Fishwhacked: Reign of the Walrus Witch

Chapter 13

The Head Milliner and Squirm pored over the stacks of mythology and history books in the castle library. The ghost of King Crust paced nervously a few feet above the floor. Long halls of bookshelves extended in every direction and the only lighting was the dim candles combined with the Omnifish scale. Night was approaching and the sunlight poking through the windows faded. The clocktower rang to mark a new hour.

"Anything?" King Crust asked. "My daughter is still out there and we haven't heard anything from her, she would have sent a rooster by now, we have to-"

"I know," the Head Milliner interrupted. "There's just so little information about Jumbo outside of folklore where he teaches talking forest animals that sharing is good."

Squirm slid a small, open book across the table and pointed at the yellowing paper. The Milliner put on tiny bifocals and leaned his wrinkled face in. "Well then. This is interesting."

"What is it?" King Crust leaned over the Head Milliner's shoulder to see, and ended up phasing through it.

"After Jumbo's first appearance, when Drownvale was founded, a cult formed around him. He's described in gruesome detail as if he were a physical animal. Not like the waterspout we saw. But that could just be their interpretation of what happened."

The Head Milliner flipped through the delicate pages. "He's described again in the same detail after the crowning of the first King Whatsit... And again at the coronation of Queen Crust."

"So what? That's just how they interpreted what they saw. If your claim against the Walrus Witch is going to be that she didn't produce a draconic eel beast and therefore her rule is illegitimate..."

"I know. It's not substantial whatsoever." The Milliner's eyebrows raised. "But this might be." He pressed his finger into the page, a list of monarch names and dates. "The exact days and times that Jumbo appeared."

"The twenty-fifth of Crabmonth?" King Crust's brow contorted when he read the page. "But King Sniff the Fifth died on the twenty-first. Everybody in Drownvale and even people as far as the Waftlands know about the decadent feasts we have to remember the brutal slaughter of him and his family."

"Well, here, it's listed that Jumbo appeared on the twenty-fifth." The Milliner dragged another book over and opened it to a page marked by a ribbon. "The official day of Whatsit the Fourteenth's disappearance is... the third of Gullmonth. Jumbo gave the throne to the Crust bloodline on..."

"The sixth!" the phantom exclaimed. "When was the battle of Peopleopolis Keep?"

"Nine days after the paths of the moons converged that year. On our calendar, that's..." The Milliner pulled a feather pen from somewhere in the mess on the table and scribbled on a scrap of parchment. King Crust and the Milliner looked at the page from the book on the cult of Jumbo and simultaneously said, "The tenth of Reefmonth."

"Jumbo marked the founding of Drownvale by making the chieftain of the Sniff tribe into king on the thirteenth." The Head Milliner leaned back in his chair. "All of Jumbo's appearances happened days after Drownvale was without a monarch."

"Paistra declined the throne a couple of hours after I died. It wasn't even twenty minutes after that when the Walrus Witch's stunt occurred. It should be within the next few days, if this information is accurate. Not before I didn't even start to stink."

"You figure a cult will keep meticulous detail about when their god physically manifests. This may the key to convincing people that the Walrus Witch faked it. We must keep this book safe. Squirm, I trust you with it." The Head Milliner put a few scrolls into the book and closed it. He slid it slowly over to Squirm, who pocketed it somewhere into his jester outfit. "We just have to figure out how, and why."