The Fools of Amphidor

Crab Legs and Otter Eyeballs

"So we're supposed to be getting... like... money, right?" Alfie asked as he unlocked the door to the room using a keycard that he'd gotten from Octavius, earlier.

"That's what the note said. Fortune," Claire nodded.

"Sweet..." He murmured before launching himself onto the bed, rolling into the blankets

"Ugh... you're not even gonna shower?" Claire grimaced.

"Uh... no? Everyone else smells like fish. Why shouldn't I?" Alfie laughed.

I rolled my eyes playfully and went to take my shower. By the time I was out, Alfie was back out of bed, looking kind of grumpy.

"I don't want to take one, Claire," He huffed.

"Please take one. You smell like a rotten egg," She pleaded.

"I do not!" He hissed.

"Oh my god, Alf. Just take one!" Max scoffed, "It's not gonna kill you."

Alfie seemed to grow quieter at that. He grumbled for a moment before storming off into the bathroom, arms crossed. Claire nodded to Max thankfully.

I'm not entirely sure what happened after that. I'm pretty sure I'd fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I was exhausted from the trip and from the day I'd had.

The next morning, Alfie and Max seemed closer than normal. Claire told me that Alfie had woken up in the middle of the night to go out and smoke. Max heard him get up and go out after him. Apparently, on the walk, Alfie had promised to take him out on a date after we'd returned from our trip.

Well, as long as they weren't fighting, I suppose.

Claire and I decided that we needed to go back down and talk to Graham, since Octavius wasn't going to give us any answers, but when we walked down to the boiler room, he wasn't there. It was as if he'd just vanished. We asked the other workers where he was, but they all just nervously chuckled and walked away.

Soon after, we found comfort in one of the boat's many fun things to do. Ironically enough, it was fishing. It seemed the fish people had no problem with eating and catching regular fish. In fact, they quite enjoyed it. They called normal fish 'second-rates', which Claire and I found a little unnerving, but Alfie said we'd seen enough here to know that these people were less than perfect. Then again, so were people, in the same sense.

"I caught one!" Max grinned.

"Dude, that thing is the size of my palm," Alfie snickered a little.

"Well, your face is the size of my palm, so..." Max stuck his tongue out at Alfie.

"Boys," Claire scolded.

"We're just playing, Claire. Get off my case," Alfie seemed a little flustered.

I cocked an eyebrow, "No need to get all snippy."

Alfie grunted.

Max whined, "It's okay. We were just playing."

He wrapped an arm around Alfie, pulling him close. Alfie looked up at him, a small smile playing on his lips.

We stopped fishing sometime around lunch time, when a loud bell rang out across the boat. As we stepped into the dining hall, which was getting more and more crowded by the minute, Claire gasped and grabbed my arm, pointing to the menu that hung above the buffet table.

The main item on the menu for that day was hot otter stew.

None of us particularly felt like eating after we saw that. In fact, we didn't want to be there at all. What we'd said to Octavius had potentially gotten a man killed and now we had to pay the price for that.

"This... this place is SICK!" Alfie spat as soon as we got into our rooms, "I-I don't like it here! I told you this place was weird!"

"This is not the time for 'I-Told-You-So'," Claire hissed.

"I think it's the PERFECT time for 'I-Told-You-So', CLAIRE! We're trapped on a boat to god knows where with a bunch of otter-murdering, cannibalistic FREAKS! What do we have to lose?!" Alfie growled.

"OUR LIVES, ALFIE!" Claire's words stung like venom, silencing Alfie's normally untamable gob, "If they hear you complaining, YOU might be next on the menu."

"Okay... OKAY!" I felt rather sick to my stomach from the whole ordeal, "What we've learned is that we just can't trust Octavius, right? Just don't tell Octavius anything."

"Right, but obviously he knows everyone on this ship, since he was able to find and kill Graham so quickly, so it's more like we can't tell ANYONE anything," Max scoffed.

"Or that he rounded up all the otters working below deck and..." Alfie trailed off, an expression of pure horror etched on his round features.

This seemed to upset Claire even more, "This was an awful idea! I should have just stayed home!"

"We're gonna be just fine! It's okay!" I huffed, not quite believing it myself, "We'll take turns keeping watch throughout the night, okay? To make sure nobody comes in and kills us or whatever."

We all agreed to this plan, not realizing it would be our last night to stay on the ship. If we had, we would have gotten some sleep and prepared ourselves for whatever lay ahead of us at Amphidor.

For the rest of the day, I stayed with Claire and Max stayed with Alfie. We milled about the ship as if we weren't bothered by the events prior. We definitely were, though. A few people were still eating the stew when Claire and I walked past the dining hall. I nearly threw up over the side of the boat. When I leaned over the side of the boat to do so, though, I saw something in the distance.

Standing proudly in the water, shining a light through the grey fog was a lighthouse. Claire and I looked at each other nervously as the boat approached.

"LANNNNND HOOOO!" Yelled the same voice that announced the ship's arrival, earlier.

There was rejoicing throughout the ship. People seemed excited to be home. I had a horrible feeling about this.

About an hour later, we docked on the small island's port. The ramp lowered. Octavius was the first to step down. We watched as some heavily decorated fish guards kept anyone from approaching him or going down the ramp with him. He pulled what looked to be a walkie-talkie out of his pocket and spoke into it inaudibly.

After a moment of anxious silence from the passengers, the ground began to rumble. A split opened on the island's sandy ground. None of the passengers seemed to be perturbed about this. In fact, they all seemed excited that the island was cracking right before our eyes. Claire held onto my arm. Max hugged Alfie tightly, eyes wide.

The split diverged and led down into a massive staircase. At the bottom of this staircase was a large door, embellished with some interesting symbols and swirls. The guards parted and people began down the ramp just as the door opened to reveal a path into a large city. At the top of the door in glittery gold letters was the name of the city.

This was the entrance to Amphidor.