All of us were terrified and confused, all our sails had been put to full canvas, and yet we were slowing, swiftly. Captain Gray saw us dragging behind, and slowed, and eventually stopped, waiting out this next wave of attack. On tha Pearl there were lots of screaming crew and running around feverishly. Julia was standing next to Anthony and Lanse, wondering what was happening. Then all of a sudden, three enormous jelly like white strings fell over the tops of the deck. In the air and out of the water they turned to mush, and stayed there. Lanse and I walked over to it.
"What in the name o everythin holy is that?" I asked, staring closely at it.
"That, be the stingers of one o them Jellyfish, don't get too close mind ye," Lanse answered. If one of us touched it, we'd be instantly turned into glass, and sunk to the bottom o the Atlantic. We had our answer as to why we were slowing, one of the Jellyfish had latched on to our keel, and was tryin to drag us down with him!
"Anthony, we gotta shake him loose, if not we'll be lost for sure!" Julia told me. But how? This Jellyfish was beneath the water. And they did not waste time in attacking.
A few of the jellyfish soared out of the water, the huge plume of water from their mushroom like top sent a wave creating a huge list, throwing all of us of our feet.
"EVERYONE TAKE COVER!" I ordered, and grabbed Lanse and Julia and ran under the stairs taking cover. The Jellyfish flew high in the air, fluttering their stingers and tops, and all of a sudden, in a blinding flash of green light, struck an unlucky person in front of us three. The three of us screamed in horror as the poor man was slowly turned into glass, and looked like an ice sculpture, frozen in his last movement. Then just as we all thought it was all over, he was magically thrown by the Jellyfish over the side, and with no splash at all, was sent to the bottom, shattering into oblivion.
"We must avoid these things! Ye gotta get back to the helm!"
AYE TRAIN THA GUNS FAR BELOW, MAN HER HARD A STARBOARD!" All of the port side guns exploded from stern to bow and the small clouds of gunpowder surrounded the deck. There was a shrieking scream coming from below, and we picked up speed a little.
"Captain! The Jelly is dying!" Lanse reported.
"AYE! AN WE GT PLENTY MORE TO DEAL WITH!" I laughed at that, and turned the wheel with one hand to the opposite direction, and the ship listed heavily to the other side. Julia was thrown off her feet again.
"Would you stop that! Geez enough already!"
"I'm sorry lassy, jus tryin to avoid tha flyin Jellyfish!" Out of the air, another huge jellyfish soared higher and higher, and zapped two other crewmen, and the flash was absolutely blinding. The columns of water poured all over the decks and the Jellyfish maintained their periodical glowing.
Captain Gray had been stopped for a second too long and more jelly fish jumped out of the water and surrounded his ship, disabling further movement.
"Anthony, Gray's ship has been trapped by the jellfish!"
"LOAD THE CANNONS AND COME ABOUT!" I ordered, and ran to the stern rail behind the captain's quarters, and watched as Gray's ship was now only shown by the immense glow of the huge flying jellyfish, striking many of his crew, and hopefully not himself.
"FASTER! WE CANNOT WAIT!" I desperately wanted to get there faster and help me matey.
When we finally were in range, all of the Jellyfish suddenly blew up, and fell to the water with a moaning crash of foam and spray. The resulting shockwave drenched us, flooding the decks, and throwing fish everywhere. Gray stood on top of his railing and held onto the falls holding the sails in place, and yelled over to us.
"DAMNED IS THE DAY I LET ME SELF GET TAKEN DOWN BY A JELLYFISH!" We all laughed at him, and we maneuvered our ships back on course, trying to take down the rest of the jellyfish. We fired our guns at every glowin mangy mushy jellyfish out there. The smell of the gunpowder in the air and the constant dead bodies falling into the seas, thank heavens the weather had calmed down. Only the waves that drenched us were from the dead jellyfish, that never seized to drench us. Finally the last jellyfish fell to the sea, and everyone cheered and clapped at it's screeching death. We had regained our speed, and the Caroline continued traveling.
"Well done Anthony, we did it!" Julia congratulated me.
"I couldn't have done it with out you two and Gray though, I don't really think that was all that hard anyway. I wonder if it was a diversion. Something to distract us from something he was tryin to do himself." I replied.
"That is interesting matey, wouldn't it make sense if Captain Redhook were trying to slow us down, he'd give us a long diversion to distract us from our journey?" Lanse agreed. Julia and I were suspicious, and we shared a look of worry and second guessing ourselves. Little did we know, that with each triumphant conquering of each of his armies, the Sea Witch was itching to have her one on one battle with the mighty and self righteous Black Pearl.
