trilling in delight, dolphins dance and leap over the waters, gathering together to chirp at sea gulls overhead. but they turn at the sight of a shadow crawling from the clouds, yelping and diving back into the water as a ship sails above them.
alberto moves aside a sail, beaming as the wind flies in his face, snickering as machiavelli yowls and struggles back onto the mast he was sitting on. "isn't this great?" he calls down to his family, as he streaks his hand down machiavellis head to his tail, "the salty sea air, the wind blowing in your face . . ." he sighs, practically melting besides machiavelli as he crosses his arms, "a perfect day to be at sea." he sighs.
"oh, yes," chuckles his sister, slipping up her beanie with a thumb before she strides over and slaps his back playfully, shaking his shoulder. "delightful."
"a fine strong wind and a following sea." hums massimo, slinging down a sail and nodding as alberto rushes down to help him, "queen daniela must be in a friendly-type mood." he hums.
"queen daniela?" alberto asks, cocking a brow.
"why, ruler of the sea monsters, lad." laughs massimo, hitting his back before he goes over to grab and throw fish in nets into a barrel beside him, "thought every good sailor knew about her."
alberto goes to reply snarky, biting his tongue. but giulia slides down the railing of the stairs with, "sea monsters!" she groans, shaking her head and nodding in assurance to alberto, patting his shoulder. "pay no attention to this nautical nonsense, 'berto."
"but it ain't nonsense, it's the truth!" roars massimo, towering over and gesturing wildly with a fish in his hand.
giulia rolls her eyes as massimo playfully stabs the fish into her cheek, "i'm tellin' you, down in the depths o' the ocean they live." he insists, laughing as the fish slips from his hands, flops and slaps giulias face, before it jumps off and dives into the water.
they continue on, the fish rolls in the water, catching its breath as it risks a glance up at the boat, wondering if they would chase after it. after seeing no obvious attempt to recapture him, he sighs in relief, before turning to swim away.
it ducks and swims past angelfish and jellyfish, flying under mantra-rays to hide momentarily from other predators, before it disappears against a school of goatfish, herded by a sea monster.
"good morning, mr. branzino." nods a sea monster to a much thinner, greener and older sea monster. "how's mrs. branzino?"
"hello, lorenzo." is the only response the monster gets, as mr. branzino goes back to feeding his flock of hermit crabs.
"morning, ma'am." nods lorenzo paguro as he continues a-float, heading for home.
"morning." nods the towering she-monster.
"hello, mrs. aragosta." he mutters as he swims past the sea farmer, counting his fish.
as he herds the goatfish together, he hisses, "giuseppe's missing too," he groans, "i swear, he's just like his buddy enrico."
he sighs as he swims into his cave, his queen daniela, he kisses her gingerly on the cheek.
"still no sign of him?" hushes his mate, looking behind her shoulder at him worriedly.
he shakes his head, patting her shoulder.
she growls, dilated eyes slitting in anger, "luca."

luca perked up behind the fallen mast, tilting his head as he gazed over at the shrunken ship, he blinked, taking in the sight of how it was ripped in the middle and crashed into its front, and how rocks below it thundered and clawed up for it.
luca felt his tail flick behind him in excitement as he clutched his bag, ear twitching as he heard frantic frills and bleats.
"mehh! mehh mehh me!" calls out his goatfish, bubbling as he caught his breath.
"giuseppe," he hissed, waving his claws and slicing through the water with a webbed hand, "hurry up!" he cooed.
guiseppe croaked, coughing as he smacked his lips together, stringing the words together "you know i can't swim that fast." giuseppe huffed, drilling over.
luca beamed, momentarily proud that he managed to teach giuseppe to speak. he wrapped his arm around the smaller fish, bringing it to his side as he gushed at the ship. "there it is. isn't it fantastic?"
"yeah . . . sure," nodded giuseppe as he pulled away from lucas grip, "it- its great. now meeehts get outta here." he bleated.
he reversed back and wiggled his fins as he began to dart away, but luca grabbed his tail with a snickered giggle.
"you're not getting cold fins now, are you?" luca teased, raising a brow as he smirked.
"who, me?" giuseppe gaped, following luca to the boat as he babbled. "no just, it, errr . . . it looks-" he gulped as luca swam above a small, circled porthole, looking in. "damp in there. yeah, and i think i may be coming down with something. yeah, i got this cough."
he flaps a fin across his mouth, coughing into it unconvincingly, peeking over up at luca who smiled at him, with a raised brow as he shook his head.
"all right." luca chuckles, "i'm going inside." he grinned, plucking giuseppe's nose. "you can just stay here and," he giggled, "watch for sharks."
luca smiles, ears springing in delight as he slips inside the porthole effortlessly.
"o-kay." he laughs, "yeah, you go." giuseppe shakes his head, "i'll stay, and-"
"what?" bleats giuseppe shakily as he jumps, looking around frantically. "sharks?! luca!" giuseppe squeals as he tries to slip into the porthole, getting stuck.
"luca, i can't," struggles giuseppe, squeaking. "i mean," he sighs, "luca, help!"
luca spins around, frantic gasp turning into a smile as he giggled. flicking his tail as he swam over and wrapped his arms around the goatfish, trying to help him.
"oh, giuseppe." luca laughs, pulling at him as he pushed his feet against the ships walls.
"luca," whispers giuseppe hoarsely, "do you really think there might be sharks around here?"
"giuseppe, don't be such a guppy." teases luca.
"i'm not a guppy."
luca laughs as he pulls giuseppe in, a shark passing by them outside, their silhouette unbeknownst to them outside.
"this is great!" giuseppe babbles as luca rolls his eyes dismissively. "i mean, i really love this. excitement, adventures, danger lurking around every corn—"
he looks down, seeing a skull. "YAAAAHHHHHHHH!!" giuseppe swims away frantically, crashing into a pillar as he scrunches his nose in pain, looking up in panic as he begins a cave in. "luca!" giuseppe screams, knocking into luca.
luca is knocked onto his back, instinctively wrapping his arms around giuseppe, whose shaking terribly.
"oh, are you okay?" luca asks softly, holding him.
"yeah, sure, no problem." giuseppe replies, still shaking and stumbling, "i'm okay . . ."
luca rolled his eyes and giggles, bringing his index claw up as he pressed his lips together, "shhh . . ." he hushed.
he looks up, smiling as he sees a hole in the floor, he swims up with giuseppe at his side. he peers up, looking around cautiously, before his eyes spin to something shiny in the corner of his eye.
"oh my gosh . . . oh my gosh!" he gasps, beaming wildly as he swam over to inspect the object. he picked it up, laughing as he saw it was harmless against his touch. "have you ever seen anything so wonderful in your entire life?"
he grins, presenting it to giuseppe as the goatfish drills over to inspect it. "wow, cool!" he blinked, tapping it suspiciously with a fin. "but, err, what is it?"
"i don't know." luca laughs, looking down as he nudges it into his back gingerly, ignoring the shadow of a fin swimming past the window, "but i bet scuttle will!"
"what was that?" croaks giuseppe as he shivers under the presence, looking around wildly, "did you hear something?"
"oh!" luca exclaims as he bounces over, picking up another harmless object, he hums against his concentrated frown, nose scrunched as he tilts his head. "hmm, i wonder what this one is?"
"luca . . ." giuseppe whimpers, being natural prey.
"giuseppe," luca calls behind his shoulder, grinning in delight as he squints his eyes at the object. "will you relax? nothing is going to happen."
giuseppe turns, risking a glance and is met back with the glare and face of a shark.
"AAHHHH!" giuseppe screams, it cracking into a bleat as he blasts towards luca, nudging him as the boy turns to complain but gasps as the shark smashes its way in. "run, run!" giuseppe squeals.
they swim past and dodge the sharks attempts to bite at them, swiftly slashing past obstinacles. "we're gonna die!" giuseppe cries as the shark chases them all around. lucas bag gets caught in wood as the shark bites toward it.
luca darts down and swiftly grabs it, dodging the sharks jaws as they swim up the stairs they came from and to the porthole.
"oh, no!" giuseppe groans in dismay, before he rams into it, getting stuck again.
luca drills over and tries to push him through, succession as he blasts away, he grabbing him hastily as they swim round and around a sail that giuseppe smacks his head into, making him go silly.
luca turns and watches as his friend falls in a dream, dropping his bag as he and the shark dive down for it. luca scoops him up then pulls back as the shark dive in, getting stuck in the contraption.
luca grins in delight, letting go of giuseppe as he scoops up his bag. giuseppe mocks the shark with his fins on his sides, "you big bully, THBBBTTTT."
he sticks his tongue out, then yelps as the shark bites at him, they hastily swim up to the surface, with luca giggling.
"giuseppe, you really are a guppy." he laughs.
"i am not!" he protests back.