Calvin and Nathan were pulling with all their might, kicking their feet as fast as they could. After tugging and pulling, they were finally starting to get somewhere with uprighting the DreamChaser. The ship was beginning to move; the undisturbed sand on the seafloor was starting to get disturbed.
"She's finally giving in," Nathan said as he took one hand off of his rope and pointed down at the DreamChaser, "it's about time!"
"She must've been really stuck in the sand," Calvin suggested, "that's why she was being so stubborn."
As they continued pulling and kicking their feet, they watched as the DreamChaser slowly began to right herself. None of this would've been possible if Calvin and Nathan weren't assisting her. The wooden hull of the ship creaked and groaned. The disturbed sand began forming clouds of sand, quickly engulfing the entire ship in the cloud of sand.
Then, just as Calvin and Nathan were giving it their all, their ropes suddenly got looser. After all of their hard work, their efforts paid off. There was a sudden loud boom sound as the DreamChaser's left side came crashing back down onto the seabed. No more was she lying on her side. They were one step closer to raising her. Thomas and Calvin both let go of their ropes, giving each other a high-five. After they did that, they began swimming back down towards the ship.
As for Daniel and Darron, they were starstruck as to how strong Calvin and Thomas truly were. As they watched the DreamChaser get uprighted, Daniel and Darron noticed the damage the ship had sustained on her portside, lower hull. The imprint of how the ship was lying on the seafloor was noticed by Daniel and Darron.
The portside hull was severely decomposed. The spruce wood planks that made up the ship's entire hull were covered in dark green moss. The name DreamChaser that was painted in white near the top of the bow was faded; the name almost unreadable.
"Hey guys!" Calvin said, projecting his voice just loud enough for Daniel and Darron to hear him, "common down. You don't want to miss out on the best part," Calvin continued as he waved his right arm around in the air.
As Daniel and Darron began swimming back over to the ship, they saw Thomas and Martin down below patching up the hole in the hull. They weren't using spruce wood planks. Instead they were using glass blocks. If the voyage was going to continue, Daniel would need to make sure they wouldn't encounter another fatal blow to the ship. Glass was fragile. It wasn't meant to be used on a ship's hull.
But that didn't matter too much. Daniel wasn't going to make the same mistake he made the other night. Sailing through the foggy Sirens' Cove was a judgement call Daniel mistakenly made. His judgement was clouded by his depression. You couldn't blame him for trying to move past what Nightmare and the Golem Monster did, could you?
Daniel and Darron swam over onto the main deck, the very place where Daniel had touched the DreamChaser moments ago. Calvin and Nathan were waiting for them over by the hatchway. It was the hatchway that led down to the lower decks of the DreamChaser. As the clouds of sand began to settle, the deck began to get covered in a thin layer of sand.
"Come down here with us," Calvin said, "this next part is going to be super cool!" He continued on to say as he swam down through the hatchway. Nathan swam down through the hatchway after him. Darron swam over to the hatchway, but stopped when he noticed that Daniel wasn't following them. He turned around to look back over at Daniel.
"You coming Daniel?" Darron asked.
Daniel was looking back over his left shoulder at his cabin. When Darron asked him if he was coming, he looked back over at him. He slightly shook his head from side to side. "No, you go. I'm going to go back to my cabin and wait there."
Darron sighed. He shrugged his shoulders as he stared back over at Daniel. "But they said--," Darron began to say as Daniel interrupted him.
"I know what they said," Daniel reiterated. "I'm staying up here in my cabin, okay?"
Darron raised his hands up as he looked away from Daniel. "Okay, okay," Darron said, "just don't come out on deck until we're on the surface again."
"Didn't plan on it, but I appreciate your concern. Now go. Go down below deck. We'll reconvene once it's safe to do so."
"Please be careful," Darron said.
As Daniel began swimming over to his cabin door, which was covered in barnacles and slimy lime-green colored algae, he looked back over his right shoulder back over at Darron. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."
"Okay," Darron said as he watched Daniel swim over to his cabin door. He began pushing the door; it swung open slowly. Once he swam into his cabin, Darron swam down through the hatchway. He went all the way down to the bottom deck, where it was somewhat dark.
Because Nathan and Martin were using glass to patch the hole up in the hull, the light from outside was shining into the, what used to be dark, deck. Calvin and Nathan were next to each other. Thomas and Martin finished placing the last of the glass blocks where the hole was. Once they finished doing that, the exciting part could now begin.
"Where's Daniel?" Calvin asked as he glanced over at Darron.
"He's staying up in his cabin," Darron answered, "he didn't tell me why though."
"You mustn't worry," Thomas said, "he'll be safe in there, I promise you that."
When Calvin and Nathan looked back over at Thomas and Martin, a familiar voice spoke up from behind them. Emerging from the darkness was none other than King Xavier himself. The real King Xavier, not another imposter one like before. Calvin and Thomas were super surprised to see him. His hands were tied behind his back, his golden crown missing from his head, and his golden armor missing. What happened to him, you ask?
"My King," Calvin said as he and Nathan both quickly bowed before their King. "You're alive and well? What happened to you? Did the Sirens hurt you?"
King Xavier looked over at Calvin. He slowly shook his head from side to side. "Surprisingly, no. No they didn't."
Light from outside the ship was shining through the glass patch of where the hole originally was. There was just enough light to see everyone. King Xavier wasn't looking so good emotionally and mentally. Whatever the Sirens did to him, must've traumatized him.
"Did you stop the Sirens from invading MineLantis?" King Xavier asked Calvin and Nathan. The two of them looked over at each other and then back over at the King. They both nodded their heads in response.
"Yes," Calvin said.
"Good," King Xavier said, "and--and is the trident safe?"
"Indeed," Nathan said.
"Phew," King Xavier said, "I was worried that they might have finally gotten their hands on it. So the trident is still locked away in its secret location, yes?"
Calvin faintly smiled. He shook his head though. That was something King Xavier wasn't expecting him to do. What he was expecting was for Calvin to respond with a simple yes or no. But he didn't.
"It's safe and in the right hands," Calvin said. "My friend Daniel is keeping it with him in his inventory at all times. No, he's not a bad guy. I trust him, and so should you, my King. He's the one you should be thanking for defending MineLantis. Sure, we were fighting the Sirens in hand on hand combat, but he was the one that called out to the creatures of the ocean to come and scare the Sirens away."
King Xavier looked all around him. To his left, and to his right. Behind him, and in front of him. But this supposed Daniel wasn't anywhere to be seen. He scratched his head a couple of times.
"And where is this Daniel at right now?" King Xavier asked, "I'd like to meet him if at all possible."
"I'm afraid that's going to have to wait, my King," Martin said, "we're going to forcefully drain the water from the inside of the ship first."
Nathan, Calvin, Martin, and Thomas all scattered. Nathan and Calvin swam back over to the hatchway, swimming up to the next deck. Calvin stayed behind on the deck, while Nathan continued going up to the next deck. King Xavier, Martin and Thomas all stayed behind on the lowest deck. He had this strange feeling that this part was going to be a bit bumpy. And indeed, it would be.
"Everyone take your tridents out of your inventory," Martin said as loudly as he could, making sure that everyone would be able to hear him okay. They all did, following the simple instructions Martin was giving them. "Everybody ready?"
From the deck just above where Martin and King Xavier were, Calvin shouted. His voice was very muffled, but was still able to be heard just enough. As for Nathan, he couldn't be heard. His voice was so quiet that it was difficult to figure out what he was trying to say. As long as he heard Martin, on the other hand, everything would be just fine.
"On my mark, set your tridents down," Martin shouted as he quickly glanced over at King Xavier. "You might want to hold onto something sturdy, my King."
King Xavier looked right over at one nearby wooden post. He quickly swam over to it, tightly wrapping his arms around it. After he did that, he looked over at Martin and nodded his head slightly. "Ready."
"On my mark," Martin shouted, "three...two...one! Now!"
Three loud banging noises were heard as Martin, Nathan, Calvin, and Thomas all slammed their tridents down onto the wooden floor.
SHING!
BANG!
Everyone was holding their tridents tightly in their grasp, trying their very best to not let their hands slip. Once everyone's tridents hit the floors, a big air bubble began to form. As the bubble of air grew larger and larger, it forcefully began pushing the water out of the inner decks of the ship. Loud dripping sounds were heard where the water no longer was.
From outside, water began spewing out of open portholes, with micro bubbles being shot out from inside the ship. As the water continued to exit, the weight of the DreamChaser began to get lighter and lighter. Eventually, the bottom of the ship began rising up off of the seafloor slowly. The ship leaned back as the bow pitched upwards.
Inside Daniel's cabin, Daniel is standing over in the rear corner of his room where his bed used to be. The paintings of the memories he shared with Petra were missing. All of the books that were on the bookshelves just the other night, littered the floor of Daniel's cabin. His desk had fallen over, while his desk chair was broken and in pieces. The lanterns that once lit his cabin were wet and covered in lime-green colored algae. The chains that the lanterns hung down from were rusty and brown. The chest on the other side of his cabin was open; its contents spilled out everywhere.
Daniel's journal that was on his desk the other night was nowhere to be seen. From what Daniel was starting to realize, someone must've looted his cabin and other parts of the ship. There's no way the impact the ship had once it landed on the seafloor couldn't have caused everything to be tossed around. There was no way that was possible. Or maybe, however, it was? Daniel didn't really care too much about finding out what caused his room to be so messy.
Once the ship surfaced once again, and the remainder of the water drained from the ship and his cabin, Daniel was going to make it a priority of his to clean everything up, starting by putting the books back on the shelves, and the contents back into the chest. From there, he would go on to fix his broken desk chair, and upright his desk. He would then unclip the lanterns from the chains carefully so that they could be taken outside to dry and get the algae cleaned off of them.
As the ship continued to make its way back up to the surface, four wooden rafts were drifting in the water nearby Sirens' Cove. Everyone that had escaped from the Volcanic Island the night prior to today were on the rafts. Ava and Annabelle were sitting on the edge of the raft that they were on. They were swinging their feet back and forth in the water as they watched the tropical fish swim around just under their feet and the surface.
Notch and Ceres were standing at the back of the raft. Notch was controlling the long, skinny single oar. He pulled the handle of the oar in an up and down fashion, which in turn made the rafts propel slowly forward.
"Ava!" Annabelle said as she glanced over at Ava briefly, then looking and pointing back down at the water. Ava, in turn, leaned forward slightly to look down at the water. Near their feet, two baby puffer fish were swimming. Ava and Annabelle both quickly pulled their feet up and out of the water. But they didn't take their eyes off of the two puffer fish. As they watched the two puffer fish continue swimming around, they both saw a large object rising up towards them.
"Papa!" Ava shouted as she quickly turned her head around to look over at her mom and dad. Natasha and Frank turned their heads to look over at her.
"What is it sweetheart?" Frank asked.
Frank was Ava's father, and husband to Natasha.
"There's something coming up from underwater," Ava answered as Annabelle turned around and also looked over at Frank and Natasha. Frank and Natasha walked over to them to see what they were talking about. When they both leaned over and looked down into the water, they saw what it was that was rapidly rising. It was a ship! Natasha and Frank both took one step back from the edge of the raft, grabbing Ava and Annabelle's hands.
They pulled Ava and Annabelle away from the side of the raft, wrapping their arms around them to hold them tightly. Just after they did that, the bow of the ship came shooting up out of the water. The arch that reached out over the front of the bow was made of copper. But because the ship was underwater for a decent period of time, the copper turned from a reddish-brown color to a bright teal color. It must've started to rust and weather as the ship sat at the bottom of the ocean.
The bow came crashing back down into the water, causing a huge wave of water to rush over to the rafts. Luckily though, the wave wasn't powerful enough to tip the rafts over. But the wave did get everyone really, really wet. The ship then leveled out, rocking back and forth from side to side.
Water rushed down the side of the ship as the main deck of the ship began to dry up. Everyone was in shock and starstruck. They all recognized this ship. It was no ordinary pirate ship you see sailing around in the ocean, no.
The name painted on the side of this massive wooden ship was barely readable, but still able to be seen. Even though the lettering was covered in slimy algae and barnacles.
"No way!" Ceres said as he sand everyone else on the four rafts stared at the ship, "it's the--"
"S.S DreamChaser!" Notch said as he finished what Ceres was going to originally say.
"How is this possible?" Ceres asked as he tried to piece together how the DreamChaser was afloat once more. The last time Ceres and Notch were onboard her was when she sank three nights ago thanks to the Sirens. The last thing Ceres could recall, there was a massive hole in the hull. A hole big enough to let massive amounts of water enter the ship. There's just no way she could be afloat.
So, he rubbed his eyes with his hands a couple of times. When he reopened his eyes, the DreamChaser was still there. This wasn't a dream after all. This was real.
"Hello down there!" A loud, shouting voice said from on the main deck of the ship. Everyone looked up, noticing that there was a blockhead staring back down at them. The blockhead they were seeing was Calvin. In his right hand, he was holding his golden trident, while he waved down at everyone with his left hand.
There was another faint voice heard from behind Calvin. He turned around to look at the blockhead who was talking to him. Notch looked over at Ceres, tapping him on his shoulder. Ceres turned around to look at Notch.
"Take this, would you?" Notch asked.
"Sure," Ceres responded as Notch handed the oar over to him. After he did that, Notch gently lifted up off of the raft and flew up to the main deck. When he landed on the deck, the oak wooden planks under his feet creaked.
Daniel opened the door to his cabin and walked back out onto the main deck. When he did, he instantly noticed Notch and looked over at him.
"Notch?" Daniel questioned, "is that you?"
Notch looked over at Daniel and smiled brightly at him. He ran over to Daniel with his arms held out in front of him. Daniel smiled back at him as he held his arms out in front of him as well.
"I can't believe it," Notch said, "you're okay. Thank goodness. We were all so worried that you and Darron didn't make it out after that rogue wave."
After they stopped hugging, they both took a step back from one another. They were so happy to see each other once again. It's been two days since they last saw one another. Both of them have been through so much, both explored new parts of the OverWorld, and have surely been through a lot physically and mentally.
"Did you guys happen to find an island or something? Where's all the hot air balloons?" Daniel asked.
Notch lifted his hand so that he could scratch the back of his head. He looked away from Daniel briefly. "About that," he said.
"What happened to you guys?" Daniel asked again.
"You see, we found land," Notch responded, "we almost had a bad accident. A duck flew into one of the balloons, tearing a hole right into the balloon. Thankfully though, Victoria and Frederick came to our assistance at just the right time. If they hadn't, we would've crashed right down into the ocean. Oh, I couldn't forget about Merlin, Leona, and Luna either. Turns out, they hadn't died when the T.N.T bomb went off when we were fighting the Golem Monster and Nightmare."
"They're alive?" Daniel asked in a shocked and surprised tone, "but how?"
Notch shrugged his shoulders. "Not clear. But at least they're alive and well. They did, however, tell us that they've been looking for us ever since the DreamChaser set sail a few weeks ago."
"Well I'm glad to hear they're okay. Where are they now?" Daniel asked.
"Something about going off to find land. That's what they told me. We did find land, but it wasn't safe at all. We ran into your old friend Henry as well. He's the one that saved us from the erupting volcano."
"Henry? As in the Henry that betrayed his people and helped the Brine Family? That Henry, right?" Daniel questioned.
Notch nodded his head. "There's so much we need to talk about. So much to catch you up on," he said as he looked at the turtle shell Daniel was wearing on his head. "Say, why are you wearing a turtle shell on your head?"
Daniel chuckled as he reached up to take the turtle shell off of his head. When he did, he held it in his hands. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Notch smiled as he put his hands behind his back. As the two of them began walking back over to the side of the ship, Daniel answered Notch's question as best as he could.
"Turns out, the underwater Kingdom of MineLantis is real. After we saved Ava, we were saved by two Minelantians. Borris and Calvin are their names," Daniel said as he pointed over at Calvin.
Calvin was talking to Nathan and King Xavier. Notch looked over at them, examining them very closely. "Did they help you raise the DreamChaser?"
Daniel nodded his head. "Indeed they did," he said, "now let's get everyone else back on board. There's one last thing we need to do before the voyage can resume once again."
"What's that?" Notch questioned.
"We have some unfinished business with the Sirens that needs tending to," Daniel said.
"Sirens?" Notch questioned, "you mean those creatures that sank our ship a few nights ago?"
"Yes," Daniel said, "those Sirens."