I was back on NOAH 1. The moment my paws touched down on the deck, I couldn't contain myself. I erupted into jubilant circles and leaps. I planted kisses on the worn wooden boards. Never again, I vowed silently, would I abandon this vessel, no matter how curiosity clawed at my mind or adventure whispered its siren song. I was certain no power on Earth—or beyond it—would compel me to leave this ship again.

Oh, the miseries that wanderlust had wrought upon me! To keep my resolve strong, I called to mind the near-death experiences that should have killed my wanderlust once and for all: Page, remember being flung from your body, reduced to begging rats for help, while that masked stranger’s spirit wore your skin like a suit? And the alley…how close you came to ruin at the tendrils of a blob-controlled rat! These were not mere adventures; they were brushes with oblivion. 

I had tempted fate one too many times. Let the wide world remain uncharted, I thought. And so, NOAH 1, my bastion, I would not abandon you again. This was a promise I made to myself. A pledge I intended to keep, though I knew well how fickle resolve could be. Inevitably, the pull of family would grow too strong, and I’d find myself yearning to visit Ziggy, Wanda, and their little brood. He was my only brother, after all. 

The vet had whisked him back to Little Eden. Back to his anxious forever partner Wanda and their four kittens. What excuse could he offer them after vowing to stay safe? 

I could picture him now: Ziggy, bruised and hobbling on his bandaged legs, sheepishly explaining to Wanda how his latest promise to avoid danger had gone laughably awry. She, no doubt, would glare at him with the exasperation only a mate could muster and scold him while their kittens peered up with wide, curious eyes, giggling at their father’s misadventures, perhaps thinking that their father was the bravest creature alive.

As for the rats, they were nowhere to be seen by the time Alan and I left Sea Green behind. At the port, as Gunther readied his boat for the return to NOAH 1, I could only assume that Flynn and Marlow had gone back to their nest in Big Yard empty-handed. Rusty’s body was thrown into the flames of a hearth. 

Lee, on the other hand, faced a different fate. The vet had dispatched a message to the Warden, who promptly arrived at Sea Green to haul Lee to the Shelter. But I didn't worry much for him. That dog had a knack for escaping the inescapable; he was a master escape artist. It was only a matter of time before he’d be free again.

The explosion quickly became the talk of the ship. Black smoke curling into the sky was visible from miles away, which only fueled the residents’ curiosity. Some claimed the explosion was due to a gas leak ignited by the masked stranger striking a match to light an oil lamp. That single spark, they said, had triggered the catastrophic detonation.

I had my own theory: the masked stranger had rigged the apothecary with explosives as a failsafe for his mission. When his plans fell apart, he destroyed the site to guard its dark purpose. And what was that purpose? The apothecary was no ordinary shop—it was a covert laboratory where he conducted grisly experiments on animals, testing the effects of the blobs. His ultimate goal, I suspected, was to unleash the blobs on Floating City and manipulate its inhabitants using a carefully calibrated frequency.

The humans had no inkling of the true depths of this mystery, and perhaps they would always remain oblivious. With the masked stranger dead and his shop destroyed, any hope of uncovering the truth had perished alongside them. For the humans, the case was closed. 

But I couldn’t help wondering…was it really over? Rusty had activated one of the black stones, its surface glowed green as he whispered into it. Was it a message? A warning? A plea? And if so, to whom? Could it have been to the Central Command? Would they have understood a message from a rat? And where, I wondered, was this enigmatic entity located? 

The only humans beyond the floating settlements I knew of were the pirates. Louis had often spoken of them in disdain. Loud, crude, and reckless, they fought fiercely with swords and firearms cobbled together from salvaged metal. They ruled the seas through brute force. But, for all their ferocity, they lacked the advanced intellect or resources to engineer creations as sophisticated as the black stones and the blobs.

Alan turned the stones over to Captain Francis. She recounted where she had discovered them and described everything she had witnessed at the apothecary. But still, neither she nor the captain could connect the scattered clues to form a cohesive picture. They puzzled over the mystery. They scratched their heads and rubbed their chins, muttering to themselves, “What could it all mean?”

If only I could voice my thoughts, but it wasn’t my place. Besides, I couldn’t afford to dwell on this case any longer. It had consumed enough of my mind already. I needed to step back. What happened that day had already begun to seep into my dreams. 

The red tendrils snaked around my legs. Their grip tightened with every frantic move I made. I slashed and clawed. My teeth gnashed at their slimy flesh, but their acidic blood burned through my fur, stinging my skin beneath. The blob sprouted more and more tendrils. And then he appeared. His mask fell away, and the horror beneath froze my blood. His face—if it could be called a human face—was that of a bloated and bulbous pufferfish.

He was after me. My legs pumped furiously, but it felt as though I were running in place. Behind me, he was gaining ground. Summoning all my strength, I leaped blindly and landed in a labyrinth. It stretched endlessly, its walls towering high above me, hemming me in on every side. Around each corner, the tendrils were slithering closer. I turned again, only to stumble upon the decaying corpse of a rat.  

I rounded another bend and hit a dead end. Breathless, I turned to face my doom. The tendrils writhed closer, their acidic stink filling up my nostrils and burning my brain, and when I looked up, the stranger loomed above me. His pufferfish face filled my vision as his clammy hands plucked me off the ground. I dangled in his grip, face to face with those bulging fish eyes, as terror rooted me in silence. 

Tilting his head back, he parted his jaws, revealing a vast, gaping maw. I dangled helplessly above the abyss, the darkness within pulling me closer. And then he released me. I tumbled, weightless and helpless, plunging into the void of his open mouth, disappearing into the swallowing darkness. 

I’d snap awake, shaking, my fur on edge and my paws sweating. Alan’s arms would wrap around me, her warmth chasing away the cold fear as she whispered softly, promising it would all be okay. Slowly, I'd drift back to sleep.