SHIP'S LOG:

Moonbeam

Spaz Skunk 9/21/2025 10:35pm

"I think it's time to move on, captain," said Bridget the Boar.

The Therianthrope had been circling the debris for hours, flotsam and jetsam stirred up by the island when it sunk. Hoping against hope for @Harry Otter or Big Bulldog.

But move on to where? This was Big Bulldog's show, sniffing his way to this Mermaid Imperium of his. Badger Bijan had taken over the Moonbeam with its crew of rats, but none of them had any idea where Big Bulldog thought he was taking us. I don't even think Big Bulldog knew. And now Harry was gone, my last original crew mate, marooned in this strange land with stranger folk...

"Signal the Moonbeam," I said. "We'll continue in the direction we were headed. Maybe Big Bulldog really did smell something on the wind."

Harry Otter 5/30/2025 8:08pm

"Soft and squishy, ain't it?"

It was Big Bulldog, pointing his own flashlight my way.

"And the air's a bit fetid," I said, picking myself up and dusting myself off.

Big Bulldog took a big snort through his snout.

"Ahhhhh..." he breathed out. "It's that fishy smell I like. But industrial strength!"

It smelled even more like the reptile house at the zoo

"Sealed off all the airways, I reckon," said Big Bulldog. "Ready to go for a little ride? Hope you brought your chewing gum!"


Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Spaz Skunk 2/5/2025 11:30pm

"Bijan has the Moonbeam free," called Bridget the Boar.

Just in time, too, as the last of the outcrops of the rocky island slipped beneath the waves.

"Any sign of @Harry Otter or the Big Bulldog?" I asked.

"Hard to tell with all this churn," Bridget replied. "Lots of debris."

"All eyes in the water. And ready the nets to scoop up the rats!"

"Awooooooo!" cried Howlin' Wolf from the crow's nest.

Harry Otter 10/9/2024 10:38pm

"Hulloooooooo!" I called into the tunnel. Just a thin split between stony scrags.

The cave was mighty musty. Smelled like the reptile house at the zoo.

"Big Bulldog! Are you alright?"

I pulled a flashlight from my utility belt and stepped inside.

"Hellooooooo?"

And immediately fell, tumbling, as the ground shuddered beneath my feet.


This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Spaz Skunk 6/18/2024 11:52pm

"Awooooooo!" Howlin' Wolf cried from the crow's nest.

"Captain!" called Bridget the Boar. "The island! It's going under!"

Badger Bijan and I looked up from the map we were studying and and rushed to the windshield. The entire island was submerging quickly. The sea was churning around it and swallowing it up.

"Any sign of @Harry Otter?" I asked "Or Big Bulldog?"

"No sir," Bridget said. "But the rats are gathering on the high ground."

We saw the rat crew of the Moonbeam swarming to the tops of the small hills and ridges that made up the surface.

"Sir, the Moonbeam!" Bijan pointed.

The Moonbeam's mooring line was tied fast around and outcropping near what used the be the shore of the tiny island, and it was rapidly following it down.

"Bridget, take us to the Moonbeam now! Bijan, get ready to board her and cut her loose."

"Aye aye, Captain."

"But sir! The rats!"

"We know they can swim. Ready the nets and we'll scoop them up once the Moonbeam's free."

"Burrrrp," said Toady McEvershine.

Harry Otter 2/27/2024 11:42pm

Spaz took The Therianthrope for a trip around the island to look for Big Bulldog.

I had a bad feeling about it. I hadn't known the big weredog for that long, but the one thing that was clear was that he was a leader. He wouldn't just wander off and abandon his mission -- the emancipation of shapeshifting people of every... shape. He had a clear sense of purpose, and wouldn't just--

"Captain?" asked one of the rats. They had been learning to mimic our speech. I hadn't been called captain before.

"Some of the Mischief found a tunnel," it said. "Smells of bulldog there."

"Take me to it," I said.

Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Spaz Skunk 10/30/2023 11:20pm

"How could we have lost him? This island's really not that big," I asked Harry.

"Well, he's, half bulldog. Like a were-bulldog. Bulldogs are like bloodhounds, right?"

"No, I don't think so. Actually some of the worst smellers, I've heard. Something about those flat noses."

"Well he smelled something. He got really focused on it. We could have used him getting the casks filled and loaded but I haven't seen him."

"What if he fell off a cliff? Off the island? I don't think bulldogs are great swimmers either."

"Oh he loves the water. The Mermaid Kindgom, remember?"

The island shook with another shudder beneath our feet. The little quakes were getting more frequent.

"Ok. You finish loading the Moonbeam," I said, "and I'll take the Therianthrope for a quick look around."

Harry Otter 7/26/2023 11:31pm

The rats scampered across the verdant, flower covered hills.

"Happy to be on dry land again," I said.

"And thirsty as all get out," Big Bulldog said.

The Therianthrope was mooring next to the Moonbeam back near the shoreline. Blue sky with some clouds and cool ocean breezes.

"Squeeeeee!!!" squealed a group of rats in a copse of trees in the distance. All the other rats raced towards it.

"Found a spring," Big Bulldog said. "I could smell it from here."

With a source for freshwater, and all the fish we'd caught along the way (much of it drying in the Moonbeam's rigging) we were set to continue our search for the Mermaid Imperium. Equally lucky, there was no sign of our pursuers on the horizon.

"Still smelling that Mermaid Imperium on the breeze?" I asked. I was sure Big Bulldog couldn't really smell it.

"Yes, but..." he snorfled through is big wet snout and raised the folds over his right eye, "there's another scent. Big and musky. Can't see how I missed it before..."

The island shook with a small shudder under our feet. Great. It was geologically unstable.

"Time to get the casks down and start rolling them over to the spring," I said. "Maybe you could get some rats to help?"

Big Bulldog just stood there, snorfling at the air, his nose and saliva running.


This is Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.

Spaz Skunk 4/9/2023 11:12pm

"Pretty sure that's an island," says Bridget the Boar. "Take a look."

We've got a big telescope on the Therianthrope. One of the onion domed minarets opens up like an observatory. Probably WAS the observatory from the palace we stole the ship from.

"Well," I said, trying to make it out, "even if it is a mirage, it's not like we've spotted anything else. And it's generally on the way. Signal the heading to the Moonbeam."

Bridget the Boar picked up the mirror contraption she'd made.

"Tell them we'll follow them in. And to keep the rats inside as we get close."

Harry Otter 1/3/2023 11:47pm

Nothing but ocean. For days.

"Don't you worry your flappy tail," Big Bulldog said. "I know we're headed in the right direction for the Mermaid Imperium. I can smell 'em!"

We were peering over the bow of the Moonbeam, wind shields open to the bridge.

"I think that's just how the ocean smells," I said. "You know? Salt, seaweed, fish..."

"You don't have quite the acute olfactory powers as Big Bulldog," Big Bulldog said, tapping his snout with a dewclaw and squeezing a wink out of the rest of the folds in his face.

Lord.

Meanwhile, @Spaz Skunk arrived with a new net full of half drowned rats.

"You'd think they'd learn," I said.

"There are fewer and fewer each time. I guess it doesn't hurt we miss a few."

I looked at Spaz in horror.

"Just kidding," Spaz said. "I'm pretty sure we've caught all of them so far. But they're getting smarter, I can feel it."

The rats in the rigging chittered and laughed.

"But, it also means more sardines for all of us!" Spaz added. Each net full of rat crew members that had fallen off the Moonbeam also brought a small load of fish. We were set for food, but the fresh water was getting low. And I didn't think that would would be something mermaids would necessarily have in abundance.

"Hey," Spaz added. "So we got a name for the ship. The Therianthrope. Pretty on the nose, don't you think?"

If only I knew what that meant.

"Sure," I answered. "So, now that you've got your own name, maybe you could get your own ship's log too?"

Spaz said he'd think about it.


Communications Lt. Officer First Class Harry Otter, reporting.