As the boat left London's harbor, Bart leaned over the railing of the ship. Waves crashed up against the side of the boat. Within two days, Bart awoke under a bridge with this small angry fellow next to him. Ragnar, the angry fellow, rescued him from the trucks accident and tried to explain what had happened. From what he could understand when the truck Rag was driving, hit Bart's truck, the green fluid was released. This liquid seems to be the source of Bart's new ability to speech and think equal to that of a human.
It had been an exciting two days, filled with new experiences, flavors, and feelings. Human food was amazing but nothing compared to the basics. Which in this case, happened to be bananas and those darn candy bars, which Rag had called "Butterfingers". The most exciting thing to happen was a this amazing delicacy called a Banana Cream Pie. This thing had to have been an invention of Ragnar's Gods. To top it offer, the pie was topped with Butterfingers crumbs. The taste was monumental. Eat bite brought tears to Bart's eyes.
A hard thwack, brought Bart back to the present. Rag always seemed to great people in the most violent way possible, but him being a viking it made sense. Without saying a word, Rag lead Bart to their room. As they passed by, some people stopped and stared while others payed the two no attention. It seemed some people were so bored by their own lives that even a talking monkey and a two foot viking couldn't even spark a glimmer of interest.
Within moments of his head touching the bed, Ragnar was asleep. The hours of drinking before hand allowed him to fall sleep without any hesitation. Bart sat still in his bed. Sleep never came easy to Bart. He never could feel comfortable. These "beds" were beyond unpleasant. The cushiony feeling made Bart feel like he was drowning amongst the pillows and sheets. He missed the feeling only a living tree could provide. He missed his families warmth at his side. His eyes closed.
A shimmer of golden hair graced the black backdrop of Bart's mind. Blue eyes stared from beneath the golden locks. Her face and her smile was the last thing that brought happiness into Bart's life. She was the only thing that kept the sadness away. And so when she left, nothing held back the loneliness when she left. He began to think back, back to he first moments waking up with this new consciousness.
Within the first moments of conscious, after Rag shook Bart awake, Bart uttered his first words. " Golden girl." After years of hearing words spoken from human mouths, each word started to make sense. A girl was the long haired ugly beast while a boy was the short haired version. For the most part everything he had heard began to make sense. So he began to tell his tale with his new found words, to the hairy man beast before him. Rag sat still listening to every word, amazed by the sight of a talking monkey. As Bart began to drag on, just playing with each word, Rag began to interrupt.
"Is she your god?"
Bart stared blankly back, this was a new word. "Whats a god?"
" Your motivation, your passion, your reason for breathing. My gods have kept me alive for these years. But now I regret ever invoking their names in battle. Is this girl your god?"
"I guess. Why does that matter?"
Ragnar began, "I need to find a god. The last god I saw cursed me and now I want to be free. For that I need another god." He paused, " And if you are searching for this god, I will come with you."
"Ok, just give me a moment." Thought after thought began to pour through Bart's head. The bridge above his head was such an interesting grey. The grass blowing in the wind was such a beautiful green. Bart's mind and senses become linked on another level, now that he had words to describe everything around him. The wind blew threw Bart's hair, birds sang in the distance, golden butterflies rode each breeze as it carried them across the sky. Golden wings, gold bars, golden coins, golden hair. So many words to describe the same thing. Golden hair! The girl! The small man in front of Bart was offering to search for her! "Yes of course. Lets look for her."
A loud crash brought Bart back to the present. The cold cabin of the ship shook from its foundations. A series of explosions were followed by yells of anguish and pain. "What, huh, who's there?" Ragnar woke up.
Bart looked around, "I don't know. Something just blew up. I think." He rose from the bed and looked out the nearby portcullis. "Do you know why big hairy men would be boarding the ship, carrying big weapons, while we are at sea?"
"Pirates!" Ragnar exclaimed with joy. "I have been lusting for a good battle!" Within moments Rag was up and about going through his bags.
"What are you looking for?"
"This!" Rag pulled a seven foot battle axe from amongst his bags. " I am so excited!" He let out a loud yell and broke down the cabin down. Within moments he was gone.
"Wait!" Bart ran from the room, trying to catch up to Rag. Outside of the cabin door, crowds tired to surge past the door. The tip of an axe bobbing up and down was the only remaining site of Rag. With a bound and a leap, Bart flew up among the rafters of the passage.. As people pushed forward, Bart climbed up the open side of the passage and went up another floor. This level, was littered with the wounded sailers and pirates alike. After gingerly stepping over the men, Bart found stairs that lead to the deck. Shouting could be heard from above and then laughter. As Bart emerged, on the deck, Rag could be seen swinging his axe with a strength that was far beyond a two foot man's stature. Pirates ran at the viking brandishing swords and a variety of other cutlery. Each attack was repelled deftly by Ragnar's axe. Nothing could stop the Viking's fury, as he danced about the deck striking pirate after pirate. Every man he attacked either fell or retreated back to safer grounds. Others took out pistols and began to fire upon the viking. But bullets had no effect upon the Norse warrior, they passed threw his body with no resistance.
In a moment of rage, Rag threw his axe upon the ground and bellowed, " Come at me, you dogs!" The pirates rushed in, sword after sword sunk into Rags flesh. He remained silent as the pirates tired to pull their swords away from his flesh. One by one the pirates stepped back from the viking, after failing to remove their weapon. Rag stood still. Each wound bled freely, each sword firmly planted but Rag walked forward. Gasps escaped from the crowd, as a bright light began to shimmer around Ragnar. Each sword fell from his flesh, his wounds began to seal. What ever magic kept Rag alive, was back, stitching the cuts, fixing each wound.
"Magic! The little beast is magic!" The shout escaped from the crowd of pirates.
"Well what did you expect from a two foot viking?" Ragnar picked up his axe and began to advance on the pirates. They shrunk back. Apparently a magic viking was to much for them to handle. "What? Are you all cowards?" No one answered his call.
From amongst the rigging on high, Bart decided it was time to intervene. He dropped down on to the deck, in between Rag and the cowering pirates. "Rag stop. They aren't fighting back."
"Demon! Talking demon monkey!" A pirate near the front of the stammered as he wildly pointed at Bart. His eyes went wide.
"Apparently they are quite a superstitious lot. I don't think there is any more fight in them." Rag lowered his axe and stared down the crowd. "Boo!" The entire group of pirates jumped. "Ha Ha!"
"Rag calm down. Leave the pirates alone."
"Why? I think we could have some fun with them. I wonder what will happened when I say, jump!" The entire crew of pirates jumped into the air. " Ha, I bet we can tell them to do anything!"
"What.. what are you?" A brave pirate stepped forward. " Are you demons coming to punish us for our sins?"
"Um. No. We are just looking for someone and you attacked our ship." Bart didn't know what else to say.
"What about the magic angry man? Will he stop? I don't want to die."
"Rag are you going to kill them?
"I don't kill weaklings. I want a fight!" Rag began to walk away.
"Rag, wait a moment. I want to talk to them, I want to understand why they would do such a terrible thing. Did the sailers steal the pirates food? Was it a territory dispute? Or is this just another human thing?" Bart turned to face the pirates. " Why did you do this? Why?"
The brave pirate spoke up once again, " For money! What else? Our last raid was so successful! We made so much money over that golden girl!" Murmurs could be heard amongst the crowd affirming the truth.
" For money? So you came onto this ship, attacked all these people, for money?" Bart simply stared.
"Yes! What more reason do we need?"
Bart paused. Something the Pirate said, those two words. "Golden girl? What did you mean when you said 'we made so much money over that golden girl' ?"
Ragnar returned to Bart's side, " The golden god! Speak, you mangy dogs!"
Most of the pirates coward, but the courageous one stood his ground. "We attacked a ship and stole anything that looked valuable. What else do you want to know?"
"What about the golden girl!"
"Oh well while finding things to steal, we came upon a girl with long golden hair. Her buttons were made of real silver! So we took her, along with everything else. We were going to be rich!"
Bart thought back. He thought back to his days in the zoo. The girl would come, she would throw candy and every day Bart would watch her smile. As the memory began to slip away, Bart tried to picture her jacket. He saw the cloth, grey, he saw the red accent, he saw a simmer and then it was gone. Was it silver? It could have been but it didn't matter. If there was any chance at all for this girl to be the one he was looking for, he had to pursue it. "And then what? What did you do to the girl?"
"Um, well we stole all her shiny things. And then... Um. I don't remember. Does any body remember what we did with the girl with golden hair?" The brave pirate turned towards the rest of his group.
A member of the crowd volunteered, "You dumped her on that island boss! Remember?"
"Oh yeah! We deiced it was way too much of a hassle to hold a her for a ransom. The navy was ready to blow our ship out of the water. So we put her on the island, problem solved." The lead pirate smiled smugly.
"Wait what? What did you do to her?" Bart became agitated. "Where is she? Tell me now!"
"Anger! Bart, I love your anger! It really suits you." Ragnar smiled.
The lead pirate looked around. " She is probably still on that island but by now she is either dead or the navy got to her. What does it matter to you?"
"Because we are looking for her! We need to go there now!" Bart began to jump up and down in anticipation.
"Well we would need a ship and one of these fools to guide us. Oh and supplies. Like ale and basically anything I can drink. I've been sober for way too long. Hmm." Rag began to scratch his beard. "What could we do? We can't use this passenger ship. I have no idea how to pilot it. Wait what about these's fools boat?"
"Our boat? No we need it! To do stuff. Like you know, pirate stuff. We can't just give our boat to any one who asks, what kind of pirates would we be?" An offend look crossed the lead pirates face.
"Well you could let us use your boat or I could let my little hairy friend go crazy. It's up to you." Bart shrugged his shoulders and turned his back.
"Oh no, please keep him back! Please! We'll even let you two be our captains, but please don't let the hairy one hurt us!"
Two days latter, aboard the pirate ship known as " The Shameful Sadness"."Monkey demon?" A pirate slowly approached Bart in his cabin.
" Bart, my name is Bart. What do you want?"
"Well, um, we are in the area of the island. But." The pirate stopped.
"What? Whats wrong?"
" There seams to be more island's then we remembered. Like three more."
" So what do you want from me?"
"We need some guidance. Which island should we go to?" The pirate handed Bart a clothe map. "Take a look and tell us where to go."