Hook's Daughter

Oh Goodness

Smee was closest so I quickly told him to tell Hook I had a lead on Devin and Augur, and I followed Grimsby away from the bar.
"How far off is the island?" I asked Grimsby.
"Just past the Sirens!"
"Right...so I'm guessing I'll have to go past them. There's no way to go around?"
"No...no, no. The island is right near them. But if you can get past and within the space of the island, it won't affect you any more!"
"Right, so is there like a magic boat or something?"
Grimsby laughed. "No, no, no. You have to get out there without already laid magic. But there is a boat."
"Great, where is it?" I asked.
He continued walking down the town's path and cut into the woods.
Grimsby continued walking a little way until we got to the coast again. There was a boat.
"Are you serious?" I asked.
The boat was not anything special. It was more like a sailboat, but larger. It was not as nice or pretty as the Jolly Roger, but it would have to work.
"Alright," I said. "I'm going."
I walked over to the boat and began untying it from the log it was tied onto. When I started pushing it out, Grimsby yelled,
"Wait, wait, wait!"
"What?" I asked.
"I'm coming," he replied.
"Um, no, you're not. I already am worried about getting myself past the Sirens. I'm not having an extra person to worry about during the ride."
"Well that's good," he said, and pushed past me. "Don't be worried about me. I am going. I have nothing to lose, and nothing to live for."
"I- you can't-okay fine. But if you go insane because of the Sirens, it is not my fault."
"I'm already insane!" Grimsby sighed.
"Right, let's go."

I had to paddle the boat out by myself for a while until we could even see the rocks the Sirens stayed on. It looked like a small set of rocks, but once you got close, they were big and deadly. I guess the Sirens were the same way. Something that sounds so beautiful and perfect, but when you get too close, they are deadly.
"Where's the island?" I asked Grimsby. There was none that I could see anywhere near or past the Sirens rocks. If the rocks I saw were even the correct ones.
"You can't see it until you get past the Sirens," Grimsby said.
"That's insane," I said and looked at him. "Grimsby, where the bloody hell is the island?"
He chuckled and sighed. "There is no island."
"What, why? What was the point of getting me to come out here if there isn't anywhere for me to go?"
"Well, I don't really know if there is an island. I suppose there could be, but I don't know where it is. It's a myth. A scandal made up by a drunk man to trick more and more people to try and get past the Sirens only to die."
"Did you make all this up?" I asked.
He nodded, "People think I'm insane." He looked at me. "You think so, too. There is an island. I was there, for many, many, many years. There was a girl. She was more like a goddess, and she took care of me. I didn't even know how long I was there until I asked to leave. She was so kind, would never had made me stay. So I was whisked back to Glowerhaven only to find my dear Prince was lost. Everyone blamed me, saying my stories about the island were false. Everyone thought I killed the Prince in my mental state. They said I had heard the Sirens and somehow lived, only to go insane like the stories tell. But I went insane because of them, because no one believed me. And now I don't even know if the island is real. But I know if it was only a dream, I want to go back. And I would risk dying by the Sirens to get back and know that I am not crazy."
"Do you really think there is an island?" I asked, in no joking or mocking way.
"Yes, I do. But I'm just a senile mental man."
"Well, let's find out if the island is real," I said. "We'll go past the Sirens, and we'll find this island if it is real. And if not, you'll get to live on your heavenly island anyways."
"I don't even trust myself, it is not worth risking both of our lives for this."
I tried to smile. "Well, we both need information to make our lives happy from this place. Might as well take a risk. Besides, I have a way to get past the Sirens and I want to see if it'll work."
"What's your way?" he asked.
"I used to use seaweed to plug my ears when I was young. It is very effective when my ship is full of drunk pirates. The problem is the seaweed has to have been dried out. Which means we need to get it and go back to the shore and wait."
"You have magic," Grimsby said. "Just dry it out."
"There's a reason I'm wearing something to get rid of my magic. It won't cause harm to wait one more day to wait to go out."
"There's so many ways things could go wrong, so that's a lie. What if your little group of pirates leaves tomorrow? What if something happens to me... I won't get to see my island."
"Why do I have a feeling that the 'what if something happens to me' was said for a reason? What's wrong?"
"I'm an old man. Old men die."
"Not unnaturally in the next 8 hours."
"I'm already dying," he admitted. "I have been for a while. And two days from now marks when I should be."
"How do you know that?"
"I can foretell it. And unfortunately that's the time I will be dead by. I could kick-the-bucket right now. I don't have time to spare."
"Fine," I said. "But just so you know, I have never ever used magic in my entire life."
Grimsby grimaced. "Oh goodness."