chapter three and such and such.
Equal Shares
Midday on The Caesar’s Destiny. The crew are busy swabbing the deck as doodle mans
the wheel. Coryn had been locked away in his cabin since dawn, with strict orders not to be
disturb. Suddenly however his cabin doors flew open simultaneously to reveal the bottom of
Coryn’s boot. Quickly following it up with the rest of his body, Coryn made a quick pace
towards the quarter deck with a massive piece of rolled parchment in his hand. “RIGHT! ALL
OF YOU DROP WHAT YOU’RE DOIN AND FOLLOW ME!” The crew quickly dropped their
mops and hurried after Coryn. By the time they had made it up to the quarter deck Coryn had
already set a small wooden table just behind the wheel and spun around. “So I have good news
and bad news. The good news!” Coryn slammed the parchment into the table. “Is that I know
where we’re going!” Oran’s eye twitched. “Are you telling me you didn’t before?”
“Kinda.”
Spinning back around Coryn unfurled the parchment with a single flick of his wrist.
Showing that the parchment was in fact navigational charts. This which hand scrawled notes and
drawings of sea monsters. As the crew leaned in to get a better look however they noticed
something especially odd about the map. Monster was the first to bring it up. “Coryn…I couldn’t
help but notice that I don’t recognize any of these land masses.”
“Well good. Ifyoudidwe’dprobablyhavetoscanyourbrainforanymicrogeneticalterations.”
“Could you say that again but slower?”
“You probably don’t want me to.” Monster opened his mouth as if to say something else but
seemed to decide against it. Lego however spoke in his steed. “I still don’t get why we don’t
recognize anything on this map.” Coryn chuckled at him but suddenly took on a disappointed
tone. “Seriously? It’s like you think we’re on Earth or something.”
“We’re not on Earth?” Picking up the corners of the map, Coryn lifted it a few inches into the air
as if to make it more apparent. “Well obviously.” Aero interjected. “Could we get back to the
part where you didn’t know where we were going?”
“Not important anymore! I do now and that’s enough. Really what I want to know is why you
aren’t you asking me for the bad news.” Doodle rolled her eyes and turned away from the wheel.
“What’s the bad news captain?” Coryn smiled. “Finally a crew member with some sense. The
bad news First Mate Doodle, is that we know where we’re going.” Oran’s eye started twitching
again. “Please start making sense.”
“Oh if you insist.”
Swinging over to the other side of the table, Coryn re-orientated the map and started
tracing lines on it with his finger. We started at this port here. Sailed south for a day and a half
which has landed us squarely here. Somewhere here.” Coryn tapped his finger on what appeared
as open ocean on the map. “Is Penitence Island. Home of Mercury Bay. Which also happens to
be the only safe place to anchor within a hundred leagues of the island. Or so the legends go. Our
immediate problem is here.” Coryn drew a circle several inches around the place he had pointed
out as Penitence Island. “This is something called the rift. Starting at the 45 degree of latitude on
its northern edge. Now the details are sketchy, but according to the tales, the rift is a gateway to a
section of the ocean that has never been charted. And it’s only open for three days, every 100
years.” Aero looked up at him only half convinced. “So what’s the issue?”
“Well for one it’s going to close the day after tomorrow. So if we don’t make good time we’ll
miss our chance. But that’s not the half of it. There’s an old saying that goes along with the
legend. ‘Many have gone by chance. More have gone by greed. Though all, by misfortune. Cross
the rift with all one carries, or many, you will by sea bury.’” An ominous feeling fell over the
crew, and even Coryn’s face darkened. “I’m afraid that if we don’t figure out its meaning within
the time limit. We’ll just become another part of the legend as well.” As Coryn started rolling up
the map Aero spoke. “So why the sudden urge to fill us in?”
“Well if I told you much later we’d be in a pretty sore spot hm? Since the rift hasn’t been open
for 100 years there isn’t anyone alive who can tell us what it is. Therefore you must be
prepared.”
Coryn finished rolling up the map and secured it shut with a piece of string. “Two days
gentlemen! In two days I want you four to know this ship from top to bottom! Tip to stern! If you
don’t it will doom us all! You can be sure of that! And if we do survive they’ll be even worse
hell to go through!” Finishing his speech Coryn continued to stare at the crew for a few
moments. “WHAT ARE YOU ALL STARING AT ME FOR?! BACK TO WORK YOU
DOGS!” As the crew ran off back to their tasks, Coryn leaned against the railing as Doodle made
slight adjustments to their heading, feeling the wind as she did. After staring at his back for
several moments she finally spoke up. “Something on your mind Captain?” Without taking his
eyes off the horizon he responded. “You shouldn’t have thrown out the rum.”
Topic: Life at Sea (Read 15469 times)
