A Cruise Changed It All

Ch 10: Reuniting With Old Friendly Strangers

Now, I was done with every single thing. All I wanted was to go home after this abnormally long cruise of mine, lay in my comfy bed with my parents in view, and close my eyes for a well-deserved rest but guess what? Life had some other plans and wasn't keen on letting me go just now.

For the millionth time, I got teleported to the place I didn't wish to be in. It was then, I realized, the rules didn't state that I would be teleported to my home, where I wanted to be, instead they stated that I would be sent to the place where I was missed the most.

The foolish me had thought that it was surely home. Who could miss me more than my mum and dad? Turns out, the game meant where my body was missed the most and I was still in Jack's body. So, I was sent where Jack was missed the most.

After the sick feeling of being teleported across miles was gone, I found myself on the deck of a ship. Sounds familiar? I was hit with a strong wave of deja vu as well on seeing the Chinese build of the enormous ship and my nose getting filled with the scent of seawater.

Once my brain was done lagging like an Intel Pentium, another realization hit me. In all of these adventures I had unwillingly gone to, had I ever wondered what happened to the people I had met there?

No, I hadn't. Therefore, I hadn't thought much about what happened to not mine, but Jack's crew after the mighty rain dragon had managed to sink the ship. You can't blame me for that, I was busy with the morgens and the tomb. I was a bit preoccupied with trying to stay alive in all the chaos that followed the incident.

"JACK!?", a scream broke the trail of my thoughts and brought me back to reality.

I quickly turned around to see a somewhat familiar pair of blue eyes, and short, brown wavy hair accompanied by a fair complexion. The breathtaking face was glowing with joy. I could barely remember the friendly-looking face when the girl smashed into me and gave me a bone-crushing hug. Her hair smelled of fresh oranges.

"Mary", I remembered her name, "I am fine", I tried to sound confident on seeing her face full of concern.

Still hugging me, she said in one breath, "Oh Jack! Where have you been? We searched for you everywhere"

I didn't know what to say or do. So, I just awkwardly stood, trapped in her comforting embrace. Another familiar voice came from somewhere inside the ship, "Mary?", the voice seemed to get louder and louder with every footstep I heard, "What is happening there? Are you fine?"

Mary finally let go of me and turned towards the voice.

Finally, the speaker came into view and stopped mid-track seeing me standing there. He had blue eyes and a light complexion as well. He had straight brown hair and little to no beard. When his gaze met me, his eyes widened and a smile of relief spread across his face.

I realized he was the man with the strange hat that had explained to me where I was when I had accidentally time-traveled into the body of their captain, Jack.

"JACK!" he hugged me as well, "What's up, buddy? How are you?"

"Um, I am fine," I replied, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"You won't believe what all happened while you weren't here"

"But first, let's get you inside", Mary interrupted.

Hesitating a bit, I went deeper into the ship. Mary and the strange hat man got me seated on a chair and found some chairs for themselves as well.

"How did you even get here?" Mary asked.

"It's a long story", I replied.

The strange hat man said, "A lot happened here too. There was a man from the future who was saying he had time-traveled on our ship, into your body and-"