Kai wiped his drenched forehead and started towards the trunk, which was sitting in the corner. He knelt down, running a finger along its icy metallic edge. A thin beam of light emanated from the keyhole and sintered on his freckles.

Kai's lips trembled, as his mind gave away for the melody of her song. A song which felt nothing more than a symphony of chaos, yet he found his heart torn, wanting more of it.

"Hurry, Kai..." The voice trailed off with a soulful giggle.

He shook his head vigorously. His mind now more determined than ever, as he forcefully pulled the lid open; rusted hinges groaned a creak. He instantly checked on Chip and his father. Leaving a sigh of relief, he studied the insides of the trunk which now filtered a bright glow from beneath. He ran through the clothes until he found it.

An unusual glowing antique, almost like a big fish's scale, but many of them stacked upon each other to look like a book, the spine of which had carvings in an unknown language. Kai traced his fingers along the bizarre looking circles and spirals, reliving the memory of last time he had touched it.

'Kai, listen.' His mom had held his hands before going into a spasm of cough, with a gush of blood spluttering out of her mouth.
'Stop crying, Kai. I know my son, he is brave, he can look after his sister while I am gone. Your father, he is gonna be there with...' She had stopped looking at his father with a pair of hopeless ocean eyes.
'Now, listen. Here. It's very important. It's my grandmother's. You take care of it. Don't open it till the time comes.' With what seemed like a harmless red parcel, she had put a weight of a mountain on Kai's shoulders, when he was barely eight.

'I shouldn't have opened it in the first place,' he thought, 'I should have listened to my mother.'
A mirage of guilty tears blurred his vision. He sniffed and stuffed the book underneath his shirt and tip-toed out of the shabby cabin.

His eyes warily searched for shadows, anything and everything. As he walked over the deck, ever so sneaky, he bumped into something or, someone perhaps. He gulped as he lifted his fretful face up.

"Aaah..Kai?" Uncle Jay exclaimed. "Get a good night's sleep son, you are gonna need it." He patted on Kai's shoulder and left.

A rustling breath escaped out of Kai's mouth, as he neared the edge of hull. He ran his fingers along the letters and went through the pages for one last time. Not that he could read a thing, but the things he saw inside it, always amused him. He stopped at a page which looked like a transparent cloth, but only a little rough with a texture of some kind. He squeezed his eyes and scratched his head, but nothing, nothing took shape.

A chill crawled up his skin, as the glowing texture started to dance like a group of small glow worms, arranging themselves into a face, then a body and a fish tail; his legs a pair of fragile ropes and his chest a tight drum. The woman in the book glared straight into his eyes and bowed a little, blinking her glowing orbs.

'I am still dreaming!' He whacked his face, and the woman in the book smiled. The ethereal voice returned, only to question his sanity with another playful giggle.

He closed his eyes, convincing himself, 'It's just the sea madness, it must be.'
He took a long breath, wondering at the epiphany inside him; a craving desire to keep it, yet one more, to get rid of it. He shut the book and stood up, heaping his courage into a huge pile and then tossed the book into the crashing waves. He stood there watching, until the bright glow of it submerged into the foamy waves, with it faded her haunting hushabye.

He lowered his relieved shoulders and started his way back. But, the barrel on the way reminded him of his parched throat, so he stopped by. But a wavering shadow made his heart skip a beat. "Who's there?"

Another groggy voice came from the upper quarters, probably one of the elites, "Who's that? Who's down there?"
Kai scanned carefully at the shadow before he turned around.

"Boo!" A voice cried at him. Kai shuddered, only to stand frozen, as a madness of laughter overtook Shiela's usual composure.

"You scared me."

"Aye, Kai. I did, didn't I?" She sassed a little, and sat at the edge, dangling her feet.

"What are you doing here at this time? Aren't you scared?" Kai asked too much for a question, but of course, it wasn't his fault when a beautiful 'she' was all he could witness.

"Are you?" She beamed her face up, whilst she etched something on a parchment with a stick of charcoal.

"No. Of course not. Prssh!" Kai swallowed and flumped beside her.

"Anyways, what are you drawing?" He pointed his index, to sound casual. But, inside 'everything- under-control-him', there was a heart that flapped its wings like never before, as his eyes absorbed the radiance of her aura.

"Uh... nothing much actually. Just the moon, the stars, the ocean." She tilted her head, concentrating on smudging the colours of black to grey. "I like the symphony of the wind and waves. Nature is so beautiful, isn't it?'

"You are so beautiful!" Kai's inner thought slipped through his tongue. She paused, her face bloomed into a scarlet rose. Kai instantly cleared his throat, "Yes, I mean, nature is beautiful, so is your drawing. How did you learn all of this, while helping out chatty Gabby and being a full-time healer?" His words were too sweet for a honey-coated cover-up.

"Yeah, I have been drawing since I was little, six to be precise."

"Can you draw an elephant? No, let me think, yeah. An elephant with wings?" Kai gleamed with excitement.

"An elephant with wings?" She began rolling the parchment and tucking them into her bag. "I haven't seen one."

"I haven't seen one too. But, you can picture it inside your mind, right?" Kai got up dusting his slacks.

"No. I cannot." She laid it flat, her face a starless sky.

"Why so grumpy? Did I say something wrong?" Kai blocked her way.

"I am not grumpy, Kai." She chuckled, "Besides, you should stop assuming things.." She chinned her face uptight, a thing she always did. It was more than fascinating for Kai to witness her blocked-off side, well, only until now.

"Then, why do you sound like you are evil Zaren's twin again?" He said, closing his face in with her.
"And honestly, I have seen enough of that." He whispered into her ears and stepped back with a wide grin, as if he had conquered a kingdom. But, that wasn't totally false, for a shy kid he was, speaking with her was already an achievement.

"Do you know anything at all, about me?" She crossed her arms, her angry brows scrunched up. "Don't you call my brother evil, don't even dare to call my aunt 'chatty'. Although, she is." She admitted, hesitantly squeezing her bag.

"Alright, sorry." Kai twisted his lips in; a heroic courage of some kind which was already filling him from inside, since the time he got rid of the book, made its way through.
"Earlier. I uh...You uh...I meant you look pretty." He stuttered to spill the beans.

Sheila's eyes softened, not that she liked it, but because, Kai had never been this brave and welcoming towards other people, or so he thought.

"Thank you." She shied away, her fingers fidgeting a little too much, might've been because she actually did like it.

"Okay. If you'll excuse me." Kai motioned to leave, by then her sweaty palm grabbed his bony but strong wrist.

"I can't draw an elephant with wings, because I never saw it."

"That's alright, I told you, I haven't seen one either---"

But before he could complete, Sheila interrupted him. "I can't draw an apple until I see an apple. Do you understand now? I lack imagination, my mum, she always said that I suffered from 'Aphantasia'. That's the very reason, she got me into drawing." Petals of her blush withered away with the night fall's breeze.

"I should have understood that. I am a stupid-stupid idiot, aren't I?" He sniggered a little.

"But, don't they both mean the same?" She smiled, tucking a string of hair behind her ear, as the breeze swept her long and brown curls away from her face. Kai's jaw touched the deck, it was the first time he had ever seen her hair out of turban. He tried to maintain his sanity as a swarm of butterflies titillated inside his stomach.

"Uh. No. I mean, yes. Yes of course." He coughed. "See you tomorrow, Zaren."

"Kai! You are mean." She stomped her foot, dropping her drawings on the deck. The wind took away some of them along with herself, Sheila frantically started picking them up, few papers flew up up and high.
Her eyes caught a glimpse of something dark, not the shadows, nor the steam. It was definitely smoke, it had to be. 'But nobody's cooking.'

"Kai, look." She yelled pointing at the raven smoke spewing from a window of sailor's quarters. Kai couldn't hear her scream any better than the night time ocean's cry.

"Kai!"

Finally, he turned around only to witness a big boom of an explosion. The gold, the red, the ash shot up to the sky, lighting the darkness. Sheila fell to the ground, succumbing to the force of the blast. The time seemed to slow down, as the reflection of fire flicked a flame of realisation in his heart, just the way it lit his green eyes. "What comes it's way, never lives." Kai recited her riddle, not that he heard it anymore, but because, he now felt the absence, the emptiness of not having her voice around.

"Chip?" He asked, for none in particular. "And Bo? And Tibby? All of us?" He swiftly ran towards Sheila to help her back on foot. "Are you okay?"

By then a buzz had already begun, as workers and elites, all unified, had started tackling the fire back to sleep with pails of water; but none to succeed.

"I am fine." She got up with his support. "Go bring Chuchip and your dad. I'll bring Bo and Tibby. Half of the ship is already gone!"

"Yes. But, be safe." He nodded, and bolted towards the slave-quarters.

'Time to save my people. Why didn't I understand it any sooner!' He shook his head to ward off the same thought playing on loop inside his mind. He hopped down and jumped skipping a few steps to reach the cabin as soon as possible.
While he made his way through the hallway, ship jerked jolting Kai. He pushed the door open forcefully, only to find it empty; his face a barren land, heart an empty vessel without Chip, but his mind raced with wildest of thoughts amalgamating with the same looping voice as one whisper, "I told you."
Last thing he needed was his drunk father to wander around piggybacking Chip. So, he recklessly began searching.

************************************

Sheila ran into her brother Zaren, while she hauled Tibby along with her. Zaren, now nothing more than a restless hamster, held Sheila by arms and shook her saying, "listen to me Sheila, get them to the safe side. You be safe, okay? Don't be a selfless saint like mom. I'll arrange something, I have to do something!" He uttered without a breath, almost like he was saying that to himself.

Sheila wriggled out of his grasp, "Zar, please calm down. You are scaring me. Dad is gonna help us. We'll be just fine." She tried to assure him, but for no use as he pulled her aside and ran towards the scorching flame. She shook her head and made her way through people along with Tibby and Gabby.

"Sheilaa!" Chip called her from behind, Sheila struggled to find her in the midst of all the chaos. Chip clung to her dad's torso like a baby monkey to its mother, all awhile her father swayed back and forth finding his ground.

Sheila's fingers balled into fists, as a wave of uneasiness filled her senses. The least bothering thing was Gabby's big mouth at the time. She nodded and gave her Tibby's in-charge.

"Okay, Mr. Sal-e-nan. Please, step forward. You are at the edge, don't look behind." It took all of her guts to stand only a couple of feet away from them.

Sal chuckled, "Why? What are you talking about? Where are we Chippie?"

"Ugh!" Sheila's nerves were on fire. "Let go of Chuchip at least, put her down. Please!"

"Dad. Please, stay where you are. Release he..." Kai's voice trailed off with a scream, as Sal lost his balance and tumbled into the ocean, while he still held Chip in his arms.

"No..." Tibby, Gabby and Bo echoed into each other, as they witnessed Sal's silhouette fade into the darkness of the ocean's depth.
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Word count- 2231

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