Night fell, and the quintet had re-united in a small hotel. The five of them sat around a round table, cramped, but not in misery because of it. The ceiling was low, low enough to make everyone except Rez hunch and walk in a bent over state. They were the first table in as one entered the building. With a staircase to both the left of the entrance and the immediate side of the quintet, and a small gangway to the right. The quintet all sat and watched intently as Rez recalled his time out running Murk Raiders whilst he was a Cyclonian mechanic. '...so there it was, a massive puncture mark from one of the teeth of the Raider's ship. Tore through the wall and the engine. And I'm there fanning the cooling system with towel that I was just drying myself with!' The rest of the quintet giggled. 'That, of all times, would be the exact point I wouldn't be alone. Who else would it be than Captain Scabulous' pet, Eyeball? And the only thing I could muster was-'

'-"Haven't you seen enough scales from Scabs himself?"' Stan improvised, stealing the punchline from Rez, and causing everybody, Rez included, to burst into fits of laughter.

Lester pulled himself together to add to the comedy. He leant into the table and pointed to Rez. 'I remember that incident myself, Eyeball did a runner after a while. That was you?' Lester asked with an intrigued smile.

'Oh yes' Rez nodded. 'You should've seen his face at the sight of bare Terradon cheeks! Were it not for that, we'd have been scrap!'

'You can say that again' Lester agreed. 'Mind you...' Lester diverted, 'It reminds me of that time that Stan here decided to Prank Ravess by sneeking a leecher behind one of the pilot's controls'

'Oh that was hilarious! Scary, but hilarious' Stan chimed in.

'It wasn't gradual either, it was all at once, just a sudden-' Lester described, before both he and Stan mimed themselves holding the controls and screaming in fear for a few seconds. Bursting into laughter right after.

During the commotion, Leila slowly found herself disconnecting from the conversation, scratching at the table in her own world. The others all had stories of conflict and adventure, but she was too young to play a role, and she realised that she would've run away if she was given the chance to fight anyway. Time would pass, and the quintet would be taken to their room upstairs. A single room, with two sets of triple bunks, half rusted, and extra squeaky to measure. The boys scrambled for their own bunks, Rez being booted to the bottom, Stan kicked to the middle, and Lester climbing to the top, only to hit his head on the ceiling. Ravess laughed cynically at the commotion, and Leila rolled her eyes with a smile. Her eyes were drawn to the window, where the image outside showed twilight on the water. She stood in front of the window, and leant on the sill. Looking this, Ravess turned off the lights and let more of the view in. 'Alright everyone, we're a couple of days from our gig now. We need concentration, so wind down and rest up' She instructed. The caused all the boys to drop out of their bunks and head over to the hotel's bathroom at once. Ravess looked back at Leila. 'Take whichever bunk you want, I'm on top' She insisted, grabbing one of the bags they had brought with them, and routing through it for any and all self care products.

Time passed for Leila again, and she found herself lead on the bottom bunk, wide awake. All the boys snored, but not loud enough to keep her awake, rather, she had the conversations she had with Ravess, and the bartender spinning around her mind. She had herself a plan brewing. A plan that needed Ravess to be asleep, too, but how to check, she wondered. This wonder would cease when a loud thump sounded out. Stan had rolled out of bed. The jolt had woken him, but he just quietly climbed back in, and quickly fell back asleep. Leila tried to hear for any movement from the top bunk, but no noise could be heard. Not a stir. the only new sound was Stan snoring again.

Leila's confidence built itself enough, and in a burst of motivation, she climbed out of bed, and quietly picked up her violin case. Each step caused a creak under the floorboards, yet she slowly made her way out, regardless. She left the room, then crossed the landing, moved down the stairs, and finally left the front door and escaped into the Aquinosian night.

Leila moved down the boardwalks, trying not to be suspicious. Very soon, she neared the end of the town's boardwalk, and where the rocks began. Passing by a moored boat, Leila hadn't noticed she had walked by somebody until they called out to her from said boat. The low light, and the shock from being discovered, frightened her. She stood in trembles as the man who called out to her climbed from his boat and approached her. Leila panicked, and tried to fight her anxious mind's imaginations of the man. Was he a murderer? a kidnapper? A living legend? One of those already existed, so maybe it's not-

'Leila?' The voice, heavy with the local accent, softly asked. The recognition startled her. causing her to look closer. Tall. Very tall. His build was that of Triton's, and in fact, that was who it was. 'What are you doing, skulking around 'ere at this time?' He asked, as well. He looked at her closely and saw her clutching her violin case closely. He looked at her with disappointment and pity. 'You have been told better, no doubt. Yet you still choose to do this' He scolded, serious and quiet in his voice. Leila tried to protest, but would be cut off. 'It's out of my hands. If you want that band, then you're going to get that band. You just need to remember that I can't save everyone all the time. You're on your own'

'Are you telling Ravess?' Leila sheepishly asked.

'Do I look like yer dad?' Triton answered, starting to walk away, and disappearing into the night.

Leila steeled herself, and continued to the rocks, regardless.

The journey to the rocks was a lot harder in the dark than the light, but Leila still continued, eventually, she navigated all the jaggies, juts, and snags onto the last rock out on the water. Leila stood on the rock, and waited for a little. Nothing. Nothing appeared. No lights, sounds, smells, nothing. This made her curious, so she put down her violin case, and lifted out her violin, with her bow in tow. She put everything into position, same as she did many, many times before. Dragging the bow down, the strings began to sing. It was a compromised melody between flow and harsh note strikes. Each section starting with a long, slow note, broken by a quicker set of notes that slowly became more pained as she would lose time and run slightly slow. Unburdened by a metronome or other performers, however, this speed deviation mattered little to the overall sound.

Waves began to ripple. The water was stirring from the direction Leila was facing. She noticed, but kept playing, until it appeared again. The creature from the depths. Leila played a little more, but was blatently distracted by the aquatic beast. Her interest wholely fixated on the the being that looked back at her. She set her violin down and crouched to its level. Looking into its eyes once more. Almost immediately, its eyes widened again, and the dull light she was exposed to earlier shone bright. Catching and mesmerising her. She was frozen in place, and fluttered her eyes in different parts of the light as the creature reached its hand out to her face. It touched her under her chin, and with its index finger, slid its hand towards it. the slight friction dragging the face of the ensnared Leila towards it. It then reached for Leila's hand, and curled it into a ball.

Leila's memory from this point in the night would fail her.