You screamed and punched at the bristle teeth that held you in the mouth of the siren. You didn't believe that sirens would actually eat people like you were told. You thought that it was one of those uninformed exaggerations about the species. Yet here you are, holding on to the other side of this siren's bristle teeth, hoping you can find some way out of it.

Being inside the mouth of the siren was like being in a cramped moist cave. It smelled of salt and old fish and the tongue of the creature made having any sort of stable footing impossible. You gagged a bit from the way the saliva dripped on and around you.

"Dear, all things that are holy," you whined, "how can anyone even imagine sexually liking this," you gag again, "No! Bad! Do not think about vore! Do not!"

"What is vore?"

That was your own voice asking you that question.

You looked around in the cramped space.

"I-I'm not going to tell you…"

"Aah… Fine," your voice pouted at you."

You held on tightly to the bristles of the teeth, making your hands hurt with your arms and torso. You looked through your dim surroundings.

"Are you, siren person, speaking back to me using my voice?"

Your voice giggled in a very unlike-you manner then said, "No silly. Think again."

You thought about it for a moment. You thought about where you were and why you weren't dead and all the voices that you've been hearing. As you thought about it, you began to hum that song that you've been hearing at your stay at the Eastern Isle.

"I'm glad you memorized my song. It's nice having someone like me to sing with now," your voice said back to you.

It finally clicked in your head.

"THE VOICE," you screeched accusingly.

More than one voice started to giggle in the small space, like the interdimensional creature couldn't contain their glee.

"Ahr! That's me," they said, sounding like Foxy, "I'm so glad I could get you away from those horrible creatures," they continued in Chika's voice.

"Hey! That's my crew you're talking about," then you panicked and quickly asked, "Please! Please! Please! Call off the sirens! Please! The Crusty Waters is truly only passing through!"

"Calm down," the voice said using Moon's words, "As soon as we grabbed you everyone left."

It was freaky that The Voice was using your captain's voice to calm you and you didn't like that it was working. You grimaced into the dark.

"Why would you want me? I thought all you had wanted for company were your sirens," you asked.

"That was true, until I learned you were here."

In Sun's voice, they said proudly, "It's quite easy for me to know what the Agony knows. That's how I've been able to avoid it ever since I got here. Finding you was the hard part."

"How'd you finally find me?"

"The siren that you named DJ told me about you. He praised you so much, I had to go to you. It was odd, staying at that beast filled isle, but eventually you showed up, and I kept you company until you and your captors left. How did you get so hurt?"

"You weren't listening in?"

"No, I was," they said in Pigpatch's voice, "but it was about things like the surprise gift Chika was making for her anniversary with Roxy. The nightmares that Happy was having. The quiet love confession from Chip to Monty. Bets being placed on who will confess their love to who between you and the two stickmen—"
"—I'm sorry, what!?"

There was a multitude of giggling around you.

"I know," they said conspiratorially in Roxy's voice, "As if you'd like anyone from here like that. You're too different. They can't begin to understand you like I do. You're forced to play nice with those things to stay alive. But don't worry, you and I can be real friends."

"I don't appreciate the way you talk about my crew or my captains. They are my real friends. Even if I can't remember everyone's name, I care about them all."

"Hmm…"

There was silence for a second.

"The Agony almost got me and severely harmed my crew."

"I feared that was the case," they said in Moon's voice, "I'm glad I was there to protect you until your departure from that stinky isle."

You scowled hard into the dark, having quite enough of their disrespectful comments about the people in this dimension and what do they mean, they protected you?

"Where are you taking me," you asked forcefully.

"I'm taking you home."

"Where's home?"

"Far, far away from anyone else. You'll be safe there away from The Agony and we will make beautiful music together, forever and ever and ever."

You sigh, then say, "You're lonely."

"I'm not that lonely," they said in Freddy's voice, sounding a bit defensive, "I have my children after all. We make wonderful music together all the time."

"Look… Voe."

"What did you just call me?"

"Voe. Like Zoe, but with a "V"."

"Huh, I like it. See! We're already starting to become friends. How about I call you… Bass."

"Bass?"

"Yah, since we're Bass Friends now," they said changing their voice to sound like Chika.

You sigh and say sharply, "Look. Wherever you plan on taking me, I'm not staying."

"Sure, you are, where else would you go?"

"Back to the ship. Together with my crew, I'll figure out how to contact Zulon."

A high-pitched clicking sound rumbled out of the siren. You covered your ears in pain, as you tried to stay sitting upright in the closed mouth of the creature.

Your ears were still ringing even after the siren went silent.

You inhaled sharply when you felt water pouring into the siren's mouth and within seconds you were submerged underwater and pushed out by its tongue.

You let lose some of your breath to feel where the bubbles went, and you followed them. Even with your eyes open under water, you still couldn't see anything with how dark everything was. You swam with as little panic as you could. Your heart beating in your ears as you moved your limbs.

You tried not to think about the water crushing you. You tried not to think about how your arms and stomach hurt. You tried not to think about what was in the water below you. You tried not to think about how it hurts to hold your breath.

With a gasp you broke through the surface of the water. You look around in the inky darkness.

Wiping the salt water out of your eyes you coughed, then sneezed.

"Hello?"

Your voice echoed in the dark.

You stilled for just a moment for what that means.

You yelled loudly, like you were the lead singer of a mariachi band. Your voice reverberated and echoed and bounced around you. You were in a cave. An underwater cave.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw a light. You swam to face it, and you saw the walls slowly started to glow. You swam towards it and saw that it was a kind of glowing green moss or lichen. It gave you a bit of light to see by.

A few yards away from yourself, you saw a rock poking out of the water. You immediately swam for it. Feeling icky about being in water you couldn't see in. It was hard, because of how slick the surface was, and because of your injuries, but you managed to crawl your way onto the sturdy surface.

You laid face down on the pores, slick, solid surface.

Laughing to yourself you said, "Oh my god. Solid ground. I haven't felt you in months."

You took a moment to enjoy the hard surface, then you rose and looked around.

"You've been hiding down here, all this time?"

The Voice didn't answer you. Weird. You thought they'd be excitedly doing a kind of welcome wagon thing with the way they were talking about being bff's and what not.

You stand up and find that you aren't steady on your feet.

"Ah, fuck me. You spend months out on water, and you forget how to walk on solid land."

The glowing greenery spread further down into a tunnel and not knowing what else you could do; you followed the path ahead.

It's a bit embarrassing for you, being on solid ground yet walking like you were a newborn baby. As you walked, you tried to remind yourself that it's okay that you lost your land legs and that you don't want to move fast. Just keep a steady pace.

You sang quietly to yourself to keep yourself entertained and calm as you moved through an unknown tunnel with no idea if you'll end up dead from asphyxiation by poisonous gas or if you'll meet a hungry cave dwelling animal, or if you'll die the long way of plain old starvation and dehydration.

You pause and take a deep breath, "One step at a time, ya old scallywag. One step at a time." You smile at your own silliness for trying to mimic Foxy.

The farther along you walked the more you realized that the moss was placed down systematically. There was an artificial pattern along the walls that in a way suggested that it was planted to make a path. It wasn't like at the entrance of the cave, where it was seeping everywhere and ended in splotches, like it had run out of nutrients to grow from.

You touch your hand along the cave wall and feel that the moss is thick and fuzzy and feels remarkably healthy. The wall feels kind of warm too and you feel groves in the wall that suggest a consistent digging against it.

You sniff the air, but you don't smell anything like sulfur or smoke. So, if you are near one of those underwater thermal vent things it hasn't breached the stone walls yet.

You turn your attention back to the moss on the wall.

"Ugh," you groan, "I can't believe I'm about to do this."

You dig out a chunk of the moss, then hesitating for only a moment, you put the plant matter into your mouth.

It tastes earthy, stringy, and like grass… and surprisingly… lacking the taste of salt.

Ever since you've been here in this dimension every single piece of food has some lingering taste of salt. Whether it's because it's preserved in it, or because no matter how hard the people try, the salt content in their fresh fruits and vegetables are abnormally high because of their surroundings.

This moss was not salty. This moss was curated and grown using fresh water. There's a freshwater spring here!

You spit out the moss and keep moving forward.

"Voe! Voe, why have you gone quiet?"

You only hear your echo… Or to mess with you, The Voice is pretending to be an echo. You don't know enough about fellow interdimensional creature to be sure.

"Voe! Come on! You've let me wander on my own long enough. I'm tired and hungry and thirsty. How is this place supposed to keep me alive?"

There was a bend in the tunnel and as you followed it, you come across a statue. You get excited for a moment, thinking it's an old relic of this universe's past, but then it turns its faceless head towards you.

You couldn't help the scream that came out of you as it kept moving to face you with its whole body.

You were frozen in place as you stared at the statue thing. It didn't move as you continued to stare at it in fear.

Through the faint lighting of the moss, you could see that the statue had a big bulbus head kind of shaped like an onion and a rough cylinder-shaped body, with stubby arms and legs. There was no indication that they had any elbow or knee joints for extra flexibility. They were covered, or maybe wearing, a kelp skirt and there were dying coral fans on their head, giving them the allusion of having twin pigtails. They kind of looked like a crudely made baby doll.

Nothing happened.

You raise your hand up and wave hesitantly, "Hello?"

The sound of creaking stone could be heard as it lifted its stubby arm. It raises it up like it's pointing at you. Then you hear stone scratching on stone as it wiggles it from side to side at you.

You lower your hand, and it lowers its appendage.

"Huh?"

"Hello, Bass Friend," you heard Chika's voice echo around you, "How have you been enjoying your explorations of my home?"

Not wanting to answer, since you don't exactly have any kind words to say right then, so you pointed at the moving statue and asked, "Who is this?"

"Hmm? Oh. Just ignore it. That's one of those old things, from before The Agony showed up. It got into my cave a long time ago. It's been keeping itself busy with the plant life that grows down here."

"They haven't given you their name yet?"

"I've never heard them speak," they said in Chip's voice, "So I ignore it."

You frown at that. Then you turn to the moving statue.

"Can you nod your head? Like this?" You ask, giving the creature a nod.

They mimic you.

"Can you shake your head? Like this?" You then ask, giving the creature a head shake.

They mimic you.

You clap excitedly then said, "Alright. That's something then. So do this," you nod, "to mean yes, and do this," you shake your head, "to mean no. Do you understand me?"

They nod.

"Fantastic!"

"Hey!" The Voice said in Sun's whiney voice, "I said ignore it. You can't even speak to it like you can with me."

"We all have different and valid ways of speaking, Voe, I'm not going to ignore them."

Sun's voice whined needily above your head.

"So how exactly do you plan on keeping me alive down here. I'm not immortal. And if I get hurt, you won't be able to do anything to help me."

"What do you mean?"

"I will die sooner than you think."

"Wh-what? You can't die. You're a creature brought in by the monster Zulon. You'll live for forever."

You look in the general direction of the interdimensional creature's voice and raised a disbelieving brow up at them.

"Yah, I don't think so. If that was truly the case, then I would be hearing more stories about The Shapeshifter or The Tree Witch. And they'd be talked about as if they're still causing trouble, not as legends to explain the origins of other people's creation."

"And what about that," they said accusingly in Roxy's voice. The Voice was now sounding like they were talking over the rock person, "This thing has been here for almost as long as I have. It hasn't died at all."

"Well, I'm biodegradable. They're not. It seems to me that so long as nothing wears them down in a literal since, like acid rain, extreme temperatures, erosion of any kind. Then they are affectively immortal."

You heard Roxy's growl.

"You know, we need to give you a name," you state to the rock person.

It tilts its head at you to give you an indication that it's listening.

It didn't take you long to give the statue a name. You just went with cat naming logistics.

"I'll name you Baby. How do you like that?"

Baby nodded.

"Hey. Come on. I want to teach you another song," The Voice whined.

"Not until I know I'll have something to eat and drink here."

The Voice whined some more.

Baby started to waddle away, but when you didn't follow, they stopped and turned their head at you.

"You want me to follow you?"

The nodded.

"Okay then."

As you followed Baby, you tried getting The Voice to tell you more about The Agony, Zulon, and about the world in general.

"So why is it easy for you to know what The Agony knows?"

"Well," they hesitated a bit, then changed their voice to sound like Happy, "It has the loudest voice. Generally, if you talk, I can "hear" it, but it's not like people are talking one at a time, so often, I get easily overwhelmed by the voices of the world. I find it easier to ignore everything when I sing or I'm singing with my children."

You hummed contemplatively, "So does The Agony ever stop talking?"

"No. Ever since I've been here, I've never heard it stop."

"Does that mean you know where The Agony is?"

"No. Not unless they say I'm west of the setting moon or something like that. They don't talk like that."

"Then what about Zulon. Have you talked with them? Have you heard from them?"

They say nothing.

"Voe, come on. Why do you keep going silent when I mention Zulon?"

You round a corner, and you have to squint because a light was blinding you. You follow Baby farther into the light and felt a slight heat on your skin, and when you finally adjust, you see that you're in some kind of clear dome. On the other side, you saw magma slowly bubbling and swirling outside of the dome.

You were frozen at the sight. You don't know what the material was that was keeping literal magma out of this underwater cave, but it was something. You walk towards the closest clear surface and put your hand to it. It felt like pressing your hand up against a sink that was just drained of its hot water.

"Oooookay. So, then this material must have a higher melting point than fucking magma, wow," you say out loud to yourself, not entirely reassured.

You hear grinding stone behind you, and you turn to look at Baby who's pointing behind themselves.

You look around them and see a large pond surrounded by greenery that were bushes and flowers and trees that you have never seen since you've been in this dimension.

"Baby, this is beautiful," you said as you run towards it all, forgetting your body aches for a second.

Some of the plants had fruits and/or vegetables hanging off them. Your stomach growled at the sight, but you weren't too excited to accidentally poison yourself.

You took a cucumber shaped fruit off a fluffy looking bush and took a bite out of it. It tasted like pineapple to you. You took two more bites then sat it aside so that if you did get sick, you'll know it'll be from that.

Then you ran for the pond in the center of the dome. You cupped the water and smelled it. It didn't have that salty smell to it. Holding your breath, you dunked your head under water and saw that the pond was actually the entrance to a deep underwater tunnel. You saw little fishes swimming around at the farthest reaches of your vision and the water didn't sting your eyes like saltwater does.

You were going to resurface, but then you caught sight of a white, rainbow-ish looking figure. Then you saw it swimming towards you with the speed of a sword fish. You scrambled away from the water. Then you saw, breaching from the water towards you, was a baby siren.

The siren's four arms gripped around your neck and under your armpits as it landed on you, affectively glomping onto you and knocking the breath out of your body as you fell hard on your back.

The siren purred and clicked happily as it rubbed it's face against yours.

As you were getting your breath back you took a moment to realize who was on you.

"Do?"

The baby siren trilled.

"Ah! Do! Look at you," you cooed as you struggled to sit up, "You're getting so big! You're as big as me now."

You struggle to your feet and try to carry the baby siren, princess style, but instead you just ended up hurting yourself.

"Ow, ow, ow. Okay off. Off please."

The baby siren whines at you in concern as they sit at the edge of the pond while you took a second to look at your wounds. The wrap around your left arm that was bit wasn't bleeding through so that means you haven't popped a stitch on that yet. So that's good.

Then you checked the bandages around your waist and saw that you were bleeding through your bullet wounds.

You lay down and take a deep breath. You didn't want to freak out. A lot has happened in one day… or two days… you're not sure of the time right now, but you had to of been bleeding for only a little while. The wrap isn't saturated with your blood so it's fine. You're okay. It's okay.

You felt a hand on your foot. You looked up to see Do was staring at you, along with six other heads that were poking out of the water.

You smile at the sight, "I'm sorry I can't carry you like I could before. I'm hurt and you all are too big for me too."

There was a choir of concerned clicking.

Do's siblings reached their hands out to you and placed them on wherever they could reach you.

"Awe, you kids are so sweet."

"You'll be able to see them like this every day," The Voice said in Chika's voice, "You won't be hurt like you have while you're here. You have food and water like you said you need. Please, won't you come sing with me now."

"I don't want that. I don't want to hide for forever down here. I want to go back to my dimension and see my family. I want to spend time with my crew. I need to unpack what you said back inside the siren about my captain's confessing to me, with them. I have so much to do and if you won't help me, then fine. But it won't stop me from doing everything I can to get back to my ship."

A cacophony of screaming echoed in the dome, making you cover your ears in pain. The baby sirens ducked underwater, hissing as they went.

Now in Freddy's voice they yelled, "How can you say that! There is no way back home for you. You're only going to keep facing pain! Those things up there will only keep hurting you and try to use you for what you are and for what you have! You can't trust any of them."

You glare up at the empty air.

"I trust my crew with my life. Now either tell me what you know about Zulon or leave me alone."

"Fine!"

Then there was silence.

"Voe?"

There was no answer.

You sigh as you get up on your feet. You wanted a drink of water, but until you were sure you wouldn't getting sick from the fruit you ate, you had to save off for now. Feeling tired and not sure of what else to do, you went up to one of the trees and slept with your back to it. It took a while because of your new environment, your aching body, and lack of an actual bed, but eventually you fell into a fitful sleep.

Sometime later, you woke up to the feeling of something rolling into your face. You sit up a bit to see that it was the weird cucumber-looking, pineapple-tasting fruit that you ate previously. Since it has probably been a while now, and you don't feel bad from eating it, you figured it was okay to eat.

With a groan you sat up and started gnawing on it. Looking up all the way, you saw Baby standing in front of you.

"Worried that I had died or something?"

They nodded.

"Don't worry. I was just a sleep."

You dejectedly ate the fruit as you stared in the middle distance. Finishing it with a sigh, you asked aloud to yourself, "How am I going to get back to my crew? How am I going to find Zulon?"

Baby's nubby arm found its way into your line of sight, and you looked up at them. They turned around and started walking away. Then they paused and turned back to you, looking like they were waiting for you.

You got up on your feet and started to follow them.

Baby lead you to a denser part of the foliage that grew in the dome. After leading you through it, they stopped then pointed forward.

You looked at them curiously, but they just kept pointing. You continued walking forward. Looking over your shoulder, at Baby, every now and again while you moved forward. The rock person kept pointing you forward.

You trip over a rock protrusion and stumble forward. You pulled a muscle somewhere in your neck as you get your footing back. As you look down at yourself, you see a Zulon's Heart. That white eight petaled flower that has a rainbow-shine to its leaves. It didn't look as healthy as the one you saw at North Shallow's Isle, but it still managed to grow underground.

Just like on the ship. The sight of the flower pulled you in. You got on your knees before it and cupped your hands gently around its flower.

We're both far away from home, aren't we, you think to the flower as you press your forehead to it.

West of the setting moon and follow the heart cluster.

You reeled away from the flower and looked around. You're pretty sure that The Voice was still unwilling to talk to you. So why did it feel like you heard someone talking?

Your eyes were drawn back to the flower before you as it started to glitter faintly. The head of the flower started to rise towards you, like how a sunflower follows the sun. You leaned back into it and rested your forehead against its silky petals.

West of the setting moon and follow the heart cluster. West of the setting moon and follow the heart cluster. West of the setting moon and follower the heart cluster.

The voice in your head repeated this over and over. The words desperate and pleading. Like it's a prerecorded message that was left to be found.

You repeated the phrase in your head a few times with it until it was stuck in your head. Then the flower wilted and died in front of you within a matter of seconds.

You looked at the flower, sad to see it dead, but know you have a destination towards Zulon. All you have to do now is get out of here.

Getting up on your feet you stomp through the underbrush and walk past Baby. You hear them follow you through their garden as you make your way over to the fuzzy bushes and pluck a few more of the weird fruits. Then you take off your shirt. Tie the hem into a knot. Then you throw the fruits into your shirt as a makeshift bag.

Once you had your spoils you were going to make your way back to the tunnels, but then you heard concerned clicking from the pond. You saw Do on the shore waving at you.

You walk up to him and hug him.

You see his siblings poking their head out of the water looking at you.

"Can your dad DJ come up here?"

You pulled away and Do shook his head.

"The entrance must be too small for him to fit in then, but I can't go to him. If I don't get crushed by the water pressure, I'm sure I'll die of drowning. I don't have the same lung capacity as you kids do."

You saw Re, Ti, and So duck down under water as Mi, Fa, and La swam closer to you.

"I have to get out of here. Wherever Zulon is, they're obviously in need of help. Why else would they keep bringing people in after what happened with The Agony."

Do and his siblings cooed sympathetically at you.

The thought of being stuck in an underwater cave with no way of saying goodbye to your friends that you've made along the way, made you start crying a bit. Not much. Just a few tears slipped from your eyes.

You felt the babies start to put their wet hands on your shoulders and head as you heard comforting trilling from them.

"No. I'm good. I'm fine. I know I'll figure something out."

You quickly wiped your eyes.

Ti, So, and Re resurface, and they squawked something to their siblings.

The gentle hands that were on you gripped your arms tightly. You quickly inhaled as you were pulled underwater by the sirens.

You struggled against their hold, but they kept a firm grip on you as they pulled you further and further down. Your ears popped uncomfortable as the water pressure grew around you and you saw it become darker. Your ears had popped a second time as you were running out of breath.

You thrashed harder against the baby sirens, but you felt one of them grip you around your waist with one set of arms, as they held themselves against you. Then you felt another pair of hands grip your head and then you felt a snake-like mouth press against yours and air was passing your lips. You sealed your mouth over the siren's mouth as best as you could, but you still inhaled some water during the practice.

Now that you had an idea of what the kids were doing. You stopped struggling against them so much.

You don't know how long they were dragging you under water for, but since you can only hold your breath for less than a minute and the babies had to give you mouth to mouth five time, you'd say it took five minute to reach what felt like had to be the end of the cave tunnel.

Your head and body hurt so much from the pressure, and you needed actual air badly. It was so dark wherever you were, and your eyes started to sting with salt water.

In the distance, through your blurry vision, you saw a dark figure swim its way towards you and the baby sirens. You could feel your heart rate spike at the sight, and you jerked in the baby siren's hold. They held you close to themselves, and you heard them trill as a group towards it.

The figure swam faster towards them.

Soon you saw a pair of large hands wrap around the eight of you. Through your blurry vision you saw a large eye look down at you. The baby sirens let go of you and quickly, you swim to DJ's mouth and pantomime to him to open.

DJ did, and you swam in.

You hoped that DJ would get what you were going for as his mouth closed in around you. As you sat in his mouth, struggling not to breath in the water. You then felt the water start to rush out through the giant siren's bristle teeth. Soon there was a bubble of air, and you inhaled greedily, only to start coughing up all the water that has managed to sneak its way into your lungs.

Once you had your breath back you yelled, "Please. I need to be on the surface."

You covered your ears as DJ rumbled at you. You held on tight to your bag of fruit and to DJ's bristle teeth as you felt him move.

You don't know how long you were in DJ's mouth, but you hoped that you can trust that he'll help you. You preoccupied your time by worrying about how much The Voice knows about what you're doing, and if they'll find out. You only hope that DJ and his kids don't face any kind of godly rath from The Voice if they do find out how you left.

You covered your ears as DJ rumbled, your bag of fruit hitting you in the chest as you hunkered down. Then you were falling out of the giant siren's mouth into bright sunlight.

You were blinded.

You fell into the ocean and flailed as you tried to get your bearings.

You felt hands cup under you and raise you out of the water.

Breathing heavily, you squinted up at the bright sky as you laid in DJ's hands.

DJ and the kids clicked concerningly at you.

"Just. Just hold on. Give me a minute," you wheezed.

You took a couple of deep comforting breaths, and you enjoyed the warmth of the sun on your face and chest.

You coughed as you forced your in-pain body to sit up and look at DJ. His two large eyes and six smaller ones were trained on you.

You sigh, then said, "Man. I never got to thank Baby for showing me the flower…"

You look all around at the horizon. You saw nothing but water. Some yards away you saw the water bubbling with heat.

"Do you know where South Shallow's Isle is?"

DJ shook his head.

You sigh again.

"I'm personally still not all that great with my cardinal directions," you admit out loud.

You cough some more. Making your stomach hurt.

Let's see, you thought to yourself, if the sun here rises in the west and sets in the east, then you just have to pick two directions. Even if you go the wrong way, you'll loop back to the right direction eventually. All it'll do is take you longer to get to your destination.

You looked up at the sun through your fingers.

Then you looked back to DJ.

"Will you take me back to my ship. I need my friends."

DJ trilled, high pitched and nodded. The babies in the water trilled with him.

"Thank you," you said, getting emotional, "Thank you, all of you."

DJ seemed to give you an apologetic chirp as he leaned his face into you. You cupped your arms against his lower cheek.

"Hey. It's all good. I have no way to tell if I have CO2 poisoning or not, but I'm not dead yet so that's something."

He leans away from you, and you stand up fully to look at where you need to go. You point where you think south is, and you ask DJ to take you in that direction.

DJ agrees and then places you on his head and starts lowering the rest of his body into the water. DJ keeps his head above water so that you have a little island to rest on. You appreciate this immensely.

The nights were cold, and the days were unbearably hot. You had Do and his siblings to entertain you and you taught them some songs to sing with you when you were bored, but you couldn't do much else.

The first time DJ tried to hunt with you on him still, you lost your grip on him underwater and was accidentally thwamped in the back by his massive tale. It was almost like being hit by a car. So, you were forced to have DJ leave you in the open water, but at least you weren't alone. One of the baby sirens would stick with you. Usually it was Do, the little troublemaker always seemed to be so brave to you.

Your fruit didn't last you long. You've eaten it all after the first day. So you were forced to eat the raw fish that DJ catches. It wasn't easy, but with the help of the babies' claws, you were at least able to scrape off the freshly dead fish's scales so that all you had to worry about was the bones.

You're glad you don't have a fear of blood or anything like that but being forced to drink fish blood so that you don't die of dehydration still sucked.

As the sun rose on your fourth day out on the open water with DJ and his babies, you stood up and stretched your aching body. You were starting to think that maybe you should sleep during the day, since you'll be able to sleep through being hot easier, when you spotted something on the horizon.

You strained your eyes and once you focused in on it, you saw that it was a boat.

"Ah!" you screamed excitedly as you pointed at the ship.

You startled DJ and he popped his head up, making you fall into the water. You scrambled back up his neck and onto his head. Then you kneeled on the side that you wanted him to turn his head to look and slapped down excitedly.

"Look, look, look! A boat! We have to go to it!"

DJ was looking in the direction you wanted him to look, then he gave you a concerned rumble.

"Please DJ. I need to see if they will help. If they won't then we'll run away. Okay?"

DJ didn't say anything, but he did start moving towards the ship.

You squealed excitedly.

As you got closer, your excitement dwindled down to disappointment. The boat was hardly a boat, mostly it looked like a ghost ship. The masts were broken. The hull looked barely held together, and you didn't see a soul on it. It looked like one bad storm away from sinking to the bottom of the ocean.

Still, the prospect of having access to supplies that you didn't have would be better than nothing.

DJ gently placed you on the deck of the ship and you quietly told the siren to wait for you under the ship. The babies, thankfully, didn't whine when you disappeared from their sight. Understanding that this was possibly a dangerous situation.

You made your way over to the captain's cabin first. It was a mess, but it had some things that you wanted. You took off your old, wet clothes and unwrapped your bandages. Your wounds looked wrinkly and gross, but still not puss filled so that's something. You found a new pair of pants under the bed, and you put them on, happy to be dry for once. You stayed topless so that your wounds could air out.

You saw bullet holes and sword holes in the wood of the walls and floor, so whatever happened to this ship, they were fighting in the captain's cabin too.

You left the cabin and trekked your way across the deck to the stairs that'll lead you to the belly of the ship. The stairs to the first level were still intact and you managed to find the kitchen. You immediately raided the cupboards and found salted potatoes and a bottle of rum. You scarfed them down, happy that it's not raw fish.

Holding a few of the potatoes in your arm so that you can snack while you walk, you went to check and see if you could find the medical wing of the ship.

As you were eating, you heard someone cussing.

You froze.

The figure continued to cuss and talk angrily out loud.

Slowly. Carefully. You followed the voice to where the cargo bay would be.

The cargo bay was lit up by the sun as it shined through the cavity of the ship. In the middle of the cargo bay was a stickman working on making a makeshift rowboat. They had a thick head of leaves that shown under the sun like autumn leaves, and they were missing one arm.

There was a loud clang and she hissed and cussed as she shook out her one hand.

Then she picked up what she dropped and went back to work.

You slowly sat down the food you found and looked around. You didn't want to risk this person attacking you so wanted to make sure there weren't any weapons they could use. Quickly, you spotted a sort of, luggage area, and saw a sword shining in the light. It was all pilled behind the stickman, so you had a chance to sneak up without being caught.

You carefully worked your way up to the pile, never letting your eyes leave the person. You grab the sword. Then you quietly snuck up on the stickman.

You're not great at threatening people, and you're not even sure if it's a good idea to even talk to them in the first place, but you got to try and show that you're not someone to be messed with.

So, you lightly poke the sword against their back and clear your throat.

They immediately stiffen.

"Um, yah, I don't usually do this, but—"

You don't finish your sentence.

Your feet are swept out from underneath you and the sword is wrenched from your grasp as you fall to your back.

You try to get back up to your feet fast, but you're frozen in place as the sword's point is shoved in your face.

You look up at the face of the stickman. She was glaring daggers at you, but you saw her eyes roam down to the half-healed wounds on your arms and abdomen.

"Word of advice. If you wanted me dead, you should have run me through when I thought I was alone."

"I didn't want that, I just wanted to show that I couldn't be messed with or pushed around," you sigh as you lay down on the ground, "That didn't work out, huh?"

"No. It didn't."

You give her your name and said, "I was kidnapped by The Voice, and I've been stranded at sea for the last four-ish days. What's your name?"

"Eclipse."

Your head popped back up, "Sun and Moon's old teacher?!"

The sword that was aimed at your face left as the stickman squatted beside you.

"You know my boys?"

"Yah! I'm a member of the Crusty Waters! I'm trying to find my crew!"

Eclipse gave you a scrutinized look, but then she sheathed her sword, then offed her one hand to you to help you back on your feet.

"We have a lot to talk about."