(Lucca)
"Shit! Put it out. Put it out!"
"Get off the damn ship!"
"They're still rocking it back and forth we can't get off!"
Leonel and I stand in shock as we see most of our crew frantically rushing around on the ship. It's complete chaos. There are bright flames on each ends of the ship, it's a blessing that it hasn't completely been overtaken by the water.
Taking a closer look at the catastrophe, I can see my father yelling at the ocean, a fire spreading across one of the main sails, and some of the wood at the side of the ship peeling open.
The ship itself manages to stay afloat due to its sturdy inner shell. However, judging by the way most of our crew tries to jump to the docks, I doubt they trust it much.
"What's that in the water?" I ask as Leonel rushes to the edge to take a closer look.
His eyes widen and a rather creepy grin spreads across his face due to whatever he saw. It doesn't surprise me when he doesn't answer and instead pulls out a notepad to scribble furiously inside.
I take it into my own hands to peak down into the ocean, the sight causing me to stumble back and blink a few times. Humans in the water, except not humans?
Humans with tails, sharp teeth, letting out ugly laughter that nearly makes my ears ring. I don't remember taking anything out of the ordinary today. Is this real?
"Fascinating... do you recognize them, Lucca?" Leonel questions in amazement, obviously not affected by the mess going on around him. Though I applaud him for being so calm in a situation like this, it's a bit worrying that he's this calm.
"I don't really know what I just saw. Well I do, but you only ever see them in children's book. Horrible children's books might I add. They're not real. I'm going crazy. I'm just dreaming or something. A very vivid dream." I spit out quickly, trying to pull back when Leonel grabs the hem of my shirt and yanks me towards the edge of the dock.
Low and behold, it's the creatures you only see in children's books. Maybe I'm hallucinating. They're obviously not real... right?
"Look... they're beautiful, aren't they?"
Beautiful? Not a word I would use to describe whatever these are. Though this may be a dream, I don't understand why they must be so hideous. A few are gorgeous. I'll give them that, but the ones with razor sharp teeth showing look rather deadly to me.
"Oh, please. This is only a dream. All I have to do is be patient and all of this will be over. No burning ship, no weird creatures, and no screaming. Easy."
I hum in content and sit on the edge of the dock, not phased when a brown eyed siren comes swimming my way. Her dark hair is pushed to the side and her smirking lips are glistening from the ocean water. The rest of her body is covered but as she slowly rises to rest in between my legs, I notice her bright red tail swaying from side to side.
"Lucca I don't recommend-"
I wave him off and lean down to hook my finger under the girl's chin. She is really beautiful... weird fish creature or not. Her gaze is almost hypnotizing, and when her lips connect to mine it feels as if I'm almost being sucked in.
"Lucca!"
Before I can even react, my body is being yanked into the water and the once gorgeous girl now looks just as hideous as the other sirens around her. What's worse is that I'm not waking up.
So it's not a dream... siren's exist, and I might die. This is not how I planned on going out. Dying in the hands of something I never believed in just won't happen, so when I get the chance, I shove the girl away from me and resurface, coughing up some water as I swim back to the dock.
Leonel is standing on the edge holding his hand out while using a piece of wood lit on fire to scare them away.
"Why does fire scare things in the ocean?" I shout, frantically kicking my feet and trying to swim away from the creatures who are much faster than me. They keep grabbing onto my clothes, trying to drag me underwater to drown me. What kind of pirate would I be if I drowned?
"They haven't seen it before, Lucca! It's saving you, so why are you asking these questions now?" He yells back, handing me the stick of wood and allowing me to scare them away.
It is kinda interesting to see how they quickly swim away and simply stare at me from afar. Their eyes follow the flame as I wave it back and forth, and after a moment, I start to have too much fun.
"Lucca! Focus! What are you, five?" Leonel scolds, grabbing my wrist to help me out of the water.
Once I'm safe and on the docks, I toss the fire at them and huff as most swim off. The ship is starting to erupt in even more flames, causing all of the sirens to finally disappear.
"Was that real? Am I really not dreaming? I mean, those were humans with tails. Sharp teeth... claws, this is insane." I breath out, running a hand through my dark wet hair.
From afar, I see the same siren as before look up at me with a mischievous expression, sending me a wink before diving underwater with the others.
"God damn sirens!" I hear my father shout, doing what he can to help the others put out the fire.
Luckily it doesn't take long for them to die down, but the ship does end up in pretty bad shape. It's gonna be a few weeks until we get focused on our voyage again.
"Jay! Get the mainsail down! We'll have to see if this town has any others. I need a group to gather up some wood and another to help me get rooms for our entire crew!"
It's obvious that my father is beyond stressed with this situation, and I don't blame him. He built this ship himself, and seeing it tear down so easily must be hard. I'm sure my mother knows how it feels to invest time and energy into something just for it to fall apart.
"Lucca and I will go search and see if we can find another sail for the ship! You should find a motel or something for all of us and take it easy. The crew we'll handle to fix ups." Leonel reassures as I stand and stare at the water.
It's still hard to believe that this isn't a dream. I was almost eaten by some fish human and now my father's ship is damaged.
"Leonel?" I inquire, holding out my arm as my father steps off the ship. "Can you pinch me?"
"Why?"
My father walks up behind me and does it instead, making me yelp in pain.
He smiles sadly and sends a firm pat to my back. "This is no dream, Lucca. I've been telling you for years and you never believed me. Well... you believe me now?"
He walks off before I even get the chance to answer, leaving Leonel to shoot me a side smirk.
"Oh shut up. So I'm a little late, can you blame me? This shit is insane." Just by the exasperated look on my face, he barks out a laugh and firmly pats my shoulder. I guess he's only the talkative type when it comes to making fun of me.
"Insane but real, Lucca. Sirens aren't the only ones either. You have witches and dragons and so much more... they're really interesting to learn about."
"Interesting? I almost got killed by one of those things! I'm not touching this situation with a ten foot pole. Fuck that. I never want to be near a fish creature ever again. They're just a bunch of savages. That's saying a lot coming from a pirate."
The whole situation is still mind boggling to me. My father and Leonel seemed completely unfazed by seeing creatures you only see in fantasy books and TV shows. There's only a few other people from our crew who look just as confused as I do.
There wasn't any people around during the attack, but after a few minutes, more people start to gather around the docks.
Leonel draws their attention, and waves them all off. "Nothing to worry about everyone! Just go back to your lives."
We turn back to the ship to see the crew members desperately trying to put out all of the fires. It looks like they'll be able to do it, but we definitely can't sail away with the ship looking like this.
My fathers face is red with anger as he glares at the waters surrounding the ship. "Damn sirens! I swear if I get my hands on one of them-"
"Father! We don't have time for idle threats! What about the ship? What are we supposed to do about this?" I ask, running my fingers through my long hair.
"We'll have to stay here for a day or two more so that we can get it fixed. We have no choice. Maybe we can look around for some stores that sell the items we need to fix it. Did anyone see stores like that when you were walking around?"
The whole crew, including Leo and I shake our heads. Leonel sighs and stares at the ship with a blank look on his face.
I know what he's thinking. The most damage is under the ship. How can we fix it if we don't have the right gear to go under the ship?
The thing that confuses me farther is that the gears in his head are turning like he's got an idea but he isn't sure if it'll work.
He perks up the slightest bit and turns to me. He pulls me away from the ship, and starts walking down one of the long streets. "That kid, Tristan. Maybe he can help us?"
"He works at a meat market, Leonel. How the hell is he going to help us?" I grumble. I don't get his obsession with Tristan. He's really just a tiny blonde kid who doesn't speak.
"He seemed pretty knowledgeable based on the conversation we had. Besides, I have a couple more questions to ask him."
He looks back at the ship, relaxing a bit when he sees my dad shouting orders and the crew dispersing to search for materials to fix our boat with. I turn to go ask what my father needs, but Leonel yanks me back.
"And where do you think your going?"
"To find a hotel. You can talk to the little shrimp kid alone. He seemed to have a little crush on you anyway." I answer. I don't want to spend the whole day with him. Especially if we're going to go back to the meat market and bother with Tristan.
"You truly are an idiot. Come on, Lucca. You'll do me and the whole crew good if you just help out with this." He says, giving me a look that always manages to make me agree with him.
I groan and yank my arm away from him, begrudgingly following along after him. After walking for a few minutes I see the fresh meat market. As soon as I do, I walk a bit quicker. The quicker we do this, the quicker I can get to a hotel and relax.
We stand in front of it like he had just an hour or two ago. The only difference is that the sign now says 'Closed' and there's no blue eyed blonde boy in sight.
"Now what, Leonel? Since you have all the answers, I guess you know what to do next."
He rolls his eyes with a smug smile as he plops down on the ground in front of the door. He pats the spot next to him and lets his smile turn into a smirk. "We wait until he comes back, of course. That's our only option."
"Fuck that. I'd rather scout the whole city looking for him. Or find someone else to help us out." I mutter.
I obviously wasn't actually planning on doing that, but judging by his reaction, Leonel didn't know that. He hops to his feet and grabs my arm again to drag me down the street once more.
"Then come on. He probably lives in a little apartment based on where he works. There's a few complexes right next to the motels. It's worth a shot, don't you think?"
"Actually, no. I'd rather be sleeping. It's cold. I'm tired. He looked at us like we were creeps. I can't talk to him, and I still don't know how the hell he's going to help fix the ship. Honestly, the kid could hardly carry a few packages of meat. You should just let me leave. I'm pretty irrelevant in this situation."
"He might not want to tell us some things. With you here you can just use that Lucca charm to get it out of him." Leonel answers.
I know he meant it as a joke, but part of it is true. I'm more of a charmer than he is. I can get anyone to fall for me, and I guess I can make this kid fall for me too.
I'm sure his version of 'charming' the fish kid is taking my shirt off and riding of into the sunset with him... sure.
"What exactly do you plan on asking him? His whole life story?" I grumble sarcastically.
Leonel just shrugs and lets my arm go as we walk down the street at a quick pace. "Possibly."
I really don't want to deal with the blonde boy, and I definitely don't want to deal with Leonel not telling me everything.
My dad isn't dead yet, but I'll be captain when he does die, and I know that's one of the reasons that Leonel acts like he's better than me. He wants that position, but it's mine.
We walk in silence for a while. It's hard to find something when you know exactly what you're looking for and no clue where it would be.
"Leonel!" I finally snap, getting fed up with all this walking and searching. "This is useless! It's a small town. I'm sure we can just walk into a store and ask for help. I don't see why you insist on seeing him again."
He sighs as if he's annoyed with me and starts dragging me along for the third time today when I refuse to walk any further. "It isn't useless. Trust me. If you knew what I know then you'd want to talk to him again too."
"Oh really? Then what is it that you know?" I growl at him.
It's so frustrating when he acts like he's so much smarter than me.
He just stays silent as he lets go of my arm and stops walking as well. He shakes his head in response and waves his hand dismissively like I'm a toddler tugging on his pants.
I get even angrier at his dismissal, and grab his arm the way he grabbed mine. I drag him to the nearest stop and huff at him. "I've had enough of you. We're just going to ask someone for help, and get this over with."
The bell on the door chimes when we step inside the store only to find three other people in here with us.
It looks like a little voodoo shop with fake potions all over the place. When we walk forward and get a better look at all the people, Leonel instantly puts on a wide grin.
"Tristan? Just the guy we're looking for!" Leonel hums with his typically chipper tone.
The three of them look distressed, and I don't have a good feeling about them either. Obviously Tristan is harmless but the other two are glaring at each other hatefully.
I hold Leonel's arm tighter to make sure that he won't get any closer. "Did we interrupt something?"
"Yes actually. You can go now." One of the girls snaps at us, making a shooing motion with her hands.
She's tiny. Even smaller than Tristan, but quite striking as well. Her skin is pale which is completely offset by her pitch black hair and cold ominous blue eyes.
She's the one that's giving me a bad feeling too. She looks harmless but her stance and confidence radiates power.
Tristan smiles when he hears Leonel and I's voices and shakes his head at the girls. He steps forward clumsily running into a few things when he does.
"Be careful, Tris." The other girl says, taking his hand to steady him.
I notice steam coming from their touching hands, but she quickly lets go and glares at me as if she were daring me to question it. Her hair is firey red, but there's no sign that she used a dye to make it that color.
What's really captivating about her is her bright emerald green eyes. They look almost... luminescent. Her pupils are an odd shape too. They're almost like a cat's or a snake.
"We need him not you two, so come on Tristan." I watch as he clearly struggles to take a few more steps forward.
A thought crosses my mind, but I just ignore it. It's not possible. He was fine before, but there's a cloudy film over his eyes now almost as if he were...
"Lucca, I don't think he can see." Leonel mumbles, confirming what I was thinking.
"He was able to before, right?" I look at him curiously, but the redhead just gets in front of him to glare at the two of us.
She's only a bit taller than Tristan, but her attitude is 10 feet tall. She seems pretty protective of him, so I'm assuming that if we want him, we have to take her too.
"I think so but we really need to get going." Leonel points out. The longer the ship is damaged, the longer we have to wait before sailing off again.
"We'll be taking this." I announce as I grab Tristan by his hips and throw him over my shoulder. I hold onto his legs tightly as I turn and walk out.
Tristan obviously doesn't make a single noise, but I can tell that he isn't comfortable. He actually smacks my back a few times, trying to get me to put him down. I just retaliate by smacking his butt. That gets him to stop struggling.
"Honestly, you can't see or speak. I don't know what Leonel is planning to do, but it better be worth it. Why are you so freezing?"
Leonel soon comes running after me with the red haired girl following close behind. "Hurry up, Lucca. To the water."
His words make the boy struggle a bit harder against me, but I keep a tight grip.
"I don't think that running with a person over my shoulder is the best idea! Why is she following us?"
"No time for questions! Just run."
I tighten my grip on Tristan even more as I sprint after them. I've never seen Leonel so excited before.
It's like he's planning for something life changing to happen just because of this tiny, lanky little kid.
That's what being a pirate is all about though. Shooting your shot like there's no consequence. If kidnapping Tristan gives us a thrill, who am I to say not to?