Chapter 20: Lost at Sea

  They had been sailing for days.

  Days of circling the same patch of ocean.

  Days of the Chief barking orders that led nowhere.

  Days of the pack pretending they weren’t starving.

  The wind mocked them.

  The waves mocked them.

  Even the fish mocked them — slipping past their nets with smug little flicks of their tails.

  “Chief, we’re going in circles again!” one wolf cried, gripping the wheel.

  “We are NOT!” the Chief snapped.

  They were.

  Food was running low. Morale was running lower. And Kael was running out of excuses for why the food barrels were mysteriously lighter every morning.

  He blamed “evaporation.”

  No one believed him.

  Meanwhile, Nico — the secret stowaway — was curled up in the storage room, nibbling on the stolen fish Kael kept sneaking him. Kael was dangerously close to being caught. One more missing fish and the Chief would probably throw him overboard.

  The pack was beginning to hallucinate. One wolf swore he saw a giant roasted turkey floating on the waves. Another tried to spear a cloud because it “looked like bread.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  It was getting bad.

  Finally, a Breakthrough

  On the fifth day, one of the wolves burst onto the deck holding a soggy, half?chewed scroll.

  “A map!” he shouted triumphantly. “A map of the human world!”

  The pack cheered. The Chief snatched it from his hands, eyes blazing with hope.

  “Finally! Now we can—”

  A small sneeze echoed behind him.

  The Chief froze.

  Slowly… very slowly… he turned around.

  There stood Nico.

  His youngest son.

  The child who was explicitly forbidden from coming.

  The child his wife believed was safe at home.

  The Chief’s eye twitched.

  “Nico,” he said in a dangerously calm voice, “why are you on my ship?”

  Nico gulped. “Uh… surprise?”

  The Chief inhaled sharply — and the map slipped from his fingers.

  Everyone watched in horror as it fluttered… fluttered… and plopped into the ocean.

  Silence.

  Then chaos.

  “GET THE MAP!”

  “IT’S SINKING!”

  “WHY IS IT ALWAYS US?!”

  “KAEL, STOP DIVING IN, YOU CAN’T SWIM!”

  The Chief grabbed a small boat and pointed at two wolves. “We are taking Nico home RIGHT NOW before your mother skins me alive!”

  “Wait!” Nico yelped, scrambling forward. “I—I memorized the map!”

  The Chief paused mid?step.

  “You… what?”

  “I looked at it so much I remember it by heart! I can lead us to the human world!”

  The pack stared at him.

  Kael stared at him.

  Even the ocean seemed to pause.

  The Chief rubbed his temples. “You are going to be punished the moment we return home.”

  “I know,” Nico said proudly. “But I can help now!”

  The Chief sighed — long, exhausted, defeated. “Fine. You’re part of the crew. But if you fall overboard, I am not jumping in after you.”

  Nico saluted dramatically. “Aye aye, Captain Dad!”

  The Chief groaned.

  But the pack cheered.

  For the first time in days, they had direction.

  They had hope.

  They had… a child leading them.

  What could possibly go wrong?