The Thousand Legends sank further into the Ocean of Lost Souls. Mira could have stared out that window for hours discovering new sea critters in the depths. He had never seen anything that remotely resembled this shadow-filled world below the sea, nor any of the alienlike creatures who called this realm home. Pillars of coral in too many shades to count surrounded their ship as they pushed further toward the white seabed. He had no idea where their ship was headed, but in that moment, he didn't have a care in the world for direction. Before him stood rainbows of fish and aquatic beasts who formed intricate roads, scattering instantly in all directions whenever their ship got too close to their schools—only to reform again in an even more bizarre pattern as quickly as they broke apart. Mira saw dancing seals and glowing eels, sandy dunes and scaled raccoons, even spiky fish who swelled up like balloons. All Mira could do was stand as tall as his small toes would allow, slack-jawed at the wonder of the sea.

  Mira felt breathing against his shoulder, so he turned to find Welz standing over him. The lookout of the Thousand Legends peered out the same circular window as Mira with a wide grin. The drunk had snuck behind him somehow. He was either light on his feet or Mira had been too lost in the flowing world outside to notice anything else.

  Welz looked down to Mira and pulled a new glass full of brown liquor from behind his back. "Let me guess, the grouch kicked you out?" From this close, Mira was able to see the Inagi man's hypothermic skin much more clearly. The shade came from thousands of tiny scales, looking more like small shards of woven armor than skin. It was an odd sight, but Mira considered how odd he was and figured it best to stick to the conversation at hand.

  "Yeah. I'm not too sure what happened." The blue-haired fool shrugged. "I think I said something wrong—I do that a lot."

  "With Xere, it doesn't matter what anyone says." Welz downed his cup and wiped his mouth, the stink of liquor was heavy in each breath he exhaled. "It's all shit in his ears." He tapped the crew's new cabin boy on the shoulder and moved back toward the bar. "Just tail me if he won't show ya around."

  Mira wanted to continue observing the sea world, but exploring a boat the size of the Thousand Legends with Welz sounded even more exciting. He zipped down the hallway after his new friend, finding it much easier to get his footing now that the boat was submerged. Mira startled Welz as he hopped up into the barstool next to the drunk in a blue blur of static.

  Welz raised a brow to the boy, surprised by the loud buzz of the boy's speedy Radiance. "No wonder Helen had ya—I guess lightnin' natures flock together."

  Mira played with his azure sparks, letting them jump from one fingertip to the next. "Well, she's a lot better at it than me. I can't fly... and she's waaaaaay faster. Like, too fast!"

  "Then it's good to have another one of the Gods' unloved children on board. Most of us are mutts of some sort too, so you'll fit in here like a Felid broad on a..." He cut himself off and reexamined Mira's childish appearance. "Never mind. You're a bit too young for that one, lad. Let's just say—yer gonna fit like a glove around here."

  The peg-legged drunk escorted Mira through the bowels of the Thousand Legends, showing off every bilge pump and empty bottle. The pair wandered through the galley and up to the navigation room: a small library with a cartography table in the room's center. Lightly fringed maps covered every inch of wall space left uncovered by shelving in Vice-Admiral Rish's workspace. Mira rummaged through the rusted mapping tools; mostly compasses and sharp-ended measuring devices. He was fascinated by what each piece of equipment might be used for. When the boy was done, he couldn't remember how Rish had organized the tools, so he left them scattered across the table for the bookworm to reorganize later. Mira also flipped through some of the heavy books on the walls, looking for pirate pictures. There were none, so he moved on.

  Upon landing in the Corvus Kingdom years ago, Mira realized that his complete lack of reading and writing skills would be to his detriment. Sachi and Wilhelm tried to teach him the written letters of Romani Imperium many times. However, academically speaking, Mira was a dog who was unable to learn new tricks when it came to literacy. So, when many frustrating months attempting to educate the blue-haired child yielded no results, the Van'Heatahs had no choice but to give up on the fantasy of Mira becoming an intellectual.

  Instead of learning how to read, Mira had developed an excellent system of tricking people into thinking he was literate. He learned most people would just assume he could read, and all he had to do was go along with it. His technique was simple in nature, he would look at every single letter on a page, which were nothing more than meaningless symbols to his eyes. He would start from left-to-right and go row by row, as he noticed Sachi and Willy's eyes would do when they looked at books written in the common vernacular of Battle. After he finished looking at all the symbols on one page, he would move on to the next, always left to right, and when he was done looking over all the symbols he would look up with a neutral expression and nod, "Mhm." This never failed with strangers, and with Wilhelm now deceased, Sachi was the only person left who knew this dark secret. One of Mira's biggest fears at that time was being found out for this ruse. He worried that one day he would be surrounded by friends, maybe playing games or sharing fun stories, and Sachi would rat him out in front of everyone. With his adoptive brother being such a grump, Mira knew pettiness of such a degree was possible.

  The next stop on Welz's tour was the infirmary. However, that section of the ship was on the other side of the deck, a section completely detached from the main interior. Welz strolled over to a broom closet in the navigation room and pulled out some equipment for the boy to use.

  "Ya need these without gills." He tossed a pair of rubber-string goggles, a small clamp, and a mouth guard to Mira.

  Mira looked down at the large black piece of rubber with a raised brow. "Am I fighting someone?"

  Welz gave a deep laugh to his new crewmate. "It's a wet lung, lad."

  Mira looked down at the device with a wide smile, "Cool! But... what's that?"

  "It sucks the air out of water so Humans like you can breathe down here. Don't worry one bit though! That one's only been used by a few guys."

  Mira stopped listening the second he heard the device would allow him to breathe under water. "No way! That's amazing! But I'm not a Human, I'm-"

  "Most of you dirt-lickers look like Humans to us—doesn't matter what Clan you claim." Welz picked the clamp out of Mira's palm and fastened it to the boy's nose tightly. "Sorry, you gotta be a mouth-breather to use that thing."

  "Ghaa!" Groaned Mira in a nasally pitch. He popped the wet lung in his mouth, and as he expected, it tasted like the underside of a boot. He tried to speak, but the words were heavily muffled. "bry bo bou ball bit ba bet blung?"

  Welz chuckled and ignored the question, approaching a ladder on the far side of the room that led outside. On the ceiling was a locked passageway, and beyond it, a decompression room that opened into open waters. Welz unlocked the first hatch and climbed up. Mira popped his goggles on and followed his new friend like a loyal pup.

  The decompression chamber was a tight squeeze for the pair to fit in together. The echoes of their heavy breathing rang out in the metal pod as the pirate slapped down the final latches to seal them in.

  Click. Mira looked down to see a cuff around his hand, attached to a long, braided rope. Welz had attached them together at the wrists.

  "To be sure I don't lose ya." Said Welz calmly as he spotted Mira eyeing the rope.

  When the pair finally settled in the chamber, Welz finished locking the hatch on the floor and pulled a small lever beside them. Dark seawater began to flood the cabin from vents around them. Mira squirmed at first when the cold hit his feet, but at this point there was nothing he could do. He sat down and secured the wet lung in his mouth, then gave his new friend a thumbs up and a wide smile to show he was safe.

  Welz chuckled at the dorky sight of Mira with his goggles and fat mouthpiece. He did his best to finish his drink before the water reached his neck; and he succeeded. "Yes!" shouted the lookout. "Another successful launch!"

  Mira loved swimming, so this part seemed quite easy, but the wet lung was quite the chore to breathe out of once he was fully surrounded by water. Mira had to force his exhales out and suck it air like he was breathing through a pillow. The experience was too new, an entirely unnatural feeling. It was also difficult to keep the mouthpiece secured, for every exhale nearly shot the device out of his lips. To keep the wet lung in place he had to keep a hand cupped over his mouth. It wasn't perfect, but sure enough, Mira was breathing underwater.

  To the blue-haired spazz, this act was a miracle he had never dreamed of being able to accomplish. Yet here he was, breathing like a fish. He rocked about the pod as it fully filled to the brim with cold water from the bottom of the ocean. When submersion was complete, Welz pressed a small button on his side. Excitement turned to anxiety at that second, for a hum slowly grew louder as the chamber adjusted to the sea-floor's pressure. Mira felt the sudden urge to yawn, and his ear canals felt a level of discomfort he thought impossible. The pressure inside Mira's head grew stronger, growing to a point where his vision blurred beyond the norm of submerged sight. The instinct to sleep kicked in, but he was trained well enough to resist it. Breathing was all that mattered now. All pain would eventually subside, all he needed to do now was breath.

  Welz was surprised to see how little the boy thrashed in the pod. It took most land-dwellers around thirty minutes to adjust to the seabed's conditions, but the child had remained relatively calm throughout the process. After three minutes, Mira was still; breathing in a calm way that signified his body's comfort. Golden eyes met Welz's gaze; the lad was ready. The sailor released another hatch above them, and following the creak of the hinges above them, the pair swam up into a world below the surface.

  The first thing Mira noticed when he got outside was that the ocean had its own winds, gentle tides that playfully attempted to steer his course. It was hard to resist the sea's pull without proper footing. He swam froggy-style, the only way he knew how to, and pushed against the tides to keep up with Welz and avoid tightening the cuff on his wrist. He did his best to stay focused, but the majesty of that never-before-seen world stole his full attention.

  The seafloor was so much clearer without that algae-riddled window blocking his view. It was a cold world, and far darker than the surface Mira had become so accustomed to, but the ocean's beauty was without question. Sprawling landscapes of sand and kelp-shrouded mountains were home to beings unbound by gravity's laws; those who floated through their world however they pleased without restriction. He swam just above the Thousand Legends, watching the wooden giant coast effortlessly over a forest of coral grown atop sandbeds. Above Mira, a portal of rippling white light teased him from miles away, obscured by shadows from the travels of millions of sea-world residents above.

  Mira felt a sharp tug at his wrist that knocked him free from enchantment.

  "Oi!" called Welz, clear to hear despite the sea's distortion. "Don't get lost, we're still on our tour."

  Mira was stunned by how clearly Welz's voice carried. He called back as best he could, "Blat?" Trying to speak was a big mistake. The salty blue rushed into Mira's lips, forcing him to cough violently into the wet lung. He grabbed onto his face with both hands, desperate to keep the device secured between his teeth.

  "Stop talkin'! Gods! Ya Humans always try to do that—every single time!"

  Mira bobbled and spun on the currents, forcing himself to breathe calmly again even if the wet lung fought him. He winced in discomfort, but he wasn't about to drown. He pulled himself together and continued pushing after Welz, eager to taste fresh air once more.

  The infirmary was positioned under the forecastle deck, at the galleon's bow. On the deck above, there was a new hatch leading into yet another decompression chamber. Mira and Welz hustled inside, having to wait for the waters to drain from the chamber this time before heading down. When the water seeped below Mira's neck, he ripped the wet lung out of his mouth and gasped for fresh air with all his lung's strength. As he took his first breath, the blood in his head pulsed violently and he felt sick to his guts. Suddenly, Mira began coughing violently, drooling from his throat uncontrollably. He flipped over the wet lung and a stream of semi-viscous liquid poured out from the device's inner mechanisms.

  Welz slapped the falling waters and chuckled as he watched the cabin boy struggle. "That's why they call it a 'wet lung', lad. Careful though, all that lung butter'll drown ya slowly if ya stay under too long. At your size I'd say ya'd last about an hour out there."

  The infirmary was maintained by the crew's bartender, Dr. Sinda, so it had the hygienic standard one would expect from a drunken pirate's clinic. Grime and sawdust covered nearly every varnished countertop, and the whole room stank like the back alley of an alehouse. Luckily, all medical equipment was locked safely in glass cabinets against the walls, so nothing had fallen during the day's dive. Like the galley, the infirmary had tall ceilings designed for men up to twelve feet tall to stand comfortably. Some of the cabinets along the walls were so high the doctor needed to bring in a rolling ladder to retrieve medications. Sinda was a notorious chimney as well, so his office was tainted with the stench of wet cigarette butts. The tables were also littered with ashtrays Sinda had collected throughout their crew's journey across the world, most of which were toppled over during the Thousand Legends' abrupt dive; spilling ash on the floors for the ten thousandth time.

  Mira was still dripping wet when he entered the room, his normally bright hair darkened and draped over his eyebrows messily after the unplanned swim. He flung his head and shoulders around rapidly to shake off some of the damp from himself, but it didn't help much; he still felt a gripping sogginess in his shorts with every step. He tip-toed around mounds of unfinished paperwork and empty gin bottles. Willy's first-aid kit under their old sink looked more useful than Sinda's entire infirmary. Given the current state of dismay, Mira doubted he would even be able to find a bandage in that mess. But still, the fool was always the optimist, and he couldn't help but marvel at some of the dusty equipment scattered throughout the office: stethoscopes and thermometers of every variety; X-ray machines; surgical equipment; large metal canisters of different compressed gasses. But there was one thing Sinda had the largest variety of: pills; reds and blues; purples and golds; two-toned and every shade of liquid capsule under Holy Sola.

  Mira felt a tickle in the back of his nose and sneezed violently in the infirmary, causing a plume of dust to rise from the floorboards.

  "Bless ya, lad. Sinda hasn't swept in here in ages. I suppose that should be your first task when we reach the next port, cabin boy." Welz chuckled on and began rummaging through the gin bottles littered across the floor, seeing if any of them had a sweet surprise waiting inside.

  "I'm not a janitor!" barked Mira.

  "Sure, yer not." To Welz's dismay, Sinda was thorough drunk. "Ha! The old man's good!" He flipped over another few bottles before giving up. "If yer hurt, run here. Sinda's pills'll fix ya—even if boredom is all that's achin' ya."

  Mira waved off the advice. "I don't need 'em. I heal quicker than most."

  "Like I said, they're still good even if yer not hurt." The lanky fish began rooting around the high cabinets, knowing exactly where the doctor kept his personal stash.

  "Cool..." Mira said with a bored roll of his eyes. "Where are we even going?"

  "Don't know. Rish charts the course—Marj steers the ship. All I do is man the crow's nest and make sure no one's nippin' at our wake."

  "Then what are we doing?" Mira shrugged again, still very confused as to why Helen dropped him off with these pirates.

  "Like I said, I'm just the lookout. No one tells me the plans."

  "Then why'd that Admiral Johns guy say we were hunting?"

  "We're always huntin'." He gave Mira a sudden look of amusement. "And it's Jones. Ya gotta stop doing that or the Admiral will blow his lid."

  "Jones, Jones, Jones. Okay. Got it! What do you guys-"

  Welz slammed the cabinet door he was rummaging through, stashing a white bottle of medication in his back pocket. "Ya sure do ask a lotta questions, lad. Learn to take it easy while yer here. Just go with the flow!" He motioned to a bayside window of the infirmary.

  Again, Mira became entranced by the sea's alien-like majesty, eventually understanding Welz's words and shrugging gently. There was nothing else he could do but wait and see what the Admiral had planned for him.

  The last stop on Welz's tour was the Ocean Lounge. To get there, the boys needed to swim back to the main section of the ship. Mira did his best not to get distracted this time, but it was hard not to look up at those enchanting shimmers that lingered above the seafloor. When the pair returned to the navigation room, Mira coughed up another wet lung's worth of fluid, and they traveled back down to the lowest part of the ship's stern. To Mira's surprise, he was led into a room enclosed by glass windows, an undersea observation deck. Polished marble tables lined the back of the room, a stark contrast to the messy state of Sinda's infirmary and the main bar area. There were two rows of couches at the room's center, each sewn o tanned leather and built wide enough to seat ten Humans; all spotless and facing the thick windows at the ship's nose. Down there, Mira didn't have to strain on his tiptoes to see the mysterious blue outside, for he was immersed in it. He stood as a guest in a foreign land, feeling fortunate to have such an untainted view while drawing breath of his own accord. The ceiling-high windows were without a smudge, so clear one might be too afraid to put their hand on the glass in fear of slipping through and drowning in the ocean depths.

  Mira kicked his legs up on the frontmost sofa and tossed his hands behind his head to serve as a pillow. "So... why are y'all called the Neptunes?"

  Welz sipped at another drink he picked up along the way to the Ocean Lounge. "Nepsis is the city Admiral Jones and Rish were born in." The thin Inagi sauntered over to the couch and took a seat next to Mira, a wide grin on his icy-blue face. "It's a lawless spot—a whole city on the northern seafloor—but our Admiral got fed up with the rules. Everyone told Jones to stay inside their little bubble, but he was desperate to see the world. There's a lotta foolhardy kids with big dreams, I reckon." Welz peered out past the glass, past the sea even; a thousand league-stare. "When him and Rish bailed, I guess they got a bit of a reputation. Two merry kids from Nepsis, going from port to port drinkin' everything in sight like a pair of goons. The cunts were never the type to pick fights—too good-natured for all that fuss—they'd stand on tables and bother crowds to join in on the little ditties they'd pick up at each port. He might not look it, but that bookworm, Rish, is as smooth as it comes when he plays that fiddle of his. And the Admiral never minded making an ass out of himself, so he'd bellow out these wild songs in that grimy voice of his. They riled up every territory from The Queen's Arrow to the Isles of Jabralter. After a while, folks just threw the name at 'em—the Nep-Tunes—and it stuck!" He poured another hefty sip down his throat and turned back to Mira with a cocky grin. "Since those days, this crew's been all around the world, pickin' up rascals like me every so often along the way. It's an odd life! Fuck, who's isn't on Battle! And I'd be lyin' if I said it didn't get boring down here, but I wouldn't wanna live any other way!"

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  "Woah..." Mira looked dumbfounded. "That Admiral sounds just like-"

  The doors to the Ocean Lounge swung open, and another member of the crew stepped in to shake off the outside's drench and relax for a spell. He too, was from the Inagi Clan, like all Neptunes seemed to be, with the same frostbitten skin as Welz. But this man was clearly much older, even older than Sinda. He wore a long night-shirt as if the old Inagi had just rolled out of bed, and his fully grayed hair stayed messy in thin clumps at the top of his head. His scales were wrinkled like an old leather bag, and he sported a wispy beard of black and gray that reached his belly. The old man's eyes were frosty too, with thick cataracts that made it hard to see the powder-blue hidden behind the pale.

  The old man turned toward the couch and looked at Mira with those half-blind eyes. He paused for a moment, studying the small boy. In return, Mira met the man's investigative stare with a slack-jawed smile that made it clear he wasn't a threat.

  "You..." The elderly Inagi's voice was hoarse in tone, exhausted from so many lectures to the young members of his crew over the years. "You hold a great darkness on your shoulders—and power beyond Mortal dreams."

  "Yeah, I get that a lot." Mira shrugged. "Cool beard, though! How long you been growing it for?"

  Welz smirked at the boy's response. "Don't mind Ol' Nelly. He's like everyone's grandpappy around here." The lookout stuck a teasing tongue out at the senior-pirate.

  "Young man, I've been growing this beard since before you swam outta your dad's scrote." He shoved a finger at the younger Inagi's chest, "And my name isn't Nelly... It's Neland Ferdin, and you'd be good to show some respect to your elders, Welz."

  "No need to be rude about it." Mira grimaced at the way Neland spoke. "I was just askin'."

  The old man stroked his mess of a beard a few times while pondering the original question. "... I lost track."

  "Of what?" asked Mira, already forgetting what they were talking about.

  "The beard!" snapped the old Inagi. "Damn it, boy! The fuck else would I be thinking about?"

  "She-he-he!" chuckled Mira at his own forgetfulness. "My bad—how'd you forget?"

  "I just did! 'Kay?" The old man crossed his arms defensively. "Is that good enough for you?"

  It would have been clear to most people that this conversation was slowly beginning to touch a nerve for the bearded man—but not Mira. "Chill dude! Being dumb isn't a big deal. I forget stuff all the time."

  "You don't understand!" Neland became restless in his pacing. "A beard is a man's treasure!"

  Mira raised a brow at the idea. He rubbed his own chin, smooth as a sea lion, and shrugged to himself.

  The bearded man seated himself at the far end of the couch, leaning forward and resting his weight on his thighs. "In my younger days, this treasure was a masterpiece—the class A beard you'd see on one of those fancy statues of royal nitwits—it was kingly. And the women, oooh... they couldn't get enough of it." He ran a hand through the wilted mane of salt and pepper that slumped on his gut. "Look how far I've fallen, boy. I'm just some fat old man whose treasure has rusted in the sands of time. I'm some crumbling monument who-"

  "I get it." Mira rolled his eyes into the back of his head. "You like your beard. That's cool, old dude. But everyone gets old—one day we're all gonna stop breathing." Mira shrugged. "No one's gonna talk about your beard when you're gone."

  "But I wanted them too..." sulked the old man. "I was gonna have people around the world going to their barbers, askin' for 'The Ferdin.' I would have been immortal."

  "Hmm..." Mira scratched at his bare chin. "I guess that's why my dad grew a beard."

  Welz continued to watch on as the blue-haired boy poked fun at the old codger, thinking to himself how Mira was fitting in quite well among their crewmates thus far. Neland wasn't easy to get along with, and his hot-to-cold personality turned many away upon the first words out of his wrinkled mouth. But here Mira was, conversing with the grumpy bastard as if their odd conversation was typical.

  "Mira." Welz chimed in abruptly. "Head back to yer room for a while. Dinner will be ready soon, and I gotta speak with this old beard alone for a moment."

  Mira raised a brow at the request, but followed the order anyway given the unfamiliarity of his environment. He excused himself from the Ocean Lounge with a sulking face. There was a desire to know what Welz was about to ask Ol' Nelly, but it wasn't his place to eavesdrop on strangers. Mira wandered back to his boiler room, but the door was still locked. He debated breaking the hinges off, but didn't have the energy for it after Welz's tour. If Xere didn't want to be friends, it was his loss.

  Dinner would be in a few hours, and Mira was still sleepy from working through the night prior. He slumped down beside his bedroom door and let his eyes droop down lazily.

  The tiny teen eventually shocked himself awake when he heard the slam of Xere leaving their room for supper. Mira tried to follow him toward their meal, but the dark scaled Inagi had no interest in having his roommate sit next to him at the main table of the galley. Welz and Sinda drifted in for dinner after an awkward couple of silent moments, followed soon after by Rish and the rest of the crew. There were a few faces Mira didn't recognize, but after his positive encounters thus far he had a fuzzy feeling that they would all be friends soon.

  Before supper was served, drinks were poured—a round for everyone, even the clearly underage Mira. The teen took a single sip out of curiosity, but after the sour taste of skunked lager met his lips, Mira politely pushed his cup back out of reach. As the Neptunes drank their first round, the crew grew loud and merry with conversation. And, after their third, Welz took it upon himself to whisper something in Rish's ear. The Vice-Admiral cracked a smile, and his lookout dashed off to fetch a fiddle aged at least two decades. Welz returned and found the Admiral at the table's head and whispered to him as well. Admiral Jones blushed with a liquor-soaked grin and rose from his seat. Welz was plotting something, but Mira couldn't put his finger on it.

  "Ahem!" Admiral Jones cleared his throat loudly enough to quell the roaring sailors. "Listen up ya grimy batch'a bottom-feeders! I've got something to say..." He cleared his throat again, and to Mira's surprise, the Admiral began to sing. His voice had a gravelly nature to it, but there was something appealing about how genuine and untrained his tone was.

  "From the Nepsis port we sailed away, with hearts upon our sleeves.

  Waged a war through sea and oil, shore's sight put us at ease.

  Our pride and joy lay near destroyed, we never won our crown.

  But never fear, there's enough booze here-"

  "TO DRINK UNTIL WE DROWN! HO!" The Neptunes all joined in with a roar, banging their mugs on the dining tables; making it clear they had sung the shanty together a couple hundred times before. They all shout-sang the chorus, slapping their knees and clapping to the licks of Rish's fiddle once the Vice-Admiral joined in.

  "What do ya do with a drunken sailor!? What do ya do with a drunken sailor!?

  What do ya do with a drunken sailor, earli in the mornin'!?"

  Hoo-Ray! Up she rises! Hoo-Ray! Up she rises!

  Hoo-Ray! Up she rises—earli in the mornin'!"

  Welz jumped up for the next verse, he swung his arms wildly, spilling his drink all upon himself and the floor as he wobbled on his wooden leg. He gestured and pointed to his crew members with a sloppy smile.

  "In lower decks, we swill and shout till spirits take our sight.

  But come the dawn, we simply yawn and wake up for the fight.

  To our stern, we spot death's hoard—our fates're lookin' grim.

  Beware our skull and bones-"

  "OR ADMIRAL JONES'LL RIP YA LIMB FROM LIMB! HO!

  What do ya do with a drunken sailor!? What do ya do with a drunken sailor!?

  What do ya do with a drunken sailor, earli in the mornin'!?"

  Hoo-Ray! Up she rises! Hoo-Ray! Up she rises!

  Hoo-Ray! Up she rises—earli in the mornin'!"

  Mira joined in as best he could without knowing the words. More than anything, he watched on in amazement as Rish showed off his talent for the fiddle. The Vice-Admiral had a way of positioning the bow loosely on his hook-bearing hand. It was captivating to watch, but Mira still slapped the table and bobbed his head along with a bright grin while he watched Rish and the drunks of the Thousand Legends bellow their sea shanties to the drowned decks above. The boy still had questions about the crew's mission, but he let them all fade away into the waves of laughter and increasingly potent stench of liquor that permeated the galley. Eventually, Chef Xeik Bixby started bringing out trays of food, leading to even louder hollers from the Neptunes on sight.

  The grub reminded Mira of his elder sister's culinary skills: overcooked, under-seasoned, and soaked with grease; he loved every bite of it. Who could complain about taste when portions seemed unlimited? There were trays of fried halibut, garlic shrimp, fresh oysters, grilled squid, and crab with butter sauce—it seemed Helen had been honest about the feast after all. Plate after plate of seafood was brought out by the chef until he, too, joined the table, removing his tall, white hat and officially changing his name from "Chef" to Xeik.

  As the sailors attacked the feast before them, the fiddler thought it appropriate to ask the new cabin boy about himself. "So, what's your story, soldier boy?" They were all going to be shipmates for some time, so it seemed right to ask him while the whole crew was around to hear the boy's tale.

  "Wha- what do you mean?" Mira managed to cough out through handfuls of seafood.

  "Well..." Welz cut in to help make the line of questioning sound like less of an interrogation. "It's just that Captain Helen seemed to take a likin' to ya—we've never seen her in anyone else's company."

  "Yeah..." A memory of Helen's boot slamming against Mira's face returned to him. "That doesn't surprise me." He wiped his mouth off and readied himself for the cross-examination.

  "So, how'd you wind up hanging around a gal like her?" Rish gestured towards the rest of the table. The clanking of the Neptunes' forks and cups had halted. They all looked to Mira, grinning with hopes he would have an interesting story for them. The hook-handed Inagi continued, "As I'm sure you could guess, we don't get much in the way of entertainment down here. You see, I play my fiddle when the mood fits, and the cabin boy's one Hel of a crooner when he's not moping around the lower decks." He nodded at Xere with a smile that wasn't returned. "But," Rish went on. "Some days can feel like weeks when we've run dry on jokes and ghost tales." The atmosphere around Mira grew stiff as the sailors focused more intently on his next words. "We haven't seen land in over a month now, so any story we haven't heard would fit our ears just fine."

  "Well..." Mira felt a bit unsure as to how he should proceed. Wilhelm had been a great storyteller back in the Green Edge. The happy Elv would read to him and Sachi from fat leather-bound books that the blue-haired child could never decipher. Sachi's father would change the pitch of his voice to suit every character, being sure to pause at the perfect times to keep the boys on their toes. Mira tried to capture some of Willy's bravado, but he lacked the practice to do it justice. "Ahem. Well... Helen found me and my brother on a cold night six months ago." The Neptunes all put down their forks and leaned forward in their chairs, readying themselves for the most entertainment they've had in weeks. "It was the kind of cold night when you'd feel how cold your feet were."

  "Ooooh..." hummed the Neptunes as they gazed back and forth with glee over the terrible introduction.

  "Two men attacked our home that night, leaving it in a burnt mess. Me and my brother, Sachi, we tried to fight, but one of them got me good and I blacked out! When I woke up, Sachi was dead, and Helen stood between me and the kid who killed my little brother. She saved me..." The Neptunes shared stares of condolence with Mira.

  Rish spoke solemnly. "We're sorry to hear about your brother, lad. It's truly a ruthless world we live in, one that takes the young far too often." He stood and walked over to Mira, putting his hook lightly on the boy's shoulder to comfort him through the heart-wrenching tale. "I'm sure his soul is at peace." His breath reeked of liquor and old fish up close.

  "Oh. No!" Mira adjusted his tone from dramatic to casual once more. "He's all good now. Willy—the guy who adopted me when I got to the Corvus Kingdom—he brought Sachi back to life."

  The room stirred in confusion and the Vice-Admiral took his hand off Mira's shoulder. "I'm sorry, but... what?"

  "Yup! Sachi and his dad are Elvs, so Willy brought him back somehow. I think he traded his life for Sachi's—somethin' like that. Sorry... I probably should've mentioned that first." The foolish boy fiddled with the hair on the back of his head, baring a wide smile to cover the embarrassment of his misleading story.

  "Then..." Rish rubbed at his chin in confusion. "Where's your brother now?"

  "He's back in the Capital of Gilgamere, in one of the other Captains' units." He grinned for a moment, ready to finally tell his tale. "You see! We're two brothers, bound by-"

  "Ya said ya came to the crow Kingdom, right?" chimed in the Welz again. "Then where do ya hail from?"

  Mira was disappointed to have his speech cut off again, but the question grasped his attention. "Oh, well I was born on Spring Island. I lived there for eleven years before heading out. I actually sailed away in my own boat, if you can believe it!" He raised a finger with a proud smile.

  "Spring Island?" The name seemed foreign to Rish's ears. He looked around the table to see faces equally as bewildered as his own. "We've never heard of it."

  Admiral Jones raised his voice from the other end of the table. "Where's that?" The room of pirates went silent as their leader joined in.

  Mira shrugged.

  "Well which ocean did you sail to the crows on?" asked the oversized Helmsman, Marjax.

  Mira shrugged again.

  "Is Spring Island on the west side of the world?" inquired Welz next.

  Mira shrugged once more. "I have no idea. I just followed the waterfall." The Neptunes looked at one another with even more confusion.

  Admiral Jones spoke again to break the silence. "Well, Kokomo has a waterfall, so does Faelin's Bay. Do either of those names sound familiar?"

  "Nah, our home was definitely called Spring Island—my sister made sure I knew that. Don't worry about it! No one's heard of it in Corvus either."

  "Keep talkin'..." said Jones in a stale tone. "I will worry about it. We're explorers of these seas, and I've set out to see every place that this world has to offer—now you're telling me not to worry about an island none of us have heard of? Crab-shit!" He shrugged as if the questioning should have been obvious. "Now, I need to know. How did you get to the Corvus Kingdom?"

  "I told you already, I went up the waterfall." Mira scratched his head, thinking of a way to give Admiral Jones the information he was looking for. "Well, actually... I had to go down the waterfall before I started going up it." Every word from Mira's mouth confused the table more and more. The pirates began whispering among one another, trying to confirm the location of Mira's birth. The blue-haired cabin boy wanted to calm the rising voices in the room, so he went on with his story. "When I got up the waterfall the waves were crazy, like nothing I had ever seen back home. My boat was made in a big hurry, so it couldn't handle the storm—I fell off right away and started sinking. Next thing I knew, something big was coming for me under the water. I tried to swim away, but the current kept pulling me down." The room was still once more, and the tiny teenager felt safe to continue. "I looked through the water, but all I saw was some giant monster swimming toward me. It tried to eat me! Then I-"

  Admiral Jones slammed his palm against the table and stood abruptly. "Fuck! It was you!"

  "Huh?" Mira wasn't sure how to react to his story being cut off in such a crass manner. He was silenced when he saw how the Admiral's face shifted from joyful and inquisitive to furious within the blink of an eye; like he just remembered something important.

  "It's- no way..." Admiral Jones pointed at Mira and stammered through the rage. "Fuck you, kid!"

  Mira gasped. "How could you say that? That's like the rudest thing you could say to a person!"

  "You little fuck!" Jones went on, his temper flaring more with every word. "Fuck you and fuck whatever damned island you came from!"

  Rish left Mira's side and dashed to comfort his long-time friend. "What is it, Jonesy?"

  "This blue cunt!" He shoved a finger in Mira's direction again. "He did it! He's the fuckin' one who did it!" The Admiral was grinding his teeth by that point, the blood vessels on his forehead swelled as if they were about to explode.

  "What are you talking about?" asked Mira calmly, unsure why the Admiral had turned on him so quickly. There was a hint of sorrow in his voice. He thought they were going to become friends tonight.

  "Don't tell me you don't remember! I was in those waters when you shook the seas that day!"

  Mira tried desperately to recall what the Admiral was talking about, but he had no memories of the scar-chinned sailor prior to Helen's introduction. He took a moment to investigate the depths of Admiral Jones' eyes, and suddenly it all clicked together.

  "You!" Mira stood and pointed an accusatory finger back towards the Admiral's face at the head of the long table. "Y- you!"

  "That's right! I'm me!" Jones' tone grew more distasteful with every word. "I should have forced you off the plank when I spotted that blue mop on your head."

  Welz stood too, fearing the situation would escalate further. "Admiral, ya gotta tell us what's goin' on. How do ya know the little lad?"

  "He's the piece of shit that did this to me!" He pointed at the X-shaped scar on his chin and snarled at Mira. "How dare you scar my once handsome face! Lady Helen could never love a man who looks like this!"

  "Helen!? That's what you care about!?" The boy peered around the galley in disbelief, as if he was about to state the most obvious fact in the world. "Her face is way more scarred than yours!"

  "Shut your damn mouth!" The Admiral's voice became deadly, going as far to slap at the long table to punctuate his point. "She's an angel!"

  Mira grew louder along with Admiral Jones. "Nevermind her! You tried to eat me!" The room fell silent on that note, the only audible sound in the galley being that of the Thousand Legends bobbing softly on the undersea tide. Mira and Admiral Jones stayed deadlocked in a staring contest through that uncomfortable silence, neither side yielding.

  Rish put his hand on Jones' shoulder in a similar fashion he did for Mira moments prior. "Jones... Please tell us what happened..."

  Noticing the concerned eyes of his crew, Avery Jones let a disgruntled sigh out through his nostrils and took his seat again. "I've already said enough. I was there five years ago, and that beast sitting with us ripped my chin apart."

  "Hey, don't act so innocent in this." Mira prodded, still miffed by the way Jones was speaking about him. "You came at me—not the other way around. I'm still not sure how I got out of there, but I know it was all your fault. Oh! And by the way, how are you able to turn into that giant thing?!"

  Admiral Jones stared daggers into his cabin boy's golden glare. "That's my Radiance, you little cunt! And for the record: I wasn't going to eat you—I was trying to save you! Idiot!"

  "Save... me?" Mira felt the anger drop from his voice. There was no way. The last thing he remembered from that incident was those giant eyes rushing towards him, bluer than any cold depth a Human could dream. Then the beast who adorned those ocean eyes revealed its intentions, opening a set of jaws wide enough to chomp a ship the size of the Thousand Legends in half with a single bite. Yet somehow, more clearly than any thought in Mira's head at that moment, he knew those sea-shaded irises belonged to irate Admiral before him. Confusion, mixed with a hint of sorrow engulfed the boy's tone. "What... What happened that day?"

  "What happened?" Mimicked Avery in a childish manner. "Ya split the damn ocean in half! That's what happened!"

  "Shit..." The boy brought a hand over his face in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to..."

  Avery let out a huff and swigged at his drink, seeming to have collected himself. "I didn't know what you were at first, I thought you were just some brat caught up in the storm—didn't realize you made the damn thing." The Admiral paused in disgust for the sight before him. "You're a monster. You slashed my jaw with some fucked-up lightning. After that, you left me there bleeding at the bottom of the ocean—shot up to the sky like... like Helen..." His eyes widened. "Wait... are you... her son?"

  "No, I'm... I'm not." Mira had no way of confirming who his mother was, but he knew in his spirit that Helen couldn't be his blood relative. Regret was the only thing noticeable in his voice as he met the Admiral's gaze with those large, golden eyes of his. "I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to mess up your face." Mira's eyes fell towards his own lap immediately, frustrated to still be so confused about his place in the world. "I think it looks cool if that helps."

  The crew's lookout disrupted Mira's sulking. "Wait, wait, wait." A smile was creeping on Welz's face as he tried to refocus the room, his attention focused keenly on Mira. "You beat our Admiral?" His smirk grew more enthusiastic, turning to Jones with delight. "Come on, Avery. What was he, six?"

  The Admiral sank his face into his palms at the implication, far more embarrassed than anything Mira showed. "I swear to the fuckin' Game Masters, I will throw you off this ship if you don't shut your booze-hole, Welz."

  The lookout chuckled to himself and finished off his drink. "Well, if he did... then you know what that means..." He nearly sang the end of the statement.

  "He didn't beat me!" Admiral Jones jumped up from his seat again with far more rage in his voice. "The brat hit me with a cheap shot and ran away! That was the end of it!"

  Rish was quick with another comforting hand on the Admiral's shoulder. "It's alright Jonesy. We know a child couldn't-"

  "Get off me, Rish! Everyone, fuck off! Get the fuck out of this room!" The Admiral's orders were followed at once by the Neptunes. All together the pirates rose and filed out of the galley and down to the lower decks. Admiral Jones found himself burying his face into his hands again as the crew gave him more space. When the sounds of footsteps no longer lingered through the dining area, he took a deep sigh and looked up again.

  "Well... That was crazy—can you pass the oysters?" Mira sat alone at his spot on the side of the table.

  "Are you kidding me?!" Jones hollered, growing purple in the face. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

  "My bad!" The blue-haired fool hopped up and zipped down to the lower deck in a flash of sparks.

  Now that the Admiral was alone, he pushed his half-eaten plate forward, too frustrated to take another bite. He rubbed at the X-shaped scar on his chin, eventually sinking into his chair with a sigh.

  "Damn it, Helen." The pirate cursed under his breath. "Why would you drop this shit on my lap?"

  (To Be Continued...)

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