Chapter Text
“Honey?” Galileo ran into the Observatory, panic plastered on his face. “Oma, where are you?” He ran throughout his house, gathering his belongings while looking for his wife and daughter. “Ocean, are you home?”
“Galileo? Is that you?” he heard his wife call.
“Yes, it’s me, we need to go!”
“Prove that it’s you!” Galileo approached the door to his bedroom and cracked it open.
“See? It’s me. I’m here.” As Galileo walked into his room, he saw his family hiding in the corner. With every step he took, they flinched and shouted at him.
“Stop it! Stop coming towards us! We know it’s you Wilfre!” Galileo’s daughter began to cry into her mother’s arms.
“Wilfre? No, that’s who I came to warn you about! I saw him kidnapping Zsasha’s daughter and Cricket’s deputy and so many other Raposa. We need to get to the Bane of Kings now!”
“We still don’t know it’s you.” Galileo, recognizing the fear in his wife’s eyes, sighed and took off his shirt, revealing a large, terrible bruise on his back and the scars of rough tree bark that cut his skin.
“Oh creator, honey, I’m so sorry.” His wife and daughter ran up to him and hugged him. “Wilfre, he broke in, and he looked like you so. He sounded like you, Galileo.”
“None of that matters now. He’s heading towards Creation Hall, so we need to leave. Let’s go.” He grabbed his family’s bags and ran out the door, his family tailing behind him. Suddenly, Galileo heard a large gust of wind behind him, followed by a powerful tugging on his back. He turned around to see a large, grey portal opening and sucking in his wife and daughter.
“Daddy! Help us!” He tried to resist the force of the portal, but the bags began to slip from his hands. As he looked up to see the luggage flying through the air, he watched as his wife and daughter disappeared from view. He fell to the ground and grabbed the one bag that remained, and he started running once more, sobbing all the while.
As he approached the pier and the Bane of Kings, he looked back into the village, only to see Creation Hall lose its color. Galileo, tears still in his eyes, began to prepare the ship for sailing and watched as Rapoville became more and more monochrome. When the boat pushed off, Galileo turned to look back at the village and watched as a gaggle of Raposa ran to the pier, yelling curses at the ship’s captain. However, before he could turn his vessel around to pick them up, he heard a noise echo from the sea below him. As Turtle Rock burst from the water around him, he turned to the sea once more and set sail to find the only friends he had left.
Lavasteam
“A cook, a vampire, and a farmer, Meeny. Exactly as Salem foretold!” King Miney berated his two younger brothers, Eeny and Meeny. Eeny was standing on the wall in the throne room, playing with his golden fur, while Meeny sat in a chair in front of their maniacal brother. “He has been right about everything else so far, why would he be wrong about the two of you?” Meeny stood up and walked up to the king, causing multiple Robosa to swarm him.
“Miney, he wears a cape and a top hat in the hottest part of our village. That’s sketchy enough as it is, but the fact that he can apparently see the future is even more concerning. How do we know he’s not manipulating you to take the throne for himself?”
“Is that a threat?” King Miney stood up and approached his brother, causing Eeny to pick himself off the wall and approach his older siblings. “I’ll have you know that the crown is perfectly safe in my hands and insinuating that it isn’t is a form of heresy!” Eeny put his hand on Miney’s shoulder.
“Hey, chill out man. All Meeny was saying is that this Salem guy is bad news. No one with good intentions wears that much black and covers their face when they walk.”
“Does Moe even know about Salem yet? Or is he too busy making sure your people don’t die in the mines?” Meeny shouted. Miney rested his hand on Eeny’s and squeezed it as hard as he could.
“The two of you won’t work in the mines. You won’t be my advisors, and now that Salem has filled that role, you try to discredit him. It’s about time that I took some action against the two of you.” Miney returned to his throne and gave the Robosa a command. “Send my brothers to the edge of the village, and make sure they never return.”
“Miney, don’t. You need to listen to us. Salem is not good for you!” Eeny begged.
“SILENCE!” Miney shouted at his brothers as they were dragged out of the room and to the edge of the village. On their way there, Moe noticed the two of them being dragged by the gaggle of Robosa.
“Eeny? Meeny? What did Miney do to you?” The Robosa began to roll faster, Eeny and Meeny still in their clutches.
“There’s no time to explain, just keep an eye out for Salem! Don’t trust a word he says!” Meeny yelled. Before Moe could respond, the Robosa approached a cliff bordering the water, and tossed the two brothers over the edge and into the water. As the two brothers splashed into the water, Moe peeked over the edge and watched both brothers bob back up the surface.
“Are you ok?” Moe shouted from the edge of the village.
“We’ll survive! Don’t worry about us!” Moe nodded at the two and disappeared over the edge. The two brothers swam over to a large rock in the water around the village and climbed on top of it.
“Edge of the village, huh? Well, I guess he was technically right,” Eeny complained as he took off his shirt to dry off. “How are we gonna manage to survive on just this rock?”
“I don’t know, but I hope Moe can drop us some Banya Pies from time to time.” Meeny sat down on the edge of the rock and watched the waves on the horizon. “It’s beautiful isn’t it?”
“Hey now, don’t get all sentimental on me. We’re going to survive this.”
“You might cause you’re so young, meanwhile I’m over here almost as old as the Creator. Honestly, I’m surprised I survived the fall.”
“You survived because you landed on me, idiot.”
“Sorry, but we’re both alive, so you’ll be fine,” Meeny quipped, standing back up.
“Don’t tell me you still believe in those fairy tales about the Creator and his divine Hero or whatever.”
“Would you rather go to an afterlife or an empty void when you die? Frankly, I don’t care if he’s real, I just need some hope.” Eeny and Meeny sat in silence on the rock as the light began to dim. The two of them soon layed down and looked up at the stars. Eeny punched Meeny’s arm and pointed up at the sky.
“Those ones look like a Firefly, right?”
“They all look like Fireflies,” Meeny said, rolling over.
“Hey, look man. I’m sorry about what I said about the Creator and all that, but you can’t ignore me the whole time we’re stuck here.” Eeny waited for his brother’s response as the waves crashed on the rocks around them. “You can’t just give me the silent treatment now of all times.”
“I’m not giving you the silent treatment; I’m trying to sleep you moron.” Eeny laughed and patted his brother’s arm before standing up and walking to the edge of the rock.
“Ok I know what you just said, but c’mere for a sec.”
“If you push me into the water I swear I’ll kill you.”
“No seriously, this doesn’t look good.” As Meeny begrudgingly joined Eeny at the edge, he gasped in sarcastic amazement.
“Wow! The water is still there? We gotta alert the press!”
“No, you idiot!” Eeny said, slapping the back of his brother’s head. “The water level’s higher.” Meeny’s grin disappeared and was replaced with shock.
“The tide’s coming in.” Eeny and Meeny looked up to the sky to notice that the moon had only just come up.
“If we wait any longer,”
“We’re going to drown here.” The two brothers began to panic, gathered their clothes and tried to formulate a plan.
“Can we climb up the cliff?”
“I can’t. My body’s too weak. Can we build a raft out of our clothes?”
“Not one that could hold both of us.” As realization set in both of the brother’s minds, they embraced each other.
“I love you man, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have ignored you.”
“I shouldn’t’ve dragged you into this Salem mess in the first place.” Shortly after, the brothers began to feel the water at their feet.
“Well, it’s been a good run Blondie.” Eeny looked at his brother, who was looking back at him.
“You haven’t called me that in almost two decades.” Meeny looked back up to the stars before letting out a sigh. Eeny scooted closer to his brother and layed his head on the brown furred shoulder. Before he could let out any more words, the two of them heard a bell ringing in the night. The two of them stood up and saw a large vessel approaching them.
“There’s no way this is happening,” Eeny said, recognizing the red garb on the ship’s captain.
“Who is it?” Meeny said, standing behind his brother.
On the Bane of Kings
“Galileo, you’re a life saver buddy!” Eeny said, hugging the astronomer.
“Well, that’s the goal of this whole trip. How did the two of you end up in the water in the first place?” As Eeny explained their situation, Meeny took a tour of their ship. Inside the Captain’s Quarters, he found a large map with notes, circles, and holes strewn about it. Meeny looked at an X that was labelled with the words “Old Ship over Falls”.
“Hey Galileo? Is this where you lost the Stargazer?” Galileo and Eeny walked into the cabin confused until Meeny pointed at the map.
“Actually, I sold the Stargazer a while back and settled down in a village a few days from here. This isn’t even my ship really. I stole it from a pirate!” Galileo said, nudging Eeny and laughing.
“If you settled down, how come you came to visit Lavasteam?” Meeny asked. Galileo began to explain his story, neglecting to mention the attack of the Giant Scribble Monster and the bruise on his back.
“Whatever we can do to help you, let us know. You saved our lives so the least we can do is help you find your wife and kid.”
“I appreciate the help guys, but right now we need to get the two of you away from Lavasteam. I saw that giant turtle sail a different direction, so I can shift our course to head that way.”
“Aye aye, captain!” As Eeny and Meeny left the Quarters, Galileo pulled out his bag and unzipped it, pulling out a crudely drawn picture of himself, his wife, and his daughter.
“Daddy’s coming for you two. Just hold on a little while longer.” He placed the picture back in the bag and pulled out a sword, hidden within a wooden sheath. He ran his hand over a dark stain on the wood and winced as his back began to ache.
“You coming back out anytime soon?” Eeny said, poking his head back through the door.
“Aye, matey,” Galileo laughed as he rested the sword on the desk and walked out of the quarters and onto the deck.
“Get your heading! Raise the sails! Ready the cannons!” Galileo shouted as he climbed up to the ship’s wheel. He and his crew readied the ship for sailing in the night and pushed off from Lavasteam’s cliffs towards the port of Watersong.