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It's me Rina, I love you all! heart

Disclaimer:

We are in no way affiliated or in league with Gaia or the official Gaia storyline.
This is a user-made and user-run event, organized by a couple of people from the GCD.
This event is for all of those who love plot, storyline, and Gaia's NPCs.
This is for you all!! We love you. <3

If you are reading this you have stumbled upon a user-created and user-run event! Follow the interactive storyline in the next couple of days to decide what happens via forum polls, and to solve the mystery! Every time poll results are gathered, a new chapter to this adventure will be added to this profile so check every day for updates to the story! SCROLL DOWN FOR PART VIII, THE FINAL CHAPTER IN THE ADVENTURE!

[PART I - INTRODUCTION]

Carl snorted into the cold air, the moisture from his breath floating from his nostrils like a short projectile of steam before quickly disappearing. The ship creaked around him as darkness swallowed the floorboard from sight. The stars twinkling above him, Carl cantered to the door of the cabin, intent on retiring for the night as a nervous crew member stood at the helm. He snorted once, his eyes shining brightly at the crew member in a warning to stay put, before moving inside the cabin to rest on a bed of straw.

Although he was on a trip to some unknown place, and knew he had some sort of responsibility of keeping himself alive on the floating ship, he did not think of anything more about the day. Gently, he rested his head upon the ground.

Unknown to Carl though a fiend was creeping in the dark. The shadow had scaled up the side of the ship, swiftly landing behind a stack of crates with a soft thud.

With malice and ill intent the figure’s hand tightened on a cold metal object in its fist. It snuck into Carl’s cabin.

Jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle jingle

The thrum of a hundred bells tinkled from the cabin.

Carl’s bellow echoed throughout the night.

The flying ship exploded.

[THE NEXT MORNING]

“Gosh, Devin, this isn’t a peep show,” Moira sighed.

The red-skinned hunk turned a shade of red brighter and twirled around to face Moira, pretending that he was not ogling Lance’s juicy round bottom a moment ago. “I have no idea what you mean,” Devin proclaimed as he stiffly walked past Moira to grab a sack of potatoes.

“OMG GUYS OMG!” Rina screamed from the deck, rushing into the ship’s kitchen. “OMG GUYS COME OUT HERE!”

The clatter of 4 pairs of feet clamored to the helm of the ship where Rina stood steering. Edmund, Moira, Lance, and Devin looked at Rina, expectant of an explanation.

“LOOOOOOOK!”

The cheery girl pointed a finger to a spot in the distance, in which appeared to rest the wreckage of a ship.

“That’s Carl’s ship,” Edmund stated, his forehead crinkling in worry. “Let’s check out the damage.”

Landing near the wreckage, they watched as a haggard looking elk emerged from a pile of debris.

“BEOOOOOO!!!!” Carl cried.

“How horrible!” Devin replied.

Moira and Edmund looked at him. “What?”

“Oh, I forget you guys never took classes – nevermind,” Devin said. “Carl said their ship was attacked last night.”

Le gasps all around!

Spotting something in the wreckage, Lance picked it up. “What’s this? A bell?” The delivery man shook the bell but due to being bent it made a hollow sound. Still, this did not stop Carl from bellowing in fright before cantering off to the inside of Edmund’s ship.

Edmund stroked his chin. “Hmmm...someone clearly tried to sabotage Carl’s voyage – and they did it successfully. Carl would never have a bell anywhere near him, ever. Someone must have frightened him really bad to have caused this wreckage.” He paused in thought, his voice grave. “We should be careful from now on as well. Who knows if someone is trying to stop us from saving the demigod…”

Nodding in understanding the crew returned to the working ship. In their forgetfulness they forgot to check for survivors of Carl’s ship, and as they readied the ship for sail, missed the shadow that leapt upon the ledge of an open window and crawled inside.

That night as the crew sat around a table set outside for supper, a loud crash sounded from below deck. Suddenly, a dark figure emerged from the hatch to the storage deck…



PART II – STOWAWAY!

A set of red eyes glowed from the shadowy depths of the storage deck, before the miniature figure of a small green rabbit wobbled in full view.

“Hey guys! Did you know - scurvy is a disease where your hair starts to fall out, your eyes start to develop cataracts, your legs turn green with blisters and infections, and you start to develop a craving for parfaits? All because of a vitamin C deficiency! Isn’t it cool?”

*cough*

“Who let the crazies on board?” Moira asked.

“OH HE’S SO CUTE!” Rina squealed, jumping towards the startled rabbit before picking him up and swinging him around. The little grunny found itself delighted at the feeling of being airborne and giggled along with her.

“Weeee!”

“Wait a minute,” Devin asked. “How’d he get on board?”

“Oh.” Diedrich replied, “Fact: for some un-explicable reason another ship crashed into mine! I tried to steer clear of it but because vampires are quite dumb we collided and both went down in flames. When you docked next to the elk’s ship we all climbed on board! I will go get everyone! OK bye!”

The grunny headed back towards the hatch to the storage deck, looking back at the crew.

“Bye! I mean it!”

Rina waved.

“Bye!”

“Yeah we get it,” said Lance.

“Okay bye then!”

“We get it,” said Lance again, annoyed.

“Bye for real!”

“WE GET IT SHUT UP YOU-“

“Hey guys!”

Out from the hatch emerged a steady stream of new people! Louie, Sasha, Ian, Josie, and a couple of other Gaian deck swabbers climbed from the storage deck and poured out into the main deck.

“What – why – how did we not even notice these stowaways?” Edmund sputtered in shock.

“Hey old man,” Louie grinned. “That’s because we snuck through the poop deck – but anyway, our ships are down and out. Seems like Carl’s ship crashed into mine, and for some strange reason my ship crashed into Diedrich’s. We were all docking at the same temple last night. Didn’t you see the triple pile-up wreckage?”

“No. We were preoccupied with Carl.”

“Hey do you guys have any food? I’m starrrrving!” Sasha interrupted.

“Shoot your own rock puppies,” growled Devin, suddenly realizing something. “Captain Edmund, doesn’t this mean that we have to feed even more people?”

Edmund nodded.

“Which was why we snuck in…” piped Louie. “See old man! I can be pretty smart when I put my mind to it!” He clapped the Captain on the back. “But don’t worry, me and Diedrich managed to salvage all of our loot, even Carl’s! We have enough to trade for food and help the demigod.”

“Speaking of demigod,” started Moira, “We think someone purposefully frightened Carl. We think they’re trying to stop us from saving the demigod. They already got your ship and Diedrich’s…which means Sam might be next. We should be careful too…”

“Sweet gods,” gasped Ian. “That makes sense! I mean…” He rummaged through his coat pocket, bringing out a small piece of parchment. “I found this on a table down in the storage deck. I was going to keep it for…uh…toiletry reasons,” he turned red, “but it makes sense!”

On the piece of parchment, was a line scribbled in red ink: Mark my words you filthy do-gooders, this “incident” will not be your last! (Clue 1)

“That settles it,” Edmund stated. “We must reach Sam and warn her.”

Everyone on board nodded.

“The last time I heard news of her was that she was gathering loot near the ocean front,” said Ian.

“There is a fork in the shipping paths up ahead. Which way do we go?”



PART III – MASTER!

“We will cut through the desert,” Edmund declared. “It’s much faster that way and I don’t think we have enough food to sustain a longer voyage. “We will need everyone on board to pull their weight on this ship – even you, Carl.”

The moody elk, who had been watching the group of bipedals from afar, shined his eyes brightly at the alleged Captain. This ship isn’t big enough for the both of us… Carl snorted. Of course, no one paid attention...or even knew he had an opinion.

“Get to work, everyone!”

Splitting up into teams, everyone split the work evenly between one another. Days passed uneventfully as the ship sailed out from the haven of the forest and into the hot desert plains. Sand storms would occasionally stall them for periods at a time but progress towards the ocean front was going fast. It could have been faster, however.

Sand and grit whipped through Rina and Kanoko’s beautiful heads of hair. Rina, struggling with a crate, suddenly pitched forward and fell flat on her face, giving up: “I GIVE UP!” She cried, her body sprawled on the ground.

“Me too!” cried Kanoko, who fell over Rina with a grunt.

There they rested for about an hour before Moira and Sasha came across the two, alarmed.

“Hey you loafers, come and help” Moira growled.

“But Mooiiiraa we’re soooo tired! Kano can’t even lift her pinkie!” Both exhausted girls started to daydream about cupcakes and flowers. The fluffy sugary daydreams were a harsh contrast to the beating sun from above and hot dry air that cracked their skin.

“Gosh I miss my shop” Rina said.

A shadow loomed over all four girls. “Hey what’s going on out here?” said Liam angrily. He was covered in sweat from head to toe – it practically dripped off of him. Rina thought he faintly smelled of pee. “Why aren’t any of you pulling your weight around? No wonder this ship started slowing down a few hours ago. Get to it girls!”

“But we don’t know how!” Kanoko cried. “I’m not fit for this job! I have no experience! Everything is too heavy and exhausting. How do you guys do it? Can you guys teach us?”

Kanoko and Rina looked towards Sasha and Moira, hopeful.

“Like…well….um…I mean, I guess we could. I mean I’m like no expert but I do know a few tips about working around a ship!” Sasha supplied.

“Okay then.” Moira eyed both ship newbies. “Who will you be taking under your wing Sasha? Kanoko or Rina? We need to get this ship at tip top speed in order to reach Sam as fast as possible.”

[SOMEWHERE BELOW DECK]

A shadowed figure, hunched behind a pile of crates, scribbled furiously on a piece of paper. A cold meanness dripped from its pen as words blossomed into life and left little threats behind, to be later discovered by the crew.

“I’ll leave these here…spook them a little,” the creature said to itself. “Now, it's time to do some dirty work.”

Littering the tiny notes around the room the figure climbed to the nearest window, opened the latch, heaved its body out from the sill and searched with its eyes the tiny drop off it would aim for.

“Julia would be SO proud.” (Clue 2)

The figure leaped from the open window and moving ship with glee.




Note: Which pairing that was chosen determined how many clues to the villain’s identity were released in the next chapter. As Rina and Kanoko fail to clean the ship under Carl’s tutelage, zero clues that the villain had left behind were found. Clues 3 and 4 will be skipped in this adventure. For references, the villain is a real character on Gaia and has its own official NPC profile.

PART IV – LETTER


“BEEOOOOOOOO!!!”

All four girls jumped in fright as the heavy elk ran to the group, knocking down Moira and Sasha before stopping in front of Rina and Kanoko.

“Yikes!” Moira scrambled back, grabbing Sasha’s hand. “Uh…how about Carl teach you?”

They fled the deck.

The remaining two girls stared at the gigantic furry creature, who stared back at them in return.

“Soo…” Kanoko shuffled her feet. “Do you think you can teach us how to work on the ship?”

Carl snorted.

“Oh my.” Rina wrung her hands.

Carl flipped his stubby tail.

“Um…”

Carl’s eyes pinged.

“Well…”

Carl stomped away.

“I guess that means no.”

And so, Rina and Kanoko plopped back to the floor, and took a nap. The ship sailed on, slowly, oh so slowly. So sl…..o…….w……………….l………………………………………y.

The next rest stop that the group docked was empty of any extra loot that they could bring to the demigod. In fact, it was told that the rundown establishment had suffered a robbery the day before!

When Diedrich had spotted an abandoned treasure trunk poking up from the sand, it unfortunately proved empty.

Every single place that Captain Edmund and his large crew visited, for some strange reason, had either been robbed or depleted of any loot. Disheartened the Gaians sailed on until they broke from the desert and passed some mountains, which gave way to a fantastic view of the ocean.

Excited by the smell of the sea they quickly re-stocked their supplies and began the voyage to Sam. It was only a matter of days before they spotted her ship, which was thankfully in one piece. However, something was still amiss as they drew closer to Sam’s ship.

“Wow. Like, why isn’t it moving?

Louie brought out a small telescope. “I don’t know. I can see Sam waving at us. It looks like their ship broke down.”

“Let’s go see,” said Sasha.

Ian glanced at the brunette, his cheeks heating up. “Yeah, let’s check it out. Come with me!” He offered her his hand boldly and together they joined Edmund and Louie at the helm to organize the group that would board Sam’s ship.

By the time Sam and her crew, which consisted of a haggard looking Dr Singh and two urns, joined Edmund’s crew, the conclusion had been made: someone had tampered with Sam’s ship earlier in the week.

“If only we had reached you guys sooner by sailing faster, maybe your third crew mate wouldn’t have starved to death,” Liam drawled, looking pointedly at Rina and Kanoko, who were both busy studying the very interesting and fascinating sails.

“Well,” said Edmund, “We really need to get to the demigod as soon as we can before this mysterious assailant gets any more trouble done. This is a very dangerous situation indeed.”

Everyone nodded their heads.

Suddenly, Kanoko pointed to something fluttering between the sails.

“Is that a piece of paper?”

With the legs of a seasoned seaman, Diedrich scrambled up the rung and grabbed the piece of paper, hopping back to the big crew.

“Did you know? Some paper is made out of elk hide.”

Carl perked his ears.

“The hide is a very useful material to have around ships. Did you know though that pulp is a cheaper and more affordable alternative? Probably less tasty, but more nutritious!”

“Shut up and give me the letter,” Louie grumbled, snatching the letter and bringing it up to the light of the setting sun. In alarm, he gasped.


o.O so close!

PART V – PLANK WALKING

The letter had been addressed to Santa, but unfortunately had been sent back. It was several years old and had the word “REJECTED” stamped on it in red letters. Louie read the letter out loud.

Deer Santa,

Santa, I don’t wan mutch four Xmas. I juzt wan a aearplaine, a yat, a puppy, an elecktrik yo-yo, sum pokemon playing cards, a gaymboi avance, a new komputer, revange against g-coarp, a byke, a new bakpak, sum candy, cheer…and…and four my mommy two stop krying evry nite. She reeds dadi’s die-uh-ree evry nite and it maks her kri. Pleeze giv me thes things Santa, pleez. Plz plz plz.

P.S. Mommy coodn’t halp me right this and says my spelling is horable, and sumtimes I git my leters mixed liek mixing “K for “C” or “S” for “G.” Butt my teecher says my spellang is gud four a for-and-a-halve yeer old! Dew yew liek it? I luv u Santa! XOXOXOXO

Cinseerly-

The bottom of the letter had been ripped.

“Damn that is some greedy little boy,” Dr Singh whistled.

Edmund stroked his beard. “I think this letter may have been accidentally dropped by our mystery assailant? An old memento from his or her past…”

“Well it doesn’t help us,” Ian stated. “All we know is that this person wanted revenge against this so-called G-Corp ever since they were a toddler. Do you know anything about that, Edmund?”

“Uh…” He coughed. “Well it explains why he is trying to stop us from saving the demigod, if the demigod can help us reach Gino…but that does not matter!” He cleared his throat, “We need to sail for the demigod as fast as possible before we run out of supplies, get to it crew!”

With that, the entire crew dispersed and the ship sailed on. Days turned into weeks, with someone constantly patrolling the deck day and night, on high alert for any strange sounds or foreign company. They managed to find a little loot that had not been collected beforehand by their nemesis, as the loot was stuck inside an iceberg. Dr Singh and Sam used their expertise to chip away at the ice for the loot.

Rina and Kanoko finally managed to learn how to clean, and one day together they found a stray piece of paper with writing on it, reading “ I found his journal. You can’t erase the past.” (Clue 5)

Stray pieces of paper, they were told, meant it was trash, so they swept it into a cloth bag, later proud of their accomplishments and high-fiving each other when room 1 out of 20 was cleaned of debris!

“On to room 2!” whooped Rina.

Meanwhile, Louie and Diedrich commenced having a chitchat over some pellets and tea.

“Did you know? Vampires are pasty white because they rarely go outside to work due to solarphobia, which is a rare and serious disease that can cause mental breakdown?”

“No, you are wrong.”

“I am always right and you need to listen to me,” countered Diedrich.

“I am listening to you and I say you’re wrong!”

“Can you back that up with a fact?”

“Yes I can, I’m a vampire for goodness sakes!”

“It must be difficult for you to admit that. Tell me of your woes, diseased vampire.” Diedrich crossed his stubby legs.

Suddenly, a bellow from above rang throughout the ship. A loud crash followed.

Everyone ran up to the deck, frozen as they watched Ian flee from the captain’s cabin, as crashes of glass, cracking wood, and an angry elk sounded from the captain’s room. Someone quickly closed the cabin’s door.

“What happened Ian?” Liam asked.

“I don’t know!” Ian wiped his brow as Sasha patted his back. “We were in the cabin looking for some maps and I started talking to Carl about how me and Rufus would sometimes go hunting – for fish! For fish! But Carl never let me finish that sentence. I think he thought I meant –“

“Other elk,” Devin concluded. “Wow man, way to piss off an elk right?”

More crashes sounded from the cabin. Suddenly, the door started to crack.

“OMG HE’S GOING TO KILL US!” screamed Sasha.

“If not kill us, bring down the ship and seriously cripple our voyage,” Edmund concluded.

All eyes swiveled to the cracking door of the cabin as Carl continued his rampage.

“What do we do?”



PART VI –?

Diedrich poked his head out from a barrel.

“Did you know that when something goes bad, the best solution is to get rid of the problem?”

His beady red eyes glowed in the afternoon sun.

“He has a point…” Lance started.

Devin stared at Lance, aghast for the first time, stars no longer in his eyes. “Kill Carl? Isn’t that…a little…harsh?”

“No,” Dr Singh voiced. “It’s all about survival. Carl is not fit for air travel or this crew. Why else did his ship fail in the first place? In order for us to survive, we must eliminate what burdens us. It is the only way.”

“Like the way you failed Timmy?” sobbed Rina. She ran below deck, in tears.

“I agree with Rina,” Kanoko started, tears in her eyes as well. “Why do we have to get rid of Carl?”

The door to the captain’s cabin splintered as an antler poked through.

In alarm Edmund slipped his hand around the tranquilizer gun (he had for some reason) in his rucksack.

“I guess this means good bye, Carl.”

“Goodbye!” chirped Diedrich.

Edmund pointed the tranquilizer at the door’s entrance, ready to knock out the elk and send him overboard.


omg I can’t believe you guys are making me write this icon_crying.gif

PART VII – GOODBYE INNOCENCE

Edmund pulled the trigger. The tiny pop echoed throughout the ship as it hit fur, and a loud thump of an elk falling sounded not far after.

“We have to,” Dr Singh chanted. “We have to…we have to…”

“Did you know that elk meat is edible?” supplied Diedrich in a cheery tone.

“Shut up you! We’re not cannibals!” Moira cried, distressed. Behind her Diedrich mumbled a quiet “But I am.”

“Oh my god Edmund no!!!” Kanoko sobbed.

Edmund had grabbed the elk’s legs, dragging the giant beast out of the captain’s cabin. No one came to help him despite the sweat that rolled down his forehead, and how hard he struggled with the warm, sleeping Carl. He stumbled once as the airship swayed, before finally reaching the edge of the ship. Without much fanfare, he began to tip the elk over the rim, sliding fur against the rail as Carl’s antlers dragged hollowly against the wood. Carl grunted softly in his sleep, sweetly dreaming of warm soft grass. A collective gasp echoed across the ship as Edmund gave Carl’s body one final shove. The elk disappeared from view. As the crew was on an airship in the air, there was no loud thunk to anticipate, just empty silence.

They passed over a dark cloud, all standing still - some bowed in remembrance, some in shock. One stood in uncaring oblivion.

“Goodbye!” called Diedrich.

“It had to be done” concluded Dr Singh.

They sailed on, all in mourning. Well, except for Diedrich. Coincidentally, the ship flew faster due to the lightened load, and a lingering smell from below deck had disappeared. The crew was thankful for this, although tears would still sting their eyes from time to time when they breathed in fresh unsmelly air. However, unbeknownst to them, Carl had landed on one of the floating islands passing below. While they had gotten rid of him, he now lived in relative peace and happiness! No more humans! And plenty of female beasts all around! Carl couldn’t have landed in a happier place!

As days passed the crew eventually recovered from what they thought was Carl’s death. They passed other airships, mostly merchants finding a way to unload their wares onto the crews’ more hapless girls. Mostly, Edmund would only accept food from these merchants, once even slapping away a pogo stick Ian had been inspecting. The crew was running low on food. One day, Rina, Sasha, and Kanoko fell sick.

“Ohhhhh…my stomach…” groaned Rina.

They all lay down in bed as Louie, Edmund, and Liam hovered not far away.

“How could you guys get sick? We’ve been eating the same food and portions.”

“Oh I think I know,” said Kanoko, green in the face. “There were these candies we all shared…”

“Candy? Where’d you get candy?” asked Louie.

“When you were trading with that really nice red ship…” Rina started, “A man in red gave them to us for free.”

“He was..ugh..so cute!” squealed Sasha. “So dashing and handsome! Oh my, what was his name Rina? Crescent Moon?”

“No, Crescento!” sighed Rina.

“Well,” Edmund backed out from the room, “I guess that means we’re out three crew members for the time being.”

“NO!! OH NO!!!”

A shout came from the storage deck.

The three men ran to the storage deck, seeing Moira and Lance with their hands in the air as the two pointed frantically at a few crates.

“What happened!?”

“Someone threw out half of our food!” cried Moira. “All these crates are empty!”

“Carl’s ghost has come to haunt us!” panicked Liam. “I knew something bad would happen! First the girls get sick, now this!”

“Don’t be stupid,” said Dr Singh as she descend into the room. “That’s impossible. I mean, sometimes there are things around me that remind me of Timmy, but he’s too much of a wimp to actually haunt me. Carl is probably the same.”

“Well, something is trying to sabotage us,” said Edmund.

“And we’re almost at the demigod,” added Louie, munching on an apple he didn’t really need – he was vampire, after all. “We have lost crew and food, this is bad.”

“We need to find who is behind the sabotaging of our journey to the demigod!” declared Liam.

“Okay, let’s have everyone meet up deck to discuss things,” Edmund clapped his hands.

“Let me get the others!” Moira ran all over the ship before finally reaching Ian’s room.

Not one to knock on doors, she immediately entered his room. A quiet jingle sounded in the tiny cabin, as she saw a tiny bell fall from the suitcase Ian was currently rifling through. He was trying to find a matching tie for his gray coat.

Moira, thinking back to the first day they had met Carl where everyone concluded that someone with bells had spooked the elk (bless his soul), Moira gasped in horror.

“YOU!” she pointed at Ian.

Ian turned around, startled. “Oh hey Moira, how’s it going?”

“You spooked Carl!”

“What are you talking about, Moira?” Ian asked, confused, before he looked down and saw the bell. His face turned white.

“Oh no Moira, it’s not what it looks like! This is Rufus’ bell I swear!”

“We’ll see about that!”

Moira dragged Ian up to the deck where everyone had gathered, telling everyone what she had found.

“But it doesn’t add up Moira,” said Devin. “Why would Ian want to keep us from reaching the demigod?”

Edmund’s mind flashed. If they saved the demigod, they would get to Gino sooner. And saving Gino – was Ian against that? He knew that there was a past conflict between the two men, but knowing Ian, it did not make sense why the young man would try to jeopardize everyone else’s lives.

“Well, we have to make a decision as to who we think may be behind all these mishaps,” said Edmund. “We are only three hours away from the demigod and whoever is out to sabotage us will be acting soon. There are no other ships around for miles so unless they show up, they are probably on this very ship as we speak. Someone has also dumped most of our food overboard.”

“Yes,” said Liam. “That mother tickler is probably somewhere on this ship.”

Everyone shivered, looking around.

“Hey what’s this?” asked the sickly Rina, picking up a piece of paper full of red writing.

“ Don’t worry. You will see that this is all for good, because I am Everyone’s Little Friend (Clue 6)

“What’s that?” asked Devin.

“Well, me and Kanoko found two other notes like this but threw them away.”

“It’s in the same handwriting as that piece of note from before!” gasped Edmund. (see clue 1)

“We must get to the bottom of this,” said Liam. “We must decide who is behind all of this madness!”



PART VIII – DEADENED

“What were our clues again?” said Edmund, as everyone recounted what they had learned from the strange bits of paper they had found around the ship.

“I bet it’s that vile –but handsome– old man who gave us those candies,” breathed Rina.

“Crescento?” asked Edmund. “No, he would never write a letter to Santa Claus. He probably already had everything as a child. Spoiled brat.”

From the group they heard a gasp. Dr Singh’s eyes widened in alarm, as she said in a quick hush, “Oh my god – it must be Timmmy! Back to get his revenge on everyone because of my greatest mistake-“

“Oh don’t be so self-important, woman,” interrupted Liam.

She huffed in response. “Well then who do you think it is?”

Liam looked sideways at Ian and coughed. “Uh…I mean, our biggest suspect is Ian…”

Ian glared. “Well it doesn’t match up! That letter to Santa – my mother never cried over any diary when I was a child. Isn’t that right, Louie?”

Louie nodded his head. “Yeah…I don’t remember mama ever crying over any journal of dad’s…”

“So then it’s not Ian,” sighed Sasha, relieved. Ian looked at Sasha, stars in his eyes. “Oh I’m so glad you believe me, Sasha…” he breathed.

“Carl- and Carl’s ghost!” shouted Liam.

Kanoko whacked him on the head. “He would never do that! Plus he is afraid of bells. Why would he ever want to spook himself in the first place?”

“We are running out of suspects.” Edmund stroked his beard, before looking around. “Where is Diedrich?”

“He’s not with us,” added Josie.

“He sure is creepy,” added Dr Singh. “Where could he be?”

Everyone looked around. Then they looked down. Then they looked up. Then they looked sideways, minds in a rut.

Suddenly they jumped.

“Did you know?” said Diedrich loudly from the shadows, his eyes glowing red. “That grunnies would never hurt anyone on purpose without a good reason? But if we do want to hurt people, they will suffer from an excruciatingly painful and torturous death?”

His little green body walked forward.

“And did you know that it is a fact that grunnies are smarter than the average human? I’m telling the truth!”

“Diedrich,” said Rina in a shaky voice, “You’re so cute but you’re scaring me right now…”

He continued on. “One more fact! Did you know that I was born from ash – so I don’t really have any parents! Therefore, you are all douchebags!”

Diedrich, apparently, had packed his belongings. A small suitcase of all of his worldly possessions dragged behind him.

“Therefore, I cannot be the evil doer person! Good bye!” he said with finality, his voice in a high pitch.

“Oh Diedrich,” said Moira, “I never thought it was you – don’t go!”

Everyone nodded in agreement or in apology.

Diedrich looked at the crew, tears threatening to spill over in his big, bright red eyes.

“Did you know that grunnies are also very forgiving?”

Moira took his hand as he let go of his suitcase and joined the group.

“Well then,” said Edmund. “We are out of suspects. It must be someone we all have no idea even exists.”

Devin raised his head in realization. “The wording from the latest note was a bit weird – who is Everyone’s Little Friend? And it was all in capital letters…doesn’t it look sort of weird?”

Lance nodded, “As if it spells…E.L.F.?”

“And what would an elf have against this “G-corp”?” said Sasha, for once, using her brain.

Weird indeed, thought Edmund. He took out the letter to Santa, as he suddenly realized what had been written:

”… a new komputer, revange against g-coarp, a byke, a new bakpak … and sumtimes I git my leters mixed liek mixing “K for “C” or “S” for “G.” Butt my teecher says my spellang is gud…”

Edmund thought to himself again. S-Corp? Did our mystery elf get G-Corp mixed up with S-Corp? Years ago while on afternoon tea, he remembered that he had talked with Leon one day about miscellaneous news from around the world. Leon had mentioned some news of a building in the North that had exploded. One of the only pieces of information that leaked from the incident was that the company’s name had been called S-Corp – S obviously a stand-in for Santa. The bit of information had always stuck with Edmund, because it was just too funny. As if Santa could ever match up to Gambino…

So their mystery elf was out to get revenge for the explosion or activity going on around S-Corp, but in their childhood blunder mistakenly remembered S-Corp as G-Corp. And now, they were trying to prevent others from saving the demigod, who would be a great aid in helping find Gino Gambino, the last remaining human evidence – if only by name – of G-Corp.

“It all makes sense…” Edmund muttered to himself.

“Talking to yourself old man? What do you mean?” asked Louie, whose sensitive ears picked up the mumble.

Suddenly, a loud groan sounded from the ship as the air vessel slowly halted to a stop. Everyone swayed on deck from the momentum.

“What is it?” cried Kanoko.

“Oh fu- we forgot to have someone patrol the ship!” yelled Moira.

“Listen up guys!” said Edmund, “We’re looking for an elf – not the tall elves that are human-like, but a very short elf that you would expect to see from the North Pole!”

“OMG!” squealed Rina. “A real Santa’s elf?”

“This elf is probably armed and dangerous. Search in teams!”

The ship rocked dangerously as the crew set out in search for the mystery assailant.

Knowing how small their elf could be, they searched extra carefully in nooks and crannies.

Diedrich, spying a cloth tarp on deck that suddenly moved, quickly ran over to the piece of cloth and lifted it high. He was punched in the face.

Memories of the first day he had met that spiteful creature named Radio Jack flitted through his mind, before he was knocked out cold.

“Grab him!” a quick shout sounded from the deck. Figures scrambled around the ship, grabbing at the small figure that dogged out from the tarp and evaded their hands expertly. However, the figure was no match for Rina, Sasha, and Kanoko, who were all excited to finally meet one of Santa’s elves. They squealed in delight when Rina finally caught one of the elf’s stubby legs, before squeezing the small struggling body in a locking death hug.

“Let go of me leg go!” cried the small male elf.

Louie walked over to the piece of tarp, lifting it clear off whatever it was covering. He whistled.

“Damn, that’s a lot of explosives.”

Everyone on board turned white. “Get that stuff off of this ship!” yelled Edmund. Lance used his expertise with shipping big packages to quickly dispose of everything over the railing of the ship.

“NO!” yelled the elf, frustrated. The rocking of the ship was supposed to distract the crew, while he would light up the pile of explosives and escape from the ship before his bomb decimated the air vessel. Now his great finale was ruined! Ruined!

“What’s your name, elf?” asked Edmund.

The little elf glared at everyone he could glare at. “My name is Little Nicky! And I’m here to avenge the death of my father, otherwise known to G-Corp scum as Elftech013! I read his journal! I know what happened! Gam-”

Edmund covered Nicky’s mouth. “I think me and Nicky will have a private chat in the Captain’s cabin,” he announced.

He took the elf from Rina’s reluctant arms. “Everyone – we’re almost at the Demigod! Prepare the ship!”

The crew cheered, and went about their tasks, though some hovered around deck waiting for more news as Edmund interrogated the elf.

In the Captain’s cabin, Edmund sat Nicky down on a couch.

“Gambino sympathizer!” cried Nicky.

“For some reason, you must know that Gino Gambino is in trouble, and that since saving the Demigod is a priority, the faster it gets done, the faster we get to Gino. Helping the Demigod may also greatly aid us in finding Gino.”

Nicky nodded.

“You also must know that Gino is related to Johnny Gambino, who has ties with this G-Corp – which, from what I understand, ruined your father?”

Nicky nodded.

“Well then what you probably don’t know, is that the people you should be mad at, is not G-Corp, but S-Corp.”

Nicky nod- his head froze. “Wait. What? There’s an S-Corp?”

“Yes,” confirmed Edmund. “The building was located in the North – do you know what happened to your father?”

Tears threatened to fill the little elf’s eyes. “I found his work journal when I was a little kid – it was a copy of a journal he had back when he was working for this big company with Mrs. Claus. Julia – my mother – would cry over the journal after my father disappeared. He witnessed something at the company that he should not have seen. He called it an “incident.” So he got sacked – mother was so proud of his employment, and getting sacked was such a shame. I remember the fights they’d have...He later died mysteriously. It’s all G-Corp’s fault!”

The thirst for revenge flared up in Little Nicky’s eyes.

“But you have it wrong,” stated Edmund. “Mrs. Claus never worked for G-Corp – I would know. However, there did exist an S-Corp at the North Pole. This was probably where your father worked.”

“How can that-“

“You said in your letter, as a child, that you often mistook your “Cs” for “Ks” and your “Ss” for “Gs”…”

Little Nicky started to shake. “Then all my planning, everything – all the work I’ve done – was wrong?!”

The little elf pulled at his hair, a bell from his pocked slipped out. Shame turned his face red as looked up apologetically at Edmund. “Sorry for trying to kill you guys.”

“Seeking forgiveness will be a long and hard road for you,” said Edmund, thinking of Carl – bless the elk’s soul. “But with time-“

“Now I must seek vengeance against this S-Corp!” Nicky yelled, fury once again raging from his very core.

“You’re a little too late for that,” Edmund advised. “I have heard news, years ago, of S-Corp being destroyed in a grand explosion.”

Little Nicky deflated. “Well then…”

An uncomfortable silence settled over the cabin as the orange rays of a setting sun filtered through the windows. Little Nicky shifted in his seat, digesting all the new information. A grandfather clock ticked the stillness away and he lifted his sullen head.

“I guess this is goodbye.”

Edmund nodded.

“Goodbye!” piped Diedrich, staring, maybe with a little malice, at the elf that sat in a tiny flying device.

It was an hour later, and after explaining his mistaken plot for revenge to the crew, and asking for forgiveness over his rash actions, Little Nicky decided it was best if he left the ship before they reached the Demigod.

“I’m so sorry for causing all this trouble,” Little Nicky offered. “Goodbye!”

He started the engine to his little airship, fueled by cheer, and sailed off. The crew gave a big sigh of relief as they began to go about their duties, once again.

“Hey – what’s that?” asked Kanoko, pointing at a huge pile of trunks the elf had left behind.

“HOLY COW!” whooped Liam, peeking into the trunks. “It’s all loot!”

The crew cheered. Things were looking up!

[THE END]

End note:
BIG THANK YOU to the 12 people who made this user event happen by role playing NPCs through their mules throughout the forums! If you have comments about this event or have feedback on it, please feel free to tell us here!: http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/chatterbox/feedback-etc/t.66252769/

We hope you enjoyed this mini adventure! And thanks for voting in the polls!

Disclaimer:

We are in no way affiliated or in league with Gaia or the official Gaia storyline.
This is a user-made and user-run event, organized by a couple of people from the GCD.
This event is for all of those who love plot, storyline, and Gaia's NPCs.
This is for you all!! We love you. <3