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Chapter 24
Because That’s All They Know
“You know, I think I’ll miss Lilipass—only a little,” Clary said as she moved wave after wave aside.
“I hope we bring back enough treasure that our parents don’t ground us for life…” Poppy said.
“Are they allowed to ground legends? Because treasure or not, I'm not wasting this chance to get my name written in big letters!” Clary said.
“As the Great Magician Celphi or Cla—look out for that wave!”
A wave that dwarfed the ketch tenfold appeared out of nowhere—Clary sized it up and smirked, “Good question.” She raised both arms and then circled the air with her pointer fingers, forming a tunnel in the wave so that the ketch safely passed through, “I’ve been thinking the Wave Breaker is a good fit!”
“I like the sound of having the ‘Wave Breaker’ on my side,” Lav laughed.
“What about you two?” Clary asked.
Poppy shrugged.
“I’ll let the people give me a name,” Lav replied.
“Speaking of names, we haven’t given the ship one,” Poppy said to Lav.
“Ideas?” Lav said.
“That’s not our job, Lav-Lav—it's the captain’s! You should know this!” Clary said.
“Yeah!” Poppy added.
Lav rubbed her chin, “How does the ‘New Gold’ sound?”
KARACK BOOM
Sal and the trio made it to the shore just in time to see a bolt of lightning strike the deck of the New Gold—lighting a flame.
Frost gritted their teeth and lunged forward, ice fog forming around them, ready to dash—until Free stopped them.
“Think for a sec—you’re gonna burst a pipe, and by the time you’re on that boat you’ll be useless,” Free said.
“You act like you understand my limits,” Frost growled.
“Guess I don’t, but do you?”
“You two—focus!” Sal said. “We’ll take Melli’s skipper, it's made for storms like this.”
“Humph,” the ice fog faded, and Frost relaxed their stance. “Foxx, go to the—”
Foxx jumped up onto the side of a tree and bounced off it with his tail—rocketing towards the New Gold.
The ice fog formed around Frost again—
Free grabbed Frost by the arm and ran, “Let’s go!”
On the New Gold—Poppy struggled to put out the fire by himself with just a water bucket, “Can I get some help?!”
Clary struggled with her own front, barely keeping up with the intensifying waves, “B-busy—”
Foxx landed on the side of the crow’s nest and dropped down onto the deck—taking three buckets, catching wave-water in them, then snuffing out the flame in a single motion.
Poppy looked at Foxx confused, “Where did you—”
“Foxx!” Lav smiled. “Didn’t expect to see you again so soon, thanks for the help!”
Foxx bowed then jumped up to Lav.
“You decided to ditch the oldies and sail with us? Nearly forgot you’re an adventurer at heart.”
Foxx shook his head.
“You’re just here for the quick assist? Eh, your loss.”
“No. Please return to—”
“If you can, help Poppy patch up the boards the lightning took—”
Foxx hopped on top of the post of the helm, “Please return to shore.”
Lav paused for a moment, “Not doing that. Sal put you up to this?”
“No—”
“Of course she would, she can’t understand anything other than ‘Lilipass was’ this and ‘Lilipass’ future’ that.”
“That’s not—”
“Whatever, she’s easy to deal with—we’ll shift course into the roughest waves, she’ll lose us.”
“Don’t,” Foxx’s ears pointed back.
Lav rolled her eyes, “Ugh, you don’t need to try that hard. Sis’ worried about me, so what? I know me and my crew can handle whatever the seas throw our way—what she thinks doesn’t matter. Go tell her we don’t want to go back.”
“The storm is dangerous. Please—”
“Don’t know what sis was thinking, sending you. Did she expect you to take the wheel and turn us around if I said no? Hover the boat to safety? Challenge me to a duel for Right of Steer?”
“Right of Steer?”
“Basically, the victor gets to choose where the vessel goes.”
“...Ok. May we duel?”
Lav was taken aback, “Seriously, Foxx?”
Foxx jumped back and onto the deck, when he landed, he raised his tail to his front—like a shield.
“Fine,” Lav vaulted down. “Poppy, take the wheel.”
Poppy, who was still in the middle of patching up the damage the lightning caused, gave her a befuddled look, “The ship’s not doing hot, now’s not the time for—”
“I’ll be quick,” Lav drew her cutlass, keeping the scabbard on so her slashes were blunt, “I can’t refuse my first duel.”
Begrudgingly, Poppy quickly ran up to the quarterdeck and took control of the helm.
Lav gestured at Foxx with her blade, “I accept—now surrender.”
Foxx did not reply.
Lav scowled, “Fine. By. Me.”
They circled each other for a while before Lav leaped forward and attacked—Foxx evaded her slash effortlessly. Ready for to receive a counterattack, Lav blocked her flank—yet instead of that, Foxx grabbed a plank that was flying towards her, leaving his back exposed.
Lav swung again—Foxx blocked the attack with the plank and leaped back, adding distance between him and Lav, landing near Clary.
“H-hey, Foxx,” Clary said.
“Hello,” Foxx replied.
“No h-hard feelings, okay?”
“Ok.”
Clary angled a wave so it would hit Foxx—forcing him to dodge back, towards Lav. He expected Lav to strike again—she instead stomped past him.
“Buzz off, this is my fight!” Lav shouted.
“T-then end faster, Poppy’s not the best helmsman, hard to keep upright,” Clary replied.
Lav turned to face the quarterdeck, “Poppy, reduce your speed and keep forty-five degrees to the swells!”
“Got it!” Poppy adjusted his sailing and Clary breathed a sigh of relief.
“Now let’s get back to—”
Foxx was nowhere to be seen.
Lav scanned around the deck until she noticed a honey-colored glow coming from the tip of the crow’s nest—it was Foxx, who had his noise pointed up, and three planks hovering around him.
Before Lav could shout at him to come down he suddenly threw the planks—each was struck by lightning that would have hit the New Gold. He quickly took survey of the ocean and sky then hovered down, now in front of Lav.
“Nice trick,” Lav sized him up—she knew that normal offense wasn’t going to cut it, she needed to give Foxx a reason to surrender. “Let’s get serious, traitor,” Lav unbuckled her scabbard and threw it off her blade.
Foxx’s attention pinned on the blade’s gleaming edge—Lav slashed at him, he paired the attack with his tail a bit too late—locking them in a clash, the blade caught by his fur.
“Traitor?” Foxx said.
“Traitor, turncoat, honourless sea thief—that’s what you are. You’ve gone against everything I thought you stood for—adventure!”
“I don’t want you to be hurt.”
“Getting hurt is part of it—and getting hurt is better than living and dying on that dust heap,” Lav put her other hand on the back of her blade, pushing harder and bending Foxx’s fur. “We’re done betting our lives on a shanty festival, we’re done living in the shadow of old tales. We’ll become legends of our—”
A single strand of fur snapped—and the rest went sharp, pointed like needles.
Foxx slammed his tail down—disarming Lav and shattering her blade, then pushed her back in the same motion. In the process, His fur cut her arm, blood seeping from the long shallow gash.
When Lav regained her footing, she saw that Foxx had changed—his ears pointed up, fur raised and colored like fire, tail pointed towards her like a spear—it reminded her of a Wharfwolf backed into a corner.
A deep droning noise emitted from Foxx—then, as quickly as the change came, it disappeared. Foxx’s fur went back to normal, his ears drooped down, and he wrapped his tail around himself.
“Sorry. Sorry. Sorry,” Foxx ran over to Lav—only to be met with a side kick, sending him flying into the pole of the crow’s nest. The force caused the bell atop it to silently ring.
Lav picked up her broken cutlass and she walked towards Foxx—halfway, she was stopped by a wall of water.
Lav immediately knew who it was from, “Clary!”
“Lav, stop, you’re taking this too far,” Clary said.
“Now I’m taking it too far? Bold of you to say,” Lav said back. “I told you to stay out of this.”
“That was before you two went crazy—I thought you’d talk it out, come to a compromise, maybe give each other a few bruises along the way—that’s how it's supposed to go.”
“Not here, not now—not when everything’s at stake.”
Clary pushed the wall closer, Lav stepped back.
“I thought you got it—this is our only chance! I have to end this, I need to prove my right as captain, I need to take back—”
“By doing what, Lav? What? How else do duels end?”
“By…” Lav’s scowl disappeared, she looked down at her blade.
When she looked back up, Foxx slowly went around the wall, his head low to the ground.
Lav didn't move—she braced for the worst. She expected some kind of punishment, payback, or worse, Foxx saying nothing and leaping away. She closed her eyes… and felt soft, warm, fluffy fabric wrap around her wounded arm.
“Are you ok?” Foxx had bandaged Lav’s gash with an end of his scarf.
The scarf wasn’t magic, the stinging pain didn’t go away, nor did the wound miraculously heal, yet… she felt better—and at the same time so much more worse,
guilt.
She dropped her blade, “I’m sorry, I took this too far.”
“I started it,” Foxx replied.
“No, I should have known better—this duel was stupid.” Lav noticed the faint glimpse of a boat’s headlights, “Heh, I get it now—you just wanted to stall still Sal found us? Dumb, but it worked.”
Foxx tilted his head.
Lav sighed, “Our tale is over before it even started, all because of—”
The New Gold rocked to the side, knocking Poppy and Clary to the ground—Lav managed to stay upright thanks to Foxx’s scarf.
“Poppy!” Lav shouted.
Poppy rubbed his head as he got up, “that wasn’t me—Lav, watch out!”
A tentacle erupted from the sea and slammed onto the deck, warping itself around the New Gold and raising it up in the air.
Confused, Lav looked around—her eyes locking with the cold, radiant stare of a kraken.
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