All Is Found

Chapter 25: Goodbye Silver

We went down into ship and found Silver untying the last longboat. Morph was squeaking in excitement or nervousness. "Morphy, we gotta make tracks." Silver whispered.

     "I know." The blob responded.

    "You never quit do you?" Jim asked.

    "I doubt that word's in his vocabulary." I said.

    The cyborg turned around to see us. Jim was leaning against a pillar, arms crossed while I stood there with my hands in pockets. "Ah, kids!" He said with a chuckle. "I was merely checking to make sure our last longboat was safe and secure." He quickly grabbed the rope he just untied and retied it to the post. Albeit it was a horrible knot, like my first attempts at the trick. I walked over and got on my knees for a better look.

    "Well." I said, grabbing the rope and tying it correctly. "I think that'll hold it."

     "Looks sturdy." Jim said.

    Silver chuckled a little as we both stood up. "I taught you both too well." He said. I just gave him a blank look, shoving my hands back into my pocket. I glanced at Jim to see him give the cyborg a questioning look. I returned my gaze to Silver. He leaned in like he was going to whisper to us. "Now, if you don't mind, we'd just as soon avoid prison. Little Morphy here, he's a free spirit." He gently held the blob until he started to zoom around his head. He then grabbed him, using his mechanical hand to form a cage around him. "Being in a cage, it'd break his heart." He freed the blob from the 'cage' and stroked the nervous blob on the head.

    I understand where he's coming from a little. At the orphanage, I saw it as a prison some days. I wanted to be free from the horrors but back then, there wasn't even the slimiest of chance. One of my hands was out of my pocket and rubbing a small part of my upper back. Right at the area where a scar was. I looked at Jim with a pleading gaze. It may have been late for me to escape a prison and I didn't want to send the only father figure I had away. Jim glanced between us before smiling. "Untie the boat." He said.

    I guess on my knees again and untied the boat from the post. "Oh!" Silver said in shock. I watched the bottom of the ship open to reveal the sunset orange sky with stars twinkling. He looked back at us as I stood up. "What say you two ship out with us?"

    "Ship out with us." Morph repeated. He turned into a hat, similar to the cyborg's and plopped himself on my head. He covered my eyes, pushing my glasses down a little. I adjusted the hat on my head and fixed the angle of my glasses. The cyborg wrapped his flesh arm around us, squishing me in between them.

    "You and me, Hawkins, Em, and Silver, full of ourselves and no ties to anyone!" He let us go and looked at us, hoping we'd say us. I know that we wouldn't. Jim took the hat off my head.

"You know when I got on this boat." He tickled the hat until Morph turned back into his blob form. "I would've taken you up on that offer in a second, but uh, I met this old cyborg, and he taught me that I could chart my own course." He glanced at Silver with a smile before looking at the stars. "That's what I'm gonna do. What about you, Emma?"

I took in a breath as I thought about what to say. "I probably would've taken the offer too, in hopes of finding a life, but I met a wise old cyborg that taught me to stick to it." I gave Silver a smile. "It's thanks to him that I can look forward to something bright ahead and I owe him for that. That's my plan."

"And what do you two see off those bows of yours?" The cyborg asked.

"A future." We both said.

He chuckled. "Why, look at ya two, glowing like a couple of solar fires." His eyes held the pride a father would have. He teared up as he uttered his next sentence. "You're something special Jim and Emma. You're gonna rattle the stars, you are." Jim and I teared up too. He held his arms out and we both went into his embrace. He hugged us tightly, and I shed a tear. I found it hard to say goodbye to my father. Silver cleared his throat and let us go. "Got a bit of grease in this cyborg eye of mine." He quickly turned around and wiped his tears away.

     I sniffled as I wiped my tears away. I saw Jim trying to keep himself composed as he wiped his tears away. Morph looked at us and started sobbing. He even turned into a puddle of tears that I caught in my hands. "Oh, it's okay Morph. We'll see you around." I said. Jim nodded as the blob's head popped up from the water. I petted his head.

    "See you around." He repeated. He chittered before flying up. He licked Jim's cheek and nuzzled my cheek before flying over to Silver. He landed on his finger and the cyborg looked like he mentally debating something.

     "Morphy, I got a job for ya." He said. The blob motioned to himself in confusion. "I need you to keep an eye on these here pups." My hands flew over my mouth to contain the gasp. Even though I knew this would happen, it's still emotional to go through instead of watching it. Jim looked at us in confusion. "Will ya do me that little favor?" The cyborg sounded like he was about to cry again.

"Aye-aye Captain." He said. He nuzzled against Silver's cheek one last time before flying over to us, nuzzling against our faces. I saw Silver getting into the long boat. I quickly ran over and grabbed his sleeve. I have a question I needed an answer to.

"Wait." I said. The cyborg looked at me in confusion. "When we overheard about your mutiny, you mentioned someone. Ossian, who is he?"

A grave expression came over his face. He grabbed my shoulders and got down to my eye level. "Ossian was a member of me crew. He vanished one night, years ago. Don't ever come across him in your life lass, he's more dangerous than Scroop." I stared at him in shock and nodded. He then smiled as he glanced between me and Jim. "I feel like a fool for not connecting the dots sooner. Have a great life with your brother." He let me go and I ran back to Jim's side.

The cables connecting to the longboat started to lower the vessel. "Oh, and one more thing." The cyborg said, reaching into his pocket. He threw something at us. "This is for your dear mother, to rebuild that inn of hers." Jim caught the handful of treasure. We both looked at in shock while he just wink.

"Bye Silver! Thank you." I said, waving at him.

"Stay out of trouble, ya old scalawag." Jim said.

Silver chuckled. "Why, Jimbo lad, when have I ever done otherwise?" He said as the cables released the boat. He lifted his hat towards us before sailing away. We both waved until we couldn't see him anymore. After standing there for a moment we both started walking back to the deck.

"Will we see him again?" I asked.

"I think so." Jim said.