For the last couple of hours, while Jacob's men had been busy with the physical jobs of getting the ship ready, Jacob had been cooped up in the navigation room with Pete trying to come up with a plan to get them home.

Sure, they'd managed to take out the biggest threat in the ocean, but that didn't mean that there weren't other dangers lurking out there. The Tredda had some pretty mean battleships that could do a lot of damage to Jacob's galleon, and if he was being completely honest he wasn't convinced it would be able to survive any more damage.

Eventually they had come up with a possible plan, but it involved Raephier, and Jacob wanted to be sure that he was comfortable with what they would be asking of him.

"Raeph!" Jacob shouted, getting his attention and then beckoning him to come and join them.

By this time Lyle and James had also joined them in the navigation room and they had already given their input.

Once Raephier had joined them, Jacob began.

"We've come up with a plan to get us home, but we wanted to run it by you to see what you thought."

For a moment Jacob thought he'd said something wrong as Raepheir seemed to freeze, but then he gave Jacob a smile and said,

"Ok then, what's the plan?"

Jacob smiled back at Raephier in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

"Well we decided that as we have Jinx's ship, it might be best to use it. We thought that if we sail it alongside our own, anyone who sees us will assume that Jinx is controlling us and won't bother to engage for fear of getting in Jinx's way. The main problem is when we approach our island. The island where we live has a large estuary on the south side which is deep and wide enough for ships to sail up the river for about a mile to the port of Tarmouth. As that is the only route in for large ships, it's heavily guarded, and I don't think the presence of Jinx's ship will be enough to stop the Tredda engaging this close to home.

"So," Jacob said, taking a deep breath, "we've decided to come in on the north side of the island. This won't be defended anywhere near as well, as the sea on this side is shallow and the sea beds are rocky which makes it treacherous for a ship of this size to try to navigate its way to the small port of Greyton.

"Which is where I thought you might be able to help," Jacob said, looking at Raephier.

Raephier looked deep in thought.

"You want me to help you navigate," Raephier said, not as a question, but a statement, showing that he understood what Jacob was asking.

Jacob nodded. "Is that something you think you could do?"

Raephier slowly nodded his head. "I can't say I've ever helped a ship navigate into port before, but I'm willing to try. I'm thinking that you're going to want me to swim ahead of the ship and plot out the best course looking for the deepest sections of water?"

"Exactly," Jacob said, feeling oddly proud of Raephier's understanding.

"Ok," Raephier said with a wide smile, "we'll have to come up with some sort of communication system while I'm in the water."

"We can work on that tonight," Jacob said. "If everything goes to plan we should reach home by sundown tomorrow."

Jacob was about to dismiss everyone when Raephier hummed to himself, seemingly lost in thought.

"Is there a problem? What are you thinking?" Jacob asked, a little concerned by the frown on Raephier's face.

"It's nothing," Raephier said quickly, but when the men continued to stare at him, he shrunk back into himself like he was afraid to say what was on his mind.

"Come on Raephier, you can say anything and we won't be mad. Even if you've thought of something that ruins the whole plan, I'd rather you say it now than when we find out for ourselves when everything is lost."

It wasn't until Jacob reached out and put his hand on Raephier's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze of encouragement that Raephier seemed to relax a little.

"Ok, I was just thinking," Raephier said, almost apologetically, "and I wondered if maybe there was a better way to remain undetected than using Jinx's ship as cover."

The men looked at each other.

"If there is, then we couldn't think of it," Jacob eventually answered on everyone's behalf.

"I think using the ship it's a very good idea," Raepheir said, "but I was wondering whether Doug and Tyler still had the Machinun shell?"

"The what?" Pete asked.

"Remember that shell that Tyler and Doug bought from under the nose of that man who attacked us? The shell that you mocked them for risking their necks for?"

"Oh that shell!" Jacob said, remembering Raephier knocking the guy flat on his back with a plank of wood.

"Yes, well back where I'm from, the stories said that the shell had magical properties."

"Really?" James asked in surprise.

"Yes. If you remember, I told you that the shell was from the Machinun crab which sticks things on their shell to camouflage themselves. Well in the stories that I was told as a boy, a Machinum shell had magical properties that could be used to camouflage or basically hide an object."

Jacob nodded. "I remember. So you think we could use the shell to camouflage the ship?"

"I think it's worth a try. But it all depends on whether Doug still has the shell."

Jacob shared a look with his men, before Pete headed out of the room and could be heard calling Doug's name.

A moment later Doug appeared with Pete.

"Doug, do you still have that shell that you bought at Jachico?" Jacob asked

Doug glanced nervously round the room.

"I might have, why?"

"Because it might be magic," James chimed in excitedly.

Doug snorted.

"Yeah that's what we thought. That's why we bought it, but it's just a shell. We were basically conned."

There was a collective sigh of disappointment that went round the room, as everyone's shoulders dropped slightly. Everyone except Raephier.

"Can I see it?" Raephier asked.

"Sure?" Doug asked, looking towards Jacob.

Jacob nodded, and so Doug scampered off to go and retrieve it.

"You think you can make it work?" Pete asked Raephier.

Raephier shrugged. "I might as well try."

"And what makes you think you can succeed where Doug failed?" Lyle asked.

Jacob felt his hackles rise at Lyle's tone, but Raephier calmly answered him.

"I might not be able to. But when I held it the first time, I could sense the magic. I know that sounds a little odd," he said bashfully, "but it's something that I've been able to do ever since I was cursed."

"Woah!" James said, staring at Raephier in amazement. "So what does magic feel like?"

Reaphier smiled at James. "It kind of feels tingly. Like it gives off an energy that I can feel and touch. The more magical an object is, the more I can feel it. Lots of things have magic, but most of them only have a little bit."

"So the shell - did that have a lot or a little?" Jacob asked.

Raephier tilted his head as he thought about it for a moment.

"For something as small as that, it had a lot."

Doug then reappeared with his satchell and carefully produced the shell from one of it's pockets.

"Can I?" Raephier asked, holding out his hand.

"Go ahead," Doug said, passing it over.

Raephier scrunched up his face as he studied the shell.

"Hmmmm," he hummed, lost in thought. "I think I need to start small."

Raephier then started scanning the room until his eyes settled on a small wooden box that contained a selection of pens and ink.

"Can I borrow this?" he asked Jacob, pointing to the box.

"Sure," Jacob said, picking up the box and handing it over.

Raephier stared at the shell for a moment, then placed it in the box. The moment the lid snapped shut, the box disappeared.

There were several gasps of amazement and some cursing as the atmosphere turned restless in the excitement of what they'd witnessed.

"How did you do that?" Doug asked, poking at the space where the box was supposed to be, and feeling another wave of surprise when he felt his finger touch something that his eye couldn't see.

Raepheir shrugged, looking a little embarrassed.

"I just asked it," he said quietly.

"What?" Jacob asked, not sure he heard him right.

Raephier turned to look at Jacob, his blue eyes looking nervous.

"I just sort of asked it. Or maybe more I willed it to work in my mind. I don't know. I can't explain it. When I asked it to camouflage the box, I felt the magical energy transfer over to the box. I'm sorry, I wish I could explain it better," he said, and Jacob couldn't help but reach out and pull Raephier into his arms.

"Don't apologise. You're amazing." Jacob whispered into his ear.

Jacob could have happily kept Raephier in his arms for hours, but he knew this was not the time so he let him go. Noticing how embarrassed Raephier seemed to be from his actions, Jacob immediately turned the attention away from him.

"Right, Pete and James, go across onto Jinx's ship. Let's see if this shell is capable of hiding something as big and grand as The Flying Bounty."

The shell was retrieved from the box and once Pete and James were stationed on Jinx's ship, Jacob nodded to Raephier.

Jacob watched as Raephier looked at the shell and then placed it on the deck of the ship.

Once Raephier stood back, Jacob looked around him to see if anything had changed. Jacob felt his heart sink slightly when everything looked the same.

He looked over to James and Pete ready to signal for them to come back, but then froze when he saw their faces.

Both of them were staring open mouthed, right at Jacob.

Jacob waved to get their attention, but neither of them moved.

Lyle appeared next to him, waving frantically. Still nothing. Word seemed to spread around the ship as more of the crew stood on the starboard side, waving and jumping up and down.

There was an excited buzz in the air as the men began to holler across the water.

Pete and James could obviously hear them as they shouted back, but they just kept looking around and then at each other, excitement and wonder clearly written all over their faces.

Jacob turned back around looking for Raephier.

When their eyes met, he just couldn't help himself. He ran across the deck and swept Raephier up into his arms, spinning him round.

"Put me down!" Raephier called out, laughing as his legs flew out behind him.

"Never!" Jacob shouted, spinning around faster.

Eventually Jacob stopped spinning and the two of them wobbled around laughing while the dizziness wore off.

"I can't believe it!" Jacob said, gripping Raephier's face and pressing his forehead up against his.

Raephier's blue eyes were sparkling, the energy and joy on the ship infectious.

"Do you know what this means?" Jacob asked Raephier, struggling to contain his excitement.

"No?" Raephier humoured, with a huge smile.

Jacob let go of Raephier and took several paces backwards, his eyes never breaking contact with Raephier's.

Then with one last grin, he spun around with his arms wide open and shouted,

"BOYS!!!! WE'RE GOING HOME!!!!"