THE lifeboat drifted on the ocean currents as the sun sunk beneath the clouds. Felis sat motionless with his eyes closed, as he had for the past two hours. No one dared to open their mouth either, everyone was still trying to come to terms with what'd happened earlier except for One-Eyed Rowan. He stood at the edge of the boat with a twig in his mouth, whistling a common pirate tune.
Ash sat down, his hand interlocked with Glit's while Kay and Mute sat across from them, all four of them silent as the moon. They were too afraid, too traumatized to even shift their own weight. Rowen however decided that it was time everyone started to prepare for the night, so he broke the long term silence.
"Guys, it will soon be night and drifting off on a small boat at night will be a little problematic for us, we need to make little preparations," he announced and then bent down to open a hatch that was in front of the boat, pulling out several cover clothes from there.
The kids didn't necessarily think too much on what he said and they stood up like robots but soon enough they realized the weight of his words. "It is going to be night?" Kay voiced out first, he bulged his eyes out. "We have nowhere to hide… we are as good as dead," he stated.
The others realized it immediately and turned to the two adults. "How are we going to survive?" Glit muttered under her breath.
"We are all going to die?" Ash added, his facial expression, just empty. Even Mute who always held his composure had a flicker of fear in him.
"You are not going to die," Rowan said as Felis stood up from his meditative state. "The night wraiths don't harm Cryptids, if anything, I am the only one in danger here," he said with a smile and then glanced sideways as Felis walked towards them. "Oh, Cap'n you are awake," he chuckled.
"Yes, thank you for looking after them while I was asleep," he said with a yawn. "Why do they look so gloomy though."
"They have somehow convinced themselves that they would die tonight," Rowan snickered, twisting the twig in his mouth as he tossed a folded cover cloth at the captain. "You get the smallest."
Felis caught the cover cloth and glanced at the four kids. "I hope you all know why we had to leave the boat, right?" He asked them.
Ash was always the first one to speak, and this time he didn't back down either. "You owe us a lot of answers and an apology," he said with an intense defiance. "But first we would like to know how we will survive the night… the wraiths."
Felis was taken aback by his direct accusation. "Didn't you tell them anything?" He asked the One-Eyed Pirate who was setting up multiple pieces of lantern.
'I ain't the cap'n, and I ain't the one who found them nor am I the one protecting them, they are your ward, you tell them," he said absentmindedly. "I'll help though."
The captain glanced around the ship thinking of the best way to approach the situation, when he remembered the old man; Ages. They were kids and they would love a story. "Okay, kids, this is what we will do, you guys help set us up for the night, so we don't die of cold and then we can sit down and talk while we eat, how about that?" He declared.
Everyone nodded and at the moment they all fell at ease. They were all tense due to the fact that the person who they saw punch a ship into smithereens had been asleep all day. Deep down all they wanted was to hear his voice and assurance that they would be okay.
They all quickly got to work and soon enough, they'd created a sleeping place for each and everyone, although it wasn't exactly comfortable due to the small space in the boat, they still made it work. They naturally gave the worst spaces to both Rowan and Felis but the adults didn't mind, they weren't planning on sleeping anyways.
After they were done, Rowan began to cook their dinner on a small bunsen burner that he'd pulled from another latch attached to the side of the boat. As the kids would soon realize, the entire ship had little pocket latches filled with food and cooking supplies.
"You all seem surprised by the amount of equipmentas on the boat," Rowan chuckled. "It's an escape pod, so naturally it would have supplies," he explained as he was showing them how to blend apple slices, nuts and meatballs to make a nice dinner on a cold night.
Ash, naturally the most inquisitive of them all, asked as many questions as possible and at one point, Rowan had to stuff his mouth with an apple and something he called nut paste. It caused so much laughter on the ship and soon enough everyone was ready and sitting around two glowing lanterns, the sound of the drifting waters humming beneath them.
"This is peaceful," Glit commented as she glanced around in the darkness of the night. "Why were we so afraid of the dark?"
"We fear what we don't know," Rowan replied and then nudged her to look up, instinctively, everyone glanced up with her and there it was, the clear sky of the night, littered with stars.
"Waoh," Ash exclaimed. "Those are stars? Old Man Ages told us about them," he smiled widely, taking in the scene.
"What are stars anyways?" Kay said absent mindedly. "And what gave them the audacity to look so damn pretty,* he commented and everyone chuckled.
At last Felis grunted, clearing his throat to call everyone's attention. "I am guessing we need to talk now right?" He said.
Everyone nodded in affirmation. "Good, so what do you want to know first?" He asked.
Ash glanced at everyone, making sure they were not planning to say anything before he spoke. "Are you really Godblast?" He asked.