Chapter IV: Iron Maiden

It had been roughly two hours after leaving the docks when Joshua Morgan had come down stairs into the galley to start preparing some refreshments for himself and the rest of the crew of the voyage when he heard a quiet murmuring of sobbing coming from under some fallen crates of fruit. He lifted them and started restacking them when to his surprise he found his little step brother Dyer Maker amongst some squashed oranges and bananas with his little monkey Confused cowering and shivering. "What in the world are you doing here?" asked Joshua, "Mother's going to be going out of her mind with worry wondering where you are!!" Looking up and wiping tears and pieces of banana from his face Dyer sniffed "I only followed Confused so that I could get him back before he got into trouble then I found him with the fruit down here and then the crates fell on us and we couldn't get out, Dazed was waiting outside the pub for us". Joshua offered his strong hands to the young boy and carried both Dyer and Confused out of the galley storage. "Do you want to help me make some lunch for everyone? If you like I'll see that you are safe and kept busy whilst on board with us" Dyer smiled and said "Thank you Joshua, that'll be really good, I've never been away from home before so this will be quite an adventure" Joshua looked at the boy and asked him "Do you know where we are going? I certainly don't, maybe someone will Remember Tomorrow ". Meanwhile Limbo one of the passengers on the Wild Wind had gone to his cabin and had discovered an old wooden trunk that had a rusty plaque on the front engraved with some lettering. With a bit of effort he chipped away at the rust and cleaned it up to reveal that it said (Captain Alberto Khashoggi) . The trunk was locked with an old rusty padlock, Limbo's curiosity had got to him so he un sheaved his Knife of Justice and attempted to pick the lock. After about fifteen minutes the Knife handle hummed and glowed a golden yellow then the lock sparked and sprung open. Limbo open the trunk and looked inside noticing that the contents were only slightly damaged by damp and mildew considering how long it had been submerged underwater for many years. Limbo half expected all the items to be totally perished and a complete loss. In the trunk was a slightly rusty cutlass and a partially mouldy long tailed jacket. It was a vibrant crimson red with black and gold edging to sleeves, collar and cuffs. Most importantly what was discovered was the Captain's logbook it was signed Captain Alberto Khashoggi's voyages of Wild Wind nineteen-twelve REM to nineteen-thirty-five REM, nineteen-thirty-five REM didn't have a full year of entries and the last entry referred to a tempest of a storm pulling them off course and out of control heading towards a whirlpool. With all this historical knowledge available to him he started reading the nineteen-thirty-five REM entries to give him as much information to what caused the Wild Wind's disappearance. Captain Khashoggi was the only survivor of the Wild Wind he clung onto his trunk for as long as possible and entered in his logbook put it away in the trunk just shortly before the Wild Wind was sucked into the whirlpool. Captain Khashoggi took Sanctuary on a tiny Island, referenced his survival in his logbook where he was likely to lived out the last of his days . What puzzled Limbo was how did the trunk and the wreckage of the Wild Wind become reunited if Captain Khashoggi ended up on a desert Island. Whilst Limbo was reading in his cabin, the events of this tale are taken place in the inner sanctums of Castle Aseed where Evil Queen Mermatade and the Conqueror are conjuring a fearsome spell to stop the Wild Wind in its tracks.  Queen Mematade decided to send an old yet reliable sea creature against the heroes while they are at sea. "I'll send the Prowler to destroy them scattering them amongst the salty waves" Conqueror rubbed his hands together with evil glee "Prowler, the twenty four tentacle squid? Oh mother that one is one of my favourites"   Queen Mermatade slowly trembled and seemed slightly faint "My son I feel my time is short I need you to prepare the Iron Maiden, do the sacred incantation with the Talisman that I gave you as a child"  The Conqueror looked at his mother with grave concern. He knew that the Invaders were going to be persistent in attempting to rescue the Prisoner, Dusk from the Dungeon and he also knew that if the Prowler didn't stop them then one of the many other spells would be successful at stopping them.  Meanwhile back on board the Wild Wind, Limbo, Harold, Ruthael, Collip, and all the crew, Tobias, Joshua,  Rico and Chuba were frantically trying to prepare themselves for a very dangerous and traitorous battle through a very aggressive storm. Thing is it wasn't only the heavy rain, strong  winds  but in the distance fast approaching them coming out f the sea was an enormous multi tentacle Squid covered in barnacles it's blackish purple rubbery flesh was so immense it was hard to see where it's body began and where it ended. It slashed several of its limbs across the decking of the Wild Wind, one only missed young Dyer by mere feet. "Dyer quickly take your monkey below deck and stay there!!" Demanded Tobias naturally he was terrified to think how his mother Charlotte would react if anything should happen to her son. All of the Wild Wind crew were holding on to the rigging, and masts whilst Tobias desperately tried to steer the wheel with all his strength away from the terrifying sea creature, but no matter which direction he took the ship the beast, Prowler  followed him. Airthul the little witch was coming up the stairs on to the deck shortly after Dyer and Confused had returned to his cabin.  Airthul had been concocting a potion consisting of crude oil and kelp and rags which she had made in a bucket it was a thick potent sludgy paste she suggested to dip the small cannon balls in it then fire them with the cannon at the creature the balls were lit before being fired at the giant squid. They burst into flames on impact igniting Prowler, it gave a disturbing painful howl as it's flesh contorted and burned. Due to the size of this monstrosity it took all the cannon balls in the Wild Wind's arsenal to destroy it. Unfortunately the Wild Wind took a fair bit of damage the main mast holding up the crow's nest and sails was smashed moments before they were able to kill Prowler. The clouds separated as the waves lessened, the bright golden yellow rays from the sun highlighted to level of the damage that they had just received. Thankfully they were not far from a nearby island which had quite a large amount of trees which would provide  good strong wood to replace all the broken pieces. Something about their location got Limbo thinking so he quickly went back into the cabin where Captain Alberto Khashoggi's Log book was and turned to the page that referred to the Island.  As they came closer to the Island Tobias ordered his son Joshua to lower the anchors. They all went to the island via the small rowing boats that were still a part of the structure of the ship only one of these was perished so Airthul and Harold stayed on board with Dyer and Confused. "Here lad, I reckon we ought to go see how our four legged friends are doing after that rather unsettling journey" Harold suggested to Dyer, "That's a good idea!" Agreed Airthul "It'll give the boy something to do. Those poor animals must've been scared out of their minds"  Abacab the Donkey was soaking wet and shivering because during the storm and fight with the Prowler a large hole was made in the side next to the horses stables and it had let in a large amount of water.  One of the pieces of broken wood, a nasty sharp pointed piece was very close to his face and making Abacab very nervous because he wasn't able to easily move himself away from it with it gauging his eyes or his neck. Harold was deeply upset to see his faithful friend in such a horrible situation he waded through the water which was approximately two foot deep in the worst areas and just a few inches in the dryer parts closer to the staircase. He was able to prise the wood away from Abacab and discarded it.  Airthul who was staying in the dryer part because of her height started moving her hands around in circles and quietly muttering some unpronounceable incantations then gradually the seawater started to dry and turn to little clouds of steam and then to nothing. By doing this it warmed the horses and dried their coats. "Dyer can you bring over that sack of oats and put it with this fresh hay bale so that they all have some fresh bedding and some food?" Airthul asked Dyer . Straight away with no objection Young Dyer, still with tiny Confused hanging on his shoulder, ran over to the food storage area in the galley and fetched a sack of oats that was almost as big as him he wrapped his arms around it and slowly staggered back to Airthul, Harold, the Horses and Abacab the Donkey.   Dyer put the sack down in front of the feeding trough scratched his head and asked Harold "Mr Lurker!" Harold smiled "Yes my boy, but please called me Harold!" Dyer continued "Do you know what the Horses names are?" Harold eyes lit up and he then looked at Airthul "You know something lad I don't. I'm not sure if they even have any names!!   Dyer sighed "That's a shame I think they should have names, really strong names. I like animals, I have a big Black Dog called Dazed and this little grey monkey is called Confused" Airthul hugged Dyer "Maybe you should asked Ruthael and Collip when they are back on board and they might give you the chance to name them"  Shortly later the small rowing boats had reach the shore of the Island and Collip let off a flare to signal the Wild Wind that they had arrived safely. They gradually made their way through a forest and were made aware of a village of warrior women that lived in wooden huts there didn't seem to be any evidence of men living in the community. In the centre of the village was a kind of statue or idol with a fire pit inside the mouth. The statue was approximately twenty feet made of stone it had very basic facial features carved in to it. Behind it hanging by vines were human skulls, there must have been at least fifty on each vine. To be able to count all of them would have taken a very long time, by which time the party of men could've had their own skulls added to them. Rico and Chuba had determined the culture of these women, they were cannibals that were partial to the consumption of Man Flesh. So far they have not been seen by the women but they needed to have a chance to chop down enough trees to obtain the amount of wood they needed for the Wild Winds repairs. The men quickly and quietly made their way back through the forest to the section of trees closest to the shore where the rowing boats were waiting. Joshua, Ruthael  and Collip got straight to work on a large tree with axes whilst Tobias and Rico stood guard with swords, Chuba was standing further into the forest to give an early warning just in case any of these formidable ladies decided to attack.  After about an hour three large trees had been chopped down and divided into manageable lengths with the three largest pieces for masts. Just as Ruthael was about to take a swing at a forth tree, Chuba came running shouting "We gotta get back to the ship guys!!" Loud feminine shrieks or possibly battle cries were heard and they did not sound friendly. Suddenly five or six arrows landed close to the wood pile they had created "Damn!" Tobias cursed "Grab all the wood we've cut and let's get going!"  Collip hesitated "Surely we can deal with some overbearing girls!" "Be quick or be dead!!" Ruthael snapped at his brother. Tobias had a theory whilst they were loading the last few logs "It's quite possible that we may have accidentally landed on the lost Isle of Bananah-Ramah inhabited by these hostile spicy women" Joshua laughed "Hey Dad I've got nothing against women wanting a certain level of freedom and similar values but eating men that don't agree with them is a bit harsh!" Chuba started pushing his boat off the sand with Rico starting to row, Joshua, Limbo and Tobias were in the second, Ruthael and Collip in the third. Chuba remarked "It's a good thing we didn't get too far into the Island otherwise we might have had to Run for the Hills and then fire a second flare to get the Wild Wind to meet us round the other side and that would've been without our supplies of wood" The rowing boats were eventually getting safely away from the Isle of Bananah-Ramah. Ruthael noted "When the Wild Wind blows off course you just never know what we'll encounter as we go into the great unknown"