Barbosa was about to return to his ship right next to us, but Lanse stopped him. He and Anthony had already talkd about asking Barbosa to help us find Gray.

"Captain Barbosa, we need your help. One of me friends is lost, we haven's seen him in days, and he has no idea where to go." Lanse asked him. Barbosa stopped in his tracks and turned around to face us.

"Does hesail a white ship? An have an owl onboard fer ssendin messages?" Barbosa asked, thinking back about his journey to find us.

"Yes that be him! Where did ya see him?" I asked, hoping his next answer would be good.

"Last I saw him, he was ridin the waves as good as a rock." We all gave confused looks. "Means he may be sunk. But seein as ye all arr so close, I will help ya find him. But don't get yer hopes up, we could not even find him." Barbosa walked across the deck and went back to his own ship, and waited for us to make a move so as he could follow. We were still repairing our ship though. And when all of it was done hours later when the sun started rising, I remembered that our rudder was still jammed. I did not want to put a girl in these troubled waters, and thought that Lanse could handle himself pretty well.

"Lanse, when we be fightin the Sea Witch, one of them cannons struck and jammed our rudder, think ye can go down and fix it?"

"Aye, not to worry mate, I'll have that rudder workin in no time!"

I stepped closer to him and gave him a hug and whispered to him,

"Be careful matey, these waters be as black as sin. There's no telling what might be down there with you,"

"Don't you worry Anthony, I will be down take a look and be back before ye can say Atlantis!" Lanse took his big jacket off so he would be able to swim better, and then dived off the back of the bridge, into the freezing cold dark gloomy Atlantic, and searched for the rudder. After a short while, he found it, and saw no signs of damage or anything.

He decided he had to go under, and take a look at the lower half, thinking the cannon may have struck from a high angle, and he was right. Wedged in between both sides of the rudder, were cannons embedded deep into the hull, pinning the rudder in place. He went to the surface and thought about it. Would water start rushing in if he removed the cannons? And then it dawned on him, no, the steering gear is separate from the hull, and designed to be filled with water, without the rudder being exposed through an opening in the hull, how would it turn? SO he went back down, and took a closer look.

Meanwhile, Anthony was pacing back and forth, worried about Lanse, it was starting to feel like a loong time now.

"Anthony, he's a pirate too, don't worry about him. He's got it," Julia told me. She was a little worried too, looking at my pegleg, and remembering how it got here. But she wasn't so worried that she was thinking he may not come back, like Anthony was. And it's not that he didn't have faith in him, just that as a close friend, he didn't like putting him in direct danger.

Back down below where Lanse was, something creepy began.

Lanse was trying with all his might to pull the cannons out, but then something brushed against his leg. Thinking it was probably nothing more than a fish, he continued, and then there was another brush this time two, on his back. Horribly afraid of what he might see, he slowly turned around, and floating absolutely still was an enormous 20 foot long squid, it's tentacles flowing around making it hover in the water. Any sudden movement would set this foe off, and he'd be doomed. SO Lanse slowly pulled out his sword, and then charged forward. HE and the squid wrestled under the Black Pearl for a while, and then Lanse needed air, badly. He tried swimming up towards the surface, but the squid was pulling him down, grabbing onto his foot.

"Ok, Im going down there, something's not right, ye have tha helm lassy!" I left my jacket on the deck and dived down below to find Lanse. The water was freezing cold and I had to re surface to get more air, and when I went back under, Lanse had his eyes closed and was being pulled down by the huge squid. I grabbed Lanse's sword and attacked the squid trying to cut him free, but the squid swam away blocking my swings. I swung at him again and cut of a few tentacles. The monster screamed in pain and sprayed ink out in defense. This ink was different that normal though. It hit Lanse's hand and it immediately turned into glass, and then broke off. Blood started flowing from his arm and I was worried that it might attract sharks. Irritated and now furious that this stupid squid was hurting my best friend, so I swung repeatedly with all my might cutting the squid into bite size pieces and setting Lanse free. I was running low on air, and felt something hit my back. I grabbed Lanse and held him tight in my arms so he wouldn't fall or drop or anything, and swam really hard to get back to the Pearl When I surfaced, I was about 20 feet away from the Pearl.

"JULIA! THROW ME A LINE!" I yelled out to her asking for help so she could bring us back onboard, Lanse was in trouble and another fin hit my leg, it was the sharks, they smelled the blood and they lusted for it.

"JULIA NOW!" All of a sudden large wrope landed just a few feet away from me, and I could hear Julia screaming in the distance,

"ANTHONY DON'T STOP SWIMMING THERE'S A SHARK RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" She could see the 4 foot dorsal fin out of the water, and was horrified. I swam as hard as I could and finally grabbed the line, and Julia felt it. She started pulling trying to bring us back onboard but needed help.

"Your Captain and first mate are down there and sharks are coming, HELP ME HEAVE THEM ABOARD RIGHT NOW MATEY!" She rdered five of the crewmen to help her and Me and Lanse were finally raised out of the water. The Shark reached where I was and bit my boot off, and I kicked him in the head with me peg leg.

"TRY AN CATCH ME AGAIN I DARE YA!" I taunted the beast. Julia pulled me up on the deck and I dropped Lanse on the deck in front of Julia blood filling the wood again.

"He be in need of a doctor, right now lassy go!" I was worried about Lanse, and he was breathing, but very slowly, and still wasn't conscious yet. Julia came back with the doctor and I grabbed my jacket from the deck near the wheel, and tied it around his arm to stop the bleeding, which helped but he had already grown very pale from blood loss.

Julia was crying and stressing, and I was startin to tear up me self, this adventure had come at the sacrifice of so much pain and misery, we wer wonderin if now it be worth it. We still had not seen or heard from Captain Gray, and now with Lanse unconscious, didn't feel anything but sorrow for the possibility of loosin two of our brothers. Julia and I followed the doctor to sick bay and I stayed by Lanse every minute waitin fer him ta wake again.

"He's lost a lot of blood, but he be sleepin now. Jus give him time Cap'n, he should be wakin soon." The doctor assured us. Julia and I cried, we wer only teenagers and while the prospect of finding Atlantis was amazing, it wasn't worth the loss of our family like friends. We knew we also couldn't go back either, and so agreed that when Lanse was awake again, we would go and find Gray. Just then, there was a high pitched screeching sound a feathers flapping and fluttering. The tawny messenger owl had returned.