fall if he let go of the rail. So he merely said “Hi. I'm Balto.”

Kodi smiled at him. “You must be new to sailing. You sure got seasick fast.”

“Well I used to go to sea a lot but after a, bad experience, I never went on a boat again. I'm afraid of water and heights.”

“Then you are in the wrong place my friend.”

“Tell me about it.”

The ships set sail.

Over the next couple of days, Balto learned a lot about what went on in a ship. He learned how to work the rigging, furl and unfurl the sails, clean the deck (whee), he even learned how to load a cannon in case one of the guys doing it got killed.

And every couple of days Steele would call him into his room and would rake him over the coals again. Balto was really getting tired of it.

One day when Steele called him Balto asked Steele “So when are you going to do something about Davy Jones? We've been out here for over a week and nothing has happened. Have you given up and realized that you won't find him unless he wants you to?”

Steele stood up from behind his table and said “I have not given up. And today is the very day I plan on doing something.”

Balto folded his arms across his chest. “And what is your brilliant master plan?”

“Follow me.”

Balto followed Steele out onto the deck. Steele turned to one of the soldiers and asked “How much farther until we are in position?”

“Not much longer sir. See, there are the rocks.”

Balto looked to see what the soldier was talking about. There was a large rock formation out in the distance. It looked like the one him and Boris had been stranded on. “What are you doing Steele?”

Steele smiled. “Patience. You will see soon.”

With that, Steele walked back into his room.

Balto went back up into the rigging and started talking with Kodi. After an hour or so, Kodi stood up and looked ahead. “Hey Balto look. We've arrived at the rocks.”

Balto stood up and walked over to the railing. It looked like a large mountain in the middle of the sea. “What do you think we're doing Kodi?”

“Don't ask me.” Kodi looked around for a second. “Where's the 'Dauntless'?”

“The what?”

“The Dauntless. It's one of the ships in the fleet. And, oh, there it is.”

Balto looked around for a second. “Where is it?”

Kodi pointed it out to him. “Over there. I wonder what she's doing.”

Balto looked around at all the ships in the fleet. “Oh, no.”

Just as he spoke those words Steele walked up on deck and Balto could see him say an order to one of his lieutenants. Balto was too far away to hear what the Admiral said but he had a pretty good idea as to what to it was. The ship proved him right. Every ship in the fleet, besides the 'Dauntless', opened fire. Balto hoped that they were shooting at something else. But then he saw the clouds of smoke and the splintering wood. Kodi stared in disbelief. “What is he doing!?”

Balto knew. “The idiot is attempting to 'call' Davy Jones.”

Kodi was speechless. The two of them climbed down the rigging back onto the deck of the ship. Balto practically ran at Steele. “You fool! What do you think you're doing!?”

Steele stared at him with ice cold eyes. “If I remember the stories correctly, Davy Jones appears at shipwreaks so he can 'recruit' the survivors of the boat and add them to his crew.”

Balto couldn't believe what he was hearing. “You just killed and wounded who knows how many of your own men!”

Steele smiled. “Just as I had planned.”

Balto felt an anger rising in him that he could not control. Ignoring the consequences of what might happen, he punched Steele in the face. The soldiers quickly grabbed him.

Steele picked himself up off the deck. “You have just made a very large mistake.”

“I don't think so. You are the one that's made the mistake, firing upon your own ship.”

Steele walked past him and started to fiddle with something behind a crate. “Put him against the mast and hold him there.”

Steele walked up with a thing of rope. “The punishment for talking back to an officer is five lashes. But hitting him is fifteen. So you get the privilege of twenty lashes.”

One of the dogs ripped open the back of Balto's shirt and quickly stood back. Balto braced himself for the coming lash.

Whack! Whack!

After the fifteenth lash Balto began to lose consciousness from the pain. He fainted after the seventeenth, not feeling the last three.

He woke an hour or so later with a stinging feeling in his back. He opened his eyes and looked behind him.

“Oh good you're awake” said Kodi. “I was just putting on some ointment to help with your scars. Sorry if it stings.”

“The stinging is nothing compared to the actual lashing. Has anything happened?”

“No. Steele hasn't made any move to help the survivors of the 'Dauntless'.”

Balto hung his head sadly. “I wish I could leave here.”

Kodi put aside the rag he had been using on Balto's back and said “Why are you here?”

Balto looked at him in surprise. “You don't know why I'm here?”

“No.”

“I'm here because I am one of two people that has actually seen the Kraken and Davy Jones and survived.”

 

The fleet waited two days for something to happen. Nothing.

Around noon on the third day, Balto walked up to Steele. The soldiers, remembering what had happened last time, blocked Balto's path.

“What do you think now Admiral? Are you going to accept the fact that Davy isn't going to show up? Are you going to finally go and rescue those injured sailors?”

Steele turned around and walked up to Balto. “Are you going to shut up? Or do you want another lashing?”

Balto was now quite fed up. “You're hopeless. No, you're obsessed!”

But just as the words were leaving his mouth, one of the lookouts shouted to Steele “There is a vessel! And it is approaching!”

Steele quickly forgot about Balto and dashed off to get things ready for the showdown with Jones. Balto slumped. 'Great' he thought. 'Just about time for us to leave and Davy decides to come now.'

It took almost ten minutes for the ship to be close enough to see clearly with the naked eye. But it was the ship that the whole fleet had been waiting for.

The Flying Dutchman.

Steele ordered the ships to unfurl their sails and to pull out from behind the rock formation. The fleet came around and soon had the Dutchman in their sights. “Hold your fire until we are closer” Steele said.

To Balto's surprise, the Flying Dutchman just sat there as if it was expecting them. The fleet came within 200 feet of the Dutchman when Steele gave the order to fire. Nearly 250 cannonballs flew at the the Flying Dutchman. Balto had managed to grab hold of a telescope and focused on the side of the Dutchman. The hull was covered in barnacles and the wood looked so rotten that it would crumble if you squeezed it.

Then moments before the barrage of cannonballs hit, the barnacles on the hull opened. It formed a layer of 'armor' just as the cannonballs hit. And every single cannon shot bounced off.

Before the fleet could send another volley, the Flying Dutchman turned and sailed away at a surprising speed.

Steele went into a fit and ordered that the fleet drop anchor. They waited for the rest of the day and into the next.

The day was bright, warm, and calm. The entire crew was simply lounging around and soaking in the sun. Balto stood near the front of the boat and looked out over the ocean taking in it's beauty. Much to his surprise, Steele walked up and stood next to him. They didn't say anything. Just stood there.

Balto was about to say something when he felt a vibration thru the water. At first he thought it was his imagination. Then he heard a noise that had happened in his nightmares. It sounded like rushing water and a creaking mast. “Um, Steele? There's something I forgot to tell you about the Flying Dutchman.”

Steele looked at him. “What?”

“It can travel underwater.”

Just then, the front of the boat off to the left of them rose out of the water. There was something underneath it! Balto saw with shock and horror that the Flying Dutchman had just rammed the vessel from below. The Dutchman pushed the vessel to the side as it came out of the water. Only this time, there was a slight difference with the Dutchman.

It was nearly twice as big as the Man O' War that Balto was on!

'That's not right!' Balto thought to himself. 'Unless... unless it's another Flying Dutchman! He has two of them! A big one and his more common one.'

Before the Flying Dutchman had come fully out of the water, Balto saw the crew turning a large, something, on the deck of the Dutchman. The thing rose steadily higher and higher in the air. Then, it suddenly dropped.

The shock wave that it generated was enough to knock some of the dogs off their feet.

'I wonder what that's for' Balto wondered. His thoughts were interrupted when the cannons started booming. He ran over to rigging and was about to climb up when something caught his eye. Off in the distance he could see a wake or wave made by something moving thru the water. His blood froze when he realized what it was. He ran over to Steele, hoping a cannonball wouldn't hit him. “Steele! We have a problem! The Kraken is coming! That big hammer on the Flying Dutchman enables Davy Jones to call the Kraken!”

Just then he heard a loud groaning/roaring noise. He looked over and saw tentacles wrapping around one of the ships in the fleet. Steele saw it too and drew his sword. Only he ran at Balto with

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