After hours of gathering information, they all regrouped back where they split up to share their findings. Each party had a copy of the same flier.
On one side, the wanted poster of 'The girl on a big brown dog'. On the other, poster of Ana and declaration by Marblemen authority that the whole city would be razed to the ground for the establishment of new Marblemen headquarters on the island. A declaration by Zack Marblehead.
"Sure – surely they mean just the architecture… right?" Rwby stuttered.
"Marblemen don't allow evacuation." Tom's voice shaky with his complexion gone pale. "The last island they destroyed… Falk Island… they… they razed everything… everyone…"
"We have to go back. Back to Ana." Said Adonna.
"Absolutely not!" Davy protested. "Are you insane?"
"He's right he's – it says they will bomb Ana on 22nd." Came Rwby, voice laced with timbre of fear. "They have those flying ships… airships. We'll only get caught in it even if we manage to return in time."
"So what? Just forget about it?" Tom lashed out. His fury quickly crumbled apart as his voice broke. "That's… that's my home… everyone I've ever known."
"Oh, Tom."Adonna embraced him in a hug.
Quietness took the air for short moments that felt more dragged out with everyone debating in their heads.
"The bombing date, 22nd." Said Rwby. "Same day as the end of Sagittarius calendar. Can't be a coincidence. I think Marblemen are already in Ana and it's a message for us to surrender."
"It's a bluff." Davy concluded.
"Would you call it bluff if it was your home in danger?" Tom snapped.
"We don't have the means to do anything about it anyways, Tom!"
"The means or the time?" Came Adonna. "You are just obsessed with finding this Sea Majestic that nothing else matters."
"Forget it." Tom hissed. "I'm going back with or without you."
Davy grabbed him back before he could exit the alley. "Then go die with them huh?"
"What do you care?"
"Ha? I really don't!"
"Then get your mittens off me or else…"
"Make me!"
Their seething aggression broke beyond words, they seized each other's collars on the verge of wrestling if not that the others jumped in between them.
All eyes turned to Klein like the tie-breaker.
He suggested they instead divert Marblemen's attention from Ana. If Marblemen knew exactly where they were then there wouldn't be a threat to decimate an island just to lure them out. Unless the bombing had nothing to do with them – in which case, it would be meaningless even if they were to surrender. "It's been a long road and we're all exhausted right now. How about rest tonight, figure out how to confirm the Bombing is a ploy to get us to surrender or not? Tomorrow is the 18th we still have days."
Everyone could agree to that, most importantly Tom.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They found accommodation at an inn. The aroma of cooked seafood made stomachs growl. Tom however left the table without touching his lunch.
"Did you guys find anything useful?" Asked Davy.
Adonna shot a disappointed glance at him. Without a word she left too; her chowder half eaten.
Little Bear tailed along.
Hela used to host a sport called Sharke Games by this time of the year. Same way Ana reared Thunderhoofs for their quick trains, Hela kept Sharkes for that game. More than just a game, it was their culture as they had at least two pairs of Astrid Sharkes each year for as long as the games had been around. People from other islands used to gather in Hela to watch this sport.
"Just like Dona's carnival!" Exclaimed Rwby.
All their Sharkes were lost when Marblemen invaded however, Klein added. He recounted the interesting event which occurred earlier that day. A Sharke had been found. Whispers of the news had been circulated amongst Riders. To keep it hidden from Marblemen, they had elected to keep the news from the public as well – after all they couldn't host the games having only one Sharke.
That was about all they learned all day – nothing about Reflected map.
"Reflected map? Why is it even called Reflected map in the first place?" Asked Rwby. As Klein reopened the Treasure hunter's notes, she answered herself. "Because the General's journey said 'Where the sea reflects the skies and extinguishes the sun.' What does that sound like?"
"Err…"
"Sunset." She answered again.
"Huh! And once it gets dark the night sky is reflected by the sea." Davy added.
"It's all making sense!" Klein realised. "The why, when and where."
"Hela is Origin for tracking the Sea Majestic." Continued Davy.
"The map reveals itself on sea surface reflected from the sky at sundown." Rwby added.
"And Hela from the cliffs faces west of the ocean. Same direction of Chiron's arrow… the Sagittarius arrow." Klein concluded. "But you know, Pebbleton, even if the Sea Majestic knows everything from where to find another Serenitea to lost treasures, we might be reaching a crossroad between it and the whole population of Ana. As captain, your choice will decide everything. I just don't want it to divide us, you know?"
With Klein's words ringing in his mind,
Davy found Adonna just a short walk from the inn. She was with Tom taking in a view of Hela's cliffs. Whatever they were discussing and giggling about, it looked like they hadn't a worry in the world.
He retreated into the parlour of another establishment across from their inn.
There,
A group of sailors barged in, carolling a sea song. Three drunk men roaring jarring voices and a woman that seemed to be the least tanked-up one managing their misdemeanours. They joined Davy alone at the bartender's counter.
"500 bottles!" Ordered Rik, the hairiest of them sporting a rough mane and muttonchops. "And Mara… Mara… get 'er a… a candy."
"You're flat broke, Rik… flat… like Mara's chest… just flat." Ford, the shortest of them gesticulated as he spoke. Voice strangled with drunken slurring and one of his eyes swollen from a recent blow. Mara slapped the back of his head for that comment.
The last one named Trusty, bald as a baboon's backside, gawked at Davy, puffing breath thick with the tang of spirits. "Might I challenge you to a… drinking contest, good sir? Loser pays for them drinks."
"I don't drink." Davy replied.
All of them chorused at once, "WHYY?"
All four of them gawking at him for an answer, he stuttered. "I – am a teenager."
"And I'm a birdie…" Ford spread his arms and leaned back against into the air. He fell out his bench.
"Nnnn…nope you ain't no teenager, I can tell ya that." Said Rik.
Mara leaned in for a point-blank view of Davy's face. Her nose so tiny, you'd wonder how she could breathe through that thing. "Men can look up to10 years younger simply by shaving them beards off. But I know me old man's mates when I see one."
"Okay… arm-wrestle then? Winner buys the loser drinks?" Trusty suggested again, erecting an arm on the counter.
Davy refused. Rik and Ford kept taunting him to take the challenge, banging on the countertop. Any of the various contests Trusty kept introducing 'til he caved in for a throwing contest.
Rik introduced daggers so thin like long pins, giggling in outpouring excitement. Trusty pointed an unsteady finger towards a wooden wheel on the wall hung for that purpose, "One… one throw… only one. Closest to the bullseye wins it." He explained.
Davy smirked.
Trusty took the first throw, and in his wobbly state it came as no surprise the throw barely made target, sticking around the wheel's rim.
"Time for you people to leave me alone." Said Davy before his throw. Right the second the blade would leave his grip, Mara blew a big sneeze so suddenly it startled him, throwing his aim well off the mark.
He didn't even hit the wheel at all.
The men roared in jubilation. Drinks followed. Davy sat pouting in their midst. To his surprise, none of them guzzled down bottles like Mara.
Rik slung an arm around him, declaring, "Henceforth I, Rik Stormrider, head of Dirty Bronze Guys–"
"Dirty Bronze Guild, you oaf!" Mara corrected him with a smack on the head.
"Right. I, Rik Stormrider, head of Dirty Bronze Guild hereby accepts ye, Davy of the Deep Pockets into our seafaring clan!"
"We're called Dirty Bronze Guys these days though." Ford hiccupped. "Since we're… well… A BUNCH O' DISAPPOINTMENTS TO THE HERITAGE!" He hoisted a toast.
"What's your own bother, brother?" Asked Rik.
Davy remained tight-lipped, so they kept hurling guesses one after another 'til he finally spilled. "I've come so close to what I have been searching for. For years now. Couldn't have gotten this far without help from new friends I made along the way. I could feel it at arm's reach but something else has come up. I can't afford to turn back now. If they follow me along, it will put them in danger. If I desert them, they'd likely put themselves in a different danger. I… don't know what to do."
Mara poured him a cup.
He hesitated, then gulped.
Soon he had loosened up, getting acquainted, laughing, indulging Trusty's arm-wrestling challenges, sharing rounds of drinks and meat. It's how the Dirty Bronze Guild passed their every day now since Marblemen placed a ban on free sailing, bombing ships caught in the waters.
"Paid handsome monies to get our ol' Gritty Bronze Licensed under Marblemen authority... Turns out we can't sail too far from Hela 'cause they'd divided the seas into zones and that License's only for our zone." Rik sobbed real streams of tears.
The others joined him weeping, even Davy broke down in tears using his hat for handkerchief.
To be fair, they were all trippy that evening.
Approaching sunset,
Davy had to sail west from Hela to find the Reflected Map. Having a licensed ship, this crew were more than glad to help him achieve his dream. So he left with them barely a minute before his own crew came looking for him.
Adonna and the others never found him nor did he return that night.
Nor yet the morning of 18th December.
Hours passed waiting idly throughout the morning.
"Maybe something happened… or Marblemen." Rwby fumbled for excuses.
"He's gone. He left." Adonna stood up, angry, dead set on returning to Ana.
Tom couldn't be more supportive.
The others hesitated but when she left, they had no choice but to follow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Searching for a fast way to return to their ship, they chanced upon that very wagon drawn by berserk goats there in Hela.
"Nope!" Said Adonna.
"Uh-uh!" Klein agreed.
"Never!" Tom swore.
"Not again!" Sighed Rwby.
A few minutes later they were in the back of that wagon screaming their lungs out once again.