✔️ 𝐒𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋, ᵗʳᵉᵃˢᵘʳᵉ ᵖˡᵃⁿᵉᵗ

🪐~Scroop~🪐

Yes that is Lucy's favorite book series

🪐Lucy's POV🪐

Already two minutes in, Jim started the grumbles. "Yeah, I got you, Mr. Mop." [Jim, be nice to your new friend.] I hid my giggles by looking down and letting my hair fall into my eyes.

As I did so, a huge alien stomped passed us and shoved Jim out of his pathway and into the edge of the ship.
"Watch it, twerp," He growled in a low voice. I looked from Jim and to the monster and froze. The giant had two pairs of arms and a tomato red face.

When he caught me staring, he said, "What are you looking at, wimp." I started to tremble in fear. "N-n-nothing. S-sorry." He still had a raging fire in his gaze, but walked away from us either way.

Jim just watched him go while I made a lame excuse to go fetch more water. As I hurried down into the galley, Mr. Silver was nowhere to be found. I shrugged off my suspicions and filled up the bucket in the back of the kitchen.

I suddenly heard the crew above started to shout. I sigh and turn off the tap. What could Jim possibly do already? It's only been seconds! [Jim, DO NOT give me that look.] As I raced to the stairs, an annoyed Mr. Silver rushed past me and up the exit, out of my sight temporarily.

The shouts continued to grow until I emerged from the cellar and saw that a metal clamp-hand was pinching a sort of spider arachnid hybrid that was pinning Jim to a post. Mr. Silver was admiring a Purp when he said, "Mr. Scroop," A long pause of him chewing, looking relaxed, "you ever see what happens to a fresh Purp when you squeeze real hard?"

At that moment, he twisted Scroop's arm behind his back painfully, causing him to release Jim to fall onto the still dirty floor. I ran to him and whispered "Are you okay?" "Yeah." He whispered back.

Scroop rubbed his claw hand against his now sore arm until Mr. Arrow came into the scene and demanded, "What's all this, then?" He lumbered down the stair case. "You know the rules. There'll be no brawling on this ship." He strolled amongst the crew members while they mumbled a few 'Aye-eys.'

"Any farther offenders will be confined to the brig for the remainder of the voyage." "Am I clear, Mr. Scroop?" Arrow said in a menacing tone. The spider looked to Mr. Silver his and glowed bright red, supposedly in anger. "Transparently."

A moment of silence passed until
Mr. Silver cheered, "Well done, Mr.
Arrow, sir!" The crowd started to dissipate. "A tight ship's a happy ship, sir!" When he finished waving off the crew, he turned to the two of us in irritation. "Jimbo, Lassie, I gave you both a job."

"Hey, I was doing it until that bug thing.." "Belay that! Now I want this deck swabbed spotless, and heaven help you if I come back and it's not done. And you!" He turned to me in anger and I flinched. "What do you think you was doin' down there?"

"I was getting water, sir. I-" "First rule of swabbing the deck: never fill the rust bucket until every last drop of water is used. Go scrub the bunkers spotless and away from Jimbo, understood?"

Jim looked like he was going to blow in rage. "That's not fair! She was only getting-" "Silence! Or there will be more chores for the both of ya. Morph? Keep an eye on these pups and let me know if there be any more distractions." He stormed away and looked at Jim silently while the pink blob floated in the air beside us.

🪐🪐🪐

We didn't get finished until dark.
Morph even helped us, turning into a miniature mop and swabbing the deck, as well as Jim's boot. He turned into a blob once again as we were finishing. Jim leaned against his mop and I leaned on the edge of the ship.

Morph hiccupped, bubbles flying from his mouth, making me giggle.
"Well, this has been a fun day, huh?
Making new friends, like that spider psycho," Jim joked, imitating a spider's legs with his fingers.

Morph turned into a miniature of Mr. Scroop. "Spider psycho! Spider psycho," he repeated. "A little uglier," I told him. Morph made his impression look maniacal and I laughed. "Pretty close," Jim chuckled.

I heard someone come up the stairs. I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear and stood up straight, while Jim continued to absentmindedly swab the deck, though we had already finished. "Well, t'ank heaven for little miracles!" Mr. Silver said, coming up to where we were on the quarterdeck.

He dumped some of the scraps from the kitchen over the side of the ship. "Up here for an hour an' teh deck's still in one piece," he continued, laughing. "Um, look, I, uh... what you did... thanks," Jim said, finally finding his words.

"Didn't yer pap ever teach yeh teh pick yer fights a bit more carefully?"
Silver asked. Jim looked away and I bit my lip. "Yer father not the teachin' sort?" Mr. Silver asked carefully.

"No. He was more the taking off and never coming back' sort," Jim answered bitterly. He stood next to me and leaned over against the ship's railing. "Sorry, lad," Mr. Silver said, joining us there.

"Hey, no big deal. I'm doing just fine," Jim brushed it off, but looked over the side of the boat forlornly. "Is dat so?" Mr. Silver asked a little skeptically.

"Hmmm... Since teh Captain has put yeh two in my charge, like it or not I'll be poundin' a few skills inta those thick heads o' yers ta keep yeh out o' trouble!" Mr. Silver said, tapping us both on the head.

"What?" Jim and I asked at the same time. "From now on, I'm not letting yeh out o' me sight!" "You can't do-" Jim started. "You won't so much as eat, sleep, or scratch yer bums without my say so!" Mr. Silver finished. "Don't do us any favors!" Jim shouted.

Well, this will be a fun journey after all, I thought sarcastically.