Samantha Dobson had the dream she dreamed many nights before of where she woke up as a pirate on the open sea.
For the last several months she dreamed of sailing too far off, landing some other realms on a pirate ship done up to look like Viking influences in its styles.
As Samantha looked around she spotted other hammocks: small iron golems were scattered about the under deck while various bamboo golems swabbed the decks and prepared food in the gailey.
Already Samantha could smell a hardy fish stew coming from the Gailey. As she walked into the area she found a few bamboo golems play a dice game with each other that involved ten number tiles.
As Samantha walked into the gailey she noticed that the golems were communicating in sign language to each other, often very short sentences like. “You ok” , “Need a friend?” or “Help me.”
For reasons unknown to her Samantha could understand what was being communicated perfectly. A deep feeling of connection was felt between Samantha and the entire ship.
A fresh spicy fish stew was placed in front of Samantha by a short feminine bamboo golem with a chefs hat and apron with a name tag depicting the name Skipper.
Skipper signed the phrase “ For you.” And pooped down a wooden spoon by the bowel. Then as Samantha started eating a thudding started happening down the stairs in back of her then as Samantha turned around she noticed a pirate in formal red captains attire that was ornamented in gold the pirate had a grand tri corner captains hat an red leather eye patch a long ornate silver harpoon a short white beard and a black macaw parrot on his shoulder.
The red clad pirate walked gracefully over to where Samantha was sitting pulled out a seat and sat next to Samantha he also was handed a bowl of stew.
As Samantha looked at the stranger flashed back into Samantha’s mind she remembered a moment where this pirate rescued her from a sea monster a giant squid had grabbed her with one of its tentacles, but thankfully that harpoon flew out stabbed the grasping tentacle and blew it apart before teleporting back to the pirates hand.
“So it’s great to see you have recovered,” the old pirate said.
“You will need to forgive me but I can’t remember you perfectly” Samantha said
“So we are back to this. It’s me, Captain Archon, your old mate. I helped get you aboard my ship when everybody wanted nothing to do with you!”
Memories came flooding back to Samantha. She remembered a time when this captain was something far more powerful. Not a God in the Judeo Christian sense of the term but still an incredibly powerful entity capable of exerting a large measure of magical force all over the globe in one or a few ways. And these ancients were granted this power to defend the planet here. He was one of the ancients, a being who was responsible for defending humanity before guardian angels were sent to watch over people.
“Memories about you keep flooding back to me. You defended me as a global protector of some sort.” Samantha said.
“Yes indeed! You know calling yourself a God became taboo in some circles so some of us early primordial forces now simply go by the name Archon now. Even though most of us have been forgotten we still carry forth the mission of defending humanity even though much of our own gifted power has been radically reduced.” Captain Archon said.
“Is that where we are now in some kind of place where forgotten spirits live?” Samantha asked.
“OH that we are las. This whole grand wide ocean and all her islands is called the slip, a place the borders between dreams, the waking world, and any other place you dare imagine. Do you want to see the land of the dead or the realm of faeries? Well those worlds can be accessible through islands on the slip. These waters her Las hold winds to to help you sail everywhere you wish to go but many varieties of demons will try to snatch your soul while you’re here so best be on your guard.”
“My Soul?”
“Yes las. As long as you sail the slip all manner of demons will resent you and have their way with you but fear not for as long as you sail upon the Silver Harpoon you got a walking form with your old captain you got yourself a walking form as long as you stand on her decks and friendly islands, and with that nothing can do you permanent harm. You will just wake up fresh as a daisy in your home plane ready to come back the next night.”
“Why did I come here in the beginning, and why do I keep coming back?”
“Oh Samantha there is only one reason folk come here and that is to reclaim a piece of their soul taken from them, and when too many soul pieces get taken from somebody then all they can do is return back here, but don’t worry las the Silver Harpoon will hunt down the sea demon what stole the your piece from you.”
Samantha just looked down dejectedly and wondered what was left for her to do to resolve the conflict in front of her. What could she do? Would things ever be resolved?
“Can anything be done?” Samantha asked
“OH dont worry las as I said before as long as the silver harpoon still swims the sky’s the limit for what can be done. The guns on this fish can put a hole through the eye of the devil himself. As long as you keep your feet on deck and follow orders with your ship guns you will be safe and deadly. And if anything creeps up on deck our iron blades will cut them down.” Captain Archon said as he clapped his hand on Samantha’s shoulder and started to lead her up to the upper deck.
