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Pirate's Curse Chapter 3: Saliva Island part 2. Spittle Maze and a New Map.
Shantae was on the deck of Risky's ship, practicing with her keyblade, Risky had ordered to ever since she first seen that she could summon it again and Shantae's swordsmanship was rather poor.
"It's like watching a child swinging around a wooden sword. Put more strength behind the swing damnit!" Risky ordered.
"It's not my fault I never learned how to use a sword! I mostly used my hair and magic!" Shantae replied as she kept swinging at the practice dummy Risky set up.
"Whatever that blade is it's still a sword! You have to learn!" Risky sighed as she walked over and held out her hand. Shantae handed her the blade but as soon as it left Shantae's hand and entered hers it disappeared and reappeared back in the former half-genie's hand.
"It appears it does not like being taken away from you." The pirate woman said, intrigued by it's abilities.
"It keeps doing weird things! Just yesterday I used it to open up the palace gate. It shot out a small beam of light and poof, the gate was unlocked." Shantae exclaimed, confused about the blade herself.
"A magic Skeleton key and a sword. Is that thing a two trick weapon?" Risky asked, earning a shrug.
"I didn't even know it could be used as a key until I remembered that weird dream I had the night before I first summoned it." Shantae answered.
"What do you remember about the dream?" Risky asked.
"A strange stained glass platform, random questions, and a boy about my age, I don't fully remember what he looked like, but he told me to call upon the key when I need it." Shantae answered as best as she could.
"That boy must be connected to you somehow, did your conscience grow a conscience?" Risky joked as she then looked out and saw a dock. She drove the ship to the dock and let down the anchor.
"Well, this is the first of the forbidden Isles." She said as she walked down the boarding plank with Shantae.
"This is it, Saliva Island. Unless we can find another map, this is the end of the line." Risky explained to Shantae.
"I'm ready for anything!" The former half-genie said, now wearing a purple do-rag with a skull on it as well as a small belt on her thigh.
"Where did you get those?!" Risky asked, noticing that they were from her wardrobe.
"Below deck! There is all kinds of fun stuff to wear!" Shantae admitted. "Most of the clothes were much too roomy though..." she added.
"Stay away from my personal effects!" Risky said with a slight blush on her face.
"Gosh, I've never been so far from the mainland! It's pretty here." The purple haired keyblade wielder said.
"Don't be deceived! The Pirate Master draws power from this place." The pirate woman warned. "There is a den of evil hidden somewhere on this island. And you're going to find it!" She explained.
"What about you? You're not coming?" Shantae asked in surprise.
"Not this time." Risky answered.
"But I'm sure if we worked together..." Shantae was going to say before she was interrupted.
"I said no and I meant it! I have my reasons." Risky denied her a chance to continue speaking.
"Oh I see.. you're scared!" The former half-genie joked.
"HOW DARE YOU! I will gut you like a mackerel!" Risky retorted.
"Sheesh. Learn to take a joke." Shantae sighed.
"And get out of that silly outfit!" Risky said, wanting Shantae to give her back her accessories.
"Aww. You're no fun." The girl said, handing the pirate back the accessories. "Oh well, I'm Ret-2-go!" She exclaimed happily before she ran onto the island.
She fought through monster after monster, two frog creatures, 6 mermaids, and several crab monsters before she found an out-cove where an old man with a long beard like her uncle's, and wearing old sailor's clothing standing over a statue of a woman lying down on a bed made of a rectangular stone pedestal.
He was crying as Shantae approached. "Many years ago I came to this island with my beloved bride-to-be." He said, despite not having the conversation initiated with a proper greeting.
"Our only wish was to be joined in holy matrimony. But a horrible monster, a servant of the Pirate Master found us." He explained. "His gaze turned my beloved to stone. I can never leave her side." The man continued with a sigh.
"Here, Take this ring so that I can forget my sorrows." The man finished, tossing a ring into Shantae's hands before bidding her to leave him be with his petrified beloved.
She exited the out cove, climbed back up and soon found herself in an area with four somewhat buried statues with a stone that had a circular indent in it, the ring that the man gave her fit in the indent and suddenly the gems in each of the statue's foreheads glowed.
She didn't want to investigate them further just yet, so she headed forward, being greeted by the sight of two girls standing around what seemed to be a natural pool hole in the ground. On the wall beside the swimming hole was a large carving with dull symbols carved into it.
The taller of the two girls, who was wearing a cap, an orange scarf, a white T-shirt and a pair of ripped jean shorts that did little to cover her legs, and she was carrying a duffle bag.
"Hey girl! Cute get up." She greeted Shantae with a smile. "You here for Spring Break?" She asked.
"Huh?" Shantae was confused, not exactly following what was going on just yet.
"Us too. But look at this lame swimming hole. It's all dried up." The shorter girl sighed, she was wearing a pair of glasses, a blue bow, a white midriff bearing T-shirt and a pair of orange shorts that unlike the other girl's shorts, weren't ripped. She had a brown backpack with her.
"I can't sunbathe without a proper pool." The taller girl complained. "Pshh. This place is a total ripoff."
"If we can't swim, we might as well eat." The shorter girl sighed. "I'll get the ham set up." She said before she set up a fire and a spit roast with a large hunk of ham to cook.
Shantae let them be and went back to the clearing with the statues, she hit the gems on each of the statues and they raised out of the ground, revealing platforms she'd have to jump to and from. The statues each descended back into the ground after a differing amount of time.
After experimenting for a few minutes, she got a good pattern and hit the gems in that pattern, she then jumped her way up to a ledge, finding a path going up, filled with monsters. She summoned her keyblade and fought her way through killing another 2 cacklebats and collecting the dark magic, having to parkour her way to find a giant lizard. It was a giga lummox with a sign next to it.
"It's a giga lummox!" She exclaimed in wonder. "Wow, this thing's enormous." She added before she read the sign.
"Caution: Giga Lummox may become aroused by travelers smelling of ham." The sign read, and mere seconds later the smell of cooking ham floated up from the hole in the ground right in front of the lummox.
The lummox's eyes shot open and it opened it's eyes after a couple of blinks and a large amount of drool began flowing out of it's mouth like a waterfall, most likely down to the "swimming hole".
"Eww." Shantae said in disgust, before reluctantly dropping down the hole, landing safely in the "swimming hole" which was now filled with saliva, much to her disgust.
"Hey girl! You've got the water turned on!" The tall girl exclaimed happily. "Let's all hit the pool!"
"You said it, girlfriend!' The shorter girl said excitedly. Both of the girls took off their shirts and shorts, revealing swimsuits underneath their regular clothes.
Light bounced off of their porcelain fresh skin, creating beams of light which hit a carving above the symbols in the wall, causing each symbol to light up.
Shantae wrote down the symbols to give to the old man from earlier, seeing as the symbols belonged to a spell. Profusely weirded out she quickly got out of the hole full of lummox spit, dried off and left the two girls to their "Summer Break" activities.
She headed back to the man from earlier, greeting him with the written spell.
"You've found something?" He asked, taking the writing from her, easily recognizing it he gasped. "Could it be?"
"YOU'VE FOUND IT! The spell that turned my beloved to stone!" He exclaimed. "At long last I can finally reverse it's effects."
"Hush my beloved, whilst I speak the sacred words." He said before clearing his throat. "PETRIFY!" He said aloud, the spell petrifying him instead of releasing his beloved from the curse before Shantae could even stop him.
"Uhhh..." Shantae was dumbfounded by this, but before she could do anything the ground gave out from underneath the two formerly alive human statues, and they fell, revealing the entrance to the den of evil.
"Whoopsies." Shantae said, knowing full well that this will weigh deeply on her conscience. But.. as she dropped down into the den of evil, the only rubble she could find wasn't of the couple, it was just of the ground and the pedestal that the man's wife was lying on.
At least there was a chance that the statues somehow miraculously survived. Shantae didn't dwell on it much, she rushed into the labyrinth, cutting through monsters as she went.
Rushing through the labyrinth was actually a breeze, seeing as she could open locked doors with her keyblade instead of having to do stupid puzzles to find one use dungeon keys.
As she traveled through the labyrinth she did have to do several parkour jumps, but she was a pro at it and soon enough she found what looked to be Risky's flintlock pistol, which helped her through some puzzles she couldn't skip.
This maze was much easier than the other ones she had ever been in thanks to the keyblade. But she didn't really have time to thank it while she was fighting her way through horde after horde of monsters.
Soon enough she found herself in a large chamber, inside of it was a monster that consisted of a singular giant eye and a piranha plant socket.
The battle commenced and Shantae had to duck and weave her way around the room having to avoid it's lasers, she shot at it with the pistol, doing little damage to it as it started crying green slime, which were actually slime monsters it generated.
She had to deal crowd control, cutting through the slimes that were half of her height whilst also dodging more lasers. It took several minutes just to get it's plant-like socket to die off, leaving the eye without it's fixation point keeping it attached to the ceiling.
It began bouncing around the room with it's free will, Shantae barely managing to dodge every bounce, getting hit a couple times herself. It stopped bouncing occasionally to fire off more lasers, allowing the purple haired girl to get in a few hits.
The battle would only last 10 more minutes, leaving Shantae slightly exhausted from this. After the battle, on her way back to the surface she found a tinkerbat, scaring it off as it dropped what looked to be a new map, as well as the couple from earlier, safe and un-petrified.
Defeating the frighteningly fixated monster must have cured the two from the petrification curse. Nonetheless Shantae made her way back to Risky's ship.
"You certainly took your sweet time!" Risky complained.
"I found something, an evil dungeon and a giant monster and..." Shantae began explaining before she was interrupted again.
"Where did you get that pistol?" Risky asked, noticing her gun on Shantae's hip.
"I found it locked up in a chest, why?" The purple haired hero asked in reply.
"Nevermind, Anything else?" Risky changed subjects quickly.
"This Island Map, one of your tinkerbats dropped it." Shantae continued. "He wasn't transformed yet."
"Interesting, that suggests that the pirate master doesn't have enough dark magic to go around." Risky stated. "Which means we still have time to prevent his return." She deduced with a smile.
"Climb aboard, and go get a bath, you stink of saliva." The pirate woman ordered.
"Can we head to the mainland before we head to the next island, I don't want My uncle to assume that I'm not in my house like I'm supposed to be." Shantae asked.
"Sure, why not. Just get a bath as we head there." Risky sighed as she led Shantae to the bathroom she had on the ship.
The trip back to the mainland took about 2 hours, giving Shantae enough time for a bath and to get into a change of clothes, which matched her usual outfit.
When they got to the mainland, Shantae was surprised to see that the ammonian army was starting construction work. She walked through the town and when she got to the edge of town she was greeted by the sight of the royal guard that gave her the court summons.
"Shantae?" The guard asked.
"Yes?" She asked in reply.
"We have something to discuss with you at the palace. Please follow me." He said before leading her to the palace. Once they got into the palace they were standing in the hall just before the library. Another guard was present as was her Uncle.
"Perhaps you are aware that the Sultana is away on business." The second guard said. "As such. A formal inquiry into your recent actions is not possible."
"No?" Shantae asked in confusion.
"According to some very old..." the other guard began.
"And Legal!" Mimic added.
"...guidelines, responsibility falls to the royal Librarian." The guard said. "Because apparently he once served on the ruling council."
"For one day!" Mimic added again, slightly perturbed, but he was trying to help his niece out.
"He has deemed it inappropriate to cut 'winsome long hair'. Be it by scissors, jigsaw, or goat mouth." The guard said. "You're free to go." He admitted with a strangely accepting sigh before both guards left.
"Phew! That was close." Shantae sighed.
"Oh no! You're not getting off that easily." Her uncle retorted. "What's this I hear about you sneaking off to the library?" He asked.
"Oh, that. Errr." Shantae began before her uncle interrupted her.
"I explicitly told you to stay out of trouble, did I not?" Uncle mimic asked.
"Yes sir." The purple haired girl answered, looking at the floor sheepishly.
"Next time you might not be so lucky!" Mimic scolded in a caring manner.
"Uncle... I wanted to ask you.." Shantae began.
"Yes?" Mimic asked.
"Hmm.. umm.. nevermind." Shantae sighed, unsure of how to ask him about the tinkerbat he had in his lab.
"Alright. I'll be back at my workshop, in case you change your mind. I have a rather sensitive project that requires my immediate attention. Mimic said before he left back to Scuttle town.
Shantae gave a deep sigh as she then headed back to town, doing a bit more preparation shopping before she headed back to Risky's ship. The two set off for the next island, this one being called spiderweb island.
As Shantae slept through the night, the ship stopped in a safe location, she had another strange dream. In this dream she watched what appeared to be a memory, but it wasn't hers.
In this memory she watched from the point of view of who she could assume was the boy she saw in that dream two days ago. He summoned his own keyblade and with the instruction of a man with black hair and a scar on his cheek he performed a spell.
A small ball of fire, roughly the size of a pike ball, shot from the tip of his blade at a target. Waking up in the middle of the night Shantae went onto the deck of the ship, unknowingly being watched by Risky as she summoned her keyblade and pointed it out over the sea.
"FIRE!" Shantae exclaimed, feeling a surge of energy flow out of her, through her keyblade and out the tip of it. It didn't feel like much, and the puff of flame wasn't what she first saw in that dream.
But she kept trying, practicing for two hours before she finally released a plume of flame the exact size of a pike ball. She cheered for herself, she may not be able to use genie magic, but this was different.
Risky smirked in amusement from the shadows, whatever that blade was, it will no doubt be of use when it came to defeating the pirate master.
Chapter end.
