As the sun started to descend, Celt Tip began to quiet down. The only sound came from Harmony prancing in circles outside the Wizard Fairy's house. She kicked up sand and examined it.
Inside the house, Dr. Snugglekins whipped up a pot of tea. He used a camping stove because the house didn't have a built-in one.
Merlin sat in one of the gray-clothed chairs with leaf and white flower designs, thoughtfully scratching his beard.
Selene, on the other hand, was at the bed where Ash rested comfortably under the covers. She had pulled up a wooden chair beside it so she could be with her apprentice.
While he rested, Selene gently massaged his cheek and pulled hair out of his face. "Please," she silently begged, "I just want my carefree apprentice back."
Dr. Snugglekins soon finished his tea and grabbed a tray from a cabinet. He put the kettle on, along with four tea cups and a few cookies. Approaching Merlin, he asked, "You're thinking about your own apprentice, right?"
Merlin said nothing, but went ahead and nodded. The doctor offered him some tea, and Merlin accepted a cup.
While Dr. Snugglekins passed him, he smiled and said, "Hey, don't worry. I'm sure Tracey's fine." He next shuffled to the bed. "Aluna, Selene. Has he fallen asleep?"
"No, sir," Selene nervously answered, shaking her head.
Dr. Snugglekins smiled. "Oh, good!" Leaning toward Ash, he asked, "Why don't you go ahead and open your eyes, Ash?"
Ash did. He could hear him, and that was a good sign. "Good boy," Dr. Snugglekins continued. He offered him the tray of tea and cookies. "I have some delicious Coutarinian tea. It's a common tea here on Coutarine Island, made from the spices and berries that only grow in the island's jungles. It's also a great remedy for concussion victims. I'll tell ya, kid, one sip of this tea, and your headache will vanish. I put a little juice from the Crusha Fruit in it, so it will also help you get a good night's sleep."
Ash gave him a funny look.
Selene soon patted his shoulder. "Listen to him, son. He's a doctor."
A doctor? Ash thought to himself. I thought doctors were for sick people. I'm not sick! What are these peoples' problem?
Dr. Snugglekins soon handed him a cup of tea, as well as a cookie, and told Selene, "Madam Selene, the boy's able to think, and that's a good omen, but his mind is still a total blank. He just can't remember us."
Remember? Ash asked himself. What's with this whole remember thing? I've never seen you people in my life.
Selene met eyes with Dr. Snugglekins and explained in a choked voice, "I know. He can't even remember Harmony. Her heart's been shattered. She didn't eat her hay tonight. Oh, doc, will my apprentice ever be the same?"
"Only time will tell," he answered, examining Ash.
He had discovered a keychain with a few keys on the counter beside him and shook them like a baby. He held his cookie between his teeth.
Dr. Snugglekins took the keys from him, only to get Ash upset, and he reached for them. "It starts with Crusader. He has to get Crusader back."
A question mark appeared over Ash's head.
Dr. Snugglekins's next words were, "The good news is that he's young, so he's very strong. He's fighting this brain injury with everything he's got. I'm optimistic. I really think we're going to pull him through this."
It wasn't long until Ash swallowed his cookie. With his free hand, he tugged the doctor's sleeve.
"Yes?" he asked, setting the tray down.
Ash opened his mouth, his lips twitching. It took a few minutes, but he managed to stutter, "Wha-What's a Cru-Crusader?" His voice was weak, but just that one line and the sound of his distinct Scottish accent were enough to make not only Selene but also Dr. Snugglekins's day.
Selene's small smile turned into a grin, and she announced, "Ash! You're talking!" She grabbed him and pulled him into another tight hug.
Dr. Snugglekins grinned, too. "He is! He hasn't even lost his Scottish accent!"
Ash soon pushed out of Selene's arms and reached for his throat. "Why-Why does my-my voice sound we-weird?"
Merlin turned in his chair and peeked over the top of it.
Selene soon patted Ash's shoulder and said, "Your voice sounds like that because you have an accent, and you also haven't talked in a while. You see, my young friend, you're from Scotland."
"Sco-Scotland? Where the heck is Sco-Scotland?"
Dr. Snugglekins chuckled. "I'll leave you two alone for a bit." He shuffled to the tray of tea and cookies and picked it up. He offered a cup to Selene, but she shook her head. Nodding understandingly, Dr. Snugglekins handed Ash the keys. As he left, he smiled and pointed at the cup he held. "Drink. You'll feel better." Then just like that, he left and went into the living room.
Ash watched him go, and then peered down at the cup. He took a sip and yelled, "Ow!"
Dr. Snugglekins immediately turned. "Is he okay?"
"Yeah!" Selene called. "He just burned his lips trying to drink the tea." She smiled sweetly at Ash and took the cup out of his hands. "Here."
Ash placed his hands in his lap and focused on Selene.
She gently blew on the tea and held the cup out to him. "This should be better."
"Than-Thanks," Ash quietly stuttered. Retrieving the cup, he brought it to his lips again and took a sip. His headache immediately eased, and he started to calm down.
When Dr. Snugglekins reached the living room, he set the tea tray on top of the small refrigerator. He reached for a cup, but stopped when his eyes caught Merlin.
He sat cross-legged on his chair, his head buried in his hands.
Taking a deep breath, Dr. Snugglekins kept the cup he reached for on the tray and approached him. He took Merlin's shoulder and comfortably told him, "Hey, don't be so down, Merlin. You'll see Tracey again. Makenna will be there, and they will take down Poseidon together. Come on, what's the worst that could happen?"
An instant after he asked that, Merlin and Selene, along with him, heard a thump at the door. All three immediately looked up and focused on it.
Within seconds, the door opened, and in flew Evelyn, followed closely by Silvey. The sprite looked frantic and yelled, "Makenna's run away!"
Dr. Snugglekins froze. Then, with his hand still on Merlin's shoulder, he pointed at the door and admitted, "That's pretty bad."
"Run away?" Merlin shrieked. He hopped to his feet and focused on the sprite. "What do you mean by 'run away'? What happened?"
For that round, Silvey spoke, but her voice was full of fear: "Well, Ethelinda was trying to teach her about sword fighting. Makenna wasn't doing well, so she gave up. She took herself and Crusader and dove into the ocean for Seabrook Island!"
"Whoa, wait!" Dr. Snugglekins interrupted, holding up his hands. "Makenna took Crusader with her to Seabrook Island?"
"Yes! Ethelinda told her she could in case she changed her mind, but I don't think she's going to. We're doomed! We're all going to get devoured by The Mincing!"
Merlin immediately kneeled to Silvey and tried to calm her.
Dr. Snugglekins, on the other hand, glanced back at Ash.
He shook the keychain again.
Dr. Snugglekins soon clenched his fists and yelled, "Ash!"
Yelping, Ash lowered the keychain and held it before him like a shield. "Wha-What?"
Dr. Snugglekins planted his feet and gestured at him. "I've got a mission for you tomorrow!"
"Huh?" frightfully asked Ash.
"Huh?" Selene said, too.
Dr. Snugglekins crossed his arms and approached the bed. "Tomorrow, you will travel to Seabrook Island and seek out Makenna Delling."
"No!" Selene yelped, pulling Ash close to her breasts for the second time. "Are you insane, doc? My baby boy is not flying to Seabrook Island in his condition!"
"I apologize, Selene, but that's the only way he's going to get Crusader back."
"No!" Selene hugged Ash tighter. "Don't you see? He's got a permanent brain injury! I'm not letting him go alone!"
"He won't be," Dr. Snugglekins calmly said. He rested his hand on the bed's headboard. "I'm going to send Evelyn and Silvey with him. If you want, you can go, too, but I prefer you don't. Retrieving Crusader should only be between Ash, Makenna, and Evelyn. If you do decide to go, Selene, you should probably hang around your sailboat."
"But I'm worried about him." Selene released Ash, and he started to play with the keys again. "Look at him! He's playing with a keychain like a baby!"
"Relax," said Dr. Snugglekins. "He's not going to be like this tomorrow. The whole reason why this babyish behavior is happening is that it's his first day of resurrection. Just let him get a good night's sleep tonight, and he'll be fine. Please, Madam Selene, I know how you feel, but he needs Crusader. He needs to teach Makenna about Special Spells before it's too late."
Selene gulped, and her eyes scanned Ash.
He yawned and pressed his head against his pillow. With the keychain still in his hand, he closed his eyes and tilted his head to the left. Ash yawned one last time, and then he was out.
Once he breathed silently, Selene rubbed tears from her eyes and caressed his cheek again, trying to make up her mind. She didn't want Ash to travel all the way to Seabrook Island, but Dr. Snugglekins had a good point.
After some intense thinking, Selene finally shook her head and said, "Okay! Okay, fine! He can travel to Seabrook Island, as long as Silvey and Evelyn are with him for all twenty-four hours." Selene glanced at Silvey and Evelyn. "Just please," she begged, "I don't want him to get hurt again."
***
As much as the scuba diver wanted Tracey to leave, he didn't.
He, instead, tried to entertain him with a magic show. "Want to see a magic show?" Tracey waved his hand, and a box appeared beside him. From it emerged a waving woman. "Watch this!" Tracey added. "This is the sawing a woman in half trick!" A saw appeared in his hand, and he closed the lid of the box with his other hand.
Gina and Alexandria covered their eyes and shook as he started to saw away.
Afterward, with a smile on his face, Tracey glanced into the box, but turned green. "OMG! Are humans really this gross inside?" He coughed and quickly shooed the box away. "Never mind! Let's pretend that didn't happen. How about I sing a song, instead?"
"Uh, no, thank you," the diver nervously said. "I think I'm just going to return to my boat."
"Aw, but we were having fun together."
"You cut a woman in half! Literally!"
"True, but that doesn't always happen. That was just a mistake. If you want, I can get your camera to make up for it."
No! Alexandria frightfully mouthed, bringing her fins to her head.
Too late. Tracey had already started swimming into the crevice where the camera had fallen. It rested at the bottom, pinned against two rocks. Seaweed brushed against his cheek as he dug into the sand and pulled it out. "I've got it! Man, I love this Merfairy transformation!" Excitement bubbled inside him, and he squeezed back through the crevice. While he did so, he held the camera over his head and announced, "Here it is!" However, though, Tracey didn't see the scuba diver. He'd vanished. "What the—?" he asked. "Where'd he go?" Right after he asked that, his eyes caught a figure swimming toward the surface of the ocean, his flippers flapping frantically. "There he is!" Tracey hurried after the escaping scuba diver.
Behind, Alexandria called, "Tracey, stop! He's going to get your picture if you return that camera!"
Tracey didn't care. After all the attention he got for saving the Veendam, he wanted to make friends with every human he saw. As fast as a bullet, he zoomed through the ocean and burst his head out of it. Soggy hair flapped over his face, and Tracey watched as it changed back to pure black. Before him, further away, sat a white motorboat.
The scuba diver grabbed a ladder and quickly pulled himself aboard. He pulled his mask off his face to reveal a young man, maybe in his late twenties.
Another man on the boat hurried to help him out. "What's wrong?" he inquired. "Why do you look like you saw a ghost?"
"Drive!" the scuba diver shouted at the boat's driver, another of his friends. "Get us out of here!"
"Why?" the driver asked. "What did you see?"
"Just drive! I've now realized that this area is even more dangerous than I thought! Go!"
"Okay! Okay!" The diver's friends worked together to pull up the motorboat's anchor. As soon as they did, they turned it on, and the boat sped toward the island Tracey had seen.
Left behind, he yelled, "Wait!" and held the camera over his head. "You forgot your camera!"
The boat didn't come back. They left Merlin's apprentice floating in the ocean.
Turning his head, he peered back at the clouds that still flashed with different-colored lightning and were drawing nearer by the minute. When he turned back around, he cautiously examined Emilee and Jesse's so-called island. Through the dusk of day and into sunset, he noticed that lights, one by one, were turning on. "What the—?" Tracey said. "I don't remember Emilee and Jesse's island being that inhabited."
Alexandria soon poked her head out of the ocean, as well as Gina. "Are you crazy, Tracey?" she snapped. "What were you thinking when you saw that human? That could have gone wrong very fast!"
"I just wanted to make a friend," Tracey said, upset. "After what happened on the Veendam—"
"That's not how the Merfairy transformation works," Alexandria explained in a slightly annoyed voice. "We have to teach you, Tracey. You're even more clueless than I thought." Suddenly, she yelled, "Get down!" and pushed Tracey's head underwater with her fin.
Gina had to stay on the surface because the spell Tracey cast on her, which let her breathe underwater temporarily, had worn off. She quickly moved out of the way as another boat zoomed past her and her friends, heading for the island as well.
Underwater, Tracey inhaled and whispered, "Whoa." He felt a presence behind him and then heard a small roar. Tracey whirled around, and his eyes caught the Kraken swimming toward him and Alexandria. "What are you doing this close to the surface?" he asked the beast. "Why are you no longer camouflaged?"
"Come on," Gene groaned. "I want to be a part of the adventure, too. Besides, I like you."
"Really?" Tracey smiled. "All right, fine. You can come along. I'm going to swim to Emilee and Jesse's island and see what the heck is going on there."
"Um, Tracey," nervously spoke Alexandria, "I don't think that's a good idea. About Emilee and Jesse…"
"Chillax." Tracey held his hand up to Gene. "We'll be careful. This time, I am going to stay underwater the whole way. Madam Alexandria, I know how you feel, but Emilee and Jesse need to know I'm okay."
While he said that, the Kraken lifted the tip of one of his tentacles and wrapped it around his wrist.
The two of them started forward, but Alexandria shouted, "Wait! Tracey, that's not the island you're looking for! Listen to me! You're putting your identity and the Kraken's in jeopardy!"
"We'll be careful!" Tracey called back. "I promise." Then just like that, he and Gene disappeared into the blue Atlantic Ocean.