One second Moon, Sun, and half the crew was watching you stand up and throw your hands up into what Moon assumed was a rude gesture, then the next second you were on the ground like you suddenly died. Sun was on his knees by your side trying to shake you awake and Chika was on your other side checking for any obvious injuries.
Moon was flabbergasted to say the least. Your lack of self-preservation was throwing him through a loop, and it made it harder for him to stand his ground on getting rid of you. Moon walked over to stand by Sun.
"Did they just kill themselves somehow?" Moon asked his partner.
Sun put a hand over your mouth for a second, then he said, "No. They're still breathing."
"I think the poor thing's just exhausted," Chika said, seemingly satisfied with her check-up, "But we should get Mr. Hippo to look at them. Maybe he'll see something we can't?"
Moon sighed heavily and said, "No. We really need to get rid of it."
Chika looked up at Moon with a glare, but she didn't say anything as she pulled your unconscious body into her feathery arms. Moon thought that she looked like she was trying to brood over you. Chika's chicken instincts were probably kicking in because of how small you were.
Sun stood up, "I know it's scary Moon, but can't we at least give it a chance to prove itself?"
Moon rubbed his temple as he got ready for the longest argument in his life when Freddy, their Quartermaster, stepped up.
"Captains. I think it would be best if we put it to a vote," the bear suggested, "We grew up on the stories too. If this really will affect us all, we should all get a say in the matter."
Moon couldn't argue with that. He looked to his sunnier counterpart, and he was grim-faced, but his eyes portrayed a level of hope that the majority of the crew wouldn't want to throw you back into the open water.
Moon nodded at Sun and Sun said, "Okay. Get everyone gathered on deck."
Freddy nodded and went to work.
Chika stood up as she carried your unconscious body in her arms bridal style. Your head hung limply over her feathery arm.
"Where should I put them?" She asked.
"For now, just hold on to them," Sun said.
The giant white chicken nodded and walked over to join the growing crowd.
Moon faced Sun fully and said, "If the crew really wants to keep this thing as a pet or mascot or something I won't argue with you on the matter anymore, but if we end up keeping it, we'll be facing more trouble than I think we can handle. Do you really think it's worth the consequence?"
Sun sighed. Thought about it for a moment. Then he said, "Look. It's true that we could just throw them back into the water and pretend that we didn't see them. It's true that bad things could happen once they realize what they're capable of, but I'm willing to bet that, that won't be the case. You know, if they really are capable of what the stories say."
Moon wrapped an arm around Sun's shoulders with a sigh. The two of them started walking towards the helm of the ship.
"I hope you're right. We don't have many good stories about these types of beings, so…" Moon didn't really know what else to say, "I just hope you're right."
"We still have to vote on it," Sun said. Patting Moon's chest reassuringly.
Once at the helm, Sun was keeping an eye on the steering wheel, Chika was standing in front of the crowd below Sun and Moon, on the deck, as she was making sure everyone could get a chance to see your unconscious body, and Moon addressed the crowd.
"Alright everyone! As you can see, we have a creature of legend on our boat. I want to throw it overboard so it can't hurt us, but your other Captain wants to keep it! Thinking it'll help us in some way! I'll give you all a moment to process this before we vote!"
Moon leaned against the railing of the helm as he watched all twenty-five members of his crew loudly talk among themselves.
A few voices were just as fearful of you as Moon was. Others were hopeful that you weren't some weird villain and they weren't too keen on just killing you because you might be a threat. Others didn't believe in the stories at all, and they had their own reason for wanting to keep you around like for experiments or because it's the right thing to do. The other nonbelievers that wanted to throw you out was mainly because you might be diseased.
Moon looked down at Chika. She was cradling your body like you were a child and sweeping your long fur out of your face. Making sure you were comfortable in your sleep and as she swayed from side to side. Moon could tell that she was already attached to you and the lunar being couldn't tell if that was a good sign or a bad sign.
Moon stood to his full height as he looked at his crew, "Alright everyone!" the crowd went silent, "Raise your hand if you think we should throw them overboard!"
Ten hands went up in the air and counting himself that was eleven votes in total.
"Okay! Now raise your hand if you want to keep them!"
Thirteen people raised their hands and counting Sun that was fourteen votes in total for wanting to keep you. Two people didn't vote, probably because they felt like they weren't sure about either option.
Moon sighed as he leaned against the railing again.
"The creature stays," he shouted.
The crew dispersed to go back to their jobs.
"Mr. Hippo," Moon heard Chika cry out as she ran with your unconscious body. The lunar man watched her run off until his attention was diverted by the feeling of Sun's hand on his shoulder.
"Hey. It's going to be okay," Sun said.
"By whatever ocean god that exists right now, I hope you're right," Moon could only say.
Sun wrapped an arm around the darker man's waist and leaned his head on his shoulder. It was a comforting gesture, but Moon got the feeling that it was more for Sun than for him.
# # #
You've been awake for a while now. You're not really sure for how long, but instead of tossing and turning and trying to find your blanket to go back to sleep, you decided to finally sit up. The moment you sat up you had a headache. Not anything too serious, but it hurt. You obviously needed to drink some water.
You felt around in the dark for your nightstand, reaching for the cup of water you always keep by your side when you wake up. Instead of a plastic cup, you found a rocky feeling pitcher and a rocky feeling cup. Confused, you felt around for your nightstand light, but couldn't find it. Going back to the weird pitcher and cup, you sit on the side of your bed and pour yourself a glass of water.
The water tasted weird. Like it was hand distilled, or it has alcohol in it or something. You push past the initial shock of the weird taste and started chugging the water like you haven't had anything to drink for two days straight. By the time you were done the pitcher was half empty. You set the pitcher and cup back down on the nightstand and stand up.
Immediately you were tripping sideways on your feet. Then you're falling the other direction and you hit the floor. On your way down you feel another bed in the dark.
Gripping the other bed as you crawled to your knees you said aloud to yourself, "What the fuck? Where am I?"
As soon as you said that you remember what happened the last time you were awake. The fall. The agonizing swim. The weird animal people who wanted to kill you.
You quickly felt around your body. You weren't in your usual clothes. You were wearing an oversized shirt that felt more like a dress, and your pants were gone. You still had your underwear, but you weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
You weren't shackled. You didn't have a collar on. Nothing on you felt like you were in pain like you were branded like cattle. Your skin felt hot from sunburn, but that was it. There was nothing to indicate that anything was done to you except for the part about you being undressed.
You stood up cautiously, trying not to fall from the motion of the ship as it cut through the water. Looking around you tried to find some kind of light source but couldn't. You felt around blindly in the dark. You got the impression that the room that you were in was small, but big enough to fit five twin sized beds. You know there were five because you kept banging your shines into them. Eventually you found a clear path to the door, and you opened it slowly.
Peeking out, it was a little bit brighter. Not by much, but it was enough that your eyes were able to see the depths of the hallways that you were looking into. You sniffed the air, and you could smell some sort of stew cooking.
You grabbed your stomach as you were immediately wracked with hunger pains.
"God, I need to eat something," you whisper to yourself.
You bumped against the frame of the door as the ship was rocked a bit hard by the waves. You steady yourself, thinking you could just walk normally, but then you thought better of it, not wanting to fall in the dark into something or someone. Closing the door as you exited, you got on your hands and knees and followed where you thought the strongest smell was coming from.
As you crawled through the dark, you felt ridiculous. You're sneaking through a ship, that you're not even willing to believe is populated by anthropomorphic animals, and you're in nothing but your underwear and some stranger's shirt. What did you do in life that led to this? This sort of shit only happens to teenagers in all those dimension hopping stories you read growing up. You're an adult. You've got taxes to worry about and collage to pay yourself through, and you're missing your gymnastics training of the day.
Granted, if you're in an alternate dimension then that means you don't really have to worry about all that… You're immediately reminded of those tall, weird people that weren't animals at all and looked more like anthropomorphized versions of celestial bodies and you thought that no matter how tedious your old life was, at the very least you weren't the only one of your kind. And when you're the only one of your kind, you attract weird people who'll do anything to collect something rare.
You'd rather not be some creep's collectable.
As you follow the scent of food, you found that you were getting closer to a brightly lit room. Bright being relative, considering you were crawling through gray blackness and the soft yellow light of the three oil lamps in the room, you were poking your nose into, made everything seem brighter.
The room was fairly big, with two really long wooden tables and benches sat in the middle of the room, with a few stray woven chairs situated in circles or sitting by their lonesome. In the back of the room, you could see what was probably a kitchen… Maybe... It was certainly where you were smelling the stew.
You looked around cautiously before you speed walked through the lit room to the back of the room and into the kitchen. You only tripped a little from the rocking of the boat, but you made it quickly. There was a big rock pot on a stove. It wasn't a gas stove, and it wasn't a wood stove. Whatever it was, though it was keeping the stew warm as it steamed lightly.
You quickly looked through the cupboards to find a bowl. The bowl was made of clay, so maybe that pitcher and cup was also made of clay, and you just couldn't tell because of how rough it felt? No, but the bowl felt smooth like it was made on a wheel. Maybe they have rock carvers or something here?
You shake your head of the silly questions that were building about the world around you, and you dipped the bowl into the stew and ran away with your prize to eat in the dark so no one could find you.
You went into the first door that you found and stepped into what you'd call a janitor's closet. You felt around in the dark for a bucket. Mindful that you didn't accidentally spill any of your food, and you flipped the bucket upside down so that you could sit and eat.
It was weird eating in the dark with a mop and broom handle leaning against your head and shoulder as you felt the ship sway with the water and hearing distant footsteps above you go about their day. The stew was really good though. Fish stew. You've never had it before, but you know the taste of fish when you taste it. You wish you could get seconds, but you didn't want to risk getting caught just yet. You didn't know if these people had any nefarious reasons for wanting to keep you instead of killing you while they had the chance.
When you had finished eating you heard running outside the door.
"Come on! They have to be on the ship somewhere!"
You sat as humanly still as you could as you waited for the noise to pass you. Once they were gone you got moving, abandoning the bowl in the janitor's closet. Peeking through the doorway you saw some distant light bouncing to the movement of someone running around. You go in the opposite direction. Each door that you find in the dark you try looking inside it. Since you didn't have a lantern, all you could see was pitch blackness.
Eventually you found a room with a few port holes shining outside light into the ship. The suns brightness making you suddenly sneeze. You step into the room and find that it's a laundry room. Wet and dry clothes were hung on lines. The floor had five different old-fashioned washbasins and washboards. Some had clothes soaking in them, some were empty crusted with salt and imprints of soap bubbles.
You don't remember old timey pirates having a laundry room on board. Do these people live on this boat all the time?
You're immediately taken out of your thoughts when you heard more running and someone shouting that they already checked the laundry room.
You get to grabbing what dry clothes that there are. You pick out a pair of pants and find a belt to keep them on, you get a new shirt on that's a bit smaller but not by much, you grab a hat that you found tossed to the side to hide your hair in, and there was a bandana you used to cover your face even more and a big, oversized coat to complete the look. There were no shoes and considering that the crew was animal based it is likely that no one needs any shoes.
All dressed up, you hope this will be enough to get you past a few people. If only for a little bit.
The door to the laundry room jiggles and you make yourself look busy, like you were searching through every nook and cranny.
The door opened and a Cajun sounding accent asked, "Any luck?"
"No. And it's the second time we've looked through here."
The voice tsked, then said, "Damn. I'll tell Chika."
The door closed behind you. You almost couldn't tell with how loudly you felt your heart pumping in your ears. You know that if the guy's smart he's going to come back to do a double take on you. So you bust it out of the laundry room.
Being in the sunbathed laundry room made you lose you night vision, but you didn't need it for long as you finally found stairs leading up to the deck.
Pulling your hat down over your face a bit more, you hope to whatever gods that exist in this universe that no one will notice your bare hands and feet.
Everyone's in a rush around you. You're not sure if it's because everyone is looking for you or if it's just another workday for them. You weren't about to ask as you were looking for the main mast. You only know about ships through movies, so you're hoping that the movies were mostly right about the main mast having the crow's nest. That's where you'll be safe for a little bit to hide. Like a ninja, hiding above everyone's head will give you maximum advantage.
You see the main mast and you look around and find the Jacob's ladder leading up it from the sides of the ship. You've climbed all kinds of shit, so climbing a rope ladder onto some beam poles to get to the crow's nest wasn't anything new, what was new was having to do it on a perpetually moving object. You've slipped more than once on your way up, but you were careful enough to give yourself at least one hand hold to hold on to.
You hoisted yourself over into the crow's nest, which was a pretty big space. You could comfortably sleep up here if you wanted to. It's probably only just small enough for the crew members to sit up in the crow's nest to look around. You see that someone had left a spy glass up in the crow's nest and you happily pick it up.
Finally, you look to the horizon and you're breathless at the sight. The sea sparkled with light, like someone had thrown gold, teal, and silver glitter into the water. The sky was spotted with big fluffy white clouds, and you could see water critters of some kind jumping out of the water in graceful arcs from a distance. A little "Wow," escaped you at the sight. You've lived in the city all your life; you've never seen the horizon just stretch on for forever without the obstruction of a few buildings. For a moment you just soaked it all in.
Then with a sigh, you bring the spy glass up to your eye and you begin surveying the area, seeing if you were close to land or something. You can't just stay on this ship for them to do God-knows-what to you. Your looking around was futile though. All you could see in any direction was water.
The weight of your situation was starting to fall heavily on your mind. Why didn't they get rid of you? Why were you put into that room? Is this their version of putting you on a leash? Does magic exist here, and did they perform it on you to do something weird? You don't know what the rules are, they could see you as a meal and want to eat you. You don't fucking know. You don't know anything, and no one can help you. You're all alone.
A sob escapes you as your thoughts swirl. The anxiety of what they could do to you and what they wanted from you having built up in you since the moment you woke up, finally spilling over, but there was no relief to be had from it.
# # #
Moon and Sun were going over the map with their sailing master, Monty, when Chika barged into the Captain's Quarters.
"Guy's they're missing!"
"Who?" Monty the gator asked.
"The critter we pulled from the sea. They're gone! I went to go check on them to see if they had wakened up yet and when I went to the infirmary their bed was empty," Chika shouted as she ran her fingers through her puffed up head feathers, "What if someone decided to throw them overboard while we weren't looking!"
Sun put a calming hand on the white chicken woman's shoulder, "Hey. I'm sure they just woke up and are hiding. If they remember anything about what happened to them, they're probably not keen on being seen."
Chika hummed out a whine as she fiddled with her shirt.
"Besides I'm sure no one on our crew is going to throw out our guest when we all voted on the matter, and we voted to keep them. Okay?"
Chika nodded but she was still worried.
Sun turned to the dark green alligator, "Monty, why don't you go help Chika find them and get others to help you if they have the time."
"Al'ight, come on, Cher. I'm shore they're aroun'," Monty said as he grabbed Chika's hand and lead her out of the Captain's Quarters.
Moon walked up to Sun once they left. Sun immediately turned on Moon and said, "I hope they're just hiding! Do you think they're hiding? Do you trust everyone on our crew cause I don't trust our new people all that much?"
"Like you said, they're probably hiding. You should help look to flush them out. I'll stay on deck and keep an eye out for anything strange," Moon said comfortingly.
Sun took a deep breath. Held it. Then let it all out.
"Okay. Alright. You're right. Okay. I'm going now. I'm going," Sun said as he bound out the door.
Moon watched his partner go. He wasn't as worried about you being missing as Chika and Sun. It's been almost two days since you've been asleep, and you never woke up from any of their prodding and buckets of water to the face. So you had to of finally woken up on your own. If it really was someone on his crew that threw you overboard, when the vote was to keep you, then he'll deal with them when it was time.
For now, it was safer to assume you were awake.
Moon cleaned up the map table and put everything away, then he walked out onto the deck. Everything was busy as people got ready for the diving area that they were sailing to. Moon checked in with his crew, asked if any help was needed, and when told, no, he moved on. Moon's goal at this point was to keep an eye out. He assumed it wouldn't be hard to pick you out of a crowd because of how small you were. The only other person even close to being your size was Happy Frog.
Moon got out the mop and bucket and got to work on mopping the deck just to give himself something to do as he was on look out. Every once in a while, he'd hear shouting from below deck, but it wasn't anything about having found you, just people saying where they've already looked.
Moon wiped the sweat off his brow and looked up with a sigh. The day was getting hotter. As he was arching his back into a stretch, Moon saw someone had climbed halfway up the rope ladders on the main mast. Moon watched them for a second, wondering who it was, because over half of his crew is afraid of heights and usually, he had to tell someone to go up to the crow's nest instead of someone going up there willingly.
Moon watched the person slip and Moon realized that it was you. He hunched in on himself at the sight of you slipping but then when he saw that you kept climbing, he relaxed. He set aside the mop and bucket and started walking over to the closest Jacob's ladder that was connected to the main mast and started climbing.
Moon shook his head as he climbed up, he honestly didn't think you'd come up to the deck. Then again, he wasn't expecting you to blend in by stealing someone's clothes. Moon was pretty sure his eyes swept over you when you were on the deck before he saw you climbing, so he admits to himself that, that was pretty smart.
By the time that Moon made it to the crow's nest, you were looking around with the spy glass and muttering to yourself.
Moon decided to park himself right underneath you outside the crow's nest, he was curious what you would say.
Mostly Moon heard you just muttering, no, to yourself like you were trying to find something specific. Moon figured you were trying to see how you could leave the ship. You'd gone silent for a hot minute, so Moon decided to show himself.
He was heaving himself into the crow's nest, words to chastise you with ready on his lips, when he was frozen by the sound of our sob. It honestly surprised him to hear you crying, almost wailing with such sorrow that it made Moon's bones ache.
While you were asleep it was very easy for Moon to pretend that you weren't a person. That you were just a threat or a boon to their place on the sea, but seeing you scrunched up into yourself, wearing clothes that don't fit you that made you look smaller than what you really were. Moon felt guilt stab him in the heart.
"Hey," Moon said softly.
Moon saw your back go ridged and your crying immediately stopped, like you were holding your breath.
"It's dangerous up here. How about you come down with me and we can talk over some stew," Moon offered gently.
You were still ridged. Moon reached a hand out to you to try and put a comforting hand on our shoulder, but you quickly spun around and threw your hat at his face.
Moon sputtered and then yelped at the sighed of you backflipping out of the crow's nest.
Moon scrambled over to where you fell and saw that you had landed on the boom a few feet below them and was running across it.
"Hey!" Moon yelled at you. He jumped out of the crow's nest and was running along the boom towards you, "That's dangerous! Are you insane?"
You kept going and it looked like to Moon that you were trying to run faster. Moon ran after you. He was much more accustomed to working on the ship while you would wabble everyone other minute from the boat's movement.
"Will you please stop running away. I'll help you down," Moon said as they neared the tip of the boom.
Moon thought you would stop once you had nowhere to go. He wasn't expecting you to jump. His heart was in his mouth at the sight as you grabbed a rope, that he didn't notice at first, and you swung down towards the deck.
"They're insane," he breathed as he watched you go.
Shaking his head, he jumped to the closest rope ladder and was slowly dropping himself down as he went. Keeping an eye on you as you swung up to the helm.
Yelling, Moon said, "Everyone! Help me catch them!"
The crew that was on the deck looked up at Moon and when he pointed at you, they got the picture.
By the time Moon made it back on deck, someone had ripped the jacket off of you in their attempt to grab you and you were running away from parts of his crew towards him. You stuttered in your running at the sight of him, but then you kept running at him.
Moon didn't know what you were playing at, but he got ready to pick you up, when you slid and slipped between his legs. Moon didn't have time to process this as he felt five different bodies slam into him. Disoriented, Moon and his crew members were sprawled out on the deck in various degrees of pain.
There was laughter. And someone in the crew called you a slippery eel, and Moon had to agree. As Moon got up, he was still sympathetic, but he was getting annoyed at this point. He just wanted to talk with you, but you kept running away.
No matter. It was you against twenty-seven people. You were going to get tired eventually. Everyone on the deck tried to chase you down and grab you. Even the people below deck could hear the commotion and found their way up, to then join in what everyone thought was fun.
Moon knew you weren't having fun though. You haven't lost that scared look in your eye since he found you in the crow's nest. He felt another pang of guilt stab him in the heart, but he just needed you to hold still long enough to talk to you.
Sun leaned against Moon as he gasped, saying, "How do they keep doing those weird flip things?"
"I don't know. But they're getting tired," Moon said.
As he said that, you tripped over your own feet and fell hard. Everyone saw your face ricochet off the deck floor. With your nose bleeding, you tried to scramble back onto your feet, but then Sun managed to pounce on you and pick you up by your armpits.
You flailed your arms and kicked your feet in an attempted to wriggle out of Sun's hold, but he held you at a distance and let you have your little fit. Moon went to stand by Sun, and he saw your face scrunch up like you'd lost all hope and you squeezed yourself into a ball, covering your bleeding face with your knees.
"Hey now," Sun said reassuringly, "Don't be like that. You're a guest on our ship. We're not going to hurt you."
You poked an eye out to stare at both celestial beings. Moon could tell you didn't trust them, especially him, since you were side eyeing the lunar man the most.
Your stomach growled loudly, and it made Sun laugh.
"I'm sure Mr. Hippo is done cooking the fish stew that we'll be having. Do you want some?" Sun offered.
You sighed, then said, "I already stole a bowl. I don't know what your guy's rules are on rations or seconds or whatever… Mr. Hippo's stew is really good by the way," You added in a small voice.
"We certainly aren't going to let you starve if that's what you're thinking. Besides, you've missed a few days of eating. Might as well have you catch up on that," Moon stated.
You lift your head up all the way, your nose still gushing blood, but you were looking Moon up and down in a scrutinizing way, like you were trying to find the lie that he was telling. Moon didn't mind. It reminded him of how he felt when he was a child. He had to do that a lot with the adults in his life to keep him and Sun safe.
"Chika!" Sun yelled, "Would you mind helping them!"
You unfurled your limbs as Sun lowered you back down to the ground. You had a questioning look on your bloody face when the white feathered chicken woman busted through the crowd and enveloped you into a feathery hug.
Moon thought it was kind of fun to watch you get babied by Chika as she cooed at you and scolded you for giving her a heart attack and was cleaning your chin and nose with the bandana around your neck while also telling you reassuring things. Your face was absolutely blank with bafflement and Moon had to place a hand over his mouth to keep himself form laughing.
Eventually you were dragged below deck by the chicken woman and Moon and Sun told everyone to go back to work.
Before Sun could move on to doing his own thing, Moon grabbed Sun by the shoulder and said seriously, "We need to talk."