Tales from the Crow's-Nest is a two-part story that was published as two booklets issued with Issues 25 and 26 of the Moshi Monsters Magazine.
Story[]
Part One (Issue 25 booklet)[]
Well hello tharrr, ye scurvy frog! Did that sound nautical? I'm always trying to imrpove my pirate slang. The name's Lefty. They've called me that ever since I lost a tentacle to a seagull during a swordfish fight. It happened right after I joined Cap'n Buck's crew aboard the Cloudy Cloth Clipper.
Down one limb and with a fear of seagulls, I had a hard time getting my sea tentacles back and an even harder time staying balanced on check! I barely had time to work out my arrghs from my yaarghs before Buck sent me back to the crow's nest for breaking his lucky shark tooth. My job on board involved keeping an eye out for undiscovered islands. It was quite difficult at times, especially when I decided to try out an eye patch. I couldn't see a thing, so we just drifted aimlessly that day...
But I'm not here to talk about that. I'm here to tell you the harrowing tales of the Cloudy Cloth Clipper's crew on an epic quest to find treasure in the vast seas of Potion Ocean. Keep reading to find out how I finally got my sea tentacles back. Let's just say that it involves yours truly discovering a brand new, never seen before island!
Lefty
One of the first islands I ever spotted was Bubble Bath Bay. I was up in the crow's-nest when something landed on my face. At first I thought it was that pesky seagull, Patch, flinging spit balls at me. But I soon realised that Patch was nowhere in sight. Thinking I was going mad I pulled out my trusty spyglass and scanned the horizon, where I spotted a trail of soap bubbles leading straight to a faraway island.
"Sand ho!" I yelled. "I mean, land go!"
"Aargh," Cap'n Buck shouted back. "Ye mean land ho, ye sorry swashbuckler! Which direction should we be sailin'?"
"Due east," I said. With a loud grunt, Cap'n Buck turned the Cloudy Cloth Clipper around on its keel. The ship turned so suddenly I nearly feel out of the crow's-nest! Luckily the winds were plentiful that day and before long we reached the soapy shores of the mysterious island.
"Aargh, that be smelling terrible," Buck said as he tossed the anchor ashore. "I be knowin' that stench anywhere, We be at Bubble Bath Bay!" The air certainly smelled different. But it didn't smell bad, it smelled like soap! In case you didn't know, pirates hate soap. I hadn't seen a single sud on the Cloudy Cloth Clipper for ages.
Bubble Bath Bay was shaped like a giant bathtub. I'd never seen anythingso sparkling and clean in my life! We stepped of the ship, two pirates, ready for...
"Lefty, ye outright landlubber, get yer tentacle out of me ear!" Buck groaned. In all the excitement I'd jumped off the ship and landed on top of Cap'n Buck. Luckily the sand was bouncy and forgiving, made up of hundreds of tiny rubber ducks. What luck!
"Youch!" Buck yelped. He was holding his foot and a plunger was stuck to it. "Help me get this off me foot!"
Schlop! I used my tentacles to pry the plunger off him. Clumsily, we made our way to a patch of loofah grass, bouncing on rubber ducks and yanking pesky plungers off each other along the way.
"Finally!" I sighed, as I fell onto the ground. "I thought we'd never get through all that." Just then something caught my eye. It was a scrap of an ancient map hiding in the loofah grass.
"Ahoy! I spied a piece of a map," I said in my very best pirate voice.
"Aargh, we don't be havin' time fer that," he said, pointing to some seriously soapy treasures in the distance. "We gotta figure out how we will cross this er' Shampoo Lagoon t' get t' th' booty!"
"Aye aye Cap'n," I said, tucking the piece of map away and looking over at Shampoo Lagoon. I could see hundreds of fancy rubber ducks, an overflowing bathtub and even a bubble machine. In case you've never heard of the Shampoo Lagoon, you should probably know that it's calm on top but there's a super strong conditioner current that sweeps along the bottom, making crossing it quite a troublesome tangle.
"It looks pretty shallow," I said. "I'll bet my tentacles will touch the bottom and I'll be able to cross it without getting sucked away by the conditioner current."
"Aaaaarrrrgghhhh, that doesn't help ME get across!" Buck grumbled. "Plus, I don't want that gooey shampoo all over me fur." I looked down at the suckers on my tentacles. Suddenly a lightbulb went off in my head.
"Hey, what if you used some of those plungers?" I suggested. Buck's face lit up.
"Won't keep the sudsy gloop off o' me but it jus' might work," he said, grabbing two of them. We made our way across the Shampoo Lagoon using our plungers and tentacle suckers to grab hold of the bottom.
When we reached the loot at Shampoo Lagoon, we had another huge problem. How were we supposed to get back to the ship? There was no way we could carry it all on our backs. "Do you think that bathtub floats?" I asked. Help Lefty and Buck get their loot back to the Cloudy Cloth Clipper.
"I don't know a whole lot about bathtubs, matey, but it won't hurt t' try!" Buck said We loaded the bathtub up with designer ducks and the bubble machine, then pushed it into Shampoo Lagoon. Using the plungers as oars, we rowed our way back to the Cloudy Cloth Clipper, while Cap'n Buck happily sung a merry sea shanty.
It took a while, but we finally managed to get all the treasure back to the ship. Once we had it all on board, I noticed Buck was doing something strange He was rubbing something sticky all over his fur.
"What's that, Cap'n?" I asked.
"Aargh, it be me lucky jar o' Octopus spit. Makes me smell like a scurvy dog, aaaaarrrgghhhhh!"
So THAT'S where all my used slurpy straws went. He'd been collecting my spit! Bleurgh.
Back in the crow's-nest, I pulled out the scrap of map and started to study it. Buck may have laughed, but I had a feeling there was something more to it...
to be continued...
Shiver me timbers, me hearties! Will Lefty ever get his sea tentacles back? How many jars of octopus spit does Cap'n Buck have on board the Cloudy Cloth Clipper? And where does the mysterious scrap of map lead? Fnd out in the second part of Tales from the Crow's-Nest, available in Issue 26 of Moshi Monsters Magazine! Until next time, land lubbers.
Part Two (Issue 26 booklet)[]
Hello tharr ye scummy saltdogs, I'll bet you're wondering how a pirate wannabe like me discovered a brand new island?
We had just set sail from a sudsy adventure at Bubble Bath Bay and I was back in the crow's-nest on the Cloudy Cloth Clipper, clutching the torn piece of map I'd found. Cap'n Buck laughed at me when I found it, but I had a feeling that there was something more to this scrap of map - especially when it started to sing!
Lefty
We were back sailing on Potion Ocean after peddling our loot at The Port. I was in the crow's-nest when I heard a tiny voice singing an ancient sea shanty. I glanced around and realised the map had sprouted a mouth and was singing to me.
- Tharr be a paradise where Pirates dream of. No sailors been to before. Snack your wat to the rest of me map. You'll find it on Candy Shoals shore. Then you will find the pirates dream. An island full of piratey bling.
"Excuse me?" I said. But the mouth had disappeared. I shook my head. Had I gone mad? Must be the salty sea air playing tricks with me.
Suddenly the scent of candyfloss drifted past. This could only mean one thing - We were nearing Candy Shoals!
"Candy, ho!" I yelped. Buck jumped up from his nap and nearly fell overboard. In casd you didn't know, when Cap'n Buck's around sweets, he is cerifiably candy crazy.
"Yarrrgh! That be candyfloss in the breeze, Lefty!" With a jolt, Buck steered the Cloudy Cloth Clipper due west towards the aromatic winds.
When the Cloudy Cloth Clipper made contact with the marshmallow foam around Candy Shoals, Buck couldn't stand it any longer. He dived head first into the fluffy foam and paddled to shore. Before I could drop the anchor, he was out of sight, running into the delectable wilds of Candy Shoals.
Candy Shoals is a breathtaking place. The ground is made of crushed candy coral, the foilage is all-edible, and Lollipop Ladies grow on trees. I don't have a sweet fang so I wasn't under the Candy Shoals spell like Cap'n Buck. So it was up to me to find him, collect the treasure and bring them both back to the ship safely.
I had to think quickly. What was Buck's favourite candy? Butterscotch! Or as he would say, "ButtARRRGHscotch." I headed towards the toffee crunch terrain, when I suddenly heard a yelp.
"Arrrgh!" It was Cap'n Buck! I pushed through some branches and found him all tangled up and covered in sticky pink bubblegum. Buck's eyes had gone crazy and candy wrappers were stuck in his fur. "Get me outta here, Lefty," he screamed. "I gotta get me some buttARRRGHscotch from the toffee crunch terrain!" "But you're stuck," I said. "VERY stuck."
I thought of the time Patch the seagull threw gum at me. I got the gum out of my tentacles using peanut butter. Suddenly i had an idea. Peanut butter cups! "Buck, I'm going to find some peanut butter to get you out of this mess."
I trudged past the peppermint pagoda and around the purple pucker pond, where I spotted some giant peanut butter cup lily pads. As I approached them, I heard a teeny, tiny voice. "Psst! Over here," it said.
I looked down and spotted something glimmering in the candy coral. It was the other half of the map! I stashed it safely away and quickly grabbed a couple of peanut butter cup lily pads. Then I make my way back to Buck.
As soon as I reached him, Buck immediately pawed for the peanut butter cups. "NO!" I yelled. "We need these to get you out of this mess." I carefully scooped out the peanut butter and went to work using it to unstick the gum from his fur, while Buck munched on the empty choccie cups. Finally I got all the gum off.
"I be FREEEE!" Buck exclaimed, jumping up and getting ready to bolt for the toffee crunch terrain again. "Need buttARRRGHscotch."
"Wait," I said, grabbing him by the fur. I had to think fast: What was the one thing that might be able to break the candy's spell? He'd laughed about the map before, but... it was worth a shot. "Hey, have you ever heard of Pirate Paradise?" I asked.
Buck's eyes glimmered and he slowly started to come out of his candy craze. "Pirate Paradise? That be a place of a pirate's dreams. No scurvy monster's ever set paw on that island..."
"Remember the map I found?" I asked. "I found the other half of it just now. It leads the way to Pirate Paradise."
"Arrrgh, I don't be believin' that. Only the singing map from the Soprano Sahara shows the way, and that map's not been seen in centuries." So THAT explained the singing! I wasn't crazy after all. I held up the second scrap of the map for him to see
"Let's get back to the ship with the loot so we can get to Pirate Paradise," I said.
"Arrgh, we better not be makin' any monsters suspicious of us, Lefty. We gotta dock at The Port before we head out for Pirate Paradise," Buck said.
"That makes sense," I replied. Whew! I didn't trust Buck with a boat full of candy anyway.
Buck finally seemed to be cured of his candy craze, and we started loading the ship with treasures from Candy Shoals. I helped him grab Lollipop Ladies, Candy Coral and even a Toffee Crunch Sofa. We made quick work of the task and were back on the ship in no time.
We docked at The Port for the next two tides and peddled our loot. Soon we were at sea again, setting sail for Pirate Paradise. Buck told me the journey was going to be long and full of danger and I had a feeling he was going to be right!
Argghhhhhhh...
Lefty
So we leave these two scurvy scallywags as they embark on their most treacherous journey yet. Will they ever reach Pirate Paradise? What will they discover when they get there? And how long will Buck last at sea without his buttARRRGHscotch? Keep your eyes peeled to The Daily Growl, where it's been said that Buck and Lefty will finally share the rest of their story, as well as a boat load of booty. Until the next time, me hearties...
Credits[]
- Writer: Megan Bell
- Editor: Lucy Dowling
- Designer: Grant Kempster