Kid sailed the ocean with one eye behind him. The ghost ship was not in sight. He hoped he had lost it for good.

How much time did he have before it showed up again? He needed to find the key where it lay at the bottom of the water. He couldn't do that with pirates trying to get rid of him.

Maybe he should have tried to wreck the ghost ship and recruit a crew to sail in the aftermath of its sinking. That might have been better than trying to find the key on his own. He grimaced that he might have to bring a crew into this.

He didn't see any solution to the problem. If the ship showed up, he couldn't fight it effectively until he knew more about it. He didn't want to look around the bottom to pass his boat heading down while he was swimming to the surface.

Maybe he should sail to the next harbor and try to recruit some sailors used to fighting to help him finish his mission.

He doubted they would help him when the ghost ship sailed into existence from a cloud of green fog wrapped in lightning. He doubted many sailors would stand up to that.

He didn't want to and he had fought many a dead thing in the service of Gai before they had sank the land below the waves.

If he had a chance to think of the right description, he was sure he could put the ghost pirates down. That would leave the ocean a better place to work.

He wasn't so sure about trying to raise the land from the bottom. The people had already adjusted to living in a world made up of islands. Raising the continent would just cause as many problems as sinking it had.

If he could get the key and stop Typhon, that would be the best thing he could accomplish in this new world. Then he could use the key on the ghost pirates and send them to where they belong.

He could spend the rest of his time traveling and helping people in small ways instead of causing them to exchange one suit of troubles for another one. Maybe he could create another school to help people learn to use the words again.

He doubted many would look favorably on the words after what he and Gai had did to the world. There was no telling how many people they had killed with their conflict.

He was glad he didn't have to deal with their ghosts on top of everything else. That would have crushed him before he had set sail. He was putting off dealing with the feelings, but eventually he was going to have to come to grips with what he had done in the name of order.

Maybe order had demanded too much that one time, or maybe he had been foolish in how he had handled things. He had no way of knowing now.

Kid whispered to the air. A small waterspout descended on the water far ahead of his stolen boat. He smiled. Regrets would soon take a place behind the actions and thoughts he needed to deal with as soon as he reached the spot where he wanted to dive.

One simple dive after he dropped anchor should be enough to take him down where he needed to look around. He felt he could talk some air into going with him until he was finished with his task. Once he had the key, he could sail back and confront Typhon.

He needed to win that conflict if he wanted to help anyone. The elemental was ripping up the land, probably killing anyone in the open. Cutting its existence off would help people used to tying everything down and still having it ripped up and thrown across the islands.

After he had dealt with that menace, he could go back to just wandering without a purpose until he decided to do something else.

Whatever happened, no one could know he was behind it. That would cause a lot of problems for him in the long run. It was better in his opinion that Typhon just stopped blowing and no one knew why.

It wouldn't be the first time, and hopefully not the last.

Kid whispered for the waterspout to stop spinning once he was close enough to dive. He looked over the side. He didn't see any of the battlefield where he had tried to stop Gai from going through with his scheme.

Should he be doing this? The key was in a secure place as long no one knew where to look for it. Once he had dredged it up, he was opening up a box of trouble he wouldn't be able to close again.

Was he doing the right thing trying to stop Typhon from blowing?

Maybe he should look for another way to stop the elemental. The key represented a danger to reality. Letting it lie could be the best thing he could do in this situation.

He looked at the horizon surrounding his boat. He had created all of this with one mistake. Was he doing the same thing with Gai's minion?

He decided that he had to do something about the situation. He had caused it. It was his job to fix at least this one little part of it. He could do that much.

After that, he could look around for other things that needed his attention.

Kid talked with the air for a few minutes to convince it to help him. He smiled when it agreed to wrap him in a bubble while he was in the ocean. He talked to the ocean to give him passage to the bottom. The ocean split apart some to let him see the ground below his boat.

He called for the key. It refused to answer him. He frowned. That hadn't happened before. Maybe this was a mistake after all.

He decided to at least look around. Maybe it had fallen some place where it couldn't answer his cry.

He jumped from the side of the boat. His feet hit the water on the side away from the gap. He dropped to the bottom slowly. The air wrapped around him pushed the water away as he fell. He reached the floor and started toward the open spot he had persauded the ocean into making for him.

He walked to what looked like a castle that had been stepped on by a giant foot. He looked for a door, but he didn't see one. It had been crushed down by the fallen blocks of stone.

So much for Gai's monument to his ego. Nothing remained but one intact tower top that had fallen to the bottom of the ocean with the rest of the stone building.

Kid rubbed his face as he considered his next move. Should he move all of the stone aside so he could get access to the key? Should he leave the key and look for some other way to stop Typhon?

Something roared from close by. He looked for the source. He spotted a giant shape swimming toward him. He decided that he should head back to the boat and sail out of the area for the moment.

The reptilian thing coming at him with great sweeps of its tail suggested he should rush whatever decision he made.

Kid stepped into the wall of water as the thing kept coming. He asked for some help. The ocean lifted him toward the surface. The monster hit the open spot, dropped to the floor, and crawled toward the other side after him.

What was that sound? Kid put it out of his mind. He needed to get up to his boat before the thing caught up with him. It looked hungry. That trumped any sound it might be making as it crawled toward the wall of water under him.

Maybe he would need to recruit a crew after all. He was going to need help dealing with that beast if it was local.

At least the ghost ship hadn't shown up to add to his trouble.

Kid reached the side of the boat. He called for the anchor reel to start pulling the chain up. He didn't want to be moored to one spot if that monster decided to attack the keel. It might be able to break through the hull and send the boat to the bottom.

He grabbed the chain and used the pull to reach the rail around the main deck. He pulled himself over and took a breath. He needed to get away from the spot as fast as possible. Then he could worry about his monster problem.

Kid called for the sails to unfurl, and asked for the air to fill them. He went to the side, and watched the anchor lift out of the water. He saw a scaly, triangular snout try to grab it, but the anchor snapped to its sailing spot before it could be seized.

He asked for more wind as the green muzzle dipped below the surface. How fast was that thing compared to his boat? He didn't want to find out with it trying to eat him.

Kid ran to the stern and asked the rudder to keep on course as he looked behind the boat. He felt the craft was making good time, but was it fast enough?

The monster swam after the boat. Its short legs paddled gently while the rest of its long body swayed in the water. Too many teeth smiled at the speaker while he tried to gauge the distance between them.

Kid decided the boat was pulling away. The monster was fast, but his magically aided craft was faster. He clutched the railing and let his heart calm down. The air pushed him out of danger. He couldn't ask for more.

He definitely needed a crew who could handle that thing. Speaking to it wouldn't do anything. Living things resisted being persuaded more than objects. Just asking it to hunt somewhere else would not do anything.

And he doubted that it would wait long enough for him to try to use the ocean to push it away. It had a lot of mass to move, and likely the determination to keep going against less than lethal objections.

And he didn't know if killing it would alert Gai that he was looking for the key. He couldn't attract the other's attention while he was trying to retrieve the artifact.

That led to the consideration that Gai might not have survived their confrontation. He might be worried about another speaker that had went to his grave centuries ago.

Kid decided that didn't matter. He didn't know what had happened to Gai. Going for the key might trigger some force he hadn't seen in his quick look at the blasted battlefield. He had to assume Gai was alive until he was sure the other was dead.

How did he make sure the other speaker was dead? He couldn't think of anything that might be a help towards that.

He needed a crew that could handle that monster. Then he needed a better look around the toppled castle for the key. Then he had to deal with Typhon.

If Gai showed himself, then he would try to deal with the other man as best that he could.