Porcelain Waters

Mischief

"Hey Cap'n?" Shachi turned circles on his heels, eyeing their surroundings with a light curiosity. "What kinda place is this? How'd you get the Eternal Pose for it?"

"Getting in here was a pain." Penguin complained.

He wasn't wrong. The Eternal Pose had led them to the island and you were stunned when you saw the shape of it. Great ice walls, so unheard of in their design you found it difficult to believe they were a natural occurrence, curved up around the island to encase it in a frigid dome. With every crash of the sea against the walls, more ice formed slowly over the years; sharp, jagged spikes and ridges making it impossible for any to get too close. Circling around the island, it seemed there was no entrance and it stumped the crew thoroughly until you offered up a new perspective: if they were unable to go around or through the curved walls of ice, why not attempt to go under?

It's a submarine, isn't it, you had said rather confidently although you knew you were spouting the idea on threadbarren knowledge. It's possible there's an access point underneath the ocean, where the interior water flow would rush back out to meet with the rest of the sea, right?

And by some grace of whatever higher being smiled down upon you, you had been right. It took quite some searching and even more careful navigating, but once submerged, your crew stumbled upon a small tunnel within the mass of land tethered to the seabed. It was a shot in the dark- literally, the tunnel was so pitch black, even with your face mushed against the glass you could hardly see anything past the pool of light spilled against the inky abyss- but one that turned out to be quite rewarding. The Polar Tang resurfaced within a large lake, located in the center of the island where the chilled fortress's dome broke away overhead to allow rainwater and snow to flow and accumulate. The wonders of the world were just beginning for you and already just this island alone left you in awe.

"It was given to me." Law said simply, hands in his pockets and collar pulled up against the chill. "I told you all that."

"Yeah, but what's it known for? You have that book right?"

Golden eyes rolled skyward. "It didn't say anything."

Shachi and Penguin glanced at each other and then back to Law, hands on their hips. "Liar." They both said and the captain cringed at being called out so obviously.

"What was this place called again?" You hummed and tapped your knuckles against your chin. "Wylenna? I think I remember Isha talking about that once or twice. It was abandoned by the fishing village that tried to settle here when people kept dying. Maybe that's why the entrance was closed off- they blocked it to keep people from coming here and adding to the death count."

"Huh? For real?" Shachi flinched back and next to him, Penguin suddenly looked like he'd much prefer to be back in the Tang. "So is it haunted?"

"Who knows?" You shrugged with a little smirk. "But they say on especially lonely nights, you can hear a terrible wailing cry ringing out from the rocky hills. No one knows what's causing it, but everyone that went to go look never returned. Whatever it is is probably still hunting- still hungry and waiting for its next unsuspecting prey. It'll watch and wait, getting closer and closer, until...RAH!"

"WAHHH!" Bepo yelped and nearly jumped right out of his fur when you held your arms up and leapt at him, giving him quite the fright. "NO! NOT ME! CAPTAIN!"

A long drawn out sigh left Law, exasperated gold falling on you. "Cut that out. Speculating like that is stupid; ghosts aren't real." He shook his head, shoes disturbing the snow as they walked. "The people that left most likely didn't waste time and resources barricading anything. There was a section in the wall that looked weak and a little too perfectly round, it's far more possible that it used to be the entrance and years of sea water crashing up against it caused it to freeze over and seal naturally."