Chapter 12: Captain Veks

Enzi is still asleep when I woke up, but she moved closer to me during the middle of the night. The carpenter's bedroom doesn't have a window, but the cracks between his wooden walls pour in just enough light to let me know the sun is out.

Before I move even just a finger, I check to see if there's any way I'll stir her sleep. She's resting her fingers on my forearm, and her tail touches my leg. I flex my arm and she immediately lifts her head and peers around the room with a sleepy gaze.

"Huh? Star? Where is Enzi? Fight? We fight!?" Her domesticated pose of restful sleep is overstepped by her battle prowess. Her energy ruins my relaxed feeling as well, and I hop up with her. I step back when she draws her spear.

"No! No fighting! It's me! Calm down! Enzi! Hey! Stop!"

It's five seconds of watching her spin around while aiming her spear for a stab before she faces me and rubs her eyes. I can see reality coming to her when her pupils dart around the room and remember where she spent the night. She puts her spear away and stands up straight. Her arms raise above her head and she twists her hips for a long stretch. I can't stretch now, I'm too tense.

"Good morning to you too," I say.

"Enzi needs linen for forest. Feels great!"

Aiming for the door, I pass her and leave the room to see the carpenter's front door wide open. From here I can see the village is awake with people walking the land, but I don't see the carpenter or his sons. I step outside and hear Enzi following me close behind. Leaving the house, I see the carpenter just slightly off to the side with my boat sitting in the dirt. I can see his red eyes and bags, his hunched back barely supports him at this point.

"You found it," I say.

"Found it and fixed it. She's ready to sail. I'm lucky this is part of Hoaka's work, the man knows his stuff, but only because he learned from the best."

"The best?"

"Me."

"Small world, or islands, I guess. Let me pay you for all this," I reach into my satchel and find the bill roll while listening to the carpenter's protests and reminders of how he said he wouldn't charge me when he started. I take out a bill with a 50 on it and present it to him.

"For the Star Child, anything—"

"Then for me, a plain guy. A place to stay and food to eat, don't even worry about the boat. I'm paying for Enzi too, she's the real hero of this island. I've seen it for myself."

He shakes his head and looks to the ground, but he takes the bill and thanks me for it. "A hero?"

"The phantom isn't as superstitious as you think. Thanks to Enzi, it really is just a legend now."

"I'll have to take your word for it. Now it's my turn to get some sleep. Good luck, Star Child."

When I turn around to watch the carpenter retreat to his home, I'm startled from nearly touching noses with Enzi who stands right behind me. She peers around at the boat and gets closer, her hand rubbing on the frame of the hull. She hops in and touches the single small mast that holds the sail.

"Boat," she says.

"You've never seen one?"

"I've seen boat, not touched boat."

I round over to the front of the boat and see the rope the sons used to pull it back to the carpenter's shop. I grab one at the base of the knot and give it a strong tug. This thickness will support dragging it back to the water, though it won't be easy. I see Enzi's feet standing where the hole would be, and can sparsely tell that it was even there at all. The only note is the color of the wood used is a lighter brown than the rest of the hull.

I grab the rope fully and pull it taut. "Wanna help me drag this out to sea?"

Enzi hops off and picks up the other rope. She joins my side, her eyes bright and her smile wide, then she pulls it taut like me. "Star saved Broken Arrow. Now Star saves rest of world."

We pull hard, the boat dragging across the dirt with a coarse sound as it digs into twigs and roots. With Enzi pulling one side, it's not strenuous on my legs or shoulders, and the walk from the village to the closest shoreline is short. When we break through a tree line and find the entire ocean of Star Key a stone's throw away, we park the nose of the boat into the shallow sands, getting our feet wet as we stray further into the ocean.

I gather both ropes and wind them up to put them away into the tiny hull. Enzi stands watching both the waves and me. It's easy to tell what she's thinking, she never hides how she feels and never holds her tongue when she's got something on her mind. Her soft eyes and fidgeting teeth, her unenthusiastic tail lazily sways behind her.

I still have the spear Veks bought me holstered over my shoulder with the tiny sling. I take it off and hold it with two hands and present it to Enzi. She stares, looking down at the spear. "I want you to have this."

"But your stick. Enzi has stick."

"I can't make weapons like you, so you're gonna have to be okay with a store-bought gift. Thanks for your help."

"I help?" She takes it with weary hands, holding it just like I was. "I help you?"

"In a lot of ways."

"Lighter. Feels swift. Mine? Mine."

"Either use it to remember me, or throw it during hunts. You've got two now, there's not a real risk of losing a weapon."

She presses the shaft against her breasts. "Enzi never lose Star's stick. What if Star wants back? I keep."

I position myself behind the boat, but I only take up half a side. She gets the hint and joins me, her hands on the hull like a mirror to myself. We push, marking the sand with the bottom of the boat, and I hop in when it begins floating in deeper waters. I stand up to unfasten the sail, but I let it slack so I don't hit full speed.

"I'll be back one day! I promise!" I shout.

"Enzi waits, or Enzi finds!" She waves with a wide stroke of her arm, and from where I'm standing, I don't think there are tears this time. I sit down and watch her become smaller and smaller until it's difficult to tell if she's still standing there. Her brown fur meshes with the sand at some point, and I assume she can't see me either. I pull on the rope for the sail, making it taut and catching the wind.

The compass says I'm heading north, I steer to go west. I de-wrinkle the map that's been stuffed in my satchel and see what landmarks are going to help me identify where I'm at. Four more islands to look for as I'm aiming for Moonlit Reef. Sunkissed Isle, Warm Sands, Staar Beach, and Tri-Rock Ridge. If I can see Sunkissed Isle to my right, that means I'm going in a straight line.

The calm waters become rocky and rough the further away from Broken Arrow I get. I see the occasional shark fin break the water's surface. I hope they're as docile as all those animal shows portray them. Maybe thirty minutes of sailing passes with nothing in sight, I get worried thinking about being lost at sea. I check my arm and see the infection spreading further up. It might touch the pit of my elbow if another night passes.

Another thirty minutes maybe, an island is visible on my right. What do the sailors call it? Starboard or port? To my right is Sunkissed Isle. It's the only sign that tells me I haven't completely lost track of where I am. Warm Sands should be on my left when I go further west.

The tiller I hold constantly fights me with the waves. Keeping it in place can be draining if you do it for this long. My arm is getting tired, but I can always switch sides and use my left arm if it gets too unbearable. I do. Facing to the left is better anyway, I'll see Warm Sands easier. I can only pretend to know how much time passes, but I'll say another thirty minutes go on before I catch another island on the horizon. I check my compass to make sure I'm still pointing west. I am.

Sailing closer to the island, I can sort of see the outer side of it matching up to what the map says Warm Sands looks like. Staar Beach has to be next, and if I continue on this course, it should be right in the way of my path. I pass Warm Sands and take notice of the wildlife roaming around the shoreline. Pigs, birds, and rodents are all spaced out between each other. None of them choose to dart into the trees when they see me, they must not care about a boat in the water.

When I turn back to the waters, I'm blindsided to see a much bigger ship scurrying out of the island's camouflage. I watch from my humble dingy, but when it becomes clear that they're heading for me, I start to panic.

Pulling the rope harder doesn't make the sail any tauter, it carries the same wind as before. The massive ship easily catches up, and like driving back in the city at a stoplight, I pretend to not notice the others right beside me.

"Oi!" a voice says. Feminine with some gain, probably considered tough or considers herself tough.

"Oi!" she says again. I can feel that the ship is pretty close to me, but by measurements of the sea, not so close as to get a good look at my details.

"I know you can hear me!"

I turn and see the ship. The top deck is littered with sailors, most without a shirt. The strange detail for me is that every single member on the deck is a lizard.

"Pretty boy!" she says again. I can see which one said it, though she looks different wearing a big tricorn hat, the shade covers her eyes and makes her look mysterious.

"Oh no, not you!" I yell back.

"Oh yes, it's me! How in all the seas and sand did you get out of Captain Markhams' tomb!?"

I stand up in my tiny hull, nearly falling overboard. "You really thought a giant rock was good enough to kill me!?"

"Have you seen yourself!? I've picked my teeth with thicker toothpicks than your arms!"

"I don't have toothpick arms!"

She flexes her left arm, her tattered sleeve leaves plenty of biceps to see. Even from here, I can see the bulge of her muscle, and the lines that define it from the body fat. It's lean and powerful. I flex back and check for myself, my fur will cover any definition, but I can't come up with an excuse for the small size. She gives her arm a kiss and the sailors around her all start laughing at me, pointing too.

"Shut up! You can't see it with all the fur! You don't have that problem!" I yell.

"You're about to have another problem, Raccoon! We'll sink that piece of driftwood you call a boat and feed you to the sharks! Men, fire the cannons!"

I sit back down, grab the tiller and pull the rope. My speed doesn't increase. I check the sailors to see them all looking at each other, none of them rushing or moving. Veks's smile fades, she puts her hands on her hips and turns to face them.

"Hey! The cannons! Fire them! Come on!" she commands.

"Captain, we don't have cannons."

She points to something in the corner, something I can't see. It's covered by the railing. "Then why do we have all of these!?" I watch at least four sailors shrug. "Never mind! I'll do it myself." She bends down behind the railing and comes back with a giant black-iron cannonball lifted on her shoulder. "Hey, pretty boy, wanna play catch!?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" I turn the tiller to start sailing away from her. I look ahead and see what I think is an island in the distance, but from this far away, it could just be my eyes playing tricks on me. A huge splash on my left side completely soaks me, my clothes drape and my fur turns cold and chills my skin. "Hey!"

"Bath time!" she yells. The pirates all start laughing again. I've never been bullied at my old school before, but I imagine it's similar to this minus the possibility of death. She picks up another one and throws it with a single arm. It overshoots and splashes further to my right. She grabs another, this one lands right behind me.

"Can you slow down!? This is too hard!?" she yells.

"You're trying to kill me!"

"And you're making it very difficult! Be a gentleman and let a girl win!" She tosses another one, this one nearly takes the whole front of my boat. It splashes in front of me, and the backlash feels like a tsunami in my face. It goes up my nose and I taste the salt. I cough and sputter, wiping my face with the arm that still has a sleeve.

"Your aim sucks! You'd be terrible at Skee ball!"

"I don't know what throwing cannonballs have to do with skiing, but I know an insult when I hear one!" She loses her wicked smile when she searches for more cannonballs and comes back with none. She spreads her arms and shrugs at the crew, who all scratch their heads and shrug back.

"Out of ammo!?" I ask.

She looks back at me, her scowl could set my boat on fire. "Ram him!"

The ship pulls away from me, then turns back to aim its bow for my hull. If a ship that size hits me going that speed, it'll rip me clean in half. It gets close, I give the sail some slack and pull the tiller all the way to the left, dodging a head-on collision. I circle around them and keep heading west, the island ahead is definitely Staar Beach.

"He's too fast!" A sailor yells.

"What now?" another asks.

"Bring last night's ostentatious accommodations!" Veks says.

"What?" they ask.

"The trash from last night!"

A sailor ducks into the bottom of the helm and into a room. He comes back dragging a big black bag that clanks around with every shift of weight it makes. He brings it to Veks, she reaches inside and pulls out a brown bottle. I knew it was coming, but I'm still surprised to feel the wind of a thrown bottle fly by my face.

"That's littering!" I yell.

The sailors and Veks all reach into the bag and grab an assortment of garbage. Several bottles are thrown my way, and if it weren't for my forearm blocking my face, I'd be taking them to the head. One hits my fingers that are clenching the tiller, smashing them, and leaving me with stinging pain.

"Ow! Hey, you all better stop! Who eats half a banana?! What is this, rum!? Agh, that's my ear! Why so many bottles!?"

"We thought you died, there was a party!"

Staar Beach's eastern shoreline is nearly within docking distance. I can see several people walking on the sand, stopping to see the spectacle of a giant pirate ship picking on a canoe-sized dinghy.

Rotting skin of a tomato smacks me on the side of my mouth, its rancid juice sinks into my teeth and slathers my gums and tongue. I spit into the water, wipe my muzzle, and gag and whine. Veks laughs from her belly, sounding deeper than some of the men laughing along with her.

"This is totally worth the scurvy we'll get later!" she shouts.

I sail directly for the shoreline. If I smash my hull again, it should be easier to repair than if Veks smashes hers. She won't follow me to shallow water if she cares about her ship. I'm right, her ship steers away from me, but the trash keeps coming.

"Where are you going!? Can't you see this isn't over!? I got all this trash, what am I going to do with it!?"

"Recycle!" I yell.

The ship steers far away to where I can't hear them shouting anymore. They're circling the island. I give slack to my sail and slow down as my hull scrapes against the sand of the shoreline. The people don't take their eyes off me, whatever it was they were doing has stopped in favor of staring at me, their hands covering their mouths or their slack jaw, and tilted heads.

I tie down the sail to the mast, then I pull a stake out and place it in the sand, take one of the hauling ropes, and wrap it around the stake. I wash with ocean water, getting out the banana stain on my shirt and the tomato juice on my face, and the sticky rum on my fingers. I turn to the crowd and lift my left arm, they'll know the infection.

"Staar Beach?" I ask.

They nod without a word, and some even walk away. It might not be a warm welcome, but at least I'm away from that crazy lady.