As soon as Viney informed Captain Salty of what Puddles had told her, he became quite furious and instantly gathered the entire crew, who immediately lined up in front of him. Luz, Masha and Vee, intimidated by the captain's authoritative voice, also joined the others and remained there with their backs straight and their gaze fixed towards the horizon. Even Willow and Gus, while still remaining on Luz's shoulder, had followed suit and seemed to be waiting for orders. "Listen to me! Apparently there is someone in this part of the ocean who still thinks they can come and plunder our sea without paying the toll!" Salty said in a booming voice. "The pirate law is clear: if you go raiding someone else's territory, then you must be ready to face him! Therefore, now we will teach this bunch of rowdies who is in charge here!"

The sailors cheered, but they did so only for a second because then their captain's glare let them know he wasn't done yet. "According to our faithful scout..." Salty continued, pointing to Puddles, who puffed out his chest proudly. "... our adversaries are part of the Brotherhood of Demon Hunters. Yes, those fanatical imbeciles who go around the sea to hunt rare beasts to resell them on the black market, and who in the meantime loot and burn everything they find in their path. We already punched them once if you remember correctly, but apparently the lesson wasn't learned in, so we'll give them another beating! First officer!"

"Yes, my captain!" Viney exclaimed as she stepped forward.

"Your turn. Illustrate the plan of attack" Salty ordered, taking a step back, as if wanting to leave her in command.

"As you wish!" Viney replied with a strange heat in her voice. She seemed incredibly excited about the impending boarding. "According to Puddles, there are at least eight demon hunters on the ship, all of them armed to the teeth. Theirs is a simple sailing ship, nothing comparable to ours; we could smash them with our iron hull... but then where's the fun in it?"

The pirates chuckled in amusement; strangely, none of them seemed to object to Viney's words. "Here's what we'll do" she continued. "Jerbo, you will stand at the helm and take us between them and the merchant ship they are plundering; from there we will bombard them with cannon and destroy their rudder and sails, so they will not be able to escape. Then we will jump on their ship and we'll start the boarding! We'll jump on them, punch them twice, take whatever they have on board, punch them a few more times for good measure, and then sink them! Oh, and as for that merchant ship... since we technically saved those sailors, I assume they'll be happy to reward us with at least fifty percent of what they have on board. And if they don't... we'll take that otherwise!"

The pirates cheered with satisfaction. "Yay! I hope they have a well-stocked hold, because I definitely need to eat something other than sperm whale blubber!" Barcus barked happily.

"Don't worry. According to Puddles, the merchant ship that those pathetic demon hunters are attacking is carrying an immense quantity of sugar, beets, salads, salt, pepper and all kinds of vegetables and spices!" Viney answered him.

"Yes! We're having carrot cake tonight, guys!" Jerbo cheered triumphantly, and the whole crew followed suit.

Then Captain Salty stepped forward and looked at Luz, Masha and Vee. "It's time for you three to earn that ride to Bonesborough"

"Wait, wait, wait! You don't want us to fight, I hope! I don't even know how to hold a sword!" Luz exclaimed in a cold sweat. Masha had some experience with weapons having been the leader of a resistance, and Vee being a shape-shifting basilisk could potentially defend herself quite well, but she had literally nothing with which she could hope to protect herself.

"Tsk! Do you think I would send you to fight, shrimp? I need warriors here, not kittens!" Salty grumbled, looking straight into her eyes, and Luz cringed under that fiery gaze. "Don't worry, I certainly won't throw you into the fray, but you will still have to do your part! You, basilisk, how much can you lift?"

Feeling called out, Vee's voice trembled slightly. "Um... I can transform into any person as long as I don't exceed my body mass... so... I'm guessing about the same as a veteran fighter..."

"Mph! That's enough for me. You'll have to take care of the ram!" Salty said, pointing to some long boards that ended in iron hooks. "All you have to do is stretch them over the deck of the ship and hook them onto the other, so our men will have a way to attack. You, raven girl: you seem to have good aim, so you will give your girlfriend a hand using the harpoons. As for you, wooden girl..." Luz felt Salty's fearful gaze on her again. "Tsk. Looking at you, you're about as useful as a mosquito net below deck. Even though you're made of wood, I bet you'd snap like a toothpick if I gave you something strenuous to do. Therefore, you'll be at the cannons"

Although she was happy not to have to disembowel anyone or at least not have to fight on the front lines, Luz was still sweating as if she were in a sauna. "But... but I've never fired a cannon!"

"What is there to learn? You just have to aim, light the fuse, and BOOM! And remember to take cover afterwards, or you'll get hit by shrapnel!" Salty exclaimed. "Now hurry up and get to the cannons now!"

"Y-Yes, captain!" Luz responded by swallowing copiously and immediately running to the lower floor of the ship, where there were at least five cannons arranged in a row in front of already open portholes. As soon as she was there she turned to Willow and Gus: "What do I do now? I can't do this!"

"Luz, I'm pretty sure if you fail that captain will throw you overboard... so I'm afraid you have to do that" Gus pointed out.

Willow tried to be more gentle: "Luz, you heard Viney, you just have to hit the rudder and the hull, they'll take care of the rest. You won't take any risks and above all you won't hurt anyone"

"But I don't even know how to light a fuse! And look at me, I'm made of wood, I'd catch fire!" the puppet protested.

"Luz, you certainly won't catch fire with a single flame. Even if you accidentally touch it, you'll be able to put it out well before it spreads over your body" Willow reassured her. "And all you need to light the fuse is a match"

Luz found no other arguments. She absolutely didn't want to participate in a pirate boarding, and she would have much preferred to remain hidden in the hold until it was all over, but unfortunately her friends were right: if she hadn't done as Captain Salty told her she would have ended up as a meal to the fish. That strange cross of a human and a lobster didn't seem too bad, but he was still a pirate and she was pretty sure he didn't tolerate anyone who didn't obey his orders.

The ship traveled rapidly in the direction indicated by Puddles; even though Jerbo's steam engine wasn't working (as usual), they still had favorable winds, which meant they could sail to their destination without any trouble. Very soon two other ships appeared on the horizon; one of it was a large merchant ship which clearly showed damage undoubtedly due to cannonballs, while the other was a smaller ship but decidedly better armed as it was covered in spurs and spines. The other pirates sometimes noticed their arrival and began to bombard them with cannons. Luz couldn't see what was happening but she could clearly feel it, and she had the urge to curl up on the ground. "Okay, okay, you can do it" she repeated softly to herself. "You've almost been burned alive, you've survived assassins, you've even faced a greater basilisk! You can do this thing!"

With all the courage she could muster she took a match and lit the fuse of one of the cannons, trying to aim as best she could despite the small portholes greatly reducing her vision, and aimed at the hull. An instant before the shot went off Willow and Gus jammed into her ears. "Hey, what are you..." she tried to say, but immediately afterward the cannon fired with an immense boom, so violent that Luz clearly felt her wooden body vibrate from the sound wave. If she hadn't had her friends covering her ears, she would surely have started bleeding even if she had no actual blood. "Ugh… thanks, guys"

"Sorry, we didn't think that we should warn you" Willow said emerging from her ear. "When we realized that you didn't know to cover your ears it was already too late, so we acted instinctively"

"Yeah. And for the record, washing your ears every now and then wouldn't hurt you" Gus muttered as he emerged as well. "Here's still the salt that got into you when Viney sent you into the water!"

"Hey! I haven't really had a chance to shower lately, in case you haven't noticed! And I remind you that you encouraged Viney to throw me in the water!" Luz replied with some irritation in her voice, then she quickly set about lighting all the other cannons. Luckily she didn't have a bad aim and managed to hit the rudder as she was told, although she only partially damaged it. "Ok, one more shot and it will be done! But... the cannons are finished now, what should I shoot with?"

"It seems obvious to me: you have to reload them" Willow replied pointing to some cannonballs stacked in the corner of the room.

Luz swallowed. "Those? But they surely are very heavy! You know that I don't like to work hard. I've already worked too much today"

Willow gave her an annoyed look. "Luz, this is not the time for tantrums! In life you have to struggle sometimes. Either this, or go to the hold and get salt and pepper, so the sharks can season you well when the captain will offer you to them as an aperitif!"

The threat was convincing enough, so Luz grabbed one of the cannonballs and with extreme effort she lifted it; she carried it to the nearest cannon and stuck it in the mouth, and then set it on fire by hitting the enemy ship's rudder again, this time causing considerable damage that would have prevented any maneuver. Luz sank to the floor, her hands and arms feeling like lead, and she heard Captain Salty's voice boom throughout the ship: "The demon hunters can't escape anymore! Good job, shrimp! You shoot well, ha ha!"

"Well, at least he seems satisfied" the puppet sighed. It looked like she wouldn't be thrown to the fish that day.

The plan went exactly as Viney had described it: as soon as they were close enough to the enemy ship, Masha threw the harpoons and Vee put the rams in position, and all the pirates threw themselves at the demon hunters. The battle thus began. The demon hunters were a group of pirates with skin turned green by too much salt and very ugly facial features due to the continuous battles they had fought which had filled them with scars; their leader was a large man with yellow and red eyes, or rather with a single yellow and red eye, since the other was covered by a black bandage, and he had a disproportionately large jaw from which two menacing sharp teeth emerged. "You pathetic excuse of pirates! Do you think you can approach us like this!?" he roared.

"You are the ones who had the audacity to return to our territory" Salty replied, approaching him with his sword already drawn. "I think I'll take your other eye. I hope you can sail a ship even when you're blind!"

The two captains immediately began to fight, but an instant before they did, the leader of the demon hunters had time to make a sign to another, who nodded in response and without being seen threw himself into the sea; as the battle raged he swam to Salty's ship and climbed onto the hull using his claw-like nails. The demon hunter in question had even greener skin than his captain, a trait probably due to the excessive amount of algae he loved to eat; he was also almost completely toothless, except for two teeth protruding from his jaw, and was also bald and had an exaggeratedly large chin. As soon as he got high enough, he broke through the ship's wood and entered the gun room. Luz let out a little squeal when she saw him. "Who are you!?"

The demon hunter looked quite confused to see her. "Huh? As far as I know, all of Captain Salty's sailors are hotheads and so they all go into battle together. How come you stayed behind? Wait... you're a rookie, right? Yeah, everyone could understand that you never have not even a small knife in your hand. What's your name?"

Luz gritted her teeth in fear and her eyes traveled very quickly across the room looking for something she could use to defend herself, but she found nothing. In the end she decided to try to ask for help, so with a deliberately very loud voice to be heard as far away as possible she answered: "My name is Luz Noceda, and I'm here because I'm in charge of the cannons. And you instead, invading pirate against whom I can't do anything and I URGENTLY NEED A HAND against, who are you and why are you here?"

"My name's Tom, and I'm here to turn those cannons around and fire them at your own ship from the inside, so we can have a nice bonfire. So, now I should give you the whole spiel about how I'll spare you if you join us you will save your life, but personally I prefer the simple solution" the demon hunter responded by grabbing her by the collar and dragging her towards the opening he had just created to throw her into the sea.

"Oh oh... I see..." Luz was starting to shake. "So this is your plan... YOU WANT TO MAKE THE SHIP EXPLODE FROM THE INSIDE... USING THE CANNONS THAT ARE HERE IN THIS ROOM... AND YOU ARE GOING TO THROW ME INTO THE SEA... AND NOW I URGENTLY NEED SOMEONE MAY HE COME AND SAVE ME!"

"Wow, you're weird. Is it a puppet thing to repeat things out loud and even shout?" Tom muttered, then he held her out over the sea. "I hope you enjoy the company of fish. It was nice meeting you!"

"Wait!" Gus appeared from Luz's pocket and jumped onto the demon hunter's arm hoping to scare him, but he didn't bat an eyelid. Not knowing what else to do, the spider tried to appeal to the moral side: "Is this really what you want? Throwing a poor defenseless girl into the middle of the sea? Was this your childhood dream?"

"Yes! I've always wanted to do this, ever since I was little!" Tom replied smiling as if he had just received a gift. Noticing Luz and Gus's confused looks, he made an annoyed noise. "I was a weird kid, okay? Now get out of my way!"

And with that he kicked Luz and threw her down with Gus; the puppet screamed, expecting to crash into the water, but fortunately something large and viscous wrapped itself around her waist and held her suspended in mid-air. She looked up and saw that Vee had transformed one of her arms into a very long tentacle to save her, even though to do so she had to almost make the other arm disappear to compensate for the loss of body mass. "Thank you! You saved me!" Luz thanked her. "Did you hear me scream?"

"Yes... and then Willow warned me" Vee replied starting to pull her up, but Tom didn't seem willing to give up. "Tsk! Never mind, I just need to cut the tentacle and... OUCH! What the... OUCH! Who's hitting me!?"

After warning Vee, Willow immediately went back and as soon as she saw the pirate take out a knife to cut the tentacle, she didn't hesitate and started punching him in the eyes. She had to admit she was starting to enjoy beating evil people... maybe she should train for it. However, she was not alone, because soon after Masha burst in with a large cutlass in their hand and began dueling against the pirate. Unfortunately, Tom, despite being a simpleton, was certainly not a pushover, and was forged by years and years of piracy, consequently it didn't take him long to counteract the combined efforts of Masha and Willow and even reject them. Vee meanwhile managed to pull Luz back onto the ship, albeit with some difficulty, and then transformed into a large gecko and so went down to the gun room. "Are you fine?" she askef.

"Yeah, I'm just a little shaken" Luz replied, then she looked at Tom. "We have to stop him from turning on the cannons or he'll blow up the ship. Listen, could you drain his life energy like you did with the greater basilisk?"

"Yes, but I need someone to hold him down" Vee replied. "If only we had a rope or..."

"ARE YOU STUPID OR WHAT!?" Luz exclaimed, now at the limit of exasperation. "You can shapeshift, remember? Transform into a python or an anaconda, or use tentacles again!"

"Uh... right" Vee admitted blushing for not having thought of it herself. Her body shook and in her place a long green snake appeared and moved towards Tom; taking advantage of the fact that Masha and Willow were distracting him she wrapped herself around his legs making him lose his balance. Vee opened her mouth and prepared to draw life energy from the pirate, but Tom was faster: "Don't think you can win like this! I didn't come this far to give up in front of insects and a snake!" and with that he stuck a knife in Vee's side.

"SISTER!" Luz screamed as soon as she saw that scene. Her body moved on its own and ran towards the pirate, and then she delivered a powerful kick to his face. Due to the blow Tom let go of the knife which therefore didn't go too deep, and Vee took the opportunity to open her mouth wide and suck the energy away from him, making him fall to the ground unconscious. She then resumed her usual appearance, but there was now a stab wound on her side. "Vee! Oh, dear!" was what Luz, Masha, Willow and Gus exclaimed in unison, but the basilisk motioned for them to calm down. "It's okay! Look, I just have to do this" and as she spoke her wound healed completely.

Luz's eyes widened. "Wow… how did you do that?"

"I used the energy that I have just absorbed to transferred some of my body mass into the wound to reconstruct the cut part. See?" Vee responded by pointing to one of her fins which had indeed shrunk slightly in size. "Nothing too difficult, I've done it before... hey!"

Masha had grabbed her and held her close. "Thank goodness, you didn't hurt yourself. For a moment I feared..."

"Hey, hey, hey! Calm down, you won't get rid of me that easily!" Vee responded with a giggle, feeling her heart quicken at having Masha so close. Then, probably due to all the adrenaline she had accumulated in the last five minutes, she acted without thinking and planted a kiss on their lips. Masha was dumbfounded for a moment, and when Vee realized what she had just done she pulled back and took on the expression of someone who had just received a stick on the head. "I-I'm sorry... sorry, I acted without..."

Masha didn't give her time to finish and kissed her back, and this time it was a very intense kiss. Vee looked like she was about to faint, but then her body finally relaxed and she seemed to fully enjoy what was happening. "Um… technically…that was my first kiss" Vee said awkwardly as their lips parted. "I'm not sure how much you liked it..."

"It was perfect" Masha reassured her. "As soon as the battle is over I'll drag you into a corner and kiss you until your lips go numb"

Vee became redder than ever (or in her case greener than ever). Luz smiled warmly when she saw that scene. "It's about time you guys got busy too!" she said giving Vee a powerful pat on the shoulder. "Hurry up and continue, I want a lot of basilisk nephews!"

"What!?" Masha turned redder than Vee, but then their eyes narrowed. "Wait... I already fell for it once. Luz, do you know how babies are born?"

Luz shrugged. "Human children don't. I know that basilisks hatch from eggs and that puppets like me are carved, but otherwise I don't know anything"

Masha breathed a sigh of relief. Who knows why, they weren't surprised at all. "Sooner or later I will have to tell you the story of the bee and the flower" they said. "But another day. Today I have already experienced enough emotions"

"I don't know what you're talking about, but it's okay" Vee replied, agreeing that it had actually already been a pretty eventful day. Then she looked at Luz with a smile. "Thank you, sister. Once again you have intervened to save me"

Luz scratched her head. It wasn't the first time Vee had thanked her, but for some reason she couldn't explain, that time it particularly warmed her heart. "I didn't do much in the end" she said simply, not knowing what else to say.

Sooner or later someone will explain to Luz and Vee how to make babies. Sooner or later.