Begin Sid.
I woke up to the blinding light of the sun reaching over the horizon. I must have really overdone it with my training this time, because I didn't even remember falling asleep. When I looked around, I saw that Dutch was lying nearby. She must have stayed out here with me all night, she's such a good dog. I went to head back inside Darwin's tree only to find him in an utter panic. He was running around rummaging through different things and then throwing them into a massive rucksack. "Uhhh… Is that really necessary, Darwin?" I asked with a concerned gaze. He turned back and looked at me with a crazed look in his eyes, "O-Of course it's important!!! I-I need to have all of my essentials when we travel!" He said as he continued to rummage through his entire home. "Look Darwin… If you bring all of this stuff, then how are you planning on collecting new things along the way? You'll never have enough room with all this junk." I said as lightly I kicked his giant rucksack. I could tell that he was genuinely processing my words, because a look of realization seemed to flash across his face. Unfortunately, this seemed to put him into more of a panic. "Ah-Ah-AHHH NONONONONOOOO, H-how am I gonna collect all my new specimens!!!! AHHHHH!!!" He shouted as he began running in circles around the room. He was definitely over reacting, so I just stuck out one of my feet and tripped him. When he fell, a bubble popped out of his chest and made him bounce up into the air and land in his hammock. His head quickly shot up out of the hammock and he shouted, "S-Sid this is serious!!" He actually looked like he might start pulling hair out of his head. Perhaps this was the real reason Dutch had joined me outside…. I truly couldn't blame her. "Ugh, fine let's just do this then." I said as I picked up his giant rucksack. "W-wait! Wait wait wait, what are you doing Sid!?" Darwin shouted in panic. I just looked back at him with a completely apathetic stare, and then shoved his rucksack through one of my waypoints with my blessing. The look on Darwin's face should have been made into a painting at that point, because he actually looked like a crazy person. "Chill out Darwin, I just put it into my Vault. I don't wanna take up a bunch of room in there with your stuff so that rucksack is all you get. Find another bag and only bring essentials. We need to meet up with Pete and Navy soon to leave." I said with an annoyed tone. Luckily this seemed to completely change Darwin's mood and he went from being completely insane to a normal person in a matter of seconds.
Soon enough I was able to get Darwin out of the tree house and we made our way to the edge of the stone spire, Dutch joined us as well. When we peered down below I could see the old boat that Pete and Navy arrived on. Pete was on deck of the ship waving up at us. I realized then that I wasn't entirely sure how Darwin was planning on descending the stone spire. I knew that Dutch and I could get down without much issue, but Darwin wasn't exactly the most athletic kid I've ever seen. Sure enough, even though he wasn't the most athletic he definitely had a big brain on his shoulders. Darwin began forming a massive bubble right in front of us, and surprisingly without any fear he jumped right off of the cliff edge and into the bubble. As soon as he entered the bubble, he began slipping around inside and landed on his butt. He looked over at us with a goofy smile and said, "Don't worry guys! I got another one for you!" He shouted out as his voice was almost completely muffled inside his bubble. He then placed his palm on the wall of his bubble, and out from that spot another large bubble formed right beside it in the air. He waved for me and Dutch to hop in, but I was a bit skeptical since it was such a massive drop to the ocean… To hell with it. Simultaneously, both me and Dutch jumped over to the bubble. I only noticed mid-air that Dutch had her sword in her mouth. "W-wait!!" I yelled. But just as I yelled it, the bubble completely enveloped us inside. I really thought that Dutch's sword was going to pop the bubble… I should have known better. I looked back over at Darwin who was covering his mouth trying not to laugh. Sheesh.
Darwin lowered us down to the deck of the ship. Upon hitting the deck, the bubbles simply popped and we landed on our feet perfectly fine. It really was a useful ability he had. Pete and Navy greeted us and immediately put us to work. We had set sail and were on our way to a new destination, leaving Darwin's beloved magnifigum treehouse behind. They gave us a whole tour of the ship and let us know how we would be able to help out. It was actually really fun, I'm not sure I could even call it work. Sailing on the ocean was surely one of life's greatest pleasures. Just being able to look out over the vast sea was a treasure all on its own. The first day of sailing was mostly calm and there wasn't much work to do. Pete manned the helm while Navy showed us how all of the halyards and other various lines on the ship functioned. It was pretty straight forward for the most part. Eventually night came and we all gathered in Pete's captain quarters. He had a decent sized room with a map table at the center with a large bronze compass sat atop it. He had various maps laid across the tables with different markings indicating the currents of the sea and other important landmarks. Pete was definitely a seasoned sailor based on everything I had seen. It was quite astounding to hear him and Navy speak about all of the trips they have taken to different kingdoms to procure ingredients for their famous alcohol. Everything was going perfectly, all the way up until the storm struck us.
In the middle of the third night, our ship was struck by a massive storm. I was alone by the sound of Darwin screaming. He wasn't in the bunks we had been staying in below the deck, so I immediately went to see if he was there. I hadn't even noticed however, that the ship was rocking erratically and I was thrown off of my feet into the wall. I managed to get up despite hitting my head, and then I began hearing Dutch barking above me. I really needed to get above deck. While maintaining my balance during the swaying of the ship, I grabbed hold of the ladder and hauled myself up as quickly as I could. I burst through the hatch leading to the deck of the ship and was hit in the face by powerful wind and rain. I was instantly drenched from head to toe from the raging storm and I could barely see through the torrential downpour. Even though I could hardly see, I was able to easily make out the shapes of enormous waves moving around our ship. No wonder the ship was rocking so badly. I again heard Darwin screaming and Dutch barking and began heading in their direction. I was nearly thrown off of my feet once again but was able to grab hold of one of the masts to avoid being tossed from the ship. I finally came upon them and saw what was going on. Pete was at the helm of the ship struggling to maintain its course through the raging ocean waves. Navy was holding onto a rope that came from somewhere above and was struggling to hold onto it. That was when I saw what Dutch was barking at. She was barking up towards the direction Navy's rope was attached, and there he was. Darwin's leg was wrapped up in the rope and was swinging around through the air as he screamed frantically. The rope seemed to be hitched on some part of the mast and Navy was trying to keep Darwin from swinging all the way off of the ship and into the massive ocean waves. Navy spotted me and called through the storm, "YOU HAVE TO GET HIM!!!" I yelled back through the violent winds, "I GOT THIS!!" I ran and jumped up grabbing hold of the mast Darwin was stuck on. I gripped as hard as I could onto the wooden mast. I had to literally dig my finger tips into the wood to avoid slipping off. I must have gotten a lot stronger after training so much, because I actually felt myself easily breaking through the wood mast with my hands. I clawed my way up to the top of the mast and started inching my way across the yard in order to get to the rope Darwin was swinging from. This was an incredibly difficult task, as I was being absolutely pelted by the harsh rain and nearly pulled from the mast by the winds. All the while the ship was continuously rocking, so much so that at some point I thought we were about to be capsized. Darwin's body was actually smacked into a massive wave on the side of the ship and I truly thought we were about to lose him. Luckily the ship rocked back and Darwin was slingshotted back into the air. After seeing that, I knew I needed to take action fast. I took a leap of faith and jumped into the air and grabbed hold of the rope. I felt myself sliding down towards Darwin unintentionally because the rope was so wet. My hands burned from the rope, and I was only able to stop myself from falling off by grabbing hold of Darwin. I was holding onto him for dear life, I screamed out to him as loud as I could hoping he would hear me over the violent storm. "DARWIN!!! MAKE A BUBBLE! YOU GOTTA MAKE A BUBBLE!!" After yelling out at him, I saw him lock eyes with me for just a moment. He then closed his eyes and put both his hands out into the air as we continued to swing. Even though he was upside down and screaming in fear, I saw two bubbles begin to form out of his hands. The bubbles got bigger and bigger until they seemingly combined together and completely enveloped us. We went from being drenched by the rain to a completely dry environment within the bubble. But it didn't stop there. Darwin kept screaming and forcing the bubble to grow bigger and bigger until the entire ship was seemingly enveloped within a huge bubble. Immediately, it was like we became completely cut off from the storm. The ship was no longer rocking erratically and was floating atop the waves with ease. The rain was bouncing off of the outside of the bubble and the wind was no longer blasting us around. However, with this instant calmness I was able to see something out of the corner of my eye. While still holding onto the rope, I whipped my head around and looked out across the rolling waves. In the distance, I could have sworn I saw a person running atop the ocean waves. I wasn't sure if I was just seeing things after smacking my head in the bunk area, but I felt so certain that there was someone out there…