Useful Marble

The morrow brought fish-like humanoid creatures with sharp weapons and a evident desire to use them.

The day after that brought me some strange birds of prey that decided to attack me relentlessly until I shot half the flock down.

The next day a giant fish slammed into my ship for no reason at all, nearly overturning it.

At some point I lost count of the number of things that happened and the number of days that passed. Every time I so much as attempted to have a quiet minute with the Useless Marble, as I had named it, something would inevitably happen and I would be forced to leave it…

I was starting to sound like a lovesick idiot, which wasn't a good sign when my only company was monstrously large fish and the occasional raiding party of bizarre creatures.

Nevertheless, one quiet night, I was able to find some form of peace, and resigned myself to quietly charging the Useless Marble. After what felt like hours, when I opened my bleary eyes and trudged over to my hammock, a faint pulse of light startled me. Suddenly wide awake, I turned and saw the Useless Marble glowing with a very faint, but barely visible brown light.

Elated, I dashed over and hugged it closely to my chest.

"I knew it, I knew you weren't useless, you're the best marble in the world," I murmured emotionally.

Suddenly I realized just what I was doing and hurriedly placed it back on its pedestal before giving myself a good slap. It appeared that the stress was starting to get to me, I mused to myself as I stood quietly in the darkness. 

A moment later, the dull thud of the Useful Marble on my foot could be heard, accompanied by the sound of yelping and some unsavory comments directed at the Useful Marble.

The next few days were surprisingly peaceful. After hours spent charging the Useful Marble, its brown hue slowly deepened and became more… bright? Previously, it could only be seen glowing very faintly in a dark room, but by now one could vaguely make out the light in a room if you strained your eyes and paid attention to it.

My progress was slowed somewhat by the jarring headaches I experienced whenever I inadvertently overexerted myself, but I was starting to understand where my limits lay and adjust accordingly to prevent anything that would further reduce my efficiency.

Around a week later, the Useful Marble was still at the same brightness. After a few more days of waiting, I decided to just go for it and slot the Useful Marble back into its rightful position. With a bit of sorrow at losing my only friend, I pushed it back into the gaping hollow in the wall and much to my relief, I heard a satisfying click ring through the dusty air.

Almost immediately, I could feel the ship starting to move again. Eagerly dashing to the main deck, I watched on in awe as the ship started to repair the damage that had been done to it, planks straightening out as everything began to move back into place…

With a sputter, the ship halted and everything stopped moving.

Ehhhh?