Day 4

Location: Bloodsea

Time: 10:43 AM

Darius yawned, stretching across the sheets as his eyes flickered. His eyes and limbs were still heavy from sleep, but he felt more refreshed than he had in days. Darius smiled, satisfied. He hadn't realized how awful being tired all the time was until he wasn't anymore.

A sudden noise from beside startled him, and Darius looked over, catching movement from the corner of his eye. When he peered over the side of his bed, he was surprised to find Greg curled up at the edge of his bed, snoring softly. Darius watched him for a second, confused, before finally reaching down and shaking Greg on the shoulder. Considering it was nearly noon, it was best if they both got up. Wouldn't want to too much sleep.

"Greg!" Darius whispered, doing his best to be gentle. "Greg!"

After a minute, Greg finally started to stir. He groaned, rolling towards Darius. "Wirt...?" he asked, his eyes still refusing to open. Darius smiled apologetically.

"I'm afraid not," he admitted. "Come on, Greg, it's time to get up."

Greg's eyes fluttered, but soon, they opened, and Greg blinked bearily at Darius. He looked... disappointed, which Darius supposed made sense. It would be nice if they went to sleep one day, and when they next woke up everything turned out to be a dream.

But no luck. They'd woken up, and were still here. Darius rolled over on his side, sighing.

"So... why'd you come here?" Darius asked, doing his best to take his mind off his depressing thoughts. "You didn't want your own room?"

Greg shook his head. "No."

Darius looked over to the little kid. "Is it because you usually sleep with Wirt?"

To Darius' surprise, Greg shook his head. "No, that's not it," Greg told him. "I was worried about the person that was here."

Immediately, Darius' gut tightened, and he rolled over, once again facing Greg, who was rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"Person?" Darius repeated, concerned. "You mean Sandy?"

"No," Greg answered, and Darius breathed a sigh of relief. "It was someone else."

Aaaaand Darius was worried again.

"Who?"

"They didn't say what their name was," Greg said, looking for all the world like he'd rather still be asleep. "They just climbed over the side of the boat and told me to come with them."

Darius frowned. "But you said no, right?"

Greg looked at him, blinking. "No. They said... they said they knew where Wirt was!"

As if suddenly remembering that, Greg suddenly stood up, his eyes wide. Before Darius could ask what was going on or where Greg was going, he was off like a rocket, bolting out of through the door and out of the room. Darius watched him go, stunned.

...Huh? What just... happened.

Probably something bad, Darius decided as he scrambled out of bed, pulling on his long coat and throwing on his bag. Without wasting another second, he, too, dashed out through the door, but then he stopped, looking up and down the hallway. Somehow, Greg had already disappeared, and Darius had no clue where he went. Darius looked right and left nervously, chewing on his lip as he wondered what to do.

Suddenly, the answer came in the form of Luca rounding the corner. Darius brightened as he saw him, and as soon as Luca noticed, he seemed to perk up, too.

"Oh, Darius, you're up!" Luca called out, waving. "I was just coming to get you up. Do you want to-?"

"Sorry, Luca, that'll have to wait," Darius interrupted hastily. "Do you know where Greg went?"

Luca blinked. Darius' tone must have conveyed something worrying, because he suddenly looked concerned.

"Er... yeah, I saw him," Luca answered quickly. "I met him on the stairs. He was going up to the upper deck-."

"The upper decks?" Darius repeated. He nodded to himself. "Right, okay. Thanks!"

Darius didn't stick around to hear Luca's reply. He slipped by him quickly and then running down the hall, racing towards where he was pretty sure the stairs to the upper deck was.

Soon enough though, he heard footsteps behind him, and when he looked back, Darius saw Luca also running along with him.

"Darius?" Luca called out, sounding worried. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"I..." Suddenly, Darius' mind went blank. There was no way he could inform Luca of the situation without further explanation, and if what Greg said was true, they didn't have the time!

"I'll explain when we get there!" Darius promised, before turning around and focusing on running. The stairs that led of quickly came into sight, and Darius took them two at a time, racing up towards the light. He made it up there in record time, and immediately found Greg by the railing, staring out to sea.

Darius paused at the top of the stairs, watching him. Ai was already on deck, looking between Greg and Darius with no small confusion, but other than her, there was no one else on deck. Darius was relieved.

He heard Luca come up beside him, and then also pause. He and Ai exchanged a confused look, and Darius nearly turned around, ready to explain it, but he didn't. Instead, he slowly approached Greg, trying to be gentle.

"Hey... Greg?" he asked slowly. Maybe it was the slump in Greg's shoulders or the way he was staring pensively over the sea, but Darius suddenly knew that he should definitely be cautious right now. "Are you okay?"

Greg turned around, and Darius could easily see that the kid was miserable. He wouldn't meet Darius' eyes.

"The person I met last night isn't here," Greg admitted. He sniffled. "Do you think I missed them?"

Darius frowned awkwardly, not bothering to hide his faces if Greg wasn't even looking at him. He wondered how to respond.

Probably better to get more information on the situation first.

"Who was the person?" Darius asked, trying to be comforting and firm at the same time. He wasn't sure if it was working.

"I don't know," Greg replied shaking his head. "Them climbed on the boat and told me they knew where Wirt was."

'Climbed on?' Darius thought, horrified. But outside, all he gave Greg was a shaking grin. "O-Oh? Then what? What'd they do next?"

Greg shrugged, clearly not seeing the importance of this line of questioning. "And then they climbed off, but only after saying they would meet me back here in the morning."

Darius paused his mouth, paused, and then closed it, frowning. "Right. Um... how do you know that this... person... had Wirt?"

Greg looked up at Darius with wide eyes, which were red, and watery. He sniffled.

"You think they were... lying?" Greg asked, hardly sounding like he could believe it.

"Well, I mean, they did say they'd meet you here in the morning, right?" Darius pointed out, kneeling down and putting a hand on Greg's shoulder. "And look! They aren't here."

Greg frowned. "But what if they were here and I wasn't?!"

"Well, there's a way we can check," Darius told him. He twisted around, looking to Ai behind him, who looked surprised at the sudden spotlight on her. "Ai, how long were you here for?"

Ai blinked. "Um, ten minu-," she started saying, but at Darius' panicked look, she quickly corrected herself. "A while. I didn't see anything."

"See?" Darius asked Greg. "They definitely weren't here, okay? I promise, you didn't miss out on anything."

Greg seemed to ponder this. Darius' suggestion seemed to be growing on him, but Greg still looked troubled. It didn't take a genius to guess why.

Darius put his other hand on the boys shoulder, and gave him the most reassuring look his could.

"Hey," he said softly. "Just because your brother wasn't with that person, doesn't mean we won't find him. We will, I promise. We just need another lead, and then trust me, we'll be back and hot on the trail again. We'll find him in no time!"

Greg looked away for a second, but just as Darius started worrying that he didn't believe him, Greg turned back with a smile.

"Ok!" he exclaimed jovially, and Darius grinned, a little taken about from the sudden change in attitude, but he would take it. Greg looked behind Darius, and finally seemed to spot Ai and Luca, despite the fact that Darius had almost definitely pointed them out before.

"Luca!" he called, running over. "Is there any food? I am famished!"

Luca's eyes widened, but after exchanging a look with Darius, decided to roll with it.

"Uh... yeah!" Luca told him. "Well, no, I haven't gotten it yet. But you can help me with it!"

Greg frowned momentarily, as if displeased, but after a moment of thought seemed to expect it. "Okay!" he said, and followed Luca towards the stairs and below deck. Ai and Darius watched them go.

Darius stood up, and immediately wavered, holding his head with a groan. Alright, maybe that sleep wasn't completely all-healing and amazing. Darius still didn't feel one hundred present.

Ai came up to him, still watching the place where Luca and Greg had disappeared.

"Um... Darius?" Ai asked him. "What was that all about?"

"For my peace of mind, hopefully that kid's overactive imagination," Darius replied, rubbing at his head. "I have no idea. What do you think?"

"It sounded like... something that wasn't a 'person'," Ai observed. "More of a monster."

Darius shuddered at the thought of a monster roaming the ship while none of them were any the wiser. However, all he said out loud was: "Maybe. I hope not."

"It had better not be. Last thing we need on this ship is a siren."

Ai and Darius jumped in unision, spinning around to find Sandy behind them, watching from a place at the railing which Darius was certain had been empty before.

"Ah!" Ai cried. "Sandy! How long were you there for?!"

"Longer than you, girly," he replied. He sounded grave.

"Were you... watching us?" Darius asked, his eyes narrowing. He'd had no reason to distrust Sandy before, but a person who very suddenly appears behind other people and listens into their conversations deserve to be looked at with a least a little suspicion!

"I've been working on the ship, lad," Sandy told him, disapprovingly. "Not all of us can afford to sleep in all day."

"It wasn't all day," Darius grumbled. Suddenly, he gave Sandy a questioning look. "Wait. You mentioned a... 'siren'? What is that?"

Sandy snorted. "Landlubbers," he muttered under his breath, but in a tone of voice they all could hear. Louder, he said: "A siren in a creature round these parts. It's said that it can read your mind, and it finds what your looking for most, whether that be women, treasure, glory... even little stuff like companionship or an empathetic ear. It takes a certain kind of person to listen to those folk, but they still manage to eat their fill."

Ai looked nervous. "Wow."

"That was on this boat?!" Darius exclaimed. That was even worse than the unidentified person Greg described.

"That little boy is smart for refusing," Sandy continued. "He has good intintincts."

Darius thought back to all the times Greg had ran off on his own, and to the first time he had ever seen Greg. "Well... maybe."

Sandy ignored that. "Don't let that kid out of your sight again," Sandy warned. "Like a said, it takes a certain type of person to say yes to a siren."

'Easier said than done,' Darius thought grumpily, but he nodded anyway.

"We will," Ai promised, though Darius could hear the doubt in her voice, too.

"Good," Sandy said, still serious. But apparently he seemed to think that was a good enough warning, because his tone became instantly lighter. "Anyway, I don't' have ye on this here boat to mill around. Get down there and get my breakfast!"

Darius wondered if that was supposed to be encouraging. Ai, for her part, only shrugged.

"Well, okay," she said.

"We'll get it," Darius promised him, turning away. "We'll be back soon."

"You better!"

The next few days of the sea journey passed swiftly and without much variation. Ai, Greg and Darius, whether officially or unofficially, it still wasn't clear, had joined the crew, and there always seemed to be something to do. In the morning (usually five o'clock in the morning!), they were usually making breakfast with Luca, all squeezed into that tiny kitchen and trying not to trod on anyone's toes. It never went well, and someone always ended up with a bad burn, a cut finger, or whatever else.

Then there was categorizing the food, which Sandy made them do each and every day despite the fact that no matter how much food they took, nothing ever seemed to disappear from the cupboards. Actually, Darius could confirm it, with the data they collected each day. Every single piece of food they took was replaced the next day, no matter what. After the first time this happened, Luca told them that this was something that just happened, and he had no idea why. He had tried to stay up a couple times to find out what was happening, but it never worked. Luca never saw anything, and they cupboards would always be mysteriously full in the morning.

Still, Darius and Ai had to check this for themselves. They got the exact same result, unfortunately.

After that was cleaning up the boat. Every morning, the deck would be messy with the blood from the sea below and every single day it was the children's job to clean it. Unlike the food in the storage, none of the kids were particularly eager to stay up to find what was causing this phenomenon.

Then there was lunch, which usually went with the same level of success breakfast did.

After lunch was general chores. Sweeping inside the cabins, doing laundry, washing the dishes, checking the cargo, checking on the boiler room... throughout the days, they switched who did what, but even so, it felt monotonous. Darius, Ai and Greg found they craved the days from before because, while they were rife with danger, and least they weren't BORING.

Still, Darius couldn't help but feel a little grateful. It was nice wearing clean clothes everyday again. He did not tell this to the others.

After general chores, which, in another universe, might have taken minutes but instead took hours, they were making supper. Once again, it was full of injuries.

Before this, Darius had to wonder how much variety Luca and Sandy had in their diet, because Luca seemed to never want to make anything other than pasta for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It got old quick, so Darius and Ai started to have to gently suggest other foods... and then more firmly demand it when Luca refused. It took a bit to convince him, but it was a good thing they did, because Luca found a bunch of other 'favourite' foods in that time. He seemed grateful for that.

Which brought Darius to a question he hadn't asked before, but probably should have.

They usually had dinner pretty late, so there wasn't much time between that and going to bed. Usually, everyone started getting tired right after supper, so sometimes they just ate and went to bed. But sometimes there was enough time to relax for a little bit, and play a game with whatever pieces they could find and whatever rules made sense, though it got chaotic pretty quickly. It was during this time Darius decided to ask his question.

"Hey, Luca?" Darius asked, trying to sound nonchalant, as he leaned back from his place on the floor. Luca barely looked up, concentrating on their makeshift game of jacks with some nuts and bolts they had found in the boiler room.

"Mhm?" Luca hummed, sticking out his tongue as his hands shot out and he picked up as many of the nuts and bolts as possible. He got three.

"When did you get here?" Darius asked. He narrowed his eyes. "Also, where did you come from? Did you arrive in Bottleneck, too?"

Luca blinking as the piece of paper they were using as a ball fluttered down, landing on the floor.

"Um... Luca said, squinting as he tried to think. "Maybe... a month or two ago? I don't know, I didn't really count."

"Hm," Darius said in response. That did seem kind of like the thing someone would remember, but maybe not. Actually, now that he thought about it, Darius had no idea how long it had been other than the watch, which he hadn't checked for the last few days.

"And for your second question," Luca continued. "No, I didn't arrive in Bottleneck. Actually, I first found myself in the middle of the Bloodsea."

"Really?" Ai cried, looking sick. Darius made a face, too, hardly able to imagine it. And the images he was able to conjure up were disgusting.

"Well, it was a island," Luca corrected, smiling. But that smile trembled. "But there wasn't actually anything on that island, so if I stayed there, I would have starved. Eventually, I had to swim into the Bloodsea, and while I was in there, I found Sandy's boat! So I climbed aboared and stowed away with him. Likely, he didn't kick me off... but now I've got a job with him and the Moon Quarter, so... that's nice."

Darius nodded in agreement, but he paused as Luca continued.

"Actually... that reminds me of something I needed to tell you," Luca admitted. For the first time in a long time, he looked nervous. Ai and Darius exchanged a look.

"Um... what is it?" Ai asked, frowning.

Luca picked up their crumbled paper 'ball' again, noticeably not meeting Ai or Darius' eyes. The bolts in his hand jingled together, and Darius looked down to find that it was shaking.

"You told me that you were going to Nightlight City, right?" Luca asked nervously. "To find your friend?"

Ai and Darius nodded in agreement. Darius looked around, wondering how Greg was taking this conversation, and, of course, found him gone. Great. Well, that could wait. Darius really didn't want to interrupt Luca now; this sounded important.

"Well, I'd like to help, but I can't," Luca told them. He threw the ball up in the air again, collecting the nuts as it fell. "I didn't tell you this before, but defeating some... 'monster' might not be the only way to escape. I told one of the bosses at the Moon Quarter my predicament, and he said that he knows what I mean. That this has happened before. And he knows a way to get me back, but I have to work at my passage to get out."

Luca paused, hesitating. Ai and Darius gave each other nervous looks, but other than that, they waited patiently.

The nuts and bolts bounced as Luca dropped them. He looked at Ai and Darius pleadingly. "I've been working for months and I still haven't even paid off half of what I need for passage out. It's not that I don't believe you, but... I really want to go home, and I don't want to quit now, and... well, you know..."

Darius sighed, but he nodded. "No, it's fine," he told him. Ai looked at him, surprised.

"It is?"

"It is," Darius said, nodding. "If you find a way out, that's great! If we find a way out, that's also good. Even if we split up, we won't forget you, Luca. If we find a way out, we'll find a way to tell you."

Luca's eyes widened as Darius talked, and eventually, Ai was nodding along, too, like she always had agreed with what Darius was saying. When Darius finished, Luca's eyes dropped to the floor, but he was smiling.

"I'm glad..." he admitted, quietly. "I'm glad your okay with this. I was so worried that you would, well... it doesn't matter."

Darius smiled. "You can trust us, Luca," he promised. A brief emotion flashed over Luca's face, one Darius couldn't quite understand, but it was gone before he could study it. Luca grinned back.

Before they could say anything else, or finish their game of jacks, Greg poked his head in, looking sullen.

He started speaking, but Darius beat him to it. "Greg!" he cried. "Where have you been?"

"We skipped you turn," Ai told him, and Darius gave her a strange look. Had... had she already noticed and didn't say anything?

To Ai's question, Greg only shrugged, not seemingly all that beat up about it. "Sandy said we needed to go to bed early because we're getting up early. So. We need to go to bed."

Ai and Darius frowned, exchanging questioning glances. This was... new. But apparently, Luca knew exactly what this meant, and he brightened up instantly.

"Oh, we're almost there!" he exclaimed, and without explanation started gathering up the loose nuts and bolts. Ai and Darius stared at him questioningly, but Luca, with his head down, didn't seem to notice until Ai coughed.

"Luca?" she asked, tentatively. "Where is... 'there'?"

"Is it the Moon Quarter?" Darius guessed. Suddenly, something occurred to him, something that was said a long time ago that Darius hadn't thought a lot about since then. "Wait... which one? Three?"

Luca blinked at Darius, before giving him an odd look. "Um... no. Three was destroyed a long time ago."

"Oh," Darius said, feeling stupid. Suddenly, he remembered something about that as well. "Right."

"But we are going to a moon quarter?" Ai persisted. Luca nodded, and Ai smiled in celebration, but it quickly fell. "Wait. What is a Moon Quarter? And why are there... multiple?"

Luca seemed to think about that for a second, as if trying to parse out what he was going to say. He opened and closed his mouth a couple times, before finally starting.

"Well..." Luca said, hesitating. "Well, technically, I'm not completely sure. Basically, it's like a farm... on the moon."

Ai and Darius looked at each other.

"Oh," Darius hummed. "A moon colony?"

Luca frowned, thinking that over, before finally nodding. "I think so."

"What would they farm?" Ai asked, confused. "It's the moon!"

Luca shrugged. "Rocks, I guess? I don't really know, it isn't my job. I help Sandy down here, bring supplies to the fourth Moon Quarter. There are twelve, I think, and they're all on separate moons-."

Darius' mouth fell open as he physically moved back. "What? Multiple moons? How on earth does that work?!"

Luca frowned, tilting his head. "There aren't... normally multiple moons?"

"No!" Darius cried. "That would totally screw up Earth's rotation gravity, and it's destroy the tides and... probably a whole bunch of other stuff!"

Darius faltered. If he was honest, he didn't actually know a lot about space stuff. He was a dinosaur nerd, not a space nerd!

However, Ai was nodding along, which gave Darius the impression that she wasn't a space nerd either.

When Darius looked back to Luca, though, his eyes were shining. "Really?" he asked, meekly. "That sounds so cool! I want to learn more about the stars, but I can't really see them down here, with all the clouds. Can you tell me about them?!"

Darius winced. "Well... I can try?" he told Luca.

"Wouldn't you be able to see the stars on the moon?" Ai asked, tilting her head. Luca's expression fell.

"Probably, but I can't," he muttered, looking down. "The jobs were... randomly assigned."

The last part was nearly whispered, and Darius guessed this meant Luca was more annoyed than was in his nature to say.

Ai and Darius gave him twin apologetic looks.

"Oh... that's sad," Ai said, sympathetically.

"You can't do anything about it?" Darius asked him. Luca shook his head.

"No. It's fine, though, even if this job is... never mind." Luca hastily cut himself off, shaking his head. "Anyway, we should probably get to sleep. We have a lot to do in the morning and Sandy will be mad if we're tired."

Ai and Darius both nodded, and Luca turned around, satisfied. But then he paused.

"Um..." he said, slowly. "Where's Greg?"

Ai and Darius looked to each other, and they both shrugged.

Luca sighed.

It was only as Darius was shrugging off his coat and climbing into bed that he paused to think. His head shot up as he suddenly considered exactly what Luca had said.

"Wait," he said out loud, unable to stop himself. "We're going to the moon? A moon?"

Ai and Darius didn't get much sleep that night. Apparently, the ramifications of what they were going to hit them both at the same time, and they had been too filled with anticipation to sleep much. So in the end, the only ones who were up and ready to work were Greg, who hadn't heard about the fourth Moon Quarter, Sandy and Luca, who were already used to this now. Sandy strongly expressed his displeasure with them in the morning, which was technically three at night. But thankfully, they didn't have enough time for lecturing, so all Sandy did was give them instructions before quickly sending them on their way.

But not without the motivational speech of: "Screw up and we die, so don't screw up!"

It was Ai, Darius, and Greg's job to hold up various lanterns around the deck of the boat, to help guide Luca's way, who was driving the boat. Sandy, for some reason, had gone to the engine room, which he called 'the most important job'. Darius wasn't sure how much he believed that, considering driving seemed pretty important, but... whatever.

Darius wasn't sure what to expect. Up until now, he had been operating on the reasonable assumption that the Moon Quarters were on earth, but now that he found out they were in space, he had no clue how they would get up there. A... rocket? Maybe?

Maybe. He had no idea.

The boat cut loudly through the red liquid, which, in the dead of night, looked more like a thick, creepy black. The roar of the engines behind them covered up Darius' yawns, and the complaints he mumbled under his breath. Why now, of all times?

"H... Hey!" he suddenly heard Ai called, with what seemed to be a yawn, right in the middle of it. "Darius?"

Darius waited until he finished yawning before he called back. "Yeah?"

Ai seemed to hesitate before she called back. "Do you hear that?"

How could he possibly hear anything over these engines? Still, Darius tilted his head, straining his ears to try and hear what Ai was talking about. It took nearly a full minute, but finally, his eyes widened. A low, earth shattering roar, louder than anything the engines could ever hope to achieve. It shook Darius to his bones.

"What-?" to his surprise, Darius found himself shaking, and his teeth chattering. Not from any cold, but from intense vibrations humming through his body. What in the world? "What is that?!"

Darius wondered if that yell was worth it. He tasted blood.

"Darius, look!" Ai cried out. Darius did so, but all around him was the darkness that his meager lantern couldn't penetrate through.

"How?" Darius called back. The sound was louder now, easily overpowering the engines.

"Your lantern!" Ai shouted back. Darius looked down at it.

"Oh, right," he said, mostly to himself. Without hesitating anymore, Darius stuck his lantern out to sea, letting it's light cast out over the bloodsea. Actually, now that he thought about it, it seemed pretty obvious; across the boat, Darius could see Ai doing the same thing.

Darius looked back towards his light, and peered out over the water, trying to find what Ai had pointed out before. He found it easily, sucking in a breath.

"Oh no," Darius whispered, staring up at the looming wall in front of them. He had thought... well, he'd have figured that the growing sound would be a water fall, which wouldn't have been good, but this was so much worse.

Suddenly, Darius remember a part of Sandy's instructions that he had nearly forgotten in his exhaustion.

"Ai!" he yelled out to her. "We need to get below deck!"

"But what about the wall?!" Ai cried back. Darius shook his head. He had no idea!

"Just come on!"

It didn't take any more convincing. Without a second thought, both Ai and Darius were racing across the ship, towards the stairs. Behind them, the nose of the ship edged into the wall... and then disappeared. The rest of the ship soon followed, being eaten by the wall.

Darius and Ai reached the stairs and scrambled down them, seeing Greg, who had apparently easily remembered Sandy's instructions, and was already down here.

Behind them, a door slid shut and Darius and Ai paused, looking over at the giant new metal door behind them.

Darius and Ai stared at it in confusion.

"Er... what is that?" Ai asked, sounding nervous. Before Darius could even wager a guess, Greg suddenly called out.

"Ai! Darius! Look, over here!"

They both ran over quickly, and crowded around the window Greg was looking through. Ai gasped, and Darius' mouth fell open in amazement. What... in the world...?

The window, which had been showing nothing but the strange liquid of the bloodsea for days, had changed. Now, instead of red, it showed black, with tiny pinpricks of light.

It was stars.

Footnotes:

Level up. You have gained the new skill: Shipman, and have leveled it up completely to Shipman 3. With this skill, you can practically use any vessel fully, whether it be an airplane, boat, car, or anything else.