Where's Scotty? Book 1 - The Island of Doom

  “Well, if you know how to move a ship, be my guest!” I said. Little did I know these were the words that would kick Abraham into action.

  “Oh, I can move a ship. Easy,” he nodded. “I am a wizard after all.”

  I blinked. “You can?”

  “Oh yes.” He escorted me over to the wheel of the ship and said: “Hold onto that please.”

  He took up a position in the centre of the deck and raised his arms above his head. Abraham then lowered his arms, to scratch his chin and cleared his throat. “Hang on, let me just remember the magic words,” he frowned.

  I was sure that he was just going to yell nonsense, leaving us stuck in the same situation, but then he smiled.

  “Ahh yes, a standard weather spell.” He raised his arms again and said, in a booming voice that seemed to shake the very air around me:

  I think that is how it's spelled anyway. It might have had a few more ¥'s in it.

  That was when I realized that Abraham was a real wizard! He wasn't just some crazy old man who had turned up at my door and made a bunch of impossible claims. He was a real, actual magical person (who just happened to be a crazy old man as well)!

  As soon as he had finished yelling his magical word, the wind suddenly picked up and started blowing furiously from behind us. My hair was whipped forward in front of me and for a while, I wasn't sure what was going on. Then I noticed that the ship was moving!

  The wind was catching in the sail above us and blowing the ship out of the dock, towards the big, blue sea! I had to try and guide the ship as best I could, navigating around other ships and fishermen, but I was too busy laughing to hear the sounds of their screams and insulting words because we were on our way! We were going an on adventure to find Scotty!

  By the time we reached the open ocean, I was really happy. I mean, it had worked. I never thought in a thousand years that it would actually work, and yet here we were on a ship, sailing in the sea.

  As you have probably guessed already, that was where it all kind of fell apart. I shouted down at Abraham: “It worked! You're fantastic!” only to find that he had passed out on the ship deck and was now curled up like a little mouse, sucking his thumb and sleeping. I guess doing magic took a lot out of the guy.

  To make things even worse (because it couldn't all go to plan, could it?) Nooooo. I felt the tip of a metallic blade touch lightly against my neck. I didn't turn to see who it was, because I could hear Cat Danger breathing angrily behind me.

  “You stole my ship? My ship?” she snapped.

  “Ow!” I said, flinching away from the sword. “I didn't steal your ship, I just got us started on our quest. You were busy sleeping and I....”

  “You took my ship without permission!” she interrupted me. I'll admit, when she said it like that, it did sound a little like stealing. “There wasn't meant to be a journey! My ship isn't sea worthy!”

  I turned to her, avoiding the tip of her sword. “It is sea worthy! Look around you!”

  Cat looked around with narrowed eyes. The ship was floating quite happily on the sea. She frowned and then shook her head.

  “We had an agreement,” I said, trying to convince her.

  “We had nothing! You just shook my hand!” she waved her sword in front of my face, in a limp, less convincing manner. I was getting to her.

  “That's how you make an agreement,” I said. “And now we are going to find Scotty.”

  “Who is Scotty?” she sneered. “Where are we even going? Do we have supplies? Food? Weapons?”

  “Scotty left on the Angry Mermaid yesterday and....”

  Cat threw back her head and laughed. “The Angry Mermaid? That ship that was going to explore the mysterious island on the far coast? That crew couldn't sail a rowboat. They are probably already lost.”

  I opened my mouth to reply, but Cat continued.

  “...if we are at sea for weeks without food, we'll all die. Did you think of that?” Cat groaned. “You know what? No. I can tell you didn't. Sally, could you put her in the brig please? We have to turn this ship around and go back.”

  “No, you can't,” I began, but then I felt Sally's huge arms wrap around me and lift me off my feet. This must have been the mountain of a crew member I saw earlier, sleeping on the deck.

  “Sorry about this,” he said in a surprisingly soft voice.

  I wriggled and struggled, but Sally had a grip like iron. He also smelled like lavender, a surprising combination. He carried me and Abraham below deck and threw us in here, the ship's brig. He then apologized for being so rough and patted Abraham on the head with a big, meaty hand.

  As he closed the metallic door to the cell, I looked him in the eye. “So you're the ship's muscle? The big, strong and scary guy?”

  Sally shrugged. “I'm actually the cook. If you're ever out of here, I'll make you a mushroom stew that will fill your belly for hours!” He smiled widely and gave us both a thumbs-up.

  “Er... thanks?” I said, as he clambered back up onto the deck. That was weird.

  All I know is that it smells really bad down here. It's dark too! I can barely see anything. There are a few streams of light coming in from the trapdoor in the deck and I am using that to write this. But I can tell you one thing, the ship hasn't turned around yet. I don't know why, but we are still on the same course we set off on this morning.

  Abraham is fast asleep. He is currently hugging a bucket and mumbling something about cheese. Come to think of it, I am a little bit hungry. I wonder if Cat does have any food on her ship? Surely she does. Who doesn't keep food on their ship?

  I wonder if I can persuade her to bring me some.

  Maybe if I ask really, really nicely?

  Bored – Bored – Mood: Bored

  I’m so bored.

  This is boring.

  I am bored.

  Boooooooooored

  Thursday Afternoon – Still locked up – Mood: Rhymes with 'floored'

  Abraham has woken up. He decided the best way to pass the time would be to tell a story called ‘The Man Who Dug Too Deep’.

  It went a bit like this:

  There once was a man who had a pickaxe and he thought it would be really smart to dig directly downwards to see how far he could go. He dug deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper and-

  I decided to interrupt at this point. “Deeper?”

  “Don't interrupt!” Abraham snapped, then he lulled back into his 'storytelling mode'. “And deeper and deeper and...” he frowned. “I forgot where I was.”

  I sighed. Being in the brig was super boring, but listening to his stories was somehow making it even worse. “He was digging deeper?” I said.

  “Yes!” Abraham's eyes widened. He looked at me suspiciously. “Have you heard this story before?”

  “No, I just guessed.”

  “He dug deeper and deeper and it got darker and darker and darker until it was pitch black. Blacker than coal and even the darkest of nights. Then he realized....”

  Abraham paused for effect (or maybe he just forgot for a second what he was talking about again, it could be either).

  “-That he couldn't dig any deeper.”

  I blinked. “What, he dug through to the other side of the world?”

  “No,” Abraham frowned. “He reached bed rock. You can't dig through that without some very powerful magic, and even then it is not advisable.”

  I rolled my eyes. “He couldn't dig any further, so what? What happened next?”

  Abraham shrugged. “Oh, he died horribly. The End.”

  “You can't just end a story like that!” I said. “That's awful!”

  He shrugged. “And yet I did. And the morale of the story is: Never dig directly down or you will die horribly.”

  “You could have just told me that,” I sighed, leaning against the wall.

  Note to self: Don't let Abraham tell stories anymore.

  Thursday Afternoon – Battering down the hatches – Mood: Scared

  OK, I'
m beginning to think that perhaps stealing a ship I didn't know how to control, then powering it by magic and hoping everything would work out, wasn’t the best idea. A little while ago, the ship started swaying and rocking a lot more than your standard 'floating on water' sway. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the fact that my stomach was swaying and rocking too.

  I think I started turning a little green.

  “You!” Cat threw open the hatch from above deck and stumbled down the stairs, pointing at me accusingly. “What have you done?”

  “Urk...me?” I burped. I swallowed and tried to speak again. “I haven't done any...urk...thing!”

  “Then why can't we turn this ship around?” she pressed her face against the bars of our cell.

  I blinked at her. “Urk,” I replied. “I mean...what?” I turned towards Abraham. “Did your magic have any urk to do with this?” I closed my eyes again. Why wouldn't the ship stop rocking?

  Cat looked at me suspiciously. “What do you mean' magic?'”

  I pointed at Abraham. “He used magic to get the ship moving. He's a...urk...wizard.”

  Abraham's thick, hairy eyebrows lowered. “I am not an 'Urk' Wizard! They are no more powerful than a party magician! I am a full Wizard! I command the power of the elements in my pinky toe!”

  Cat looked down at the old man sitting on the floor. “Really? You don't look like a Wizard.”

  Abraham looked very offended. “How dare you!” he said, standing up with the help of his staff. “I am the most wizardly wizard you'll ever know! You don't look like a Captain to me!”

  Cat drew her sword. “You want to say that to my face, old man?”

  Abraham laughed. “You wouldn't last a second in a fight against me! My magic is all-powerful! It will turn you into a-”

  “Guys!” I shouted, then took a deep breath as my stomach growled unhappily. “This isn't the time to argue.” I turned to Abraham. “Why can't she turn the ship around?”

  Abraham spluttered and mumbled and said: “I don't know, I mean, it could be...perhaps...I'm not sure...I may have used a slightly too strong incantation and the wind might still be guiding us a little. It should die down soon and you will regain full control, I am sure. I think I said too many '¥'s.”

  “Well, it had better stop very soon!” Cat snapped. “Because we are heading right into the worst storm I have ever seen!”

  “Urk!” I said, shocked.

  She wasn't joking. Cat finally let us out so we could come back up onto the deck and see the damage we had done.

  It was bad.

  In the distance ahead of us was a large, black cloud, sparks of lightning reaching down to the water, and the rumble of distant thunder. I instantly wanted to be back below deck.

  “That doesn't look good,” I said.

  “And I knew it was there,” said Cat. “If we had waited just a few more hours, we could have avoided it completely, but here we are floating straight towards it because someone was too impatient.”

  She knew that there was a storm heading towards Heredock and had decided to stay inside a bit longer. It was my fault that we were heading towards it now and I had no idea what to do, so I did the only thing I could think of, I got angry.

  “Well, maybe if someone wasn't so lazy, and busy trying to trick me into fixing her ship, we would have known! You know how many times I tried to wake you up?”

  Abraham leaned over. “Probably not, she was fast asleep.”

  “Not helping, Abraham!” I shouted at him.

  Cat leaned in close, her teeth bared in anger. She looked like she was about to explode, but then she took a breath and stepped back. “Well, we haven't got a choice now. We've got to prepare.”

  She turned towards the man dressed in white who stood at the wheel of the ship. “Bob!” she shouted. “I need you on full alert. Be ready for when those waves get too big. Try to slow us down as much as you can.” Bob nodded. “Other Bob!” Cat turned to a man in black who was standing on the other side of the ship. “I need you to put the sails away. Start tying everything you can down to the deck. We don't want anything flying around when the wind starts blowing. You got that?”

  The man dressed in black, also called Bob, apparently, nodded in almost the exact same way and then began to climb up the mast in the center of the ship. “Wizard,” she said. “If your magic is so great, surely you can just blow this storm away?”

  Abraham blushed. “Well, usually, yes, but after the spell I just cast, I still need to recharge and....”

  Cat waved a hand at him. “Never mind. I'm going to need you to help out during the storm. Both of you.” She looked at me now. “I don't know how much the Happy-Go-Lucky can take. If I give you an order, you will follow it immediately, without question, understood?”

  Abraham and I looked at each other and gulped. We nodded silently and Cat went back to barking orders at her crew. Her face was set into a hard, determined line and it began to hit me how much danger we were in.

  I think I would have preferred for her to shout at me.

  What have we got ourselves into?

  It's starting to rain now. The storm is beginning.

  Wish us luck.

  Friday? Morning? Afternoon?– Drying out... somewhere – Mood: Completely Lost

  The storm wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Oh no.

  It was much, much worse!

  How much worse? Well, imagine the worst storm you can think of. Got it in your mind? Great, now multiply it by a Gazillion and add one.

  Yeah. That bad.

  It wasn't so bad to begin with. Sure, it was wet, each raindrop feeling like a little icy dagger against my face, and my hair got stuck to my face and kept going in my eyes, but it wasn't bad.

  Cat shouted things like 'Batten down the hatches' and 'secure that rigging' and tons of other sea captain stuff that I didn't understand. Luckily though, her crew knew exactly what she meant, and if they needed help pulling on a rope, or tying a knot or fixing some wood, I was there to help out as best as I could. In fact, for a while, I even thought we had made it through the storm and it was clearing up. I was wrong. So, so wrong.

  The ship started to wobble around in the water like an unsupervised toddler.

  The waves started getting bigger.

  The wind became so strong that even Cat's shouts were blown away into the sky.

  The ship was soon a tiny blip surrounded by white, churning water that bombarded us from every side. I could taste the salt inside my mouth and it washed up my nose every time I tried to breathe in. Soon, I found myself just holding onto the side, sprayed with water from every angle and just screaming, hoping that the storm would end soon.

  But it didn't. In fact, it got worse!

  The wind was whipping at my hair and soon all everyone could do was just hold on. Cat grabbed onto my waist and shouted: “Secure yourself to the deck!” and handed me a rope. She then slid across the deck and out of sight.

  “CAT!” I screamed after her, but it was fine. She managed to hold on to the mast with her hands and I saw her giving me a thumbs-up just as the next wave crashed down onto our heads.

  All I needed to do now was hold on. Hold on and pray that this wasn't the end of our journey. I don't think I was praying hard enough. I used a gap between the waves to attach the lead to a nearby wooden post, but I couldn't finish in time. I looped the rope and was about to tie myself down when water crashed down on my head and the rope slipped from my hands!

  That's when I realized the deck was rushing away beneath me, faster than anything I could possibly hope to hold on to. I saw Abraham holding onto the side, his old hand extended out for mine as I zoomed past like a bullet. He shouted something that was lost in the wind and chaos, and that's when I realized that I was overboard.

  For a second, the world was dark and cold and deadly quiet. There was a strange peace under the water.

  I saw a black squid swim harmlessly by, as if there wasn't the storm to end all
storms battling over its head. I gave him an angry glare, but I don't think he noticed. He carried on his journey, ignoring me completely.

  I began kicking and fighting against the water, trying to mimic the squid, but there was no way I was going to get to the surface. In fact, the more I fought, the deeper the water seemed to pull me. Soon the Happy-go-Lucky was nothing more than a speck against flashes of lightning in the distance. My lungs were burning and I knew if I didn't do something drastic soon, I would be in big trouble.

  I kicked and I fought some more until finally, it took all my strength, but I burst out of the water. I took in a deep, deeeeep lungful of breath and let out a cheer, until I looked up.

  The biggest, wildest-looking wave towered above me, and I knew that I was in trouble. I needed to figure out something to do.

  But my mind could only think of one thing: “I hope Scotty is OK.”

  Then the water crashed down on my head and everything went black.

  Of course, that isn't the end of the story. I'm not writing this journal as a ghost (although that would be awesome. I would definitely haunt Scotty).

  Actually, I hope Scotty never reads this and finds out that my possible last thought was about him. He would get a really big head and start pretending like he is 'really important to me' or something.

  He isn't, if you were wondering.

  The thought just appeared in my head. A random thought. It could have just as easily been something like 'the cake is a lie' or 'I like cheese'. So Scotty, if you are reading this (but you shouldn't be, so put my journal down right now!) the thought was nothing. Totally random.

  Anyway, where was I?

  Oh yes, everything went black.

  What happened next? I haven't got any idea, but it must have involved me floating a lot.

  Then I woke up here.

  Where is here?

  No idea!

  I opened my eyes, coughed up a lungful of water, and looked around to find that I was on a golden, sandy beach! It was so sunny and warm, as if storms had never been invented. When my eyes adjusted to the sunlight, I realized I was on some kind of tropical paradise! I found myself laughing out loud. I had survived!