You woke up with a start and accidentally fell off Chika's bed. Giggling/clucking could be heard above you.

"I really wish we knew to do this to you when you first passed out," Chika said patting your head apologetically as you sat up on your knees.

You rubbed your ear from the way it still tingled, "Yah. Yah."

You have incredibly sensitive ears, not in a hearing sense, but in a feeling sense. Since there was no alarm clocks to help wake you with the crew, you told Chika your little secret of how she just needs to blow some air into your ears for you wake up. Instead of sleeping like a corpse like you know you do.

"Eventually, I'm going to get used to this sleep schedule and you won't have to do this to me anymore," you tell her as you stand to your feet and brush aside her hand that she was still patting you with.

"Oh, I don't know. I might still do it even after. It's really cute seeing you jump like that."

You make a hand puppet, and you go, "Bla! Bla! Bla!"

She laughed at your reaction, and you take a moment to look around. The crew's quarters were deserted. She's been waking you up either when everyone else is still asleep or when everyone had left, leaving you alone and keeping the ear thing a secret for you, like you've asked of her. You really do appreciate the lengths this chicken woman has gone to not only make you comfortable but also earn your trust. You haven't been showing your gratitude as much as you should, but it's a new day, now's as good as any to start showing.

"Welp, come on Chickadee. You won't be training so much as just shadowing Freddy today with his duties."

Chika turns around and starts walking off, but you grab her feathered hand.

"Hey…"

You take a second to collect your thoughts as you looked to the floor. Then you look up at her patient but expectant face.

"I want to say sorry for being a real butt these last couple of days. For essentially blaming my situation on all of you. It's not fair of me to do that to you guys. I also really want you to specifically know that I appreciate what you've been doing for me and how you've been treating me. You've helped me a lot and I can't thank you enough for it."

You sigh in relief as you let go of the woman. You were glad to finally have that out of the way. What you weren't expecting was for her to give you a hug. It was very motherly, like she was trying to brood over you like a normal chicken would with their clutch of eggs. It would be very easy for her to do considering your five-foot ass and her being six, maybe seven feet tall.

"Oh, Sug'. I'm just sorry you've been through so much."

You smiled sadly as you loosely held her back as she continued to hold you firmly against her. You still find it kind of funny to see some of the crew with clothes on while others only ever wore a hat or just pants. It was obvious that clothes in this world was more of a personal choice to express your style than any need to keep things covered and keep one warm.

Chika was one of those people who wore clothes to be stylish. Her shirt over her feathers gave her chest a feeling of laying your head on a feathered pillow. It was nice.

You sigh then said, "I, um, have a favor to ask of you."

Chika pushes you back to look at your face.

"Can you give me a haircut? I don't want this anymore."

You emphasize your point by pulling a bit at your long hair.

"Of course. I can have that done quickly."

Walking out from below deck with Chika, you sneeze from the sun being on your face, along with how reflective and bright the sea was. A strong sea breeze passed over the bustling ship and it ruffled your newly cut hair. It was nice not having to keep spitting out your long hair every time a breeze would move it. Your hair is just too, ugh, everywhere for it to properly be put in whatever Roxy manages to keep her long hair up in.

You wave goodbye to Chika as she goes about her duties, and you quickly finished eating through the large biscuit that you were having for breakfast. Then you make your way across the deck to where you saw Freddy currently putting together a kind of machine with Chip, Happy, and Bonnie.

You take a deep breath as you get closer. Then smiling your best smile, you greet the group warmly.

Freddy, without missing a beat, greets you just as warmly. The other three stared at you in surprise, like you had suddenly grown a second head. You expected as much, considering the sour puss you've been, but still, ouch.

"Chika told me what was up. So just point me at it and I'll do what needs to be done," you say with a little forced pep in your step. You're not exactly forcing yourself to be happy, but your enthusiasm does need to be kicked back into gear. It's like trying to stretch your muscles after just waking up.

Freddy nodded his big furry head at you, then he said, "Thank you. Currently we're working on the rebreather, but it's sensitive work, so for right now the deck needs to be mopped again. When we have everything put together, I'll come for you to show you how it works."

You nod but you don't leave just yet.

"Um… Freddy…"

The orange/brown bear nods at you. Looking at you curiously.

"I would like to apologize to you about my behavior these last couple of days. I've been upset about my situation, but I've been acting like it's your fault, but it's not. So, I'm sorry about how I've been treating you," you turn away from the big bear to the other three animals close by and said, "To all of you. I should have been better."

You give the four of them a nod and you were about to go get the mop, bucket, and soap when Happy spoke up.

"We're sorry too."

You looked at the frog in surprise as the dark brown bear and purple bunny nodded along in agreement. Freddy looked so proud as he watched the interaction.

"Uh, sorry for what?" As far as you were aware of, they were just doing their own people stuff ever since you've known them.

"Well, for one, making you cry. We didn't exactly try making your stay here any better than we would have if you were just, you know, like us," the light green frog said as he gestured to himself.

"Everyone has an adjustment period," Bonnie agreed, "I remember how hard it was for me when I left the island that I grew up on. Everyone on this ship was so understanding, and we should have tried to be understanding of you too."

You brought your hands up to your chest. You honestly didn't think they would apologize for upsetting you, cause every time they did so, they just laughed at how you'd react. Maybe they're regretting that.

"Naw, thank you. I appreciate you guys telling me this. You guys have no idea how much of a relief it is to hear you guys say that."

Your words tumble out of your mouth without thinking and the more you said the wider their smiles got. Eventually you said all you wanted to say and then some.

"Welp. I better get going," you said with a more genuine skip to your step, "I'll see you guys around."

As you walked off you heard Chip yell in his thick Mexican accent, which you know can't actually be a Mexican accent and it's just how your brain is processing how he speaks, saying, "Your fur looks great!"

You give a short, happy howl back at him

In this moment, as you throw the rope tied bucket overboard to collect mop water, you find that you're the happiest you've been since you've been here. You start humming Love Again by Dua Lipa. It has a jaunty beat and as soon as you started humming it, your brain starts playing the music in your head.

It's like having a memory playlist in your head as you can perfectly imagine how the song goes, but you do wish you had your actual playlist to listen to… Still, that thought doesn't stop you from humming the infectious beat.

You continue to hum as you pull up the water then treat the water with the special soap. As soon as you have the mop head in the water, you start singing out loud the lyrics. You don't think you have the best voice in the world, but that never stopped you from singing a song when you're in a good mood.

You start off softly as you sing, but as you continue to lose yourself in the song, you start dancing with your mop, and you sing louder. You don't register what's going on around you. It's just you, the music, and your task.

Eventually you accidentally back into someone. Scaring yourself in the process with a quick little scream. You turn around to apologize to whoever you had ran into and you keep looking up, and up, and up until you're looking at Captain Moon. You hunched up at the sight of him and you took a step back.

You slip on your work and fall into the puddle that you were making with your mop. You would think that bare feet and a wet wood floor wouldn't be so slippery, but here you are with a wet butt, still cowering before one of the captains of the ship. The captain that very much wanted you dead, but genuinely decided not to kill you? You're not exactly sure where this guy's personal morals lay.

He leaned closer to you and then in a soft voice he asked, "Can I help you up?"

"Huh?" You ask out loud in confusion.

He had his hand outstretched towards you, but he hasn't tried to just pick you up like a few of the people on the boat have done at one point or the other when you were tipped sideways by the boat's rocking.

You realized that he was waiting for your permission to touch you. Now that you think about it, it has been a few days since anyone, but Chika has touched you. You knew Chika got on everyone's case every time she was around to see it happen, but you didn't think she had that much sway over people's actions around here, even over the captains.

Before you leave Captain Moon hanging for too long to make it awkward, you grab his outstretched hand, and he easily lifts you up back onto your feet.

"Dah-um! S-sorry sir. I didn't mean to get you," you manage to blurt out.

"You're fine. I actually got in your way," he said smoothly.

You nod. Then you turn away from him and get back to scrubbing the deck. There's no fan fair or singing or anything. Out of the corner of your eye Captain Moon continued to stand there. You don't see his face since you keep your head down, but you get the feeling that he's expecting something from you or something.

Whatever he wanted though, it kept him at the spot, and you turned it over in your head about making amends with the guy. You may not really want to try and amend things when he was very willing to kill you and you're not sure if he'll change his mind again, but he did hire you onto the crew even though he didn't have to. Freddy has been a great teacher too, so it was a good call on the captains' part.

You sigh as you make up your mind. Steeling your nerves, you turn back towards Captain Moon.

"Um…"

"Have we apologized to you for how you've been treated yet?"

You were taken off kilter by the question.

"Huh?" You look at him for a second, then you snap back as you processed his words. He must mean "we" as in the crew, "Oh! Oh. Yes actually. I had a nice little conversation with the boys over by the rebreather? Anyways, yah. I think I'm starting to get along with the crew okay."

"So Sun hasn't tried to apologize for how he's been making you feel?"

"N-no…" You say, wondering where he was going with this.

Moon nodded, then he said, "I would like to apologize for making you feel unsafe here. The captain of any ship takes eminence pride in having their crew trust them. With you being a part of the crew, I have done very little to try and gain your trust."

"That's just expected though, in'nit?"

"I suppose, considering our strange circumstances," Moon agreed, "Still, I'm sorry. I'll prove to you that you're safe here just as much as any other crew member."

"Yah, well, you're not the only one with apologies," you say, almost defeated as you start half-heartedly mopping the floor, "My attitude could have been better and I am grateful that you let me be a part of the crew," you grimace at the thought of being a weird guest, "I'm much happier doing stuff and trying to help than I would have been if I was a guest."

Moon nodded, then he started walking away. As a passing comment, he said, "You have a lovely singing voice."

You shrug. "Okay."

You continue to mop along, too deep in thought to really sing. You're glad that Captain Moon was, hopefully, genuine in his want to gain your trust. You'll just have to see where it goes all things considered. It'd be a weight off your mind knowing you're not going to be sold to some weird collector or experimented on alive or something of the like. Until then though, that fear's going to nag you at the back of your mind.

"Aw, are you really not going to keep singing?"

You jump but you don't scream as you turn toward the voice to see the yellow elephant Orville leaning against the railing like she was trying to watch a show.

You give the elephant a confused look and you look around a bit to see more of the crew watching you expectantly.

"I'm a little too busy thinking about my life right now to want to sing."

Orville sighed and pushed herself off the railing, then she said, "Okay. See you around, Tiny."

You frown at being called tiny. You are of average height, it's not your fault that everyone here is so freaking tall. The small crowd that had gathered around you had dispersed with Orville and you go about your cleaning ways.

You roll your eyes at the situation. They must have been bored if your singing was enough to get them to want to watch you.

The sun was high in the sky, and you had just finished mopping the entire deck. You were on your way to put away the soap and bucket and to hang the mop to dry when Freddy came up to you. The big bear grabbed the soap and bucket from you to give you something less to carry and he followed you to the little closet just past the first flight of stairs below deck where you were placing everything in a little closet.

You sigh in relief at being in the shade. You really need a hat of your own or something.

Wiping the sweat from your brow after putting everything away, you look up at the big orange/brown bear and said, "Thanks. How goes building the rebreather thing?"

Freddy smiled, then said, "It went well. Usually, it's a pain but fate has been kind to us today. Ready to see how it works?"

"I'll be up there in a minute. I need some water."

He nodded and you two went on your separate ways.

The kitchen was currently occupied by Roxy, the giant gray wolf. She was working on the dishes while utensils and supplies were out, ready to be used to make dinner for the night. You pulled out a pitcher from the cabinets and a few cups and sat them on a tray. Then you dipped the pitcher into the water barrel and filled up all six cups with water. You filled up six in case someone else wanted some water.

You nod a farewell to Roxy and carried the slightly heavy tray in both your hands, hoping you wouldn't spill too much water as you walked in the dark.

As you made it to the deck again, you blinked and squinted against the sun's light, and you were happy to see that you managed not to spill so much water on your journey up. You crossed the not so busy deck over to Freddy, Chip, Happy, and Bonnie who were around the rebreather. You also saw that Monty was there and he had on a strange suit. It reminded you of those old-fashioned deep diver suits with the round heads. Only there was no round head that you could see and considering Monty's long snout, you were wondering how he would even be able to wear such a thing.

"Hey, guys," you say with a smile, "I brought water for everyone."

You hold out the tray a bit more and indicate for them to take a cup. A choir of thank yous surrounded you as the animal people all took a cup, leaving the last one to you. You chug half of the cup then you turn your attention to Freddy.

"So what am I learning?"

You hold the tray to your chest as you wait for him to finish drinking.

Freddy then starts off with telling you how the rebreather is a machine that helps them to dive underwater for long periods of time when diving for supplies and/or materials. He showed you the pumps and the tubes and the elliptical bike thing that would be used to pump air into the suit that Monty is wearing.

"You'll be diving down there," you said as you looked over the railing of the boat and stared into the water, "That's terrifying…"

Monty elbowed you in the shoulder and said, "I'm not scared. The suit can be in three hundred meters of deep water, and the clay deposit shouldn't even be that deep. It'll be fine. I've done this hundreds of times before."

You give the dark green gator a concerned look regardless and said, "You are very brave, but I'd still hate for anything to happen to you."

He gave you a toothy smile, like he was surprised you'd say such a thing.

Freddy called for you, and you turned to see that him and Chip were pulling up a few floorboards from the deck, "Come on. You can help us put the crane together. That's a lot simpler than the rebreather."

You set your cup and the tray down beside Monty and you go over to help the two bears lift and lock into place the wooden and stone crane. It was something else. This ship felt less like a ship and more of a floating multi-tool. On either side of the crane were two handles to lift and lower the thick rope it had in it, connected to a slab of stone. With another pair of handles to crank the crane, itself, side to side. The stone slab was light enough that you could lift it with some effort, but it will certainly be heavy enough to sink in the water. This thing is obviously a two-man operated machine.

The two bears got to work on the crane and Bonnie sat his fuzzy tail on the bike thing and started peddling. The rebreather took a second, but then it started to pump air as it shook and shuddered. Happy was checking the helmet of the suit and feeling for the air inside it. Once he was satisfied, he helped Monty seal up the suit.

You thought the helmet looked funny with the way it looked a bit like a plague doctor's mask, but thicker.

"What can I do," you asked.

Happy handed you a rope that was connected to Monty's suit.

"This helps us know if he needs to be pulled up quickly. Keep your hands on it and if he starts pulling on it in a one-two type tug, then we'll know he needs up."

You nod, scared to hold the lifeline essentially.

Happy gave Monty one last look over to make sure the pressure was even and that the hoses connect to the suit didn't have any unseen holes. Then the frog gave the gator a thumbs up and Monty returned the gesture.

Monty grabbed a shovel that was laying down nearby, then he hopped onto the stone slab and Freddy and Chip lifted him up with the crane then slowly lowered him down. You kept a hold of the rope with firm hands, letting it slip through your fingers as you watched the gator disappear beneath the water.

Happy was keeping the hoses from snagging against anything and making sure that Bonnie was doing okay in the pedaling process. The two bears grunted as they unwound the rope from the crane, clearly sweating from the exertion. You were sweating too, but more from nerves than from the heat, fearfully watching over the railing of the boat at the lazy waving surface.

After a few minutes of pacing the side of the boat while you held onto the rope, you felt a firm tug, but not in a way that Happy indicated that said he was in distress down there.

"Hey! He pulled on the rope," you informed everyone.

Happy asked you how it felt and when you told him, the frog didn't seem alarmed and was yelling at Chip and Freddy to real up the platform.

"So he's still okay?"

"Yes, Monty's still fine. He was just telling us it was time to get the clay," Happy replied.

"Oookay," you said. You continued to watch the surface of the water and waited for the crane to lift the material.

When the platform breached the surface of the water, you didn't see Monty on it. It made you extra nervous that he was still down there, but you supposed it didn't make since if he added his extra weight to the load to then just go back down again.

Freddy and Chip managed to lower the clay filled platform with practiced effort. Then they got to work in dividing up the clay into moist seaweed wraps that you didn't see before that someone else must have dropped off, while you were fretting over the side of the boat.

Other crew members walked over and started taking the wrapped-up clay and was taking it below deck. Once the platform was clean, the two bears went to lowering it back into the water.

This went on for a few hours. Bonnie would switch out with another crew member on the deck to give his legs a break at the rebreather while Chip and Freddy got breaks in between lifting and loading the platform as they wait for Monty to fill it with clay again. Happy kept a vigilant eye on the machine to make sure that it was pumping breathable and pressurized air into Monty's suit. You however couldn't relax despite how everyone was acting that this was all normal.

"You look like you're about to bite your finger in half there, friend."

You jump and scream as you look up at Captain Sun. Clutching the rope like it was your lifeline and not Monty's.

"Whoa. Easy. I didn't mean to spook you," the solar being stated as he took a step back away from you.

"I'm easily spooked," you admitted as you continued to look over the side of the boat and into the water.

"How are you doing," Sun asked you, sounding a bit sad or maybe nervous. You weren't exactly sure which.

Instead of answering that questions though, you kind of snap up at him in a fearful way asking, "Why do you guys do this," you gesture heavily to the crane and the rebreather and then down at the water, "Why does someone have to dive into the water to mine for materials? Like why not go to an island and go digging into a riverbed or something. It'd be much easier."

Captain Sun looked immediately confused, then he said, "Islands don't have clay on them."

"Yes, they do."

"Well, I mean, when we bring the clay to the islands sure, but… Wait. Hold on. What's an island like from your world?"

"It depends. Sometimes it's just a big pile of sand. Sometimes there's trees and underbrush and rivers on them. Sometimes it's just big piles of rocks and patches of tall grass. Islands are very diverse biomes. Why? Do you guys not have islands like that here?"

Sun looked really excited by what you said and was making grabby hands at you when you felt the rope tug urgently in your hands.

You immediately turn to Happy and said, "Emergency tug! Emergency! Tug!"

Happy, Chip, Freddy, Bonnie, Captain Sun and everyone else grabbed the rope and started pulling the gator up. You left them to do the pulling while you threw the rope ladder overboard for Monty to hold on to as you kept an eye on the water's surface. As you watched you could have sworn you saw something big and dark swimming deep in the water. Too deep for you to see it properly, but enough to be able to see its outline and it kind of reminded you of a giant whale, but skinnier in a way.

Monty breached the surface of the water and you told everyone he had a hold of the rope ladder. Everyone continued to hold onto Monty's lifeline until he had his leg thrown over the railing.

Then Freddy and Captain Sun grabbed a hold of him and pulled him all the way onto the ship. Happy was examining his suit, trying to make sure it wasn't damaged, but it didn't look like anything was wrong with it.

Monty was frantically trying to get the helmet off and when he did, he had one word to say, "Siren!"

The atmosphere became immediately thick with fear, even you were afraid, and you weren't even sure what to be afraid of. Like, from your world, a siren is a bird woman who would sing to you your heart's desire to tempt you closer so that you could be eaten and eventually that also applied to some mermaids so you wondered what a siren from this world could possibly be.

Captain Sun was shouting orders to get people into gear, and everyone was scrambling to do as he said.

Then there was a screech that emitted from the water that kind of reminds you of those two kaiju bug creatures from the 2014 Godzilla movie. Only more musical somehow and it made you think that someone decided to do a remix of those kaiju sounds for a song.

Water sprayed over the deck, and you looked up at the massive form of what looked to you like an eel fish with four arms. It was white and had a rainbow sheen to its scales. Its teeth looked like those bristle teeth that blue whales have and it had multiple eyes.

As soon as it breached the water it had grabbed a hold of the ship and you were almost launched out of the boat with half the crew if Sun hadn't grabbed a hold of you and grabbed the rope connected to the crane. You looked around to make sure no one got thrown off, but it seemed like everyone had managed to hold on to something as the boat adjusted to the new weight.

You could only look up in shock and awe at the giant sight. Everyone else was scrambling to find ways of poking it off or shooting it off so that they could unfurl the sails and sail away.

"Chika! Man the cannons! Freddy! Get it to loosen its hold! Bonnie! Get those sails down!" Sun yelled as he continued to hold on to you while running up the slanted boat to get as physically far away from the siren as he could.

You continued to look at the giant creature as everything buzzed around you. The siren obviously looked distressed, but what for?

The siren emitted a deep bass-y tone that rattled your bones and made your insides pulse. Sun staggered at the sound and dropped you to cover his ears. Everyone around you was in similar looking pain like the captain, but it was just annoying to you if only a little painful.

Then you heard it. A faint reply. You quickly looked around the deck. You managed to follow the sound only a little way before the ship was tipped sideways even more and the siren made it's sound again.

Someone bodily slammed into you by accident from the tipping and you grab onto them and a piece of the ship's cargo bay deck door. Looking at who you had a hold of by the scruff of their neck, you saw that it was Monty.

The faint reply happened again when the siren was emitting its bass-y cry. You heard it coming from Monty, but you could see that he wasn't the one making the actual sound.

"Monty! Hold on to the ship! Please. I can't keep a hold on you like this," you pleaded as the ship swayed a bit.

Painfully removing one hand from the side of his head, he gripped the deck floor with you.

You then climbed down next to him to check where Happy didn't. You heard the same low chirping sound coming from underneath Monty's tail and you lifted it up to look.

"Woah! Hey! At least take me to dinner first," Monty screeched, scrambling to keep a hold of the deck floor, shaking you away, and keeping the siren's painful noise out of his head.

You ignored the red mohawked gator as you saw a little white critter that looked like the big siren, clinging to the underside of Monty's tail.

The ship managed to right itself a bit, so you didn't have to hold onto the ship with your hands and you gripped the little critter off Monty's tail.

"What the fuck!" he shrieked as he felt you drag the baby siren off him.

As soon as you had a hold of the baby siren it was calling out shrilly and clung to your arm. It felt cold and slimy and the little arms that griped your arm felt like the hands of death.

The ship sagged even more under the weight of the giant siren, and you slid down towards it. Many people tried to grab you on your way down, but you squirmed away from them because you wanted to get close to the siren.

You landed against its hand that was clasped around the railing. It's bass-y sound even harder for you to bare so close to it, but you were close enough that now the creature should be able to hear its child call to it.

Unfortunately, you were wrong. When the baby siren sang out, it was still too quiet, especially to be heard over the siren's call.

Sucking in as much air into your lungs, you start yelling/singing the way the baby siren was calling out.

Finally, there was silence.

You did the call again with the baby siren doing it with you.

The ship creaked and groaned as the siren shifted to look down itself at where you sat at one of its four hands.

You held your arm up that the baby siren was clinging to.

The hand you were squatting against reached around you and picked you up by your legs and waist. You know the sea creature was really big, but it doesn't really register until it picked you up like you were some action figure. As it picked you up you saw that the ship was righting itself and the siren was sliding off the ship.

The siren brought you up to one of its biggest eyes and looked you up and down, sizing you up. If you didn't know better, you would have guessed the siren was less of a big scary monster and more of a "speaks a different language" type creature. Considering you have no context for why you should fear this thing beside how big it is, maybe everyone was just having a simple misunderstanding.

You offer your arm up that the baby siren was holding on to.

It did its bass-y call again, but it was less panicked and more sounded like a "There you are" type sound. Another large hand reached up towards you. You reached your baby siren laden arm towards its webbed hand and the baby jumped off you and into the siren's hand.

The two did a little bass-y/high pitched back and forth with each other like a parent scolding an argumentative child.

That thought made you think of how cute it was and you laughed at the thought of this giant creature wearing an apron and getting on to its kid's case for trespassing on someone's property just because they could.

When you finished laughing you saw that baby and adult had turned their attention onto you.

"Kids am I right." You smile at the siren.

The giant siren made a sound that made you think of dubstep.

"Hey, uh, can you let me go. I don't like how you're gripping me."

The siren angled its hand and slowly opened its fingers so that you could comfortably stand in the flat of its webbed balm.

"Thank you. Also, sorry for giving you a scare like that. None of us knew we had your kid. Why were you even holding onto Monty's tail like that, kid?"

It trilled at you in an indignant way, then crossed both of its arms a crossed its chest.

You laughed at the sight. Despite how creepy it looked it was still very cute.

You turn around to check on the boat. You weren't that high up. You were about level with the deck. From what you could see the ship was still in floating condition but the beams from two different masts were snapped and the poor rebreather was practically flattened. Surprisingly the crane looked fine. You're sure it was all fixable, but it'll be a pain to do so.

You turn your attention to the people of the crew, who had all frozen and were staring at you as you stood comfortably on the siren's webbed hand. You waved at them. Moon, Sun, Monty, and Freddy waved back, dumb struck. Everyone was just as in shock but didn't have it in them to wave.

You turn back to the siren.

"So, do you got a name?" You tell it your name.

The siren gave you a bass-y reply that sounded jovial. Like it's never had anyone ask it for a name before.

"I have no idea what you said, but I suppose that's on me. Is it okay if I call you, uuuuh… D.J. I'll call you D.J. Mer Man. Sound like a fun name for you?"

The siren nodded. More mellowed bass-y sounds came out of it.

"Cool! I'm glad you like it. I better get going now. I'm sure you have places to be too," you tell it as you turn around and walk towards its fingertips to then jump back onto the deck.

Turning back around you waved goodbye to the siren and said, "Bye! See you around. Sorry again for the panic! Stay safe."

With each wave of your hand, the siren sunk lower and lower into the water and disappeared below the waves. You peered over the boat's railing to watch its shadow swim away.

Once you couldn't see it any more you sigh, then dust your hands off and turn around to see that you were absolutely surrounded by half the crew if not by more.

"Ah!" You scream.

Captain Sun pushed through the crowd and clasped your shoulders. He had a big goofy smile on his face as he shook you back and forth. The big fancy hat on is round head bouncing with how hard he was shaking you.

"That was amazing! How do you feel? How did you do that? Can you calm any beast? Have I said how amazing you are yet? You're amazing," Sun bombarded you.

He wasn't the only one. Everyone else started talking over each other and talking to you and asking you questions that you didn't really have answers to. You just did what you did because it felt right.

"Sun," you said a bit meekly, as you patted his arm to stop, "Sun," you said a bit louder as he continued to shake you in his excitement, "Captain Sun would you please stop!" You shout at the top of your lungs.

Finally, he lets go of you and everyone is silent.

You breathe a sigh of relief, then looking into the crowd you call out, "Monty?!"

The red mohawked gator pushed his way through the crowd towards you, "Yah, Cher?"

"I'll take you to dinner if you really need me to. I'm sorry for grabbing at you in a place that was private to you," you tell him, bashful of your unthinking actions.

Monty walked up to you and slapped you on the back, making you stagger, "Ha! Cher, after what you did, you can touch me however you like."

The crowd laughed and you laughed with them.

"There's no need for that, but you are okay?"

Smiling his toothy grin, he leaned closer to you and said, "Shoot, Cher, if you're that concerned, I guess I will take you up on that dinner. How 'bout when we get to Shallow's Isle?"

"Okay," you said cheerily.

The crowd ooo-ed and jeered at that and you looked at everyone in surprise. What were they getting all excited for?

Captain Moon's voice started ringing out over the crowd.

"Okay everyone! Okay! Let's get back to work. We got beams to patch and inventory to check and make sure it's still secure. Someone haul up that platform so we can tear down the crane. Happy, after your inspection of the rebreather, give Bonnie an assessment of the damage."

The crowd started to split apart, and you followed Freddy to do whatever he was going to do.

# # #

Captain Sun and Moon eyed you as you followed Freddy.

Moon turned to his partner and asked, "You doing okay?"

"I'm fantastic," Sun said as he kept watching you go, "Do you think they can do that with any beast of the sea?"

"Mmm."

Sun stopped smiling so excitedly and he turned his attention more onto his partner, "Are you okay?"

"My nervousness about having them here has bubbled up again," Moon admitted.

Sun gripped Moon's stiff feeling hand and said, "Hey. That siren could have showed up even without them being here. I like to think more that if they weren't here, we would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean by now."

Moon took a deep breath, then said, "Yah. You're right. That's a much better way to think."

Sun leaned his head against Moon's shoulder in a comforting manner, "It's okay."

Moon took another deep breath, then said, "Okay. Okay, let's get going."

Sun and Moon went their separate ways to perform their duties as captain.