The Petpet Detectives: Case of the Disappearing Deaver - Part Three

      When you spend nearly a full day and night on a pirate ship, you learn a lot of things. Pirates get up early, almost as soon as the sun rises, and they retreat to their cabins below deck as soon as dusk falls. There were drinks after dinner last night and the ship was fairly quiet out at sea, rocking gently as the waves made it teeter back and forth.

      The hammock-type bed I was sleeping on was more comfortable than I expected. It stretched from one side of the wall to the other and was easy to fold up. Luna awakened first and came to pound on our door an hour after dawn.

      "Guess who I spoke with this morning?" she asked, with an air of triumph.

      "DeSoto?" I asked.

      "Jack," the Yurble corrected.

      "Who's Jack?" Charlie asked.

      "Jack is a pirate Lupe and he's DeSoto's first mate. We talked for quite a while, mostly about himself and what's he's accomplished," Luna made a face before continuing, "over a nice breakfast of ham and eggs."

      I finished folding up the hammock and said, "So… did you find out anything useful?"

      Luna rolled her eyes in a perfected 'geez-you-are-so-impatient' fashion, "I was getting to that part. He's the Captain's best friend and has been on this ship for six years. Jack was the one who bought Kip for DeSoto. He said it was a ship-warming present when DeSoto first christened The Crusader. Just because he was the one who purchased the Deaver in the first place doesn't make him any less suspicious."

      "Yeah, that'd just make him wasteful throwing Neopoints away like that," said Damien, with an amused laugh.

      "Dubloons," Luna corrected. "It's the proper currency here."

      "I was thinking about trying to find that boat Simeon was talking about today," I interrupted, flexing my wings.

      "Do you want some company?" Charlie asked.

      I considered his offer. Damien and Luna could probably handle things here on the ship, so it couldn't hurt to have an extra pair of eyes along on my search. "Sure," I finally got around to answer, realizing I had zoned out for a minute. "Why don't you guys find DeSoto or some of the other crew members? And look for some stuff on deck that could lead to Kip's disappearance -- tracks, distinct markings. Better yet, have Simeon take you on a walk through. See if you can get some insight."

      "Right," said Damien, mock saluting.

      "Sure," said Luna, tearing out a half-used page of her notebook.

      "Good. See you back here later."

***

      Charlie and I were famished by the time we arrived back at The Crusader, as it was well after noon. The sun and wind had drained all the energy from me like a giant vacuum and I was about ready for a nap. After looking at boats all morning, they started to look the same. None matched Simeon's description: brown boat with two black stripes in the back.

      There could have been millions of rowboats near Krawk Island and even if there were that many, it seemed like Charlie and I had seen all of them.

      "Now you've missed lunch and breakfast. So, any luck?" Luna asked hopefully as I landed sloppily on the stern.

      "None whatsoever," said Charlie. "It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack."

      A look appeared on Luna's face. She winced, "What if that needle is a lot farther away than we thought? What if whoever took Kip is still on the move? It could take months to find her if that boat is still moving towards somewhere away from here…"

      "Not possible," I said, shaking my head.

      "Yeah? How do you figure?"

      "Simeon said so yesterday. He told us the boat was moving away from The Crusader, which would be back to Krawk Island, since the ship was floating out at sea that night. Whoever was in the boat with Kip took her back to Krawk Island for whatever reason. If their plan was to get as far away as possible, they would have gone straight out to sea and not doubled back to waste time."

      Luna nodded like she understood. "Safe speculation," she added, and then, "oh! Damien wants to see you. He's got something for you to do."

      I raised my eyebrows, wondering what that could be. I headed to where Luna was pointing, dropping off Charlie on her shoulder beforehand. I passed the nets leading up to the lookout post that Simeon sat at every night and past the wooden railing that bordered the edges of the ship. Damien was speaking with two of the crewmembers.

      He waved me over with a blue paw and introduced me to two pirates: a Techo named West and a Peophin named Roxanne. West, I learned, was the ship's pilot. "He steers The Crusader out to sea and brings her in every morning," said Damien. "Isn't that right, West?"

      "Yarr," said the Techo, with a nod.

      "It was nice meeting you," said the Peophin, Roxanne, "but I'll need to get back to cleaning soon. Let me know if you need any more answers," she said to Damien and with a wave, disappeared around the corner. Was she avoiding us? I thought. There was no reason to, unless she was hiding something… It was definitely too soon to jump to suspicions like that.

      I shook my thoughts from the Peophin and turned to West. "So, how long have you been with the ship?" West's eyes turned to slits and his chin flattened. He held up three stubby, gray fingers. "Three years?"

      "Yarr."

      "That's all he says," Damien whispered as West staggered away on his peg leg. He waited until the Techo was out of earshot. "I was talking to Roxanne and Simeon this morning. I had Simeon describe the light he saw in the water the night when Kip disappeared."

      "You think you know what made it?"

      Damien smiled. "Remember when we went to Terror Mountain and we discovered that it was the Slumberberry Potion that put Kara to sleep? Maybe whatever was used to trigger the light was also a Battledome item. Having said that," the Aisha pulled a piece of paper out of his pants pocket, "I need you to go to this address and find someone called Captain Threelegs. Roxanne said he runs an academy here that trains Neopets."

      "So he can tell us if a Battledome item was used."

      "Right," said Damien, and he handed me the slip of paper. "I don't know if it'll get us anywhere, but it's worth a shot."

      "Sure," I said, and crouched down. Springing up like a Greeble, I shot off the ship deck and into the air, immediately feeling the salty wind ruffle my white feathers. I glanced down at the paper. 'Across from port 26, white building.'

      Looks like lunch will have to wait too, I thought, as my stomach rumbled violently.

***

      It turned out, up to fifty different ports where ships could rest circled Krawk Island and looped back around to the beginning again. On my way to port 26, I saw many different sights. A large sign indicating the Fungus Caves and Smugglers Cove looked like interesting places to visit, along with a shack that looked like it was about to topple over called 'Bilge Dice'.

      Oh, and the natives, how could I have forgotten them? They came in all sorts of species and sizes, but they had one thing in common: their skin was dull gray in color and many of them had peg legs, earrings, or eye patches. They certainly were a rough looking bunch. I kept my head down as I passed some haggard Korbats and Pteris in midair.

      The Academy was the name of the white building Damien told me to scope out. It looked fairly old, or maybe that was just the grunginess that all Krawk Island buildings had and the white paint, I noticed, was chipping at the corners. I landed in the sand just outside and made my way in. The entry room was narrow and there were three doors on the right hand side. A Lenny that looked like a gust of wind could blow him over was behind the counter.

      "Ye be needin' some trainin'?" he asked me.

      "Umm," I took a few steps forward, "no. But I need to see Captain Threelegs. It's very important."

      With a raised eyebrow, the Lenny hopped off his stool and waddled off to find the Captain. When both of them returned, my eyes widened in amusement. Captain Threelegs was almost an exact mirror image of myself. A large, white Eyrie with a peg leg that thumped when he walked and a brown dagger hung limply from his side. I didn't have the peg leg or dagger, but most everything else was similar.

      "Hi," I began, unsure of what to say. "My name's Marlo. I'm a detective investigating the disappearance of a Deaver around port 14. I was wondering if you could assist me."

      The Captain squinted at me like he couldn't see well. "Assistance?" he barked. "Not much I can do, laddie, 'cept if yeh want some good trainin' in the Battledome."

      "Well, it's about the Battledome," I said. "My team and I are trying to solve this case and we need to know about Battledome items. We think one was used as a diversion in Kip… er, the Deaver's disappearance."

      "Diversion, eh?" said Captain Threelegs, and a smile broke out on his haggard face. "Can yeh tell me about this item?"

      "Not really," I admitted. "But I know it makes a yellow light in the water. A vortex, even."

      "Water sceptre," he said quickly.

      My eyebrows knitted together. "You sure?"

      "'Course I'm sure. Water sceptre," Threelegs repeated the item name. "They didn't make me the Captain 'cause I know how t' use this peg leg, boy. Plus, I've seen a few used here before. Quite a nice weapon if yeh ask me."

      "So whoever took Kip used the water sceptre to create the distraction and snuck on board while all that was going on?" I thought out loud. Something seemed missing…

      "Whoa now, wait up." Captain Threelegs waved his peg leg at me. "Yeh can't be usin' a water sceptre unless yeh have the full control of it."

      I started to catch on, gears churning in my mind. "You need t' be holding the water sceptre while you use it… it's too strong t' use otherwise." The Captain winked, but I still thought he wasn't following me. But that didn't matter; I had crucial information to the case now. "Thanks, this helps." I shook his paw.

      "If yeh ever be needin' that trainin' yeh know where t' find me."

      I sprinted off, pleased with the information I had discovered and feeling somewhat giddy from not eating anything today. With one flap of my white wings, I shot off the ground and plummeted into the fronts of sea air.

      The gears were still churning in my head, as the first piece of the puzzle was about to be put into place in just one brief chat at the academy. Captain Threelegs said you needed to be holding the water sceptre at all times in order to conjure its power. Which meant that someone else was involved. While the first Neopian created the diversion, the second Neopian must have snuck on board to find Kip.

      Our kidnapper had an accomplice.

To be continued…