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Clown coughed as he swatted the smoke away from his face, stomping the fire out from consuming the boat of the ship. Not far away from him, he could hear Ivory grunt as she pulled Kab on board on her back, in which Maddy and Rae quickly went to help her settle the unconscious girl on the floor and quickly applied CPR on her.
“Clown,” Clown finally managed to put out the fire, just in time as Pyro came running towards him.
“Pyro,” Clown discerned the worried face on the man’s face, fully knowing that only bad news would rain on him. “What seems to be our case?”
“Quite frankly,” Pyro started saying, not peering his eyes away from Kab until she started to cough out water and gasping for air. “We’re fucked. Clown, that leviathan did a number on many areas of the Bounty. Hell, we’re lucky there’s no holes near the hull or else we would have sinked by now.”
Clown sighed as he stared at the deck of his ship. The deck was populated by newly received holes, with the wooden boards black by fire. The masts have been completely torn out, with only one remaining. The front was completely disfigured, with its figurehead long gone and washed out into the sea. Clown’s attention was completely taken when Kab, Ivory, Maddy, and Rae joined them in the conversation.
“Well,” Kab said, as if she never almost drowned. “That went wonderful!”
“We lost all of our cannons,” Ivory started to say in her usually monotone voice. “We’re out of supplies. We’re almost crippled. And completely exposed to another attack.”
“Damn right,” Pyro said before addressing Clown. “Clown, we have to get back to land immediately.”
“How?” Maddy exclaimed, throwing away her cracked purpled-tinted glasses. “We’re three days away from where Ash and the others are, and even if we were to pull out some freak miracle…”
“It would be suicidal as hell,” Rae deadpanned, fidgeting with their hands nervously. “Where’s Magic and Blake?”
“Up here!” Everybody’s eyes quickly looked up to find the youngest member of their crew up on the remaining mast’s nest. The crew was reasonably horrified given that the mast appeared to be barely holding on with the crack it had on its side.
“Magic, get off from there!” Kab shouted as the young girl threw a rope from the nest. “Wait, no like that no like that!”
Magic quickly threw herself off the nest, holding on to the rope as she slid down safely, much to the crew’s relief. Once she hit the deck, Kab quickly held her in a hug, much to the discomfort of the girl.
“Hey!” Magic tried to free herself, unsuccessfully. “I’m fine, Kab!”
“What were you doing up there?” Clown sternly asked her. While he was known as the most deadliest monster hunter out in the seas, that didn’t mean he was necessarily cruel. For now.
“You told me to get out of the way while you guys fought the leviathan,” Magic said as a matter of fact.
“What?” Ivory exclaimed, her eyes widened in shock. “We meant you getting somewhere safe like Clown’s office or your room!”
“Where the hell is Blake?” Pyro suddenly asked, not liking that the man who was left in charge of looking for Magic was now gone, both endangering her and concerning him. “He was supposed to be watching over you.”
Groans echoed as the crew suddenly whipped their heads around and found the lower torso of Blake sticking out from a nearby barrel, apparently he was coming to consciousness. Clown mentally ripped his face out, not being able to endure or control his emotions at the seemingly ridiculous and foolish occurrences such as this one. “Someone go check that he’s not dying.”
Ivory and Maddy quickly overtook the task and went to check on the man as his legs suddenly started to kick out in the air.
“How bad are we, anyways?” Kab decided to change to subject, letting go of Magic as she pushed herself away from her. “I mean, we can’t be that bad, right?” She crossed her arms confidently, wearing her usual confident smirk.
“You almost drowned, Kab!” Rae shouted at her, which caused the blue haired girl to flinch.
“And we also have a limited food supply of at least one day, top,” Pyro broke the news as Kab’s expression contorted into one of grim acknowledgement.
“Ok…,” Kab’s arms felt and her face was now replaced with shame and grimace. “So… what nearby islands are the closest to us?”
“None that I can think of,” Clown admitted. He had studied the seas where he had come from and knew them as the back of his hand. However, the unpredictable behavior of the leviathan that they were hunting threw them out of their usual hunting grounds, leaving them deserted on new waters. “These seas are completely new to me. So I have no idea what kind of islands are there or who could possibly–”
“Debris!” Maddy suddenly yelled as she pointed at something. The crew quickly went to look at what it was as Ivory and Maddy finally pulled out Blake, who grunted as he eventually joined them. It was a simple piece of wood, probably from some unfortunate vessel given the shape of it. Clown was about to dismiss it immediately until his eyes landed on something that was on top of the driftwood: a flag.
The flag had a squared design, with two corners of the flag being dark brownish grey while the other two were brownish grey alone. What caught his attention, however, was the golden drawing of what appeared to be a bird wearing a crown.
Clown’s mind was trying to compare and contrast the flag, trying to process whether or not he had seen it before until Kab took a silent gasp when she saw the golden bird on the flag. “No fucking way.”
“Kab?” Maddy looked at Kab, concern written all over her face as Kab quickly pulled out her grappling hook and launched it at the driftwood.
The hook made contact with the driftwood and Kab quickly started to pull it out of the water, the members of the crew watching her in concern as she instantly took the flag off the wooden planks and threw it out as she looked over the flag. Kab expanded the flag with her open arms, giving a far better view of the object than it was on the sea surface.
Clown immediately recognized the drawing on the flag, his eyes widening.
“Is that… a kestrel?” Blake looked from top to bottom at the flag, confirming it was indeed the drawing of a kestrel.
“And why is it wearing a crown?” Magic asked, not really a big fan of the flag’s design.
“Oh my god,” Rae took a step back, memories flooding them as they quickly realized what the flag was.
“Rae?” Ivory looked at them in concern, their horrified face very evident on them. “Rae, what’s wrong?”
“It’s a Kestrel’s flag,” Clown informed his crew as he motioned Kab to throw the flag away, which she pleasantly did by ruffling it into a ball and throwing it out into the sea. “Out of all things, why this?” He asked exasperatedly.
“Kestrel?” Pyro tasted the word, not finding it familiar. “Clown, are you okay?” It was a rare sight to see the captain of their crew pacing around. “Clown?”
“I’m fine,” Clown responded calmly, regaining his composure. “Looks like we have a way out of this. Unfortunately.”
“Unfortunately?” Blake questioned, not understanding what was going on. “Aren’t this good news? Doesn’t that mean we have land to go to–”
“We're not going there!” Rae suddenly yelled, their face filled with worry and fear. “We’re not. Clown, you promised me we would never go there!” She pointed a finger at the captain, who looked at her with its usual stonecold eyes.
“Rae,” Clown said as he could feel daggers being glared at him by Kab. “And Kab. I know… that you guys don’t want to go back… but we have no other choice.”
Rae looked close to breaking down, storming past the crew as they headed down towards their living quarters. Kab looked at Clown, mixed feelings shown in her eyes as she, alongside Maddy who was worried beyond normal, went and followed Rae down to the living quarters.
The rest of the crew stared at Clown as he took a deep breath before explaining their new situation. “Good news, I know where we are.”
“Really?” Ivory said, skeptical. “You just said you didn’t know these waters a moment ago.”
“I thought,” Clown corrected. “And I know where we can go to get the ship fixed and replenished.”
“Really?” Pyro said, his mood slightly going up. “Where?”
Clown sighed deeply. “The Faction Isles.” The crew looked in between each other, never having heard of such a place. “Blake, man the ship, try to get us as close as to the borders of the Island of Naya as possible.”
“With only one mast and possibly a broken steering wheel?” Blake questioned as Clown looked at him intently. “Of course! Why do you think I’m the helmsman?” Blake quickly ran towards the steering wheel of the ship.
“Ivory, Magic, check on our supplies,” Magic did a mock salute while Ivory simply nodded. “If my calculations are right, it will be no more than less than a day or so.” Clown watched as Magic and ivory went down to check on their storage room as the ship suddenly made a soft turn to the right, their ship finally moving from their stationary place.
“So…,” Pyro started saying, him and Clown being the only ones on the deck. “May I know why Rae and Kab reacted in such a way?” Clown sighed, knowing how demanding and stubborn Pyro could be, especially if he believes this will hinder their bonds.
“Remember when I brought Kab and Rae on board?” Clown asked him, the memory clear as the sky they were sailing right now.
“Oh,” Pyro said, finally realizing. The memory also clear to him as Clown was to him. “Oh, we’re going there.”
Clown sighed in retaliation. “I just hope things will go smoothly this time now.”