Day 32: Alive

Everyone met in the underground cavern. Luckily no one had been too hurt in our scuffle with the guards, and aside from some scratches and bruises everyone was in tip top shape. I was walking around the cavern, talking to all of the crewmen and thanking them for their help, when I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Azumi?" I cried, running to a lone figure in the corner, "is that you? Have you come back?"

Azumi was smiling as she turned towards me. "Yes, I've come back. I couldn't let you guys go and get yourselves killed without me, you know."

I blushed as I thought about how badly my plan had turned awry. Those silly papers! If the papers could have been forged properly...but Fernand walked over towards us and I was forced to stop my line of thought.

"Ah, Drake! I see you've met our wandering hero. Azumi helped me fight off those guards on the ship. If it hadn't been for her, well, I would have taken them all out myself and gotten twice the glory! Ha ha!" Fernand slapped me on the back and I staggered forward under the blow. Everyone in the cavern was laughing, finally shaking off the nervous excitement of our close call with the King's army. Soon the liquor was brought out, and many of the crew began singing songs and dancing. It was very reminiscent of the first time that I came to this cavern, although I avoided the liquor this time around. That stuff was strong, and I remembered the hangover that I had after I let Fernand show me around the first night.

About an hour into the party we heard, or rather I guess we felt, a large explosion that shook the entire cavern and shook dirt down from the ceiling. Everyone grew quiet for a moment and just looked up. No one moved. Then, after about thirty seconds, people starting quietly talking again. Someone toasted the crewmen that went on the library job, and soon after that the din returned to normal. I went to go find Horatio.

I found Horatio sitting by himself behind some of the larger crates that were continually dotting the landscape of the cavern. He had a drink in his flipper, but he was still mostly sober. I sat down next to him, and he threw his drink on the ground and put his head in his flippers.

"That stuff is awful." he mumbled. "Where do they find it?"

I didn't want to pry too much, because I knew that Horatio needed some time to come to grips with what happened, but I was genuinely worried about him.

"How are you holding up, Horatio?" I asked him. "I know the plan didn't go exactly as we planned, but..."

"Oh, don't worry about that. It's not your fault, Drake. If only I had been able to obtain those papers...but it doesn't matter now, I suppose. I'm just hoping that the recovery crew comes back soon."

I looked towards the entrance to the cavern, as I had been compulsively doing all night. If the second part of my plan ended up failing, then we were truly doomed. Suddenly there was a great noise outside the entrance of the cavern, and everyone stopped talking and ran to take cover. Those that were sober grabbed some weapons and hid near the entrance of the cavern; with more penguins than usual coming in and out lately it was not certain if this place was still as secret as it used to be. The noise grew louder and echoed off the tunnel walls as someone came closer and closer to our cavern. Horatio jumped up and ran over to the entrance. Finally someone came into the light.

"They did it! They did it! Hooray!" Horatio shouted from the entrance, running frantically around the penguins who had just entered the cavern and who were pushing a bunch of soaking wet crates. "They salvaged our crates! Hooray!" Horatio frantically pulled open the lid of one of the crates and looked inside. The crate was sealed at the top with a plastic sheet and Horatio cut this open with a sword that one of the crewmen had. The books inside were high and dry, and Horatio was running around like a crazed penguin, prying the lids off of all of the crates and making sure that the cargo had been kept high and dry. Azumi, Fernand and Aleister came over to check out how everything had gone.

"Well well now, Drake, isn't it a good thing you had this backup plan? If you hadn't...."

"I know, Fernand. Everything would have been lost. It's just too bad we weren't able to save the library, too. Thanks, Aleister, for lining the crates for us. I had hoped we wouldn't have to use it, but I'm glad we took the extra precaution."

"Oh, it's no problem, no problem at all!" said Aleister, beaming from ear to ear. "You see, I realized one day while I was in the woods, that if you extracted a certain element from a certain kind of tree, it was waterproof! Then I tested this theory by manipulating the structures at an atomic level and--"

"That's great, Aleister," I said, hastily cutting him off and turning back towards Fernand and Azumi. "And thanks for your help, too. If the ship had been taken before we were able to throw the crates overboard, we still would have lost everything. Azumi, I wasn't sure if you were coming back or not..."

Azumi smiled and waved her flipper, indicating that she didn't really want to talk about it. "It was no big deal. Now, let's unload these crates somewhere safe, shall we?"

Once the crates were stored everyone's spirits rose tenfold. Horatio joined the party, dancing and singing with the rest of the crew and drinking the horrible liquor like a seasoned sailor. He had forgotten about the library for the moment and was just rejoicing that we had managed to save a handful of the most rare and valuable books. Aleister was in a corner somewhere with a couple of other penguins showing them how to operate the makeshift laser light show he had just cobbled together. Fernand kept mostly away from the crew, sitting back and watching everyone make a fool of themselves and watching to make sure that the noise level did not get dangerous--even though we were far underground, you can never be too careful in these situations. I went over to the bar to grab a drink and join the festivities, but Azumi pulled me aside.

"Drake, please don't drink anything tonight. I need you to be clear headed--I need your help. Later, we'll talk later." Azumi whispered all of this to me before I even had a chance to acknowledge her presence, and then she left, wandering over to Fernand who I now realized was drinking water, not liquor. So that meant that something was going down tomorrow night--and before I even had a chance to celebrate my latest, almost disastrous, adventure.

With these thoughts on my mind and the close call of our adventure sobering my mood I headed for a place to sleep for the night. I had a feeling that tomorrow was going to be another long day.