Welcome back, readers.

In this post you shall be informed about what Dr. Garlic’s up to now! As you obviously may or may not have read from last week, Dr. Garlic was planning to find a transport to take him eastwards, across the great water. As directed by his dragon parchment poem scroll, Dr. Garlic is going to “Travel east to reach The West”. Dr. Garlic is planning on having some fantastic adventures in The West, so he hitched a ride on a nice big ship which is crossing the ocean.

Or should I say “his uncle’s nice big ship”? Can you believe it? Dr. Garlic actually does have family members! If you’re as surprised as I was, you’ll probably need to take a minute to ponder those last sentences. 😉

Typhon’s uncle, Seymour, has been sailing for as long as he can remember. (That actually isn’t saying much. He barely remembered his own nephew after only two years, but whatever!) Seymour has been shipping goods for two or so decades. Seymour P. Garlic’s ship The Fish Out Of Water has mainly been a cargo ship, but Captain Garlic has taken the occasional passenger aboard from time to time.

The Fish Out Of Water was given its unusual name primarily to scare off any beastly fish that might arise out of the deep. His previous ship encountered a little mishap many years ago on the Amazon, in which most of the crew, cargo, and hull were eaten alive by piranhas. After that incident, Seymour decided to conduct his shipping work primarily in the East Pacific, where, he was told, there were no swarms of hungry piranhas just waiting to steal unsuspecting ships, cargoes, or passengers.

Seymour just happened to be down at the docks in Hong Kong Island at the same time that Dr. Garlic was looking for transport. (Why he was searching at the docks, I cannot say.) Here is a journal entry from Dr. Garlic about the rest:

13.12.12

I still find it difficult to believe that out of all the sailors in the world, I just happened to run into my uncle! Not literally, of course. I would never be so clumsy as to

[Editorial note: Part of the text was obscured by a big splash of ink on the page.]

It seems I have spoken too soon. I just spilled ink all over this journal page.

Anyway, I met Uncle Seymour at the docks. We had been talking for a while when he mentioned that he was sailing east. I told him that I was there looking for someone to take me east, so he kindly suggested that he could take me aboard as a passenger. I was about refuse this offer, because I did not wish to impose upon him, but he continued to say that he actually had several cabins specifically for occasional passengers. Then I agreed, but on the condition that he’d allow me to pay him for his trouble.

Uncle Seymour — better known to most as “Captain Garlic” — introduced me to some of the crew. Mr. Spivey is first mate on The Fish Out Of Water (my uncle Seymour’s ship), and he seemed nice enough. He had to wipe his oil-covered hands off on a grey rag before shaking hands with me. I think he might have had some type of little button or badge thingy pinned to his overalls, but I didn’t really see because he returned to his duties shortly after meeting me.

I am rather annoyed at one of the crew, Walter, because he put a dent on my car while moving it onto the ship. I told him to move it left a bit because he was about to scratch it on the side of the boat, but he disagreed with me and ignored my warnings, even though I was right there and he was way up in the crane’s nest!

Of course I was right and my car suffered from Walter’s non-listening skills. He reluctantly agreed to pay for the damages to my “lame adventure car.” (That’s what he called it under his breath when he thought I couldn’t hear him.)

I met the other two passengers at dinner, a Mrs. Brown and her son Scott. They had gone to Hong Kong on a field trip, but Mrs. Brown forgot to buy return tickets, so they decided to travel on Uncle Seymour’s ship, mainly due to the very affordable fare.

I’ll end by saying that I am now in my cabin and that we are heading due east. Soon I shall reach the West and begin my next great adventure!

Pretty interesting stuff, if I do say so myself.

By the way, here’s another map piece from Dr. Garlic. It’s got more of Hong Kong Island, and some other useful stuff like the locations of the ship and the docks.

Hopefully we’ll soon have another update with the status of The Fish Out Of Water.

What’d you think? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below and thanks for reading!