Chapter Thirteen: A Sailor's Life of Cheese

    "What is it this time Harry, did you see another sea gull?" Jessica asked sarcastically.
    "No, this is something that's really worth seeing. Something big is happening, I just know it. Everyone's running around, but that's not all. I have this strange feeling, the planet is speaking to me again," Harry whispered over to the others, as they peered at the crew of the President's personal sea liner.
    "Hey look Jim, it's that girl who took our spoons! They're bringing her out of the water!" Florence exclaimed.
    "But we have to be at least half way across the ocean by now, how could she have possibly gotten this far?" Jim questioned, astonished.
    "Haha, Wutia! Almost there... Just need the spoons... Fishies have lots of spoons! Fishy-spoon! Fishy-spoon!" the soaking wet young lady exclaimed, deliriously. She squirted water from her mouth, like a fountain, into the face of a near-by sailor.
    "Looks like she's been out on the water for a little too long. Come on, let's head back below deck," Florence said, turning around to head back down the stairs.
    "I still think there's more going on here than meets the eye," Harry stated, staring vigilantly forward.
    "It's nothing, Harry. There's nothing going on, and your little planet friend isn't telling you anything. Let's go before someone sees us and gets suspicious," Jessica reasoned, and started to follow Florence.
    Harry remained, frozen in place. A faint murmur came from him, "Sugar-gloop.... Humma himma..... Yeeesss... Buy eggs and caramel......... Hypickler-corn..... snoozy-znoosy...."
    "I think he's talking to the planet," Jim sighed.
    "Oh, forget him! Come on!" Jessica exclaimed. She grabbed Jim and pulled him below deck, leaving Harry to talk to the planet.

    "It's so boring out here! There's nothing to do, but sit here and make sure we aren't seen. There has to be more we can do, Jim. I'm about to go insane!" Florence exclaimed.
    Jim thought for a moment. "I don't know. Hey! I have an idea! I think I have it in my pack." He started digging around in his backpack, and came up with a deck of cards. He started dealing them out to Sarah, Florence and Jessica. "The game is Goaty-Goat. Three cards up, five in the bucket, seven by the keg, and four in the hand. Fives, Rings, and Really Old Kings are wild. Let's play some Goaty-Goat!"

    "Hey Merle, do hear that? Sounds like there's something going on below deck. Let's go check it out," a man in a sailor's outfit said to another. The two walked down a set of stairs below deck.
    "Hey, what's that?" Merle asked, pointing in the dark.
    "There's something going on here. Come on." The two scrambled into the dark room before them. There was a terrified scream, a thud, and Merle came running out as quickly as he could. A black-clad hand slammed onto his shoulder, dragged him back, and there was another thud to the ground. A pair glowing green eyes shimmered, then flickered away."

    "Pim-pammel... Hussabah...." Harry mumbled. His eyes then quickly shot open, he fell back, and screamed, "Something's terribly wrong!" He looked around, and saw that he was surrounded by a number of sailors, glaring at him. They picked him up, and dragged him off.

    "Hehehe! Spoon-spoons!" Muffie giggled madly. She dug through cupboards, pulling out dozens of spoons, and rubbed them all over her. "All for me! Spoons for me!" She tossed them to the floor and started rolling around in them. She then froze at a sound in the distance. "Someone's coming." She stuffed the spoons into her shirt, into her shoes, her shorts and placed them in various parts of her hair. She turned, and faced a sailor.
    "You're not supposed to be in here. Hey, what're those?" he pointed to the various spoon-like shapes that poked from the fabric.
    "Oh.. N-nothing at all. Well, let's go to where I should be!" Muffie exclaimed, a bit jittery.
    "All right," the sailor turned, and started walking. "Follow me."
    Muffie took one step; a spoon fell from her hair, and clattered to the floor. She stopped, and smiled nervously as the sailor turned around.
    "Oh, you dropped this." He picked up the spoon, and handed it to the spoon-clad girl. "Now let's get going."
    Giggling cheerfully, she quickly followed the sailor. They soon found several other sailors dragging a kicking, and screaming, Harry Smith. "Let go of me! Help! Someone help me!" The loud, annoying, shouts of Harry could probably be heard across the whole ship.

    "Goaty-Goat!" Florence exclaimed with glee.
    "Again? Darn, that's five in a row. Okay, you deal Jessica," said Jim.
    "Okay, two cards up, three in the bucket, nine by the keg, and five in the hand. Fours, sevens, and the Fat Jack is wild," Jessica stated as she dealt out the cards.
    "Hey, do you guys hear something? Almost sounds like Harry's screaming for help," Florence observed, listening carefully.
    Everyone was silent for a moment. "Nah, that's not Harry, must be someone else. Let's keep playing," Jim said, breaking the silence. He patted Sarah on the head, then looked at his cards.

    "Sarah..."

    Muffie was alone, while her escort dealt with the struggling Harry. She looked around carefully. This was her chance. All she had to do now was wait for the right moment to make her move. She glanced to each side. "The coast is clear," she whispered softly to herself. "Now." She ran and jumped off deck, spoons clattering to the ground behind her. Landing with a thud in a life boat, she began to lower it as fast as she could to the water. "So long!" she laughed with glee as she started to paddle away. "To Wutia, and spoons!"
    Once she was far enough away from the boat, she set the paddle down, and began to toss her spoons into the air, and rolled around in them. "All the spoons in the world, and they're mine!" she giggled gleefully. Then, a  handful of spoons slipped from her hand, into the water. She let out a scream, and she dove into the water after them.

    "I'm here Sarah..."

    "What's all the commotion out there?" Doofus demanded.
    "It appears that one of those trouble-makers were found. Remember, the group of misfits that we found when your father died?" Murry explained.
    "If one of them is here, then the others can't be far off, and perhaps Olaf will be found as well. I want a ship wide search done! I want them found, and their little goat, too!" the President began to cackle wickedly, which resulted in another asthmatic coughing fit.

    Sarah let out a frightened bleat that echoed throughout the whole room. She dashed under the table and hid.
    "Sarah, what's wrong?" Jim exclaimed, immediately worried.
    A group of sailors quickly came up to the group. "Hey, if you guys see a suspicious looking group of people with a goat, let us know. They shouldn't be too hard to find, one them is supposed to have the worst hair style on the planet," one told them, and all of the sailors burst out into laughter.
    "Why you little-!" Jim shouted, ready to lunge at the sailor.
    Jessica immediately stopped him, grabbing his arm and holding it back. "Control yourself Jim."
    "Hey, y'know... You guys fit the description pretty well," another sailor said, eyeing them suspiciously.
    Yet another grabbed Jim's hat and took it off, revealing the horrible mess of hair. "It is them!
    "This is very bad," Florence pointed out, as the sailors advanced on them. She quickly whipped out two rubber chocobos. She jumped at one of the sailors, swinging the chocobo madly above her head. "Heeeyaaaah!"
    "Alalalorafleeeeed!!" Jim's call echoed through the room as he revealed the Bungle Sword. He swung the weapon at the men that stood before him.
    "Oh great," Jessica sighed, and watched the chaos, wincing every now and then as the sailors were thrown about.

    "Take this!" Harry threw a few sailors from his arm and tried to escape, however, more piled on him. He let out a cry and stumbled backwards. "Help!" He was thrown back and fell right off the side of the boat. He just managed to grab the railing before plummeting to the water below. He released a a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness, no more sailors." He prepared to climb downwards, back to where his friends were hidden when he noticed how difficult it was to hold on, as if he were being weighed down by something. He looked down to see that some of the sailors had fallen with him, and were gripping his legs to stay out of the water. "Oh shmarfwiggles..."    

    "Sarah, I'm coming for you."

    "Take this, and one of these. Ho-ho, ha-ha! Fear the power of my blade!" Jim exclaimed as the Bungle Sword whipped through the air.
    "Jim, you're not even fighting anything anymore. They're unconscious," Jessica grumbled.
    "I know, but this is just so much fun!" He spun around, slicing the blade through the wind when Sarah let out a goatish scream, crashed into Jim, and sent him flying into a wall. He proceeded to groan and fall back to the floor.
    "I think he's out cold," Florence said, as she gazed over him, gingerly tapped her foot into Jim's side.
    "Great, we've lost Sarah, Harry's still lost in his trance, and Jim's out cold. This can't get any worse," Jessica grieved.
    The two sat in a long moment's silence, when suddenly Harry burst through the wall followed by a large number of sailors. Harry gasped as he crawled forward. "They really don't build these boats like they used to."
    Jessica groaned and buried her face in the table.

    Sarah shivered in a corner of the engine room. She bleated softly to herself, as her eyes dashed from side to side.
    "Sarah!" a joy filled voice rung out from the darkness. "I'm so happy to see you again." Olaf stepped out into the light, carrying Jimbles over his shoulder.
    Letting out another goatish scream, Sarah dashed off as quickly as she could. Olaf stood his ground and swung the demonic fish into the frightened goat, sending her flying into a wall.
    "You're not getting away that easily," Olaf hissed. He slowly stepped over the poor goat and dragged her deeper into the engine room.

    "Come on guys, we have to get Sarah," Florence stated and Harry kicked the last remaining conscious sailor.
    Slowly, Jim sat up, shaking his head. "Where am I, mommy?"
    "But where could she have gone?" Jessica questioned, ignoring Jim.
    "I think I have an idea," Harry replied. "There's something on this ship, the planet told me so. To the engine room!" He began marching off.
    "Oh great, we're taking directions from the planet, that's always helpful. Hey Harry, did the planet tell you that the engine room is this way?" Jessica called, and motioned to a sign that pointed in the opposite direction.
    "Oh, I knew that." Harry quickly turned around and marched towards the engine room.
    "Hey, wait for me!" Jim exclaimed as the others got ahead of him.
    The group quickly came to the engine room and peeked into the dim light. There were several bodies of sailors laying on the ground. Slowly, they tiptoed in, careful not to make a single sound that might give them away to whatever foul creature was haunting the depths of darkness.
    "Sarah!" Jim shouted. "Sarah, are you in here?"
    Jessica slapped her hands over Jim's mouth. She growled at him in a hushed whisper, "Be quiet you idiot! You're going to give us away to whatever might be in here. So, shut up, got it?"
    Jim answered a muffled "Okay" and they all carefully crept further in, eyes looking everywhere for some sign of danger. Deeper and deeper they went until they saw a silhouette in the darkness. There were two other silhouettes at his feet, one was recognizably the unconscious goat Sarah, and the other stared at the group with cold, glowing, green eyes.
    "Well, you must be Sarah's friends. It's so wonderful to meet you," Olaf said, with a certain dark mockery to his voice. "I suppose you want your little goat back. Well, I'm saddened to say that Jimbles and I have really taken to her. She's our friend now."
    Jim snapped, "Give her back you.. you... smelly fish guy!" Jim waved the Bungle Sword madly and lunged at Olaf, but the glowing eyes of Jimbles grew brighter, into a blinding emerald light that sent Jim to the floor, twitching. The light illuminated the three silhouettes, and Olaf grinned maniacally as he jumped on top of Jim and did a little dance on him, jabbing his feet into his chest, then hopped off.
    Florence and Harry were the next to attack Olaf, but they had about as much success as Jim. Jimbles' eyes once again shot out with blinding green light that sent Harry and Florence toppling over each other.
    Olaf now stared at Jessica, waiting for anything she might do. Jessica gazed back at him. Their eyes were locked, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Jessica reached down into her pocket and revealed some sort of casing. She slowly opened it and slipped on a pair of sunglasses. She smiled as she swung her foot into Olaf's head, just as Jimbles' eyes emitted a blinding green light. The light did nothing, but simply reflected from Jessica's sunglasses into Olaf's eyes. He shouted as he fell backwards. Jessica immediately jumped on him and began pummeling his face. As he lay on the ground, Jessica went over to Sarah and picked up the unconscious goat. "Come on, let's get going."
    Jimbles hissed, as her eyes glowed bright green again, but had no effect on Jessica. The purple-black fish flopped over to Olaf and slapped him with her tail. Olaf's eyes immediately shot open, and he got to his feet, and began limping backwards. "You've won this round!" He shouted, angrily. "But no matter what, I'm always going to come out on top!" He picked up Jimbles and tossed her over his shoulder. He pulled a small orb from his pocket and threw it at the wall behind him. The wall was blown open, and then smoke began pouring around Olaf, to conceal his escape. He began coughing madly, and the sound of yelling, followed by a splash came from beyond the smoke.
    "Looks like his grand get-away didn't quite work," Jessica chuckled to herself as she gave Jim a quick kick to wake him up. She did the same for Florence and Harry and then waved them after her. "Come on, let's get out of here, the floor is starting to get wet."

    Doofus' personal sea liner slowly sailed into port, half sunk from the two large holes that magically appeared in the sides of the boat. Doofus shouted random curses as he walked along the dock of Costa del Sol. "How could you imbeciles let this happen? I should have you all executed for this! Do you know how much a sea liner costs? One simple boat ride, and not only do you let Olaf and those damn kids get away, but you let my personal sea liner sink half way into the ocean while you're at it! Oh goodness, I'm having an asthma attack! Where's my inhaler. Someone get my inhal-ahhhh!" Doofus tripped off the dock, and splashed into the ocean waters below.