Dear Reader, Getting a story out of Shrilynda is no easy task, but when presented with the opportunity, I couldn't turn it down. I think you'll agree with me the risk to life and limb was worth it. However, Shrilynda was adamant I retell the story t...
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"You're telling me there's been a giant octopus—the giant octopus—Grandpulpo—sitting offshore for weeks?" the pirate captain exclaimed.
Shrilynda blinked. For some reason, she was standing on a glass balcony on the ocean side of Bayselle castle, suspended above the water beating against the cliff face below. It took her a moment to recall the sea creature called by Quita.
The pirate captain was staring through a spyglass, which appeared to be a much more natural activity for him than holding meetings in a ramshackle throne room. His comfort level did nothing to stop the inane questions, however. Shrilynda chose not answer the latest, because she had already, in fact, told him there had been a giant octopus sitting offshore for weeks. She was tired of people who chose to process their thoughts verbally.
"Granpulpo can sense the stone inside the monkey," Esmona elaborated. Quita was on her shoulder now, happily nibbling on peanuts, creating a miniature cascade of shell chunks and crumbs. How the monkey was still packing food into her tiny body, Shrilynda could not hazard a guess. "As soon as she grabbed the rune that controls the stone, Granpulpo began looking for her."
The explanation was close enough. After Granpulpo surfaced, Esmona had quite the time getting Quita to relinquish the runestone, so the octopus had half an arm around the nearest pirate ship before Quita was separated from the control rune. To the pirates' alarm, the purple blob behemoth had sunk to the ocean floor once more, putting them in a state of frantic high alert. Shrilynda found the crazed pirates amusing; even the ships patrolling the ocean below seemed flustered. As humorous as the situation was, she needed to prevent them from harming her aquatic guide to where Flifary Island had once been.
"Is it going to attack again?" the captain asked.
"Not unless you provoke him," Shrilynda said. "Pull your ships back."
The captain glowered, but Esmona gave him a nod.
"Very well," he replied gruffly, still trying to pretend like he was in charge. He glowered importantly. "Payment is due before you poke around any more valuable contraband that might have high market value."
"By tonight," Shrilynda agreed. She needed time to think through her next move, anyway.
He was so surprised by her easy acceptance of his ultimatum of sorts, he had nothing else to say. To compensate, he decided to stomp off to give orders to someone else.
Esmona waited for the captain to disappear through the wide glass doors leading back into the palace before she spoke. "This thing—this most powerful magical object—you think it's where Flifary Island used to be."
Shrilynda was a tiny bit impressed Esmona had finally put that together.
"But the island is gone," Esmona pointed out. "Or so they say. How could anything have survived?"
Shrilynda stared out at now-calm ocean. She was so close to having that stone, yet literally an ocean away. Even if the octopus carried her to the former magically-located home of Flifary Island, she still had to search for a tiny stone on the vast seafloor. Wordlessly, she pointed straight down.
