Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

To you, who keep me going —

who prove silly fanfictions aren’t just silly fanfictions.

And the two kids back in 2019.

  When there is darkness, there is light.

  But what if they don’t meet?

  What if the light was so bright it left no room for shadows to lurk in? What if it was so dark there was not even a speck of gleam to find? No one would like that.

  It would be either too bright or too dark to see anything to be one with it — like nothing exists at all.

  That’s why they must come together, as a whole. That way, it can be comprehensible with their depths and surfaces. It's how art works.

  So where there is darkness, there has to be light, always.

  That’s how it has always been… right?

  “Six… seven… eight… nine…” —he pulled his hands away from his eyes —”and ten!”

  “No, you got it wrong!” responded the taller toddler standing right infront of him. His chestnut brown eyes were nestled onto him, quite intimidatingly if he could say for the kid is looking down on him with his chin raised high up above.

  Oh, don’t flatter the boy. There’s several other kids behind him who were also looking down on our little merman.

  He guessed these kids were older than him; they all had limbs a tad longer than his, and they used words flexibly, even the unfamiliar ones he hadn't heard of like shaky legs, sealegs, or this game called hide and seek.

  “But you said to open my eyes on ten,” pouted the short brunet.

  “I changed my mind, open them AFTER ten.”

  “Must we bother?” murmured another kid beside the tall one, though the little merman was still able to hear them.

  The other boy only glared at them and smirked. He nodded at the short brunet. “Try again, second sealegs.”

  “It’s Kai.”

  “Whatever.”

  Little Kai deepened his pout, though he still obeyed and covered his eyes shut with his hands covered in dust and dirt. He hated the smell of his hands during these days, actually, he hated how he himself smelled. And he feels very dry, he hates it.

  “One… two… three… four… fi —”

  “Actually, let’s play for real this time,” the kid suddenly suggested with a chuckle, finally bringing smiles to the other faces.

  “Oh, I have to go hide now?” Kai asked, pointing at the strange cylindrical chamber behind him. It’s about as big as him curled up to fit in.

  “Yeah, go inside the barrel and count there.”

  “Okay.”

  Kai carefully climbed up on the boxes. He stumbles in the process, earning a few snickers coming from the group. They churned his feelings, but he chose to not mention it as he looked around the area. There’s barely anyone in the dark alleyway but them, it quite gave him the spooks considering that the kids were going to leave him alone. No matter. He’ll be alright like they said.

  He finally brings himself inside the barrel.

  “Oh, and count to 20, can you do that?” someone asked from outside.

  “Two tens! Got it!” He replied back.

  And so the lid above him closed, letting no light enter the room where he’s left all alone with nothing to do but cover his eyes and count.

  “One… two… three… four… five… “

  In every light, there lies a shadow.

  In every shadow, there lies a light —

  A bright ray of light.

  It may come from candlelight dancing in no particular choreography as it burns and melts what it stands on.

  It may also streak down from the window. The kind you see as you wake up from a slumber to see the sun peeking through the curtains gaps. With strong enough light, you can see dust floating about, and sometimes catch it fading in and out every once in a while; although it still remains.

  “Six… seven… eight…”

  Oh, how he wonders if light will always stay… Either way, he believes that all is a matter of perspective.

  Light is of use for those to see, but not the blind.

  Light is of use for those to admire, but not those harmed from it.

  Sometimes, light is for those who admire and hurt from it.

  Why is it that light burns?

  “Nine… ten! Oh right, two tens. One… two… three…”

  Sometimes, Light comes from the wildlife.

  In the deepest part of the oceans you see a speck of light seemingly coming towards you amidst the darkness; it appears to be small, innocent, and a gift from heaven as it continues to advance… and soon realise it to be an Anglerfish. In that very moment of truth you drag yourself into thinking:

  Would I have preferred if it came with something different, or would I have preferred for light to never have been there?

  “Four… five… six…”

  But what if we talk about light… differently?

  Not like, speaking of weights or something like that.

  Figuratively.

  Light.

  Is it not the same as hope?

  Or rather, a simply good something; something amazing — or someone you’re glad to have ever graced upon the world.

  It could be anything at this point, and of course that does not rule out the point of it all.

  The shadow.

  A light, and a shadow.

  “Seven… eight… nine…”

  In this particular world, apparently those two mean a lot more, as before someone’s footsteps there lies their doom. Their fated doom, to be precise. And that said doom can come from anything, let’s be wary here. It can come from a prick of a finger as told from those dark fairytales often told to children by a candlelight; and from what slumbers from deep below with an eye prevailing a man-o’-war the moment it opens.

  The light undesired by all.

  The blinding light.

  His eyes are gently shut close after gazing upon the faint sun for a long while. He takes in the darkness for a moment. The wind caresses his skin softly like a mother’s touch, and his noir locks flow within them as they ask to free themselves from the elastic they’re tied into.

  “Ten!”

  He flutters his lashes back up, bestowing the sombre sky with his forest green eyes, and bestowing himself with the sight. He listens to the sound of the waves crashing into the grey sand and pebbles he’s standing onto.

  Cole takes a deep breath and lets it out. It’s ridiculously cold, which is understandable considering that the break of dawn had just ended.

  He can’t afford to let himself shiver just because of some cold wind. Hell no. It sounds like something a certain brunet would say, but he guesses he hung out with the merman enough to have picked up on some of his antics.

  The pirate lays his eyes on the Destiny’s Bounty resting far away from where he stands. Everyone should still be in their dreamlands back there. Cole’s sure of it, he made everyone stay up late last night courtesy to his new captain who allowed the crew to celebrate and bond by a campfire that set the night alight.

  As he watches the flag subtly waving at him, the sound of shuffling rocks and clothes lingers on his ears.

  The noiret doesn’t bother turning his head around nor looking at the presence approaching him. He longs his eyes back to the horizon.

  Soon enough, the person silently joins him several feet apart from the pirate.

  Cole’s nose twitches.

  “Ackshoo!”

  “...”

  “...”

  “You’re standing here expecting me, correct?”

  “Knowing we were upon the thread of your heels,” said Skylor.

  She narrows her eyes at the pirate burying his hands in his pants pockets. She tucks her flying red locks behind her ear, seemingly irritated with the wind too.

  Cole doesn’t answer, he remains silent.

  Skylor closes her mouth shut after that, well, only at the moment. She may not know exactly what’s behind the mind of this particular pirate — Rocky is hard to read — however, she’s got an idea of what must be spewed out from her throat.

  She reckons it’s what’s bound to happen here as she diverts her eyes from him.

  It’s stunning how the sun remains to be blinding, granting that the day is coloured with gloom and hushed secrets about to unfold. And as if on cue, the clouds start to unveil themselves.

  Cole feels his eyelids twitch at the brightening sun.

  Light is created by nature itself, and it is everywhere.

  In whatever meaning it holds, it is still everywhere.. The shadows forming behind the big rocks is a gentle reminder of that.

  There’s so much of it, yet it would still be surprising to discover more from both sides.

  Perhaps, humanity could create one… just like how they first laid their eyes upon the fire they ignited.

  With sticks and stones.

  And flint and steel.

  Cole slowly brings his left hand up, covering the sun fully and shielding his eyes away from it.

  The light does not only come from anglerfish by the way. It can come from jellyfish, lanternfish, glowworms —

  It can come from fireflies.

  “A-achoo!”

_00. The Story before Ashes_

1.5k words

Chapter Text

   Brightly lit lanterns that hang on ceilings.

  Grey walls stained with berries and whatever the hell that red one is. Wanted posters lying all around. Windows shut with curtains and planks poorly nailed on them. Empty barrels. Wooden stools loitered in all areas. Tables filled with cards, blunts, and bottles. The sweet scent of caramel-like and fruity aroma of alcohol. Eyes glistening and cheeks warming. Words neither comprehensible nor making a point.

  A pluck of string.

  C chord.

  Strum…

  Thonk!

  “Ow!”

  Lloyd violently whips his head and immediately regrets it as he earns a cramp. He looks over at Jay adjusting his grip on his english guitar, and at Nya, the maiden sitting by the ginger.

  “You still recall the words?” asked Jay, followed by a small hiccup causing the noirette to snicker.

  Lloyd has no idea of what his friend meant with that — he wasn’t even listening to the conversation being held on the table in the first place — but still, tipsy as he is, sang, “Oh yes, sailor.”

  A sharp strum.

  Jay grins at Nya and adjusts his fingers on the fret, humming as he tries to recollect the chords and strumming patterns of a certain song.

  “Hold on,” he mumbled, testing out a few tunes and gently strumming the strings. “Um… aye, I got it.”

  “Got what?” Lloyd butted in.

  “The last shanty,” Nya said right before taking another swig from a whole bottle.

  “Ah, blimey..”

  Jay begins drumming on the guitar. He suddenly loudly howls, hoarding the attention of all buckos in the tavern.

  Nya and Lloyd laugh at him in amusement, and soon they both join him in the drunken call with bottles on their hands.

  The drumming continues and music ensues.

  Lloyd chokes on his breath and abruptly stops screeching. He coughs and sips from his bottle before clearing his throat. He stands up on the chair, steps a foot on the table, and so he transforms into the worst bard to ever exist in the area; with three sheets to the wind, a pirate hat barely on his head, and passion for yelling the shanty.

  “Well me father often told me when I was just a lad!

  A sailor's life is very hard! The food is always bAD!

  But now I've joined the navy, I'm aboard a man-o-war!

  And now I've found a sailor ain't a sailor any more!”

  He throws the bottle to the ground; the crowd raves.

  Jay starts violently strumming the guitar, standing up from his seat and bopping his head in no rhythm. Nya stands up with him while clapping her hands to the beat.

  The people sing all together (well, mostly drunkenly shouting the words) as they repeat the same verse with the merry young captain.

  It wouldn’t be a surprise to come across a royal guard banging on the doors at this point. The tavern trumpets aloud as the full moon shines atop.

  Though, Lloyd has made sure that they should be alright with whatever the noise they could make as they mercilessly rip their vocal chords.

  Why? Because they had just finished making a good distraction in the empire’s public market.

  Short story is that approximately an hour ago, in chronological order: Nya fake fainted. The Bounty’s crew gathered a crowd. Grew the said crowd. Stirred up the crowd’s words. Made them argue about taxes and abortion. Left the mob rallying toward the castle with torches and spears.

  And are now wasting themselves in a tavern. 

  Huzzah!

  Oh, and Cole and Kai went to proceed with their mission.

  As the drunkards joyously sing and set themselves loose to the song, a maiden nears her lover. “Shame the boys aren’t here to rave with us,” whispered Pixal while clapping.

  “Don’t worry, Rocky and Kai should be on their way back as we speak…” Zane trailed off.

  “I say that’s a pretty ironic sentence, Mr. Snake.” Nya nudges the albino’s side as she maintains her vigorous claps.

  Zane shakes his head. “Yeah, I noticed after saying it.”

  “I guess we should worry more if they’re early,” joked Pixal.

  A lighthearted chuckle. He nods to agree.

  Of course they’re late.

  “I still can’t believe we appointed them for the gig in the castle.” Nya shakes her head at the thought of the two. They’re both capable bullet biters alright, and could probably pull it off without worrying others.

  But the two of them together?

  Oh, blow her down…

  “Don't haul on the rope, don't climb up the mast,

  If you see a sailing ship it might be your last,

  Just get your civvies ready for another run-ashore,

  A sailor ain't a sailor, ain't a sailor anymore!”

  SLAM!!

  The door breaks open . Cole drags Kai out with him by the collar of his shirt as the two slip and zoom out of the castle kitchen, leaving a knocked out maid with a dented frying pan on the ground.

  "You absolute mad-dog, I didn't think ye'd take it seriously!"

  "She was getting on my nerves okay?! That bitch," violently barked Kai as he stumbled to keep up with Cole's pace.

  He adjusts his grip on the heavy case slung over his shoulders, almost slipping on his feet in the process.

  "I don’t think that was necessary?!" Cole shifts his hand from Kai's collar to his back, supporting the brunet stumbling again.

  "She very much earned that!"

  "What?!"

  "Oh yOu aNd I wOUld mAKe gOod pARtNErs aT NigHT — good partners my fucking ass, I'm burning this place." Kai inaudibly growled the last part, astounding Cole with his sudden extreme change of tones.

  They continue to dash through the hallways. Soon, they reach the stairs, but Cole abruptly slows his pace and stops both of them from proceeding. They both slip on the glossy floor.

  Footsteps echo from below.

  Panic takes over the two as they step away from the stairs.

  Kai runs to the closest door and budges with the doorknob. It doesn't twist.

  Cole does the same with the other doors. He succeeds in opening one. He pulls Kai by the collar again (“eUGHK!”) and so they hustle into the room.

  Click.

  The room is incredibly dim, and there's barely any space for them to move around in either, proven by the constant noises they're making just by shuffling their feet.

  "Hold on," said Cole. He shifts on where he’s standing and carefully turns to face the merman, but as he does that, his foot gets caught on an object; and so gravity pulls him down…

  Forward…

  Close…

  In a heartbeat…

  Hitched air and sharp warmth setting in, Cole has Kai pinned to the wall. With minimal space. In the dark. And they can only go as far as to trace the outline of their faces and sensually hear each other’s held breaths.

  Arms of the taller figure caves in the brunet’s body pressed on the concrete behind him, firmly caging Kai as neither pulls the strength to move.

  They can feel each other.

  Kai gulps, Cole sees his adam’s apple move.

  Then, several footsteps from beyond the door thunder in, along with murmurs of the passing people; filling the air as tense as what’s in the merman’s ribcage.

  The long parade of footsteps goes on, and it doesn’t seem like it’ll be fading out soon.

  Although practically melting and weak on his knees, Kai steps back in sheer panic. His heel slips on a rounded object.

  He falls down as he lets out a small gasp, shortly before being grabbed by the waist and the back of his head.

  Oh.

  O-oh…

  Oh, you didn’t..!

  FUCK! Their brains screamed.

  Kai avoids himself from looking up to the breathing face on top of him, and instead directs his eyes on Cole’s shoulders where his hands are laid on. God, oh how much he’s being teased right now — oh, mother of hell, say something, Kai.

  “I’m about to barf."

  You dumb shit.

  Cole momentarily slips out a chuckle, and his shoulders start to shake as he turns his head away with a silly smile.

  The footsteps finally die out. Kai immediately shimmies himself away from the noiret’s grip (as unfortunate as it is).

  He uses this as an opportunity to cover his blushing face in the dark, listening to Cole still trying to recover beside him.

  “W-wait let me just —” the pirate said between his dying giggles by the time the brunet had dropped his hands.

  Judging by the sound, Kai assumes the noiret is feeling around the walls until eventually, he's facepalmed with a bright moonlight.

  "Wow," in monotone and closed eyes.

  "We don't need the case, right?" Cole whispered, now searching through his pockets for a lockpick.

  "Yeah, let's uh — let’s open this guy." Kai brings the case over to his chest and searches for the lock. "My shoulder's already in miserable pain, you might have to bridal carry me out — …It's a combination lock."

  He drops the lockpick. "What?!"

  “Quick, think like a king!"

  “Uh… six ninety, four twenty.”

  Kai bores his eyes to Cole, unamused.

  “Ye told me to think like the king.”

  Kai puts the said numbers to it. They both silently wait. Locked. The brunet angrily groans. He does the same digits but in reverse. Locked.

  “Try higher numbers,” suggested Cole as he watched.

  “Because they look appealing? No, we’re doing small numbers.”

  Kai sees Cole gawk at him in the corner of his vision. He believes he’s right though. If the noiret thought of using higher numbers, then the lock should be on the low numbers considering that lockpicks like them would start with high numbers. Hah! Kai is a big fat genius! He starts putting in digits less than six.

  “That’s why yer so small…”

  Woah.

  Kai backs off from Cole and dramatically goggles at him with his jaw dropped, momentarily halted from fiddling with the lock.

  The noiret only innocently looks back at him, though he’s trying his best to not let a teasing smile slip out and keep a stoic face.

  The brunet turns his body the other way, away from the other’s face. “At least that means I’m adorable.” He smirks and winks at Cole.

  The pirate’s face immediately drops. He stares at the goofy expression, though, in that very moment, something drastically squeezed his heart as he was totally not prepared for that comeback.

  His face flushes with red, and the place is too dark for Kai to notice it.

  Yeah.

  A very adorable living gargoyle.

  Cole finds his breaths. “No. Disgusting. Never.”

  He takes the case away from Kai and starts placing his own guesses on it: numbers higher than five.

  The door knob twists, and they squint their eyes as they’re met with more uninvited light. Entering the room, in comes a man in a formal suit offensively eyeing them both from head to toe.

  Cole immediately hides the case to his back.

  The butler leaves the door widely open behind him. “Who are you? And what are you doing in the storage room instead of being at the gates holding off the rally? You are not disobeying the emperor, are you?”

  Kai nervously chuckles as he slyly steps on the dropped lockpick. “S-sire! My greatest apologies for this, uh, startling encounter.” He smiles at the man and moves closer. “But I would like to ask, what are you doing here?”

  The brunet manages to build a conversation with the butler as Cole silently busies himself with the lock. He slides in different combinations of numbers on his back, only visualising through it all the while looking at the ceiling like he’s incredibly amazed by it.

  “I am excused by the emperor himself to check for suspicious people like you.”

  “That’s strange, we were told to do that as well.” Kai crosses his arms and narrows his attention to the butler. He’s starting to get real irritated now, and he feels it growing.

  “In the storage room? …Why?”

  “...” Kai pulls back his smile. “Yes.”

  “I see that as an utter nonsense, suspicious person in funny clothes,” commented the man. He squints his eyes at Cole, who’s still awkwardly gaping at the ceiling while nodding. He shifts his eyes on the rectangular container behind the pirate.

  “What is tha —”

  Kai blocks his sight. “I’m sorry, but my man here he’s…uh… he’s never seen a ceiling!”

  Cole nods with a pained expression.

  “A ceiling?” The butler is all the more baffled at this point.

  “Oh, be an understanding lamb, sire! His only home is built with none but naked walls! Poor guy… shivering in the rain — he’s even mute. He can’t talk.” Kai pulls on the hem on Cole’s sleeve and scratches his temple with an index finger (as obvious as he could). “Isn’t that right, buddy?”

  Cole blinks at the finger, still nodding. “Aeh.”

  The butler clicks his tongue and turns around. “You stay put. I’ll have to go and —”

  “No, you can’t leave!” Kai suddenly raised his voice, now rubbing his eye with an index finger. “Or — or there shall be consequences!”

  Cole sees the finger, and so he looks up again at the ceiling. There’s nothing.

  “And what shall be these said consequences?”

  “COCK! I mean — oh, please fuck me for goodness sake…”

  “Are you a prostitute?!”

  “No, because guess what?! Fuck you… Juan! FUCK you!!” Kai ferociously yapped at Cole with a shaking middle finger.

  “Aye fuck ye too Johnny, what’d I do?!!” Cole yelled back with equal violence.

  And so the two start throwing very savage curses back and forth on the top of their lungs with so much passion that the poor butler is absolutely scared as hell.

  The man steps back. “I-I will be in the throne room.”

  “Oi, hold on,” Cole calmly spoke. He whips out the case in the open and starts visibly putting all six ones in the lock.

  The butler’s heart drops, recognizing the case. He immediately turns to wobble his legs toward the door, but Cole unlocks the case and pulls out its content so fast and slams the case against the guy’s head.

  wah-PANG!!

  The butler drops.

  “I can’t believe the first time I'd hear you aggressively curse you’re attacking me,” joked Kai as he walked toward the pirate, handing him the lockpick.

  “Should’ve toned it down, didn’t I?” Cole frowned.

  “Argh, Boulders, yer doing great.” Kai holds himself from reflecting the frown. He stands on his toes and reaches a hand out to ruffle the noiret’s hair.

  Cole lowers his head out of habit, a happy smile creeping up to his face.

  But the moment doesn’t last long, as Kai moves his eyes to see a maid standing outside the room and seemingly about to scream and faint.

  “NO DON’T —!”

  “AAAAAAAAAAA —”

  - 

  Lloyd catches Jay from falling off the table as he continues to drunkenly sing ever so passionately it’s incredibly amazing. He turns his back around.

  Jay stumbles again.

  Nya screeches and catches the falling ginger.

  “Well the killick of our mess he says we had it soft!

  It wasn't like that in his day when we were up aloft!

  We like our bunks and sleeping bags, but what's a hammock for!?

  Swinging from the DECKHEADD, or lying on the floor?!!”

  -

  “FUCK!”

  “Oh bugger!”

   Kai and Cole both slide and balance themselves on the slippery tiles as they take a sharp turn. They continue to speed through the halls, with numerous guards flooding after them and duplicating the mad rally they’re able to see through the windows.

  Don’t haul on the rope!

  “Okay, what now?” Whispered Cole from under a table.

  “What now?!” echoed Kai from under the same table.

  “I thought ye had the plan memorised!”

  “I did but I forgot because I thought you did!”

  Cole gapes at Kai and hits the brunet with the crystal he got from the case.

  Kai dramatically winces and pouts, cutely.

  Once again, Cole’s struck, and it’s too dark to see.

  “D-do ye at least know where we’re going?!” stuttered the noiret.

  Kai laughs.

  “No.”

  Don’t climb up the mast!

  “I thought you had every place memorised like the back of your palm like you always boast about?!” Kai hits Cole back with the artefact.

  “I meant the streets, not the bloody castle!”

  Bullets start shooting in their direction.

  They both shriek and run away from their hideout.

  They left the crystal.

  Kai comes back and grabs it. He runs away shrieking again.

  And if you see a sailing ship it might be your last!

  Guards circle around the large room. They inspect with their eyes upon everywhere, from the ceilings and inside the displayed armour in every room there is inside the castle.

  Somewhere in the dumbest and worst place for a person to ever hide on, a voice whispers.

  “...Let’s jump off a window,” Kai said under a very thin curtain shaping his form.

  “Let’s what?” Cole visibly shuffles behind another very thin curtain right beside Kai’s. It’s a miracle the guards haven’t noticed them yet.

  “Let’s jump off the window, that way we’ll be ON the streets.” The brunet asserted with full confidence.

  “...It’s such a dumb and risky idea, let’s do it,” Cole agreed with equal confidence.

  “Alright, now where’s the window?”

  “I think there’s one across from us.”

  Kai squints his eyes through the fabric and focuses his sight at the big window calling for them. He goes as far as pushing his head nearer, the fabric tracing his face. “It seems shut to me.”

  “Then we’ll break it.”

  “That’s stupid!”
“Do you have a better idea?”

  “...”

  Kai exaggeratedly and ever so visibly crosses his arms. “Hmp.”

  Just get your civvies ready for another run-ashore!

  “One… two…”

  The pirate interrupts, “Hold my hand.”

  “What? No! One…”

  Cole grabs his hand.

  “ — “ Kai’s heart runs ahead of him. He chews on his lip. “O-one… two… three… go!”

  Kai runs on ‘go’.

  Cole runs after ‘go’.

  They reveal themselves stumbling on their own feet to the guards turning to their direction.

  They start shooting at them, and Kai is cackling his ass off at Cole cursing profanities to him.

  In no time they reach the window. Two thieves jump out of it as bullets fly everywhere from behind.

  Mid-air, they both look down, and that is when they realise they’re about to fall into the waters from three stories high.

  Their souls jump out.

  “A sailor ain’t a sailor, ain’t a sailor anymore!”

  “AYE!”

  The whole tavern ends the performance with a huge vigorous cheer, and Lloyd finally comes back to his senses as he furiously blinks his eyes and shakes his head.

  “Uh-oh,” he muttered, right before being offensively smacked on the back of his head.

  Jay drills his hand to the blond’s hair as he bows at the crowd. “Hic — thank you, thank you! Ah, you’re very kind!” He giggled before hiccuping.

  Lloyd bashfully thanks the crowd too before slipping his way out from the ginger’s grasp. He tears through the nose-destroying wave of people, muttering small ‘excuse me’ and ‘gangway please’ as he does so.

  He breathes back to life when he reaches the table where Zane and the others are. He peeks over the albino’s shoulder, checking the very white paper containing none but scribbles of wavy lines and crosses.

  The blond startles the man and voices, “Mr. Snake, care to explain to me why we have yet a single recruit?”

  Mr. Snake places a hand on his chest and sighs. “I believe it’s because we’re using the name Destiny’s Bounty and no one’s got the balls to board with such a dangerous crew, and because of where we’re sailing” he explained, “which is, for a fact, pretty rational, I say.”

  “But Yang’s no more and we've got baby krakens."

  Zane turns his head, staring dead in Lloyd’s eyes. “Trust issues.”

  Ah.

  The captain flinches upon feeling his gun being whipped out from his pocket. He turns to see Nya barely balancing on her feet as she reloads the arm.

  The lass winks at him. “Watch me,” she simply said, followed by a loud BANG! and her stumbling around the tavern while patting people’s heads and shoulders.

  “You’re in. You’re in. You’re coming with us.”

  She points at a random person. “Welcome to Destiny’s Bounty!” She aims her gun at another person. “Eyepatch guy! You’re in!”

  The silly goofy noirette carries on with her very concerning business with a very concerning gun and aim. On the table, Lloyd stays there gaping at the woman until turning his attention back to the table. The first thing he comprehends is Pixal’s distress.

  “I’m still worried about the two,” she said, earning a hand being placed on top of her’s.

  Zane smiles at her. “Me too, love. Knowing them, they should be fine together, as ridiculous as it sounds considering that it's Rocky and Kai.”

  Pixal’s eyes move to Lloyd, and the blond shares the same smile.

  “Don’t worry, they should be alright with the crystal,” he assured.

  She chuckles and runs a hand through her silver locks, slightly messing up her ponytail as she sighs. “I just hope they’re alright. Those two happen to be the trumpet of heart attacks,” she concluded with a drop of her face.

  “Thou an old salt?” Nya moves the knocked out guy’s foot. She aims at his sleeping face, and it looks like she’s about to be like him too, stumbling left and right and all that.

  “Nya I really think the bang bang should go — hic!” Jay hiccuped, also swaying in circles with the lady.

  “Why must I drop the bang bang?”

  “Because you’re — hic! — you’re hot when you do that.”

  Nya giggles, still keeping her aim at the sleeping stranger. “I keep the bang bang,” by the time she said that, someone lightly tapped on her shoulder from behind.

  Both drunken sailors turn around to see a slouched elderly with a hood completely covering their face.

  “Woah paedophile, back off!” hooted the ginger.

  “Wonderful evening to you too, Walker,” said the elderly as they slowly removed the cloth covering their face, revealing their identity to the two.

  Nya wakes up and loudly gasps. “Nanny Mystake!” She drops the gun. Her eyes practically jump out of her face as she goggles at the one and only person herself.

  Hold on a second, why on Earth is she here? Why is she in a tavern in an empire and not behind a fruit stall back in Jamanakai City?!

  Oh my god.

  What about her turtle?

  Nya’s too drunk to think. She swears she’s smart.

  The smart lady tears her eyes away from Mystake and lays them to the tall figure behind the elder.

  They too, are wearing a cloak, but judging from the shape of their body and the red lips, it seems like the person is feminine. She also appears to be shorter than Nya, even so, something about her makes the noirette shiver just by acknowledging their presence.

  Nya can’t tell whether it’s a bad thing or not, but she’s confident the upcoming bad thing is that she’s about to throw up.

  SPLASH!

  And thus the two submerge down the water.

  Tightening his grip on the crystal, fluttering his lashes up, and shivering from the very frigid waters taking over his body, Cole actually wonders if there could’ve been a better idea.

  He’s got no time to think further, for his arm gets pulled by Kai and multiple bullets break through the surface.

  Cole kicks his feet off as the two swim to shelter beneath a rock.

  Kai pushes the pirate to safety first, as he does that, sharp pain suddenly injects into the side of his thigh. He grits his teeth, but he couldn’t hold back an abrupt groan.

  It alarms the noiret, and he immediately pulls him lower to his side. They both stick their backs to the rocks as the bullets continue to rain through and slowly fall into the ground like heavy cottons.

  Kai looks down to his injury.

  Cole follows his eyes and takes in the sight of blood spreading in the water. He sees Kai visibly cringe at it, the grip the brunet has on his shirt even tightens.

  Yeah, he really should’ve considered thinking of a better idea.

  Wrong window.

  Bugger.

  Was his scar on his face not enough? Damn the gods. Damn the gods for never letting him be.

  Cole tears his gaze away from the wound upon noticing the wave of bullets finally coming to a stop. He takes the warm pair of hands into his and pulls them both up to the surface.

  Kai follows, but then he flinches at the scalding pain surging in a snap. He bites his lips.

  The noiret takes notice of this. He lets go of the hissing brunet for a moment before hurrying up. He inhales for air and hastily dives back below.

  Kai clenches his eyes as the stinging sensation fades in and out simultaneously. To say the bullet scratch hurts so much more than it should’ve is not an exaggeration. Not that he got shot before, but it just feels like the pain is way too unnecessarily extraordinary.

  Strong arms suddenly wrap around his frame, and he holds himself back from yelping in surprise.

  Kai freaks out, wide eyeing at Cole quickly yet carefully lifting the shorter’s legs and back, and swimming up to the surface.

  “Ye sure you can stand?”

  “Of course I can, I’m Kai — shit!”

  “I don’t think you can.”

  “Oh, d-drop me and let me stand,” he bossed, with a face as red as his blood while he clings his arms around the pirate’s neck. He internally begs for the guy to listen to him. He’s too uncomfortably flustered to handle the fact he’s actually being bridal carried by him.

  Cole sighs by the time he reaches the dry sands. He shakes his head at the merman’s usual behaviour.

  Like, seriously, Kai’s sense of competence is ridiculous sometimes, and it amazes Cole.

  Though he did notice since long ago that Kai is astonishingly cutthroat when it comes to the noiret. He was concerned about it at first, wondering if Kai hated him, but then the face Kai always makes when he’s being Kai is so adorable to Cole that he forgot the thought — still, it worries him when he thinks about it, and he was replacing that worry by convincing himself that he doesn’t care. But he found that hard.

  He can’t notice the face today though, knowing that he may or may not have gotten the very warm redfish injured.

  Cole slowly settles the merman down, letting him carefully slide down and touch his feet on the ground.

  Kai pauses.

  “...is it me or is my leg numb?”

  “Numb?”

  Kai lets go. He falls. Cole immediately catches him.

  “You can’t stand.”
“Well, let me try again —”

  “Yer not okay, you can’t even stand!”

  “Cole.”

  Kai balances himself and holds onto the noiret’s arms. “I’m okay, it’s just a leg injury,” he said as calmly as he could while subtly pulling himself farther from the other’s grip.

  He only shakes his head in denial. “No! Yer hurting and you can’t stand because your leg got injured and —”

  “Cole, Boulders, Rocky, look at me.”

  He obeys and fixates his gaze on him, finally seeing the smile on the brunet’s face.

  Kai staggers for a bit, but after a bit of swaying and trying to figure out where to lay his weight, he manages to stand up by himself with a proud smirk.

  “See? I can stand on my feet, and I’m okay.”

  “Okay.” Cole hesitantly nods. “Right…”

  Kai’s chest flutters in delight upon seeing the taller one slipping out a small smile. He had to stop himself from scrunching his face from endearment there.

  He prefers to see Cole like this; calm, happy, glad, and not worrying when Kai gets himself in trouble (though it makes him feel special and think about it for days on end) or stressing himself out trying to think of a set of concerning ideas.

  He likes to know when Cole is okay.

  And it seems like the guy feels the same way too.

  Suddenly, the smile on the pirate’s face dies in a snap as his face budges an inch forward, as if something had hit him.

  “Cole?” Kai worriedly asked, right before having to catch the pirate from dropping to the ground. “Hey, w-what’s wrong, are you okay?”

  Cole only manages to shake his head.

  Kai’s heart drops. “Wha — what’s going on? Hey —!” he catches him again, though the noiret completely loses all strength this time.

  Kai’s injury violently gnaws, thus the both of them stumble down to the ground. 

  “Boulders, what’s wrong?” He nervously repeated himself as his voice wavered.

  He surveys his eyes around Cole’s back, even feeling his hands around to check if he’s bleeding anywhere. He gasps, spotting a singular dart on his friend who’s alarmingly losing consciousness.

  Before Kai could even regain from his shock, something pricks him on his shoulder. He winces, looks at it, and sees an identical dart on him. In no time, the effect hits him.

  The world starts turning, and his whole body begins to progressively become heavier as he furiously blinks the dark spots away from his eyes.

  He feels Cole attempting to push himself up, but he stumbles down again. Kai uses his remaining strength to catch him.

  What’s going on? He thought to himself.

  Whether his heartbeat is roaring or slowing is something he cannot be certain of.

  “Kai?” He heard Cole hardly croaked out.

  Have they been spotted?

  “I’m here, don’t worry,” Kai barely mumbled, “you’re okay…”

  Oh, Kai, you dumb fish, there’s so much to worry about.

  As the noiret stops moving on him, and as Kai’s lids pull themselves down with his body, darkness takes over.

  Kai hoped that they wouldn’t be separated there, and the warmth and weight on him was the only thing he could rely on to know his friend is with him.

  He can’t lift a finger.

  The last thing he feels is his arms being pulled away from Cole.

_I. Uh-oh_

5k words

Chapter Text

  “Oi Dareth.”

  “Oi?”

  “About time we fish, don’t ye think?” Cole asked the day the Bounty was sailing to the empire.

  It hasn't been long since the crew left from an island where they gathered resources for themselves.

  They collected boiled water, wood for repairs, coconuts and sugar canes, several fruits like mangoes and bananas, crabs they worked so hard to capture from a rocky shore, and fish they had hauled right before their departure.

  It had been days, and those said resources have decreased in a short span of time. But if anyone were to check, they would say they still have enough food to feed them for a few days.

  From the quarter deck, Lloyd nodded and waved his hand when Dareth looked up to him for approval. He watched the barbecuer make his way toward the stairs to the berth.

  “Don’t we still have enough from our last fish?” The blond asked.

  Dareth shrugged his shoulders. “Eh, the more the merrier,” he said right before disappearing from the captain’s eyes.

  Lloyd turned to navigate Cole, who seemed to be approaching the two sailors sitting on the floor with several pieces of papers laid right in front of them.

  What’s up with the sudden suggestion?

  The noiret pirate crouched down on the space beside Kai. He shifted his head to look at the brunet’s face and held back from chuckling.

  The merman’s totally in the zone; he’s got his brows drawn together and tongue between his teeth, doing his utmost best trying to redraw the poorly stitched up charts that was completely ruined during the battle with Yang. He’s drawing on a large piece of paper, and his work looked like they were made by a mere toddler (with holes from when he pressed the pen too hard).

  Zane’s sitting right across from them, and he too, was really focused on trying to fix the ruined chart while using as little glue as possible. He seemed to be as fresh as a daisy, compared to Kai who’s intensively glaring at the paper.

  “Kai, are you sure you haven’t found a small artwork somewhere within these papers?” asked Zane, glancing at the pile of scrolls, abandoned charts, and whatever beside them. The pieces of the charts were within them before they organised it.

  “I’m sure I haven’t.” Kai squinted his eyes at his own work. “Maybe it got washed away or blown up with the other Bounty?”

  Zane hummed. He moved his attention to the pile of discarded papers, noticing Cole’s presence as he did so. “Oh, Rocky.”

  Rocky smiled at him. “Yo.”

  “Greetings, ever seen a small piece of artwork somewhere?” Zane drew a small rectangle in the air. “It’s a picture of a kraken looming over an island with ink everywhere.”

  Now, Zane knew Cole wasn’t exactly the type to keep drawings like those, his own drawings yes, but messy ones not. He didn’t seem to be interested in theories or anything like it.

  Zane had always thought Cole was a man prioritising needs instead of his wants. So, although he asked the question to make sure, he still didn’t really expect the bucko to rummage through his vest and easily pull out a piece of paper from it.

  “Is it this one?” Cole questioned as he showed the exact picture he was finding.

   “Aye, uh… why’d ye have it?”

  “No reason.” Cole shrugged his shoulders. He gave the picture to Kai making grabby hands toward it.

  Kai examined it. It’s his first time seeing the drawing. “That doesn’t look like a kraken.”

  “Really? Most of us thought it’s a kraken,” Zane pointed out.

  “It doesn't even have a large head, and it’s too big.”

  Lloyd joins them, bending his body low to peek at the familiar drawing. “You guys still have this?” He carefully takes it from Kai before flopping down beside him. “I thought we concluded this is a kraken? I found it in Yang’s quarters back then so I thought it made sense.”

  That’s what Zane considered too. “Aye. But now that I think about it, why would they draw clouds for ink?”

  Lloyd frowned at the said clouds in the photo. The darkness did indeed look more like black clouds rather than ink being squirted about. “Hmm… dramatic flare?”

  Similar artworks have always been strange in some ways, so it wouldn’t surprise Lloyd for his sloppy guess to be correct. As he thought that, his frown only grew. He wondered if there’s more in this case they believed to be closed.

  The group gradually fell into ponders and deciphers about the drawing itself.

  Kai reckoned how the land could just be underwater and that's why the ink appeared cloudy.

  Zane was all the more busy with figuring out the creature — it actually does not look like a kraken.

  In the end, Lloyd had to remind them that the picture could just be meaningless.

  Mid-way through the blond’s persuasion did it come to Kai’s senses that the other pirate beside him was way too quiet the whole time, oddly enough.

  He tapped on the noiret’s knee. “Ye okay there?”

  Cole blinked, like he had just woken up there and regained his senses. “Hm? Oh, yeah, okay. Just… didn’t get enough sleep.” He lightly slaps the worried look on Kai’s face.

  He nodded toward the paper, telling Kai to continue his work in which the brunet gladly obeyed, at least, not before eyeballing him.

  The blond captain became suspicious of Cole since that day.

  Lloyd admits he doesn’t know the pirate that well yet. Hell, it’s hard to pinpoint where his mind sets in to figure out whether something is strange or not with the pirate’s behaviour.

  He guessed Zane and Pixal could at least catch on with them, but he hadn't really brought himself to ask them about it — if Cole preferred not to share, then Lloyd would zip his mouth… until it gets out of hand, at least. It’s just that there has to be a reason.

  Best the noiret pirate could do was tell him of bits and pieces when the capt’n confronted him about it a few nights ago.

  He just blindly hopes the guy’s intentions are good while he plays along with the noiret’s game.

  Allowing the two to have the honour of breaking in the castle alone was a part of it. Cole requested it himself.

  Those are what filled the head of the captain as he longs his eyes on the sails of the Bounty and the setting moon peeking behind the folded mizzens.

  What exactly is his goal here?

  He pondered, barely giving attention to the newfound crewmates setting their feet on the grand vessel with either excitement or fatigue on their faces.

  They’re about to set sail, and Lloyd isn’t sure whether to leave Cole and Kai or not — he obviously doesn’t want to.

  “Good work guarding the ship, Roasted McSpark,” he inaudibly muttered to the bawking chicken he’s carrying in his arms. “End is the Bounty without you.”

  The animal responds by nibbling on the cuff of his sleeve.

  He’s got a very bad feeling about this.

  The disturbed kind of bad, as propped up by the sight of a lone silhouette rowing on its feet and on a galley in a far hazy distance.

  They stop rowing, and weirdly, it feels as though it is staring back at Lloyd.

  Amongst the dozen footfalls chiming on his ears, he senses one pair halting a good distance away from his reach.

  Curiously, Lloyd turns his head and fixates his gaze on the tall man simply standing up before him.

  They seem to be an adult, someone in their early 30’s perhaps. Lloyd squints his eyes in the darkness. It’s hard to see the man’s face when their hideout is only lit with lanterns, moonlight, and nothing more — especially when atop the same man’s head is an ominous samurai hat overshadowing most of his face.

  Also, Lloyd’s kind of dealing with a migraine, so it’s difficult to focus. Very.

  A person dealing with a worse migraine is Nya, who is inside the ship’s kitchen with Pixal and Jay (who’s also got a migraine).

  The three are gathered up by the door, blocking it, away from the other two occupants who happen to be Mystake and her mysterious looking aid who never spoke a word at all.

  Nya tried baiting her to it as they walked to the ship, trying to form some sort of girl talk about clothes and the torture of corsets, but the woman just would. not. utter. a word.

  The most the mysterious jane could do was to shriek when Nya gagged.

  She walked away. Fast. Away from the throwing up lady.

  Jay had bet she was probably mute as he supported the noirette to the ship with her arm on his shoulder.

  Nya gambled five tokens.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Asked the pirate entering and closing the door behind him. Zane is absolutely bum-squabbled by the current situation. No one can blame him, it’s a lie if a mate wouldn’t be baffled after hearing something bum-squabbling

  Pixal avoids eye contact with him. “She requests we sail off as of this moment,” she referred to Mystake.

  “Rocky and Kai haven’t made it yet. We can’t leave them.”

  “That’s what we’ve been saying but she’s got a rock hard head for an elderly,” Jay murmured.

  Zane takes a good look at Mystake and her hooded mate. They’re both just quietly, patiently standing there and watching by the table.

  “Honestly, why are we stuck on this? We’ve not a devil to pay. For a second, I was convinced we would all collectively agree to turn this down?” The ginger stressfully rubs his warm face.

  He’s really anxious with the elder, and it perplexes him how some old woman (who could have a thing with their brain by the way) out of the blue saying ‘Hey! Let’s go sail and leave our two friends!’ is not crazy enough for two out of five people to think it’s not raising any red flags at all.

  She never really said the last part, but for Jay it meant the same.

  “Pixal and I trust Mystake.” Nya also rubs her face. “She has been around for my whole life and if there’s anyone else I trust the most other than Kai, it’s her. And she’s not ill, for the record — my lord, she was a witch this whole time..”

  The grey haired adds, “I, for one, was trained by her. Ye knew that, Snake. I stopped gambling with my sanity and brain since long ago when it came to her for it was pointless.”

  “I can’t believe my nanny’s a witch…”

  “Even if we trust her or not, wouldn’t it be better to not sail off without Rocky and Kai? Would this not upset them?” debated Zane, earning a small triumphant nod from Jay.

  Pixal sighs. As much as she acknowledges how serious matters can be when Mystake is serious, she has to agree with her lover. It’s like the church against science and humanity.

  Nya is clearly troubled with either option, but Zane’s comment seems to have made her hands ease down.

  They all turn to face their new crewmates. Mystake is just there, face as blank and stern as it could be.

  The mysterious lady has her hood slightly pulled, revealing bright hair tied into a loose bun with stray locks laying over her ear and kissing her right cheek. Her half shadowed face is built like she was a statue carved with hesitance. Unremarkably beautiful, but something about her doesn’t sit right with everyone.

  The person who’s the most concerned, most bothered with the unsettling tickling on her skin, and most aware of her presence, is Nya.

  There’s just something overwhelming about her and she can’t get a grasp of it. As a person who takes pride in herself, it’s quite dumbfounding.

  She tried to push herself into thinking about it earlier, but she gagged again in the process.

  The lady turns her head to the noirette’s direction.

  Nya looks back to the witch.

  “With all due respect, Mystake.” The mermaid bows her head. “We are not leaving.”

  The elder nods her head. “I see.”

  Jay attempts to break the air. “Aye, don’t get the morbs from it. We can always compensate by not making you do labour and all that!” He giggled as he stepped out of the group. The aid pins him to the table. Everyone flinches. She pulls a dagger.

  Mystake slowly walks in between and blocks them from the poor uncomprehending ginger. “It is adorable you think that, though it tells me it has come down that I tell you that destiny is in tight hands.”

  Nya stares back at the old witch, all the more startled, surprised, and disturbed by this new side and the headache she caused for herself from flinching so hard.

  “Here I thought my apprentice Pixal would trust me… if not Nya.”

  “And here I thought captain’s orders were captain’s orders.” Lloyd closes the door and steps in. The three make way for the blond as he pushes himself to the front, glancing at Jay’s situation as he did.

  “And if they do?”

  Mystake shrugs. “They could convince you in my steed.”

  The capt’n dominantly crosses his arms and softly smiles. “I apologise, compatriot of ours, but no one is sailing yet,” he said. In cues the bell from the outside resonates through, indicating the sails being set.

  Mystake motions her hand to it.

  Lloyd’s smile twitches. “We are distancing ourselves to hide from the empire’s radar.”

Jay whispers to the heavyweight criminal, “could you please unhand me?”

  She pushes the dagger closer. He squeaks.

  Pixal inches closer. “You mentioned something about destiny being in tight hands, is that why yer doing this? To take matters to yer own hands?” She said, it’s what she understood from the quote, which was, once again, perplexing considering that the nanny was never one to meddle with the flow. If Pixal is right, then this would be… concerning.

  “Taking it in my own hands is not the way to put it, for only playing my part is what I’m doing,” answered Mystake while walking closer to the blond. “This is a crucial matter, capt’n of the Destiny’s Bounty. I wish not even to leave my boy behind if it wasn’t for it.”

  Lloyd frowns. “You mean..?”

  “And the big one.”

  Nya can tell Lloyd had to stop himself from sighing as he looks at the other three behind him. How did she even get in here in the first place? They’re so far away from Jamanakai where Mystake should be behind a fruit stall. Ugh. She won’t even ask that.

  Nya then sees Lloyd locking eyes with Mystake for a short second. It was somewhat like a deep and intense glance, but the noirette brushes it off when the blond speaks again.

  “All you ask is for us to commence our sail. What happens otherwise?”

  “Leaving them” —She trots back to her aid —“wouldn’t be their worst.” She taps on the hooded lady’s arm, causing her to lighten and let go of the ginger. The crew nears themselves to him.

  “Besides, did we not agree they should be fine with the rock on their hands?”

  Nya snorts. “That What-In-The-Universe-Crystal with magic? The hell are they going to do with that rock?”

  Just then, without a warning, Mystake suddenly pulls a large crystal from beneath her coat.

  The four stop breathing.

  “Why am I having goosebumps?” whispered Jay.

  “Because it’s the same crystal,” whispered Pixal

  “The same crys —” Nya’s soul jerks. “THOSE TWATS DON’T HAVE THE CRYSTAL?!”

  Mystake lightly slaps Nya’s life back on her cheek. “Woman, no. There’s two of these,” she stated matter-of-factly.

  They tilt their heads in confusion.

  “It’s a crystal for communicating, of course it would make sense for there to be two,” Zane added to Nya’s annoyance.

  She throws her hands in the air.

  He innocently eyes her.

  “Only time will tell if you may use the crystal,” Mystake said as she hands the stone to the lady beside her. “Don’t think ye’d be taking it away either.”

  “What, why!?” Jay pulls a chair and slumps on it. “Are we not allowed to check up on how our friends are doing —”

  “No,” droned Mystake and the lady.

  They all gawk at her, taken aback upon hearing her first word, and maybe offended.

  A tap on his back makes Jay sigh. With a frown, he discreetly throws 5 tokens to Nya’s palm as the bell from the outside clamours again.

  While the rings continue to echo, a knock on the door causes them to turn around and look to see a mate slowly poking his head in.

  Scott freezes. “..Did I interrupt something?”

  Lloyd snaps a finger. “Oh right, Snake, Pixal, quite need you both out there.”

  Zane follows the blond on the way out with the others, leaning and murmuring on them as he asks, “Are we certain about this?”

  Pixal slows her pace and whispers back, “Love, I know it’s arduous, but I can assure you that she wouldn’t lie about such thing —”

  “Okayyy, what if they’re someone pretending to be this Mystake you know of?” Jay softly said. “Or what if she’s just excited and made all that up?”

  “She does not rush time.”

  They’re now huddled by the door when that was said.

  “It does appear to be utter bullshit and irrational of us,” Nya suddenly said. “Believe me, I don’t want to leave my brother and Rocky either. I hate to do so. Let alone make them upset — but…” She starts to trail off, “the story is… always… different, with Mystake. Which I didn’t know why until now.”

  Out of control, she nervously looks at Jay’s face.

  He seems disheartened, or rather disappointed with her statement. Something crawls on Nya as she snaps her eyes away. She didn’t like that.

  Lloyd’s the first to quietly bring himself to the doorway. “You two watch over them shortly, aye?”

  “Lloyd, she just assaulted me.”

  “Just scream like usual.”

  Zane pats the jaw-dropped ginger’s shoulder as he passes by, and then walks out.

  The door closes.

  The two drunken sailors Nya and Jay only stare at the door. One nervous. One dumb founded. Both… troubled.

  And tipsy and closing their eyes because they just want to sleep.

  “I believe you,” said Jay.

  “You do?”

  “I can lend you five more for proof.”

  Nya giggles with a silly grin. “Thank you, Jay,” she said, turning around to look back at the other two occupants grabbing themselves a seat like nothing just happened.

  This won’t be smooth sailing.

_II. Picture of Predicaments_

3.1k words

Chapter Text

  “AHOY!” Lloyd loudly greeted the gloomy berth.

  “No one says that.”

  “I do. AHOY! Hoist the fucking anchor!” Lloyd enthusiastically salutes at Akita giving him a tired thumbs up.

  As the three weave their way through the crowd of groaning and grumbling mates, Zane finds himself in deep thoughts about their current situation.

  Wouldn’t Rocky and Kai be in big trouble staying back in the empire if they’re ever to be found in the castle? What if they were found and got captured? That would most certainly lead to their execution.

  Why is Lloyd not considering this? Or did he already do and is just confident of their safety..

  “Lloyd, are you fine with leaving the two?” Pixal beat Zane to asking it first when they climbed up the stairs to the quarter deck.

  The blond shakes his head. “Certainly, I’m not.” He points at the fore sails, slightly jumping on his toes as he did. He smiles when Scott and the others take the braces.

  “No one likes the idea, really, but the wind has set its course and the best we can do is not strain the sails,” he said as he approached the helm.

  Zane malfunctions. “...Pardon?”

  Lloyd lazily leans his body on the wheel and smiles at the confused lovebirds, watching the sails get dropped and take over the sight of the night sky, revealing all its glory after their long weeks on land.

  This too, certainly he missed, the beauty of Destiny’s Bounty.

  “It’s not my place to tell.”

  Batman emerges from the shadows, startling the shit out of Zane and Pixal who hadn’t noticed him at first.

  “This kid’s seriously yer new captain?” stressed the adult man with a large hat and a strange eyepatch, ignoring the blond’s glare at him.

  “WHY IS RONIN HERE?!”

  “She is here to fulfil a contract and be of my aid.” The old witch takes the warm cup of tea sitting on the table and motions it in circles, watching the liquid swirl ‘round and ‘round. “That is her purpose for being here, but fret not. She is a good friend.”

  Jay nods, though barely taking in the information he’s being given as his head slides off from his hands from time to time.

  “A good friend,” he repeated, “how long have you met?”

  “A few days ago.” Mystake loudly sips.

  “Who exactly is she?” Nya points at the other young lass across from her.

  The elder momentarily stops sipping. “Ah, she refers to herself as…” She bats her lashes at her assistant. “As um… what was it again, sweetie?”

  The woman visibly — ever so obviously — ponders for a bit while looking up at the ceiling.

  “...The Spring,” she appealed.

  Oh brother, they’re major red flags.

  Jay clears his throat and pulls his hands down away from his chin. “Listen, mate, I mean this the kindest and most respectful way possible… What the fuck is your damn name —!”

  “Jay!”

  “Apologies, for the sake of having the liberty to blackmail you if you are to ever backstab us, may I learn your name?”

  Nya rolls her eyes, and then regrets it as her headache gnaws back. “I apologise but if you’re boarding the ship then we must get to know who you are so all is fair — look.” The drunk lass presents her hand. “He is the helmsman, Jay, and I’m the third mate, Nya. Nya Smith.”

  “Smith..” A lovely smile grows on the lady’s face as she slips her hand unto Nya’s palm and waves it.

  “I am Harumi,” she said. “The Quiet One.”

  Nya awkwardly returns the smile and pulls her hand back with her goose skin. “Oh, a title you got there!” she laughed. “Well, welcome aboard, The Quiet One.”

  “Could it be you earned that because of your history as a… spy?” said the ginger, in which Harumi responded with a taunting tilt of her head.

  “Partly.”

  Nya and Jay squint at her.

  If the wind is heading south already then the best they can do is read this lady they've never heard of named Harumi. There’s something wrong and dominating about her angelic presence, and it doesn’t seem she will be helping them.

  That, or maybe they’re doing a bad job because they’ve yet to fully recover from the alcohol.

  Once again, Nya swears she’s smart.

  Suddenly, the noirette dramatically gasps at Mystake. “Oh good heavens, who’s taking care of Samurai X?”

  “Threw ‘er in the ocean.”

  “What?!”

  “Kidding, I had someone to babysit your tiny brainless friend.” Mystake boredly flips her empty teacup upside down.

  She snickers as Nya let out a big sigh of relief. Little did she know her turtle was in the hands of people who have no idea how to take care of a turtle.

  “Your captain has already told you of the Talking Stone, correct?”

  “Stone?”

  “Crystal. Stone. Whatever. No one cared naming that thing. So?”

  Jay nods. “Uh yeah, that crystal used to communicate from wherever you are, brought together by the previous generation of pirates,” agreed the ginger. He shrugs his shoulders. “All Lloyd said. That guy knows everything, weirdly enough,” he finished with a chuckle, though it immediately dies as he pays attention to how Mystake glances at Harumi.

  The hooded lass stands up, pulls the crystal out from beneath her cloak, and carefully hands it to the old witch. With a bow of her head, she moves to the door of the kitchen and settles herself there, guarding the only way in and out of the room.

  “May I entertain you with a secret, Mr. Walker?” asked Mystake as she knocked on the side of the large gem on her palm.

  Both Nya and Jay gape at the peculiar item changing its appearance, from nothing to wild colours sprawling about.

  Overlaying each surface of the crystal are images of the world; be it of mountain tops, the dark sky with the bright moon and stars, the shy sun hiding behind mountains, or the busy streets of the ruined market they fled from.

  Tiny scratches are evident on some sides, but that’s all that shows the imperfection of the crystal itself. One corner at the top is chipped, having gone through clashes and clumsy care, serving as a reminder of its long lifetime. It smells like the wardrobe of Jay’s parents: dust.

  How on earth does a crystal smell?

  Nya furiously rubs her eyes and gawks at the busy streets of Jamanakai on the left side.

  “I presume your captain never told you of its real capability… Hand me Kai’s matchbox, dear.” Mystake opens her palm at Nya’s churned up face.

  “What the fuck —? Ugh. I don’t care anymore,” grumbled the noirette before shoving her hand in her pocket and placing the metallic box to her nanny’s palm. “Be gentle with it.”

  Without a warning, the older one pushes the lid open, causing Jay to nervously skidaddle away from his seat and slip to the ground like an electrocuted worm.

  “The Talking Crystal was coordinated for its holders to keep in touch with one another with their tongues indeed, but use it alongside fire ignited not by nature…” she let the match slip off her fingertips and into the map of the world as Jay and Nya shriek.

  “It reveals an otherworldly power.”

  The match touches the picture of the stars, and instead of bursting an explosion, the first sparks of flame get funnelled into the crystal itself.

  In the blink of an eye, the world turns into a different place.

  The walls and ceiling have disappeared, and so did the interiors of the kitchen as what replaced them is a expanse of darkness and light.

  Both Nya and Jay are awed at the sight. They’re both touching the ground, but as they stumble on their feet, they notice that they’re standing on what appears to be water.

  It is dark where they are, but the twinkling stars and the bright full moon displayed in the dim sky are brighter than they’ve ever seen.

  Nya would freak out and ask where she is if she wasn’t tipsy at the moment, instead, she takes her time admiring the beauty of the place.

  “Woah,” she heard Jay gasp.

  A snap of Mystake’s fingers force them to blink their eyes. They lift their lashes up, only to find out they’re back in the untouched kitchen with Mystake and Harumi.

  Was that real?

  “That was mere illusion,” confirmed Mystake, “but with strong enough flames and with the right crystal, you may venture wherever within the cosmos in no more than a second. In this world of greed, it’s perilous! That is why it is forbidden.”

  Nya lets her body drop back to the chair with a hand on her temple. She’s still stunned, and it seems Jay is too.

  He’s completely frozen on the spot.

  The noirette glances at the matchbox on the table. “Wait… you knew it could do that?” The nod she earns adds to her marvel. “What more do you know?”

  Mystake doesn’t seem fazed by her questions. Her relaxed hands leisurely pushes the used match back to the case. She eyes the designs on it, recognizing the drawings to be petunias. “I had done it without my intention to look into your identities when I barely grazed the fingertips of your brother. He handed me his coin pouch, and a deafening sound for help had struck upon me, and I felt something of extra ordinance.” Her thumb traces the flower petals. “I can only tell that much. I have told no one, not that I see a good reason why I must.”

  Nya reaches for the silver, eyes deep into the mind of her own. “You know everything, our true selves, the curse, his last swim — all of it?”

  She nods.

  The mermaid can only gawp at her. “Shiver me timbers.” Well this makes her more worried. “Then about the crystal, would that not mean Kai can…”

  Mystake raises her chin then as she delights the noiret with an answer. “Aye, a reason why we mustn't worry of leaving them, in fact, he’s got the much more dangerous one.”

  “But he surely doesn’t know, right?”

  She interlaces her fingers. “Obviously no, but with where your brother is, he will in no time.”

  “You know where Kai is?” Jay asked, now recovered.

  “I’m literally the nanny of the Smiths. I keep my eyes on where these darned brats are engaging troubles,” sassed Mystake while giving the crystal back to her aid. “Ofcourse I know where he is.”

  “In the castle?”

  “Blasphemy, he’s nowhere near the damn castle!”

  “Then where…?”

  She fondly smiles at the two sailors.

  “Kai is in a place where he should be.”

  Murmurs.

  Distant murmurs.

  Laughters…

  Children yelling…

  And whispering echoes of waves.

  Like crying whales.

  He scrunches his closed eyes. Laziness fights over him as consciousness slowly dives into his body and mind.

  What is that noise?

  His eyelids are heavy.

  His head twitches as he subtly opens his eyes. Through his lashes, he sees colours of blue. He mindlessly stares at it, completely dazed while considering going back to sleep. A long second passes, and finally he pulls the energy to widen his eyes and groggily push himself up in a sitting position.

  That motion oddly felt heavy.

  Like some kind of pale force was holding him back.

  Kai drifts his eyes down, now finally brought to full wake to properly gaze at his own incredibly red tail.

  Holy shit.

  Tension wraps him.

  He snaps his eyes everywhere in the small empty room while bringing a hand up to his neck. His pendant is still with him, intact and untouched, but there are no three lava stones on where there should be.

  Just before he could feel panic take over him, his eyes land on the nightstand beside the leaf covered bed he’s sat on.

  He finds his own choker right there neatly placed on a stone bowl.

  Now he’s perplexed. Is he in any kind of danger? Judging by the seaweed wrapped around his wound (which strangely doesn’t seem to hurt anymore), it seems like he’s in good hands — but then again, Kai learned not to trust that easily.

  …Cole.

  Kai snatches the beads and pulls himself off of the bed. He finally remembers what had happened right before he got knocked out by a singular dart. There’s so many questions on his head starting with how and why he’s here hospitalised and fine in a decorated room with a bed underwater.

  Underwater.

  An empire wouldn’t have secret seafolk civilians nor a random room for such creatures, wouldn’t they? Well, it would make sense if they were selkies. No, that can’t be right!

  This is very alarming.

  He has to find Cole.

  That was Kai’s set goal on his mind before courageously pulling the circular door open.

  He squints his eyes as he’s welcomed with brighter light. He blinks, twice, and rubs his eyes. The noises have become less muffled, but they immediately hush. He brings his hand down and at last he takes in the sight of…

  …A civilization of merfolks staring at him.

_II. Picture of Predicaments pt. 2_

2k words

Chapter Text

  Trust is difficult to grasp.

  Especially if you're a critical thinker who finds it hard to decide whether or not they should do this or that.

  Or perhaps it’s because you’re afraid of what may entail you after giving away your trust.

  There’s people who still find it hard to believe what lies right before their eyes.

  Kai Smith isn’t exactly that kind of person. I mean, really. This guy is sometimes-not-mostly-yes-admittedly head over heels in love with a thief.

  This moment, however, after having lived most of his life believing that he and his sister are the last of them still being hunted by their closest kind, he can’t swallow in the sight of realistic-looking dozens of merfolk tails glimmering and waving at his face.

  He’s completely paralyzed on the spot, too shocked to finish comprehending what the universe is slapping him with as he stills by the door with a mouth agape. He’s staring at them with his golden ambers, and they’re all staring at him too, just with a less mental ride than his.

  The merfolk start murmuring to each other, probably about their awakened bloodhood. Kai moves his gaze away from them and starts taking in his whereabouts.

  Mountainous corals of different shades of colours encircle around each other, reaching all the way up to the rocks that seem to serve as the whole city’s ceiling.

  On these fine corals there are rooms stacked ontop of each other, with beautiful stained glass windows and doors, and colourful plants that decorated the buildings elegantly and complimented the colours of the area.

  Are they in a cave? It appears to be, as the whole place is enclosed with the earth. It’s like they’re inside a bubble. The city is also lit up with phosphorescent glowing stones placed almost everywhere, and from the light seeping out from inside the buildings.

  Right across from Kai there’s a big circle of space where there are younger merfolks watching him. One of them holds a ball as they’re sitting on a large rock, he’s beaming a bright smile at Kai like he’s a unicorn or something. Two of them are also staring at him wide eyed, though they look more surprised than happy to be seeing a new face.

  There's merfolks alive, like him.

  There's merfolks younger than him.

  Kai may or may not have forgotten how to breathe right at this moment.

  “You’re awake!”

  The brunet flinches upon seeing another soul looking up at him with a kind smile on her face, brown hair curled to snuggle her rosy cheeks, and tail shaded with muted rose colour. More importantly… Kai looks down at her belly. She’s with a child. He swears he never sensed her before.

  “H-hi,” he barely squeaked.

  “My name is Roise, your caretaker. Don’t worry, you’re safe now.” The pregnant mer’s smile turns into a grin. “You’re safe in Ignacia City where we merfolks live!”

  There’s so many tails.

  There’s so many tails, fins, and scales.

  It's what Kai could mostly think of as the people with tails, fins, and scales crowd around him.

  They’re all pestering him nonstop with greetings after greetings after greetings — it’s deafening.

  The brunet doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, actually, he’s not even in the moment. His consciousness has completely flown off to a different dimension. The only thing grounding him is some random kid holding his hand so gentle like he’d shatter if held any tighter, and Roise who somewhat got distracted with fixing his hair.

  “What was it like on the surface?”

  “You were found in that empire, oh you poor thing.”

  “He is so red.”

  “Are you hungry? Are you feeling well?”

  Kai blinks.

  Since when on Earth did he get crowded by a whole horde in an instant?

  “Oh, we’re so glad they found you.”

  This is surreal.

  “Have you been dwelling on the surface this whole time?”

  They’re not alone.

  “Your tail is so beautiful.”

  “I…” Kai finally spoke.

  The herd immediately hushes each other down, even glares at those who're still making noises as they pay further heed to the merman with red fins. He pauses, and they all wait for him patiently.

  Roise backs off and looks at the brunet.

    “I… I thought you were all gone I —” he runs a hand up to his hair. “All my life I thought we were the only ones left, but no. We're not alone, we have a reason to come back to now, and not everyone is dead. You're not gone, you-you’ve — you’ve just been hiding this whole time! There are actually merfolks alive, I can’t believe it! You’re talking, you’re breathing — I’m breathing, you have a tail — oh my god you all have tails.”

  Kai feels a squeeze on his hand. He looks down to see the kid kindly smiling at his burst of excitement.

  He smiles back. “And you’re younger than me…”

  “Um, may I ask… what is your name, sir?” asked someone splitting up from the crowd.

  The brunet hesitates for a bit, but he clenches his fists and encourages himself.

  “I’m Kai. Kai Smith.”

  They fall silent.

  Kai feels himself shrinking right there, under their wide-eyed gazes and dropped jaws. Some even backed off. He watches Roise swimming away from him and joining the crowd, hands pushed to her body as if she was ashamed to have laid a finger on him.

  Right. He shouldn’t have said that, shouldn’t he?

  They all start to murmur words to each other again, most of which about his surname and how it’s insanely familiar to their tongues, and some of which he could not understand. It was then when it clicked on him.

  Oh.

  My.

  God.

  He completely forgot.

  He was the Viscount Smith himself.

   “Oh, I should’ve known from your pretty necklace!” cried Roise, her hands now covering her mouth in embarrassment. “And your signature red fins! Oh, I can’t believe this —” he reaches out to grab his cheek, but she retracts and controls herself. “You’ve grown so much!”

  Kai lets out a lopsided grin. “T-thank.. you..? I’m sorry, do I know you?”

  She shakes her head. “No. As a mere citizen, I could only watch noblebloods from afar and hear stories of them. I remember you clearly, we do. The mischievous little Viscount causing troubles in public areas playing with other children.”

  Ah. He also forgot that. What a life. The former little Viscount smiles at the memory. He did use to sneak out and play with children who knew nothing of him. At least, no one was scared of him in the lower parts of the kingdom.

  Kai trails his eyes down to her neck, to the three orange beads designed with smaller pink stones carved into flowers. Awe, they’re customized. “You’ve got a really pretty necklace yourself too, Roise.”

  She beams at the compliment. Kai guesses she’s maybe around her 30’s or something. She does have the gentle crinkles on her somewhat youthful face, with pure kindness lying beneath those bright eyes that matched her well-groomed brown hair.

  It reminds him of Nya's noir locks.

  Heh, Roise even got short bangs.

  Nya used to have them.

  Kai’s mood plummets down, and so his smile slowly dissolves as he abruptly remembers something he should’ve been prioritizing at the moment.

  “Cole,” he blurted out the name, confusing Roise with the foreign name. “My… my friend, Cole, I was with him —”

  “The outsider’s awake?” crowed a voice from behind the horde.

  Just like that, all voices immediately drown out once again.

  Kai slowly turns around, to the parting mers shuffling away for a bunch more people approaching him in a steadfast and arrogant manner. Everyone shifts a little away from them as they stand? stretch? Upright? Upright. They also scrutinise him, only before bowing their head and upper torso, astounding Kai.

  One merman presents himself closer to the brunet.

  Kai eyes him head to toe — well, head to fin. The merman at the front has got a grey tail with white streaks on it, perfectly duplicating the colours of his hair, pale skin, dark beard and circles emphasising the droopy shape of his eyes.

  The gang behind the merman look as though they’re shoving daggers at the brunet’s chest, with eyes piercing into his skull as they thicken the tension they’ve given like it wasn’t enough.

  Oh shit.

  Kai just also remembered.

  He was the Viscount Smith.

  The swimming torch of a kid.

  He tenses his gaze at them. He can take them. He’s a merman sailor. He’s been through similar situations dozens of times.

  “You claim you’re Kai Smith?” questioned the merman with dark circles, raising his chin up.

  “Yes.”

  “The one and only?”

  He grows wary. “...Yes.”

  As if bringing his chin up wasn’t enough, Kai feels the old merman’s vision narrowing on him as several eyes continue to gnaw on his lone figure. Should he be concerned? He thinks he should. But then why does Roise and the other merfolks seem so docile? This gang doesn’t seem docile. Oh, neither is Kai though.

  The brunet inches backwards, still keeping his glare tight onto the older merman’s.

  The other travels his eyes on Kai from head to fin, copying what he had done at first. 

  He lifts his hand.

  Kai flinches.

  “It’s a pleasure to have you back, Lord Smith,” said the older merman with the kindest smile Kai did not expect from the guy himself, and bowing himself once again much longer. The others copy him.

  Oh. Kai internally laughs at himself. “Oh, uh…” He rubs his nape, ears burning as he did. He wants them to stop that. Wouldn’t asking that be rude though? He doesn’t even remember the basic etiquette! “Thank you. You can just call me Ka —”

  “How is it going with your family, My Lord? Are they well? Surely you must’ve escaped with them.” The older merman straightens himself. He sees Kai's smile falling as the brunet's eyes slowly drift away to the side.

  The mood drops.

  "Oh," The grey merman exclaimed right before being nudged on his side. "I terribly apologise."

  Kai holds up a hand and shakes his head with a faint smile. "I have my sister with me, she's fine, and she's surely in good hands at the moment," he said.

  A small wave of relief visibly ran into the older merman. He glances at the merfolk still circling around and intently watching them. With a pressed smile, he sighs, “how about we take this to a place with much less company?”

  It wasn’t exactly a question, by the tone and him not being given a moment to answer before seeing the group of merfolks turning their backs around.

  Kai nodded bye at Roise and trailed after the group as he waved at the people greeting and welcoming him once again. It made him feel content. And shy.

  It made him feel complete.

  As he swims his way through the small city, he couldn't help but to be mesmerised and gape at the structures.

  He guesses he probably looks like a toddler seeing the world for the first time or something. Quite the same taste of experience as when he first looked around Jamanakai City while wobbling his springy legs and trying not to let go of his baby sister cargo. He remembers how amazed he was of the city he’s apparently grown tired of.

  Now this place resembled his home so much it's bittersweet. The architecture is similar, and plants are everywhere just like how it was. The ground, they’re also coloured with corals and reef sharks. There's buildings up above where they can reach, you can't see anything like it on land.

  Ignacia City.

  Kai bitterly chuckles to himself, it's literally named after the place they used to live in.

  Ignacia.

  Which brings him to a wonder.

  “Everyone is welcome in this city,” said the grey merman as they passed through tall pillars of coral, right behind the other mers excitedly gossiping with one another. “Well, by everyone I mean all mers.”

  “You’re… not going to dispose of me?”

  “Dispose of you?”He laughed. He immediately stops himself and apologises. “You are of nobility, perhaps the only one ever in these waters! It would be foolish of us to dispose of you for you have been in the outside world for too long. That, I also apologise, for having spent too much time to find you.”

  That still doesn’t relieve Kai. Do they know? Surely they do. He parts his lips to mention it, but the brunet shuts up. Too scared to know.

  Neuro suddenly sighs. “...I assure you we can not. Even if we wanted to, we’d rather obey the sovereign ruler at all cost.”

  Kai snaps his brows together. “Sovereign ruler?”

  “Oh, we’re subjected not to speak of her.”

  “But you just —”

  Next thing Kai knows, he's already inside the town hall.

  "So you're that cursed kid who burns and all that? Like volcanoes?" Asked a mermaid with a freakishly green tail.

  "Tox…"

  Alongside the group of merfolks, Kai is sitting across a wide and massive stone table. Atfront of him there lies a plate full of food he's forgotten the names and tastes of.

  "Like, the real one everyone was outrageous with?"

  "Tox."

  Kai shoves his mouth with it. An excuse to not talk back to the bitch. It tastes watery.

  "Homeboy, you got the whole ocean coming for your sweet red bullocks!"

  "Tox, that is not how you speak to the viscount!"

  “Is he even still the vi —”

  Resembling a chipmunk with full cheeks, Kai glares up from the food to the face incredibly close to him.

  "How are you alive?" Asked this Tox girl with such bitterness, right before being whipped out of the table by a big dude with huge metal arms.

  Tox continued staring at him like some sort of worm she stepped — crushed on or something.

  Kai gulps down the food and intensifies his glare at the table, he strongly refrains himself from judgmentally eyeing her. He almost did it after hearing her scoff.

  "I sincerely apologise on her behalf," nervously chuckled a man with coloured spectacles and silver skin, "she's always ferocious, which makes me question why she's in the court in the first place — but you'll get used to it, Lord Smith."

  "Just call me Kai."

  "Oh um, okay… Kai."

  The brunet smiles at him. He reminds him of Lloyd.

  The grey merman clears his throat. He was sitting at the other end of the table the whole time. "Ah, this is rude of me, how could I forget? Please, allow me to introduce ourselves," the merman said before straightening himself off the chair.

  "My name is Noah Pathis, although you may refer to me as Neuro.” He proudly places a hand on his chest as he introduces himself. “I assist the higher positions, I as well am the backbone of this council, and what I do is to prevent chaos being ensued by this… this council…” he trailed off, momentarily dazing off.

  He motions a hand to the merman with glasses, the one Kai had just spoken to.

  "His name is Mr. Pale, the mer incharge of bringing light to our city, well, on the technicality stuff that is. And head of medicine. He patched up your bullet wound."

  He points at the three mermen lined altogether on one side. First one has a large build and metal arms; the second is also wearing spectacles, and has a tail so white it’s emitting light; and the last one stands out a lot to Kai, he has grey skin and a tail as dark as the shadows. "Karloff coordinates the labour works and agriculture by himself. He claims his work is a breeze. And Griffin and Shade, the mers leading the expedition group. Brave men indeed."

  Karloff and Shade nod their heads to Kai. The brunet awkwardly nods back.

  Griffin only smugly winks at him and offers a hand to Kai, only for it to be poorly slapped by Karloff. He cries under the table.

  Then, Neuro points at the other mers sitting at the other side of the table. One of them is wearing a large maroon turban with some golden studs on it.

  The mer beside him has grey tousled hair, he appears to be around his adulthood just like the others, though his face is world weary — he’s also playing with what seems to be smoke coming out of a tube (Neuro glares at him for that).

  The guy slumped down in between them also has a large build, he even has a large amount of hair for a beard that matched with his brown shaggy hair.

  “Gravis, Ash, and Bolobo. They lead the bulwark team to make sure to keep Ignacia’s disguise and the currents intact. They mostly stay in the open waters and surface.”

  Currents? Disguise? Kai guesses the place must be hidden from plain sight.

  Neuro glares at Ash’s smoke one last time before moving his attention to the mermaid who’s no longer there. “And finally, we have Tox — where’d she go?”

  The sound of the doors slamming shut rings right then.

  “Shall I follow her?” The Gravis guy asked, pointing a finger at the closed doors.

  Neuro shakes his head. “I believe we must let her be.”

  “Is she really like that or does she hate me?” Kai asked. He timidly takes a small bite of his really watery food. It’s like dry soup or something. It’s weird.

  Griffin violently pushes Mr. Pale (who shrieked in surprise) out of his seat and steals it. He leans closer to Kai. “It’s kind of both, actually.”

  “Both?”

  “Ah, Tox is feisty indeed, but oh should you have seen her rage the first days we found her. Was like taming a dolphin!” the merman began, ignoring Mr. Pale’s complaints and vents of his ‘damned rash son of a bitch behaviour you suck ass’ being before sulking between Karloff and Shade.

  “Day of the End really took a toll on her, you see.”

  Kai flutters his lashes as he blankly stares at Turner’s face. It’s like his first days on land all over again. Everything’s foreign and there’s so much he has to catch on.

  He slowly glances over at Neuro as he repeats, “Day of the End?”

  The mood of the whole table shifts.

  “What is that?”

  Neuro sighs as he adjusts himself on his seat. He contemplates at first, observing Kai as he did and interlaces his fingers.

  The brunet looks around, quite anxious of the sudden change of waters.

  After a short moment of silence, the grey merman breathes in and clears his throat.

  “Of course we address this early on,” he deeply grumbled. “The glows were at its climax, bestowing the waters with the brightest light as it was the celebration of her royal highness’ day of birth. All mers were invited to the grand party, and festivity took place for several days to commemorate the countdown of the year… It was the day everyone was looking forward to,” told the merman as carefully as he could. He locks eyes with the red merman.

  “Including the finnfolk.”

  And so Kai finally hears the end of it.

  “Her Royal Highness was walking down the aisle, with the eyes of all merfolks brought to her elegant figure as she slowly laced her way toward the throne that glimmered above. The throne was being illuminated by a ray of light, everyone claimed, so when the princess had reached the high ground, she was brighter than ever. It was said that her natural pristine white hair were fragments of the surface sun.

  It was like the gods were proudly presenting her.

  It was a magnificent sight.

  but then just as she stood proud in front of her family and kind… without a warning, blades struck out of her chest.

  Everyone had stopped moving there, and before everyone knew it, the finfolk emerged from behind..”

  “Kai, you were there.”

  Everyone was gathered around in the castle grounds indeed, so as everyone thrashed around and relentlessly pushed everyone away to flee for their lives, Kai had gotten himself lost from his parents’ grasp.

  He was petrified, alone, and confused with everything that was going about through the various colours of tails pushing him everywhere.

  He saw creatures he’s never seen before annihilating everyone. He saw guards murdering their own fellows. He even saw his own kind pointing fingers at those with the royal blood, and them being tortured in the most preposterous ways possible.

  He had seen his own kind pointing fingers at him.

  Ofcourse, seeing the foreign creatures and the merfolks advancing toward the young boy alerted him, so he swam deep into the castle all by himself.

  On the spur of the moment, someone had grabbed him away from the crowd and brought him to a dark room where there was nothing but darkness. An old merman in rags told him of his potential.

  “Everyone was separated. Away from the people we could only rely on, from our families and friends! And in those short moments of separation it had induced so much horror to everyone. And we were already swimming in the blood of our own kind —

  The metallic scent as we scurried away.

  We… we were in it.

  That short moment of separation had just automatically meant at least one life being brought to instant death.

  The finfolk having the advantage over us was already one thing, but our own kin have turned themselves in and betrayed those who we thought we could trust our lives with.

  I remember as I was escaping, all I could see was the dead bodies filling the red ocean.

  It was all and nothing else.

  Nothing was left in Ignacia.”

  Kai swam away from the kingdom and never looked back since then, petrified, confused, and with no one to turn to for when he needed them. He had to forcibly cover Nya’s mouth from sobbing as he pushed his tail away from the ocean of blood, blinking the pinching sensation and aquamarines out his eyes as his lungs continued to burn continuously. He also had to forcibly bite his own lips ‘till they bled to be silent. His curse was reacting, and his heart was sinking.

  And that kept on for the several days and nights he took swimming for the nearest shore. Those days were short however, for he was still on the first strides of his escape, stuck in that castle where he left Ray and Maya screaming on their deathbed.

  Nya’s cries were loud against his palm.

  The ringing on his ears were also loud, and so were his heartbeats while his breaths begged for him to stop.

  Maya and Ray’s cries were loud.

  They were so loud.

  “We all lost someone from that day. Tox was no exception.”

  “And she’s still mad about it.”

  Kai brings his eyes to meet with Neuro’s, abruptly stopping himself from digging his nails on his own skin he hadn’t known he’s been doing for a moment, he didn’t even notice the pendant faintly scalding on his bare skin. He ignores the looks the others have sent him. His face remains calm, he’s been good at that.

  “Well, it’s beyond question why we call it the Day of the End” Neuro shifts in his seat. With a sigh, he heavily slumps his shoulders. For a second it seemed like his white hairs grew. “All because of some stupid prophecy…”

  The topic ends there, and the merfolk group immediately change the waters by talking more about themselves, the city, the community, and how they won’t sell out Kai to the other seafolks out there just because he’s the supposed real deal, which helped confirm Kai that they actually knew about his shit.

  Kai can only muster up forced smiles and nods for responses, unable to bring himself to push his voice back out of his throat; it’s like they’re stuck there.

  He can’t exactly focus on the conversation either. When they’d laugh, he’d awkwardly laugh too. When they’d ask him if he gets them, he’d just go “Ooooh… That’s nice.”

  It wasn’t nice.

  The food, he means. But it doesn't taste bad or anything, it's just that the earlier story had made the taste turn salty or something. He hates it. He hates how much his chest is tightening.

  Another thing he absolutely hates is the prophecy.

  Whoever wrote that shit can burn to hell.

_III.Tails, Tells, and Tales_

4k words

Chapter Text

  Some days prior…

  “I have a question.”

  “You always do.”

  “No I mean”— Jay scoffs at Zane —”About the crystal.”

  “Be specific, gingerbread, there’s millions of crystals to talk about.”

  Jay raises a hand to slap Lloyd in the face and continues his hand through his ginger locks instead.

  The blond only snickers as he busies himself on the helm, with his eyes glued on the ugly scribbled lines and shit on a chart. It’s really hard to distinguish the picture, somehow, for a map. He tells himself to never let Kai do the job to draw anything again.

  “The enchanted crystal. Why was it created when it’s only to be tightly locked up with tight security in some empire in the first place?”

  “Didn’t Mystake say it was created to communicate and that’s it?” Nya commented beside Lloyd. She’s assisting the captain with comprehending the drawing, with her face all churned up.

  Zane lays his back on the fence with crossed arms. “Do ye know, Lloyd?”

  “Hmm… From what I remember, the first keepers were lovers who dearly missed each other the moment they were separated.” He shrugs. “That’s as far as I can go. Better ask Mystake if ye want a whole take.”

  Nya glances at her back. She shifts closer to the blond and loudly whispers, “Are we sure we can talk about this here?”

  Lloyd frowns. “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “Isn’t it sensible to lay low if we’re possessing such a thing?”

  “Well, yes.”

  “Then why “— She points a finger behind and tilts her head, only to be jumpscared by a tall figure right on their backs —“is he heRE FUCK!!” She throws a savage punch at the man’s face.

  Ronin stumbles back, dodging in the last second.

  Everyone gapes at Nya.

  Nya gapes at Ronin.

  Ronin blinks, stifles a laugh, and suddenly the whole deck is filled with a burst of manly belly-laughters that It's offensively loud.

  All eyes are on the wheezing guy, silently watching him try to recollect himself and continuously fail at it.

  Nya hasn't moved a muscle.

  “Blast, that was gold!” Ronin barely wheezed, followed by more laughs. “Ye should’ve seen your fa —”

  “Y’know, you can tell me if you want him out that bad.”

  “Like, walking the plank?”

  “Like walking the plank.”

  Pixal ponders about it as she avoids gazing at the sight of Ronin glaring at the gang with a cloth stuffed in his nose and an ugly scratch on his cheek.

  They’re all currently gathered on the stairs, and Ronin is grumpily sitting on it with his chin resting on his palm and his bottom lip jutted out. Nya is standing the farthest away from him, neither of them on good terms.

  Lloyd sighs as he watches Mystake and Harumi emerge from the berth. “I'm kidding. We’d be waging war if we did that. It’s the last thing I’d want — I mean, what is a bounty hunter doing here?”

  “Yes Ronin, what are you doing here? What of your pawn shop in Stiix?” Zane added. He already asked the night he got jumpscared by the taller man, but he couldn’t not ask again for clarification.

  It’s quite an unlikely scenario to see Ronin on any pirate ship. It’s alarming. Especially if he’s on the same boat as you, it's what everyone outside the cursed ship would say.

  As unlikely as his disloyal ass is, he used to be a part of a crew, the Sanctuary.

  The vessel famously wandered a few decades ago, haunting and lurking in the foggiest parts of the seas. She has not many stories to share, but just like Destiny’s Bounty today, she had the youngest capt’n ever.

  Ronin Kognito was a part of it before the ship sank. Many say the mastermind was he. Reason could be that he’s easily the most untrustable pirate of them all (which says a lot), and that he doesn’t deny the accusations, not only that, he’s got the Sanctuary to himself.

  Zane always thought of it when Ronin would come around with them. He considers it to be foolish, but somehow, the man always gets his way.

  He was always up to no good. Well, his radar has been low these years, but he still might be up to no good, start a mutiny and even take over the ship, store it and put it up for an auction in his pawnshop —

  No.

  Pixal closes her eyes in cringe. She means well, but you know…

  She also thinks about it. Ronin never backstabbed them at all, if anything, Destiny’s Bounty and Ronin’s pawn shop would shoot at each other as a sign of banter.

  …

  But he’s the scourge of the seas..

  “Well, for starters, I heard words of me old mates steering themselves to the craziest idea a pirate could ever have. You’ve somehow overthrown Yang and replaced him with a boy the sea has never seen and not the wrinkly old bone’s nephew.” He sighs. “Said unheard someone got this ship to a suicide mission — but more importantly…”

  “You remind me too much of my dead capt’n, kid,” said Ronin with an unreadable tone of voice. It was his best trait.

  Lloyd’s eyes fall heavy on him. “I take that as a compliment in your tongue.”

  “The world is full of existing make-believes.” The man shrugs and slips a hand under his coat. He pulls it out along with a fogged up glass bottle, keeping the others from seeing what's inside. “She, is all the more a pretty illustration of it.” With a ghostly stroke of his palm, the bottle loses its opacity to reveal a miniscule ship resting on calm, unmoving waters.

  Everyone stares at it in awe shortly before he hides it again.

  “How did that thing get in there?” Nya asked the wind.

  “Shh.”

  Jay’s face brightens upon seeing the elder witch. He vigorously skips to her way like a small toddler, his hair bouncing as he does so. “Mystake, I’ve a question!”

  “You always do.”

  “I —”

  Zane stifles his laugh.

  Nya’s stern face even breaks into a smile, silently giggling at her nanny purposely teasing the shit out of the stammering ginger. She snorts at his high pitched screech.

  “I’m just curious as to why a forbidden crystal was created in the first place. Like, honestly, forbidden, how did that not ring a bell?”

  Mystake calmly proceeds herself upstairs with her aid and the sailor following after her. “Haul the net and I’ll bitch the pot,” she said by the time she reached the quarter deck.

  Lloyd blinks.

  They just departed yesterday.

  Everyone turns to look at the captain of the Bounty, who is too perplexed to comprehend fast upon hearing the unexpected.

  Haul the net? Again?

  There’s no way they’re…

  A nudge to his side brings him back to his senses. He turns to face the deck, and that is only when he takes in the eyes relying on him.

  Looking back at them as he’s swimming deep in his thoughts; thoughts about possible reasons behind hauling the net for the second time; thoughts about the weighing responsibility of a pirate captain and what one must do; thoughts about the upcoming storm waging in; and thoughts about Ronin’s staring that irks him off good riddance can he please look away —

  The hands of a pirate captain are of great power. One mustn’t dare to do much if they have zero idea of the reason behind what they’re doing, unless they’re insane enough to welcome death, or overly confident. Lloyd is pretty much that at the moment (minus the death part), and as the current captain of Destiny’s Bounty, it seems bad in hindsight.

  Sailing along waters he doesn’t know of is and will always sound ridiculous, or at least, in his perspective.

  But it’s Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon we’re talking about here, and Rocky. The latter’s course is the one that twists things.

  A sigh. He looks down at the emerald his mother had given him last time he saw of her. He’s been having it tied to his palm this whole time.

  Second day without his first mate and he’s already stressed.

  He’s already prepared for whatever the gods will throw at him, he’s amazing like that. So, he continues to swim among these strange tides with a single command.

  “Call Dareth.”

  Tik tok, tik tok, tik tok, tik tok…

  “Back in my days, creativity and wit were the greatest strengths of pirates.”

  “It was proven long ago when a pirate in her youth was gazing upon the land she be sailing away from. She waved her hand as she held on the braces, bidding her lover on land goodbyes with the fondest smile on her face. Oh, not even minutes have passed since the sail did she already miss her dear. The string of cupid’s arrow, I say it’s a curse.

  The crew didn’t like the sight of her hanging the jib, so they tried what they could, gave her wilted flowers, even their share of food and their randomest possessions. Ah, they even let her steer the helm which she always loved to do.

  But none could bring her alight! She just dearly missed the presence of a man.

  Suddenly, it was during the sail did she bestow the ship with the brightest radiance ever. She had an idea, a brilliant and hilarious one that made everyone think she had gone out of her head, but that did not stop ‘er from sharing it with him the next time they crossed paths.

  And she did.

  Enthusiastic she was, she told him of how they could keep in touch just by thinking of each other and glancing down to a stone bigger than their palms.

  Ofcourse, the lover agreed, who would’ve expected not, and with their wealth they called everyone and everything needed to create such a thing.

  They were simply first called The Crystals.

  All hands were on deck. Preparations were done, and the first stone was finally laid.

  It took hard work, it did. Putting the pieces together was fraught with danger, so everything had to be done accordingly and carefully like delivering a new born babe.

  Everyone’s done their best, ooh you've no idea how delicate it was, so the sudden disturbance out of the blue had caused the biggest rage of ‘em all!

  It was during the enchantment on the last piece did things go south. Greedy mates have barged in demanding the crystals with forces as harsh as hungry beasts. Bollocks to them have they known they were moments too early.

  The incantation was disturbed, and no one could ever guess what was bound to happen.

  Thankfully, everyone managed to run away safe and sound, including the lovers and the crystals ready to be tested.

  Everyone was excited for their creation. No one could wait a little longer to test out the stones, so they went to the nearest place they could shelter safely: the pirate ship, their home. And on forth they sailed away.

  At the climax of the moon did they finally make their first attempt. The boy waited from the lowest deck while the girl waited from the navigation room. She settled the devil on her lap, and with a smile on her face she deeply thought of him.

  Everyone watched. No one could believe their eyes. Right before them the crystal suddenly changes its surfaces, from a simple translucent picture to a solid colour transmitting the voice of a man who was far away from ‘em.

  Exchanged words, they did, and confirmed reality by telling each other to meet at the main deck which they both merrily granted.

  No one could believe it would work, not even the witches who were always deemed to be right.

  And so, they kept it, used it, and laid low with it as time passed by…”

  “But then how did —”

  “Zip it, I’m not done.”

  “Sorry.”

  Mystake aggressively sips her tea. “Anyway…”

  “Time passed by indeed, and the lovers continued to keep in touch wherever they may be. However, things changed at one fateful night where the girl was aboard with young witches on a sail to some port. They were all drunk, smothering themselves with rum and what-not as they sang shanties over and over and over again — of course, to be with drunk witches ain’t a good place to be in.

  Spells were being casted, entertaining the vessel with smoke dancing about and palm readings that brought tension to everyone!

  It came to the point they started calling fire upon their palms.

  At one point, the fire shot through. Bolting on its own and racing to the girl’s garbs. Everyone’s hearts sank as they watched the flames crawl around her, but then strangely enough the fire danced down into the crystal itself — like it fell!

  The lass and her garments were left unharmed.

  After one look through the window, the crew was suddenly in a place they’ve never been in before. In the middle of nowhere.”

  “Wait, so they got lost?”

  “Aye, with the ship in the middle of a land so dry that their tongues cracked.”

  “Woah,” exclaimed Lloyd as he sat cross legged on a table with Jay. They’re all currently in the navigation room, feeding themselves with more tells about the crystals in question. “Did they make it back?”

  Mystake motions her empty teacup to Harumi. “Not briefly, we’re talking about hiccuping pirates who could barely stand on their feet.” She flashes her eyes at Jay and Nya.

  “How did they go back?”

  “By scratching and setting the crystal on fire again after having to restrain the girl from snatching her precious back, weeping like a little child. Ah, it took ‘till sunrise…”

  “I find it odd how yer able to know such details of this story, perhaps were ye a part of it, Mystake?” Pixal asked, seated on the chair beside the elder with her hands politely placed on her lap.

  Mystake sweetly smiles at her aid and takes a short sip of her concerningly smoking hot tea. She doesn’t even grimace or anything, astounding Jay who’s eyeing the smoke flying up to his face.

  “I was one of said witches.”

  “I knew it!” Lloyd clenches a fist.

  “We told no one for obvious reasons, words are only passed on by those who lived to tell the tales,” She changed the subject and shook her head. On her deathbed will she ever confess she was the one who played with the first candle. “I’d zip my mouth if I were ye.”

  She continues to drink her tea.

  “How old is Mystake?” Jay asked the man leaning on the table.

  “I don’t know, she literally started with ‘back in my days.’” Zane shrugs his shoulders.

  “Kai will discard it or amuse himself with it if he finds out,” Nya mindlessly muttered as she slumped on the seat beside Pixal. “I wonder about the extent he would go through.”

  “I wonder how they’re doing,” added Lloyd. “It feels weird not feeling the presence of a big guy, and not having to watch out for sudden back hugs from Kai.”

  “It feels weird not feeling Kai’s eyes on my back for reasons I’m not sure of..” Jay warily looks around his surroundings. 

  “Reasons you’re not sure — I thought it’s clear it was because you and I stick together often?”

  “YOU’RE AWARE OF THAT?!!” The ginger yapped so loud that Nya could imagine her face being blown away.

  She snorts.

  Zane chuckles at the two. “Really? I reckoned it was because you and Rocky have grown close.”

  “Oh Snake. My brother, he is too proud of himself that he hardly gets jealous of anything.”

  The group continues to merrily go back and forth blabbering their mouths about the two missing people, mostly about the silly interactions and tensions between the two. It’s like they’ve been waiting to let it all out, completely exploding into the topic. They couldn’t talk about the duo with the risk of being heard by them after all, so they use this chance to point out what’s wrong with them, most notably Kai’s avoidance.

  Mystake and Harumi could only listen. They have not much of a say.

  Tik tok, tik tok, tik tok, tik tok….

  As Nya and Zane relay the story of how Cole and Kai met, knocking on the door brings them to a halt.

  “Fishing is done, Capt’n! Got a ton of sea bass I say!” Dareth’s voice muffled through. “Also got a buttload of scavenges!... and a compass!”

  “Ah, I’ve been meaning to have a compass,” Pixal mused and started to carry her feet toward the door. Zane trails after her, and soon enough the others also decide to join and check out the said treasures.

  Lloyd’s the last to exit, pausing for a moment to jog over to the loud clock that has been ticking the whole time. He turns the item face down on the table and goes out.

  By the time everyone has finally step a foot outside the room, Mystake speaks up, “Now tell me about this island we be sailing to.”

  “We’re sailing to the First Islands of Ninjago, dear Mystake,” began Jay while waltzing down the stairs, eyes set on the pile of junks entangled with large nets laid on the main deck. “The very same impossible to reach and haunted islands claimed to have no worth of riches at all. Capt’n believes otherwise, saying the ‘false’ speculations of the scroll of the first pirate ever is hidden in the deepest parts of the caves there. I really thought that totem was merely a myth until he and Snake disagreed.”

  “The power of the scroll is unknown and there’s little to no tales about it,” Zane added. He crouches down by the net, navigating his eyes around the insignificant treasures twinkling on his eyes, particularly searching for gemstones. “Because of that, many believed it to have never existed. As a former adventurer who’s been through places, it is me conclusion that mythological artefacts are often jinxed. I’m not sure how Lloyd knew, however.”

  Jay shrugs. “Like I said, he knows a lot.”

  “Knows a lot, huh?” Mystake cited the words with a chuckle.

  She pauses on her path, tilting her head to look up to the captain standing tall by the stairs.

  The blond is watching his hearties getting excited with the fishes and items filling the space, though, it seems more like the guy is staring blankly at the sky as he fumbles with the green gemstone.

  He’s been humming a melody.

  “Capt’n!”

  Everyone halts to look up to the mate stationed at the forecastle deck.

  Akita whistles to make certain of her gaining their attention, and points at the direction they’re heading to. On cue, the sound of rumbling greets them, emphasising the approaching dark sky stretching out beyond the end of the horizon.

  “Well hello, gates to that blazen island,” Nya lifelessly cried, both of dread and of courage, “the Tempest Seas.”

  Lloyd tightens his grip on the emerald and straightens his back.

  “Batten down the hatches!”

  And the words echo throughout, along with the frantic grumbles and shouts of the pirates getting themselves ready for the upcoming one hell of a storm. Everyone starts running around, carrying ropes and what-not in their arms and stationing themselves in where they should be. All acting according to plan.

  Lloyd continues humming as he brings himself up to the quarter deck with a faint smile. The helm feels cold against his calloused palm. He travels his gaze at the sails of the Bounty, watching the dacrons flapping against the wind as the breeze brushes against his whole being. His eyes reflect the colours of the vessel and the alarming clouds.

  As the sound of screeches and insane cackles peal to his ears, the pirate capt’n mumbles under his breath:

  “That’s why they made the third crystal..”

_IV. Irony of a Pirate_

2.8k words

Chapter Text

  Some days after…

  “Cloaked in folds of midnight waters…”

  Proeminent stones as huge as hills protrude from the ground, pointing up to the gentle sky as no clouds hover over it. Their tips sharpened and coated with the green of moss, light emphasising the threats of the area, and shadows graced by taller spikes looming over them. The scattered lands are topped with rocky mountains, with red and orange trees hugging at the bottom, and surrounding them are swamps and dark coves.

  “Side by side, we sons and daughters…”

  An archipelago more blood-curdling than the sight of the ship’s head of doom.

  The First Islands.

  Lloyd adjusts the spyglass on his hands, navigating more of its darkest corners all the while softly murmuring a shanty.

  “We set forth for no king's orders…”

  There’s no signs of a walking life in the gloomy sanctuary. A crazy bastard he is, the pirate capt’n slips out a small smirk as he chuckles at it.

  Now that they’re sailing towards his beloved destination, there’s only one thing left to do before he can focus on his own course.

  “When we sail together…”

  The blond whispered to the wind, dangerously hanging outside the crow’s nest with a tight grip on a rope and a single foot on the wood. He lowers his telescope, still his eyes remain on the islands. Goosebumps finally trail on his skin, and it intensifies with the breeze tickling him as the Bounty continues forth.

  Just go forward, and he’s there.

  Just forward.

  …

  Why are they going port side?

  “Hold fast, tides are tur — why in the name of the-first-pirate’s-ball-sacks are we going port side?”

  “UMMM… CAPT’N?!” echoed Nya’s voice from below.

  “Yeah!?”

  “Is it just me or is the ship not shipping!?”

  “What?”
“We’re going port side!” Jay added.

  “Yeah I gathered that, could you try stirring back straight, Mr. Walker?!” The capt’n squawked back, still squinting his eyes at the giant cove they’re certainly not heading towards.

  “BLAST, WE’RE TRYING!”

  Lloyd sighs and finally looks down to what goes on his ship and — well what do you know, they actually are trying.

  About a ton of them are doing their bestest to pull the braces and trying to adjust the unbudging sails. Pulling on a humongous tree, is what they look like. On the helm there is Jay, aggressively stirring the wheel for starboard as told.

  The wind is not strong either, and it’s going against the port side.

  “Shiver me timbers…” was all the blond could mutter before courageously letting go of his own ground. He grabs onto the back stays as he drops, jumping down on the yards only to hop again onto the ratline. “Hold your waters!”

  All busy hands slowly obey, hesitantly letting go of the ropes as they lay their eyes on the descending blond spider-man. The grunts and complaints hush, and so the vessel falls quiet.

  Jay finally lets go of the helm and steps back to flail his hands.

  As Nya and the others shift to stand near the capt’n, Lloyd surveys the entirety of the ship from where he’s standing on. Everyone has completely let go, yet she is still moving and seemingly heading towards the left side of the archipelago. All on her own.

  Odd.

  And… haunting.

  “Has this ship been this wild before?” He heard Pixal break the silent air.

  “No, not at all.. Dareth?” Zane called to the mate behind the crowd.

  All eyes land on the ship’s cook, who only blinks and shrugs his shoulders. “Ain’t got a say.”

  Lloyd nods, still attentively watching the sails.

  Interesting…

  “Have any of you an idea why she’s called Destiny’s Bounty?” He questioned. His eyes tear away to look around in hopes of finding an old granny among the buckos. Mystake’s probably still back down there with her uncanny assistant.

  No one answers, and it seems neither does Dareth.

  He sighs again. “Remain standby on the sails, anchor, and mizzens. Quietly. The rest shall keep weather eyes open,” he commanded as he brought his feet up to the helm. “If the ship strays away from the island, only then will we interfere.”

  And so they heed to it.

  “All on the waves shall know our story,

  Sing of the battles fought ashore,

  We all shall thrive on fame and glory,

  When we sail together…”

  The words barely blew through his lips as the ship ventures deeper into the earthly scented swamp, where lengthy trees are bent over to their direction and peering their heads to check on the entering Destiny’s Bounty. The river they’re onto has quite a harsh current, but the great Bounty remains calm. Just as how the morning sky is still at sight, though it did gradually turn darker and eerie, and there’s a shit ton of insects everywhere.

  SLAP!

  Nya claps the mosquito right at Harumi’s face. The shorter one silently tilts her head to the noirette, right in time to see the other unclasping her palms to reveal the large, dead, and dislocated insect.

  She side-steps away.

  All hands are present on the main deck, aweing at their surroundings as they momentarily dance away from more welcoming mosquitos. Lloyd is still at the helm, ever so slightly stirring the wheel as he keenly focuses on his senses, perhaps even on his guts.

  “Words of warning have been spoken…”

  He dodges a fly ramming at his face.

  “Ancient creatures have awoken…”

  “Capt’n’s been hooting that song day after day,” Zane practically whispered to Jay, wiggling his arm to pry off an insect on it.

  “I noticed, perhaps he heard it back in the empire and got charmed by it.” The ginger shrugs his shoulders. “Starting to get a hang of its tune. Da-da-da da-da da-da-da.”

  Nya fans with her hand. “We’re not lost, aren’t we?”

  Zane shakes his head. “We can always go back out by following this river. For now, we’re just trying to find anything of significance.”

  “Like a temple? We are seeking a totem, right?”

  “Aye.”

  “Or a shack,” Jay said.

  “That’s merely impossible, Walker. How could there be a shack in an uninhabited place like this?”

  “Then what’s that?”

  Zane follows the ginger’s finger, turning around on his heels and checking what’s behind him. He narrows his eyes through the rows of red trees, and well well well if it isn’t a little house with a big sign reading “SHACK” and sharp fences around it. The albino turns to look back and see Jay’s smug face.

  Slowly, the ship stops moving, strangely it is.

  “Ah, the shack of the first pirate. Whatever lies within those walls, we’d be one of the first to discover in hundreds of years.” Mystake stands beside the three with a smile. “As perchance the first crew where lies insane bastards crossing the tempest seas.”

  Lloyd scurries down to them, joining the group gazing at the worn out building with wooden walls bound to break, giving proof of its ancient lifetime. It’s also highly elevated, with two long cobblestone stairs leading up to a single fixed door standing out from all else.

  “Hereby having passed the gatekeeping storm, Destiny’s Bounty brought us here by its own will lest we sail to a different course any pirate would take,” said the tender voice beside him.

  The capt’n shifts to look at the hooded person, who he had learned to be Harumi. It’s incredible how her hood is able to conceal the entirety of her face, no one could even figure out the exact colour of her hair.

  “You’re implying we should enter the first pirate’s shack?”

  “I don’t see why we shouldn’t.”

  “Well for starters, will no ghosts be there waiting to reap us?”

  “You carried us through tempest seas, ghosts should be of no challenge for you.”

  Lloyd raises a brow at her. He nods as he moves his head away from a mosquito flying about. “...Is it the way to the totem?”

  She stops uttering a word by then, and only tilts her head to the direction of where Jay and Zane were attentively watching them from. The two share a glance to each other before looking back and forth between her and Lloyd.

  Tik tok, tik tok, tik tok, tik tok…

  “Shouldn’t we raise the sails?”

  Tik tok, tik tok, tik tok, tik tok…

  “No.”

  Tik tok, tik tok…

  “Why?”

  “Let’s keep her low and not drop the anchor.” Lloyd tosses the irritating clock inside the drawer and closes it shut.

  “Uh-huh…” Nya could only look at the blond in confusion as she entered the navigation room. She silently thanks the lords the cuckoo clock is now shut; it’s been irritating her ever since they first scavenged it. It wasn’t even set on the right time, and they just had it for decoration.

  “And — I apologise if this may seem rude — why are you not with Jay, Snake, Mystake, and whoever that is investigating the shack?”

  “Uh, reasons. Also, her name is Harumi.”

  “Right, I keep forgetting — there’s something wrong, isn’t there?”

  “Nothing to worry about.”

  “Then what’s with the pistols?”

  Lloyd looks down at the two pistols he had just grabbed a second ago. He looks back up at Nya, shoves the items into their pockets, and flashes her a silly smile.

  “Safety precautions. Tell me, how’s your tingling senses been as of recently?” He asked as he passed by the lass, shortly patting her shoulder as he did.

  She stammers, “I — t-tingling senses —? what do you mean?” She follows him out of the room and back to the outside world of mosquitos. She swats her hand around, engaging in a sloppy fight with them coming right at her.

  Lloyd saunters down the stairs on the way to the main deck where the crowd of buccaneers are. He softly hums in thought while bringing his feet to the side of the ship.

  “I have been quite disturbed ever since we set sail,” Nya grumbled as she caught up to him.

  The capt’n turns around, causing her to stop on her feet and leave a big distance between them. “I’m not sure if it died out or the sensation is still there, anyhow.”

  Lloyd nods. “Can I see Kai’s matchbox real quick?” he asked.

  The noirette mindlessly rummages through her pockets and clears her throat before she goes on. “Whatever it may be, I reckon it’s got to do with Harumi — I don’t know, it’s much I could guess but it feels off. It’s like I’m missing the obvious.” She tosses the silver item to Lloyd, in which the blond catches.

  He crosses his arms, tucking his hands below and slyly pushing the mathbox beneath his sleeve.

  “Say you’re by the doorstep of peril. Say, you’re soaking in a lake dominated by such menace.”

  Nya’s eyes meet with Lloyd’s, all the more perplexed as the words go on coming out of the blond’s throat.

  “Fear induces by the first second you dip your toes into it, only if you’re aware of the lake of course — but many moons later nothing in particular happens as you stay there, would you still be afraid?”

  “I suppose it would’ve gone numb.” She shakes her head as she looks down. “I guess that makes sense.”

  “But the menace is still there, and the water is still there… about time you’d ask why it has yet to strike you right there, right now.” Lloyd relaxingly closes his eyes, shrugging his shoulders as he did so while keeping a good balance on his stance. “Could it be waiting, or aiming for something else, rather? In any case, they surely can’t stay idle for eternity.”

  He hears a gasp.

  “Lloyd —”

  “Or longer…”

  The capt’n slowly brings his eyes open, catching a glimpse of a hand close to his neck with a cold thin presence gently caressing his throat. By his side he hears subtle breathing, skin prickling at the presence of another tall figure who he guesses to be feeding his eyes right into his soul.

  “A clever one aren’t you?” purred the man behind.

  Lloyd holds himself back from giving a sour look and glances at the mermaid paused mid-way on grabbing the hilt of her sword.

  It appears everyone’s finally aware of what has gone down, as the ambient chatter from the crew suddenly stops. Some of them shuffle away from them, some courageously point guns and swords at whoever is behind their capt’n. The sight of it makes the guy chuckle.

  “You talk too much for a young man.”

  “I would appreciate it if you’d let go of me, sir.”

  The guy tilts his head. “And why should I do that?”

  A shotgun blaringly loads beside them.

  “Here’s why,” quipped Pixal as she pointed the gun at his head. “Free him.”

  “That’s why.”

  His fingers twitch as he groans, “Like that will scare me to death.”

  Lloyd stifles a sarcastic giggle. “Mister, I believe you’re not thinking this through.”

  “Shut it, blondie.”

  “The clock is ticking. We’ve no time for futile tomfoolery, brother!” Another man emerges from behind the crowd, pulling down his hood to reveal pushed back pristine white hair (dead hairs if you’d squint) and dark marks covering half of his face. He’s got a pistol in his hand, and it’s dangerously pointing right at Pixal’s skull at her side.

  “Drop the gun, lassie. You wouldn’t want to shoot him, right, Acronix?”

  “You are clearly outnumbered.” Nya points her sword with a cocky smirk at the old man. Her face suddenly drops, as out of the blue more figures start to hop into the ship from the outside, suddenly dominating in numbers.

  They’re certainly surrounding them, and Nya feels her skin sending alerting messages to her nerves.

  “What is your business?” Lloyd growled at the man behind him.

  Acronix hardens his glare at the blond, even presses the blade on the skin as he mutters, “Tell us where the boy with red fins is and we’ll let you go.”

  Kai?

  Lloyd draws his eyebrows together, quite bothered with the sharp pressure and dripping sensation on his throat. Why would they want Kai? And what does the merman have to do with these… whoever they are?!

  “You’re not human.”

  He snaps his eyes to see Nya visibly stunned in her position, with her pupils shaking and jaw dropped ajar.

  Not human?

  Kai’s words echo back to his mind. It makes sense now. They’re one of them, sea creatures like Kai and Nya. Merfolks, sirens, and selkies. They could be anything within those three, but as the blond scans the lass’ face, something tells him she’s uncertain with her bold guess.

  Lloyd figures, they’re none of those.

  “Finnfolks, to be precise.” He snickers.”You wouldn’t want to mess with shapeshifters don’t you?”

  “Go home and spare us your childish magic tricks,” Nya snarled.

  Acronix mockingly laughs. “Oh sweet darling, have you any idea who you’re dealing with?”

  Pixal raises a brow. “Have ye heard of Destiny’s Bounty?”

  “...”

  “...”

  “Krux, she got me.”

  The Krux guy exasperatedly covers his shaking face with a hand. “It’s just a name, silver doll. Her capt’n and crew have changed, haven't they? The bloodline is gone, naught is obviously there to be afraid of.”

  Drastically losing his patience, Lloyd rolls his eyes at the statement so far back his eyes turn white. He drops it, and — all in a short second — skillfully pries himself from Acronix’s chokehold, twists the finnman’s wrist, dances away, and whips out both of his pistols pointing at the brothers.

  “I’m not all talk, acorn mix.”

  “Acronix!”

  “Cake mix.”

  Pancake mix scoffs whilst pulling a disgusted face. He hisses in pain as he rubs on the reddening wrist the blond had just pulled.

  Lloyd snickers at his work, as he did, he catches a glimpse of two figures in the corner of his vision. Warily standing a distance away from the ship are Jay and Zane. He meets with the latter’s eyes and earns a nod from him.

  “That is enough! We know he’s part of your crew and if you don’t tell me where the merman is, things shall surely be disgusting!” Krux suddenly snapped, causing Lloyd to pay attention to the old finnman.

  “We won’t be doing that, mate.”

  The oldest turns to narrow his eyes at the sharp blade pointed at him, and then down to the fierce face behind it. Nya squints her eyes upon contact.

  Krux longs his stare at the noirette, seemingly trying to keenly figure out something as he reads into what his guts are telling him of the young sailor. And then, it comes to him.

  “Ah, if it isn’t a pleasant surprise, and here I thought there was only one left.” Krux wickedly laughs as he eyes her head to toe. “Well, aren’t you a sweet, poor little mermaid?”

  Everyone turns their attention to the unfazed woman, even the trespassing finnfolk turn to stare at her lone soul.

  “Merfolks really love to waltz with danger, don’t they? What are two walking treasures doing on a ship full of filthy pirates, sailing across the open waters on top of that? Oh well… Perhaps that lightens my job to save the ocean.”

  “You save your blabbering to your last words,” hissed Nya, deepening her deadly daggers at Krux’s bilge-sucking face, she’s barely containing the urge to just stab it instantly.

  “Hundreds of us will be delighted to hunt you if you continue to cease.” Krux tears his gaze away to take in the sight of the pissed off capt'n. “If it weren’t for us leaving the time blades behind, we might’ve already dominated this ship.”

  “Hmm, yer certainly an arrogant finnman, aren’t you,” Pixal interrupted.

  “We have the time blades,” Acronix boasted.

  “I don’t see it.”

  “Oh, you bitch —”

  “It appears we have the high ground, Mr. Krux and Acronix.” The silver-haired smiles at the glowering man.

  Krux deeply growled under his breath, “You underestimate our power.” He sneaks eye contact with Acronix. The younger one smirks, and it’s all it takes for the older brother to start. “Ten… nine…”

  Lloyd, Nya, and Pixal glance at each other.

  “Eight… Seven…”

  The finnfolk begin to slowly close the space.

  “Six…”

  The breeze blows.

  “Five…”

  Sails gently flapping.

  “Four…”

  Destiny’s Bounty creaking ever so quietly to his ears.

  “Three…”

  The capt’n adjusts his grip on the guns.

  “Two —!”

  POW!!

  Acronix drops to the floor.

  Fatality!

  “Stand back!” Lloyd pushes the matchbox open with a single hand and grabs one stick. He catches his pistols as he dodges Krux’s blade. He throws the matches in the finnman’s direction.

  BOOM!

  An explosion erupts from their area; debris, smoke, and warm air gushes all about as everyone takes cover. The hearties pull out items from their own pockets, fiddling with it before throwing it on the ground as smoke seeps out from the container.

  Lloyd coughs and throws another match at the advancing finnfolks, creating another explosion from afar.

  “RELEASE THE CHICKEN!”

  From the other side of the ship, a door bursts open, and in comes a deafening cry of the Bounty’s chicken. Sparks of electricity fly about as it runs around the main deck, hollering and screeching through the thick fog. The finnfolk (having stumbled on the unexpected) bellow upon being even just a metre away from the hen.

  “All hands to the shack!” Pixal roared as she pushed a coughing Nya to the ladder. The crew responds by flooding out of the pirate ship.

  Krux whips his bleeding head to their direction. He growls, taking notice of their escape. “After them!!” His voice blared through so loud, some spits spluttered with the blood running down his eye.

  Lloyd’s weaving through the sea of smoke with an arm over his nose when he spots a mate sneakily running for the opposite direction. He pats Akita’s shoulder as she passes by. “Take care of her.”

  “Aye aye.” She pats back before disappearing into the smoke.

  Jay and Zane lead the running pack towards the shack, shouting for them to keep running and not look back. The sea creatures hurriedly trail after them, screaming for them. It gives Jay the creeps, so he asserts dominance by screaming back. Nya copies him, and so does a handful of the crew, and suddenly everyone is screaming for their lives.

  They hop over the fence, eventually breaking them down in the process.

  “What about the ship?!” Jay yelled through the deafening noises as he ran up the long flight of stairs.

  “Akita, Dareth, and the others are left there,” Lloyd answered from behind. He brushes past the aggressively panting ginger and grabs onto the doorknob. He pulls, twists, and turns it. Zane joins him. It opens.

  The blonde widens it and steps aside, nervously knocking. “GO, KEEP MOVING!”

  Everyone starts to pile up on the minimal space as they frantically push themselves over into the shack.

  Zane looks back at the creatures as he pushes the mates. They’re closing the gap, and the sight of a bloody Acronix and Krux aggressively coming at them with eyes intent to kill is something he would very much like to forget. They’re ascending up the stairs.

  “Move, move, move!” Lloyd practically tap-dances.

  In no time, everyone’s finally in. Zane shoves the blond in and shuts the door behind him.

  SLAM!!

  Krux face-slaps himself on the closed door harshly. With his blood boiling at its highest point, he pushes himself off the surface and violently whips it open.

  The house is completely empty, only the wooden walls and dust remain for him to see. Not even a single piece of furniture or whatsoever.

  Acronix clenches his jaw as he glares at the rest of his fellow finnfolks. They all look away, shameful and angered at the escapees. He then pinches the bridge of his nose and groans, “fucking twats.”

  “It’s not the end. This just means we will jump to the other plan.”

  He turns to his brother, noticing the lacking presence they just came from as he did.

  The younger brother gawks at the sight of an empty lake. No Destiny’s Bounty. No ship. No trail, rippling water, or whatsoever.

  Krux’s face falls.

  “Could someone light up a torch real quick?”

  “If ye could just be patient, please?”

  “Just light the bloody torch!”

  Tss…!

  “Oh hey, Ronin’s got it!”

  “Ugh, Ronin.”

  The poor old man hands the burning stick to the approaching capt’n.

  Lloyd raises it above his head so as to light up the dim place they’re in. He tenses his eyes, an attempt to see better. Their voices and footsteps are echoing, and the air feels too tight. fresh, and humid to feel like they’re inside a dusted house. As he navigates his eyes around, he takes in the information that the ceiling, floor, and walls are completely just rocks.

  Mystake points at what’s behind him. The blond turns and waves the torch around, there he sees a hollowed, ominous pathway leading to somewhere.

  He looks back at his crew. They’re all watching him, and definitely waiting for him.

  Putting one’s hand on the plow, Lloyd nods his head as he signals for them to follow his moving steps.

  Zane leaves one last look at the closed door. It’s still there, and in no way in Davy Jones' Locker is he going to open it just for the sake of checking how the hell they got themselves here in this mystifying place.

  Quietly, the crew of Destiny's Bounty ventures deeper into the cave.

_V. Shackalaka Boom Boom_

3.9k words

Chapter Text

  Yesterday…

  Right by his feet, fragments of light break through the growing crevices as it continues to loom over the dark expanse he’s in.

  Kai blows the strand of hair hovering over his eye, adjusts his grip on the swords, and readies himself behind the vault-tight gates opening for him.

  From the outside, he can hear people cheering and chanting for him. “Red! Red! Red! Red!” The words resonate throughout the whole gladiator arena — or if he would use the merfolk’s words..

  The Slither Pit.

  The gleam touches his knees. He confidently plays and twirls the katana around his right hand, standing with all his weight on one side and with a face of boredom.

  Don’t let that fool you, he’s absolutely shitting bricks. If you look closely enough in the dark, you can see dots forming on his neck and arms and that he’s breathing unevenly.

  What is he doing here again?

  An exasperated sigh.

  Kai had a dream last night.

  Well, that dream, to be specific.

  You know, that dream where he has a conversation with a voice claiming to be not just any merfolk.

  “Are you certain you want to know what will happen?”

  Kai smiled at no one in particular. Once again, stuck inside a dark barrel with nothing to see and nothing to do. It’s like the size was perfectly made for him, to seal him away from the world.

  “You said I won’t remember anything by the time I wake up, if I recall correctly.” He responded to the voice, fiddling with his own fingers and playing with the hem of his sleeves as he did.

  “Even so, you will remember everything once you’re back here,” she said. Her voice seemed disoriented (like multiple people speaking at the same time) and somewhat bigger and ghostly, but he doesn’t pay heed to it.

  And the merman knew that.

  He could clearly remember every single thing that had happened when he first had a conversation with this strange entity keeping him company. It didn’t seem like she’s there to relay him a message nor a warning or anything. She’s just… there, with knowledge.

  Intertwining all of his fingers with one another and stretching them, he mumbled, “I just… feel like I should know something.”

  “Well… what would you like to know in particular?”

  The brunet pondered for a moment — actually, basked in the idea of who he had just thought about, more of. He gnawed on his tongue before answering, “About my friend.”

  That’s absolutely weird, what happened? Why couldn’t he remember anything from his waking life? Why was he suddenly so… so eager for this person? Perhaps the logic works vice versa here too.

  “Do you mean Cole?”

  He nodded. “Y-yeah…”

  “His destiny meets smoke.”

  “Black smoke.”

  And Kai indeed forgot about it.

  Though, he did wake up that morning with his mind already settled on the pirate, despite having woken up due to the sound of consistent knocking on the door and a feminine voice calling for him.

  “Lord Smith?” knock knock knock. “Lord Smith?”

  knock knock knock.

  “Lord Smithhh??”

  Kai groggily stirred on his bed, face down on the pillow. Just where could Cole be?

  “Lord Smith, the green sea turtles are about to cross, son!”

  He went back to trying to sleep.

  “Lord Smith?” knock knock knock.

  “‘Roise, you can watch your turtles without me,” he inaudibly answered back. He was with Cole when he got knocked out, right?

  “It was an expression, my lord!”

  “...”

  “...”

  “...”

  “Lord Smith.” knock knock knock.

  Kai slowly opened his eyes.

  Surely Cole’s somewhere around here.

  “It’s not common for the city to be this bright and active. It happens once in a rogue wave so it’s a splendid morning, I say!” Roise happily told the half-awake Kai while keeping a gentle hold on his wrist.

  The brunet only nodded with a smile, letting the tattling mermaid take him to god knows where through the busy streets filled with merfolks. The people would tidy themselves and politely do the bow. It still culturally startled Kai.

  “Especially at this hour!” Roise added.

  Yeah, at this ungodly hour.

  Kai nodded again. “Mhm.”

  They passed by a group of merfolks. “Good morning, My Lord.”

  “G’mornihnn…”

  “Ah, the viscount’s finally risen!”

  “Oh no, who told Roise to fetch the Viscount?”

  “I came on my will, Mr. Pale.”

  “Roise, you should not swim around too much. You’re supposed to rest!”

  “Don’t tell a pregnant damsel what to do! Besides, I’d like to stick around with my boy.”

  “Lord Smith is not your son,” scolded Mr. Pale. He sighs when she sticks her tongue out in protest.

  Kai nodded at the three mermen: Griffin Turner, Shade, and Mr. Pale. They’re all gathered by what seemed to be supposedly a coral lamp post.

  “We were just getting worried you might never wake up, I guess you are not a morning mer,” Griffin laughed.

  Cole is a morning person.

  Kai bashfully chuckled along with them. He travelled his eyes around their figures in hopes of finding a pocket watch with them, curious to how long he had slept. Do the merfolk even use clocks?

  His eyes land on a singular scar on someone’s face. Brand new.

  “What happened to yer cheek?” he asked Shade.

  The grey merman shrugged. “Last night was nasty.”

  Before the brunet could ask further, Roise suddenly exclaimed, “Oh, I hadn’t thought it’s already late!”

  They all turned to look at where the mermaid was gazing at and lo and behold there is a large ticking clock displayed in the middle of the city.

  It read 6:24 am.

  Kai’s brows raised all the way behind his face. Even he didn’t wake up this early as a hardworking blacksmith.

  “There is no time to waste. Come, we must tour you around Ignacia City before the feast!” Mr. Pale signalled a hand for the four mers to follow him and turned to swim away.

  The grip on Kai’s wrist tightened as he got gently pulled with them, weaving through the waters amidst a bright city full of lively merfolks.

  He should ask them about Cole.

  “There’s not much to venture around Ignacia as it is mostly occupied by residences and all that, and we’re trying to limit space consumption so we can swim more freely.” Turner adjusted his spectacles. “Although! We still have everything we need such as restaurants, the theatre, the hospital, shrines, the court for plays and cultural shows —”

  Would it be alright to ask them about him? If Kai remembered correctly, merfolks used to be terrified of humans, especially pirates.

  “First stop, the city hall!” The white merman motioned a hand at the building looming over them, literally. It’s slightly hovering to their direction, quite like it's doing a curtsy by bowing its head, or rather looking down at them because they’re too little.

  It’s tall.

  And green…

  Kai looked away from the building and cleared his throat. “There is something I would like to as —”

  “How about we go inside? In here, we discard our archives and discoveries.” Mr. Pale abruptly pushed the doors open. “This is where I found mine and Griffin’s spectacles — and Shade’s chest armour, am I correct, Shade?”
The grey merman cocked a brow at him as he entered. “You insisted on me leaving it, fearing I’d be cooler than you two combined.”

  “Oh zip it, church-bell.”

  Roise happily pulled Kai into the tower.

  “Our Ignacia City’s pride, the algae farm!” Mr. Pale proudly placed both hands to his hips as he generously navigated the stacking farms formed in a beautiful and clean pattern.

  Shade started picking a couple of sea grapes on a corner. “Everyone is free to take whatever they’d like, in return, we offer our farmers free food and hospitality while they earn through charity.” he said before throwing a fruit into his mouth. “And we never run out.”

  Kai sheepishly smiled at Roise as the older one gave him a handful of sea grapes. “That’s astounding. Though, I’ve a favour —”

  Turner clapped his hand. “Ah! Kai you must try out the wakames this season, come quickly!” He immediately sped to the other side of the farm. The two other mermen shook their heads before following after.

  Roise grinned at the flabbergasted Kai and pulled him along.

  “Everyone’s favourite, the park!”

  A rock came flying right at his face, Kai dodged it at the last second. “Woah!”

  Turner exaggeratedly gasped as he tore his eyes away from the rock to its source. “Antonia, you common clione, we had an agreement!” He swam towards a young red haired mermaid.

  Antonia snickered as she fixes the strange machine on her hands, its appearance quite similar to a gun. “Good afternoon, gentlemen — oh, good afternoon, Auntie Roise!” The little kid waved at the mermaid waving back.

  “Good noon, Tiny Ton!”

  She smiled at her, and then looked up to the other brunet who she had purposely shot at. She straightened herself and bowed. “Good afternoon, my lord. You have quite a reflex I say. Congratulations! Smile about that!”

  “Miss Antonia, you don’t ignore me!” Turner grumpily blocked her view, and so he continued nagging at the little mermaid who was absolutely ignoring him as she’s occupied on reloading her… thing.

  Kai took in more of the park as the scene went on.

  There’s plenty of booths in all corners, few of them were already occupied by merfolks; in the middle there lay what looked like a small castle (once again, made out of corals, but with some scavenged wood and metals).

  If Cole is not here, could he still be back in the castle? That’s horrible.

  “Um, Mr. Pale I ha —”

  “Let’s move on while Griffin takes his time, shall we?” Mr. Pale apologetically smiled at the brunet.

  He shook his head and pushed. “Alright, but in the meantime can I —”

  “Great! Ah, let us tell you how we built this lovely castle!” He swam away in no time.

  Kai’s shoulders dropped. He turned to look at Shade, who only shrugged as a response and passed by to follow the silver merman.

  Roise pulled him again.

  And it just kept going.

  It kept going for like, what, the whole day worth of tour?

  He entered residences’ houses, got pulled into tons of gossip, watched people show off their talents to him, ate what was prepared for him, accepted welcome gifts — you name them.

  He couldn’t tell the passing time exactly, the clog on his throat quite tested his patience.

  Kai could literally feel his right eye involuntarily twitching by the time they reached the final part of the tour.

  This last destination also happened to be the circle he noticed when he had first woken up in this place. He never really came close to this place up ‘till now. All he acknowledged was there was absolutely nothing on it, so to say his eyes stopped twitching and immediately jumped out of his skull summed it up just right.

  “I present thee, the gate to the other side… the currents!”

  Mr. Pale swam over to the centre of the so-called-gate. Down below them, one current with an overbearing size was practically calling for Kai to get violently sucked into it, while the other one was as calm as a gentle wave. Thankfully, there’s this kind of bubble stopping the first one from swallowing them in.

  “Dive down and jump through, follow the path and it shall lead you to a hidden treasure; the second fragment of New Ignacia, the Ignacia Cove.”

  So this was what Neuro meant by the currents.

  Turner turned to wink at Kai. “Watch this,” he said, before darting down and through the bubble in a snap. The stream sucked the merman in no time as his joyous scream faded out.

  They all patiently waited for Turner to come back, silently, for quite a long time.

  Mr. Pale broke the ice. “After the grand feast, we will cross over this gate and move on for the rest of the tour. I presume you’re already familiar with human legs?”

  Human.

  “Yeah um, Mr. Pale, I’ve something really important to ask you,” Kai finally said. A gush of determination and hope rose upon gaining their full attention. “Do you mind?”

  The silver merman pushed his spectacles to his eyes. “O-oh, no — anything for you, Kai!”

  He uncontrollably smiled. “Before all else, it was you who found me back in the empire, correct?”

  Shade inched closer at that as Mr. Pale confirmed, “Yes, the expedition team did, in fact, take you in.”

  “And… I was with someone else, correct? Tall, black hair resembling that of the night sky, brawny?”

  “Ah, that — that surface dweller.”

  Both Shade and Mr. Pale’s mood faltered, causing the small smile on Kai’s face to slowly drop as his occupied hand got tugged.

  The brunet looked to see Roise’s worried eyes. “You were with a surface dweller?” she whispered.

  The words got stuck on Kai’s throat. The merfolks are perhaps still afraid of them — well, of any other races, precisely. What would they think if they found out Kai practically became one with these surface dwellers? Oh, he wouldn’t even want to think what they’d do if they find out Cole is a pirate.

  He should be careful.

  Distant screaming suddenly approached them as a certain merman emerged from the current.

  “Incoming!!” Turner leaped through the bubble with the biggest smile and tossed himself into the group (which parts away, making him continuously fly).

  “I just desperately want to know where he is,” went back Kai.

  “W-why? Aren’t you delighted he isn’t here?”

  Of course not.

  “Just tell me his bearings,” Kai demanded as softly as he could, “Please?”

  Mr. Pale was about to open his mouth to say something, but then more voices from the current stopped him from doing so. He sensed more merfolks joining them and tilted his head to search for the city clock. It’s time for the feast.

  Shade pushed Kai’s shoulder towards the city, turning the brunet to that direction in a gentle force. “I suppose we’ll be saving this conversation for later,” he simply said, patting his back before leaving by himself.

  Kai hesitantly glanced at Mr. Pale, hoping for the other merman to at least give him a decent answer, but the guy only went as far as to scratch his head as Turner repeatedly asked what was going on. Roise most definitely wouldn’t be able to give him an answer too, given how the mermaid was surprised earlier.

  Merfolks started to pile up from the current, and they would kindly greet the viscount ever so formally as they did before proceeding to where everyone’s supposedly gathering. They all shortly stared at him. He didn’t care.

  Kai remained idle there, obviously spacing out. Roise and the two others stayed with him while they shared concerned glances at each other, silently wondering if the brunet was okay.

  The crowd soon lessened in numbers. Voices started to silence. A strange sense of attachment and yearning wrapped his stomach. His feet weren’t there, and he didn’t even know where to look.

  Just where is he?

  Kai blinked his eyes, and then he’s in a giant hall with the whole merfolk of New Ignacia.

  In the middle of the place was a whole luxurious banquet Kai was unfamiliar with. Hell, the whole food on his platter passed as exotic to him — it’s what he got for pretending to be human for about a decade and so.

  All corners were decorated with tapestries of different colours and pictures, and varieties of dazzling ornaments reflecting the light coming from the star shaped lanterns giving the ceiling a wonderful experience.

  Merfolks are apparently civilised, Kai learned that as he sat at the end of the astoundingly elongated table, from listening to the whole batch having a singular conversation where almost everyone is engaging in. He’s been in and out of the zone, for he couldn't help but to constantly worry about Cole when he’s reminded of the pirate.

  He hesitantly took a bite of the fish meat on his fork. He also forgot his kind ate things raw.

  While the lively banquet ensued, Kai almost wondered the whole time on how he would approach Shade and the others with his questions.

  The unsaid words were already pricking on his guts, so, when surface dwellers were brought up on the topic, the brunet couldn’t not butt in.

  “I’ve seen them with my own eyes, humans are as horrible as they can be,” they said, in which Kai disagreed as respectfully as he could. He told them about how not all humans are terrible, and that good humans exist such as how there are bad and good merfolks.

  “One individual does not define a whole group, is it not? There’s no harm in changing our… minds…” he advised as he faltered.

  Everyone quietly stared at him, a short moment before bursting out in giggles.

  They said he was funny.

  The conversation simply went on, like everything that came out of Kai’s lips was just a passing wind.

  Kai defeatedly sighed and slumped on his seat, pushing some of the food to the sides with the fork on his hand. Well, there went his attempt on changing their outlook on humans.

  He took another bite of the meat.

  So the expedition team saw him with Cole, and that gives a definite probability that they’re also the ones behind the effective darts.

  “Kai?” He remembered how Cole searched for him before they collapsed, terrified.

  He anxiously nibbled on the fork.

  They couldn’t have hurt him other than that, right? Hopefully they haven’t. Hopefully he too, is being nursed like how he’s being treated.

  But what if they did? No, they wouldn’t do that. Cole’s probably fine.

  Cole is okay.

  He should be.

  God, Cole’s not here to assure him.

  “— Kai?”

  He paid attention to the numerous faces looking at him  — expecting from him. “I-I’m sorry, what was it again?”

  Neuro softly smiled at him and asked, “Do you mayhaps have a say on what we were discussing, Kai?”

  The merman in red fins repeatedly fluttered his lashes, trying to comprehend what he had just heard. “I…” he fixed his eyes around the attention on him. “I uh…”

  A mermaid loudly scoffed from the other end of the table. “My, our guest wasn’t even paying attention after all. A rude show of honour, young viscount.”

  Kai slowly narrowed his eyes at Tox as the others spoke up.

  “Tox! I — I’m sure she didn’t mean that, Kai.” One merfolk nervously chuckled before hissing at her, “Woman, you best apologise right now.”

  She ignored him and went on. “We’ve had centres before, our Karloff for an example! He paid such heed to us and even smothered the whole banquet before sundown! He was happy!”

  Her voice gradually rose, successfully collecting attention from the other tables as she did.

  Neuro vigorously stood from his seat. “Tox, for the love of gods! —”

  “While Kai here is barely even enjoying his food! My, oh my, don’t you have such high standards yourself, Lord Smith?!” She also got off her seat and dramatically placed her hands on her chest with a pout. “You don’t even appreciate our offers!”

  “That is so not true!” Kai talked back, also getting off his seat.

  “Oh, really? Then why is it that all of Ignacia agrees that whenever they pass by you they say you are bothered?!”

  His anger plummeted down, completely taken aback.

  Neuro anxiously glanced at Kai as everyone else exclaimed at what was just blurted out. “Merfolks, settle down — Tox, I will have to ask you to leave this instant!”

  She sarcastically chuckled, “No! I suggest HE should be the one to leave! He’s clearly too sad and too undeserving to be staying here because he’s a baby!”

  “I am not sad!”

  “Boo hoo, what are you going to do, cry?!”

  “Oh, that is so fucking mature!”

  “Well, what I said was true wasn’t it?!”

  “None of what you said was fucking real!!”
“IT WAS TRUE!” She motioned her hand to the whole hall, to the watching merfolks who flinched at her action. “Everyone said the same thing about you being an ungrateful frowning baby, you complete arse!!”

  Tension thickened as his pendant persisted on burning him, begging for him to snap out of it.

  Has he… Has he been like that the whole time? Even yesterday?

  No — no, Kai, don’t let that trouble you.

  “What is your fucking point, why are you so mad at me?!”

  “Kai, Tox, if you could both lower your voices —”

  “OH now you care about others, you self-centered bitch?!” She strongly emphasised.

  “Self centred — I’M the self-centered one here?! I’m not the one who started yelling!”

  Neuro inched closer to the brunet. “Kai please, it’s time we stop before —”

  “I’m yelling because of you!”

  “Is it because I’m cursed?! Because I’m the viscount?! Come on, say it!!”

  “— Kai, I’m begging, please stop —”

  “SAY IT!!”

  “You’re supposed to be dead!”

  It was silent.

  No one dared to move, all they could do was to stop gaping at Tox and check on the other merman.

  Kai couldn’t move either, even after violently flinching at what he was just yelled at — It completely got him fazed, or captured of some sort.

  Dead?

  Him?

  Oh.

  “Tox, that’s enough.” Gravis sternly grabbed ahold of her shoulder, warily glancing at the crowd they have made for themselves.

  But the mermaid was not backing off, in fact, she even went as far as to advance toward the brunet’s direction, causing everyone to holler as she got held back by the merman with a turban.

  “And you’ve got the nerve to utter such words on humans?” Tox snarled through her teeth while being grabbed by her arms.

  Kai unconsciously twiddled his fingers on his scalding pendant, not bothering to pull away from the temperature. His shaking pupils laid on the mermaid’s frame.

  She’s staring at him dead in the eye, with her chest heaving ever so ferociously and arms daring to budge out from the other’s grip on her.

  He felt himself becoming smaller.

  Dead..?

  “Humans are abominable just like any other race,” she said. His ears forced him to listen as he tightened his grip on the ruby.

  “Dare yourself in the slither pit, and see with your own eyes these people you defend. We’ll see if you’ll keep your word.”

  The absurdity may have fully rubbed into Kai by the time that invitation was told. He still kept fiddling with the searing gemstone, and glaring at Tox while he sensed Neuro slightly hissing and backing away from him. The others near him also seemed to be slowly backing off. The water around him was warming. He paid no notice to that. He also didn’t pay notice to the other merfolks shaking their heads, telling him to turn down the offer.

  Tox had just told him to die.

  Most importantly, she just crossed the line and taunted him.

  And Kai wasn’t letting that slide.

  So, after jumping through the current and through the crowd of merfolks trailing after him, he is here —

  In the Slither Pit.

  “Red! Red! Red! Red! Red! Red!”

  Kai stops twirling the katana on his right hand and side glances at the person walking over to his side.

  Tox rolls her eyes as she stands there. On her hands are chakram blades on each. Both are chipped, but still sharp and definitely painful nonetheless.

  He turns his eyes to the other side where he’s able to see Karloff standing straight and nodding at him. He’s holding nothing on his sturdy metal arms, for just those are enough.

  The two are forced to join him apparently.

  Everyone claimed that Kai might not be able to take the challenge alone, because who or whatever he’s battling up against is concerningly dangerous enough the unbeatable foe made Ignacia atrociously rave last night, hence the two having to join him; Tox, for her punishment; and Karloff, for securing Kai’s safety.

  Oh please, have they not seen the battle scar over Kai’s eye?

  The light beams at his face. He furiously blinks at it.

  The muffled cheers are much louder now, and judging by the sound, it appears they’ve got the whole arena covered. He squints his eyes through the blinding light; it’s absolutely impossible for a cave to be this bright.

  The gates are now fully open.

  Then, as he prepares himself for the storm, adjusts his vision, and looks around the open area — his blood sinks at the biggest complication of it all.

  Widely yawning in the middle of the arena with a sledgehammer on hand, is Cole.

_VI. Where are You?_

4.1k words

Chapter Text

  Stunned.

  Frozen.

  Uncomprehending.

  Kai remains standing there. Staring at those precious doe eyes with his unblinking ones humbling an owl; jaw dropped agape and muscles held on, the world drowning out, time coming to a halt.

  You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.

  That can’t be Cole. That absolutely wide eyed noiret who had just yawned absolutely cannot be Cole Brookstone. That well built body and awkward yet bold stance is just identical with the pirate’s. Enchantments are real, hence a somewhat mirrored person can exist.

  Ain't no way.

  He can’t be the Cole he knows.

  He squints and narrows his eyes further at the man who’s equally as stunned as he is.

  The pirate finally moves a muscle, slightly twitching his head to face Kai as his forest eyes single handedly out-sparkle the lights.

  Oh gods it’s Cole.

  Tox violently nudges his side. “Well don’t piss your pants.”

  Kai reaches out only for her to set off immediately. She runs straight at the pirate, who’s eyes lose their sparkle as he throws the chakrams back at her with his hammer.

  Halt! God! Stop!

  “Wait —!”

  Karloff heavily dashes in, startling Kai more.

  Nooo!

  Cole is still busy dodging and blocking Tox’s arms when Karloff displays on his sight. The pirate easily pushes the mermaid away from him. Karloff jumps with his iron fists high. Cole fixes his grip on the hammer. Then, the merman slams down on the handle with a big impact.

  The ground beneath him crack.

  Strong force of air gushes from them, pushing the fazed audience in their positions.

  Then, the arena raves.

  Cole suppresses a smirk as he maintains a stance, not noticing Tox throwing a chakram right until Kai deflected it.

  The arena once again raves, much stronger this time as they all rip out their vocal chords.

  Cole smiles at the brunet.

  Kai’s eyes are practically saucers, and so are everyone else’s.

  “What are you doing?!” Tox yelled through the deafening cheers.

  The noiret lowers his hammer and stands beside the tarsier. “Okay Salmon, ye better speak up.”

  “Me?! What are you doing here?!”

  “Hey, I was going to leave! What are YOU doing here —!” He jumps away from Karloff’s heavy skull breaking punch goddamn what the fuck does he eat.

  Spectating the scene, somewhere within the audience at the podium, there stands Griffin Turner with both hands clasped onto his head.

  “Did Kai just cover for that man’s ass, right there?” His voice came out high pitched.

  Neuro’s standing beside him alongside the others. He’s got his attention deeply narrowed at Cole, who is seemingly teasing and playing with Karloff while successfully living through the chaos… Just like how he was last night.

  He wasn’t smiling, but it seemed as though he was enjoying the fight.

  He’s difficult, this man.

  Last night as he was going up against foes after foes after foes, a lot had caught up on how Cole barely fought back. He was only blocking and defending himself, and that is exactly what he’s doing as of now. The only injuries he’s earned are from when he’d slide on the ground or hurt himself.

  He is no ordinary human. Frightening strength, remarkable senses and intuition, the precision; and how as though he’s dancing his own choreography in this battle pit against a race he must’ve never crossed before.

  He’d only stop defending and fight back when the battle’s done long enough.

  They closed the pit once they realised Cole was doing it sooner than ever.

  That scratch on Shade’s cheek? Yeah that was him.

  Neuro squints his eyes at the pirate. His mind rewinds back to yesterday.

  The old merman was having a conversation with the folks when a guard came up swimming in his direction. The surface dweller is awake, they said, and Neuro spared no time to dash off right there, forgetting a stressed Ash who was in the middle of complaining on behalf of the bulwark team.

  He entered the darkest part of the cove, where metal bars and fire lit torches were lined up. Bringing his feet to the farthest cell room at the end of the corridor, he finally laid his eyes on the awake human.

  Cole was sitting up on his rock hard bed. He had his back turned to him while scratching his hair, and yawning. He turned his head, making eye contact with the merman as he did. A second passed when he looked away and stood up with a big stretch.

  Intimidated, Neuro cautiously backed off as Cole asked:

  “Where’s Kai?”

  He stupidly stared at him.

  Cole glanced back at him.

  “Ye heard me.” He shortly travelled his eyes around the cell and nodded. It’s astoundingly dim, and he guessed he was in a small cave (his voice came out echoey). A pull of his hands. They’re both shackled, conjoined with a chain connected to the ground which is once again made of stone. Never seen this one before.

  He continues loudly pulling on the chain, testing its sturdiness.

  Neuro cleared his throat and straightened himself. “You can not take me as a fool to engage in your queries, human.”

  A stronger tug. The merman flinched.

  “Listen up, mate. Concluding me as a threat is unwise because I, for a fact, am not a threat. Trust me. All I ask is as to where my small friend is — if we ever are friends — so if you don’t tell me his beari —”

  “Neither is it wise if I were to sell him out to the person behind his injury.”

  Cole shut his mouth, visibly taken back.

  “Are you not the cause of his injury?” Neuro asked. The noiret looked away, The merman took that as a victory, so he pushed further. “What is your relation with him?”

  The man was probably just all brawn, he shouldn’t be scared by a restrained human with no relation to divinities or whatsoever.

  The injury he mentioned couldn’t have gone from a mere bullet scratch (Karloff reported they were being pursued by royal guards), and that’s made certain when the other mers found out there were present fibres of magic on Kai’s injury.

  Now, where else could it have come from, if not from the royal guards?

  Where is Kai… Pah! This human must be so desperate.

  He snapped out from his train of thoughts when the pirate spoke.

  “Alright, let me ask something different then.” The broken shackle dropped from Cole’s free wrists. He started walking toward the merman. “And I want you to answer with all honesty like I’m yer dearest son. Or mother. Well, father in this case but ye get the gist.”

  Cole leaned his large frame on the bars, right in front of the smaller man who was backing off. Delightened, he smiled.

  “How is he?”

  “WATCH OUT!”

  Cole snatches Kai by his collar and dodges the chakram flying at them.

  The brunet’s jaw drops. “HEY?!”

Tox shrugs. “Might as well take the chance.” She throws the other one, and the two split up as it flies between them.

  Kai steals the weapon and throws it back as he yells at Cole, “Have you been doing this since last night?!”

  “Well, yeah!” Cole yelled back while holding off Karloff who rammed at him.

  “What on EARTH did you do?!”

___

  Neuro took one last step back. “He is still sound asleep.”

  Cole nodded with a small smile and adjusted his lean on the bars so as to look more intimidating and taller. He internally snickered at the reaction.

  “...Ye have guards, I can’t go anywhere.”

  Neuro glared at him and nodded at the mers. “Chain him.”

___

  “Scared the chief,” Cole giggled, pushing Karloff off of him. “Ya should’ve seen his face, it was a laughing stock!”

  Kai groans as he dodge’s Tox’s high kick. “You brought this upon yourself?!”

  “He asked for it!”

  ___

  The shackle dropped again, and Cole slyly slid the lockpick under his armband, flashing a smug face at Neuro as he did so.

  The old merman’s glare intensified. “What’s your play here?”

  He shrugged.

  Neuro scowled. “Again.”

___

  Kai sweeps Tox off by her feet. “You actually pissed him off?!”

  Cole dodges another heavy punch, stumbling at the brunet’s back in the process. “...Does playing with him count?”

  Kai gawks at him for a second. “I — YES!”

  ___

  He broke the irons again. He dropped it, with his eyebrows wiggling and face displaying another shit-eating smug.

  Neuro and the guards were wide eyed and absolutely startled at this point. Oh, he won’t forget this moment.

  “On the bright side, if we keep going we might as well break my record of nine chains,” the pirate teased.

  “Nine — You are absolutely playing!”

  “That, they said too.”

  ___

  “You just HAD to say that?!”

  Cole ducks his head from a punch. “Are ye not impressed? Nine, Kai! Nine chains! Imagine I get ten!”

  The brunet easily deflects both chakrams as he mumbles to himself, “And everyone says I’m less sensible than this man.” 

  ___

  “I told you, no game.”

  Neuro eyed him, still not buying whatever the pirate was saying.

  Cole sighed but he smiled back up with a tilt of his head. Though his original plan was to get away from this place and leave Kai, he jested, “I’m no jester, I really am staying here.”

  Unexpectedly, Neuro scoffed and sarcastically laughed. “Well, you’re not.”

  Haha.

  What..

  ___

  Kai jumps himself far away from Karloff and Tox. “You have to get out of here.”

  Cole joins him by his side, twirling the hammer on his hand as he steadies his eyes on the two. “Last time I said that, ye stayed.”

  “Cole, this isn’t the time to fool around!”

  “Okay, tell grandpa to not cement locks!"

  “You —!” Kai gasps and rolls over to dodge two chakrams. He looks up to see an overly irritated face.

  “You two shut your gobs, for Ignacia’s sake!” The blades swing back to Tox’s hands. “This battle won’t end ‘till you stop protecting the surface dweller, Kai!”

  Cole slowly gazes at the shorter. “And… what did you do?”

  'Dead.'

  Kai clenches his jaw, with his face darkening and eyes digging into the mermaid’s body. “She yelled first.”

  Tox walks closer to her mate. “You are not holding back, aren’t you, big guy?” She asked, disturbed with how he has yet to bring down the pirate for some reason.

  “Karloff does not hold back,” he deeply grumbled. He glares at his only opponent, who’s looking back at him with excited and determined eyes.

  He slowly marches forward. “Especially not today.”

  Cole chuckles, “This lad…”

  The two bring their feet toward each other. Their audience cheers at them, predicting the impact from just their walk alone. Soon, it turns into sprinting, causing the howls to intensify.

  Karloff leaps off the ground and high up, once again with fists raised over his head.

  Cole swings his hammer at him. He lets go of it, letting it fly. Karloff dodges it in the air, losing his stance. Cole grabs his ankle. He throws him to the other side, again fueling the cheers as he grabs the falling hammer.

  Cole plays with the weapon instead of finishing the game, passing it one hand to another whilst whistling a tune, being an absolute dipshit.

  Karloff scoffs at it. The amount of nerves this pirate is pulling — He loudly groans and charges with a cry.

  That was so cool.

  Kai snaps himself out from watching. He notices Tox swiftly closing in. As expected, she throws the chakrams.

  He also closes in, sidestepping to dodge the first one and sliding low to dodge the second. He grips tight on his katanas, and with a swing of them, he damages Tox’s chest armour.

  She steps back. The chakrams fly back in her hands.

  Kai distances himself and readies.

  She’s been predictable, and surely, he’ll easily dodge them again.

  He uncontrollably smirks.

  But then Tox glances at Cole.

  His eyes widened.

  Suddenly, with a flick of her wrist, sharp spikes with green stains on them flash out from the blades of her weapons. Before Kai can react, she throws it at the pirate’s direction.

  “NO!”

  “What is going on?” Bolobo exasperated from the podium. He’s got a hand brought up to shield his eyes.

  Ash answers him, once again playing with smoke strangely coming out of a tube. “Switch of sides. A pair against an unexpected pair.” He slides his eyes to Neuro. “It appears the viscount is far too lenient for the Slither Pit.”

  “Should we cut it off?” Mr. Pale asked. He’s been nervously hopping on his heels the whole time.

  Neuro turns his back away from the fight and motions at the guards behind them. “This is getting out of hand. Call the slither pit team and stop this immediately before it gets too —”

  The audience gasps.

  Everyone draws themselves closer as the arena hushes. The air turns crisp; hairs on skins arise.

  Everything stops.

  One’s heart sank before loudly beating against the ears of the merman.

  On the ground there lays the sledgehammer with a deeply embedded single chakram.

  Karloff is next to it, retracting and shaking his pulled fist as he fixes his posture, from a punching stance to standing up straight.

  Behind him, Cole is on his knees and hanging his head low.

  Kai’s eyes shake on the human’s back, tension engulfing his entire body.

  Cole stumbles there for a bit, next comes the groan in pain. It barely came out, yet it felt as though the noise stabbed the brunet right there.

  The noiret slowly brings a hand up to his face.

  He winces.

  Then, red liquid drips down from his forehead.

  That was enough.

  Karloff turns to fully face the injured human. He aimed to punch the side of his face, he missed, but he still landed a hit nonetheless. His red metal knuckles grazed on his ear which is now violently ringing, and caused the cut on his head.

  Furthermore, he’ll have to finish the fight.

  His foot twitches to move.

  Scorching, savage heat stops him.

  A big wall of fire roars high up to the lights. Karloff immediately backs off from it. The flames reach out to him. He steps farther back, and trails his eyes to where the sudden fire is coming from.

  Kai’s raised hand is shaking. Everyone gapes at him as the scalding element continues to dangerously dominate by separating Cole and Karloff, circling the former with a safe distance from him; it’s surrounding him.

  It’s sheltering him.

  Kai didn’t do that.

  Without a warning, a yell breaks through the crowd.

  “The surface dweller is brainwashing him!!”

  “He’s a witch!!”

  And the slither pit explodes. Yells of agreement are passed on and people start to diverge into the centre. The mers at the podium hurry themselves down.

  Cole is still being caged in by the flames and his vision is messy, but he can see the people closing in on them at an alarming speed. They’re coming for him. But he can’t comprehend that. God, he is too nauseous and his head is too hurt for this shit.

  Um.. What to do, Cole?

  Can’t think that either.

  “Kai?” he called.

  Yeah, do that.

  The brunet hears it. He wobbles a foot forward, and another. Kai clicks his tongue at himself and hurries toward the dying fire.

  He reaches his arm out to Cole, but his body gets locked by several other arms pulling him back.

  “No, wait —!”

  “Kai, we have to go, buddy!” Mr. Pale pulls him far back.

  “Let me go!”

  Kai shoves himself off of him and reaches back out again.

  Cole is about to cross the fire until the guards also harshly grab him. He winces in the process as they bring him backstage. The pit slowly starts to get filled.

  Kai runs after them. “HEY —!” Karloff holds him back this time. “Wait, stop! I-I need to — He’s not a witch! Let go of me!”

  Cole becomes smaller and smaller in his vision, and in no time does the view of him disappear in the sea of merfolks.

  The circling fire is no longer there. The hammer with the chakram, the other weapons, and the stains of blood remain; all those he can only see somewhere with the numerous feet shuffling all around.

  His pendant has been reacting more often. The prickling sensation on the skin it touches grows the more he gets closer to the gates. His fingers curl, his teeth grit and his heart throbs against his ears.

  Kai just continuously keeps getting dragged away, no matter how much he’d try to squirm away from them.

  The moment the gates of the slither pit finally closed before his very own amber eyes — walling him away from the pirate, his mind chokes him by the neck… whispering… asking…

  What will he do?

_ VII. What da Bear Doin_

2.7k words

Chapter Text

  The current gate is, of no doubt, a beautiful place.

  Although intrigued and in awe if you were to see the one in Ignacia City, it’s still quite horrific. Hence, the gate in Ignacia Cove is incomparable with it.

  As soon as our red merman diverges from the current pushing him out and through the water surface, he’s first bestowed with the sight of the night sky bringing light to the cave through the large opening.

  Thanks to the bright full moon, the water and lily pads are absolutely glistening. In the middle of the large pond is a small island with a gazebo on it filled with flowers of different kinds and mostly of moss. But if Kai is to drift further away, he will see the largest tree he’s ever seen hovering over the gazebo, and its leaves are nothing like any other tree.

  This one, is a pale colour of pink.

  Its falling petals are swimming along with the lily pads.

  The path leading towards the Ignacia Cove itself has stone columns, once again, covered in moss and — whatever makes an ecosystem complete and presented to the fullest.

  Some stalactites are found in the corners, green flecks are mended in their breakages. They bear resemblance to glowing jades.

  Kai didn’t notice the extravagance of it at first when he was headed to the slither pit. He didn't have the time to look around back then. But now that he’s a free man with no one behind and in front of him, our red merman finally got to do it.

  Though, he admits it feels empty without a silly Roise trailing after him.

  Several hours have passed since what went down in the gladiator pit. After being brought outside from the arena and back in the underwater city, he had to stay in his room to be nursed and checked for any signs of being enchanted or whatever.

  Kai had to convince them that he wasn’t being brainwashed for them to completely let him go.

  And although Roise was the most worried, she was the only one who believed him.

  Guards were also stationed right by his door. Of course he’d have them. After unleashing a terrifying amount of fire in the twinkling of an eye, it would’ve possibly caused a commotion.

  It surely must’ve shaken some merfolks.

  Like, come on. He just had to slap them in the face that they are swimming the same waters as the Viscount Kai Smith himself, the destiny’s chosen scapegoat of ninjago’s entire ocean.

  Supposedly dead.

  Hahaha.

  Kai groaned so loud to his pillow earlier when he was finally alone in his room.

  That whole thing aside, he finally found Cole.

  He has to get to him.

  He wants and needs to be there.

  Wait, what’s up with the need?

  He paused at the thought, abruptly halting the music box.

  Uhm… whatever. He doesn’t have to think about that.

  It doesn’t matter because he will go there.

  Ugh. There’s fucking guards by his doorstep, he can’t do shit to them

  …

  They can’t do shit to him.

  Kai vigorously sat up straight when he was in the middle of trying to sleep a few minutes earlier. Hair spiking in all directions as always (although underwater).

  He didn’t bother fixing himself, he didn’t have to too. He just straight up opened the door and made eye contact with the startled guards.

  “Wonderful evening, Kapau and Chope, right..? It’d be lovely if you’d let me be. I just had the sudden urge to have a lone swim this evening. I love doing so — Oh, this is a secret between you and I, alright? You wouldn’t betray me on my back, I hope?” Kai batted his lashes.

  Seconds later he was already swimming towards the current gate after leaving the two bashfully waving at him.

  Back in the present time.

  Kai shakes his head and slaps both cheeks. Wake up, redfish. As much as he wants to collapse and knock himself out right there, he needs to keep striding.

  He looks away from the pink tree and minds himself to transform into a human.

  The doors are locked.

  Kai didn’t think this through. He just stupidly stares at the large doors in disbelief. It’s also incredibly dark, which makes sense for an enclosed cove that only uses light and torches (which are pretty faint as of this moment, weirdly enough).

  He looks around, in search of finding an answer to the predicament.

  He could climb the walls…??? Yeah, no.

  He decides to go around, not before stealing a small torch at the side. His eyes stumble on the fire as he walks.

  Yeah, he’s going to have to apologise about that fire he caused. Right. It’s actually pretty reckless of him now that he’s looking back, especially considering that he can’t control it yet. That could’ve gotten out of hand.

  Well, it did.

  Oh damn. It did get out of hand.

  And look at what happened.

  Kai picks up his pace, not caring if his loud steps will attract attention and get himself spotted.

  He should stop doing that, panicking. Ugh. Why waste his panic on some big doofus? Maybe because Kai Smith here has a terrible taste in men and gets too attached to some pirate for some odd reasons i.e. he’s cute and when he laughs it’s like hearing flowers; i.e. he’s pretty and makes one fantasise about kissing him on the lips and dressing him in white —

  Oh god.

  Kai cringes, fumes, shakes his head, and breaks into a sprint.

  And then when one leaves that big doofus injured and all by himself after what happened because of his recklessness, bad things are going to continuously happen i.e. where will that eye smile go then —

  Oh, shut up!

  Run. Run away from yer cringe, Kai..

  Thud! Thud! THUD!!

  Kai bites his tongue and falls to the cobblestone ground. The floor absorbs his groans and he pulls himself up on his feet, hands and breaths shaking as he did. He looks at the door he broke open, and then left and right. It’s too dark to see in the hallway.

  There’s another door in front of him, slightly open with a small crevice letting blue light touch his figure. Kai hastily pushes it open as he takes deep breaths, entering the slither pit.

  It’s bright in here, and… vast and empty.

  Absolutely nothing. Still, the brunet nervously darts his eyes around in hopes of finding a certain noiret talking to himself.

  Nothing.

  There’s some other doors on the walls, but they all seem closed.

  He gulps down the lump in his throat and grabs fistfulls of his hair. He’s starting to get anxious.

  Now that he thinks about it… Cole was left here with the crowd, wasn’t he?

  No… that can’t be right. He was brought backstage. He saw him getting dragged there — but it still means he was close to the crowd.

  Would Neuro and the others have protected him?

  Is he… is he okay?

  What if he’s not here? What if he’s too late? No, Kai, stop thinking about that. Fuck, Cole might not even be here.

  There’s nothing in the slither pit. He can’t see shit. Oh god, he’s gone.

They called Cole a witch.

  They think he’s a threat.

  What could they have done to him? Did they lock him? Tie him up? Beat him? Knock him out? Punish him? Worse, they might even gone as far as to —

  He runs back to the backstage, as he does, he spots something and pauses.

  Kai walks out backwards. Slowly.

  The door, there’s an open lock dangling on it.

  Hearing intensifying footsteps coming from behind, he turns his head. And so the night changes.

  Cole pauses, once again in the middle of the empty arena with a delicate spotlight irradiating the soft eyed pirate. An orange cloth is wrapped around his forehead, the same colour as his hair tie. His eyes once again twinkle.

  “Oh, Cole…” shakily sighed Kai with a drop of his hands. He immediately paces over to him.

  The noiret nears him, then abruptly stops as the brunet’s jog turns into marching and face changes its demeanour.

  “Kai, I —!” he gets kicked in the shin. “wOAH WOAH! KAI! WOAH STOP! AGH!”

  “You fucking TWAT!”

  Cole shields himself. “Okay okay I’m so — oW! I’m sorry, whAT’D I DO?!”

  “You absolute dipshit, don’t you fucking talk!”

  He opens his mouth.

  “Don’t!”

  He closes it.

  With a deep glare, the brunet takes a deep breath before exploding and beating him up again, gradually getting weaker on each hit.

  “Woah —!” The noiret exclaimed. “Kai!”

  He leaves one last punch.

  Cole puts his arms down.

  Kai throws another soft punch, light as a feather.

  The pirate narrows his eyes on him, on the upset expression on his face; brows deeply furrowed, eyes digging deep into space, shaking lips tugged down…

  “Hey?.. you okay?” asked Cole, unsurely waving a hand at the shorter’s face.

  Kai glares at him, eyes still evident of the emotions behind them. It makes something drop in his guts, he dislikes it.

  His hand gets slapped away. Cole was about to react until suddenly, he got pulled into a warm hug, punching the brain out of the startled noiret’s head.

  He comprehends for a second. His eyes widen, heat trickling up to his face.

  “Did — did I do something wrong?”
Kai shakes his head.

  It always feels as though he’s going to skyrocket when the merman would show some sort of affection towards him. He’s never prepared. He’s convinced they will always come in like a gunshot. He doesn’t hate it or anything. Okay, maybe he hates it but mainly because he’s absolutely down for it.

  Surprised and nervous he is, Cole relaxes his body and hesitantly places his hands on the other’s back. He leans his head on the brown locks, in case it wasn’t enough. Bugger, why is he suddenly so nervous?

  Cole loosens his grip, only for the arms around him to tighten.

  “Just… just a little longer,” Kai weakly muttered on him, voice vibrating against his skin.

  The taller one subtly nods his head. Okay then. Let it last forever.

  He slightly bends lower for the brunet, who’s heels are now touching the ground thanks to it. He also secures his hold on Kai and closes his eyes.

  He’s not going to let go.

  Cole doesn’t really get what’s going on or what exactly caused Kai to be this upset and suddenly need a hug. He doesn’t pay further heed to that, because for now, he’s settled on comforting the fireball as much as possible.

  Kai is… something.

  Usually, the brunet would only be tooth-rotting sweet or tenacious when the others needed it.

  He was there for Lloyd when the capt’n was stressed. He was there for Jay when he caught a cold. He was there for Zane when he got affected from the cold. And he was always there for Nya, as the big brother he is.

  Kai was always there for Cole.

  The pirate just realises it. There’s something about Kai that makes Cole slip out the vulnerable side of him, and when it happens, the merman would turn from a little shithead to an absolute caring faery — like it was his nature.

  Has he seen him this emotional before?

  Cole presses his arms more on him. He doesn’t think he’s seen Kai like this until now.

  It must be that serious then.

  A little sway to the left. A little to the right.

  Careful flowers flowing with the wind, quite like dancing, but as subtle as ever like the loosening muscles of the brunet’s.

  A little to the left, a little to the right…

  It’s either Cole’s heart is beating too loud or it’s Kai’s.

  The night is warm.

  With the spirited fire set at the side as its bright colours fade up to the ceiling, It’s certainly cozy.

  And the guy who’s as warm as the campfire and cross-legged sitting on the floor with him. The living torch makes the night cozy.

  “So most of the time the fire just acts on itself, and on very rare occasions, yer able to control it?” Asked Cole while staring up at the roof of the cave. Kai had just explained everything to him. The fire, his curse and the whole ordeal, and the pendant.

  The pirate was unbelieving at first, giggling for a short moment until Kai made that campfire (which took like three minutes) and wasn’t laughing.

  And at first, the brunet prepared himself to get disheartened and rejected and left alone on the spot as he kept blabbering. But the pirate, he responded… differently.

  He never said anything about his curse being intimidating or any of that sort. His body remained facing him and he thoughtlessly touched him by pushing him playfully. And he kept engaging in the conversation like it was the best topic to ever talk about even when the merman tried to branch off to a different topic.

  Becoming aware of this strange reaction, Kai flushed deeply as his vision turned pinkish with hearts and cupids all around. It was a major turn on.

  The brunet nods. “I-I would just cast it and then it started doing its own thing, that’s why I never use it. Like it’s a conscious living creature.”

  “...that is weird.”

  He chuckles, “I know. Worst part is it literally cannot be distinguished.”

  Cole drops his jaw. “No way.”

  “Yeah! I remember there was this one time back in Jamanakai where I was practising in my house — which was a horrendous idea in retrospect — and accidentally caught Nya’s hair aflame.” Kai grins as he hears a stifling laugh. “Oh, if ya were there to see us running around, screaming like dying eagles… I ducked her head in the toilet.”

  He turns to Cole like he was checking for his approval.

  “In the toilet?” The noiret giggled.

  “I-in the end we — we had to wait until it went off,” Kai said through his own giggles.

  “I-it just goes off? Randomly?”

  “Water or anything else to ever exist unfortunately doesn’t do the work.” Kai wipes his happy tears away. “Ever since then I just… stopped practising regularly.”

  The pirate fondly watches him, eyes smiling. “Your sister must’ve supported that.”

  Kai breaks a chuckle. “Mhm, she wore hats for a long while.”

  Cole looks away, back at the blank darkness. There’s no stars to see, no Big Dipper, which is quite a disappointment but it’s alright.

  The two silently sit there, comfortably doing nothing in particular.

  He doesn’t need the stars.

  In all honesty, he’s too focused on the presence beside him to care about the absence of the stars.

  “Ye mentioned the pendant conceals it?” asked Cole.

  “The worst comes when I’m nowhere near it,” said Kai. “The fire sets without my command. And I get… well, my body eventually humbles that of a heater. My whole body starts to ache, like I’m being burned alive and my skin peeling itself. Apparently, the hotter the area is, the more painful it gets. It’s — it’s a terrifying experience. It takes time for it to be actually painful. In the first minutes I can take it. Haven’t really faced it coming to an unbearable extent.”

  “Though, I did notice the… the time is quite inconsistent. Sometimes it takes days, sometimes it takes a few hours. And… and that — and that made me wonder… what are the chances of it coming in a snap?”

  He shifts on his position and lowers his voice. “...Sometimes I’m anxious if at the very moment it’ll just happen.”

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”

  Kai travels his eyes to Cole, who was already looking at him with the softest expression. It melts him.

  “In yer hardest times,” the pirate mumbled.

  Oh, just how engaging this man is.

  The merman smiles at him, admiringly. “Well you’re here —” he pauses, bashfully looking away for a second. “I don’t get scared when you’re here.”

  Cole holds it at first, but he shyly smiles back and avoids eye contact. He points a finger at his head, in which Kai rolled his eyes before reaching a hand out to ruffle his hair.

  The brunet looks down on his face as he messes with the dark locks, taking the opportunity to catch Cole scrunching his nose. He stops himself from voicing an awe right there.

  “Yer fire doesn’t heal or anything like that?” Suddenly questioned the pirate.

  Kai stops and so does his hand. “...what?”

  “I’ve always wondered how you brought me back to life. Ye know, in the boiling sea.”

  The merman pulls his hand away. “You… you don’t remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  “...”

  “...”

  Kai immediately flushes red and looks away. “Nothing, i-it’s uh… um… I’m not sure how I did that too.” He dumbfoundedly laughs.

  Although quite perplexed, Cole chuckles with him as he lays his back on the floor. “P'raps your fire is that phenomenal.”

  “Yeah..!” croaked Kai, blushing again. He nervously glances at him, rubbing his nape and scratching his jaw before also laying on his back. “I just noticed you’ve been saying ‘you’ more often instead of your usual ‘yer,’ and you’ve been rolling your Rs. It's um quite delightful.”

  “Oh, that.” He crosses his legs. “You’ve been saying ‘yer’ and all that too.”

  Kai flashes his brows. “I have?”

  “Since a long time ago. Was tryna check when you’d notice but I suppose I had to break it up to ya, mate.”

  “What about Nya and the others? Surely they’ve been picking it up too?”

  Cole shakes his head. “Just you — but they’d get it soon, probably. For all the years I’ve been sailing, I’ve witnessed scallywags and landlubbers turn into great old salts.” He nudges Kai’s side. “Yer quite of a pirate now, aren’t ya?”

  Kai giggles at the tease. “Hmm… what makes a person a pirate, exactly?”

  The other shrugs. “Haven’t thought about it.”

  “I guess we do stick together quite a lot.”

  The noiret flashes his brows. “How so?”

  “Well,I did pick up on my pirate tongue from ye, did I not?”

  “...makes sense.”

  Kai tilts his head, using the opportunity to tentatively gaze at Cole. “Do you think we spend too much time together?”

  He squints at nothing, endearingly enough. “Uh… what makes a time too much, exactly?”

  His eyes land on his lips. “I guess, when you start wondering if it’s not enough..”

  “Then we do stick together too much.”

  The brunet looks up to his eyes.

  Cole does the same, making eye contact with the golden ambers he’s always drawn into. “Is it a bad thing?” he whispered.

  Kai can’t bring himself to blink, or spare a star’s twinkle to pull himself away from this moment and sensation. It’s at this moment he gets himself breathless.

  “Who knows…” he hardly murmured.

  Is there… something?

  Is something going on? Or maybe he’s just being once again delusional.

  But…

  Is there..?

  Does he feel the same way?

  Do their unspoken late night rendezvous on the balcony actually hold a meaning? Their bodies pulling each other along within every given chance?

  Is this how much Kai is craving for him now? Perhaps that’s what is going on right now. He should stop thinking about this.

  It’s too terrifying to go down further, as much it feels so good to be loving this certain pirate who is tall enough to block him away from the sun; whose holds always feel like the security he’d willingly cage himself in; whose voice is a symphony itself; whose eyes are the deepest green, which turn out to not be emeralds, but the dark and most wistful parts of the earth.

  Kai looks away.

  It hurts that it’s best for Cole that they should be apart.

  He sadly smiles to himself and flutters his eyelids down, listening to the crackling fire and the echoing wails of the cove, and missing the chance of noticing Cole subconsciously fumbling his fingers to his own lips.

  Would Kai prefer it if the pirate remembered the kiss?

  Nah.

  As far as we all know, Kai was never really the kind of guy to usually consider the consequences of his actions. Smart, but he’s a wreckless twit. There's little to no chance he’d be sorted into Ravenclaw or whatever.

  So, our brunet here didn’t really see it coming that after going back to his room at dawn he’d have to wake up 4 hours later… and back in Ignacia Cove’s current gate.

  Lounging by the illuminated gazebo and playing with the water lilies and petals tickling his sides, with a face screaming TIRED as told by the dark circles and blinking eyes, and with a hair messier than ever, is Kai Smith.

  He blankly stares at Neuro and the others bending their bodies pointed at him as they all stand in line on the gazebo. They’re all bowing at him, silently (Bolobo has a hand on Tox’s head).

  He glances at Roise. The mermaid is with him on the water amidst the water lilies.

  She was the one to call him over, but she let Kai take a short nap first as they waited for the group — and here they are. Bowing.

  “I don’t follow,” said Kai.

  “We all regretfully apologise,” said Neuro.

  “What for?”

  “For having caused you such inconvenience and stressing you in your first day on New Ignacia. We have thought wrong of you, your words, and so forth — and we apologise for locking up and suffering your lover.”

  Kai blinks.

  Kai ferociously blinks.

  “M-m-my — my what? — could you — could you straighten up, I can’t stand ye lot bowing at me like that.”

  Everyone obeys as Roise inches closer to him. “Dear, your human friend was your lover?!”

  “My wHAT —”

  “I once again apologise for what I’m about to say. I never meant to see you together last night,” Neuro added.

  “You sAW WHAT?!!”

  “I’m so sorry!” He bows again. Everyone follows.

  Bolobo pushes Tox’s head again. She grunts.

  “Stop bowing! H-he’s not my —” Kai shrieks in lowercase. “We — we’re just friends!”

  Everyone stares at him glancing all around the room.

  Neuro gapes. “I —”

  “DON’T even say it.”

  “ — “

  Gravis raises a hand and clears his throat. “We also set him free and sent our best nurses to treat him well. We left him having breakfast in the infirmary — oh son of a biscuit, we LEFT him!”

  Turner dramatically gasps and runs for it. Not even looking back as he disappears in no time.

  Kai has never seen a guy as fast as him. Ever.

  “So he is not your lover?”

  “Roise, I am as lonely as this flowerless lily pad here.”

  “Really? How come your face flushed so red?”

  Kai’s grip on the leaf weakens, eyes wide on the teasing face of the mer. He slowly looks at the group listening to them. He turns his face away. 

  Roise widely grins at him, sending horrors to the recoiling red merman. “Could it be? You like your human friend, Lord Smith! —”

  “Moving on!” Kai makes a mental note not to spill beans on the older mermaid. Has he always been that obvious?!

  The merman internally groans as he follows Neuro and the others leading him to the infirmary. He suddenly misses the crew, and he hasn’t seen his little sister since their gig in the empire. Other than Pixal and Jay, did Nya notice this thing early on too? He remembers her being surprised about it, but that woman can be really good at fooling when she wants to.

  Cole is definitely clueless with it for su —

  The eye contact from last night flashes.

  Kai momentarily skips a step with his heartbeat. Oh, God, Kai, oh… you better stop thinking.

  But then how is he going to stop thinking about this bloody noiret when he’s about to meet him again right now?!

  Oh wow that’s a cool bridge.

  Kai marvels at the massive tree roots manipulated to form a sturdy bridge decorated with flowers of different colours. They cross it with the brunet following, and as they do so, he gapes at the beauty of Ignacia Cove’s ecosystem and aesthetically lived-in buildings, pathways, hang out spots, lanterns, and so on — Holy shit, this cove has floors.

  And above them, there is a whole water current. And there are tons of them everywhere. The council giggles at Kai pointing at one with a dropped jaw. Gravis explains to him how it works. Apparently, the surface tension of these currents and floating ponds were orchestrated so that the merfolk can easily work on maintenance that required impossible heights, but then one day someone was like:

  Hey, we want to try that too.

  So they expanded these paths and made more.

   “For a bunch of mers we really do fit to be flying animals, do we?” Ash said as they gaze at the huge crowd gathered around the infirmary.

  Bolobo frowns and looks at Neuro, who glances at him while approaching the closed doors.

  “Parrots,” said Neuro, earning a nod from Bolobo.

  The doors open. Everyone lets the two brunets go first while the younger one is still deep in thoughts.

  Cole is most probably asleep. Kai will just maybe stop by for a while and let the pirate sleep before leaving. Yeah.

  Darned muggot! What’s so bad with the possibility, anyway? Is that not what Kai wants?! Well, yes and no. Both? Neither?

  “The newbie!”

  Kai flinches at his nickname being called by a high pitched voice.

  Of course. a giggling Cole just has to be there being pestered by a bunch of children climbing on him and dangling on his arms and asking him for upsies. He’s chuckling and trying to assure a frantic Turner that it’s okay.

  Another kid gasps. Tiny Ton. “Lord Smith?!”

  They all turn to him, including the pirate.

  Kai timidly waves at them.

  Cole smiles, corners of his eyes crinkling as always.

  “I can be your wingwoman.” Roise leans closer to him. “You won’t be as lonely as the flowerless lily pad then.”

  Or she can just kill Kai right there…

_VIII. What Makes What_

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Chapter Text

  “Have you always attracted children every once in a while?”

  “Hilarious, Kai.”

  Kai shrugs.

  Cole sassily rolls his eyes. What an attitude, but then again, Kai’s got one too.

  He rolls his eyes back.

  The two are left together underground, somewhere in the isolated outskirts of Ignacia Cove. It’s an enclosed space, with small waterfalls cascading down the streams and continuing to a river where they are sat by.

  Peculiar floating specks of lights mimic that of fireflies, surrounding the whole space charmed by the generously cool coloured plants all around. Gleams coming from the corridor at the back bounces into the room, also bringing more light.

  Several kids are currently circling around them. They’re mostly onto the pirate, playing with him and the token he gave to distract them (which worked for a bit, but then they tossed it to the river and Cole had to chase it, hence his wet armbands).

  Oh right, they finally have their items retrieved.

  Kai is busy fiddling with the crystal they had stolen from the empire, more on just trying to figure out the origins of this large thing and how it’s made or how it was discovered and ended up being an artefact of the pirates.

  And how to use it.

  “This is it, the infamous crystal? I mean, it’s impressively big and would sell a lot but I don’t see much,” said Kai.

  “Did ye even listen to Lloyd?”

  “Hidden crystal, that, I got.”

  “And what does it do?”

  Silence.

  Cole sighs as he lets one kid braid a part of his hair. It’s starting to get long, he should cut it soon. “To communicate, Salmon. Everyone went nuts for that thing on your hands, ye watch yer mouth with it.”

  Kai chuckles. “I get that a lot.”

  “Hm?”

  “Watch your mouth.” The brunet flashes his brows and places the gem on his lap. He lightly nudges the occupant on his other side, noticing her silence.

  “Ye okay there, Tiny Ton? You’re gonna swallow one of those glowing flies if you keep your mouth open like that.”

  The smaller pulls her jaw back and stops staring at the pirate. “It’s my first time seeing a real human, Mr. Smith. I was always told they appear to be scarier than sirens and selkies.” She smiles at the noiret. “You’re huge, but you and I look just the same. Unless you’re a lower subspecies or something. Which shouldn’t be the case because I heard about you in the arena.”

  Cole giggles. “Sirens are WAY more atrocious than us humans, Tiny Ton. They’re stunning indeed but that’s exactly what makes them dangerous.”

  Her eyes widened. “You’ve seen one before?”

  “Mr. Smith and I fought them — a thousand of them!”

  Kai grins and traces the scar over his eye. “Ye see this scar, kid? I got this one from that fight. Awesome, isn’t it?”

  Ton’s eyes just keep on widening and her jaw keeps getting lower. Her whole outlook on the two changes right there, equivalent to that of knights in shining armours.

  The red merman turns to Cole with a proud smirk. He whisper-yells, “That was me first time bragging about it!”

  Cole cackles, abruptly stopping upon feeling his hair getting violently yanked by another kid.

  Kai promptly laughs at him before he goes back into fiddling with the large crystal.

  “So, to shoot the breeze, right? How does this little fella work?”

  “Ye have — ow! Ye have to keep eyes on the top of it and picture whoever you so desire to shoot the breeze with.” He air quoted.

  “That simple?”

  “That simple — aGH! Hey no pulling!” The pirate glares at the mischievous snickering children running away.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Human” said the remaining kid with grey locks trying to fix the noiret’s hair.

  Cole lazily waves a hand. “Aye, no big deal. I would’ve done the same if I saw some poor big goon with long hair anyway — you keep braiding, little one.”

  The little one brightens and does as told. “It’s almost done.”

  “Way to go.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Human.”

  Kai raises a brow. The guy must have dealt with children at some point. To be honest, Kai thinks he’s terrible with them himself, and he only has soft spots for these ones because holy shit they’re alive and younger than him.

  Cole adds, “Ye also have to keep the crystal on both of your daddles the whole time or the bond shall vanish. You’ll be pulling hairs too if that happens.”

  “How come you know this much?”

  The pirate sighs, “Me mum’s a parrot.”

  Kai nods. “Explains it.” He closes his eyes and starts thinking about the crew. “Though you’ve been in a way quiet these days.”

  Cole playfully glares at him.

  “...Am I doing it?”

  The noiret chuckles at him as he waves a hand goodbye to the leaving kid with grey locks. “Cute. The crystals require two parties to communicate. You have one. The crew doesn’t have one. But even so, ye need to think of eachother at the same time which is like a one in a million cha — ye grob faced gobshit shut up.”

  Their reflections ripple on the top of the glimmering crystal. The three of them hold their breaths, watching the gemstone continue to change with swirling colours until it eventually settles on a saturated shade of green with specks of gold.

  “This bloody crystal just swore at me, I don’t reckon I’m doing this ri — I’m doing it right. KAI!” A voice similar to their capt’n’s broke through the gemstone.

  Kai makes eye contact with Cole again, who’s completely taken aback with lips clasping shut.

  “Are you with Rocky, Kai?...Kai?...Ahoy, Mr. Kai Sir?? — Pixal, is this working?”

  “Lloyd, is that you?” The merman turns back to the crystal.

  White and two shades of blue spots merge themselves in by the sides as more voices join. One seems to be cursing under her breath. The other two are exclaiming and asking to hold the crystal themselves. Kai and Cole recognize them to be Nya, and Zane and Jay.

  “Mr. Walker, if you snatch that crystal from the capt’n I will twist your tallywags,” said a different and less audible voice, flashing a small splash of magenta for a second.

  “Well you didn't need to threaten me like that… Lloyd, give me the crystal.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Kai, can you speak?” asked Zane.

  The merman brings his focus back. “Uh.. speaking?”

  “...Marvellous. An actual crystal with an actual worth —”

  Nya overpowers the voices topping each other. “Are you actually with Rocky? Why is he  not saying shit? You’re lying, are you not?”

  “Lovely morning to you too, Nya,” greeted Rocky. “I can assure you Kai is on tight security and so safe that he might as well be on chokehold.”

  “That sounds very assuring.”

  “Now, how in the world are ye talking with us? Where are you?”

  “The depths of hell that’s wh —”

  “Ladies, can we please focus on the task at hand?” The youngest of the group cried, silencing everyone from both sides. 

  Kai pictures the other three setting themselves down in the quiet air. He shortly glances at Ton still with him. The youngling is entertaining the colour drifting back into how it was: Green. An emerald with humble lustruous flecks.

  “Thank you,” the blond capt’n mumbled. “Where are you two?”

  Kai halts himself, pushing his voice back to his stomach as a thought interrupts him.

  Is this okay?

  Ton innocently looks up to him. The little mermaid is completely unaware of who they are. No one figured out Cole is a pirate yet — no one figured out he’s affiliated with them. The young viscount wouldn’t dare to test the waters of them finding out of their pirate life. In addition to that matter…

  What would the pirates do?

  Lloyd and the others already know he’s a merman, but it’s just them. Even so, what if they let him go because he’s a friend? What if Kai wasn’t on decent terms with the other pirates who know?

  Not that he doesn’t trust them or anything — or does he actually not?

  Cole also gazes at him, concerned of the short yet forevermore silence.

  Kai can’t fuck up.

  Not any further.

  “By the borders of the empire. We ran here in the deepest parts away from the guards. For now, we might have to lay low or they’ll certainly spot us. They might know we’re here.” He stares back at the noiret pirate throwing him a curious look with a pout, telepathically commanding him to play along.

  Lloyd hums, “Mhm… Rocky?”

  “Yeah, that.”

  “What about you? Already found a crew for yourself, I suppose?” Kai returned the question, only to hear an exhausted sigh.

  “Your sister handpicked dead men, Mr. Smith,” said Lloyd as he rubbed his temple. “Not the brightest lads, can’t say I’m one for these traps and puzzles are turning me into a monkey and them worms — not that I had such high expectations, honestly speaking.”

  As if on cue, a far away scream peals through.

  The young capt’n moves his hands from his temple to his own face.

  Zane, Nya, and Jay also look away from the source. They’re all also huddled up in an enclosed cave, hiding from the crew members who are still stuck inside an icy maze.

  Apparently, the path to the tomb is absolutely filled with tricks. It’s unsurprising, considering the fact that this is a place for qualified pirates and is meant to guard and keep away people like them.

  Lloyd knew the venture was riskier than it seemed when they came upon six different doors with different patterns on each. Everyone stood still in silence, baffled and dumbfounded with the idea of having to choose a door and being tested like they were in their infertile years.

  Mystake was the first to break the ice, saying how more tricks shall entail on them after this one given how there’s doors randomly. She also warned them to not be careless.

  Pixal and Zane figured it out in no time after claiming the patterns were a zoetrope.

  Nya blinked, and then suddenly the lovebirds were telling them the answer was the door from where they came through.

  “The fuck is that supposed to mean?” One of the crew asked, right before Harumi herself opened the door revealing an unfamiliar path. It was dark, but surely foreign.

  Their second obstacle course was a large pit with spikes at the bottom.

  Jay was walking backwards towards it as he was blabbering about how they should watch out. Ronin caught him on time. No one else saw it so there was not a warning for the ginger.

  With Lloyd’s crazy idea, they crossed over by tiptoeing on the edge and sticking their backs on the wall.

  Fifth part of the course meal came in a less surprising way.

  They came across a double door. Two humongous doors perhaps ten times the height of Capt’n Lloyd Montgomery, including the hat.

  Bronze engravings with ancient and cryptic writings embedded were on its rough surfaces. A large golden drawing of an incoherent symbol is displayed in the middle of it.

  The cave was closed, but the doors itself were being illuminated, outshining everything else that existed on the large space between the crew and the mouthwatering entryway.

  The others found it odd. That was it? Just four tests and they’re here?

  Surely they weren’t foolish enough to fall for that.

  Nya was the first to scoff and turn her back around. “Come on, mates. Wouldn’t want to take the risk of being decapitated by some obvious trick.”

  With everyone else, Jay followed after her and points out, “But there’s no other way.”

  “Well, there should be.”

  “I don’t know… what if this is the real way in and that is what they want us to think so we go back to square one or have ourselves beheaded?”

  Everyone paused on their tracks. Lloyd and Ronin eyed the guy who remained standing there, the latter judging him for a moment as the mate stupidly added, “just a guess.”

  Nya scratched her jaw. “Alright, but what if that is what they want us to think to lure us back to the doors? Reversing the reverse psychology seems like a very pirate thing to do, aye?”

  “Is it not more sensible for this to be a two way decision?”

  “It’s the same thing! —”

  “You were complicating our problem with a third one.”

  “Would an argument be of any necessity to be wasting our time?” A voice from outside the crowd spoke. Harumi still had her face shadowed with a proper posture as always, but they could sense a tang of unamusement in her voice.

  “I believe not. If we must be divided on this trial then may I suggest we both go separate ways unless you desire to be left alo —”

  The floor disappeared.

  She was left there by herself, a millimetre away from the dark pit with echoing screams. Her red lips turned into a sharp line, and then she stressfully frowned and rubbed her forehead, shaking her head as she shortly let it all out before gracefully dropping into the darkness.

  Amidst their panicked bawls, their fall turned into that of a slide with a dangerous speed. Smoothened rocks were taken over by cold ice, their butts confused with the heat of the friction and the cold of the slide.

  The ride ended with Zane being toppled on by everyone in one pile

  There they were in their sixth course.

  The mirror maze.

  With traps.

  Lloyd strictly told everyone to stick together and follow his steed, but oh brother of the first pirate’s son were they dealing with kindergartens.

  The blond was so busy trying to spot all the traps they were to come across that he didn’t notice his tail shortening until he turned around.

  “We tried,” Pixal tittered. 

  And in case yer wondering, they were also carrying Mystake the whole ride. The nanny koala was being passed on from time to time, and on every other turn it was always capt’n argh!-my-back-bone!-Lloyd.

  The poor boy was about to rest his body in the meanwhile when Mystake and her aid approached him with the crystal. They exchanged no words, but he quickly rushed to a far, dark, and closed part of the cave with the others like the treasure-carrying happy young burglar he is.

  Harumi is standing by the entrance, successfully and effortlessly guarding them with her menacing vibes alone as of the moment, alongside her is Pixal.

  Lloyd looks back at the red crystal on his palms. It’s almost identical to Kai’s ruby. “You may get mad if I tell you of our bearings, which I’ll understand but I want you to know we were quite forced into this.”

  “...You left already..” dumbfounded Kai.

  “Aye, already in the tomb, in fact.”

  “So how are we having this conversation?” Cole brought the question back, tinting the side of the crystal with earthy hues as he did.

  Lloyd stretches and rolls his shoulders as if he’s preparing for heavy duty calls. “Mr. Dangerbuff, you are about to listen to the second exhausting and weirdest sequence of my mostly dissociated life,” he said while Zane, Jay, and Nya also fixed themselves.

  “Just so you could prepare yourself..” suddenly said the capt’n, the tone of his voice changing to a more serious manner.

  “You have some explaining to do, Kai.”

  The line made a part of the merman’s brain lightheaded in some sort of way, like it was gently pushed by a finger.

  Kai takes a second to recover from it as he stares at the viridescent crystal on his palms. Before letting them start, he makes sure Ton is busy with the other kids so as to give them some privacy.

  Listening to the mates sharing the story brings tension to their skin. Kai and more especially Cole was awed with the crew conquering the tempest seas. The latter was quite dumb founded with not being a part of it, but he got over it quickly. And Kai was amazed, just not as equally; he only heard words of the sea itself, even as a mer who are supposedly experts of the ocean.

  The brunet doesn’t remember much about his life underwater, in all honesty. Although, he could feel nostalgic every now and then when he’d swim across Ignacia City. The feeling of treading through the water just felt… perfect. Everything felt so right.

  Moving on, Mystake being there was what ought to be ridiculous to Kai, but there was no point in thinking it’s a lie — let alone the old nanny being a witch who was Pixal’s trainer this entire time. Let alone being aware of what hides under the merman’s skin.

  Nya broke the news to him. Kai was still processing it all when Cole himself went like:

  “Ye knew gran Mystake?”

  “Gran Mystake?!”

  Jay adds, “Rocky, we miss you, first mate. If you’re our friend you would come aboard and carry the ol’ dowager for us.”

  “Suck it, Mr. Walker.”

  Perhaps the world is not that big at all. 

  And it doesn’t stop shrinking there, minimising with a touch of suffocation as the anticipated cherry on top.

  “We couldn’t ask Nya about this for she claimed she doesn’t know much..?”

  “I was three, need I say more? It is better to push your interrogations to my brother himself,” said the noirette, concerning the predicate whose hands are desiring to fiddle with something for comfort, specifically his necklace.

  “Touché,” confided Lloyd before turning back to his serious tone. “So uh… Kai, just as we were entering the island, we got ourselves some… uninvited visitors.”

  He senses Cole straightening himself on his side.

  “Unfriendly visitors, carrying a very obvious intent to hunt and kill. They chased us as we ran to the shack that led us here. Thankfully no one got hurt but we suspect they won’t let us get away easily, especially after, well, agitating them.”

  “These visitors, they came from the island?” Kai asked.

  “No. They were following us.”

  “But — but you’re on a pirate ship.”

  The young capt’n turns silent.

  Freezing, pressuring silence takes over the merman’s ears as the echoing screams and laughter coming from the children deafens out. It’s something he should know, isn’t it? 

  Fingers nervously twiddle on the smooth crystal. He can’t think of something that could have potential to do such a thing on them, that, or he can’t think straight. The crystal is growing heavier than ever, it keeps bothering him.

  It bothers him how the crystal is somehow heavier than before.

  It’s exhausting. Tiring. Heavy.

  Burdensome.

  Draining.

  “They introduced themselves as the finnfolk.”

  “Kai?”

  ‘Dead.’

  “Earth to Kai?”

  The heat ghosting his scarred temple pulls him back.

  Kai shakily greets eyes with the concerned, painful ones.

  It subtly grazes against the helix of his ear, the back of Cole’s finger. The brown strands framing his face getting tucked behind.

  The action makes Kai hold back his breath, afraid to startle the wind, still, his mind lingers on the fact he had just brought the finfolk to his friends. He doesn’t know why or how they found him — he doesn’t want to know.

  He doesn’t want to think about them.

  Kai gulps the invisible lump in his throat and stammers, “Finn… finnfolk, you say?”

  “Aye. Pounced on the ship they did and as demanded for you, the boy with red fins. We said nothing. Unfortunately they did figure out Nya’s identity as a mermaid but they did not come for her neck, so we’re guessing this has something to do with your uh… your curse thingy, whatever it is.”

  “I also find it peculiar how —” Zane pauses, hesitating with his words “They knew you but didn’t seem to be familiar with Nya.”

  Kai tenses his hands for a brief moment. The distant laughters are pitched higher now, and he can’t help but notice the tension on the muscles around his eyes. He tries not to, but his voice comes out barely shaking. “Did they say anything?”

  Lloyd hums for a second. “Just that they threatened us and something about their Time Blades.” He shrugs. “You stay right where you are. These merfolk wannabes surely don’t know yours and Rocky’s bearings. Capt’n’s orders. But still, we ought to know what goes on?”

  There it is.

  A breath in. The brunet doesn’t have to say everything. Just say what must be said and don’t freak them out. They shouldn’t freak out. Everything goes wrong if everyone freaks out. If someone freaks out it’s the end. He’s not freaking out. Stop it. No. Pfft. Blasphemy. Shut up Kai. Shut up. Stop. This isn’t freaking him out.

  “This is freaking me out.” Kai flinches and nudges himself deeper on his seat, eyes darting around on the ground and legs suddenly and awkwardly bouncing.

  “Is that all?” Cole scoots closer as he places a hand on the back of the crystal.

  “There’s no free time with these creatures, mate,” said Jay. “They started counting before anyone could spare a question.”

  “All we know is that they’re blood thirsty for this boy with red fins.”

  Cole looks back at the clearly uncomfortable brunet.

  He is no expert, but he knows what he knows (something obvious). The distant red finned merman beside him has more untold knives on his back — knives that bury deep; sharp and blunt. Behind those golden ambers, there lies grave terror, and thrown onto the lifeless body of his is of hatred acid. Ones that brushes into the pirate. 

  “You met them before.”

  “They —” Kai breathes out as an attempt to lighten his chest. “They’re after me because of my… my s-stupid… fire thing.”

  “Fire thing?” carefully asked Zane. Of course he asked.

  Yeah some stupid woohoo fire thing. Kai shifts again, this time with a ticked off expression. He fixes his posture and closes his eyes for a moment. Calm down, Kai. No one’s after anyone’s ass. No one’s after Kai, and like Lloyd said, no one knows of their bearings.

  He opens them back up, catching a glimpse of Cole who’s been attentively watching him in worry.

  No one’s after Cole too.

  “Is there anyone in the room with you now?”

  Nya turns to look at the way out of the cave. She can still see Harumi’s garments swaying about at the corner, though it seems all is as clear as day. “Just us four.”

  “Well that’s lovely because if anyone’s to ever hear of this they shall bust mine head and bury the rest to the worst maggot infested ground on Earth.”

  “Oh, it can’t be that bad.”

  “C — Rocky, I’m nervous just uttering this shit to them because it’s that bad.” Kai stops himself before spitting more and ruining everything. He sighs.

  “Remember when I spoke of the seafolk back then? How someone can be granted with elemental powers? …I am one of them.” He stops, checking for a response which is none, so he goes on.

  “Fire, is my element, ironically enough for a sea dweller. I don’t have complete control of it so I rarely make use of it. And it’s.. incredibly dangerous, my fire. And when I did use it, they were only when I’d try to practise controlling it with Nya’s help. We used the strange matchbox when we did, it was enchanted to absorb my flames and extract them upon use.”

  “Is that why the finnfolk is after you?”

  Kai shakes his head, he cringes when he realises they can’t see him.

  “...There is a prophecy, one that after being discovered brought fear to the whole ocean. It mentioned my stupid fire sorcery, so all eyes would land on me and they would point fingers and holler and scream and say I am dangerous! And clearly these finnfolk take it to the graves. They have been hunting for me since way before then — When Nya could barely talk! And I hadn’t an idea they’d come back now!”

  Once again, Kai has to stop himself for a moment. His stomach is churning with the possibilities of the crew and Cole throwing him in the brig to beat the absolute shit out of him. He should stop thinking like this. He trusts them.. but he barely knows them either.

  To bring an end to his current wreckage, Cole does the honour of asking for it.

  “And what exactly is this prophecy?”

  The voice causes Kai to cuss in his mind. The sound itself makes him want to strangle Cole. This foolishness aside, he has to answer now.

  And so he does.

_IX. Babysitting Bobby_

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Chapter Text

  Well that wasn’t so bad.

  Sike, he was practically a birthing duck but hey, hours later Kai can finally rest his soul and thank the gods if Lloyd was telling the truth of shutting his mouth and never selling him on the river. Unless Kai transitions into the monster of the word, that’s when young capt’n Lloyd will tackle him (Jay said that).

  However, the fear is still there. Nothing can assure Kai of what’s bound to happen in the future and of the crew’s decision, and if whether he’ll end up in the gallows or not, so he would still stare into space with a face as pale as pearl — just like now as he’s slowly wrapping Cole’s forehead with a new orange cloth and lounging by a fountain just outside the infirmary.

  Cole, of course, saw it and knew it. And although just a few minutes ago he was trying to figure out the grand plan of his escape out of this pretty tunnel and run back to his crew by himself, somehow his objective shifted to shaking the worries out of Kai’s shoulder by sticking close at all times — since he already acknowledges he’s quite awful at comforting with words, so, proximity it is. Well, he should not give up.

  If it’s for Kai, he should not give up.

  If it’s for the most questionable merman on Earth, he must not think of giving up.

  In all honesty, even the conversation earlier made him incredibly worried. Watching Kai get shaken up by the mention of the finnfolk was already bad, not much less understanding the reason why.

  He understands it. Really. The feeling of being chased around because everyone sees him as either the big bad wolf or a goldmine, sometimes both. The difference is — although both have been experiencing it since childhood — while Cole takes it as a silly game, Kai is actually afraid.

  “ —Next thing I know Kai’s mouth would be on fire and we’d have the heebie-jeebies and Kai would be like ‘what?’” blabbered Cole whilst mindlessly playing with the strings of Kai’s shirt. “If ye wish to live long and prosper, Roise, was it? Don’t do what Kai would do. He makes terrible ideas and is unaware of his likes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s an idiot.”

  “You’re teaching the child bad manners. Don’t listen to a bear with rabies, Roise’s baby,” said Kai. “Between Rocky and I, guess who almost died twice.”

  Cole chuckles. “Salmon, that’s you.”

  “It’s you too, duh.”

  They roll their eyes in unison.

  “But for the record, you almost died because of yer ideas. Twice.” Kai flicks his forehead.

  The pirate turns his head to the other mermaid beside them, annoyingly causing Kai to mess up with the bandage and click his tongue.

  “He likes to have his tongue burnt.”

  Ton jots down the word ‘spicy’ on a leafpad, handwriting as terrible as ever. “Fruit? We have the surface fruits like the long yellows and others.”

  “Uh… the round, orange, I suppose.”

  Cole blinks. “Ye like oranges?”

  “Stop moving — No. I just remembered you like oranges.”

  Ton jots it. “Food?”

  “Salmon,” said Cole and Kai.

  “Is that why you call me a salmon?”

  “Next question.”

  “Favourite colour. Let me guess, red?”

  “It’s red,” said Cole and Roise.

  They all rubberneck at the latter.

  Roise gives them a half-shrug, caressing her belly. “Lord Smith handpicked red for his bedsheets and night lamp. And his necklace is red. And his tail. And fire is red.”

  “...” said Lord Smith. He goes back to minding Cole’s bandage. “Hang on a second, why are you doing this?”

  “I saw this list in Griffin’s office this morning. I figured I'd do it because I like you.”

  “Awe Ton, that’s so sweet!”

  The redhead giggles and reads, “What is something you would like to experience?”

  “Burn this head.” “Lift me arm.”

  In a flash, Cole bolts away with the brunet pursuing after him with a rock on hand.

  The mermaids stay there, sitting, watching, entertaining the scene as the noiret cackles and screams at the loud brunet chasing him about.

  They remain astounded when Cole squawks.

  “...Auntie Roise, let’s show them to the forest!”

“Good idea.”

  When Ton said forest, she meant an actual forest.

  She encouraged them to reach the outside world of the cove and take a stroll.

  Also, It has been long since they’ve last seen the sun. Cole missed it, it feels like home being sun kissed and to breathe in the smell of raw air once again. Kai missed it a lot too, but he’s more focused on trying not to get slapped by the damn leaves and branches as he follows Ton’s footsteps.

  She’s already way ahead of them. And, she’s brought along a silly instrument made out of two sticks with tied ends and leaves. It creates tiny ping sounds; a high pitched organ.

  ᵂʰᵃᴬᵉᵉᴱᵉᴱᵎ

  Moving on, as amazing as how that instrument works, Kai and Cole can’t help but to drop their jaws at the sight of a red and pink sky of trees.

  There’s a whole forest of pink trees!

   Kai smiles, absolutely delighted.

  Well, these are much smaller but still, woah.

  “Woah,” exclaimed Cole, already thirty seconds into the walk.

  “You’ll be grabbing on my hand for days on end, will you?” Kai asked the other brunette who’s also as fresh as a daisy. He can tell it’s a big day for the mermaid who’s already grown comfortable with the pirate (which is either concerning or amazing).

  Roise loosens her grip on his wrist. “Oh, I apologise. I-I can refrain myself if you wish —”

  Kai shakes his head. “No. It’s alright. It’s… comforting.” He presses his lips. “Can I ask something personal?”

  “Ask away, Lord Smith.”

  Please just call him Kai. “I noticed I’ve never really seen you spend much time with anyone else other than the council.” He glances at her belly. “Is… Is there —”

  Roise waves a hand, a gentle motion to hush. She first smiles at the leaves for a while, eyes fond as she reminisces. “The father was part of the expedition team. An old member and has been around as New Ignacia was in its development. He and the council were close friends. Always laughed about immature things while all I did was watch and eek.” Roise pulls a face.

  Kai stifles a laugh.

  “He’s very kind. The kindest man I’ve ever met, even.” She then eyes the pirate aweing at the sun and pinks. “Uncivil, hopeless, uncouth and mischievous, but also polite and gentle. Like Rocky.”

  Kai turns to look just in time for Rocky to trip over a root and fall over. He snorts and wheezes, pausing on his tracks with a shocked Roise.

  “Where is he?” later asked Kai as they neared Ton playing random tunes with her instrument. On her hand is a stick taller than her.

  “Oh, he passed long ago.”

  The merman falters. Roise notices and smiles at him. “It’s alright,” she sang, placing a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “...The expedition team reported they came upon an eerie place in the dark waters. He dared himself deeper alone, with nothing but a healing kit and a spear on hand —” she breathes in deeply.

  Kai slows their pace, watching intently on the mermaid’s state.

  Cole also slows his pace upon reaching them.

  “I promised with the council to keep the rest of the story a secret.” She bows at the brunet. “If you will forgive me.”

  Kai helps her straighten herself. “Please. Roise. Don’t be too formal with me,” he practically squeaked in embarrassment, earning a hearty giggle from Cole. “And thank you, for telling me.”

  Roise grins at the merman. She sighs and rolls her shoulders, considering for a moment to ask something personal in return, but she shuts her mouth. Bringing up the brunet’s mother may not be a good idea. “Tiny Ton, you put that stick down! Did you check if there were tiny bugs on it?” she said once they reach a screeching Ton.

  “But I like sticks!”

  Roise continues lecturing her with only a fallen trunk separating them.

  “Look at that, the lass’ aware of her likes more than you,” Cole sassed in a whisper, letting Kai jump over first.

  The red merman scoffs. “Don’t blame me! Mystake always rammed my head with a basket of potatoes without a speck of warning when I decided my wants over Nya’s.” He rubs the back of his head. “Sometimes I can still feel it..”

  “I’ll blame ya, as a humble revenge for always blaming me on everything.” Cole swiftly vaults over.

  Kai mockingly laughs. “Oh, do I now?” he looks down upon noticing Ton leaning on a sign with an unidentifiable language — unless it was a drawing. “What is this?”

The redhead blows one last note. “ Whee! — this is as far as we can go.” She checks over her shoulder. “To step over this means to step out of New Ignacia. Can’t do that!”

  “I see..” He squints at the scribe, even tilts his head with the pirate copying him.

Roise follows the letters with her finger. “Be..ware,” she read. “We wrote it specifically to keep strangers out and us in.”

  Cole stifles another giggle.

  “And what lies there?” asked Kai.

  Ton slowly threads away with Roise. “Depends on who you ask, Mr. Smith. I say what lies ‘yon those trees is a far different life. Hold on, I know the hidden harvesting spot is around here — let’s find it!” She continues playing.

  A far different life.

  ᵂʰᴬᵃᴱᵉᵉ ᵂʰᵃᴼᴼᵒᵒᴼᵘᵘ..

  Kai lets himself get lost in the colours of distant nature. laying behind the cracks are different leaves varying in pinks and reds fading into warmer shades; a blindfold of a row, a wall keeping secrets from him. Though, something in Kai’s guts tells him it is the ocean. The vast ocean.

  A far different life, he repeated in his head.

  It’s an absolutely quiet land.

  “Think there’s a different kind over there?” asked Cole, positioning himself beside the brunet.

  “Must be well disciplined and aloof of them to follow an indecipherable sign.”

“...Makes sense.”

  He is reluctant at first, somehow bashful when Kai — as little as he can — turns his eyes to take a look at the taller man gazing at the woodland.

  The sun is embracing the pirate, illuminating him in all the perfect angles and luring attention to the charming spots on his face, which is overall.

There’s the nose; his bushy eyebrows that’s slightly furrowed; even the smallest cracks and the length of his eyelashes.  His lips, it’s too scary for Kai to bring his eyes to it. And then there’s his eyes, the other woodland he’s fallen in love with.

“I like this place, it’s really pretty.” Cole’s words snap Kai back to the real trees.

“Me too.”