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Moments of peace were rare on board the Lightning Child. There was always something going on, whether it be an enemy attack or simple squabble. As a result, supply runs were few and far between and the crew often found itself dangerous low on rations, especially since the ship’s eccentric cook, Cuuk, had been lost. So, they always took the opportunity to stock up whenever they had the chance, even it they were in slightly risky territory (not that there was much safe territory remaining).
The ship had taken port in an Alliance controlled region, as Jade and Ghoul had been given a prime opportunity to barter of one of their more troublesome residents. Had the Alliance actually known much about them, they would have probably been chased before they even set foot on land. Luckily, evidence of Ghoul’s magic usage hadn’t reached them yet. Jade and Ghoul sat across from each other at the wooden table in the room that served for a dining area, as jotted down a scruffy shopping list on a crinkled piece of paper.
“Alright, so do we need?” He asked.
“Pretty much everything.” Jade sighed. “Try to focus on dried goods, things that won’t go out of date. That way we won’t have to worry about this again for a while.”
“Right.” Ghoul nodded. “Pasta, rice, peanuts-“
“Peanuts?”
“Yes. I ran out again.”
“How? I thought that giant one alone would last you weeks.” Jade scowled.
“Giant one?” Ghoul placed his pencil down and raised an eyebrow. He knew Jade had been under a lot of stress, but he didn’t think she’d start imagining things. “Do you mean that abnormally large one? Sure, it was a few centimetres bigger than the others, but I wouldn’t call it giant.”
“A few centimetres? It was person sized. Ghoul, it had legs.” Jade insisted.
Ghoul paused, convinced for a moment that Jade had actually lost her mind. Then, slowly, the memory returned. A smile spread across his face before quickly turning to a soft chuckle and escalating into an uncontrollable laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Jade snapped.
“I never explained it to you, did I?” Ghoul managed to calm his laughter enough to ask.
“Explained what?”
“Okay. Do you remember those bees Cole gave you? The one’s that can cause hallucinations.”
“Of course, how could I forget?”
“Well, that’s just the problem. You did forget. I sent you off with Creeps and the teleporting tagalongs to buy peanuts and you still had the box in your canvas bag. I guess it must have been broken or something because at some point in your journey they got out and you all got stung. You were tripping balls by the time you got back here.” Ghoul recounted.
“I see…so what actually happened?”
“Well, let’s see now.” Ghoul thought back. An awful lot had happened in one month and it was hard to keep track of it all. “You bought the bag of peanuts like I asked, and you were kind of swaying a bit, as one does when high on bees.”
“Obviously.” Jade nodded.
“So, the bag was kind of swinging and you seemed to be getting annoyed at the movement, so you punched the bag, which split the shell of the larger peanut.”
“All seems perfectly normal.”
“Anyway, you started screaming at that drunk stowaway to ‘put it out of its misery’ and…”
“And?” Jade prompted.
“And he set fire to the bag. Though most of the peanuts were actually still good. Just a little charred.”
“I see…” Jade muttered. “So, all that stuff with Mr Peanut and the peanut dimension…”
“A shared delusion. I’m not sure how, but you all managed to influence each other to the point you believed you were seeing the same thing.” Ghoul explained.
“That’s a relief.” Jade smiled. “It’s good to know all that stuff with the Rhino, the soul cave, and robot ghost were all in my head.”
“Oh no, it was just the peanuts that were imagined.” Ghoul corrected. “Everything else was absolutely real.”