Ch9: Porting at Prospect
After Jessica told her mother her plan of action, she came down to us with a face of pure grit and determination... along with some frustration that I already knew about. "She took it hard, huh?" I asked her as we proceeded out of Alexandria. "She said that she no longer has a daughter, but I don't care. She and I both know that she needs me more than I need her. She'll be extremely lonely if I'm not around to comfort her. It's happened before and it'll happen again," Jessica said firmly.
"Oi, guv? Wot d'ya say we git goin' after Dhoulmagus then?" Yangus asked when we finally got on our way down south. "I'm afraid that may be a little bit difficult, Yangus," I frowned as we finally came out of the forest to reveal that we were right by the oceanfront. "We're going to need a boat before we can get going after Dhoulmagus again." "I have an idea! We can go to Port Prospect and ask the boaters if we can go to the Southwestern Continent," Jessica smiled. "That's some mighty fine thinkin' there, Jessie," Stella smirked at the sorceress.
It was very difficult to do, but Stella and I had to refrain from mentioning anything relevant to the plot to Jessica. If we were to even think to her about the events that would happen in Arcadia and after we beat Dhoulmagus, we were sure to mess the plot up. So that's why, according to the little fairy, she had cast a mind chat prevention spell on her when we returned from our little 'expedition.' We also told this info to Medea, who also promised to keep quiet about anything she may have heard in our heads relating to the plot, especially towards Jessica's involvement. She didn't even try to question us about it.
"Jessie? I know that we're going to be traveling together, but can you please call me by my full name of Jessica? I don't much appreciate nicknames, you see," Jessica frowned as a Sea Urchin monster looked at us and waved its tentacles while approaching us. "Hold on there, friends!" it exclaimed before we headed into town. "What is it, Mr. Sea Urchin?" I asked the monster, wondering how the hell he could even talk with no mouth.
"Are you humans by chance heading across the ocean?" the Sea Urchin asked. "Um... yes... we were hoping to catch a boat ride there," Jessica said, still not used to talking to foreign monsters. "Be careful when you venture out... our master, Khalamari, is not his usual friendly self. He's been attacking any human ships that venture out too far into the sea, something he never did before. If you would be so kind as to release him from this rage, all us monsters of the sea will be indebted to you." "Of course we will. You have our word," I smiled at the Urchin as I let out my hand.
After a quick hand/tentacle shake between elf and monster, our group went through the small archway to enter the busy town of Port Prospect, King Trode along for the ride as usual and, just as we expected, all the citizens weren't throwing eyes of suspicion at us at all, not even towards Trode. My story was a huge success in this continent, but would it be the same for others? I could only hope.
We all followed Jessica through the town until we got to the ship area and Jessica started talking to the crew members about the problem. "We heard from the local gossip that you guys can't put out to sea because of a giant sea monster terrorizing the waves, right?" Jessica asked the man with the bull helmet. "W-Well yes, that's true, Miss Jessica, but why do I think that's not all to your question..." the sailor asked. "Because we need to get over to the Southern continent. And we were hoping that we could help defeat this monster on our own," I said with a smile on my face.
"Wait... elf ears? Oh, I know who you lot are now! Yer those travelers from Trodain ain't ya?" the bull helm guy asked, finally noticing that feature. "That's right, and we made a promise to someone that we'd defeat this monster and return him to his senses. So could you allow me to fight this beast so that we can head south across the ocean?" I asked. "Well of course! We 'eard you 'ave a way with monsters, so if anyone could do it, you could," the sailor spoke as he opened the way for us. "But, on no account should Jessica fight the beast. We don't want to 'ave the Albert family on our backs after all." "I can live with that," Jess smiled.
Once we finally made it out to sea, Trode, Medea, and Jessica not included, it only took a matter of seconds for the water to give way to the extremely large beast known as Khalamari. When he finally came out of the sea, I was a little surprised at his sheer size, but I knew exactly what I had to do to get him out of his funk. "Oogh! Humans again! Sailin' right over Khalamari's head!" the beast spoke with his gurgled voice again.
"Ooh yes, Tenty, sailin' right over me head! I think we should punish them by eatin' them up!" Khalamari spoke again. "Sorry, Khalamari, but we're not gonna be your sushi today," I smiled at him as Stella flew directly down and onto his face. My comment seemed to make him mad as he jumped out of the water and positioned his body towards our position at the back of the ship.
"No worries, blokes! I'll set his flapping head right quick!" Stella smiled as she had Yangus's hammer in her hands... I had to admit, for such a small thing, Stella was immeasurably strong! While Khalamari attempted to grab me with his left tentacle (and I managed to dodge it without so much as hurting him), Stella took the hammer and smashed Khalamari right in his noggin, right between the eyes.
After Stella did that amazing feat, Khalamari retreated into the water with a large lump on his forehead. "Oogh! Right on me noggin that was... please forgive ol' Khalamari!" he spoke afterwards. "It was that jester. He came walkin' cross the water and spoke to me. But after he did that, I lost all me senses! Please, take this for helping me out. I found it the other day, you see." Khalamari then flung us an item I never would've expected, the Gringham Whip, and followed it with a farewell as he returned to the sea.
"Awright! We done it! Let's 'ead back and get the others, ey, guv?" Yangus asked me. "You got it, big boy! Tell 'em to hoist anchor!" Stella exclaimed. "Hey! We just beat him! Raise the anchor and take us back to Port Prospect!" I exclaimed to the sailors. "You 'eard the elf! 'oist anchor and set sail back 'ome!" the sailor exclaimed (most likely he was the first mate) and we all headed back to pick up our allies and head for the Southern Continent.