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Chapter Text

Gillion wished he had written his eulogy when he could.
He wished he had taken his time to grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down what the people should do upon his death.
Instead, he had been brash. No- Scratch that. He had been stupid. He had been stupid enough to skip dinner, training, and his thirty spare minutes of free time for an adventure on land.
Sure, he had expected it to be strange, if a little dangerous, but danger was nothing. He had faced a lot of things in his life, if a grown man wouldn’t scare him, no one would. After all, he was the chosen one. Gillion Tidestrider, Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep, the god's beloved. Not to mention his first venture to the surface would be for something grand, a mission by the Elders to finally reclaim the earth above as their own. He would most definitely have an army of lesser soldiers behind him, but he wouldn't need them.
He was the Ancient's priority, the one who had all of their focus. Surely they would smite down anything that would hurt their beloved champion. He had the entire scene planned out in his head.
The Ancients would see him from above.
They would see his pale blue skin that shimmered under the sun with dewy remnants from the ocean. They would see the clementine orange stripes running from below his sunken eyes to the lower side of his back that slowly tapered out into a dull blue tail that hung limp on the earth. And maybe if they really were looking they’d notice the small bits of minty coral poking their way out of his head. And sure, the way his scars wound around his face like briars weren't the most attractive, but they added character. Without them, Gillion was just another citizen, but with them he was himself, he was special.
But, amongst all the dew and colors, they would see their champion. They would protect him, they would give him some sort of magnificent escape. The entire thing would be a truly grand display of his power.
It turns out that he was very, very wrong.
Currently, he was still being chased by a very rabid dog, and no miraculous bolt of lightning from the sky had manifested yet.
Frantically he turned unfamiliar corners, searching for any way to save his dignity. Yet, no matter where he turned, the same crumbling houses seemed to loom over him. The same clotheslines are completely barren of any remnants of cloth. The same yelling people screaming profanities he could not understand.
Each twist brought him closer to exhaustion. Each breath seemed to clog his throat further and further, making each frantic puff harder to reach.
The Elders had told him to stay away from human settlements. They had said very clearly that he needed to be afraid if he ever saw any humans, and yet when he had seen the strange and lively town just above shore he couldn’t restrain himself.
The tan buildings that reached the sky seemed to call to him. The marketplace beckoned him with the soft songs of chatter. A faint echo of something he couldn't quite pin, yet still felt too familiar.
And yet, above it all, the sun managed to beam at him with its glowing smile. It weaved its way into every corner, each thread illuminating things with life, with love.
Maybe that's what he'd been feeling.
Love.
Gillion could care less about love right now.
But his sulking would have to wait, for behind him he heard rabid snarling, and honestly, he wasn’t in the mood to be mauled.
Gillion took a sharp left turn, veering his entire body weight into the wall. His shirt tore against their unforgiving cracks and misplaced stones, and a sharp sting radiated from his shoulder. Blue blood trailed down his damp flesh, a strike of neon colors on a dull cityscape.
Still reeling from the turn, Gillion crashed head-on into a crate of apples, a flood of cherry red filled the street in a beautiful, if unwanted, display.
He tripped and fell, picking himself up again, only to fall once more, this time tearing a large gash on his knee. Picking himself up with a stifled gasp, Gillion let his body fall back into the rhythm of running, only to trip again, and again as blue stains slowly accumulated on the city streets.
Gillion reached forward, and webbed hands met the smooth edge of a corner piece. He trudged into the next alleyway, not bothering to pick up his tail as he went dragged along.
There was nothing noteworthy about this alleyway, it had the same composition as the ones before. Brick walls, shops set up on blankets that could be packed up in a flash, and dirt streets covered in remnants of people long gone.
From behind the dog barked a ragged bark that tapered off at the end. Looking back Gillion saw a short human man restraining the dog.
The gods had helped him. They had managed to manipulate his man and his human brain into helping him. He truly was the chosen one.
Gillion felt pride swell in his chest in an unimaginable burst. It pulsed through his limbs and down his tail in a wonderful sensation. Unable to control himself, Gillion smiled a wide goofy smile to himself, and his cheeks darkened a few shades.
Suddenly, the man turned, looking Gillion directly in his eyes.
Gillion dropped the smile as quickly as he could, meeting the man's gaze with equal intensity.
This man's gaze was piercing, as strong and precise as a bullet. It was almost painful to stare at him, to maintain that kind of intimacy for so long.
Finally, Gillion broke contact, his gaze dancing around every other part of this man.
Black locks of hair flowed in messy strands that curved around his face in natural arcs, each tip pointed right back into his golden eyes. He held himself with a stiffness that came with training. He wore a brown shirt, with a too-shiny tint to it. On his hip was a steel chain, whose ends were connected by a simple stone, which glittered with a pleasant luster. Below his hips, on a belt, Gillion could faintly make out two gun holsters that bore scrapes and tears all along their rim.
The man turned, looking away from Gillion for the first time in ages. He reached a hand into his back pocket, fingers reaching for something close to his hip
Gillion stayed still. Then, he remembered what this man kept near his pocket.
Gillion really needed to go.
He turned again, his heart pounding, all he could hear was his blood pounding against his skull. Gillion couldn’t think. He knew something bad was happening, he knew he needed to run, but his brain just refused to register what was happening. `
Facing a brand new ally, Gillion focused instead on his surroundings and not his impending doom.
This one seemed more homely. There were some indents in the walls that held ragged doors in their hinges. From above soft gray smoke wafted out of chimneys far, far above. People of all ages sat outside communing. Some sat with what could be their friends and family idly chatting about their recent problems with anything. A small group of scruffy kids gathered around an equally scruffy, if only slightly larger, kid.
He had curly, coffee-colored hair that flowed like waves as he pushed it up and down in an attempt to show his eyes. His skin was like dull copper plastered over a slightly pudgy face that had remnants of baby fat on it. Small patches of freckles made their way around his face only to be interrupted by a large scar that ran from his cheek down to below his ear.
He wore a pair of worn suspenders that went over a fancy shirt that at first glance looked perfectly fine, but after a once over you could see the rips and wear plastered all over it. His hands had visual calluses all over them, while his knees were covered with oak-colored scars. All of the kids sat around him in a loose semi-circle, eyes completely glued on this wreck of a boy.
The peddler kid looked up, seemingly nothing Gillion for the first time. He cocked an eyebrow and called some idiotic human gibberish before Gillion finally passed him, veering into another alley, still panting like a madman as he went.
Turn after turn. Twist after twist, Gillion was met only with more of the town. It seems that the dog had gotten away from its owner again, now it was breaking through the crowd, who scattered like mice at the sight of the dog. When he looked at these people he expected to see a glint of fear in their eyes, maybe even a bit of malice for good measure. Yet all he saw were looks of unwanted pity
He did not need this human pity. He was the strongest warrior in Undersea. At age five he drew his first blood. At ten he had killed for the first time. Now, at fourteen, he was trained, a sword that could pierce the strongest armor. The closest thing this world had to a leader.
Everyone in the Undersea knew his name, they cheered whenever he stepped out of the palace, and they were awed when he merely walked. Gillion had a kind of power that no human could comprehend. He ruled not because of fear, but because he was respected. He was the dangerous one here, he did not need people to fight his battles.
Then he turned again, scraping his elbow once more. He didn't care though, what he cared about was the meadow that lay in front of him.
He was out, and his pride was in tow, albeit with a few scrapes and bruises. Gillion's bare feet were released in the sweet touch of the grass. The salt in the air was sweet on his tongue. And he didn’t care about the dog, for it was just a bygone memory. Terror of something so childish that you couldn’t help but laugh at the mere mention of it.
A vicious bark echoed from behind him, reverberating off seemingly nothing in a roar.
He lied, he still cared about the dog.
Eyes darting around his lush surroundings, Gillion finally spotted a tree sitting near the middle of the clearing. It was a jagged thing, its burnt limbs looked ready to collapse at any moment, but it would have to do.
Scrambling all his scraps of strength together, Gillion took off. The grass beneath him swayed under his feet in a light waltz, almost as if dancing for him. The wind stayed behind him, pushing him gently toward his goal, and then, he was there.
Without a thought in his brain, Gillion clawed his way up the tree, paying no mind to the bark underneath his nails. Breathing a sigh of relief, Gillion paused, finally letting his brain catch up with him.
He was alive. That was a very good thing. But how was he going to return home? Maybe he could think of an excuse, some way to convince the Elders he was innocent. Well, there was nothing to convince them about, he was innocent, but they wouldn’t believe him. How was he going to deal with the dog? Maybe he could outrun it, but the ache in his feet said otherwise. Maybe he could throw something at it, but that's what got him in this mess in the first place. Perhaps he could blame it on a human, say they dragged him up there, and maybe he had barely escaped with his life. The Elders couldn’t deny it if he came in there with all these scratches, so what was there to worry about, he had the perfect excuse.
Then, he heard it. A slight rustling in the grass. A soft noise on the breeze. A small figure in the distance.
Almost standing up, Gillion clung onto the trunk of the tree. He pushed his frame against its rough bark, the few leaves near him rustling loudly. Too loudly.
The figure was close, Gillion could make out some features. With curly brown hair and copper skin, a familiar face lingered in the field. There was no doubt in his mind, the peddler from earlier had followed him. Eyes flitting frantically, Gillion searched for a way out.
He could drop down and run, but he was bleeding already, and if he fell there was no telling what he would fall into or how he would land. He could hide, but this bony tree surely couldn’t hide his frame. Maybe he could take on the kid, but that left the dog-
A metallic swoosh echoed throughout the valley, followed by a startled yelp and the fading sound of four paws running. Then there was silence, followed by yelling in that same foreign language as before. It was nothing that Gillion could understand, it was too soft, too easy to slur and break. But it carried a question in its tone, a gently swaddled question.
Now it might have been the blood loss talking, but Gillion was curious. Sure, it was totally stupid trying to talk to a human, they held evil in their heart without question, but maybe it would let him. Humans were weird like that.
Slowly releasing his grasp on the tree, Gillion popped his head over the side of the limb. Looking down he saw the peddler below him, still calling out in a strange language. Gillion reached his hand out and gently rustled a sprig of leaves beside him. The boy looked straight up at Gillion, finally, he had stopped talking, only staring at Gillion.
“ Hello? ” Gillion waved his free hand at the boy, disturbing a bouquet of dried leaves and a dead stick.
The boy tilted his head to the left, the sunlight caught his eyes and made them appear almost cat-like, briefly, he looked beautiful. The boy’s head jerked back into place, his eyes back to their normal, if boring, dirt brown. He held up his two hands, and Gillion flinched backward, preparing for the worst. Another scolding, another lecture, another fight.
Nothing came.
Gillion cautiously leaned back into place, peeping only his eyes over the edge. The boy held his hands in a big x. Once he saw Gillion again the boy let up the x, pointing to his ears and shaking his head.
The sickening weight of realization settled like a stone on top of Gillion’s growing anxiety.
Great. Gillions' ever-racing brain slowed to a sluggish drag, finally at a speed where the world could set in.
Now Gillion was going to be stuck in a tree with a human, and this human did not speak properly, and this human had something on it that could scare off a rabid dog. And Gillion knew that that could be one of two things, a sword, or a gun.
His stomach clenched, his bloody face contorting into a grimace.
This human couldn't understand him.
He could just try to run away, to make a break for the sea.
Honestly, it seemed like an okay idea now that his body had calmed down and the bleeding had clotted. But there was still the boy. The looming threat of this small, flawed, human boy.
For all he knew the boy was a pirate, or a Navy spy, or one of the many possibilities that swirled like a whirlpool in Gillion’s brain. This kid could be a criminal mastermind, the leader of a grand charade that he was being swept into too quickly.
Looking down once more Gillion saw the boy settling into a crease in the tree. He reached to the right of his belt, just barely out of sight. Gillion craned his neck a little further out, putting a fraction more weight onto the branch. In his hand, the boy held a smooth stone, seemingly worn down by the water. The light shimmered on its surface, illuminating small chunks of other rocks within it. The top of the stone had a small carving, a criss-cross of lines forming what could only be a rune.
Gillion scowled, making a mental note that he quickly forgot.
The boy leaned down, making his mouth level with the rock, and began speaking gently into it. His lips moved quickly, and sharp syllables floated lazily in the humid air. A smile tugged at his lips, and a giggle escaped once, but nothing gave away what he was saying. Now done, the boy returned the stone to his pocket and fell limp onto the tree. His eyes fluttered shut with a sigh, his feet stopped moving, and his shoulders slumped leaving the only trace of awareness on him the slight tapping of fingers to an inaudible beat. Gillion recoiled back into the tree, steadying himself into a position not much unlike the boy below.
For a while no one spoke, it was just them and the waves. But slowly a soft humming noise began to reverberate from below. The invisible beat the boy was tapping slowly began to become visible in a strangely organic tone. The boy was nowhere near being good at singing, but there was something hypnotic in the way his melody rested in the air. Gillion’s tail flicked once against the tree, the boy below startled but kept singing. His tail tapped against the tree a second time, the boy didn’t startle, but he did open his eyes. The third time he paid no mind, as he did with the fourth and the fifth and all the taps that came after. Each tap slowly became more accustomed to the rhythm of the song, making the melody less improv and more planned.
Gillion felt his chest swell again, this time it was a friendly warmth. If Gillion knew better he would think it to be the kind of warmth to come with a hug. Strangely, Gillion liked being in this tree, even if the ways he got here were less than pleasant.
Below, unannounced to Gillion and the peddler, another person began their trek across the grassy plain.

Chapter Text

A girl with rust-red hair walked idly across the field. She should not be there, instead, she should be training, and she knows this. But, out of the long list of things she cares for, her friend is on top, and training is at the bottom.
On her head were a pair of tattered leather goggles, both lenses coated with grease and miscellaneous glowing fluids. However, her face was spotless ( If you ignored some of the scars. ) She had a blue overcoat with gold foil designs gently curving their way to the bottom in wave-like patterns. She walked with a kind of mechanical grace. Her strides were even in length, her pace was perfectly even, and everything seemed completely artificial, yet her eyes gleamed with a kind of defiance that said otherwise.
It took her no time to find the tree Chip had been talking about, after all, there was only one tree in the entirety of Zero that her dad didn’t know about. And sure, it might be overkill to take such extensive measures to make sure her dad didn’t know about Chip, but if he did find out Chip might get turned in for associating with a pirate. No one would know that that pirate was his dad.
Coming to a halt, the girl sighed. Ahead, she clearly saw the figure of Chip, he sat in that semi-sleeping pose he always sat in. His right hand rested behind his head, while the left sat beside him, completely relaxed. His eyes were shut, and he seemed calmer than normal, more tame.
“ And Into the mouth of the Leviathan, I went! ” Chip didn’t exactly yell this, but his voice swelled with the drama and excitement of a school boy who’s finally gotten his first kiss ( which is also something that Chip had never had ). He pumped his free arm into the air, gesturing for a fictitious audience to cheer.
Well, tame was a strong word.
It seemed that he had just reached the final chorus, his raspy voice echoing throughout the clearing, rippling so far that birds 40 feet away began to take flight. Everything about this situation was as it normally would have been, Chip in his spot at the base of the tree, all of his belongings thrown across the ground in a scattered manner. While Jay was almost always late, coming with nothing but her clothes and the occasional invention to show Chip. However, she couldn’t help but notice the added percussion behind Chip’s little musical number.
Jay flicked her gaze up and down the tree, checking every inch of bark. Finally, After an embarrassingly long time, she spotted a large blue tail smacking against the tree.
Now, this was interesting.
When Chip had told Jay about “ The small fish man stuck in a tree that speaks in clicking sound” she had expected it to just be another one of his excuses to talk. But in front of her lies all the evidence that she needed.
This man, if you really could call him that, appeared to be older than Jay, at least 16 if she had to put an estimate. His features were rounder, but there was a distinct way his muscles stacked on each other that gave him a stronger look. He was short, somehow falling below Chip’s measly 4’10, and he didn’t seem to have any weapons on him, only a blue cloak and baggy black pants. Scars were carved all over his skin, creating a map trail that led to nowhere.
Taking another step forward, Jay cleared her throat. Chip opened his eyes, meeting Jay’s gaze with a playful smirk.
“ Why, hello there.” He stood up slowly, taking time to stretch before finally looking at Jay again. ”And to what do I owe the pleasure to see Jay Ferin in the flesh.” The light caught Chip’s eyes, illuminating them to a slightly hazel shade.
“ Chip. You were the one who called me.”
“Well, I didn’t expect you to show up.”
“What better things do I have to do?”
“ Watch your dad establish a dictatorship?”
“ Not really in the mood.“
At this point, Chip was right in front of her. Jay tilted her head down to look at Chip, while Chip craned his head upward to look at Jay.“ Why are you so short?” Jay quipped, breaking both the silence and Chip’s flimsy morale.
“Hey! I’m not short, you and your Navy genes are just-” Chip’s words fail him, his sentence ending in a glob of mismatched words. “ I- I don’t know, you’re just… Tall!” Chip burst out, a feigned look of hurt plastered sloppily on his face.
“ Yes, you are. I know you didn’t go to school, and I’m not holding that against you, but I expected you to know basic anatomy .”
“ Basic anatomy is below me.”
“ No pun intended?”
For another brisk moment, they both fell silent, before a cacophony of laughter erupted from them. Neither of them could hold it in, much to the dismay of Gillion, who was still sitting oblivious in the tree.
“ Well-” Chip broke into another fit of giggles, only barely steadying himself, using Jay as a prop. “ Well, guess it’s time to get to business.” Jay paused, the giggling coming to a slow halt.
“ Yeah, about that. What exactly is he-” Jay turned on her waist and gestured to Gillion,” doing in the tree.” She swiveled back, looking right at Chip again.
Chip’s mouth twitched, and the edges pulled up into a sheepish grin. He pinned his hands behind his back and gently rocked himself on his feet
“ Yeah, about that...”
“ You didn’t chase him, did you?” Jay raised an eyebrow. Chip tensed up once more, squaring his shoulders and stiffening his legs to thin sticks.
“ No. I saved him. He was being chased by your uncle’s dog,”
Chip leaned forward, pointing an accusing finger at Jay when he said it, ” and I managed to chase it off before it killed him.”
“ Really?” Jay scoffed a little, raising both eyebrows as she spoke.
“ Yes, really.” Chip leaned backward, gesturing behind him,'' See, I have the sword to prove it.” Behind him, lying in the dirt was a steel dagger. It was covered in muck and familiar brown dog hair, but Jay could faintly make out the intricate designs encrusted in the steel.
“ Remind me why you keep a sword with you again?”
“ Because Arlin gave it to me, and you know anything Arlin gives me is automatically holy.”
“ And it’s not a sword, it’s a dagger.”
“ Doesn't matter. It’s a sharp thing that gets the job done, so it’s a sword in my book.” Chip turns around, trotting off toward the tree without a word.
“ Are you running away?” Jay calls after him, her hair now swaying in the wind, playfully waltzing to the world’s song.
“ Yep. It’s an honorable tactic among thieves.” Chip kept waking, showing no distress when Jay did not follow.
Jay paused, one leg in front of her, while the other stayed planted firmly in the ground. She looks around, tilting her head one way, and then the other. Then she stopped, grumbled a few curses and insults under her breath, none of which had any backing, and reluctantly followed Chip.
It took no time for them to reach the tree. Chip had already sat back down, humming the same shanty as before, but minus the percussion. Jay stepped forward, stopping below the tree branch.
First, she saw nothing, simply a dead tree branch, with a few leaves.
But then a head popped over the edge.
The same head from earlier now stares back at Jay.
Up close she saw yellowed teeth, they seemed too sharp, too natural to belong to something human. The boy looked at her, his face not revealing any sort of emotion. The only movement was the faint flicking of his fin-like ears.
Then, he spoke.
“ Hello? Are you like the other one, is your brain dead too?”
Jay could make out a few words, her brain sluggishly filling in the blanks the more her gears turned. Finally, her Aquatic lessons were becoming useful. Well, kinda useful. She wasn’t using them politically as she has expected
“ Hello.” Jay experimented with the words on her tongue, feeling out each rough syllable before finally speaking.
The boy tilted his head, his eyes widening after a moment.
“ Hello!” He exclaimed, his voice a burst of passion and hope. But that quickly dimmed, and he took a more reserved, formal approach.“ Hello, I am Gillion Tidestrider.” He hesitated for a moment, but Jay urged him on with a glance. “ It seems- well, you’re smarter than him. All he could do was hum.” Gillion let go of the branch, pointing in the faint direction of Chip. Chip smiled goofily, completely unaware of what Gillion was actually saying.
“ Chip,” Jay hissed under her breath, half laugh, half snarl. “ Chip, stop smiling.” Chip stopped, his smile thankfully faltering into a sharp line.
Jay turned back, meeting Gillion’s gaze with her own.
“ Well, Gillion. My friend and I would like to ask you a few questions.” “ Jay props herself up against the tree, putting on the coldest face she could. To her back she could hear Chip cracking up, making a sound akin to a seagull’s call. Yet, he still wasn’t smiling.
“ Questions… Alright, but once you’ve finished you must release me.” Gillion fell back onto the tree, his yellow eyes vaguely pointed in Jay’s direction.
“ Alright,” The crease that was Jay’s mouth tilted slightly into a grin.” First, Gillion, why are you here?”
Gillion stared at her for a few more seconds, his eyebrows furrowed a little, his eyes narrowing into menacing slits.
“ I am here on my-'' He cut himself off, pupils dialing just a bit “-a mission, the Undersea has sent me to scout the land.” Still staring, Gillion’s webbed hands reached into his hair, twirling damp strands delicately around each claw-like joint.
“ And you're against the Navy?” Jay watched with surgeon-like precision.
“ Yes.”
“ Good.” Jay turned around, clearing her throat as she began to speak. “ Chip, he says his name is Gillion. He’s against the Navy-” Chip pumped his fist, letting out a little whoop as he does.” And he thinks you’re dumb.” Jay’s grin grew wider, more like a dopy fox than the calculated stray cat grin that she gave Gillion.
“ Tell him I think he’s dumb too.” Chip gave his statement no thought, his rebuttal was already made and ready to go before his brain had any say in it.
“ Alright. Your funeral.” Jay turns back to Gillion, her precision worn down to a faint mist. “ Apologies, Gillion. My friend here, Chip, just wanted to know about you.”
Gillion looked over a Chip, and Chip looked back at Gillion. And an understanding passed through them for an instant, a brief second of knowing, knowing that both of them were simply curious. familiarity in a storm of fear for Gillion.
“ Oh,” Gillion looks back at Jay. He sat there for a moment, just staring at Jay. “Oh, yes. About me…” Gillion’s silence affected the air, swirling into a dense mix of confusion and tiredness.
“ Do you have any hobbies, something you like to do for fun?” Jay kept poking.
Gillion simply sat there. The last time he had really had a hobby was- well, it was at least 7 years ago. Back then, times were simpler. Gillion had not been expected to be strong then, all he had to do was live till ten, live to the start of his prophecy. Simple memories of coral crayons on stone paper, drawings of stick people holding hands. Days of peace, days where Gillion was free.
But Gillion was happier now. Now he was important, that’s what mattered. People knew him, and he knew the people.
“No. No, I don’t believe I do,” Gillion sat back, looking at Jay again. She looked strange. Her hair was too bright, like fiery coral on a dark night. But fiery coral didn’t seem so mechanical, it was natural, but Jay felt artificial.
She looked trained, hardened over time by an outside force. Everything about her was protected, and she held herself as she knew it, she knew that she was protected. “ What about you? What do you humans do in your free time? I suppose your kind isn’t always killing.” Surprisingly, Jay laughed at this. She wasn’t supposed to laugh, that wasn’t a joke.
“ No. We humans need breaks every now and then. Personally, I like to tinker with magic, make things whirl and move.” In truth, one of the reasons she did it was for Ava. It felt good to carry on her legacy, to keep her sister alive in the form of small things, things that she could hide.
Things that remain hidden underneath roots and bushes. When they broke Chip would bring back parts, trying his hardest to reignite the spark. And when they clicked and cheeped again, Jay would smile, and Chip would smile, and that little pit in her stomach would stop yearning for just a second.
Jay’s face was less glazed now, more like rough porcelain than hardened glass.
“ And him,” Gillion points a finger at Chip, who, although he doesn't smile this time, did offer up soft eyes and a warm complexion.” What does he like?”
“ He likes- well, Chip likes a lot of things.” Jay looked to her left, averting Gillion's cold gaze, before mumbling out something in common. “God, why did you choose the most illegal hobby, Chip?”
“ Because it’s fun.”
“ But it's still illegal.”
“ What?” Gillion pulled in closer to Jay, only barely missing Jay’s eyes. “ You didn’t answer my question, what is his hobby?”
“ Listen I-”
“ What is his hobby?” Gillion emphasized those final words more than the first. His voice raised like a wave, coming down and nearly drowning Jay at the end. From his spot in the tree, Chip sat comfortably, idly listening to the chatter. He was unprepared for the glaring change in pitch, the sudden raising of an alarm.
Jay, on the other hand, simply flinched. Making sure to hide her shock from Gillion.
“ Jay!” Chip called from his nook, dragging out the y at the end of her name for a solid 5 seconds.” Is there a problem? Are you about to die?”
“ No,” Jay called back, ignoring Gillion once more. “ I’m fine Chip, me and Gillion here are just having a bit of a disagreement.”
“ Alright. Just let me know if there are any problems.”
“ And what are you going to do?”
“ I’ll improvise.” Chip shrugged, turning back to face the town as Jay turned to meet Gillion once more.
Her head held high, and Jay’s cold blue eyes met feral yellow. A brief moment passed, sparks flew, and the wind came to a slow halt.
“ Did you just ignore me?” Gillion raised his head up to look down upon Jay. Jay just kept looking at Gillion, unfazed
“ Yes. Yes I did.”
“ And what gives you the right to do this, small human?” Teeth bared, Shoulder raised, Gillion glared down at Jay in a truly feral display of aggression.
“ Well, you didn’t seem to have much to say.”
“ I was asking you a question. “
“ And I was asking you a question too, before you started asking me about Chip.”
“ I deserve to know,” Gillion picked himself up, now nearly standing on the tree. The branch creaked under his weight, but remained steady, defining all odds for one moment.
“ And why is that?” Jay follows Gillion’s rising figure, maintaining perfect eye contact without a second thought.
“ I am the chosen one, the Elders said so.”
“ What?”
Jay let her shoulder slump, her mouth stayed agape, and a sheer look of confusion showed in her eyes. Steadily, laughter bubbled in her throat.
“ You’re laughing.” Gillion crouched down.
“ Yeah- yeah, one second,” Jay gasped like a fish for a few more seconds. “ Holy. Man, do you know how long it’s been since I've laughed like that?”
“ You were laughing like that before you were talking to me.”
“ Yeah, but that’s different.”
“How so?” Gillion shifted from the crouching position into his original position
“ No. No no no. You are not going to start asking me questions right after what just happened.”
“ What?”
Jay stopped smiling.
“ We were just talking, and then you started yelling, and then you said you were the chosen one.” Jay sighed, her head falling dramatically into her palms. “ Man,” She looked up again, her palm still over half of her face. “ Please, I don’t think we have the time for this.” Jay turned toward Chip, who was now examining a few copper coins in the setting sun’s light. “ Chip, what time is it?” Chip lowered his coins, putting them away in a gold and cerulean sack. He gazed up at the sky.
“ Eh, about 7 give or take,” Jay swore under her breath, shuffling to make her image perfect again while also turning toward Gillion.
“ Listen. I have to go, and you already know my friend here doesn't speak Aquatic, so if you’ll meet us here later we’ll continue this conversation.” Jay pulled on the edge of her cloak once more, finally satisfied with her looks, she turned away and began to walk away without an answer.

Chapter Text

Chip, however, stayed still. Simply waving Jay off without a second thought.
He had not planned on leaving, since, this was his tree. This was the tree that he had found, even if had had a bit of help from Arlin, this was still his tree. This tree was a conduit for memories, a sonar for people who didn’t have anywhere to go. Perhaps he and Jay are the only ones to use it, but it would be a conduit, he knew it.
As he sat casually below the tree, Chip began to daze. It was a slow process, a gentle lullaby that had to take effect slowly. First, his eyes got heavy. his body stilled, going limp as he dozed. and finally, he would sleep.
And he slept.
Chip lulled into a quaint little dream, one that would surely leave him soon.
He floated dreamily in the ocean, not a care in the world. He was faintly aware of little yellow pinpricks around him, the viscous water that was slowly dragging him down, and the far-off fire lighting up the sea.
Fire? Why was there fire in the ocean?
Chip turned his head toward the fire. There, in front of him, sat the burning remains of a ship.
Its mast collapsed, and small chunks of it were being pulled into the sea. Small shivers of the craftsman still remained on the ship. The figurehead was still attached, being a beautifully carved rose, not much different from the one on Arlin’s ship.
Then it hit, actually, all of it hit.
One of the waves from earlier pushed Chip upward, forcing him to look at the ruins of his father’s ship.
But it couldn’t be the Black Rose, because Arlin hadn’t sailed since he had adopted Chip. Arlin had stayed home with his kids, and he had put down his old love for something more, something like Chip and Lizzie.
But, it was the Black Rose, because no other ship would have roses carved on it. No other ship could take something so flowery and turn it into a symbol of power.
Chip tried to wade forward, moving his arm forward in a paddle-like he had been taught. But it didn’t move.
He tried again, it had to work now, he had been swimming for years. His hand stayed still, the viscous water pulling it further into its depths. Chip pulled, and he pulled again, but his hand was rooted. And when he tried to move his legs they were rooted, as with his torso, and his head.
He was stuck. His body slowly began to sink, each of his limbs numbly going along with the sway of the tide. And then, it stopped. Chip was underwater, and the tugging stopped.
And Chip was alone, with no one to watch as each of his organs began to fill with water.
This couldn’t be the end. Chip couldn’t die like this. Chip tried to hold onto what little bit of air he had left, but the liquid managed to scoop it straight from his lungs.
Chip woke up.
He woke up, right where he had fallen asleep. He breathed, letting salty air into his lungs, savoring each breath.
He tasted the salt, and he swallowed its sensation. Cold sweat laced its way down his skin, slowly trickling down.
Chip breathed a deep breath inward, but it sounded more like a sob. He wasn’t dead, he was okay, and there was no need for him to start crying. But his body didn’t calm down, after all, he had just died. His lungs pushed all the air out of them, leaving Chip shuttering and gasping for the briefest taste of air. His hands trembled, and no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried, the image of the ship stayed in his head. The fire, its searing heat that he hadn’t really felt. The water, the way it tugged at him like a lost kid. Nothing would leave, so he’d have to make it.
“ O-okay,” Chip spoke softly, his voice cracking slightly, “What’s something I can see?” Chip forced his head up, soaking in his surroundings.
The ocean, normal, not black and sticky. The tree is still dead, but not on fire, and definitely not sticky. The bag of coins, heavy with stolen goods. His hand, dry, still scarred, but that looks cool.
And soon, he was okay. His lungs were working at the right speed, snot wasn’t dribbling down his face like a five-year-old, and he had certainly forgotten about that nightmare.
Totally.
100%.
He was A-okay. A functioning member of society, no nightmare, no problems, just your average kid.
But he wasn’t, and that memory still lingered like an unwanted guest, clinging and sucking every ounce of willpower he had left in his little body.
He shouldn’t have to do this, the small logical side of him knew that well. He shouldn’t have to wake up quivering and sobbing, his lungs should work fine. But nightmares weren't as easy to get rid of as one would think. They were like a disease, something to plague you when you tried to escape. A never-ending cycle of pain, only apparent under the light of the moon. “ Well then, I-I guess we’ll go onto sound.” Chip let out a humorless laugh, barely choking down a sob,
Chip listened. He listens to distant chatter and the faint chuckle of the town. He strained to hear squeaks and squawks. But above all, he heard one thing. One thing above the waters roar, one thing bold enough to catch his notice.
Footsteps.
Slow, collected, footsteps pitter-patter their way up the hill.
“ Chip? Miss Jay told me to check on you. Are you still here?” A soft, juvenile voice rang clearly in the air.
The alarm bells in Chip’s head went off fast. No one should know he was here, especially not someone tied to Jay. If they found him they'd take him, he’d be taken from Arlin and put right back on the streets. He couldn’t let them find him, they wouldn’t.
A figure bounced up the hill, one of a small boy, with downy blond hair bobbing in the wind. His frame was thin, giving him an almost starved look, but his cheeks were plumped and blushed with care. A sunny smile simply radiated from his slightly yellowed teeth, while his eyes gleamed with wonder. “ She said that you didn't send her any message through the rocks, and she thinks that you may have been arrested by the Navy, which even I know is a bad thing. And she told me that if you had got arrested again she wouldn’t pay your-”
Chip stopped listening.
Ollie, Jay had sent Ollie. His small child, the boy that they had agreed to take care of, was out on his own. She couldn’t even be bothered to come with him? Truly, she should take better care of him, he could get robbed, and not all thieves had the goodwill to not steal from babies.
“ Chip?”
Ollie hesitated just above the hill line. He blinked rapidly, eyes scanning Chip up and down in a steady rhythm. His left hand went instinctively to his mouth, where he began to gnaw away at his already stumpy nails.
“ Oh-” Chip swore under his breath, which just prompted more scheduled nail biting. He tried to stand up, but his gravity swept him straight back down. Chip shifted, tried to stand again, failed, and then settled on the ground. “ Ollie, man, I’m so…” Chip trailed off, his voice going out like an unplugged light for a few seconds.
“ Are you mad? Did Miss Jay do something? Did, oh no. I do something?!” Ollie sniffled loudly, and luminous tears began to stream from his eyes.
“ Why on earth- No, Ollie.” Chip rushed up, ignoring the pounding pain it brought him. He softly shut his rough hands on Ollie’s shoulder, wrinkling Ollie’s coat’s fabric until it looked less like a shirt and more like a writhing mass of something. “ Ollie, What-why would I be mad at you?” Chip pulled his hand away from Ollie’s shoulder, opting to rustle his hair instead.
“ You’re sad, why are you sad?” Ollie’s eyes were clear now, but his thin brows remained furrowed.
“ Well- Um- Listen,” Chip sighed, shivered once, and sat back down on the ground. “ Have you ever had a nightmare, Ollie?”
“ Yeah.”
“ Well, sometimes I have those too.” Chip released what little air his lungs had in them, making more empty rooms that would never be filled.
“ Are they bad?”
Chip hesitated. But deep down, he found that Ollie probably already knew what he’d have to say.
“ Yeah.”
At that, Ollie embraced Chip in a wide hug. Chip shuttered backward, affection was something he was still getting used to. Ollie leaned his head into Chip’s side, a strange, but needed, gesture of affection.
The sight was not one to behold. It was ugly, raw However, it was impactful. Two people crying, one tired, the other confused, but both worried nonetheless.
-------
The sun had already set by the time Chip got anywhere near his house.
This was due to a few things. One was the obvious hug and the welcome conversation that spurred from it. Two, was Chip dropping Ollie at his house, which was a thirty-second ordeal that had 20 or so minutes of planning put behind it. Third was the ever-dimming mental war that stemmed from the crippling silence of the cityscape, which took a good hour for Chip to actively get a hold of.
But Chip has made it. He had gone through the whole tiring ordeal and ended up at a relatively musty alleyway.
The moonlight, annoyingly, ignored this nook completely. Nothing illuminated the building, and all of the house-made graffiti was tattooed on its rough shell. Nothing gave the already very dead plants the light that they needed. And nothing made the little 13 set in bronze on the front of the door glow.
Still, Chip approached his home, letting muscle memory guide him away from the potholes and dead sticks.
The sound of pans clanging through the street, followed by hearty laughter and a faint whiff of smoke. A child giggled from inside before more smoke billowed from the windows, and the laughter turned to screams.
Arlin wasn’t dead, it was worse, he was cooking.
“ Arlin!” Chip barged his way through the door with a loud bang, the creak of the hinges paired well with the panicked mood of the inside.
“ Chip, oh thank god.” Arlin stood, clouds of smoke billowing from the place where the oven should have been. Beside him, a frantic Lizzie beat at the stove with a plate, brunette hair frizzed up as small bits of flames snaked their way upward.
“ Did you try to cook?” Chip rushed forward, grabbing their tablecloth and joining Lizzie in the fight against the smoke.
“ Of course he did.” Lizzie snarled, her oven beating getting faster.” He’s too stubborn,” Lizzie turned and glared daggers into her father,“ to realize that he and the crappy runes that he refuses to replace might not mix well. ”
“ Well…” Arlin chuckled a little, a wide, awkward smile crossing his lips. “ I mean, it works sometimes.”
“ When?”
“ Uh.” Arlin turned away from the fire like a dejected eight-year-old, leaving his children to keep the house intact.
Their frantic efforts did little to actually quell the fire. It would die down, and then flare up moments later, stronger than ever.
“ So- how was life without me?” Chip asked, eyes focused on the fire and not his sister.
“ Good, really calm. I didn’t have to yell at anyone.”
“ You were yelling at our dad.”
“ Yeah-” Lizzie puffed out a little bit of air, a strand of hair blowing up from her nose. “ But he deserved it. It’s not fun when they deserve it.”
“ Fair. Fair.” They kept beating at the fire, forcing it to stay still with as much brute force as a tablecloth and paper plate can have. Arlin eventually rushed back in, a freezing cold bucket of salt water tucked gracelessly in his arm.
“ Move! “ Arlin barged his way through his kids, not so gently pushing Chip to the ground in the process. His small body sprawled on the floor like a murder case, Chip let out an exaggerated groan of pain
“ Oh, not a good father move, not at all.” Arlin chose to ignore him, instead directing his attention to aiming the water in a way that wouldn’t somehow lead to more fire.
Quickly, Arlin swung his arms backward, the bucket sloshing loudly before releasing a wide stream of water. The fire sizzled out, that much Chip could hear, but all he saw was dirty tile. Footsteps clattered loudly around him, Arlin’s were strong, booming with pride, but they were muffled by their past. Lizzie’s were quick, not exactly purse, but discreet enough to make locating her a pain.
“ We’re going to leave him there, right?” Lizzie chimed in from the right.
“ I guess,” Arlin shuffled from beside Lizzie to Chip. “ Chip?,” his voice was soft, or, as soft as Arlin’s voice could get. “ Chip, kid, you’re going to have to get up.”
“ I don’t want to.” Chip squinted, remembered he was on the floor, and then glared at the tile anyway.
“ I’ll tell him about last week.” Lizzie once more decided that she was a part of the conversation, which she technically was, but that didn’t matter.
“ Yeah, sure,” Chip scoffed like royalty, letting as much disdain he could drip on his tongue. “you’d have to tell him about what you did.”
“ I’m not talking about the bar fight.”
“ Then the robbery.”
“ That one was only an attempt.”
“ Well- What else could you tell him?”
“ I could tell him about Ollie.”
“ You wouldn’t-”
“ Better yet, I could tell him about Jay paying your bail.”
On second thought, the floor really wasn’t that comfortable.
With a groan and a few popped limbs, Chip reluctantly stood at full attention.
Lizzie was in the corner, watching with a special kind of smugness that only Lizzie could do. Her hair had somehow calmed down, leaving its natural frizz as the only trace of disarray. Freckles lined her cheeks, moving in large clusters down her roughneck. She wore a crimson tunic, paired with raggedy stained black pants. Like Chip, she had layers upon layers of scars, but unlike Chip, she actually looked good with them. They looked like intentional design choices like she had cherry-picked their spots with unmatched permission. One on her leg, one straight across her shoulder, and an eerily similar one on her cheek.
Chip despised that, he hated that Lizzie got all the good looks in their self-made family tree. Actually, he had a whole list of things he didn’t like about Lizzie, it was an old thing, wrinkled with age, but still good for its original purpose.
Arlin towered directly behind the boy. His graying hair was pinned tightly into a bun, it only supported a worn-out broach. He had on a similar kind of dress shirt to Chip’s, just minus the tears and stains. A pair of blueish oversized pants clung desperately onto his belt. The buckle on his belt was one of a rose, the last remainder of his time on the sea. He looked like a club bouncer, only if the club bouncer decided to settle down, get a life, and spend all his time and money on raising two kids.
“ Do I really want to know?” Arlin sighed, his head dropping into his hands.
“ No.”
“ Definitely not.” Chip looked at Lizzie, and Lizzie looked at Chip, and a single glance established a common ground.
Don’t let Arlin know he was technically harboring fugitives.
“ Listen,” Arlin removed his searing apron, opened the closet behind him, and put that ugly piece of cloth right where it belonged. “ I know that you guys think that we need the money, and we kinda do, but please don’t resort to thievery.
“ Us-stealing? No, Dad, you must be mistaken.” Chip slowly approached Arlin, his hair covering most of his face. He put on a sly smile, and stifled a giggle as Arlin just gave him a tired glance.
“ I just don’t want either of you to be taken, Chip” Arlin sighed again, Chip became stiller than anyone knew was physically possible, and Lizzie propped herself against the now closed door.
“ Wha- no, Dad. Why would we be taken?” Chip tried to keep his smile, but it just looked like he was in pain.
“ Chip, I’m not even supposed to have you two, who knows what would happen if one of you got taken by the Navy.”
“ Nothing happened last time, so come on, why would something happen next time?” Chip sounded minutes away from breaking, his voice trembling slightly, before becoming steely once more.
“ You didn’t get hurt because Jay got you out of there. If she hadn’t-” Arlin's voice pinched off for a moment, he took a deep breath, turning away from Chip once more. “ If she hadn’t, you might not be here right now.”
“ How did you even know Jay got me out, I could have broken out?”
“ You told me a week after it happened.”
And at that, there was simply silence.
Lizzie glanced around, seeing the way that tension was building, and decided to topple the tower.
“ Chip, let's just go to sleep. It’s late.” She stood up and reached for his arm, which caused the shorter to gently try and fail to pull his arm away.
And so, he followed her upstairs, guiding himself along the creaking floorboards to a lone room at the end of a hall.
Inside, was a stuffy bedroom filled with mementos and cobwebs. Two old cots hung from the wall, each one decorated with an assortment of hand-sewn pillows and other stuffed creatures. Sheets were haphazardly thrown onto each cot, making them look more like lumps of cotton than proper beds. A singular lamp sat in between the two mounds, providing the only light in the room.
Chip quickly took off to his cot, taking his shoes off at the base. Instead of getting on it, however, he went to the floorboards beneath it.
He dug his fingernails viciously into a few of the boards, pulling up on each one without fail.
“ Chip, stop. I know what you’re doing.” Lizzie’s muffled voice barely registered as anything audible. Once his brain did process what she said, Chip chose to ignore her, his interest already piqued again by another floorboard.
And he kept clawing and prying at their seams. He dragged and tugged, trying each board multiple times before stopping and looping back over some of the ones that he had most definitely already checked. “ Chip, get up.”
“ No thanks,” Chip responded with the same kind of indignant tone that a teenager would give a parent.
Then, without warning, Chip let out a slight yelp as one of the boards finally came up. Inside was a tiny crevice, big enough for about two books.
He shuffled around a little more, moving scraps of paper and dead bugs out of the way of his true destination.
A single jar, sitting daintily in a crevice in the home.
He pulled out the jar, taking one puff of air and blowing off all of the dust that had gathered on it, and in the process revealing what was inside.
Small, most likely stolen, gold coins sat in a pile in the jar. At least 60 coins total sat in the stack, each one glittering under the light of the lantern.
And Chip would be lying if he had said that he didn’t want to keep them all. He would most definitely be lying if he said he decided to do this without a sliver of hesitation, with nothing holding him back. But Arlin had said that Jay may have saved his life, so why shouldn’t he repay an old debt when he had the chance?
“ You’re not thinking about really using those right?” Lizzie shuffled closer to the jar, glancing from it to Chip.
“ It’s only fair.”
“ This might be the first chivalrous thing I’ve ever seen you do.”
“ Don’t get used to it.”
Chip plucked around two-thirds of the jar out, removed the cerulean pouch at his hip, and deposited the coin inside.
And the night went on like normal. They brushed their teeth, had their typical spat about everything, and then snuffed out the lantern’s light.
“ Lizzie, tell me something.’ Chip murmured from underneath a slightly larger bundle of cotton.
“ Go to sleep.” She groaned back.
“ That’s not something.” Tiredly, Chip uncovered himself from his blankets, reaching to light the lantern before being startled away by a faint tap from Lizzie.
“ Fine,” Lizzie sounded more tired than convinced, which was comparably mild when put up to the straight delusion that Chip seemed to be under.
His mind felt sluggish, but also too fast. And the ideas, and the possibilities, and every other thing to ever exist scurried like little ants under his skin. And he knew he couldn’t sleep, because they would obviously just be met by more fire, and death, and every other weird thing that his dumb brain could throw at him.
“ What do you want me to say, oh great one?” Lizzie showed a great deal of willpower by flopping over to the other side of her cot.
“ Just, I don't know, maybe we need to talk. It seems good, something smart for us to do, like icebreakers.”
“ Chip, I have known you for longer than we have had a house.”
“ Fine, then just make small talk.”
Lizzie blinked slowly, before flopping back over like a sad dog.
“ Nice weather we’re having…” She drawled, her eyes pinned closed.
“ Just- make an attempt.”
“ Fine.” Lizzie hesitated again, somehow making the silence feel like an eternity before a few slurred words left her lips.
“ Do you think that we should start a war?”
“ What-” Chip let out a soft chortle, sniffling as he regained composure. “ Liz, we can’t start a war, we’ll get killed.”
“ Yeah, right now we will,” Lizzie pulled the covers off of herself, slowly moving into a semi-kinda-sitting position. “ But what if, when we get older, and we have a bunch of money and power, we could do something. Get people to stand up. “ Lizzie reached for the lamp, and this time she kept hold of it, swiftly lighting a match and setting the poor candle inside ablaze.
“ We could light a fire.” Chip stared mesmerized at such an ordinary sight, barely even aware he was speaking. But it wasn’t ordinary, it was far from it because it had meaning, it had roaring passion.
“ Exactly.

Chapter Text

Gillion had been swimming for what seemed to be hours. 

It could have been hours, it actually probably had been hours, but that didn’t matter. 

What mattered was getting home. 

So Gillion swam until he ached. He swam until his tail felt like it was going to fall off, and like his feet were freezing off. But he would get home, and he would most definitely not go back to the surface again. 

The surface was terrible, he could have died if he hadn't been careful. Except, he hadn’t really been careful. He had actually been quite reckless, putting himself in danger just by entering that city. And he probably should have died, but people had been nice, which was weird because humans were the scum of the earth. The lowest of lows, they couldn’t even breathe underwater. They had no kind bone in their body, they only thought of themselves, power, and any other thing that was most definitely against the law. 

But he couldn’t help but wonder. 

He couldn’t help it that his thoughts blurred together, and then split, and then came up with ideas of things he shouldn’t have been thinking. 

He shouldn’t be thinking about that boy, with his strange attire, and even stranger taste in music. He couldn’t help but doze off, and think about laughing with him, failing with him, and then getting right back up. Because that boy seemed different, he seemed less human than what he had been taught. 

And he shouldn’t be thinking of the girl, and how she seemed to know so much and feel so little. But she still must feel something, because Gillion had seen her laugh, smile, and frown just like people did.

But he thought, and he thought long, and short, and until his brain ached alongside his body. But he was being foolish, that’s what the people would say if they saw him like this, that he was acting like a child. And that there was no place for slip-ups, or mistakes, or any kind of failure that would link him back to those awful people. 

So Gillion swam, and he swam without thought because he knew all of those thoughts would be disgusting thoughts that would get him hurt. The Elders would see him as a failure, the Ancients would shun him, and all the people would despise him.

And he went deeper, letting his gills take control over his lungs, and he felt the ocean’s pressure pushing on his skull like a warm hug. And he knew that this is what home should feel like, not that silly warm sensation he had felt above because everything above the sea was a lie. 

He went far down, submerging himself in the world and not his corrupted thoughts. 

He darted past reefs, brimming and buzzing with hidden life. Their colors were a blaze of pastel against the nulled sea, their textures unique and lovely. Gillion hesitated, looking from the reef to the trench, and then back at the reef. 

He should take a break, it couldn’t do that much harm. And it had been a while since he’d actually toured his home.

So, Gillion sat down in the center of the reef, eagerly nodding and tapping in anticipation for something to happen. A few fish skipped around anxiously, nipping and brushing past Gillion’s skin. He had to resist the urge to reach out to them, to learn every little thing that they thought and felt. But he resisted, pinching himself in penance for his disrespect to the fish. But more fish formed, swarmed, and slid right past Gillion into the open water. And they bit playfully at his sleeves and tugged gently on his hair.

Yet, he knew he couldn’t stay with them because his destination still nagged like an annoying alarm set to constantly blare. 

Gently, Gillion shooed the fish away, letting a brief sigh as they scattered, leaving him alone once more. But he didn’t stand up, something in his bones told him to stay, to root.

A few minutes in, Gillion decided to think again. 

What was he doing? Truly, he had no idea. He just knew that he wanted to stay, to let the sand crunch under his toes, to frolic with the guppies in the coral. 

He yearned for something authentic, something real. His life was authentic, that much he knew, but it wasn’t the right kind of authentic . It was unified and prim, and he just didn’t want it. He wanted the sea and freedom, and colors and all that stuff that he couldn’t name. 

But that was wrong, and vile, and absolutely awful.

Orderliness made up his life, his blood, and everything that pumped through him. He was built from the ground up as a pillar of the rules, and he should most definitely act like it. He should act like a hero, always on the lookout, fully prepared to help and defend from above. He should think like that, like what he had been taught. He shouldn’t be such a failure to his people. He, Gillion Tidestrider, shouldn’t be such a coward, and a waste of the Elder’s times, and all of the ugly things that he was. 

Gillion frowned, and then that frown deepened into a pout, which led to Gillion laying down with a brief exhale. 

And this is why he decided that thinking was a very bad idea. 

Gillion sealed off his thoughts, setting himself up to burst only after he had gotten home. 

He looked up at the empty sky, fragmented bits of sunlight flickering in from above. Colors swam in his vision, each one blossoming into lovely swirls and shapes. And they soothed him, told him that he didn’t have to think, only watch as the reef shivered with life.

With a glance, Gillion found that the space behind him was large enough for someone. And he stretched, letting his tail swish rapidly, before stopping it at the reef’s edge. And Gillion yawned, spitting the salty water back into the ocean without a second thought. His frame leaned backward, shifting to its side mid-fall to land comfortably on the sand.

Only moments in, Gillion closed his eyes, letting them drop like a chest lid. And he dove head first into the quaint darkness of dreamless sleep. Drifting in and out of consciousness, catching up with memories that were soon forgotten, and keeping all of those unwanted thoughts out. He was alive, and not, adrift in a blank sea. He thought of love, and the love of the Elders, and the way that it felt so good for them to love him. He thought to the boy and girl, and he forced thoughts of disapproval, and hatred, because he knew that if he didn’t he wouldn’t be loved.

“ Young Tidestrider!”

An elderly voice cracked through the air, fishing Gillion out of his sea. 

His eyes fluttering open, Gillion was not met with the familiar colors of the reef, but instead a familiar muted blue. A kind of blue that the sea had made, but couldn’t replicate itself. Triton green. 

“ Finn!” Gillion startled at the sight of the Elder, he hadn’t even thought that he could swim on his own. 

“ Ah, so you aren't concussed.” The older Triton circled Gillion like a shark, eyes skimming over injuries and blemishes at light speed. “ Thought you might just not be experiencing the effects yet, come here, young Tidestrider, you mustn't die now.” Finn all but lunged at Gillion, hands finding their way to the boy’s scalp like a trained dog. 

Finn was an older man, his face wrinkled with age, but not old enough to believe that retirement could ever actually be an option. His ears were lower, their points dulled and torn by time. His hair was silvery white, which wisped around in a way that hair should not be able to do in the ocean. His skin was dappled with oddly shaped dark blue blobs that spread on his skin like over-sized freckles. 

His shirt was scratchy on Gillion’s skin, rubbing its way without any hesitation nor constraint. 

“ Wait, Elder, no.” Gillion backed out of Finn’s grasp, almost ruining a few fish home with his steps. “ Please, I’m okay.” He let out, regretting his decision almost immediately. Gillion blocked all his thoughts out as soon as he felt them beginning the form, leaving him alone with hollow dread. 

Finn started, never blinking once at Gillion. He opened his mouth, shut it again, and then repeated that 3 more times before words managed to find their way out.

“ Are you sure? You don’t look too well, some of the fish could smell your blood from miles away.” 

Gillion blinked, mouth now open just like Finn’s.

“ Are- oh, well, thank you. I’m good, these are just a few…” Gillion felt the cut, flinching as pain ignited from a particularly deep one on his shoulder. “ Cuts.” 

“ They don’t just look like cuts, young Tidestrider.” Finn spoke like a scolding parent, but the action quickly fell away as his voice dropped to a whisper, “ Gillion, please do tell me what happened.” And Gillion almost did. He looked at Finn, at how his eyes drooped with concern, at the way he held himself, and he almost let it slip out. 

“ It’s- it’s nothing Finn. Please don’t be worried.” Gillion’s voice was loud, so loud it didn’t sound right when he spoke.

Finn looked unconvinced, but he said nothing. 

“ Okay, young Tidestrider, but we must be going home soon, our scouts have reported an upcoming Navy patrol,” The older man let out a mirthless chuckle, his dark eyes now pinned on the water above. 

He stared at the sky for a long time, his eyes suddenly unfocused and hazy. His tail had slowed to a soft rhythm, while his breathing became faint. 

Gillion tensed up, adrenaline hastily pumping through his blood. Then, he stopped. As a faint thought, a simple thought got past his mental dam and surfaced in his mind. 

Warnings were passed on like religion in the court. This much everyone knew, but Gillion had seen it. He had been subject to many warnings, both big and small. People always thought that the Chosen one was their priority, but no one stopped to think that it could be the other way around.

“ Do not talk to Elder Edyn,” Some would say, “ she has kelp for brains. If you listen to her for too long you will surely go mad.” 

“ Do not discuss love around Elder Rumi, they will have your head.” People warned.

Children outside his window would coo and play, “ Don’t go to the surface, or you shall be worthless.”

They were all the same. 

Gillion had never really learned which ones were true. But, because of how common gossip was, he just had to learn to never believe what he heard. To him, the Elders were figureheads, perfect people, who he should respect and admire. And he did admire them, and he would never do anything outside their will. They would never break the laws and regulations, they were truly pure.

Except for one, Finn Moonshore. 

The only warning that all people knew where true was the one that orbited Finn, the only blemish to his name. And that was, Finn was the only council member to see the world above. 

“ Finn.” Gillion dropped his voice to a whisper, mimicking Finn’s tone. “ Elder Finn,” Gillion wrapped on Finn’s shoulder, who had just begun to stir.

“ Ah, yes, young Tidestrider,” His eyes were foggy, but not glazed over like before. He blinked a few times, seemingly cleared his mind, and then put on the same cheery face he always did. “ I must apologize, it seems that I'm the subject who’s concussed.” He laughed again and then turned away with a flourish of his tail. “ We must be off, come now.” He vaguely gestured for Gillion to join him at the edge of the reef, but Gillion stayed put.  

“ Elder, I have… A question," Gillion kept his voice low, too scared of losing Finn to boom with the usual confidence he had. 

“ Oh- Well, why didn’t you say so?” Finn turned back around, his cheeriness seeming almost genuine.

Gillion tugged at a loose strand of hair, being careful as to not rip any out. 

“ Is it true? Have you been up there” Gillion vaguely gestured to the Overseas with his fingers, hoping the Finn would understand his jumbled thoughts.

“ Why- um, yes.” Finn’s tail stopped, and the world around him seemed to be still. “ Yes, I have. Why would you ask that?” Finn didn’t look at Gillion, his gaze instead going to something far off. 

“ Then, have you felt it too?” 

“ What? Air, the sun, human life?” 

“ All of it.” “

“ Then yes.” Finn inches slightly closer, appearing as though he had to drag his body to do so, “ I have seen the Overseas.”

“ Then- why are you here?” Gillion’s sense of personal space was gone now, he was about as close to Finn as he could get. 

“ Because I had to come back. The council needed me.” Finn was once more not looking at Gillion and was instead gazing forlornly at a pair of fish. “ But,” He continued, “ let me tell you a secret, young Tidestrider.” He turned to Gillion, tail clicking on like a clock's hand. “ I still miss it sometimes.” 

“ Why?” Gillion pushed him on.” 

“ I do not know. All that I am certain of is that it has never left me, and that sometimes, times like these, I still wish I was there.” 

“ Why don’t you go back?” Gillion took a short step backward, almost stumbling over himself.

“ I can’t leave now. I’m stuck here boy.” Finn turned, a lucid glint in his eyes. “ But you, young Tidestrider, could go.” Finn shone under the light, he almost appeared youthful again. He felt like someone Gillion could be friends with, not the man who had begrudgingly taught him history. This couldn’t have been the same figure that had told him to stay put and follow the rules, this was something new. 

A ghost, a specter of a boy who could have been. The idea, a fragment, of Elder Finn’s former life. 

“ Why would I do that?” Gillion knew that he would have been sweating bullets had he been on land. 

“ Oh, Young Tidestrider, I have seen that look before. In fact, I have seen it on my own face many a’times,” Finn smiled, a deep, contemplating smile.

With that, he turned and said something so faint that Gillion couldn’t hear it. Then, louder, he properly addressed the boy. “ Go on, I know why you’re here now. But, a warning, young Tidestrider. Do not let the other elders find you out here, make up your mind quickly, and avoid that Navy patrol.” and like that, he was gone. Finn jumped into the trench and began to hastily make his way down to the floor of the ocean, leaving Gillion alone once more. 

But Gillion did not stay still for long. In a flash, he was swimming the opposite way, hurriedly backtracking. 

And it felt good, maybe even great. It felt like freedom and safety all at the same time. It felt like he was him. But something nibbled away at him, something that told him he wasn’t free. Reality bore down on him like a weight, but he just kept swimming, ascending higher and higher, the waves getting louder and louder, his pulse quickening as he saw the top.

And then he stopped.

Gillion hesitated on the rim of the water. He looked up at the light, no longer fragmented, and it scared him. He trembled slightly, then took one swift inhale before he flicked his tail above the water. And warmth flooded over his skin like a blanket, warming his core. It felt like he was thawing, being defrosted from his core.

And Gillion smiled.

Chapter Text

“ Quick, act natural.” Chip practically shot up from the ground, yelping in shock as a serpentine tail flicked up from the water. He frantically darted around, picking up an assortment of items before scattering them the more he ran. And he shouted, and fell at least 6 times, leaving himself more disheveled by the second.
“ What are you doing?” Eyebrows piqued, Jay watched the sight unfold with increasing pleasure. On her shoulders, Ollie also sat, his head leaning onto hers, and interest equally spiked.
“ I’m trying to clean. Something you must never do.” Chip shuffled to the other side of the tree, letting the bundle of trinkets fall with a clang.
“ You don’t clean for Ollie.”
“ Yeah, you don’t clean for me.”
“ Ollie, you’re my adopted son, kinda, maybe, we’re working on it. But, my point is, you’re my son, not a guest.”
“ So you’d treat your guest better than our adopted son?”
“ I have a mom.”
Chip sighed loudly. It was a deep, dramatic sigh, one that he had to put effort into.
However, that effort was wasted, as both Ollie and Jay burst into a chorus of chuckles and laughter, which in turn made Chip laugh before even letting out the punchline.
Jay already knew that today was going to be a good day.
It may have started poorly, with Jay still having a few bleeding cuts from her parent’s fight, but it was getting better already. Ollie was here, and Chip was here, and they were all laughing while waiting for a fish-man-boy named Gillion to rise out of the water.
“ Miss Jay? Are you actually adopting me?” Ollie piped in again from above her head, his voice soft like wool.
“ No, Chip just wants a son because he thinks that they would be able to teach him magic.”
“ I do not, I just want the money.” Chip faked a prideful look, which he did as well as anything he tried to fake.
“ You are not getting this,” Jay held up the sack of money with a swish, letting Ollie scoop it higher up,“ back anytime soon.”
“ It was a gift, I could take it back.” Chip set down another pile of junk, this one finally being the one to topple the pile.
“ Sure you would, but I’m not going to give you a flower crown this year if you do.” Jay turned away from Chip, relishing in his shock.
“ How. Dare. You.” Chip snapped with the fury of a very angry chihuahua, practically foaming at the mouth.
“I mean-” Jay got cut off as a new bolt of pain was sent up her arm. She swore under her breath, just barely holding back a slew of profanities. She closed her eyes, hoping the darkness would numb the pain.
“ Jay?” Chip’s voice turned from teasing to concerned in a flash. “ is it- oh.” Chip went quiet for a moment, before a loud rattling engulfed the clearing. Ollie jumped off her shoulders, leaving her lighter than before.
“ What are you doing?” Jay spoke clearly, although the sentence ended abruptly. The pain had died to a dull ache, leaving her head slightly clear. If Chip heard her he pretended not to, the loud rustling slowly “ Alright, I didn’t want to do this but,” Jay was suddenly aware of a potent, strangely herbal, smell. She let out a groan, not a pained groan, but an emotionally tired groan.
Jay made two decisions at that moment.
Punch Chip, or slap Chip, or just generally cause that little urchin some sort of bodily harm.
And throw that cursed medical kit into the sea.
“ Chip, no.” She sighed out, her eyes now just barely open.
“ Chip, yes.” Jay was faintly aware of movement to her side, followed by a quick gasp from Ollie as her sleeve was pulled up.
“ Miss Jay, You’re bleeding.” Ollie yelped, shocked by the sight.
“ Yeah, I know.” Jay tried to hold back an eye roll, which wasn’t very effective anyway, as she had closed her eye’s once more.
“ Let me guess, you’re dad?” Chip’s voice was muffled, Jay peeked one eye open to see he had a roll of bandages stuck in between his teeth
“ Yep.”
Chip began to wind the bandages around her arm, clotting the bleeding. Jay managed to open her eyes, although maintaining it was taking some effort.
“ Was it for training?”
“ No.”
“ Why’d he do it this time?” Jay’s reply was cut short by a loud thud as another part of Chip’s garbage pile. Chip mother something under his breath, and then sprinted off toward the pile.
Jay spotted Gillion’s tail almost instantly.
It was moving quickly, a wild thing that Gillion was trying to tame. He chases his own tail, trying to stop its wagging with his bare hands. Quickly, it flicked up, then came down straight on Chip’s face. The brunette staggered backward, eye’s wide and cheeks red. Gillion let out a string of clicks, to fast for Jay to comprehend.
“ Chip? You good?” Jay noticed the faint glimmer in Chip’s eyes, his face pinched tight.
“ Yeah’ He practically sobbed out, hand caressing the red splotch.
Jay snickered low enough for only Ollie to hear. The boy looked up at her, a cheesy grin on his face, before stifling a fit of giggles.
“ If it makes you feel better, I don't think he did it on purpose.” Jay averted her gaze as the first tear made its way down Chip’s face, saving him a sliver of dignity for later.
“ That doesn’t really help,” Chip sounded like he was being held at gunpoint. “ But thanks.”
Behind the tree, Gillion ran around like a headless chicken. He would dart one way, then turn around and go the other way. He was frantically clinking out a slew of half-made sentences and profanities, his tail flicking faster by the second.
“ Gillion” Jay clicked out, trying to calm the storm. He jerked, eye’s wide pools of shocked yellow.
“ Girl, um, Jay!” Gillion sprinted forward, one hand gripping his tail as he did. He practically rolled down the hill, ripping up grass and weeds wherever he set foot. “ Please,” Gillion puffed out, his body already heaped on top of itself. “ Do you know how to stop this?” He pointed toward his tail, which was flopping around like a worm.
“ Why would I know?” Jay clicked back, tone very obviously upset.
“ I do not know. You seem like the kind of human to know about things like this.” Gillion’s tail stretched and pulled away, only to be caught right back in between Gillions hands
“ I have no idea, just- Calm down?” Jay leapt up as Gillion’s tail swept under her.
“ I’m trying. Just- stop it.” Gillion pleaded, even begged. His hands were clasped together, strangling something invisible. Jay glanced around, trying hard not to flee the scene.
Chip, however, did not have this kind of restraint.
He was already bounding down the hillside, practically flying every step.
“ Chip! What on earth, get back here?!” Jay called after him, Taking another leap alongside Ollie as Gillion’s tail flung itself widely around.
“ What is he doing?” Gillion questioned, not even reaching for his tail as it slams directly into Jay’s thigh.
“ Who knows?
“ Humans are odd.”
“ Yeah.” Jay flinched again, her leg peach pink from Gillion’s tail. “ Ollie, can you go catch Chip?” Ollie hesitated, pensive while Chip sprinted further into the city. “ I’ll let you touch Chip’s dagger.
“ He says it’s a sword.”
“ He’s a liar.”
“ Alright, but If I can’t catch him I still get to touch it.”
“ Deal.”
Ollie jumped one last time, taking off after Chip within seconds. Leaving Gillion alone with Jay.
“ Have you thought of a way to fix it?’ Gillion’s voice sounded so hopeful, like a butterfly finding the first spring flower.
“ No.” Jay suddenly felt bad. Not just for not being able to fix Gillion’s problems, but not being able to fix her own. She was a powerful daughter, born into power and fame, so she should be able to bandage her own wounds. But, she hadn’t. She had hid them, let them fade away underneath her thick coat, but they still festered.
That could be a bad sign, it was probably a bad sign.
But right now she had more important things to do that loathed herself, she had a fish to help, and a rat to drag back home.
“ Then, could you at least stay here?” Gillion’s voice, Jay noticed, was unusually quiet. When she had last spoken to him he had a boom, a looming presence, now he just felt like a soggy lump of kelp trying to get by. “ You don’t have to. Please do not think that you are obligated to stay.”
“ It’s alright.” Jay turned away from Gillion, Looked around for a second, hoping for a conveniently placed tall cliff so she could get away from Gillion’s tail.
“ What are you looking for?” Gillion moved backward, tail held tight once more between his strangely sharp hands.
“ One second.” Jay looked around a second time, only seeing thickly layered trees, mostly upturned grass, and one dead tree. She sighed, tapped her foot impatiently, and then whirled back to Gillion. “ Are you alright with going back to the tree, It’s- more… comfortable?” Jay had been taught many things. Lying was not one of them.
“ Sure.” Gillion’s ear flicked backwards, a steady thumping sound suddenly making itself known.
“ Get back here, Miss Jay needs you!”
“ NEVER, you’re not going to take me alive.”
“ I’m going to stuff your ears with- um- Grass! I’m going to fill your ears with grass, and you won’t be able to hear me when I sneak into your house and steal your dagger.”
“ It’s a sword!”
A familiar whine rang through the clearing, high and almost gravely. It was a sound that made Jay’s brain shake and her bones hum, and every ounce of her ready for murder and hugs at the same time.
Ollie had done his job right.
Jay ran toward the tree, grabbing Chip’s sheathed dagger, before turning around and running back toward the sound of arguing.
“ Gillion! Come on, I’m going to need your help.” Jay scooped at the mair, unsure of why she needed Gillion, and what her plan actually was.
Gillion jumped up, awkwardly sprinting after Jay.
She really needed to start talking to Chip about actual self-control, maybe she could take him to one of her classes. Actually, bad idea, he would be beaten so badly he might actually act on one of his many threats, scrap that.
“ Chip, please slow down!” Ollie called ahead, his little legs scurrying across the field like a crab. Chip sped up, leaving Ollie in the dust.
“ I can’t do that, I’m sorry man. I’ll make it up to you later, I promise.”
“ Candied apples?” Ollie stopped scurrying, Jay could practically see his mouth foaming.
“ Absolutely.”
Ollie twisted around, waving to Chip before hurrying back to the tree.
Jay sighed again, begrudgingly continuing to chase Chip, now determined to cause him more bodily harm.
“ Chip, stop bribing Ollie.” Chip flashed a cheesy grin, eyes agleam with mischievous light.
“ I will do no such thing.” With a burst of speed, Chip flung himself into the first alleyway he saw, gracefully becoming one with the tiles and dirt.
Jay passed by the alleyway, having to do a double take before whirling into the thin street. She squinched up her face as her arm brushed against the wall, dust plumbing in Gillion’s face.
It was a small alley, the find that wasn’t made on purpose, just simply formed between two houses.
“ Jay, what are we doing?!” Gillion called from behind her, more dust coming up as he hit the bricks.
“ I have no idea.” Jay watched as Chip jumped out of the alleyway, his hair illuminated by fresh sunlight flowing from the sky.
“ Did you bring Gillion?” Chip yelled from ahead, his voice echoing through Zero.
People turned, some agape, some snickering. Merchants didn’t bother to try to sell them things, they just let kids be kids. They blasted through meetings and city streets.

Bickering spirited from their lips, curses and clicks passed between them. Jay picked up a rock, her sky blue coat flapping in the wind, flicking her googles down and grabbing a dull knife from her pocket. She tried to etch a rune into it, something to slow Clip down. The etching came out rough, more like claw marks than a rune. Instead of throwing it away however, Jay chucked the rock straight at Chip’s heel. It made contact, and Chip stumbled, but he was not too terribly hurt.
“ Hey, no cheating!”
Jay didn’t even grace that with a response.
At one point Chip jumped onto a roof, only being trailed by Gillion. They slid around, leaping from building to building with ease. Then, Gillion had fallen, the roof collapsing in on him. He had desperately grasped at the air, pulling at strings, reaching for a hold. Chip had instinctively reached out, yanking Gillion back onto the roof.
They had stared, Chip flushed with exhaustion and embarrassment. Gillion had looked around, hesitating, before silently waiting for Chip to go on.
Even later, almost at 5, they all had committed a minor crime. They had been on the ground at this point, Chip was still in the lead, with Gillion and Jay on his heels. They had run further, at least on the second layer of the city, before they came across a large city-square. It was relatively well kept, with people conversing amongst themselves around a small garden. Around it, paper flapped in the wind. Large sheets, blocking windows and doors, with text messily scrawny onto them.
The Navy armada invites you to join in the fight against the sea.
Gain knowledge and training useful for your life. Fight against pirates and Triton forces, and keep our homes safe. 5 gold pieces a day for your family every day you serve.
For Zero, for the world, we will protect until death.
Chip scoffed, angling his head back to Jay.
“ You see these? They’re really trying to market to us aren't they?”
“ Yeah, load of crap.”
Chip reached forward, gripping and tearing the first sign he saw.
“ You wanna’ get rid of them?”
“ Absolutely.”
Jay reached for the next one, running ahead of Gillion to grab more. Without prompting, Gillion also began to grab posters, ripping them up into dull colored confetti.
They fell, and bled, and laughed with each other. Scampering and shrugging through the city, just specters of the streets.
“ I’m telling you, you just need to give up.” Chip’s voice sounded so tired, his movement clunky.
“ Gillion, he’s telling us to give up.” Jay relayed the message to Gillion, her sound sloppy.
“ Tell him to eat raw fish.”
“ Gillion says to eat raw fish.”
Chip snorted, his movement barely a waddle.
“ Jay! Quick, he’s-uh- weak, exposed, I don’t quite know what the right word for that would be. Get him, make him eat earth.” Gillion fumbled through snorts and clicks, his sentence forming odd.
Jay leapt like a rabid animal, leaning on her uncut arm as she fell. Chip screamed as she wrapped her hands around his ankles and tugged. He toppled like a tower, landing directly on top of Jay.
Chip tried to stagger up, but Gillion pinned him to the concrete, letting Jay have enough to stand up and smirk at him.
“ Now, can we have a civilized conversation?”
“ Is that what we were doing?” Chip smirked again, eye’s aglow with light.
“ Yep, that’s before you took off running. “
“ Fair.” Chip went limp, and Jay signaled for Gillion to let go of him. Chip sat up, head leaned against inked walls. “ I’m sorry, I don’t really know why I did that.” He looked down at the floor, already picking at his skin.
“ It’s fine, I really don’t think either of us minded.” Gillion was smiling, his sharp teeth bared in a frankly quite cute grin.
“ How about I make it up to you?” Chip looked up hopefully, his lips pinched tight.
“ Bribery?”
“ Nope, let's go over to my house, I don’t think Arlin’s gonna’ mind.”
“ You think he’ll,” Jay gestured to Gillions “ Do you think he’ll enjoy that?”
“ Sure, I think Gillion will like it.” Chip snorted, “ just don’t let him try Alin’s cooking.”
“ I would never!”
Chip stood up and stretched up to the sky, letting out a slight growl as he popped a particularly rude bone.
“ Gillion,” Jay spoke with a smile in her voice, and dimples on her cheeks “ Do you want to go to Chip’s house, meet his dad and stuff?”
“ Ah, yes. That seems quite nice.”
Jay flicked a thumbs up to Chip, and like they were off.
No longer running, they just meander down the street. smiling at acquaintances, which in Chip’s case meant potential thieving targets, and laughing amongst themselves.
And when they did reach the familiar crease that was Chip’s house they made themselves at home.
“ Welcome to my humble abode.” Chip did a little fancy bow, giving Jay the perfect time to screw up his hair. She reached into the knotted mess of curls, shaking it up just slightly.
Chip moved backwards, staring dead pan into Jay’s soul.
“ Chip?” He didn’t respond, just blinked slowly. Jay looked to Gillion, who was equally confused. “ I think I broke him.”
“ I didn’t know you could do that.”
“ Neither did I.”
Chip’s shoulders dropped, suddenly sagging a whole lot more than before.
“ Why do I even try being hospitable to you?”
“ The same reason we’re still friends.”
“ Which is?”
“ I’ll leave that up for you to decide.” Chip smiled his typical smile, his street rat attitude donned once more.
Jay allowed herself to stare around, just taking in her surroundings.
It was a fairly well built palace made of cobble and wood. There was an assortment of herbs and utensils hanging from the wall, each one radiating a new aroma. The floors were cold, mostly because they were stone, but the house itself was mostly warm. It was the kind of place that felt lived in, like a proper home.
It had been around a month since Jay had been here, and it felt like everything was already different.
Herbs were gone, new things were growing, old things were dying, and everything felt off. It wasn’t unnerving to say, just weird, like a sense of dejavu you couldn’t shake.
“ Come now, take a seat.” Chip had moved ahead, pulling up two chairs from a rickety table.
Both of them took their seats while Chip fiddled with something in the kitchen, simple conversation blooming between them.
And that’s how their day went. It was friendly, and fun, and something else Jay couldn’t pin.
And hours later Chip had made some concoction in the kitchen, something that no one could really stomach. And Gillion argued, and bantered, and smiled more than she had in a long time. All the while Jay laughed. She laughed until her lungs hurt and her throat burned. And she relished in that laughter even when Gillion was gone and her and Chip began to hurriedly make their way back to Ollie. Because laughter was like chocolate, it was a treat, something that Jay didn’t often get.

Chapter Text

" Tell me a story.” Ollie turned his head to look up at Chip.
“ A story?” Chip looked over at Jay, looking from her to Ollie, “ Heh- I-I don’t know if I’ll be able to do the Ollie. I don’t really have much to tell.”
“ Really? You could tell me about your dad.” Ollie’s green gaze pierced Chip’s little heart. Whether Ollie intended to or not, his eyes were widened just enough to pull off puppy dog eyes.
“ Well-”
“ Or Miss Jay? You could tell me about Miss Jay.”
Chip jerked his head toward Jay, pleading for her to stop this little goblin. She simply smiled her feline-like smile, clearly basking in the warmth of Chip’s suffering.
Chip felt warm, but he felt too warm. His face was red, and he knew it shouldn't be red because he shouldn't feel embarrassed. But, he felt embarrassed, just by the way this little boy was looking at him, he had to do something. He had to do something for the kid, because something bad would happen if he didn’t. He would be a bad person, and Ollie would hate him, and he couldn’t bear little Ollie looking at him like the others did. It wouldn’t matter what the others would say and do when Jay and Gillion weren't around, because he would always have Ollie to turn towards to brighten his day.
Oh lord, this is what being a parent felt like.
Well, if Jay wasn't going to help him in being a parent, then he was going to do what he was best at. Being a petty little hobo.
“ Alright, how about this. Ollie, I’ll tell you a story about a girl and a boy, and-"
" Do they kiss?"
" No."
" Good."
Chip sighed just loud enough for both Ollie and Jay to hear. Ollie snickered a little before Chip rose once more.
" As I was saying. I'm going to tell you a story about a girl, and how she met a boy right after almost getting killed by a very big man."
Chip turned to Jay one last time, taking in her look of sheer terror before turning back to Ollie.
“ Go on.” Ollie had propped himself up, and was eagerly drumming his finger on the sand.
“ Alright. Our story starts… Well, it starts in a strange place.”
“ A Castle?”
“ No, a tavern.”
“ Why a tavern?”
“ You’ll see.” Chip playfully bopped Ollie”s nose before continuing. “ So, this girl, who we’ll call Bird, was a very lonely girl. For you see, her father was a very mean man, and her mother never really paid any attention to her.” Jay huffed out a breath, shaking her head in disbelief. “ Now, Bird should not have been in a tavern, because she was only a few years older than you, Ollie, but she was eager. A ready soul.”
Chip hesitated, taking in Ollie's pure look of delight before continuing. “ The girl sat alone at the bar, completely sober, mostly because no one would let a small child drink.”
“ I would!” Ollie squeaked up, prompting a choking nose from Jay, and a slight snicker from Chip.
“ Alright, sure. But these bar keepers were different, because they knew Bird’s father, and they knew that if anything were to happen to her that he would have their head.”
“ Why? You said he didn’t like her.”
“ He had lost… well, another daughter before, Ollie. And he really didn’t want to lose another.”
“ But then he shouldn’t be mean to her.”
“ I agree.”
Jay winced slightly, but she managed to keep her composer somewhat presentable. Talking about Ava was the one thing Chip had tried to avoid, but Ollie had managed to dredge it up like old dirt.
Ollie stood up, his small eyes making contact with Chip in a painful moment.
“ I don’t want to listen to this story. It doesn't make any sense.” Ollie turned to walk away, but he lingered for a moment. his eyes flicked from the ocean to Chip, who was still idle on the sand, his head turned almost dismissively towards the younger.
“ You want to hear the rest?” Chip suggested.
“ Yeah.” Ollie meekly responded, quietly walking back to the desert sands.
“ That’s what I thought.” Chip looked back at the sea, taking in the way the setting sun reflected its light perfectly on the waves. “ Now, as I was saying, Bird was all alone in a tavern, and she was the only one there who was sober, so she decided to have some fun.”
“ ‘ Sir?’ Bird walked up to a goliath of a man, gently tapping on his shoulder in the most innocent way I had ever seen anyone tap before. You could really tell the effort she was putting into that tap.”
Jay laughed a little, covering her mouth as she did. However, it came to an abrupt halt as she leaned over to Chip and whispered in his ear.
“I was just trying to get his attention”
“ I watched you practice tapping, no normal person practices their tapping. You were trying.”
“ Fine.”
Jay leaned backward, a gentle smile now crossing her lips.
“ Now, Ollie,” The boy perked up at his name, leaving a half made smiley face to be washed away by the tides. “ You’ve gotta’ understand, Bird picked this man for a specific reason.”
“ Why.”
“ Because he was the drunkest one of the lot. He had chugged at least seven full mugs of beer in only a few hours. So when Bird tapped him and he turned around to see a small girl, he laughed. ‘ Little girl. What are you doing in a tavern with men like me?’ The man questioned while his friends chuckled in the background.” Chip tried and failed to mimic idle chatter, it mostly just sounded like craved ranting.“ ‘ Well, you seem like a nice man, And I’m bored, so why don’t you and I play a game of darts?’ At this, the man cackled louder. It was a terrible sound, really one for the books.”
Chip made a loud choking sound, a poor excuse for a laugh. “ ‘ Why of course, why don’t we get started right now?’ The man fired right back at Bird, not knowing he had just made the worst mistake of his life.”
“ How?” Ollie piped up again.
“ You’re about to see.” Chip cracked his knuckles, passing a wink to Ollie and Jay. “ So, they approach the dart board. A crowd had formed around them, because who wouldn’t want to see a little girl try to beat a strong burly man at darts?
The man went first, and he did pretty well. Two of his darts got around the bullseye, while the others managed to stay on the board. Thinks we're looking bad for Bird, the crowd booed and jeered when she walked up to the board.”
Chips stood up, his voice deepening to a grumble as he mocked the crowd boos. “ But Bird didn’t care, no, because things were going exactly as she had planned. So, without so much as a glance back at the crowd, Bird threw her darts.
The first one hit the center, then the second, and the third, and the only one that didn’t hit its mark was the fourth one. “
Chip took another brief break from his story, eyes skimming his crowd of two with childish delight. “ Now, the man was angry. Not the kind of anger that you think of, but something much bigger. Something that could only mean violence. So, the man let out a loud roar, and began chasing Bird all throughout the city street. Bird took her cue and ran, which was good because she was fast, but not fast enough. The man chased her into an alley, and Bird was trapped, caged, if you will.
She had leaned against the wall, fully prepared to die, when a large piece of tile had fallen straight on the man's head, leaving him passed out on the floor.” Chip tripped himself up, his lithe body plummeting onto the sand with a soft thunk. Ollie laughed, a kind of laugh that came straight from the depths of his stomach. “ And you want to know something really funny?” Chip chopped up from his position on the earth.
“ Yeah.”
“ That tile didn’t fall on its own. A small boy, even smaller than Bird, had been watching the entire time. He had kicked down the tile in an attempt to help Bird escape, and it worked.
The boy made his way down the roof and helped Bird find her way back home, where her family was waiting. But the boy came back the next day, and the next, and all the while Bird kept him company. And they grew, and drifted, and grew some more. But Ollie, they always seemed to drift right back together. No matter what the ”
Chip finished, arms crossed and head held high as if he had just accomplished something amazing.
" So, to trim it down. A small girl beat a big man with darts, and then got chased through the city before being saved by a weirdo on a roof." Ollie tipped back and forth on his heels, hands held behind his back like a scholar.
" Yeah- You could say that." Chip looked over at Jay, whose faint smile had turned into that same dopey fox grin from earlier.
" Well, that's dumb." Ollie stopped rocking, sitting down on the sand for support instead.
“ Wha? No, no it's not. I promise you that-" Chip's manic rantings were interrupted by Ollie again, his voice now softer than before.
" But I like it," Ollie leaned onto Chip's shoulders, the sunlight painting his eyes a beautiful green. " You tell stories like my mom." Chip flinched slightly at the affection, only composing himself enough to stay still when Ollie leaned on him. " I'm glad you liked it." The taller mumbled, a confused cross between a grimace and a smile crossing his face.
The three of them stared at the sunset for a long time, letting it absorb all of their problems just for a moment, before they had to return to reality.
As not to disturb Ollie, Jay softly tapped Chip's unoccupied shoulder. They exchanged glances, a quiet message passing through them before Chip nodded.
" Well, we should probably be taking you back home, Ollie." Jay stood up with a sigh, her tall frame casting a long shadow behind her.
" Yeah, we can't have your mom thinking we kidnapped you, now can we?" Chip playfully punched Ollie's shoulder, and cast a cheeky smile Ollie's way. "
“ I wouldn’t mind."
“ You sure? You'd deal with my dad’s food for every meal.”
Ollie gagged, prompting him to laugh at his own joke before continuing.
“ Never mind, leave me with my mom.”
“ You’ve made a deal now, can’t back in on it.” Jay flew a comment into the fray, causing more chaos as a result.
“ Then I’d beat you up, so you can’t take me”
Ollie playfully jumped to his feet, his energy renewed by sheer will alone. He raised his fist and punched at the poor air.
" Well, you can, and I’m sure it would hurt. But you have to catch me!" Chip playfully began running down the shoreline, Ollie following suit, as the sun set on a game of tag.

Chapter Text

Gillion woke to his own blood. 

He woke up alone, his clothes stained beyond repair, while scarlet red streams gushed into murky water. The air around him was salty and warm, an odd sensation for Gillion’s naturally cold body.

Every ounce of him radiated with pain, nothing felt like it was in the place it should be, and the butterflies in his stomach were starting to try to eat their way out. He hesitated to move, each limb was like damp kelp, but the black spots that clouded his vision told him that sleep wouldn’t be a good option.

Gillion raised up quickly, potentially too quickly. and the black spots multiplied twofold before settling back down. 

He shouldn’t be here, he should be home, wrapped in salves on a slightly comfortable bed. Gillion racked his brain for his last memory, upturning all the mental tables and cabinets he could find. Forcing and barging his way into memories, only to leave before their soft visage could take hold. Then it hit him. With the force of a faint wind, and the impact of a sword, Gillion knew what happened.

Cold hand reaching from above, colder than Chip’s, much colder than Jay’s. A voice not unlike that of one of the Elder’s calling out. More pulling, followed by a rush of salty air. Then a kick, followed by a swift blow to his stomach. The world caves along his lungs, this must be what it felt like to die. 

Ah, so he’d been assaulted. 

Gillion tried to move, only managed to stumble, and then settled for said stagger. He hobbled, once more, toward the ever-moving city.

He didn’t know where he was going, but he did. His legs took him somewhere new, but somewhere old. Somewhere that, under any other normal circumstances, he would have Jay direct him to. But Jay was lost to the darkness, alongside a very large portion of Gillion’s skin. 

And somehow, before the sun had risen and the people had fluttered to the streets, Gillion had found what he needed. And through a miracle, he staggered through the alleyway without tripping. And he kept his head aloft and body functioning just for long enough to do something. 

To knock on a door.

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Jay didn’t wake up.

Instead, she was already awake when she first got a signal from Chip. It was small, something she shouldn’t have noticed had the sun still been out.

She shifted her weight back and forth, tightly bundling herself in the sheets. The wind rustled a few trees outside her room, the branches clawing at the house's walls. Far off, something howled loudly  

It wasn’t a quiet night, actually, it was quite the opposite. 

It was a loud night, a chorus of creaks and bends. Of screams, and murmured chatter. 

But she still heard Chip’s message. She still noticed the rock’s faint glow as it whispered out a sound. A soft, quick sound, light as air.

 A request.

It was odd, because if he needed something, he usually stole it. But the request wasn’t something he could steal, or bribe, or any other way the Chip would try to get it.

So, Jay was faced with a decision.

Leave, and get Chip what he needed.

Or stay.

Stay and listen to the growls and howls of her parents. To fall asleep in a ragging quarrel of gods. To hear them talk about someone that wasn’t her, their perfect child turned dissident. And they would shift and then blame themselves. Drowning in their own pity, seeping in misery, before clawing their twisted words around each other's feet and pulling them in. and the next day they would glow with the same kind of glow that they always have. They would radiate a light so potent that people knew who they were, and where they stood.

Jay shifted once more, sighing alongside her bed. She gazed into the window, the stars twinkling lights almost resembling tears in the sky. 

And she pulled her hand up to her mouth, kept it there for a few seconds, and spoke the first non-violent word all night.

“Chip, I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

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Chip woke up to knocking. 

A light tap on the house door that didn’t echo, but still resonated. He wasn’t forced awake by it, simply pulled out of his slumber.

It was twilight, that much he could tell. no light filtered through the un-curtain windows, making whatever was at his door blur into the night.

Chip was not the brightest, that much anyone would admit. He was raised on roof tops and gutters; education was a luxury. But Chip, no matter how dull people would think he was, knew that he should tell people when someone who could potentially kill him shows up at his doorstep. 

He just didn’t always tell the right person. 

Groggily, he stood, reaching for his stone on instinct. He whipped it to his mouth, letting his words bubble out fast. 

“Jay, get over here. I might die, for real this time though.” 

With that, he put the rock back down with a satisfying clink.

Snatching his knife from the table, Chip slid into the familiar shadows of the house.  

He knew it would be nothing, because it had to be nothing. It had to just be a beggar, or someone with the wrong address. 

But it could be something. 

It could be someone hurt, or worse, someone looking for him. 

So, Chip, armed with a dagger and nothing else, opened the door. 

The first thing he registered was the creeping scent of blood. The second, more important thing, was fins and a tail.

Gillion Tidestrider stood before him, covered in scars and bubbling cuts, eyes already half closed. 

“Oh.” 

Chip had dealt with blood before, he had participated in his fair share of scraps on the street but this, this was something new. 

Gillion responded with a few faint clicks, his sentence being quickly cut off as his eyes fluttered shut, and he collapsed in a tired heap on Chip’s front porch.