The moon's lights were brighter than ever, her glowing veils gently flowing in the calm ocean's wave. A few boats and a cargo ship were cruising along, all the workers and fishermen were casually enjoying the calm night, taking in the cool curtains from the moon's beauty. In one boat, however, the captain was tense as he look from left to right, his eyes sweeping the area carefully and was on high alert, one of his lackeys, a rookie you can imagine was watching him with a confused look and spoke up.
"Ah, captain. Why are you tense and alert right now? It's a calm night, enjoy under the moon's light, take a breather, relax."
The rookie offered with a grin. The older man looked at him with a stern gaze and a huff.
"Not around this time of night kid. The moon is in her full glory and brighter than usual, which means the ocean is hungry for a meal," he replied with a pirate accent to it. The rookie laughed at the silly thought and exclaimed
"That's funny Captain, the Ocean is just saltwater, it can't be alive, or hungry!" The rookie backed up in surprise when the captain was near his face with a glare. "Aye-But it's true laddy! You remember where those giant robots were once here on earth, with their 1 million years war correct?"
The rookie nodded with a few beads of sweat trickling down. "O-of course sir! It was all over the newspaper and television! The government hunted most of them down and the remaining went back home!"
The rookie exclaimed as he pointed at the ruins of Cybertron above the earth, you can squint to see the ruined planet slowly being put back together and several bots working around the metal vines and cables. The captain nodded and leaned back with a stern look, and puffed smoke from his wooden pipe.
"Aye. However, ten years ago, when they were still being hunted, they hunted down one of them in New Mexico, where he was hiding in an abandoned cruise ship, they found him, and within minutes with help from their kind, they ripped his heart out and melted his body so our kind can make clones, and you see how that turned out," the older man muttered out the last part but continued.
"A medic the robot was, he was known to be the least violent and interested in our medicine, but we in return hurt him. There have been reports saying that his spirit took over the ocean and now, he hunts for us humans who dare come across his territory, he will destroy the ships and save the poor men for a meal. He would never harm women or children because men were the ones who took his life. He leaves them a raft lets them drift off to safety and watched them until he continues."
The captain explained and puffed another smoke from his pipe. "The most common time he will show up, is when the moon is full and bright, he will appear and start hunting, the sudden ripples of waves our first warning. then a light drumming of his fingers will be in hearing range, the last warning will be a sudden silk veil floating next to us."
The boast then was silent But as the captain talked, the rookie noticed something off the distance and a sudden ripple of calm waves started to gently rock their boat, like a mother rocking her child to sleep. he leaned against the boat and saw the gentle ripple then looked up to the caprin who had his eyes closed and was puffing smoke from his pipe.
"You mean these waves you explained captain?" The rookie asked and pointed down with an oblivious look. "Precisely lad!" The captain then snapped his eyes open and choked on the smoke with a shocked and panicked look "W-WHAT!?" he shouted and looked down, and to his horror, gentle ripples of waves were there, there was no breeze, and a storm wasn't arriving. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.
"O-oh no...ALL HANDS ON DECK LADS, WE NEED TO LEAVE NOW!"
The captain shouted and blew from his whistle, the fishermen, panicked in fear and quickly packed everything up and turned on the engine, the waves grew a little stronger but not enough to tilt the boat down and cause men to go overboard. Suddenly one of the fishermen rushed up to the deck and called out to the captain.
"Captain the engine is cracked, we can't get her moving!" Before the older man could shout back, they all froze then the sound of drumming fingers filled the silent and eerie air, the waves continued to gently rock the boast as they all stood still.
"lads, slowly move around and look for a flowing veil, whatever you do, do pick it up, don't even touch it."
The captain ordered loud enough for everyone to hear. The fishermen nodded and slowly moved around, shaking as they could hear the fingers drumming near them, slowly, as if he was watching them for the right time. during the lookout, the rookie was in the back of the boat as he looked around, the noise closest to him, he looked up and gulped. out there he can see the shape of the spirit the captain talked about, his blue eyes popping out with a weary and old look.
The lad tilted his head, and shockingly, the spirit copied his move as if he was playing with the lad. A noise then caught his attention and he looked down, he shook in fear as right in front of him, was the veil the captain warned him about. another noise caught his attention but he was afraid to look up, but his fears went away when a strange feeling went through his body, his mind was calm and relaxed. The rookie was trying to remember what the captain said, but he forgot when he blinked he saw the veil as if no one warned him about the dangers, he thought it was just a veil that a lady lost around the ocean.
The sound of the spirit's fingers drumming made him look around confused, but he shrugged it off, gently lifted the wet veil, and looked around it, he didn't realize the spirit glided closer to him slowly as he watched the young lad look at it. The young lad then noticed it had a huge hole on it and tisked.
He then sat on the boat's edge like he always did, and grabbed needle and thread, The spirit stopped a few feet away, tilted his head, and watched. the lad gently, but firmly grabbed his veil and sewed it back together, like magic, the veil was fixed and it looked like it wasn't even damaged, no notice of the thread being sewed in, and the spirit hummed, impressed. The lad was so focused on the veiled he fixed, he didn't notice the boat tilting slightly next to him and was being watched until he jolted in surprise when a wise but broken voice spoke next to him.
"only a few of you humans would be willingly picking up my veil and fixing it, and that now includes you, young man."
the spirit said amused as he watched the young lad jolt up and look at him with shock and awe. The lad tilted his head and the spirit copied and blinked. The young lad could see the clear details of the spirit and the color. the then blinked in realization and for some reason scooted forward.
"You were one of them. You were one of the sentient robots that came here," he said with awe, like a young boy listening to a fairytale. The spirit hummed and nodded his head.
"the proper term is cybertronian and mech, but yes. I was one of them." the mech confirmed leaning against his arms with a small smile. the young lad gave a quiet 'wow' and smiled happily, forgetting about the captain's warning. "My name is Daniel Witwicky. What's your name Mr?" Daniel asked and gave the spirit his veil back. The spirit nodded and held it as he looked at the young lad.
"My name is Ratchet, young man, you look quite young, tell me how old you are?" Ratchet asked, tilting his head and squinting his optics covering his shock at the young lad's name. Daniel smiled. "I'm 11 years old today, Today is my birthday!" he said excitedly. Ratchet smiled at him, his optics lighting up happily for the boy.
"Well, happy creations day, young man, what are you doing here, when you should be celebrating with your family?" Ratchet asked, he then frowned when Daniel looked down and looked sad.
"What is wrong my friend?"
he asked the sad child. Daniel started to sniff and held back tears but a few escaped the tears falling to the ocean.
"Bad people took them away from me, They were sleeping for a long time outside and I couldn't wake them up, so I ran away before I was taken in by these fishermen here." The boy cried and rubbed his eyes.
Ratchet crooned in sympathy and lifted himself and cradled the boy and gently wiped his tears. The young lad was surprised to feel warmth and metal instead of the cool ocean he was used to but felt comfortable with the mech holding him. Ratchet looked forward to seeing a fisherman standing there, shaking with fear, and stood frozen, Ratchet grinned and shushed him with a hungry glint in his optics. He then looked back at Daniel and crooned at him.
"I'm sorry that they took them away young Daniel, Do these men treat you well?" Ratchet asked as he cradled the boy like a father. The young lad shrugged and wiped his eyes.
"Sometimes, but they tell me to grow up and be a man," he replied, he didn't see Ratchet's optics glow red and hear his raging growl, as he was too interested in his new friend's veil and the pattern. He didn't see the fishermen run off to tell the others.
"You are still young, dear child, they should never treat you like this." ratchet then perked up as if he had an idea, and smiled at the young lad.
"How would you like to come with me, young Daniel, escape this small and crowded boat and come with me to live with me, you will have a new adventure, with new friends and home! think of this as a present for your birthday."
The young lad perked up at the last sentence and beamed at ratchet with hope and excitement.
"I can have a new home, a new family?" Daniel asked happily and gripped the veil. Ratchet laughed loudly, giving the rest a fright, and gently put his veil on top of the young lad and wrapped him like a blanket.
"Exactly young one! In fact, we can go now!" ratchet said happily. Daniel cried with happiness and hugged Ratchet tightly as he could.
"Thank you, , this is the best birthday I ever had!" The young lad wept with tears of joy. ratchet chuckled and nuzzled the boy in his hold swept him up, walked to a floating rock, and set him there, far away from the boat and the fishermen.
"of course, of course, now stay there and I'll inform the fishermen that I will be taking you with me."
Daniel nodded and watched as ratchet walked to the boat, in his eyes, it looked like his friend was simply talking, but in reality, by magic, Ratchet was tearing down the boat hungrily with a malicious grin and eyes red as blood.
One by one, he took the men with him and devoured them all, enjoying the screams and panics from them, including the captain most of all. With magic still going, Daniel in his eyes can see the boat leaving with the fishermen and captain waving at him, bidding him farewell, with ratchet walking back to him and "waving" at them in farewell. Ratchet Picked up Daniel, held him as if he was his own, and smiled.
"Are we ready young man?" ratchet asked, the young boy nodded and snuggled in the hold
"where are we going?" he asked.
Ratchet hummed and smiled. "A place called, Neverland."
The two walked way, peacefully walking on the ocean, and disappeared in the moon's light, never to been seen again.
