Moon was staring up at the night sky in the crow's nest. It was a calm night. The wind was only a gentle touch on the skin and the boat was rocking smoothly from one side to the other. The moon shone brightly over the boat and the ocean. It gave everything a white halo glow.

It was hard to see, but Moon could pick out all the different constellations in the sky. He was telling himself the stories of the stars to sooth himself. Sun soothed him in his own way, but he wanted to have the night sky too.

It felt weird. Seeing you being taken from the Crusty Waters and seeing you tell him to run. The Agony Cultists have a reputation for violence, so it was amazing to see them back down just because you asked them.

They're certainly going to try and find you again. They'll tell everyone in their cult throughout the seas. They'll have a hundred to a thousand boats trained for your head. For this boat. For this crew.

Moon has heard the Cultist's drivel all his isle lived life. He was tempted by the words. A lot of starving people were, but as tempting as they were, he could still see what they were. A fake end to pain and grief. And trying to stop such things only creates more.

Moon doesn't regret bringing you back onto his ship, but that doesn't make him any less scared. Any less scared for his crew. For his lover. For himself.

At the time, he could tell you were scared too, but you still tried to keep them from hurting him and his crew. The least he could do was return the favor.

Moon leaned his head against the mast in the middle of the crow's nest, bonking his head a bit hard as he closed his eyes and breathed in the salty night air. Then after holding it, he let it out slowly.

At least the ocean is vast, and they are very, very small.

Over the wind, Moon could hear light humming and the creaking of rope. Turning to the sound, he saw you start to climb over the lip of the crow's nest. You raised your eyes up and when you and Moon locked eyes, you screamed.

The both of you jump at your screaming, and when you screamed you let go of the crow's nest and fell.

Moon scrambled over to the edge of the crow's nest and when he looked over its lip, he saw you dangling by your ankle by the rope ladder.

"Hooo! Hoo-hoo-hoo boy," you chuckled, "That was a close call. I um… I wasn't expecting anyone else up here, Sir."

"You can just call me Moon. Want some help?"

You waved him away as you groaned while pulling yourself up.

Moon backed up as you pulled yourself up into a crouching position outside of the crow's nest.

"Are you not going to step inside?"

"No. I'll leave you be. I just wanted up here because I think my time of the month is just around the corner and it makes me want to play ding-dong ditch with my devil's doorbell."

Moon paused. He scrunched up his face at you and said, "What?"

You look up at him, "What, what?"

"I," he chuckles, "What did you say? What do you mean?"

You look at him for a hot second, then Moon saw the light of recognition flicker behind your eyes, and then you snort, then bust out laughing.

Moon stood there awkwardly as you laughed.

"I-I-I'm so sorry. I'm just sooooooo tired and I said too much. I have no intention of explaining myself. I don't think we're friends enough for me to embarrass myself to you so willingly."

You had stopped laughing, but you were smiling up at the lunar being.

Moon doesn't think you've ever looked at him with a smile till now.

You have a very nice, kind, soft smile.

"Very well. I won't keep you if you don't want to stay, but there's room for both of us up here."

Moon plopped down and went back to staring at the stars.

There was silence for a long stretch, and Moon thought you had climbed down quieter than when you had risen, but then he heard you shuffling and then you plopped yourself into the crow's nest.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see you folded in on yourself as you lean against the wall of the crow's nest. You were looking out to the horizon.

"So… What is a devil's doorbell?"

You snorted again, and your smile sharpened into mischief, and you said, "You don't need to know."

"Mmm."

The two of you were silent as you both felt the boat continue its gentle rocking.

"Why are you up here?"

Moon considered you. "I feel the safest up here... Especially at night."

"…Mmm… Same."

There was another stretch of silence.

"Captain Moon," you said softly, "I'm sorry. Those cultists are after me because I decided I wanted a tattoo. I should have just stayed on the boat… You all should have just left me."

"It's not your fault. Not all cultists show who they are like the criers do. That tattoo artist had the possibility of being a non-believer just as much as she could have been a Zulon Praiser or any other type of religious figure. You couldn't have known."

"…I know… but still…" you sigh heavily, "I don't want this crew to get hurt because of me."

Moon smiled sadly at that. He knows that kind of fear too well.

"I'm also scared of what I'll become the longer I'm here," you confessed.

Moon was looking fully at you now. He could see your face was scrunched up and you were biting back tears.

"I… I don't want to be the monster from your stories. I don't want to destroy anyone or hurt anyone," you sob, "I don't even know why I'm here. Am I destined to become another monster story?"

Moon hesitated for only a moment, but then he reached out to you and gently patted and rubbed your back. It was encouraging when you didn't flinch away from him.

"You haven't heard all the stories yet, have you?" Moon asked.

"How many stories do you know," you sniffled.

"Quite a lot. I used to be a Story Collector before Sun and I founded this ship."

You sniffled some more as you wiped away your tears.

"How many stories have you heard?"

"Um…" You counted on your fingers, "The Shape-shifter. The Agony. The Voice. A handful of Zulon origin stories."

Moon nodded as you trailed off. You know the most popular stories to tell.

"Do you want to hear how Stickmen like Sun and myself came to be?"

You pause in your sniffling. Then you turn to him with an accusatory look on your face and you said, "You know what. Yah. Why is it that I've only seen you two and then that one stranger on North Shallow's Isle?"

Moon chuckled at the look on your face. Before he started to weave his story, he saw you shiver from the wind. So he took off his coat and threw it on your head.

"Hey!"

Moon doesn't justify your reaction with a response, instead getting right to work.

"A long and far away ago Zulon's lonely heart longed for a companion. So from the folds of the universe, she plucked out a being of magic—"

"Ahhh! What? So magic does exist here?"

Moon shushed you then continued, "—and life. The creature took to Zulon like salt to water and from their union rose the Tree Witch. With the blessings of her birth, she created forests so dense and trees so tall that it rivaled the mountains, but her forests weren't enough for her. She wished to create beings capable of protecting her domain. Once she found the tallest and wisest of her creations, she united with it. She gave herself to the grand tree and the grand tree gave back. Together they created a new tree. A tree capable of fruiting into being, the stickmen."

Moon finished his story with a hand flourish and a half bow to you since he was still sitting.

He looked up to you and you sat there staring at him for a few seconds, then you gave him an excited smile.

"You and Captain Sun are dryads?"

"I don't know what a dryad is but if they are a creature that are walking, talking trees… then yes?"

"They are!... Kind of."

Moon didn't really know how to react to that. He smiled at how oddly similar yet different your world seemed to be.

You chuckle then scoot closer to him.

"Man, I can't believe I'm actually meeting a real-life dryad. You know when I was growing up, I always fantasied about meeting people like you."

Moon quirked an eye ridge at you, "Did you now?"

"So like, are you completely made out of wood or something?"

"It's more like a gradient. Some parts of me are fleshier than others. It's the same with Sun. It just varies person to person on where the gradient is."

"Wow!"

Moon couldn't help but snort at that. It fondly made him think of how much more excitable Sun was when they were younger.

You turned your gaze to the horizon and your smile fell slightly.

"Is that why Zulon kidnaps people from other dimensions? Because she's lonely?"

"It's the explanation that makes the most since to me at least," Moon stated.

You turn to look at the lunar figure again and said, "I can understand feeling lonely, but that doesn't give them any right to kidnap people from their home dimensions."

Moon shrugged. He agreed with your sentiment, but what can you do against the whims of a god?

You sniffed at the air and Moon gave you a curious look.

"A storm is coming," you state so confidently that Moon looked all around to see if there were any storm clouds brewing in the darkness of the horizon, "we should get some sleep. I'm not sure what weathering a storm on a never-ending sea is like, but I doubt it'll give us much rest."

Still wearing Moon's jacket, you stand up and throw yourself over the edge of the crow's nest. You hang on to the edge of it as you look at Moon with a smile.

"Hey. Thanks for the bedtime story. If we both end up not being able to sleep again, I hope you'll tell me another. Have a goodnight, Captain."

Then you climb down.

Moon stands up fully and gives the sky one last look around. He still can't see any sign of a storm brewing, but he'll take your word for it. With a yawn, he makes his way down to the deck.

# # #

You wake up the next morning seeing a gray sky through the port holes in the crew's cabin. Then to it raining on deck. It wasn't raining hard, but it was thick in a way, with very little wind. You were sure that the wind would pick up eventually. In lieu of an umbrella, you used Captain Moon's jacket to try and stay warm if not dry.

At the sight of you Captain Moon marched up to you.

"So you're special powers include being able to smell an oncoming storm and speaking with Sirens," he shakes his head at you, bemused, "Is there anything you can't do?"

You give him small smile, "I don't know? Stay out of trouble?"

He laughed at that and that made your smile wider. He has a nice laugh, you thought.

You take off Captain Moon's jacket and hand it to him, "Here you go, Captain. Thanks for letting me use it last night."

Moon waved it away, "Keep it for now. You look like you need it more than me."

You shrug, but you shiver as you get back into the warmth of the jacket.

You spot Freddy in the crowed, then you give your Captain a farewell nod and say, "Good luck, Cap. Give my regards to your lover."

You trotted off to do your job. You like saying, hello, to Sun every morning but you thought that there would be too much to do for anything besides work.

And you were right.

You help to strap everything in. From food, to supplies, to equipment. You struggled against the crashing waves that push themselves onto the deck. You struggled against the wind that threatened to blow you away; with Freddy literally holding you down when he starts to see you fly away. You were soaked to the bone as if you had become some sort of gelatinous cube, but in human shape. And apparently, this wasn't even considered all that bad of a storm.

The last thing you had to do before Freddy would send you below deck, to take a break from being in the rain, was you were to help him, Captain Moon, Happy, and Orville roll up the sails to keep them from tearing themselves up or the booms and masts they hang from.

The five of you were halfway through your job when you felt something hit you hard in the shoulder. If felt like a rock and it almost knocked you backwards off the boom. Squinting through the rain, you felt the wind pick up and you dropped down and gripped the boom with your arms and legs. Then you felt two more rock like things hit you in your back.

Then right before your waterlogged eyes, you saw a white ball that shattered on impact against the wooden boom. Splintering the wood.

"AH! Shit! It's hailing!?"

More softball sized white balls started to rain around the five of you.

"Everyone! Get below deck," Captain Moon yelled over the storm.

You quickly finished tying the knot you were in the middle of and then carefully made your way across the boom.

Orville was in front of you and Freddy was behind you. Happy was already climbing down and Captain Moon was at the rope ladder making sure everyone was going down. The hail danced around you like you were playing a deadly game of dodgeball.

Then you felt something other than water spray against your face and you see Orville sway and fall off the boom. Without thinking you grab her by her shirt. You're pulled down and you lose your grip then you manage to grab her by her trunk as your chest hits the boom. It knocks the wind out of you and your shoulders pop.

You feel bear paws on your back and firm hands reached down to grip Orville's trunk on your right.

"Orville! Wake up!" Freddy yelled as the three of you struggled to get her back onto the boom.

You managed to hitch a leg up onto the boom as leverage as you pulled her up by her trunk with Moon. Freddy had a firm grip on Orville's shirt when she came too.

She managed to grab onto the boom and with Freddy's help, got her standing. As soon as she was clear, you felt strong hands grip you from under your armpits and was promptly lifted by Moon.

He kept a strong grip on you to make sure you didn't fall as well while Freddy tended to Orville. The four of you worked your way down and when you made it to the deck, Happy was there holding up a door that must have been pulled off its hinges. You figured he went inside and came back with the door to help cove everyone from the hail.

The five of you made it below deck without much incident.

You found everyone hold up in the dining area. Everyone gathered around the five of you as you entered.

Mr. Hippo immediately went up to Orville to check on her still bleeding head wound.

Sun ran up to Moon and embraced him, happy to see him and worried about him.

Roxy and Monty went up to Freddy to see how he's fairing.

Happy went to lay the unhinged door down on the floor in a far corner.

And Chika ran up to you to check if you got hurt.

"Yah. I'm sore. I'm probably already bruising badly. Want to see for me?"

"I'll look for you," Chika said with a nod.

You staggered a bit when the boat rocked in a way you weren't expecting, but you managed to get your shirt off without a hitch.

"What's the prognosis, Chiquita?

"Oh, Sug'," the giant chicken woman sighed sadly.

"That bad, huh?"

You felt her lightly place her fingers over your back where the hail got you. It hurt despite how light she was being.

"Ow."

The fingers immediately disappear, and Chika was apologetic.

You look at your shoulder that first got hit and it was a nasty, almost bloody-looking purple. If that's what your shoulder looks like, you can certainly imagine what it looks like on your back.

"Oh no!"

You look over your shoulder at Sun who had joined Chika, and behind him was Moon, also looking concerned.

"Are you okay?"

"…Well… I mean, no? But this is normal for my body against things like, being beaten up."

Chika and Sun's frowns deepened, and you sighed as you put your shirt back on.

"Guy's. It's fine. It'd be great if we had some ice and painkillers, but we don't. I just have to live with it. Besides. I bruise easily anyways."

"Then why are you bleeding?" Moon asked.

You give Moon a questioning look and wonder if he's referencing the blood that was half washed away on your face from Orville being beaned in the head. Then you see his eyes are trailing down and you see blood seeping through your pants.

"God damn it!"

Now Sun and Chika were looking where you were, and their concern increased ten-fold.

"Back away, guys," then in a more aggressive voice, "Back away!"

You startle them, but they do back away from you.

You pinch the bridge of your nose and sigh.

"This is still very normal. In short, I have a certain organ in my body that monthly expels access blood that I'm not using. I just blead through my cloth pads that I made. I guess I didn't make them well."

Chika leans in and whispers, "Are you in heat?"

You dead-paned a look at the chicken woman, "No. It's the opposite of being in heat, actually."

Chika gave you an intrigued look but asked no more questions.

"Would you like help cleaning," Sun offered, "You look like you're in a lot of pain."

You don't get embarrassed by his offer. You've learned that he's just forward like that, but you do sigh again.

"I am in a lot of pain, but no thank you, Captain Sun. This is a personal matter," you stumble with everyone else as the ship rocks hard against the storm, "but I appreciate the offer."

You wave goodbye to the three of them and make your way out of the dining room.

As you situated yourself as best you could, you weather the storm with everyone else.

You get seasick, in the middle of the night for the first time, along with Pigpatch and Chip. The three of you were isolated in the medical room to throw up your guts in private. When you asked why, you were told by Mr. Hippo that seasickness was a reactionary contagion. Basically, once one person gets seasick, it's easy for everyone to be seasick just from hearing the noise or seeing someone throwing up or smelling it.

Makes since to you.

While you were in the medical room, you didn't find out until after the storm, that hail managed to break through the side of the ship and flooded the food storage room or how the sails became untied and were torn apart by the wind and hail as well.

It sucked so much. Previously freshly stocked rations were low. The closest port was North Shallow's Isle and that was a no go. And it'll take a week to fix the sails and then two weeks or more to sail to where the next isle will be.

So, there you are a week later, doing the finishing touches to fixing the sails as a light hunger gnawed at you.

Grumpy, you hand over the last of the sails over to Freddy, Happy, and some other fellow crew members that you haven't bothered to remember the name of yet, and you just laid down on the deck. You didn't care if you got sunburn again from laying in the sun with no shade. You were hot, and grumpy, and hungry, and tired, and you wished that stupid storm hadn't of showed up.

Your eyes are closed, but you're still squinting against the sunlight until a shadow falls over your face.

Cracking your eyes open, you look up at the figure above you.

"Water," Moon asks.

You sigh, "Yaah…," then you reach out your hand, he takes it and then lifts you up to your feet.

He hands you a cup and the two of you walk over to the railing to look out at the sparkling sea. The two of you sip silently at your water.

You were thinking about how the ocean is the true siren/femme fatale of nature when Moon spoke up first.

"Is your "monthly" over yet?"

You smirk at his unfamiliar use of the word "monthly". It makes you happy to know that he's trying to use the definition that makes you the most comfortable.

"Yah. It's just doing its last bit of adjustments. It should stop completely today."

"Good. Good… Is it going to happen again soon?"

"Not soon. Just a month from now."

"…Is that why you call it the "monthly"? Because it happens every month?"

You sip your water. Then with a sigh you smack your lips as you say, "Yep." Popping the "p".

"…That's got to be annoying. Everyone here only goes into heat once a year."

You look up at him curiously, "Even you and Captain Sun?"

"No. We don't reproduce like that."

"Oh. Cool."

The two of you go back to silently drinking your water as the waves rippled and waved.

This time the silence was interrupted by the growl of your stomach.

You sigh.

"Hungry?"

"Yah. But who isn't at this point," you state, "Are we even going to make it to… where are we going again?"

"East Shallow's Isle. It's the second closest to us at this point," Moon said.

"I hope no one dies of starvation before we get there," you sigh into your cup.

Moon sighed with you, "We're not fishing as much food out of the ocean as Sun and I hoped we would, but no one's going to die of starvation."

"Mmm."

As you look directly down into the water you see a deep dark shadow swim beneath the ship. You squint through the refracted light as the water moves as you try to focus on the movement, but then you hear a deep bass-y noise. It sounded friendly in your opinion, but you saw Moon stiffen at the sound.

"No," he whispered, like he was about to encounter a new horrible thing that day.

Before anyone could react, the surface of the water broke and it tipped the boat sideways a bit, but then two of four large, webbed hands gently clasped the boat and steadied it.

A bass-y rumble, vibrated out of the giant siren.

Everyone was panicking, of course, while the siren scanned the deck. Once its large eyes landed on you, it made that special call you remember the other siren making when it lost its kid. Reactively, you made the baby siren sound.

The siren looked like it was smiling widely at you for making the sound and it let go of the boat.

"No way!" You said over the yelling and panicking, "DJ! Is that really you!?"

It makes a celebratory beat-boxing sound and lowers one of its hands to you.

"You promise not to drop me into the water?"

DJ Mer Man nods his big head.

"Okay! Here I come then!"

As soon as you prop your leg up onto the wooden rail, you felt strong hands pull you back.

"What are you doing," Moon shouted.

"I'm going to have a talk with a friend. We'll stay close to the ship; I just don't want you guys doing anything to hurt him in your panic."

Finished explaining yourself, you twist yourself out of Moon's grip and scramble your way onto DJ's hand. You motion for the siren to swim a little way out to keep both parties from hurting each other.

By the time you tell DJ to stop swimming the Crusty Waters is about the size of a wall painting on the first floor of an apartment. You sit down in the middle of his scaly palm, and you ask DJ to use one of his hands to give you some shade to keep you from overheating. The siren complies.

You looked over the giant siren, making sure he wasn't damaged anywhere or wasn't looking like he was sick with anything. All his bristle teeth seemed fine. None of his eight eyes look damaged. His white, rainbow pearl scales still look shinny. None of his arms looked lame and you don't know if it's possible to swim with a limp or not, but he doesn't seem to be hindered in any way with the way he swims with his giant snake/fish like tail.

"How's the troublemaker?"

DJ made a sound that was a mix of annoyed and fond. Then the giant siren made more noises like it was telling you a story about what the little MnM did recently.

"I see. So he's still a troublemaker. Doesn't he have any siblings to keep him from getting into trouble?"

DJ made a tsk-ing like sound that may have been a tired sigh. Then he dipped his third hand into the water. After a second, he lifted his hand out of the water then he poured seven children onto your lap, soaking you with water and tiny grabby hands.

"Woah! Easy now," you pull a few hands away from a sensitive part on yourself, "Hey. Don't touch there. Oh hello, troublemaker." You give the baby siren, that's actively grabbing at your face and bodily hugging you, a pat on the back. Unlike the other babies that are just exploring how different you are, he obviously acted like he knew you.

You felt DJ's hand shiver and you look up to see the giant siren's shoulder's shaking like he's holding back laughter.

"Yah. I see why you were having so much trouble. They all are a handful," you hold up the troublemaker, "This one must be the leader, I take it."

DJ nods.

"Oh, boy."

You soothe the babies around you as you hum the Jurassic Park theme song.

DJ rumbled something and you look up at him again. He makes a gesture like he wants you to say something about yourself.

"How am I doing?"

He nods.

You sigh, "Not great bud. That storm that passed a week ago fucked us up pretty badly. It destroyed our sails and our food supply. Moon says that we won't starve to death, but we're all going to starve a little. It's going to be a long couple of weeks… or months if the weather gets us again."

DJ rumbled in an apologetic way.

"Yah. I'm sorry for us too. If you were offering to help, I don't think you could. I mean. Unless you can gather a bunch of fish and other foods for us, or if you're able to pull us to the closest isle that isn't North Shallow's Isle, then there's not much you can do for us. I appreciate the sentiment though."

DJ made a sorrowful sounding noise.

Then he brought you closer to his face. The kids were holding on to you. On your back, from your shoulders, around your waist and on your legs. It hurt a bit, because you were still heavily bruised from the hail, but they all seemed like they were resting or were asleep.

You sat silently as he scanned the scene on his hand.

"Something wrong, bud?"

DJ made a rumbling type of noise. Then he started swimming for the Crusty Waters.

You watch your approach and as you get closer you see that the entire deck was covered with the crew, watching you approach.

DJ was not perturbed by your crewmates, or at least, he didn't seem like he was as he rested you on the deck with his kids still on your person. Everyone had backed away from you as you sat in a wet pile on the deck with the kids and DJ gently patted your head.

You made to give the baby sirens back to him, but then he dived down and disappeared.

"Wha-Hey! Where are you going!"

You're immediately surrounded by your crewmates but none of them attempt to touch you accept Foxy. He grabs your hand with his one paw and easily gets you standing. The many baby hands surrounding you keep a strong hold on you.

"Foxy, will you get a barrel or maybe those basins that we wash ourselves and our clothes in? I don't know what happens to sirens if they are out of the water too long."

Foxy hesitates for a moment then he nods and runs below deck.

"Someone else grab those buckets for mopping so we can fill up whatever he's bringing."

Nobody moves.

You huff frustrated.

Pointing at Pigpatch you said, "You! Go on! Grab the buckets."

He jumps like you spooked him then he runs off to grab the buckets.

"Is there an umbrella or a tarp I can sit under? I don't plan on leaving these babies by themselves in the barrel or basin. It's a really hot day."

"Let me get that umbrella from our room," Captain Sun spoke up before heading for the captain's cabin.

You start feeling some of the kids stir as they look around. The two that were hanging from your legs slithered off you and were curiously crawling/slithering towards the crew. Everyone backed away from them and one of them drew a gun at the kiddies.

You immediately got in front of the baby sirens and stared down the barrel and the unnamed bear.

"Will you put that away," you snapped at her, "they're only kids. Go below deck if you're too nervous to be around them."

The bear woman was shaking as she only kept her eyes on the baby sirens, her gun still drawn.

Moon grabbed her gun hand and raised it in the air. Then in a low, angry voice he said, "Go below deck."

She let go of the gun and ran off.

Moon holstered the gun with an angry sigh.

Turning towards the rest of the crew Moon said, "If anyone else is too uncomfortable to be on deck, I suggest you all follow her."

Over half the crew started making their way below deck. The only people who were still on deck were three crew members you haven't bothered to memorize the name of, and then there was Chika, Roxy, Monty, Freddy, and of course Sun and Moon.

Sun was fiddling with the large umbrella and despite how full your arms were, you picked up the two ragamuffins and brought them under the umbrella's shade with you.

"Thank you, Captains. I don't know what DJ was thinking when he left his kids here."

"Ahy hav'ta agree with Tiny," Foxy said as he was rolling a barrel towards your group, "Et's not natural for tha Voice's Children ta leave their young ta us."

"What did the siren—I mean—DJ say to you before he left," Sun asked.

"I don't know. He didn't really try to explain himself," you shrug as you righted the barrel under the shade, "but I'll take care of the kids until he gets back."

You felt clammy hands grab your face and you looked down at the trouble making leader.

"Yah?"

He continued to run his four hands over your face.

"Ah. Okay."

Pigpatch came running in with five buckets in his grip.

"Is this enough?"

"Yes, thank you Piggy," you said, "Let's fill this bad boy up."

The thirteen of you made a line to the rail of the deck and passed the buckets along to fill the barrel up. It was over half full when you all stopped putting sea water in it. Then one kid after the other, you put them into the barrel. They all looked much happier to be in the water, but they all still wanted to hold on to you.

You sigh, "Okay fine. Make room."

The baby sirens make joyful sounding sounds as you struggle to get into the barrel.

"Need help," Chika asked.

"Yes please."

She picked you up by your armpits and set you inside the barrel. Water sloshed over the side of it. Once again you felt many hands all over you.

"I wonder if this is how they travel with their dad. They just hold on to him or something as he swims."

"Ahy don't know," Foxy said as he leaned against the barrel, "This be the first time ahy see living baby sirens."

"Ahhhh what!? You're telling me the siren hunting boat you were on also killed the babies?"

The rust red fox nodded his head.

"That's sad," you say as you lightly pat the head of one of the babies.

"Ahy'm startin' ta feel like it is," Foxy agreed as he put his fuzzy paw into the water.

One of the baby sirens looked through the water then reached up and grabbed Foxy by two of its hands. Foxy started swirling the child in the water as best he could with the limited space, and he had a lopsided smirk on his face with the way the kids reacted to him.

"You know," Sun spoke up, "They're not as scare as they seem to be."

"We should still refrain from doing this again," Moon stated, "I don't think it's wise to mess with sirens, even if we're being kind to them."

"How you feeling, Cher?"

You look to Monty, "Fine I guess. Why?"

"It's just that I heard Sirens are poisonous."

"Well, then I guess I should refrain from eating them."

Monty snorted at your joke.

"But you really are fine?" Chika asked, double checking.

"I mean. It's a little weird with all these hands on me, but I'm fine," you reiterated.

"Well, if you're fine, I'm going to go take a nap," Roxy stated with a yawn.

"I'll join you," Pigpatch said.

The two of them walked off.

After a while, the three people that you didn't know the name of soon walked away, bored with the presence of the babies. You were under the impression that they thought the babies would do something magical. You don't really know what they were hoping for, they're only kids.

That left you with Foxy, Chika, Monty, Sun and Moon to keep you company as you tended to the baby sirens.

As the six of you entertained the seven baby sirens, you asked for their help in naming the seven of them. When asked why, you told them you weren't about to just call them kid(s) or "hey, you" all day. You have enough of that as is with over half of the crew.

Eventually, the six of you named them Dory, Rechal, Mie, Fabian, Sol, Lauren, and Tina. With troublemaker being the one viewed as the oldest in your eyes, he gets the name Dory, and you work down to the last child.

"So why name them like that?" Monty asked.

"So that they're nicknames are Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti. Like going up the music scale. If I'm sticking with naming Sirens as music themed stuff, might as well go hard with it."

"Oh, fun," Sun nodded with approval.

You giggle, "I'm glad you think so."

The kids start acting like they're perking up to the sound of something. As you're trying to figure out what they are interested in, you hear a distant whale like call.

"Oh, thank god! I hope that's DJ. Will someone get me out of this barrel please?"

Firm hands slip under your armpits and Moon lifts you out of the barrel with a few of the baby sirens hanging off you. Three of them were still in the barrel when you all heard water breaking and DJ had two of his four hands steadying the boat again.

Foxy is helping you carry the kids over to DJ, with the others following behind, when DJ started leaning over the side of the boat.

You misinterpreted this as him being worried.

"Don't worry big guy. We kept them safe and occupied."

You could feel the others behind you being tense with how silent they were, and Foxy's ears were pinned back as DJ continued to lean in, tipping the boat towards him a bit.

You were going to ask DJ what was wrong, when the giant siren opened his mouth and an avalanche of fish fell on you. You were glad, momentarily, that none of the kids were hanging off your back as you fell backwards and had the wind knocked out of you. But then you weren't so happy as you were covered shoulder to toe in fish… Most of them were alive.

The kids were playing in the fish pile and were eating the ones that they could swallow whole. Do, despite his troublemaking nature, was currently trying to feed you a living raw fish.

"Someone, please, help me up," you say as you try to keep your mouth away from Do's fish.

Laughing, Foxy and Monty pull you out from under the fish pile.

You sigh dramatically once you were back on your feet, then you smelled yourself and gagged. Chika, Moon, and Sun started laughing with Foxy and Monty.

Above you, you heard a concerned echo-y rumble. Then you felt a clammy large finger rubbing the top of your head.

You smile up at DJ and wave.

"Did you go out and catch all this? For us?"

DJ's smile stretched wider across his face. His whale like call echoed happily.

You jump up and grab the tip of his human sized finger.

"Oh, DJ! Thank you so much! We can't thank you enough. We'll get to work on drying and salting these," still hanging from his fingertip, you turn to your captains and crewmates and said, "Say thank you guys."

Sun stepped up, "Yes! Uh… Thank you so much, Mr. DJ. Your work won't go unappreciated."

The crewmembers and Moon all said their thank you's too

DJ gave them all a strained smile and was completely silent. His eight eyes were vertically slit black pupils set in yellow eyes, but they're pure black when he's looking at you. Sun's petals, you've decided to call them, pulled back against his round head from the death look.

You notice the tension and try to get things back on track.

Dropping from DJ's finger, you ask, "Do you want to hold your kids or just throw them into the water?"

DJ leans away from the boat. Smiling playfully at you.

"Okay then. Here they come!" You picked up the nearest child, So, and yeet her overboard.

The child makes a high-pitched sounding squeal, that sounded very human to your ears, before she hit the water with a splash. In rapid succession, you throw six out of seven kids overboard. With Do going last because he refused to let go of you as you tried to throw him.

Eventually you did throw him, and with a choir of sounds, DJ and his children swam away.

You sigh in relief.

Then you are spooked by loud cheering, and you are sweep-ed up off your feet and your suddenly on Monty's shoulders as everyone that was hiding below deck was surrounding you and happily gathering up the fish as people chant your name.

At your position you're almost at Sun and Moon's height, and you beckon to Moon, who's the closest to you, to get closer as you are paraded around. He pushes his way through the crowd.

"How are you liking the attention, Hero?"

"Get me away, please!"

Moon grab's you by your waist and yoinks you out of Monty's grip.

"Wha—"

Moon bows to Monty as he holds you under his arm, "Pardon us."

You wave goodbye as Moon runs through the crowd and starts climbing up the rope ladder. He doesn't climb high though. Only to the lowest boom. He then sits you down.

"Better?"

"Thanks. You can go back down with everyone else if you want. It's just a bit too much right now."

Moon sits down beside you.

You smile at Moon. He doesn't look at you as he looks over his crew, but he's smiling just as wide.