Raising the S.S DreamChaser [Ch. 16]

S.S DreamChaser

Three Days Ago

"What'd you do to my friend?" Robert asked.

"Oh you mean the witch?" Selma asked, "that doesn't concern you."

As Robert continued inching backwards, it was becoming apparent that he wasn't getting any further away from Selma than he had originally thought he was. The only light around was from the lighting shining down through the hatchway. Robert turned around to look back at the hatchway. He was getting close. But then, appearing out from the darkness, two more Sirens appeared, blocking the only way to escape.

"Ah, ah, ah," Selma said, "where do you think you're going?"

The water was catching up to him. This deck was flooding fast. Faster than he had thought it was. The damage to the ship must be catastrophic enough to seal her fate. Down she goes. The two accompanying Sirens grabbed his arms, pulling him back up onto his feet. But they didn't let go of him. They were holding him against his will. Unable to free himself, unable to escape.

"What are you going to do to us?" Robert asked.

Trench Kingdom, Sirens' Cove

Dusk

"Remind me again," Selma said as she sat on a small rock, looking over at Robert and Elena. Their hands were cuffed and chained. The chains holding them captive and preventing them from escaping, were hanging down from the ceiling of the cave. "What was it you asked me the other night? I can't seem to remember."

The cave they were being chained up in was dimly lit by a single teal-colored sea lantern. Selma's hands were resting on her tail. She sat straight up with perfect posture. Her tail fin was lying flat on the stone floor.

Robert held his head up so he could look over at Selma. When he made eye contact with her he silently stared at her. She stared back over at him. Her creepy yellow eyes weren't intimidating to Robert once so ever.

Selma had long, red hair. Her tail was a bright violet color, with a mix of yellow here and there. The tips of her tail fin were yellow.

"You don't scare me," Robert said, "my friends are coming. When they do, you and your friends will be defeated."

Selma gasped sarcastically. She covered her mouth with her hands to make it appear as though she was frightened by Robert's response. But she wasn't. Not even a little bit.

"That won't be happening anytime soon," Selma responded.

Robert tilted his head slightly and squinted his eyes. "Why's that? What have you done to them?" He asked in a semi-loud shouting voice. Robert moved his arms around, expressing that he was uneasy about what Selma had said.

When Selma noticed this, she smiled evilly. She now had his attention, meaning he and Elena both will do whatever she wants them to do for more information.

"Oh you know," she began to say, "the occasional "going in for the final blow" kind of thing. If you know what I'm referring to that is," she continued as she chuckled.

"She killed them, Cerci!" Elena shouted as she quickly stopped herself from saying anything more. Selma glanced over at Elena and then over at Robert, aka Cerci. "Do something! Use your powers. Why are you acting like this? Stop hiding!"

"Cerci?" Selma questioned, "as in one of the Gods of the OverWorld, huh?"

Robert quickly turned his head and stared over at Selma. He shook his head frantically, denying the whole being a God thing. He was indeed a god, but didn't want the Sirens finding out his true identity. So what did he do? He turned back into his counter-form—also known as Robert; a village sheriff. Before he went after to help Elena below deck on the DreamChaser, he turned back into his counter-form Robert to disguise his true identity from the Sirens. Let's just say the Gods and Goddesses of the OverWorld don't have a well off relationship. Ever since the Gods and Goddesses birthed the OverWorld, they created the Sirens. For every hero, there must be a villain right? In this case, MineLantis was a heroic Kingdom while the Sirens were the villains and enemy to MineLantis. To put it more simply, balance.

"No, no. That's not my name," Robert responded.

Selma got up off of the rock she was sitting on and slithered on over to Robert. She got uncomfortably close to him, sniffing the air around him. Once she stopped sniffing him, she got extremely close to his face. She opened her mouth, revealing to him her sharp and pointy teeth and her long tongue. Robert backed his head away from her as far as he could. But she leaned forward, opening her mouth again. She stuck her tongue out at him and hissed.

"Liar!" Selma said as she hissed at him once more, "I know what a God smells like. You're one of them. You reek like one. Stop hiding; like Elena told you to do."

Elena watched Selma make Robert uncomfortable. "Don't listen to her! He told you he isn't a—," Elena said as Selma quickly slithered on over to Elena. Elena froze as Selma got up close and personal with her.

"You're both liars!" Selma yelled as she hissed right in Elena's face.

"You don't scare me!" Elena said.

"Good," Selma said as she exhaled. When she did, a green cloud of smoke came out of her mouth. Selma blew the smoke-like mist over into Elena's face. When she inhaled the smoke, her head suddenly dropped down. A second ago, she was awake. But now, she was unconscious; asleep in other words.

Selma turned around to look back over at Robert. "So much quieter in here when she's asleep," Selma mentioned as she clapped her hands together once. "Now, where were we?"

"I'm not who you think I am," Robert said, "I'm just like her. I'm not a God, or a Wizard. I'm just a—," he said as Selma began mocking him.

"I'm not a god or a Wizard," Selma said as she mocked what Robert had said, "Blah, blah, blah. Don't care! You know what I just remembered?"

Robert rolled his eyes. "What? That you're a filthy, evil bottom feeder? I kinda knew that already!"

Selma hissed viciously. She swung her arm at him. Before her hand hit the side of his face, sharp claws grew out of her hands. She struck the side of Robert's face, leaving him with scratch marks on his right cheek.

"How dare you insult me and my sisters like that!" Selma yelled loudly, her voice echoing throughout the cave. She hissed at him once more.

"I'm not afraid of you," Robert stated.

"Because you're a God?" Selma questioned.

Robert shook his head. "No I'm not!"

"Yes you are!" Selma said.

"Nope. Not a God," Robert responded.

"Then what are you afraid of?" Selma asked.

"Nothing!" Robert shouted, beginning to grow frustrated that Selma wasn't getting the point he was trying to make. "Sheesh! Who knew Sirens were so dumb!"

Selma hissed and growled at Robert. She was fed up with him insulting her and her sisters. Enough was enough. She swung her arm again, but didn't hit him in the face. Instead, she clawed at the chains keeping him locked up. Tiny sparks rained down onto Robert's head. Luckily, his hair didn't catch fire. The chains broke, allowing Robert to put his arms down to his sides once again.

This was it, Robert thought, I'm finally free. I can escape. Wait. Can I? How many of these stupid things are out there? Can I be recaptured? Should I reveal my true self to these bottomfeeders? Should I even bother trying? Robert continued to think mentally to himself.

"How's that face of yours holding up, Cerci?" Selma asked as she grabbed Robert's left arm, holding it tightly within her grasp. When he refused to cooperate and go wherever she was going, she yanked and tugged on his arm.

Robert turned his head and looked over at Selma. "This is the final time I'm telling you this, I am NO GOD! You must have me mistaken for someone else."

"I don't," Selma responded.

"Whatever!" Robert said, "and don't call me Cerci. That's not my name," he reminded her.

She looked back over at him, giving him one final staredown from head to toe, scoffing thereafter. "You reek like a God. I can smell it all over you."

"Maybe you're smelling yourself," Robert responded.

Selma quickly turned her head, tugging on Robert's arm to pull him closer to her face. She leaned in closer, sticking her tongue out to hiss at him once again. "You know what? I'm tired of your pathetic attitude! I think it's time I shut you up!" Selma mentioned.

"You asked me the other night what we were going to do to you and Elena," Selma recalled, "allow me to answer that for you."

"Okay," Robert responded, preparing himself for what she was about to do. He wasn't expecting it, but what Selma did to him was what she did to Elena a few moments ago...put her to sleep. As she exhaled, she blew the green smoke-like substance out of her mouth and right into Robert's face.

After she did that, all she had to do was wait for him to collapse to the ground. It didn't take him long to fall to the ground. His eyes suddenly got very droopy. He struggled to keep them open. His speech became slurred and he became very dizzy.

"Your eyes--are so--BIG," Robert said in a slurred speech, "your teeth are so--," he continued as he suddenly collapsed to the floor. Before he collapsed, Selma had let go of his arm. When he fell to the ground, he landed right on his back.

She waited until he was fully asleep before leaning over to grab one of his legs. After she had done that, she began dragging his unconscious body across the damp, stone floor of the cave. She looked back down at him and scoffed.

"Just like her," Selma said to herself, repeating the exact words he had said earlier when he was denying being a God, "yeah...right!"

She continued to drag him across the floor, they were nearing the end of the cave. Somehow, a strange phenomenon prevented the cave from becoming entirely submerged underwater. It was the perfect spot to keep prisoners like Elena and Robert.

"Don't worry buddy. It'll be quick, I promise," Selma mumbled to herself as she glanced down at him one last time. "The trench monster tends to eat his meals in one bite."

Elsewhere in the ocean, Daniel, Darron, Nathan, Calvin, Martin, and Thomas were all swimming near the seafloor. The terrain was somewhat familiar to Daniel. Why did he get the weird feeling like he's been here before? All around them, huge rocks stretched from the seafloor all the way up to the surface. They were big and wide. The water went from crystal clear to a dirty murky green color just like that. Because the water was so murky, it made seeing everything in the nearby distance that much harder to spot out.

"Where are we going? Where are you taking us?" Daniel asked.

Calvin, Nathan, and Martin didn't respond. They kept silent and just kept on swimming further into the foggy, murky water. Daniel began to get nervous. He looked over at Darron. Darron looked back over at him.

"This place seems familiar," Daniel said as he looked all around at their surroundings, "I'm telling you, Darron, I've been here before."

Darron shrugged his shoulders. "What looks familiar to you about this place?"

Daniel, after listening to Darron's question, began to think long and hard about why he thought this place was so recognizable to him. After thinking to himself for a moment or two, it hit him. He quickly turned his head to look back over at Darron.

"This is where our ship sank the other night," Daniel explained, "yeah this is where we went down."

"Here? In Sirens' Cove? Why'd your ship--," Darron began to ask the question as he realised the exact reason as to why Daniel's ship went down. "Sirens' Cove, sunken ship. They brought your ship to the seafloor, didn't they?"

Daniel nodded his head quickly. "Yeah," Daniel said, "all because my friend killed their Queen."

The look Darron gave Daniel was a surprised and shocked kind of look. "Your friend--killed their Queen?"

Daniel nodded. "Unfortunately, yes. She never told me why she did it though."

"Doesn't matter why she did it," Darron responded, "while we still lived back in our floating Village, we've come into contact with the Sirens many, many times. Each time we did, they were very hostile. But we managed to keep them where they belong thanks to crossbows."

Daniel faintly smiled. "Those must've been extremely handy, huh?" Daniel asked.

"Very," Darron responded as their conversation was suddenly interrupted by Calvin announcing that they had arrived at their intended destination. Calvin, Nathan, Martin, and Thomas all turned around to look back at Daniel and Darron.

The two of them stopped conversing with one another, and both looked over at everyone. There was something in the nearby distance. But neither Daniel or Darron could make out what that something was. Daniel had some theories as to what it was. The one he most believed it to be was the S.S DreamChaser.

"Calvin?" Daniel said as he glanced over at Calvin. He put his hands on his hips as he continued to kick his feet gently. He smirked at Calvin as well. "Where'd you take us?"

"Because you helped save MineLantis from those invading bottomfeeders, we want to repay our debt by doing something for you in return," Calvin said as he slowly swam out of the way. Nathan, Martin, and Thomas all swam out of the way as well. They all had smiles on their faces.

The look Daniel had on his face when he saw where they had taken him to was pure joy and excitement. His suspicions were right all along!

"Welcome back to the S.S DreamChaser, my friend," Calvin announced.

"This is how you're going to repay your gratitude? How? Why?" Daniel asked, "you know you don't have to do this, right?"

Calvin shrugged his shoulders as he looked over at Daniel. He smiled at him. "We know," he said, "but we want to, so…"

"What's the plan then?" Daniel asked.

"To keep it short and simple for you, we're going to refloat her," Calvin answered. "It's not going to be easy, but we'll get it done. You and Darron stay put. We'll do all the heavy lifting."

The DreamChaser was lying on the seafloor on her side. Because she sank on a slant, she drifted down to the seafloor on her side, eventually making her way to where she's resting now. Daniel swam as fast as he could over to his sunken ship. He swam up to the main deck area, noticing that the deck was covered in moss and fungus. Barnacles littered the entire ship. The hull, the main deck, the bow and the stern. Daniel sighed as he swam up closer to the main deck.

He hesitantly reached out to touch the DreamChaser. When he did that, he felt really guilty in a way. How he acted as the Captain and leader to the survivors that once populated the ship. He sighed heavily and dropped his head. When he lifted his head back up, he suddenly felt confident that Calvin and the others would be able to refloat her.

"Don't worry, girl," Daniel mumbled, "we're gonna fix you up just right, I promise," Daniel continued to mumble.

He then took his hand off the ship, turning around. Calvin, Martin, Thomas, and Darron were all staring at him, almost as if they had just seen a ghost or something.

"Aha," Darron said, "you talk to your ship?"

Daniel chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head with one hand. He felt embarrassed by what Darron had pointed out to everyone. He also felt a little offended.

"Yeah, so what?" Daniel said. "I'm sure you'd do the same if you had a ship too!"

"Is that how you talk to the girls too?" Darron asked as he continued to laugh out loud.

But he suddenly stopped laughing, shouting out in pain as he looked down at his butt. "Ouch!" Darron yelled. "What the heck was that?"

Turns out, he was pinched by a bright red-colored crab. The crab let go of his butt and began kicking its six tiny, bony legs. Darron stared at the crab as it swam away, disappearing back into the murky waters. When he turned around to look at everyone else. They were all looking over at him, all trying to hold back from laughing.

Daniel pointed at him and began laughing. "Haha!" Daniel said, "that's what you get for making fun of me! You deserved that."

But just as Daniel was laughing at Darron, he yelled out in pain too. He quickly looked down at his left leg, noticing that a jellyfish had swam into him and stung him. "Ouch! Stinkin' jellyfish. Get away from me!" He shouted at the jellyfish, like it was capable of hearing him. It wasn't though. After it had swam into him and stung him, it quickly swam away.

"Payback hurts, doesn't it?" Darron asked as he continued to rub his buttocks. Daniel looked back over at him and growled quietly at him. Luckily, Darron didn't hear him growl.

"Literally," Daniel said, "it just swam into me and then stung me! That hurt."

"Alright, that's enough you two," Calvin said as he chuckled a little bit. Nathan, Thomas, and Martin all laughed as quietly as they could. They didn't want to hurt Darron or Daniel's feelings.

"I thought jellyfish only swam in clean water, not murky water," Daniel said as he looked over at Calvin.

Calvin smirked and shook his head from side-to-side. "You'd be surprised if I told you otherwise," he responded. "The ocean is a vast and endless space. The creatures that inhabit the ocean swim where the water is warm, and avoid the areas where the water is cold. To them, the ocean is seemingly endless. Almost like an endless void. This is their home, as well as ours, but they simply wander off wherever they please. They don't think, they just swim."

"Now that's something I didn't know," Daniel mentioned, "maybe it's because I've never traveled on the ocean before now."

"You've never sailed the ocean before?" Thomas asked.

Daniel shook his head back at Thomas. "Never had the need to until the Golem Monster destroyed our home."

"We knew that already," Thomas responded, "you may not know this yet, but you've only scratched the surface of what mysteries lie beneath the surface. You've only touched the tip of the iceberg. There's so much for you to explore, places to adventure to, and creatures to come into contact with. Maybe consider dedicating time to doing that?"

"Hmm, I wouldn't say no to doing something like that," Daniel said as he definitely considered that idea.

"You'd be missing out on the wonders of the ocean if you don't," Martin said as he barged in on the conversation Thomas and Daniel were having. "There's a vast and endless ocean just waiting for you to explore it."

"Hey!" Calvin said, snagging the attention from everyone. They all looked over at him. Why did he sound like he was upset or something? "Why don't we focus on what we came here to do, yeah?"

Thomas, Martin, Daniel, and Darron all nodded their heads. They didn't realize that they were so distracted by the crab biting Darron, and the jellyfish stinging Daniel, that they had momentarily forgotten about what they came here to do.

"I hate to be so pushy, but we came to raise Daniel's ship," Calvin said, reminding everyone of the current task at hand, "we didn't come here to chit-chat."

Daniel and Darron frowned. Even though they were having a funny conversation, they quickly shifted their attention back to what was more important--raising the S.S DreamChaser. As Calvin reminded everyone of what needed to be done, Daniel swam back over to them, and swam up alongside Darron.

As Calvin and Nathan pulled some ropes out of their inventory, Calvin glanced over at Daniel and smiled. "Don't worry buddy," he said, "soon, you'll be able to board your ship once again. I promise you that."

"Thank you all so much," Daniel said as he thanked them all for their very generous gesture. "I have faith in you guys. I know you'll be able to save her."

Calvin and Nathan began swimming over towards the ship. Martin and Thomas followed close behind. But instead of following Calvin and Nathan to where they were going, they began swimming over to an open hatchway. The wooden hatch door had broken free from its hinges upon impact with the seafloor. That door wasn't the only thing that was severely damaged.

The window in Daniel's cabin was entirely smashed. No evidence of a window ever being there was left behind. The three large and tall wooden masts that once stood were gone and nowhere to be seen. The DreamChaser's current condition wasn't looking good at all. Not even one bit. She was in rough shape.

As Daniel and Darron stood nearby and watched them get to work, Calvin and Nathan swam up to the wooden fence that lined the side of the main deck. The fence was there to prevent blockheads from falling overboard. Calvin and Nathan both put their tridents away into their inventories. After they both did that, they started tying their ropes onto the fence as tightly as they could.

Once their ropes were tied tight they both turned around to begin swimming away from the ship. From Daniel and Darron's point of view, it had looked as if they were leaving. But, in reality, they weren't. The further they got away from the ship, the ropes began to tighten up. That meant that Calvin and Nathan had used up all of their rope.

When they stopped swimming and turned around, they both looked at each other briefly. "Are you ready?" Calvin asked Nathan nervously. Nathan nodded his head back at Calvin as he faintly smiled at him as well.

"Ready as I'll ever be," he responded.

Calvin smiled as he looked away from Nathan, focusing his attention back on the ropes the two of them were holding on to. "Good," Calvin said in an optimistic and kind of nervous tone. "Then let's pull! This is gonna work. I know it will. It has to work."

"Pull!" Nathan said as he began pulling back as hard as he could. As both of their ropes were stretched further out, noticeably loud stretching sounds were heard by the both of them. They ignored those sounds and continued pulling.

As they continued to pull on the ropes, things down inside of the ship were going somewhat smoothly. The only bad thing that was happening currently was having to wait. Thomas and Martin waited below deck in the exact location of where the hole was. They were waiting for Calvin and Nathan to finish uprighting the DreamChaser. Once that was done, Thomas and Martin could get to work on fixing the hole in the wooden hull. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much longer. They weren't losing confidence in Calvin and Nathan. The reason being is because MineLantians were known to be extremely strong and capable of lifting and pulling heavy things around.

But as they continued to wait, Thomas and Martin both had a strange feeling. A feeling like someone was watching them. Because there was no light to see anything around them, that worried the two of them. They both remained as silent as possible. Coming from outside, Calvin and Nathan's voices could be faintly heard.

"Hello?" Martin called out, "who's there?"

He didn't get a response. Nothing but complete and utter silence. Whoever was watching them must be somewhere nearby where they were standing. Instead of Martin calling out again, Thomas did the honor of doing so.

"Who goes there?" Thomas asked in an intimidating and straightforward tone.

This time, however, they got a response from the blockhead who had been watching them. "Thomas?" The blockhead questioned, "Martin? Is that you? It's me."

This blockhead's voice sounded very familiar to the two of them. But they simply couldn't wrap their heads around who this mysteriously familiar blockhead was. For starters, they knew it was a male blockhead's voice. That much was certain and safe to conclude.

"How do you know our names? Who are you? Why are you here?" Thomas responded.

The blockhead sighed heavily. Clicking sounds were heard. The blockhead was clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth before he answered Thomas' questions. "It's me, your King," he finally stated, "King Xavier. I'm so happy to see you guys."

Thomas and Martin were blown away at the revelation before them. They were shocked to find out that the blockhead whom they suspected was watching them was King Xavier of MineLantis.

"Your majesty, is that really you?" Martin asked.

"Yes," King Xavier responded.

"What happened to you back in the Kingdom?" Martin asked, "one moment you were there, and the next you were gone; vanishing almost instantly thereafter. Where'd you go?"

"That's not important," King Xavier responded, "what is, however, important is that you listen very closely to what I'm about to tell you."

"Tell us what?" Martin asked.

"How much danger the entirety of the ocean is," King Xavier answered, "I know what the Sirens are planning."

"And what's that? An attack on MineLantis? Because if so, then that's already happened."

"No, no. Not that," King Xavier said, "I know what the Sirens' next move is. Because they presumably failed to retrieve the trident once again, their next plan of attack is--is to release the beast."

"You mean the trench monster, right?" Martin questioned.

"Yes!" King Xavier responded. "They're planning on releasing their pet monster, sending him off and on his way. If they set him free, the entire ocean will be in danger. We need to stop them before it's too late."

"Or what'll happen?" Thomas asked.

"Mass destruction," King Xavier said, "the only reason why I know that is because they told me their plans after they kidnapped me. Also, the reason I'm here is because they thought their plan would remain secret if I was abandoned in this sunken ship. Doing so, would've prevented me from spreading the horrific news."

"See Martin," Thomas said as he looked over at Martin, "I told you that Sirens' weren't the smartest creatures in the ocean. They're quite stupid and dumb honestly."

"I kind of figured that when they told him their plan," Martin mentioned, "how much dumber can they get, am I right? A word of advice for them. Never tell the enemy your plan. A simple and straightforward kind of rule really. If they would've wanted to win, they shouldn't have told you their plan. How stupid of them to do something like that. They're so dumb!"

"We already knew that," Thomas said to Martin.