The journey back to port was surprisingly quiet. It worried me a little that we had seen no other pirate ships for days. My guess was that somehow the bad guys figured out our plan and they would all be waiting for us around Sharkfin Island. I really hoped that I was wrong and that there wasn't about to be a massive sea battle.

I'd hate to be taken out by a random cannonball without even having the chance to fight. Also, the amount of stuff I'm currently carrying could probably sink a ship if it was all offloading at once.

I had the frightening realization that if I died while I was out here all of my loot may just end up at the bottom of the sea. I was more scared by the thought of that particular situation happening than I could ever remember being.

"Land ho," yelled out the pirate who was up in the crow's nest. I ran up to the front of the ship and looked out in the distance. I was able to see a land mass and quite a few ships were either docked or close by the docking area.

"I really hope those are all on my side," I said to myself. There had to be dozens of vessels. I heard the door to the crew area belowdecks slam open. I jumped at the noise as I had been so focused on the upcoming possible confrontation. I got over to the source of the noise as quickly as possible and saw Hugh. I said his name, he turned towards me, and I almost jumped again from how terrible he looked.

He had huge bags under his eyes and looked like he had not slept in days. He smiled and waved me over to him. As I approached he said, "Call for the turtle."

"Shelldon?" I called down the steps with a hint of a question.

The turtle rocketed up the steps with a fully secured penguin strapped to his back. It was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen. That is what I thought at first. I soon realized that it was the second most ridiculous thing I'd ever seen.

Chum was wearing what looked like a little leather vest with straps crisscrossing his little penguin body. At first, I thought it was just part of the saddle system that Hugh had designed, but as soon as Chum raised his flippers I heard it. It was the sound of metal blades unsheathing.

I was looking at a turtle wearing a saddle. In that saddle was a penguin. Extending from the penguin's outstretched flippers were what appeared to be daggers.

"What did you do?" I asked Hugh.

"I did nothing less than give Chum exactly what he wanted," said Hugh with pride in his voice.

"The ability to go fast?" I questioned. That was all I remembered him wanting. Well, speediness and fish.

"The ability to go fast and destroy his enemies," Hugh corrected.

"I don't recall him wanting to destroy his enemies. Could he even use those things effectively?" I tossed Chum a fish as I finished my question. I wasn't sure if he had been fed while Hugh was descending into madness yet again.

The fish hit the floor of the main deck in three almost equal pieces. Chum and Shelldon had moved almost faster than I could follow and had sliced through the fish with both blades.

I had no words for what I had just seen. I felt like my brain was rebooting as it attempted to understand my new reality.

"Oh, he wants to destroy his enemies alright." He paused briefly before continuing with a more disturbing tone to his voice. "I can only imagine the amount of wanton destruction he will be able to bring about." Once again the tone of Hugh's voice changed back to his normal, jovial self. "What I meant to say was; now he can cut up his own food so that he'll be less likely to choke." Then he gave a boisterous belly laugh.

"Are you okay with this?" I asked the two animals. They went around in circles with Chum flapping about. This made his dangerous blades also snap in and out. I figured this meant they were okay with the changes, but I wasn't sure if I was onboard yet.

"Just be careful with those blades," I said with the tone of a concerned parent. "Come over and let me take a closer look."

The dynamic duo came over and I inspected the saddle and the blade mechanisms. I'll give credit where credit is due. Not only was the design amazingly precise and ingenious, but the leatherwork was phenomenal.

"I can't tell you enough how concerned I am about the unsafeness of these animals running around like a lightning-quick toddler with scissors, but your engineering and leatherwork are a thing of beauty." I continued looking at the apparatus in awe. It was the best work I'd ever seen.

"Thank you, Captain! Perhaps after some rest, I could help you with some similar assassin's blades. HaaHaaa, I meant fish-cutting safety blades." Hugh quickly bowed and disappeared below deck. I would have to keep a better eye on him.

I went back to my duties and as soon as we were close enough I sent Heather over to the nearest ship with a message tied to her leg. We had slowed our approach just in case these weren't friendly ships, but the returned messages pointed to all of these vessels being the good guys. I let out a sigh of relief and readied for coming into port.

Once we were secured, Barry and I left the ship to trade and speak with the other captains. Even if we didn't know exactly what we were headed into I'd still like to have some plans that everyone agreed on for how to handle the island. Between the two of us, we were able to quickly set up a meeting with all of the captains. I had an ulterior motive for going from ship to ship and it paid off.

One of the ships had four ballistas as part of it's arsenal. Two forward facing and two rear facing. Between my silver tongue amulet, a well-laid-out argument, and quite a few barrels of supplies; I was able to trade for their two rear ballistas and five dozen bolts. When I was inspecting a bolt, which looked like it could cause some major damage on its own, I tried to imbue it and felt the same magic flow through me and into the bolt. I was so happy that I'd be able to utilize my arrowmancy a bit more.

We moved quickly to mount the weapons on the front of our ship. They were heavy, but I could lift them up long enough to stick them into my inventory for easy travel. This was the only way we would've been able to get them mounted in time so I'm glad that it had worked. I looked at their description and was pleasantly surprised.

Ballista (Ultra-Rare) x2

This well-constructed weapon of war fires a large bolt a great distance up to twice per minute. The damage of the shot is dependent on many factors but whatever it hits will not enjoy it very much regardless.

Basic Bolt (Common) x 60

This bolt is the easiest to construct and most basic of bolts. It is four feet long and has a metal head that weighs approximately three pounds.

After a few minor tweaks, a thick, wooden tripod was mounted on both sides of the forecastle deck, which I'd recently learned was a better term for the upper-front deck of the ship. On each tripod sat the large, crossbow-like weapons that I gave the monikers 'Thunder' and 'Lightning'. They were secured by a latch system so that if something happened and my ship began to sink I could unlatch them and lift them into my inventory quickly.

I ratcheted back the mechanism to a full draw and then held a basic bolt in my hand to imbue it. After carefully loading the bolt, I aimed at a bare patch of rock in the distance that was maybe five hundred feet away and released. The bolt rocketed past the patch of rocks and at approximately double the distance, a huge tree bucked back with the impact of the bolt. It was difficult at this distance to tell exactly what happened to the tree, but it would be safe to assume that it was very chilly and very injured.

Everyone who was aware of what was happening cheered at the impressive display of firepower. I just smiled and knew how it felt to be proud of your child when they do something amazing for the first time. There was a pang of guilt when I thought about that defenseless tree, just minding its own business and converting carbon dioxide into oxygen for my benefit, being absolutely wrecked by my actions.

"Forgive me, Lorax," I said quietly as I bowed my head in respect. It didn't help much, but it was enough for me to move on.

We had been in port for a couple of days between all of the trading, communicating, and planning. A special meeting for all of the captains was to take place tomorrow evening to give any final ships time to dock and prepare.

I was ready to get this part of my journey over with. I was ready to be back on land. I told myself that I would figure out all of my anger issues after the battle when things calmed down. It wasn't difficult to convince myself to put it off since I didn't really feel like dealing with it anyway. I laid in bed that evening thinking about those ballistas and wondering if Smith would be able to mount them onto a heavy cart. I wanted this world's equivalent to a tank when I was back on dry ground.

"Who doesn't want to be stuck in a fantasy role-playing game with a tank?" I asked myself. As soon as I uttered the word 'stuck' it all came flooding back to me. I was reminded that I was stuck here and felt powerless to get myself out. I thought of Hubert the magical skull and how powerless he was to escape this world and find peace. Feeling powerless, stuck, and with no way of knowing how to find peace; I drifted off to a troubled sleep.