Tales of a Peculiar Pirate

8. When Lightning Strikes the Sea

It would have been one thing if Polly was no stranger to lightning, but she just so happened to be a stranger to lightning. Considering how she had lived pretty much right next to the ocean all her life, it didn't make much sense that Polly had little to no experience with storms. However, not much in Polly's life had ever made sense, and questioning the nonsensical was not something she had ever done.

Fortunately for the unprepared crew, the bolt landed quite a way away from them, but that did little to soothe their panicked souls.

"AAAAAA," screamed the kiwis in pitch perfect harmony.

"AAAAAA," screamed Polly with a scream that actually sounded like a scream and not like a show of natural singing ability.

Strangely enough, the sky that had not too long ago been the pale blue of a blue delta guppy's tail was now shades darker than the gray of a gray triggerfish and filled with clouds rolling like the tumultuous waves beneath them. Another bolt of lightning blasted from above, stabbing viciously into the water like a fork into a piece of grilled salmon. Well more accurately, it stabbed the surface of the water and then sizzled away with a majestic flair.

After all, according to science, water is quite the conductor of electricity, so when it hits the ocean, lightning will spread over the water and only electrocute the unfortunate fish that happen to be floating around the surface.

The paper airplane that Polly had tossed had successfully landed on the water's surface, and it wasn't long before both it and the floating mass of fish were gone from sight. Polly wished she too could whisk herself away from the storm, but how to do that? She hadn't a clue.

Then to her great surprise and confusion, another blob of purple and gold appeared, though it didn't look quite the same as the first. For starters, it was smaller. If there had been fifty fish in the first blob, Polly estimated that there were about twenty in this blob. But what group of fish would make their way to the surface when death was raining down from the sky? What did they have to gain?

That was not a question those unfortunate lads would be answering anytime soon, for as luck would have it, the next bolt of lightning fried them like they were about to be served on a platter with chips.

Though Polly and her crew escaped the bolt's wrath unscathed, The Birbalinda didn't. The poor ship shared the fish's misfortune of being the blasted bolt's victim, and though it wasn't about to capsize just yet, the situation was looking far from good. The kiwis who had already been screaming for a while now, Polly wasn't sure how their lungs hadn't worn out yet, seemed to take this as a sign to scream even more.

"You fruits better clam up before I turn y'all into a jam!" screeched Polly, fighting to make herself heard in the chaos. "We need somewhere to land. Are y'all not seeing our sails burning as we speak?"

Polly was referring to the main victim of the lighting: The Birbalinda's mast. Lightning had struck it and sent pieces of it soaring through the air and parts of the sails aflame. It was pure luck that the few and panicking members of the group were pretty much unharmed. Sensing that she wouldn't be getting any help, or even response, from the birds gone ballistic, Polly turned to Fethar, who she honestly should have gone to first in the first place.

"What do we do Fethar? Wasn't there like no land around us the last time we checked? I'm too young to die, and going out starving in the middle of the sea is not what I want and not what I planned. And I just gotta say, I do not understand. Tell me why, ain't nothing-"

Fethar stopped Polly's panicked rambling there.

"Ships don't sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. Don't let what's happening around you get inside you and weigh you down," quoted Fethar sagely.

"Well I don't know but I feel like that quote would work a lot better in a setting that's not the one we're in right now, but that could just be me," snapped Polly with a little snark. She knew it wasn't Fethar's fault that a storm was raging and their one source of shelter and transport had just taken huge damage, but could the hat not have read the room a little better?

"I breathe in calmness and breathe out stress," replied Fether, as calm as the waves surrounding them were not.

"Thank you for your extremely valid and helpful contribution," deadpanned Polly.

But somehow, Fethar's words had eased the raging waters within Polly's heart a little bit. Perhaps it was because the advice was just so useless in context that Polly had lost whatever fight she had in her and let her brain turn off. As the storm raged on, the fires that the lightning had ignited were quickly put out by the torrent of rain that came with it. At least that was one less problem for her to worry about.

Could Fethar sense that it had been the straw that broke the camel's back regarding Polly's ability to deal with the current situation? Perhaphs, for it decided to provide some actually useful information.

"If the royal gramma are nearby, that means Twelfth is nearby."

"If the what are nearby that means what is nearby?" repeated Polly having processed about none of that.

"The royal gramma," restated Fethar. "I speak of the species of the unfortunate souls we saw who perished not too long ago, and also the representatives we sent the paper airplane to. I am quite sure before the storm came that I mentioned the representatives were from Twelfth Island, did I not?"

"Even if you did, I probs forgot," replied Polly. " But now isn't Twelfth Island the one that's underwater, because if it is, I don't think it's what we're looking for right now."

"Oh but you see, while it is true Twelfth is underwater, that's only sometimes. On days like today, part of Twelfth is above water. With how the current situation appears, I reckon we'll be able to rest for a day or two before it returns to the deeps."

"Do you know how to get there or are we just going to have to float around hoping for the best until a mysterious deity takes pity on our poor souls and directs us to Twelth?"

"No need to be crass," sniffed Fethar. "I do believe that if we continue carrying on as we are then we shall arrive there in due time. Why paint me green and call me a pickle, if my eyes do not deceive me that's Twelfth right there!"

It was as if some being up above had seen the crew in their unfortunate plight and decided to bestow some good fortune upon them. Before The Birbalinda was a small mass of rock, so small that calling it a rock would be like calling an eraser shaving an eraser. But, the only beings that would be borrowing it to rest were a relatively small human, three birds that if need be could sit on said human, and a feather that was in said human's hair. The midget of a rock would be more than enough space for them.

"Twelfth is actually quite big you know," commented Fethar. "Only from our vantage point is it so...ah...petite."

"Sometimes it sho-be-do-be that way," sighed Polly with resignation. "Now all that's left to do is figure out how to anchor our mad lad of a ship so that we can get to that crumb sized piece of land."

But as it turned out, they didn't have to worry about that. A massive wave did the job for them and sent The Birbalinda crashing up on the "shores" of Twelfth.

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I don't always update...but when I do...I do :D. Huge thanks to everyone who's stuck around, it means the world to me!! Also if you haven't checked out When Lighting Strikes the Sea yet, you might want to because someone from there might be popping up real soon OvO. But anyways! Thanks so much for reading and stay safe y'all we're living in turbulent times ;-;

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P.S. Do let me know if you got the HS Musical and the Backstreet Boys reference ohohoho