifty or sixty metres.”

“Don’t get so close to the edge,” her mother warned her as she stepped out of the forest.

There was no sign of the dragon or her babies yet.

Sasha stood next to Gemma and threw her hands in the air. “It’s like upside down mountains as far as the eye can see.”

“Well you can’t really see them all.” Gemma frowned. From where she stood it was impossible to tell how far the canyons went but she could vaguely make out dark shadows in the ground that indicated there were more of them out here.

“You can see the cracks in the earth,” Sasha replied as she leapt as high as she could in the air. “Sort of.”

“Alright guys,” Amanda waved her hands to calm Sasha down. Around her, the crew took the opportunity to sip from water flasks.

Sasha settled down and then she crouched low and pointed at a large cave half way down the wall and a little further along the canyon. “That’s where the babies are.”

Gemma frowned. “How did you get down there?”

Sasha smiled. “There’s a secret way.”

She led them around the edge of the forest until they came to a orange-red outcropping. Then she knelt down and disappeared into the rock. It took the others awhile to see where it was she had gone, for the hole she had slipped into was barely even Sasha sized.

“We’re not getting any dragons out of there,” remarked Crick.

Alice turned his head sideways. “We could make the hole bigger.”

“We’ve got ropes, we can abseil down into the canyon,” replied another man.

“Yeah, but how do we get the dragons back up?”

“Telekinesis?”

“We should have brought Shiv.”

“Shiv is manning the ship and getting the harness ready.”

“We still should have brought him.”

The debate continued on among the crew for a little longer, when suddenly a loud roar interrupted their debate. They looked up to find the mother dragon beadily watching them from atop the rocky outcropping. A golden orange colour played in the lower section of her throat.

“Neko,” Amanda whispered as she reached for his arm to get his attention.

But she needn’t have bothered. Neko was already raising the flute to his lips.

For a moment there was complete silence, and then a beautiful melody started to play. The song was soft and soothing. Neko would play a few quick alternating higher pitched notes and then he’d drop the tune down low into one long held note. Then slowly he’d step it up again, one slightly shorter note at a time. Then back into quick footsteps of sound before drawing the song down and out, enticing the dragon toward him.

The faster tempo drew the dragon’s attention and caused it to sit up and fixate it’s eyes on Neko completely. Then as Neko walked backwards and played the lower slow notes, the dragon’s eyes would droop and it began to pull itself slowly forward with a slight sway.

People ducked as a large swinging dragon tail swept over their heads. All were smart enough not to make any moves too quickly though.

Amanda made her way carefully to where Neko played, then she called back toward the group, “Neko and I need to lead this one to the beach. Gemma you’re in charge of the small ones.”

“Oh boy!” Gemma exclaimed with glee.

“Oh boy,” Bobby groaned.

“Wow!” Sasha breathed, as she watched the giant coal-scaled dragon slink so gently over the sandy ground.

They watched until the dragon disappeared behind an outcrop of rock and all they could hear was the sound of Neko’s song slowly fading into the distance.

Gemma turned to find the crew looking at her expectantly. She nodded at the tiny entrance. “Well, can we make it bigger then?”

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“We can try,” Alice replied, as he lifted one large bolder out of the way.

Nearby, Crawly, took a comfy seat on the ground and used his telekinesis to lift away smaller pieces of earth and stone.

Other crew made a move to help. Even Bobby joined in, forming part of a chain to pass the smaller rocks out of the way.

“Is it working?” Gemma eventually asked as she tried to peer around the construction process. There were a lot of sweaty bodies and dust in the way.

“We should have brought shovels,” Pete remarked as he leaned against a tree in exhaustion. He was the ship’s only human and had no powers to aid them beyond regular human strength, and humans always seemed to tire so fast. He did his best though so no one complained, much.

“Why don’t you run back and get some then,” growled Crick, who was starting to get a little irritated at the slow progress.

“Oh, I have an idea!” Sasha remarked. “Stand aside!” She tried to wave them out of the way.

The crew glared at her. They liked Sasha well enough, or at least they tolerated her, she was after all still the captain’s daughter, but they did not know her as well as they did Gemma, and she did not know them. Gemma had been on many voyages with the crew before. She understood how the ship ran. She knew all the crew’s names and how and when to give and take orders and she always helped out with work that needed doing. Many of the crew had been sailing since they were Gemma’s age and by now they saw her as one of them, but Sasha, to most of the crew Sasha was still a child, and an inexperienced dreamy-headed one at that.

Seeing their reluctance to take orders from her sister, Gemma stepped in. “Do as she says,” she commanded.

The men grumbled but they got out of the way.

With glee, Sasha disappeared back into what was now a much larger hole. It was big enough that someone Sirius’s size probably could have fit through if he’d hunched, but not quite big enough for a juvenile dragon.

“Sasha?” Gemma called into the hole.

There was no reply.

“Do you think I should go down?” Bobby asked.

Gemma hesitated then she decided. “Maybe give her a few minutes. She’s done this before right?”

“Assuming she’s doing whatever she did before,” Bobby mumbled looking worriedly at the hole.

But they waited and eventually Sasha reappeared, covered in dust and dirt. She climbed out of the hole and then turned and iced up the entrance.

“Uh, Sash?” Gemma asked.

“Quick, get back!” Sasha replied as she scrambled away from the entrance.

Everyone obeyed.

A moment later fire burst forth from the entrance, melting the ice.

A safe distance, but not too far, Sasha was already constructing a new ice wall.

From the hole in the earth crawled a young black and white dragon. It’s scales were patterned like a swirl of ice-cream. Behind it, two more dragons appeared. One full black, except for a stripe down it’s belly, another full-white except for one toe. Then another two, both the spitting image of their mother.

Behind her ice wall, a tired Sasha took a moment to rest, as the front dragon pulled it’s head back.

“Sasha, move!” Gemma commanded.

Sasha was pulled back off her feet, telekinetically yanked out of the way by Crawly, as the dragon melted the ice.

Fallon grabbed one of the tranquilizer guns and shot one of the two rear-most dragons. It paused but it did not drop.

Around them, men scrambled into action. Nets were thrown, tranqs were fired, nets were burnt, claws reached for skin. As the dragon’s temperaments went from curiosity to fear, the area became chaos.

Gemma did her best to keep the fire that the dragon’s breathed from causing too much harm but with five dragons it was an impossible feat.

One tried to incinerate Patchie, but Gemma succeeded in pushing the flames vertical, up and away from a relieved Patchie’s face. She tried to shape them, thinking she might distract the dragons with a mini fire dragon of her own, but she hadn’t the skill for it, and the flames blew away in the wind.

She had little time to recover from that failure before the white and black-toed dragon lowered it’s body and created a moving wall of flame as it turned it’s head to fire across a group of several. Gemma forced it’s flame sideways, momentarily giving everyone just enough time to dodge out of the way.

Then the dragon that had been hit first, suddenly dropped to the ground. After that it was over as quickly as it had started. The tranquilizers played their part and each dragon fell into a deep slumber.

The damage turned out to be not as devastating as Gemma had first thought. A few burns here and there, and one scratched up arm, but between Patchie and Bobby, everyone was soon healed.

“Nice work,” remarked Thatch as he and a couple of others carried a netted dragon past.

Gemma nodded a thanks, and as she surveyed the others getting ready to haul the dragons back to the ship, she smiled. All in all, that hadn’t gone half bad.

On another part of the island, Katrina stared up at a dark ship. Somehow the thing looked even more terrifying in full daylight.

“Who goes there?” a voice shouted down to them.

Her father shouted back. “Sirius James, of the Black Dog. We’d like to talk.”

“Who have you with you?” asked the voice.

“My daughter.”

No more was shouted down. A ladder was lowered. Sirius went first.

Katrina finally clambered over the side of the ship to find her father surrounded by several men, all with their sword’s drawn.

They glanced at her briefly, but seeing no threat in a small girl wearing dark chiffon-lined dress, they quickly turned their attention back to her father. All except one.

Katrina’s dress had pockets sewn at the hips, with fabric so loose and flowy that it would be impossible to notice any movement from within them. She slipped her hands inside and self-soothingly fingered the mindwalking pen she had there among her other charms.

“Hands outta yer pockets,” one man barked at her. The one who had not removed his gaze from her. His hair and eyes were brown, almost a lustrous acorn like colour. His locks were loose and curled slightly. He was young, maybe only 20, and he wore dark clothes, black pants tied tight at his ankles, a loose-fitting but tight-collared top, and bare feet. He sat on a crate, further back from the rest of the men.

Katrina hesitated and glanced toward her father uncertainly.

But the other men solved the problem for her. One bald-headed larger fellow turned and growled at the younger one who had called out. “She’s a child Scamp, what could she possibly be hiding? Ain’t you supposed to be helping with the summoning? Get gone and let us handle the real men’s work.”

Scamp studied her a moment longer and Katrina wondered if he knew what she had. But then with a shrug, he turned and scampered off below deck, obviously not the one in charge on this ship.

Satisfied that his orders had been obeyed, the bald man turned back to Sirius. “State your business.”

“I’m here to talk to Felix.” Sirius stood straight and tall, and he did not flinch, not even when the one called ‘Scamp,’ had yelled out.

While they focused on her father, Katrina stealthily removed the lid of the pen and pressed her finger to the tip. Keeping her eyes on the knees of one of the men before her, one by one she called forth their memories, seeking the memory with a fiery dragon. She found it easily enough. She saw it in her mind’s eye, but unlike with dreamwalking the world did not melt around her. She found their memories and she altered them, just a little, turned a fiery dragon into a real dragon, one with dark scales.

“What about?” asked the bald man.

“That’s for the Captain to know,” replied Sirius.

More men emerged on to the deck, and over by the other railing, Katrina saw a few she recognised. One in particular. The man who Pete had killed, the teleporter. How was he alive? Her breath caught in her throat a moment before she remembered what her dad had said about Felix being a necromancer and what Shiv had said about him needing a body. Surely Pete was not here too? She could not see him anywhere.

“Fine, follow us.”

It was at that remark that Katrina realised she had wasted precious seconds worrying. Those men over there, the ones that had been on the beach, it was them and the Captain whose minds she most needed to alter. She reached out with the magic from the pen. She could sense how much was left in it, and she rewrote her way across the ship.

But the crew that had them surrounded were moving and her father was starting to follow. Katrina did not think she could walk and work this magic at the same time. She tried to speed up her work. She was half way through the last few when she knew she had fallen too far behind. The crew and her father turned to see why she was still stopped, why she wasn’t moving. She just needed a little longer.

The crew frowned at her. Was she making them suspicious? She could not stop now, not in the middle of a rewrite. It would cost her too much magic to do so and maybe even mess up the memory.

Her father shook his head at the surrounding men. “It’s her first time at a parley.” With a sigh and a mean tone that Katrina knew was a lie, he added, “I was hoping it would bring her out of her shell.”

The surrounding men laughed at that. Katrina paid them no mind. She was focused on tidying up the last little loose ends.

Her father talked long enough to buy her time to finish, then playing her role as timid little child, she crossed the ship to his side.

The crew returned to their work, none the wiser, and Katrina and Sirius followed the bald man into the depths of the dark ship.

The bald man summoned a flame of his own, just a small one on the tip of a finger. It’s light was dull and it wavered in non-existent wind, but it let them see the way.

They were brought to a large cabin, with windows that looked out the stern of the ship. Luminary stones, like the ones that lit their own ship, filled this room with a faint blueish light. Behind a desk, Katrina recognised Felix, the man with the one wooden leg.

“What’s this?” He grinned.

Katrina recoiled at the sight of his crooked yellow teeth.

“He’s come to offer you a trade.”

Behind him, from the shadows, another man spoke. Katrina thought she recognised him too. But it was hard to be sure. He was blonde with slick-backed hair and he bore the most fantastic curled mustache. Between his teeth he chewed on a toothpick and Katrina briefly wondered why he didn’t offer such a thing to Felix. The Captain’s teeth could sure use a picking.

It took her a moment to place where she had seen him. Then she realised he was the one who had been standing beside the Captain last night, whispering words in his ear.

Katrina wasted no more time on any thought beyond doing the memory spell. Felix was not as easy as his men had been, but she found blonde mustache even more difficult and she wasn’t sure why. A part of her was drawn toward other memories in his head but she could feel the magic pushing back too, as if it knew what she was supposed to be focused on. She pushed back, just a little, she was curious, and in his head she found other memories, memories of things that she was certain had never happened. One of her mother’s fire burning all the pirates, another of the pirates tying her own family up and slicing off her father’s head. They shocked her and they confused her. Were they memories? They felt like memories? But how could that be? She pushed on, confused and frightened, but certain she needed to alter them all, in spite of what the magic told her.

As Sirius talked trade of goods for unbeaching, Katrina worked her magic. When she was done, only a little power remained within the pen but she felt that she had done well enough.

Then suddenly Felix paused mid-conversation. “You know, I had been meaning to ask you something, but it seems to have slipped my mind.” He was silent awhile and then with a shake of his head he remarked, “Oh well, whatever it was, it can’t have been that important. Anyway, I’m sorry we can’t do business. Perhaps if you’d come by earlier..., but as it is we have already organised another way to get us off this beach. I wish you the best of luck with your own tactics, whatever they may be.”

The door opened behind them, and the one called ‘Scamp,’ poked his head in. He eyed Sirius and Katrina with suspicion but his attention was quickly drawn to his Captain.

“Ah, Scamp, how does it go?” the Captain asked.

Katrina got the impression he was referring to something very specific.

“He’s here, up on deck,” was all Scamp replied.

The Captain nodded. Scamp returned back into the hallway. The Captain returned to look at his guests. “Well, I’m sorry things went the way they did. But no hard feelings I’m sure. Anyway, it’s time you were going.” He got to his feet and held out a hand to Sirius.

Katrina was surprised he was being so nice. There was, after all still the issue with the kidnapping of Seraphina. Katrina hadn’t erased that part from their minds, or how they had stolen her back and set fire to their ship. But perhaps, Felix knew there was no value in retaliation at this point.

Sirius shook his hand.

Felix walked past him to the door. “I’ll show you out. There’s something I must see to up on deck as it is.”

They followed him up. Felix clicked his fingers for the bald-headed man, and without a glance their way he remarked. “See them off the ship safely.”

Felix’s attention was drawn elsewhere and so very raptly was it captured, that Katrina couldn’t help but look to see what had demanded such immediate and pointed focus.

There, standing near the railing, admiring the vast blueness of the ocean, was the most elegantly dressed man. His suit was a dark black velvet, trimmed and lined with threads of gold. It was a proper suit he wore, not the old fashioned bathrobes that sorcerers liked to adorn themselves with. This was a modern well-made suit, undoubtedly tailored to fit. Nothing like the scruffy, hard-wearing, loosely worn clothes of sailors. Nothing like the casual jeans or trousers that people wore back home. All her life Katrina had dreamed of owning clothing even half as well made as this. At the sight of such a thing she was envious and smitten all in one. And she was also afraid.

Afraid because she knew this was no pirate, regular witch, or even a sorcerer. Here, only metres away from them, stood an aristocrat.

It wasn’t just the clothing that gave it away. It was the casual, relaxed, posture. There was no glare or leer or nervousness. Nothing but a sense of boredom, a shrewd gaze, and an expectation.

The man had dark black hair, so neatly combed, it made blonde mustache look like he’d just rolled out of bed. At his hip, he had no obvious sword or gun, but lined along the entire inside of his coat, Katrina could make out the glimmer of chains and vials and other small items that she had no doubt were infused with all sorts of magic, just like the charms in her own pockets. Likely each one was worth a small fortune. Katrina dared not try any magic on him. She could almost guarantee that some of those items were passively defensive in nature.

But despite her fear she stared longingly at this man. After all, it was hard to look away from such beauty, or such alluring power. For a brief moment the aristocrat caught her eye and she could see that they were green like her own. In that moment she caught a glimpse of another possible future, and then her father grabbed her shoulder and turned her toward the ladder off the boat. “Come on.”

Katrina didn’t look back, but she could feel those green eyes on her as she climbed over the side of the railing. She didn’t look back until her feet were on soft sand. Then she looked up.

There, looking down at her was a figure. It wasn’t the aristocrat though. It was the young pirate, the one called ‘Scamp.” She squinted up at him before following her father away from the ship. Every now and again she’d glance back and find him still watching.

He kept watching until from somewhere on the deck someone called his name. Then he turned and disappeared from view. After that, Katrina didn’t look back for quite some time.

“Are you alright?” Sirius asked gently once they were closer to their own ship.

Katrina nodded, and when she did finally turn back to get one more look at the pirate ship she found there was nothing to see. She stopped and turned more fully, wondering if she was just imagining things. “It’s gone,” she remarked.

Sirius turned to look and he saw that she was right. Where the dark ship had once sat, the cool waves now lapped at an empty beach.