The Innkeeper

There were only three days of briefings left, and Lex was fully motivated to begin his shenanigans, perfectly creating the appearance of someone uninterested in learning more about the Artica realm.

In truth, he was still paying attention, for everything he learned would help Jack if and when he was able to arrive in the Artica realm. The greatest trouble was finding a way for Jack to arrive, but the fairy pirate had a plan.

"Captain, the gravity eels are gaining on us," said Tiny-Sparkles, the unicorn suffering from dwarfism. His deep, reverberating voice caused a portion of the Jolly Rancher to tremble. The ship was being strengthened to survive the Void, which only barely made it capable of suffering Tiny-Sparkles voice.

On ordinary days it was not so, but today was different, because Tiny-Sparkles was agitated.

"Look, Tiny-Sparkles, we'll be fine. Don't stress, having the Gravity Eels chase us all across the Golden Sky is all a part of my plan. All you need to do is smile and wave."

The unicorn gave Jack a dismissive look, before turning away. If it weren't for the fact that Jack was unquestionably stronger than him, the unicorn would have beaten him up.

"Yes, brother Horse-with-a-large-forehead-pimple, be at ease," said the bear cub wearing beads and dressed up as a monk. "Who will enter Hell if not I? Stick to righteousness and let go of the demon in your heart. More generic monkly advice."

"Did you just say 'more generic monkly advice'?" Longbeard asked. Longbeard was the name given to the two foot tall gnome with an eight foot long beard who had joined the crew when the Jolly Rancher grew in size.

Alongside Longbeard, Monk, the bear cub, and Pebbles, the pirate hamster with prosthetic limbs, had also joined the crew, and were the dedicated troublemakers.

Monk, the bear cub who had a gross misunderstanding of actual monks, just wanted to enjoy worldly pleasures and eat a lot of meat, and thought that becoming a monk was the way to do that. Most of the time, he would just quote lines and scriptures he had seen in movies and plays.

There was one other who had inadvertently joined the crew: Goldilocks. But the crew never talked about Goldilocks.

"As long as it works," responded Monk, and took a bite out of a meat pie. No one asked where the pie suddenly appeared from.

"You doubt me too much guys," said Jack, wearing his signature smile that indicated he was about to do something crazy. But this time, the script didn't play out as everyone expected. Instead of laughing or joking, or doing something insane, Jack withdrew his smile and summoned everyone closer, erecting an isolation barrier.

"This time, we're going to do something big," Jack said. "The Gravity Eels are a distraction, so no one thinks we're moving with purpose. I need anyone who sees us to suspect we're just escaping desperately for our lives." Experience more on My Virtual Library Empire

"Isn't that exactly what we're doing?" Longbeard asked, scratching his chin.

"No, you fool. You've all known for a while that while under the guise of adventurers-"

"Pirates," Pebbles interjected.

"Under the guise of adventurers, we are secretly working to free the Fairies from a nefarious curse that prevents them from reaching the immortal realms, and grow stronger. That is why, originally, we were making our way to the Jamu region of Red Lily County, to search for possible answers. But now the plan has changed."

Jack leaned in further, and indicated that everyone came closer as well. The silence weighed heavily on the group, especially Tiny-Sparkles, who had by now started to understand the temperament of their captain a little too well.

"Under the guise of being chased by eels, we're going to make our way into the forbidden lands of the seven Dwarf Dragons. Only they have the power to allow us to-"

Jack paused, because Tiny-Sparkles had squatted down on the ground and had started crying.

"Tiny, what are you doing? Tiny, it's okay I have a plan," Jack tried to explain, but the unicorn started crying even harder the more that Lex tried to explain.

The group all looked at each other, concerned about what to do. Jack, unfortunately unable to get the unicorn to stop crying, had to divulge a bit of his true plans.

"Listen, what do dragons like more than anything?" he asked, whispering in the unicorn's ear. But he didn't wait for an answer, and continued to talk. "It's treasure. And while we don't have treasure, we do have Goldilocks…"

The unicorn suddenly stopped crying, and then turned to look at the Jolly Rancher. The ship was magnificent, there was no doubt about that. But as of late, its grandeur had increased even further, because the mainsail, which was meant to be flapping in the wind, was frozen solid, as it had turned to gold.

The damn golden duck. There was not a soul on this vessel who hadn't been partially transmuted into gold under the influence of the duck, and it was only because of Jack's fairy powers that defied logic that all of them were still normal. They all hated the duck with a vengeance, but with the mental capacity of a regular duck from back on Earth, they also found it difficult to actually blame Goldilocks.

"Speaking of Goldilocks, where is that damned duck?" Pebbles asked, looking around the deck of the ship. Of course, it didn't matter where Pebbles looked, because the hamster was wearing an eyepatch on both of its eyes today.

As if on cue, a loud, angry squeal shocked the golden clouds they were flying on, attracting everyone's attention.

"Oh no, not the eels!" Jack exclaimed as he suddenly flew back. But it was too late. As soon as he reached the end of the ship, all he saw was the sight of two ferocious Gravity Eels, turned into solid gold, somehow retaining their antigravity abilities even in this state.

Atop one of the eels head, a golden duck stood, and looked down on them with a turned head, as if confused.