A Witch at Sea

The ocean winds were cold, sending Neptune's cool breath across our faces. Tides were rocking our boat as we quickly splashed across endless waves of water.

Over the ocean, the sky was a richer blue, and the sun sparkled off the water in such a pretty way, like stars reflected in the daytime.

The boat we were borrowing from the docks was a small passenger boat, mainly for sea side tours and small parties. The sailors allowed us to use it because it was fast and could easily outrun any pursuers, be it ghost or pirate…or some combination of the two.

Surely this vessel would help us turn the tides, because those nasty thieves at sea were about to feel our might!

Now, who could go pirate hunting without the proper fashion? Slipping out of my dopey overalls, I donned my specially made Eighth Star Battle Dress, ready for anything as we set sail. But that wasn’t all…because to fight a pirate, you needed to become a pirate.

“Yo-ho-ho!” I shouted, placing a pirate hat of my own over my head. It stayed in place because my hair went through and out the top ends like pigtails. Under the hat was a blue banana that wrapped around my head. I mean bandana!*

To cap off the look, I powdered my dress with coal dust, making it much darker. A pirate captain always needs to look dark and mysterious, you know?

“Fear me, for I am Captain Angel Wing, the demon hunting piratess!” I shouted into the air.

“Yo-ho-ho!” Indena played along, putting on an orange bandana of her own, while also dressing more in summer-esc clothing.

“Uh…yo-ho…ho?” Yamin gave a pathetic shout from the crow's nest (actually it was the top of the boat above the driver's seat) and she didn’t have any pirate related stuff to boot. At least she sounded off. "You two are really getting into this, huh?" Yamin snickered.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Indena glared, her orange head bandana making her eyes look more intimidating. “How often do you get to do crap like this? Dressing like pirates is awesome! Nobody more free than those dudes.”

Well, guess we found one thing she doesn't hate. At least for now…

“Hey, don’t forget to keep watch,” Uncle said from the driver's seat. “Yamin and Yalda, you both have the best eyes. So stay focused. Yell if you see our targets.”

“Oh…” I turned back to look out at the sea. “As the pirate captain of this ship, I say we need to keep focus. Yo-ho-ho!”

“Yo-ho-ho!” Indena cheered.

“Yo-ho-ho!” Marek joined in too!

“Yo-ho…oh no!” Yamin pointed off toward the horizon. “I see something!”

Ship bells were ringing not far in the distance. The sailors warned us that those bells meant we were about to deal with trouble. A flag started to come into view.

I used my telescopic vision to see what the flag was; it was a skull and crossbones-The classic ‘Jolly Roger.’

“That them?” Indena leaned over the boat railing.

“Yep, that’s them,” I confirmed. “Man the poop-deck! We got scurvy pirates off the starboard side!”

“Don’t say poop-deck!” Indena yelled. “Call it the back of the boat!”

I heard poop-deck in a cartoon once. It was funny.

“At least she knows proper boat terms,” Marek commented.

At the back end of the boat, we had a special weapon waiting for those dastardly pirates...a bomb!

Not an A-bomb, but a small bomb.

Okay, it wasn’t a straight up bomb, despite my clarification. We devised a plan on how to defeat the pirates and get to the beam island in one piece. Since they were trying to steal lead and stuff, they’d follow us, thinking we had some in our supply crates. Little would they know, those crates were full of natural gas canisters that would explode right in their faces! BOOM!

Since the canisters were made of lead, it was all the more reason for them to fall for our trick. This was the perfect plan, and I couldn’t think of any way it would go wrong.!

“This plan makes me feel like we’re in a cartoon, no?” Marek said, sinking into the first mate's seat.

“That’s what happens when you let a four year old decide our plans.”

Can’t Indena get my age right? “I’m seven!”

“I know what I said!” she yelled back.

The pirates were getting closer by the second. They hadn’t raised their guns or cannons yet, but we saw a few of them on the edge of their ship, preparing to intercept and come down here to steal our stuff.

We got ahead of them, so they tailed close behind us.

"Are we going to let them board our boat?" Yamin feared.

"No," Uncle replied. "We'll be leaving the boxes around the water as tribute."

They'd be like water mines. That was a great evolution to my original plan.

The pirates were very close now, enough that we’d be able to set things in motion by dropping our explosive cargo into the water.

“Now! Release the natural gas!” I ordered.

Marek started to pick up one of the crates, but struggled to keep it steady.

“Oi!” Indena shouted. “Blue-boy! That too heavy for you?”

“It’s fighting back!” He shouted as the box violently shook in his arms.

“Is there something in there?” Indena helped Marek put the box back down.

The crate’s violent shaking increased and everyone jumped backwards to get away from it…

*BOOM!*

It burst open! Splinters scattered everywhere!

Right in the middle of the clearing blast sat one purple witch on the floor of the boat. She looked exceptionally unaware of her dramatic entrance and turned her head every which way with a sluggish expression.

“Oh gods, not her!” Indena grumbled, quickly recovering with a dust of her clothes. “What are you doing here, witch?”

Melpomene was here? Wasn’t expecting her to show up, but this definitely wasn’t a good time. How the heck did she get into that box without us noticing?

“Fire mage, I’ve come to challenge you for the Evil One's life.” She stood up, speaking in her usual monotone voice. Somehow she didn’t have a single splinter wound.

“Can it wait? Take a look at what we’re dealing with! Dumb witch.”

Mella turned around and took a long gaze at the pirate ship that tailed us. Her expression didn’t change much, as if unphased by the situation.

“That’s a threat to you?” She looked back to us and pointed a thumb toward the pirates. “I can hardly believe it.”

Mella’s eyes started to glow purple, then she kicked her foot backwards, knocking one of the crates into the water.

*SPLASH!*

“What do you think you’re doing?” Indena barked. “Stop kicking our cargo, dumb witch!”

Mella ignored Indena’s orders and raised her hand toward the crate.

*PEW!*

A purple blast of energy shot from her hand and hit the crate.

*BOOM!*

The gas exploded with a big boom! The explosion was big enough that it overtook the pirate ship, but they sailed right through as if nothing hit them at all!

“Just as we suspected,” Uncle said. “Physical attacks don’t harm them.”

“Melpomene, what does that mean?” Yamin asked. "Are they really ghosts?”

Mella turned to Yamin, then said, “The things you face are not physical, but spiritual. Their bodies are merely projections of souls long dead. So, in a way, yes. Calling them ghosts wouldn’t be entirely incorrect.”

I guess "Ghostbeard" kinda wears that tag on his sleeve, huh?

“Is there a reason they would want lead?” I asked.

“It isn’t unheard of for recently revived souls to carry interests over from their previous lives. But I have no clue why they would want that.” she shrugged. “Defeating them will be easy for those with magic abilities. That’s all that can hurt them.”

Indena fired off a fire bolt at the boat!

*BOOM!*

*CRACKLE!*

The fire bolt damaged the structure of the boat, causing the whole thing to wobble.

“Oi!” shouted one of the pirates. “Tha’ blimey gal just blasted ouh’ boat!”

“Yee numbskull!” shouted one of the higher ranks. “Whip out yee’ cannons and blast ‘em to kingdomcome!”

The pirates tilted their boat and aimed about a dozen cannons our way, preparing to unleash a broadside barrage!

“Fire!”

But Mella raised up her hands just as the balls and bullets started flying, as if ready to catch them. A rippling blue sheet of magical energy appeared at her command and caught the many cannonballs and other projectiles mid-air.

“How are you doing that?” I breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Their attacks are made of mana, just like them. I am a mana witch. Thus their attacks are nothing more than toys for me to play with.”

“It’s a witch!” One of the toothless pirates shouted. “What do we do?!”

“A witch means nothing to us!” shouted the high ranked pirate. “Fire again, or Ghostbear’ll have yee’ hide strung up on his wall!”

“Buh, dudn’ he lose it when we all died before? T’s in Davy Jones’ locker now.”

“Shut up and shoot her already!”

Mella was amused by their banter, seeing as they clearly underestimated her ability. A fate I sure wouldn’t want to experience.

The blue sheet of energy around the ammo she’d caught started to glow even brighter.

The pirates fired off more shots toward her, but those were caught in her mana trap as well. They weren’t taking the hint that nothing was breaking through her defensive wall.

With the flick of her wrists, the defense flipped to offence and the ammo she caught launched back at their boat!

All those shots tore up their ship completely! The whole thing was destroyed and sank all the way to the bottom of the sea.

“I think we’ve overestimated their intelligence,” Uncle chuckled.

“Indeed. However, their existence worries me,” Mella said. “These spirits are…strange. I do not understand why though.” She turned toward the Island. “I sense something is amiss there.”

“Good thing that’s where we’re heading.” Yamin said. “What about these ghost guys seems weird to you?”

“When a person dies, their soul leaves for the beyond, so long as nothing tethers them to this world. And even if they were tethered, they would be unseeable to most people.” She pulled her big purple hat down over her face. Her voice trailed off the longer she spoke. “Perhaps the large amount of mana in the air makes them more corporeal? Maybe…”

“Maybe they're cursed?” Marek shrugged.

I wasn’t initially detecting any curses or darkness, but that didn’t mean it wasn't involved in some way.

Since things were a fair bit safer without the pirate ship directly behind us, Mella marched up to the front of the boat, and I mean the very bow and pointed to the island.

“They have congregated in that tower of spirit energy. But I sense a dark presence looming over it. Answers may await us there.”

Now that Mella mentioned it, some stormy looking clouds started to gather above the tower. There was something very weird going on over there.