Somewhere on the coast of England, a sleepy fishing village named Oakens experiences frequent strange occurrences. A ship, one that looked like it belonged in Great Britain's navy, docked on their shores of Oakens, but there is no one to man the ship.

The ship, which the villagers named Magic’s Glory, departed from their land every month, and returned shortly after. Anyone that boards Magic’s Glory and sails with it to whatever land it comes from, never returns.

Even hundreds of years after the ship first docked at Oakens, the mystery of the magical ship has yet to be solved.

~~~~~~~

He was leaving. He was boarding the magical boat that nobody ever got off of and leaving. He was getting on and he wasn’t coming back. I couldn’t believe this, how could he do this to me? What in England made him insane enough to leave me here, in this bleak, boring town? Why? I couldn’t speak, my mouth was dry and my tongue felt too big to fit my mouth.

All of these thoughts ran through my head as I watched him speaking with Mother and Father of what he was going to do. I couldn’t stand the thought of him leaving, I couldn’t even look at him without tears coming to my eyes, so I ran. I ran out of the house belonging to my crazy family and straight through town, going to the only place I could think of, Anthea’s house.

I found Anthea finishing up her morning chores when I came. The dark blonde, green eyed girl took one look at me and led me to the kitchen in the back, the place where such delightful baked goods were made, but my mind was not on that right now. All I could focus on was what Destry, my brother, was planning to do. How could he be such an idiot! Leaving me here with no one to speak to but Anthea, no one to care for me while Mother and Father were busy.

“What is it Meredith? What has happened?” Anthea asked, holding my arms so my blue eyes would look into her green ones. I tried to stop a sob from escaping, but I was too wrought with grief to be successful. My entire body shook with the sobs of sorrow and abandonment.

“It is Destry. He plans to board Magic’s Glory,” I finally choked out. Anthea gave me a look full of sympathy, but she did not truly know how I felt, she had no other sibling. She did not know the grief and anger buried inside me, growing and swelling like a beast trying to escape.

“I am so sorry, Meredith. But you know when your brother makes up his mind, he will not change it.” Anthea let go of my arms and pulled me into a hug instead. It was times like these I am glad Anthea and I are friends.

“Why does he leave?” Anthea asked after a moment of only me sobbing.

“He is curious, like everyone else. At least, that is what he told me. I believe the real reason is to find his good friend, the young man that went off with them at the last departure,” I explained to her, composing myself enough to do so without crying.

“Why Meredith, what’re you doing here?” Anthea’s mother, Anita, came into my view. When she saw I had been crying, she wiped her flour covered hands on her apron and kneeled down to envelop both of us in a hug.

“It’ll be alright, my dear. I suppose Destry has told you of his plans to leave. Don’t worry, I am sure he will be alright,” Anita told me. So he had told everyone in the town but me of his departure.

“H-he’s already told you? I only found out less than an hour ago,” I mumbled, wriggling myself out of the hug as anger threatened to consume my sorrow.

“I’m afraid so, my dear. He did not want you to know until the day that abomination of a ship departed.” Anita answered, knowing I was angry with him.

“Well, Destry can leave then, if he believes his own sister does not wish to know of his plans to leave her forever.” I crossed my arms, anger having won my internal struggle.

“Meredith, you can’t truly mean that!” Anthea gasped, surprised at my behavior.

“I do mean it, and you can tell Destry that I said it,” I grumbled.

“At least tell me you will see him depart on the journey.” Anthea begged.

“I cannot tell you that, for that would be lying.”

It has been two weeks since Destry’s departure, and now all I felt was grief and regret for not talking to him before he boarded that cursed boat. I once had loved that boat, wanted to explore it, wanted to know all of its secrets, but now all I felt was hatred towards it for taking my brother away from me.

The boat would be returning soon, and I promised to myself, as soon as I heard word, I would be running towards its usually dock, some part of me hoping beyond hope that he had returned. When I did hear of the boats return, I made good on that promise. Being a good friend, Anthea had come with me to check, but, as the entire town expected, he was not there.

“He is not here, Meredith.” Anthea said, begging me to leave the boat.

“No, no, he has to be here.” I kept scanning the deck from where I stood on the dock, no sane person dared to board it unless they planned to sail aboard the ship. “Let’s go on board.” I suggested. Yes, I was one of those few insane people who would board the vessel.

“I don’t know, Meredith. It’s dangerous.” Anthea shuffled foot to foot, nervous.

I pulled back my muddy brown hair with a ribbon and said, “Don’t be scared, Anthea. The boat isn’t set to leave for at least four weeks.” My adventurous spirit was coming back to me, and I loved it.

“Fine, but only for a few minutes, then we leave.” Anthea conceded, following me aboard Magic’s Glory. The boards creaked as we carefully placed our feet, trying not to trip. The wind of the harbor seemed to be louder on board, as if there were ghosts crying out for help. The deck was littered with supplies from past explorers, never getting the chance to clean up.

We searched the entire deck, but, having found nothing, we decided to go below deck, something even I wouldn’t do unless necessary. We searched everywhere we could, behind crates, in the galley, in what seemed to be the sleeping quarters, everywhere, but he was still nowhere to be found.

“Give it up, Meredith, he is not here.” Anthea said, trying to pry me away from my search. She was right, and I knew it, “Let’s go to the bakery, I can get us some puff pastries.” I nodded, saying nothing for I felt as if my spirit had left me, leaving a pit of pure emptiness that could only expand, but never fill.

When we had mounted the stairs to go above deck, we had found that the boat was no longer docked, but sailing away. With us on board. I stood speechless as I watched my town fade away into the horizon as we sailed farther and farther from shore.

“What, what is going on? The boat was not supposed to take off for another few weeks!” Anthea yelled over the howling wind. Magic’s Glory was going fast, faster than any other ship should be able to, but it seemed to defy all natural laws as it sped up even faster.

“I, I don’t know!” I finally stammered, breaking out of my daze. We had no food, no fresh water, and no way of knowing where we were going. Most people who board have these necessities, but we do not. Best case scenario, some creature would spring out of the depth of the ocean and eat us to put us out of our misery.

“Meredith, what do we do?” Anthea broke me out of stupor once again with her logical question. I took some time to think. Our first priority was to find food and freshwater. I thought of the fisherman in the harbor, how they would cast their nets in the water and pull out fish. We could do that, I think.

“Find a net.” I commanded, taking charge of the situation. Anthea didn’t question me, instead, she ran to fetch a rather large net she had probably seen while searching the deck earlier. We couldn’t just throw the net in, we were going to fast, and we’d probably rip our arms out. I looked at the two sturdy masts that held the unfurled sails of the ship, and an idea came to me.

“Grab some robes. Tie the end to the masts, and the other end to the net!” I shouted. Anthea, having caught onto my idea, did so with my assistance. Now we had some way to gather food. Anthea threw the net over the side like we had watched so many fisherman do before us, and, with a ton of luck, the net wasn’t swept away into the ocean.

“We’ll grab it later, now we need to find water, fresh water.” We couldn’t drink the salt water around us, it would only make us thirst for more. Perhaps some of the previous sailors left some fresh water to drink. I motioned for Anthea to follow me below deck to search for left over supplies.

We found old biscuits, clothing, a sword, a knife, a pot, and some sort of grill thing, but no water. “Maybe they stored it in the galley?” Anthea suggested, so we searched there. The galley, or the kitchen as some may call it, did have some freshwater. It was in jugs, hidden from view in a dark corner.

After the discovery of the freshwater, Anthea and I went above deck to collect the net, hopefully full of fish. I worried for a moment that we would not be able to pull the net up, but that was nought but a thought, the net was not as ridden with fish at all, it had only one, but it was enough to feed us for the night

Anthea stared at the fish, not knowing how to prepare it and worrying I didn’t either. “Don’t worry, Anthea. Remember, I used to always help mother prepare dinner.” I was telling her the truth of course, not just a lie to make her feel better. I had skinned and gutted many fish before, being the only other girl in the house and the immediate chose to help with dinner. This included, of course, cleaning and gutting fish. Anthea and her family were small enough that her mother could do all the cooking by herself.

I took out one fish and used the knife we found to clean and gut, getting my hands filthy with the fish blood that smelled like, well, fish. Anthea scrunched up her nose at the smell, but I just chuckled. Her discomfort amused me. Now to find a way to cook it. I had never actually cooked anything before, Mother had always shooed me away by that time.

“Don’t worry, I got this.” Anthea disappeared below deck, and then came back up with the pot I had found earlier.

“Are you planning to boil them?” I asked, curious and worried at the same time.

“No, of course not! That’d waste too much water! I’ve seen Mother cook fish before, she doesn’t boil the fish. It’s tougher to eat, but doesn’t waste water.” Anthea gathered the fish I had cut up into pieces and placed them in the pot, then went below deck. I thought about following her, but I wanted to watch the boat sail, to see where it would take us. I climbed up to the crows nest, a sort of look out above the main sails.

I stood where I was and watched the sun set over the ocean, thinking of what is to come. If we were to stay, we might run out of freshwater, if we’re not careful, and food if we cannot find any fish, but we would find out what happened to my brother and other sailors. I had spotted a dinghy on board earlier, and it was still there, we could leave the boat using that, but we would never find my brother. I can’t just leave him to whatever malignant thing that took him and the other sailors. Perhaps Anthea could leave, and I could stay, I didn’t want to put her in danger anymore than I had to, it was my brother that was missing. After dinner, I told myself, then I’ll ask.

“Meredith!” Anthea called up to me, alerting me to the completion of dinner. I climbed down to the deck as she sat two square, wooden plates with cooked fish onto the deck, sitting down next to one plate and waiting for me to sit next to the other. I was starving, I had eaten nothing but a slice of bread for breakfast this morning, to excited and worried to eat anything.

I immediately thanked Anthea for cooking it, then we said a small pray of thanks for the food. The first bite was the most delicious delicacy I had ever tasted, funny how food tastes better when you’re hungry.

“Meredith, I want you to know, no matter what happens, I will be here to help you find your brother.” Anthea said. I stared at her shock, gaping with my mouth full of food. She would sacrifice anything to help me, that is a very dumb thing to do, but also something only a true friend would do. I realized, at that moment, that Anthea would do anything for me, and I would do anything for her. Nothing would keep me from helping her.

“Thank you, Anthea.” My reply seemed feeble compared to her promise before, but I could tell she knew I meant it. I knew, if I offered for her to go, she would stay. She would stay, and she would help. She was just that kind of person.

After the first day, our life sort of turned into a routine. We’d catch the fish together in the morning, catching only what we needed for the day and releasing the rest, then I’d skin them and prepare them to cook. Anthea would then take them from me and cook breakfast while I watched from the crow’s nest for any sign of land. After breakfast, we’d spend some time exploring the vessel, until we got hungry and Anthea prepared lunch. We ate together, then I went back up to the crows nest till dinner, afterwards, we’d settle down on hammocks from past sailors in the sleeping quarters.

We continued the routine for six days, until, at last, I had spotted land. It was almost the usual time we ate lunch, and Anthea was preparing in the galley. I was so thrilled at the discovery that I almost fell out of the nest, but caught myself in the nick of time. I swiftly descended the ladder to the deck and ran downstairs to fetch Anthea right as she was coming up with the plates.

“Anthea! I’ve spotted land! Come, have a look!” I ran back on deck with Anthea following close behind, her plates having been set down. As I clambered up the ladder once again, I could see little peeks of the land I had spotted between the sails. A joyous thrill of the thought of being on land again made me more energetic and cheerful than I had been in the past days.

I was now standing in my usual look out post, peering over the island I had spotted. It looked real, I hoped it was real, but the ship was magic, it could be playing tricks on me. To confirm that I wasn’t just seeing the island, I asked Anthea, “Do you see it? Do you see the island?”

“Yes! Yes, I do! Meredith, we may find them, all of them!” Anthea cheered with obvious elation. The two of us were very high spirited, but we still needed to eat. The following lunch was full of jitters as we worried of what might be on the island and the feeling of jubilation for finally getting off the magical vessel.

The boat soon docked itself after lunch, something I thought was strange and wonderful at the same time, for it lowered it’s anchor, furled up it’s sails, and lowered the gangplank onto an old dock that should not be there all by itself, no assistance required by me or Anthea. I suppose that is what a magic ship will do.

Now Anthea and I stood in front of the gangplank, the only way off the ship. We looked at each other, then at the plank, then at each other again. The island could be dangerous, or the safest place we’ve encountered so far. Stepping off this ship might lead to our death, or to the missing sailors, or both. Leaving this ship would determine our destiny, for better or for worse. We shared a look. We both knew what the other would do.

I took the first step, and I knew Anthea would follow. She said she would do anything to help me get my brother back, she’d follow no matter what danger we went through. My step was towards the gangplank, towards land, and towards possible danger. I am going to find my brother, whatever it took. I took the step that would determine our destiny, the step that led the way.

We walked down the gangplank together, as we would face whatever danger together. As soon as we stepped onto the dock, the sound of lightning and a bright flash came from the end of the dock. Me and Anthea both jumped and covered our eyes to protect them.

“Ah, I have been waiting. Welcome Meredith Miller and Anthea Baker to my little island. And I am sorrow to say, the people you search for have been taken, by the same man that cursed this island, Wizard Draqor.” A voice said. Me and Anthea removed our hand from our eyes and looked at the man before us, the man that had delivered the dreadful news. Anthea and I shared a look, then we gazed back at the man before us.

He was a wizard.