Tommy slowly placed a damp cigarette between his lips and attempted to light the end with his silver lighter. No matter how many times he flicked his thumb against the flint wheel, the cigarette refused to light.

Sighing in defeat, he discarded his box of wet cigarettes and instead shrugged off his grey blazer and started to strain the water from it.

His looked around him, taking in his new surroundings. He had found himself inside the torch lit corridor of the temple after working out where the secret back entrance was. However, the entrance required himself and Baden to swim upstream.

Tommy had worked out that a small river seemed to pass under the temple, and so the two managed to find a secret entrance that connected them from the river to the temple.

Baden laughed next to him as he too strained the water out from his bright orange jacket. "How did you know there would be a second entrance?"

"Most of the ancient gods have secret back entrances to their temples." Tommy flung his damp jacket over his shoulder and grabbed a lit torch from the wall. "It was only a matter of finding it."

He started walking down the stone brick corridor, Baden following him.

"Why do you need me?"

"The high priest didn't see you on the deck of the Leo earlier today, and I have the slightest suspicion that his cursed soul won't work against your cursed soul. Your power may come in handy elsewhere as well, I might have you shift into the form of their Harvest God.

"Who would have thought I would be a god in the making?" Baden flexed his muscles through his black shirt.

"You have no idea what it means to be a god," Tommy sighed in acknowledgement as he muttered to himself and shook his head at his friend's behaviour.

"You can turn into anyone, even the dead, am I correct?" Tommy inquired.

"Yep." Baden nodded, and in a cloud of smoke, he turned into a dead looking corpse, the flesh tearing away from his bones and maggots coming out from one of his eye sockets, making him look like a zombie.

"Brains," Baden joked and lifted his arms up in a trance.

"Now's not the time to fool around!" Tommy shouted sharply and whacked him across the back of the head.

"Sorry." Baden rubbed his head with a cheeky smirk. "Why'd you ask?"

"Can you turn into a wooden puppet?"

"Yes, but with one slight problem." In a cloud of smoke, he turned into a wooden puppet under his black shirt and seconds later, he crumpled to the ground like a heap of bones. "I cannot move in this form without a puppet master."

A scheming look appeared across Tommy's face like he was about to dominate the world with his newly formed plan. Before Baden knew what was happening, water started to accumulate around him, Tommy flicked his hand up, and Baden stood up like a marionette doll.

Baden looked over himself in surprise, as he was able to move his wooden body without fear of falling apart, and slowly looked up at Tommy, ever so confused.

"How..."

Tommy clamped his hand over Baden's mouth, silencing him. He had heard voices from around the corner of the corridor and saw shadows flickering in the distance. The two of them froze where they stood.

When the shadows didn't move, the two pirates decided to creep a little closer and listen in on the people that were talking. Tommy blew out his torch, making the pair more hidden within the shadows of the dark corridor and listened intently, recognising one of the voices.

"Blondie?" he whispered.

☠️

Alex woke up with a start and breathed in deeply as he sat up, rubbing his sore neck. He instantly regretted his actions when a pounding headache hit him hard. He groaned as he rubbed his head and looked around him.

He was in one of the murky dungeon cells. His sword and dagger were nowhere to be found, and the little light that shone through the bars came from the torch held in the mayor's hand. A sinister smirk was placed on his lips, his look dark and dangerous. In his free hand, he held Miss Piggy. The pig looked terrified as she attempted to squirm out of the evil man's grasp.

Alex shot up from the floor, and his hands curled around the cold poles of the barred cell. He held an anguished look on his face as he glared at the mayor.

"If you harm my friend, I will kill you," Alex threatened.

"All this trouble over one little pig. It makes me wonder what makes her so special." The mayor stroked the quivering animal. "At first, I thought it was because you knew the truth about her, but now, I've come to the conclusion that you're just an idiot who's grown attached to a pig. Pathetic, really."

Alex frowned. "What truth?"

"That's right, you don't know." The mayor handed the lit torch over to the high priest. "Then let me tell you. This island used to sacrifice the prettiest human girl during the harvest festival of the red moon in thanks to our God for a bountiful crop. But as traditions became outdated, and the island became a part of the United Islands, laws required us not to kill humans in such an inhuman way anymore. The entire practice and the festival soon stopped many years ago."

"What are you getting at?"

"Don't interrupt me, and let me finish!" he mayor snapped, and Alex smirked in amusement, having gotten under his skin.

The mayor continued with his story. "However, since the festival stopped, our island had a decline in food trade and tourism, and so when my father became the mayor, he brought back the sacrificial tradition as a means to make money.

"Of course, in this day an age, the people of the island are against human sacrifices, but the priests of the temple wouldn't allow anything else to be sacrificed other than the most beautiful human girl from the island.

"So my father came up with a brilliant idea where the Islanders would be happy and the priests could still have their human sacrifice without the public knowing about it. He used me."

Alex's smirk slowly disappeared. They had been sacrificing human girls. How? In the mayor's arms was a pig, not a human girl, unless...

"Is that pig a human?"

"You catch on fast." The mayor lifted Miss Piggy in front of him. "But not just any human. The winner of the beauty contest."

The mayor's fingers tapped between the pig's eyes, and she turned into a very dazed and confused-looking woman. Not just any woman, but the red-haired beauty Levi had befriended.

"Jess!"

Alex's fists tightened around the bars. His heart strained as he stared down at Jessica, who had collapsed to the ground, breathing in heavily. She was still wearing the same long-sleeved black bikini she had worn at the beauty contest.

Her eyes came into contact with his, and he saw how frightened she looked. This entire time, the pig was her. She had saved his life, she had listened to him at the bar, and he had confessed how he had really felt about her. She hadn't judged him but had only listened and comforted him. They had become friends.

His breathing heightened. He had to save her now at all costs.

"Alex? What's going on?" Before she could say any more, the mayor turned her back into a pig.

"How are you doing that? I thought only you could turn into living animals?"

The mayor's smirk widened. "I'm also capable of turning anyone I like into any living animal with the touch of my hand." He laughed. "Now excuse me, I have a pig to sacrifice."

"Let her go!" Alex growled.

"No!" The mayor's lips pursed in anguish. "You know, I wouldn't have let her win the beauty contest if she was still mine, but ever since our encounter at the tavern, I noticed that Jessica had taken a liking to you, and if I can't have her, then no one can."

"Selfish bastard!" Alex glared at him, and his hands tightened further around the bars of the cell he was locked in, imagining he was strangling the neck of the mayor.

The mayor turned around and left with Jessica held in his arms, leaving Alex with the tattooed man. His evil laugh echoed down the corridor as he walked away. Alex continued to curse and shout at the mayor, but no matter what he said, the mayor only ignored him.

He had to get out of here and fast before Jessica was slaughtered.

So that's how it is. Tommy slid further back into the shadows as the mayor walked past.

Luckily, the mayor headed down a different corridor than the one Tommy and Baden were hidden in.

"This isn't good," Baden whispered. "Jess is going to be sacrificed if we don't do something."

Tommy relit the torch with his silver lighter, a smirk playing on his lips as he shone the flame below Baden's face, illuminating his frightful wooden features.

"Don't worry. Our lovely Lady Jessica will be safe. I have an idea, and it involves the likes of you."

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