Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it! I speak no other language so I can't say it in Chinese, Russian, Spanish, German, French, Australian… oh wait. Love them Australian accents though. But Hi! This is the most cliché chapter I've ever written, and its super short. Sorry. Love that filler. But let's get to the good/not-so-good stuff! Please enjoy! And forgive my lousy sense of culturally-ignorant humor.

The soup bubbled and boiled, a sickly green vapor rising out from its mysterious depths, as strange objects floated to the surface and sunk back down in the murky liquid. Silver tossed a stiff tentacled creature into the pot, the gloopy soup sloshing up on the sides. The purple creature's tentacles reached up in a last effort, and like a sinking ship tipped and disappeared into the depths never to be seen again. Who knew what else had been tossed in that pot to meet an ugly and rather grotesque end. It's always impressive how you can probably just throw whatever you want in a pot of boiling water and it'll disappear forever, their solid forms magically transforming into brown undiscernible mush, where the vegetables taste the same as the five week old eggs. Although, there was a certain art to soup making and despite how it looked, brown bubbling and parts seemed to move against the laws of physics, it smelled absolutely delicious.

The fact of the matter was Silver's cooking skills were very impressive, albeit strange and unorthodox, but for a man who hated anything remotely womanly his cooking was labeled; just-like-my-mama from at least a quarter of the universe. That's impressive considering, that quarter of the galaxy included at least a few thousand species from various planets and some didn't even have tongues.

Morph cooed in Silver's ear and nuzzled up next to him.

"Hey there Morph. How are you?" Silver grinned and gave the blob a tidbit. Which the blob nibbled on with joy.

The cook hummed while he sliced up the potatoes.

"I wished upon a shooting star,

For fame, for gold for glory.

It came burning without returning,

And I followed it too far.

I went sailing forever after,

Following an uncatchable star.

I'm to weak to hold it, to strong to let go.

I am a star chaser.

And I have nothing but a dream of fallen stars."

Silver sliced off the heads of some Mandarin Corkies and the multieyed hard shelled head went into the soup, while the fuzzy bodies where disposed of into the pot of scraps. The scrap pot had mangled parts of various things hanging in chunks over the side and looking over Silver decided now was a good time to empty it, if ever there was one. He picked it up by the handles with his apron and proceeded to walk up the stairs, a very laborious process. His bad leg swinging clumsily up and down, his current weight not helping either; not that it was really his fault, with a bad leg and great cooking it was inevitable. Silver clomped up the stairs heaving the pot along with him. He emerged on the deck and to his utter astonishment he saw the wood was sparkling.

"Stop it! That's mine!"

"No. Yours was from the stern to the mast! Do you see this mast!"

"You changed the boundaries! Move over!"

"You move! I was here first!"

"Yeah right you were here first. Do you see this mop? Look where it is!"

"hey! That's not fair! Yours is longer."

"Like that's gonna make a difference!

"Move your butt! "

"You're the one with the big butt!"

"Excuse me?!"

"You heard me!"

"Well it ain't my fault your skinny arse ain't big enough to fill your trousers! You're just jealous!"

"Of what?"

"Of all this!"

"Ha! You wish! Now stop distracting me!"

Silver watched in confusion as the two bickered, with another glare, they both bent over and started scrubbing again. They crouched scrubbing and polishing till the deck gleamed. They moved back and back till they were almost pressed up against each other, a small circle of unpolished wood around them. They were shoulder to shoulder when they realized their dilemma. They looked at each other glaring.

"You're in my space, Jim."

"I think it's the other way around."

"scoot over so I can finish."

"Why don't you scoot over so I can finish?"

"because I'm a better scrubber."

"My side looks so much better than your side!"

They both stood up face to face to face with each other mops at the ready.

"I dare you to say that again." Wren growled.

She pushed Jim over first and then Jim of course pushed back. Soon enough they were tousling like a pair of toddlers, shoving each other and whacking legs with sticks, but very skillfully within the five foot, circle of uncleaned deck.

"Take that back!"

"No!"

"Puppy eyes!"

"Girly girl!"

Wren launches herself at Jim and they tumble to the ground at each other's throats throwing insults at one other.

"idiot!"

"Bossy pants!"

They roll right.

"mukcrag!

"Shigibi!"

They roll left.

"How dare you! I can't believe you said that!"

"Well believe it sister because I just did! Let go!"

They roll past Silver's peg leg.

"You don't even know what that means!"

"Of course I do! it means you're a…"

They crash, rather ungracefully, into Silver.

"What the heck?" Wren yells angrily looking up at Silver and catching sight of the pot of leftovers lets out a surprised scream.

Both Jim and Wren glanced up to see the scary looking pile of scraps, grizzled bits of furry animals and dripping pieces of purple spotted vegetable peelings leaning precariously over the pot. They clutch each other and stare up at the horrible mixture of leftovers. Silver moves the pot and looks down at them watching them shake in terror.

Jim gulped. "Is that… is that."

Wren gagged, "Dinner?"

Silver quirked up an eyebrow and looked at the scraps. And then smiled.

"What do you think?

He shows them the gross pile and they both turn green.

"Looks tasty doesn't it?"

They both hastily scoot back. Making the deck sparkle where their butts were, leaving a streak of recleaned deck. The previously clean deck destroyed by their rolling.

"But you know if this deck was cleaned real fast I bet Morph wouldn't mind eating this."

Silver never knew someone could move so fast or two for that matter. Animosity forgotten, they both scrubbed the deck like their lives depended on it, their hands a blur. Silver stumbled back as Wren sprinted past in a whirlwind. And seconds later they were finished, panting and exhausted the deck sparkling, absolute desperation fueling their mopping. They both look at Silver and sure enough the pile of scraps had mysteriously disappeared, the gluttonous blob already come and gone.

"Well done." Silver said mildly impressed.

They both continue panting and Jim falls over half dead.

"You guys really don't like my cooking do ya?"

Wren panted tiredly, "just thinking about eating that makes me…" she suddenly covered her mouth cheeks blowing out.

Jim rolls over reinvigorated, "not on the deck! Not on the deck!"

Wren rushes over to the side leaning over the railing, and Jim picks up the bucket. But after a moment Wren manages to hold it down swallowing the bile. She melts against the side of the ship looking green. She makes gagging noises forehead pressed against the railing. Jim relaxes lowering the bucket. Silver watches Wren's display of melodrama.

"I'm insulted."

"I'm sick."

"I'm hungry."

Both Wren and Silver glare at Jim who backs up smiling sheepishly.

"Where's morph?"

"that little misfit?"

"probably hiding from this monster over here."

"Hey! Who you calling a mon…" The ship suddenly rocks and Wren turns green again and sags against the side, anger forgotten for the moment.

"What's for dinner?" Jim asks genuinely curious.

Silver puts his fists on his hips and proudly announces, "Horyik Stew!"

Jim frowned thinking what's that? "what's that?"

Wren gags again.

"You don't even know what it is!" Silver says self-righteously

"I don't want to."

Silver started to defend his stew angrily, "it's the most robust soup in the galaxy!"

Jim grimaces, that's not exactly a good thing.

"It'll give strength to the weakest sailor! It'll give heart to the most desolate of men!"

"Oh get off your…" the deck rolls again and Wren is incapacitated against the side of the ship barely holding down vomit.

"It's been eaten by princes and Kings! By the greatest of warriors!"

Jim rolls his eyes and looks pointedly at Wren who grins weakly.

"It'll give you the strength of an elephant! The speed of a cheetah! The agility of a monkey! The…"

Wren finally regains some of her color managing to retort, "Yeah, yeah yadda yadda. It doesn't matter what you claim this magic stew can do, I ain't eating it if it made scraps like that."

"You're prejudice girlie, you need to open your mind to the true pleasures in life!"

Jim felt a prickling sensation at his neck and his eyes narrowed. He turned around eyes searching the stars for the source of that sensation. He searched as the two were arguing behind him, scanning back and forth looking for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly he caught sight of a dark shape among the stars growing larger and larger. Jim's eyes widened finally seeing what it was.

"Silver! Wren!"

Both stopped their arguing to see a huge asteroid hurtling twords them.

"Bumbling Bugerds!" Silver cursed.

Neither could do anything as the enormous meteor shot across space. Jim ducked putting up his arm in a futile gesture to protect himself. Silver staring into the end of his long adventures, kind of sad it would end that way. And Wren, well Wren being Wren, grinned and flicked off the grim reaper.

Silver swallowed and watched his last moments in slow motion, kind of cliché wasn't it? He didn't see his life flash before his eyes but was just glad nobody was screaming, especially Jim. Silver gave props to the young boy. But he was wondering what Wren was feeling, his adoptive daughter hadn't made a noise. He looked back just to see her blur by him running to the meteor coming down on them. The meteor was just about to reach the ship and Silver almost closed his eyes, something he promised he would never do. But Wren hopped up on the railing and stuck out her arms bracing herself. The meteor crashed into her outstretched arms which should have snapped like twigs under its enormous force but didn't. The entire ship shuddered as the meteor ground to a stop barely scraping the top of the railing. Wren grimaced, determination shining fiercely in her eyes, she grunted hands stopping the meteor from destroying the ship. The huge meteor threatened to take away the rest of the railing but Wren shifted her hold on the meteor and bending her legs pushed up from underneath the huge rock. She heaved the rock and redirected it straight up, launching the meteor away back into the stars. She settled back on the ground and watched as it disappeared. Her hair blowing in the wind, arms falling to her sides, the shape of the meteor vanishing again.

Jim took a breath, remembering to breathe. He looked at Wren, an absolute mystery to him, and an even more interesting one now.

"Can your stew do that?" Wren turned around and smirked at Silver

Jim blinked, did Wren just make a joke?

"I'd say homerun. How about you guys?"

Silver stepped up and looked into the sky, "hm, I'd say so."

Jim nearly fell over, how could Silver treat this event so normally?

"It might have fallen short." Wren mused looking into the sky. She reached one hand up to rub her chin and suddenly yelled in surprise. Jim ran over to see what the matter was.

"Wren! Are you alright?" He asked concerned.

"What the heck is this stuff?" Wren asked incredulously.

She shook her right hand which was encased in green goop.

"Gross! What the heck?" she wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Silver limped over to inspect and seeing the goo backed off, "be careful where you swing that!"

Wren looked up at Silver and stuck her hand in his face and he promptly ran away, "hey wait! help me!" She chased him around the deck while Jim was sill wrapping his mind around why Silver treated the goo stranger the Wren's inhuman strength.

"Come on! Help get it off!" Wren pleaded.

"Don't touch me with that! Stop it lassie!"

Jim suddenly saw Wren's other hand not covered in the green goo. It was dripping dark red hanging limp at her side out of Silver's sight. Jim watched the blood ooze out from her palm, and he looked at Wren's impish grin giving no indication of her bleeding injury. And Jim frowned.

As Silver limped past and Wren chased him her palm opened for a split second and Jim caught sight of her bleeding hand and he had to swallow down bile. The skin of her palm had been burnt and scraped off from the meteor. The flesh bleeding and raw. He looked back up to Wren's face and saw her unwavering smile again.

"Fine if you won't help me I'll get it off myself!" Wren pouted.

She stopped and turned to the stairs leading down into the lower decks, cleverly hiding her injured hand with her body. The green one drawing the eye. Jim frowned, so she wasn't so indestructible after all.

Silver sighs, "I thought I was a goner for sure, Jimbo."

Silver lifts his hat and wipes his brow. Jim looks up at the cook standing behind him, pudgy and jolly. He couldn't possibly be all that bad.

"Yeah."

Silver looks down at the pensive teenager. What could the boy be thinking about? Surely Silver had fooled him already.

"You seem to be taking it well."

"what?"

Silver gave him a look, "The fact that we could've died."

Jim frowns, "yeah."

A long moment of silence passed, Silver didn't like silences, and Jim was too preoccupied to care. Thankfully Morph zipped out from the stairs looking terrified as ever but let out an excited chirrup when he saw Silver.

"Hello Morph. Missed ya. Nearly died a few minutes ago, what do ya think about that?"

Morph chittered and rubbed up against Silver's neck.

"Brave lad here didn't even cry for his mama."

Morph looked at Jim and flew over to circle around him. Jim held out his hand and pet the pink blob.

"I thought the spider psycho was scarier." Jim rubbed the blob on the head.

Morph nudged Jim and transformed into a mirror image of the arachnid crew member.

Chanting, "spider psycho, spider psycho."

Jim laughed, "a little uglier."

Spider Morph thought for a moment and bugged out laughing maniacally.

"Pretty close."

Morph shrugged and changed back to his bubbly pink self.

Jim suddenly remembered and chewing his lip mumbled, "Thanks by the way."

"Hm? For what?"

"For the bug…" Jim wasn't big on gratitude, "…thing, thanks." But he hated owing people even more.

Silver raised an eyebrow at the kid who fiddled with his jacket cuff, "no problem kid."

The brown eyed boy picked up the bucket and nodded. Silver was having trouble understanding how this Jim could take his near death experience so calmly. Even when Silver was in his twenties he would've been shaking from head to toe.

"Well, get some thing quick to eat and go to sleep. You'll wake up at five tomorrow."

Jimbo was shocked out of his thoughts, "wait, what?"

"Don't be thinking I was going to be easy on ya cabin boy! You'll have pots to scrub, decks to clean, potatoes to peel!"

"That's not fair!" Jim whined.

"Life's not fair my boy! So you better be prepared for it! Now go! You've got an early morning tomorrow."

And Jim thought he could get along with Silver, he glared at the cook and clumped down the stairs fuming all the way. Jim made his way to the mess hall and found it almost empty, he glanced at whispering sailors huddled secretively around a table. Jim looked around to see if Wren was there but found no sign of her. Seeing neither pale hide nor dark hair of her, Jim found no reason to hang around, he grabbed a bowl of soup and shoveled it down, slowing down after he swallowed the first bite when he realized the soup was wonderful. He savored every spoonful as it disappeared and reluctantly got up tossed the bowl into an over flowing sink, which he did a double take on and viewed with trepidation, the challenge for the next morning. Caught up in the surprisingly delicious soup he was the absolute last one to leave for bed. He exited the kitchen his full stomach making him feel sleepy.

The lower decks where completely silent and only lit by yellow orbs of gentle light that did not light the hall well enough at all.

"Ow." Jim cursed under his breath when he stubbed his toe into the corner.

Jim felt his way along the wooden hallway trying to make his way to the bunks. He finally found it by stumbling head first into a pole and found himself in the belly of a very noisy beast.

The deck swayed slightly under his feet as he made his way around the hammocks. He found his hammock and was glad to see all of his things exactly where he put them, his backpack hung on the hook embedded in the wooden pole, his pillow and blanket folded and stacked neatly. It seemed no one had felt the lurch from earlier and slept like the dead. The room was almost pitch dark filled with the soft snores and not so soft snores of the crew members. Never the less Jim quietly laid out his blanket and pillow slowly lowering himself onto his hammock without a squeak. He took his boots off quietly, placing them neatly against the pole and laid down in the large hammock. Jim was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable the hammock was. It made sense of course that it would be big for him considering the size of some of the crew members. He stretched his arms out fingertips barely brushing the post. He sighed and stared at the low hanging hammock above him the fabric bulging out at the bottom. Jim felt warm and comfortable. That warm fuzzy feeling of sleep made everything start to dull. The full day of adventure had made him tired, and after those customary few moments of floating in the no-man's land between wakefulness and rest; Jim was rocked to sleep cradled by the gently swaying hammock and as he drifted off a soft voice entered his dreams, she was warm, and kind, and loving, and sad. She murmured her heart into his sleep.

"Come home my star chaser,

I've waited for you to come back

I'm the one you've forgotten,

I'm the one whose cracked.

I've wished upon a falling star,

For you, for a word, for a smile.

I've cried enough to fill an ocean

I've searched for miles and miles.

You've left me to cry, you've left me to die.

You've left me all alone.

But what you don't see, is you're a star to me.

I'll chase the star chaser home."

Sorry for the soppy ending guys, rhyming and poetry and song writing is not something I'm very good at… But hope you enjoyed and please do whatever people do when they like a story: comment, favorite, follow, like, share, friend, repost, reblog, revine, retweet, or just comment… yeah, a comment would be nice. But no pressure! Thanks for reading!