[Freezair]

It had been a long time since the sisters had seen the sea.

Even if you left the sea, it never quite left you. As soon as the salty smell filled their nostrils, old childhood memories awakened within them--breakfasts of fresh fish, their house shuddering at night from barrages of sea rain, and the sound of the waves, a constant background in every moment. And that sound awakened many things they had forgotten forgetting--their paws twisted out knots they hadn't since childhood, and "port" and "starboard" finally fell into place.

They weren't the only crew members, of course, nor was their sailing knowledge the most valuable thing they had to offer. By comparison, the two Kitrells were rather tiny and scrawny to the bronzed sailors running about. But they had strong wings that were unafraid to fly in even the roughest storms, and they had knowledge of the waves that would serve the crew well.

[Freezair]

There was no crow's nest--this was a modern operation, after all--so Ailbhe and Ciara perched together on the rim above the captain's cabin, looking out together over the waters in the port.

"Feels good to be back, yeah?" Ailbhe said to her sister. She gestured to the waves with a sweep of her wing as they glittered in the dawn light.

"Absuhlootly," Ciara replied.

Ailbhe shook the morning mist from her wings and peered out toward the horizon. "So. Yuh'r the one wit' the brains in the fambly. Whatcha reckon's out there?"

"Ain't seen enough tuh really make any deductions," Ciara said. "But dahk tentacles comin' out of the watuh? My first guess, one of those wicked big giant squids. Normuhlly they live way down deep, you know. But sometimes yuh'll get sightin's up close. Maybe some geothermal activity like got 'em all spooked."

Ailbhe huffed affectionately. "Shoulda known the egghead would be borin'."

Ciara glared back just as affectionately. "An' what's that s'posed to mean?"

[Freezair]

Ailbhe glared back at her sister with a toothy grin and narrowed eyes. "Oh, yuhno. I wuss jus' thinkin'. Yuh remember the stories Pa used to tell us?"

Ciara rolled her eyes. "Yuh know s'well as I do that wuss tuh stop us from playin' in the ocean where something coulda et us."

Ailbhe shuffled closer to her sister. "Yuh's sayin' you don't believe 'em, then? Those stories about awful squishy monsters lurkin' in the deep, what's so scary one look at 'em kills ya dead just from the fear of it?"

Ciara crossed her wings. "I nevuh saw what's so scary 'bout those stories. Even the biggest one, ol' wassisname--s'just some big green fella with a squid fuh a head. Nothin' scary 'bout that."

"See, this is why yuh never got invited to any sleepovers as a kid," Ailbhe said. "Yuh poke holes in all the scary stories they tell at bed time."

[Freezair]

The peel of a bell echoed across the harbor. A deep-throated cry cut through the air: "AAAAALL ABOOOARD! We're shovin' off!"

Ailbhe looked down to the deck, watching the sailors scurry about. There was the deep clanking noise of the anchor being drawn up, and behind the glass panel beneath them, the captain was fiddling with her instrument panel.

"Guess we'll know soon enuff," Ailbhe said. "Yuh ready, sis?"

"Fuh science an' fuh showin' up my olduh sistuh!" Ciara cheered. Ailbhe laughed as the boat began to rock.

[Freezair]

As promised, the seas were calm and flat as the boat sped out and the shoreline faded away. Long ago, sailors may have cursed these doldrums and been stranded by them, but in the era of motorboats, they meant smooth sailing.

Ailbhe and Ciara dropped from their perches and fluttered around the deck, observing the goings-on. Ciara in particular found a flat place to land, pulled a notepad from her pack, and began scribbling notes.

Oh, that sister of hers. Always being scientific. Ailbhe scoffed affectionately and fluttered aimlessly above the deck.

She glanced out at the horizon once again. The sky was still rosy with dawn.

Funny. You'd think the sun would be up more by now.

[Freezair]

It wasn't unusual for the dawn at sea to be slightly green. But as they sailed out further, the prolonged dawn began to change color. It was only a little green at first. A little touch of viridian. But the green began to creep up further in the sky and deepen--soon it was a vicious, vibrant emerald, encompassing the whole sky. Ailbhe glanced behind them and saw a few flickers of red and blue. But everything ahead was... unnatural.

Ciara stopped writing in her notebook and fluttered up to join her sister.

"What the...?"

[Freezair]

The sailors on the deck began pointing and muttering to themselves. In cabin, however, the captain seemed undeterred; she kept sailing into the greenness at a steady pace.

Ciara swooped out of the confines of the boat briefly to check the water, but nothing seemed changed. The ocean beneath them was as calm as it was in port. Just like the Tengumi had said--perfectly calm sees with nothing out of the ordinary.

Nothing except an emerald-green sky.

Feeling nervous, Ciara went to nudge her sister, and they both began to fly around the boat. A few of the other winged crew members seemed to be feeling nervous, so they took to the air as well, the Tengumi's words of dark, writing tentacles on their minds.

And yet the captain sailed on.

[Freezair]

One of the sailors, an anthropomorphic Tali, turned his head towards the other flying sailors. "Iffin what that Tengumi told us is true, that boat's gettin' dragged to the briny deeps in short order. We oughta get the rest of the crew outta there, those of us what can carry people."

A blonde human man with a pair of feathery wings and a pair of ear fins grinned. "I've got a full Paragon form. Not to brag, but I'm pretty swole. I can carry this whole crew if I need to."

The Tali nodded at him. "We'll do that. Someone should tell the captain, though."

He swiveled his head at Ailbhe and Ciara. "You lasses are right small. You can fly in the door and be out quicklike iffin things go south."

The Kitrells nodded, too. "We're on it," Ciara replied.

[Freezair]

With a rush of magic, the Paragon man assumed his full form. With powerful wings, he flew towards the deck, bidding the remaining men and women to jump on his back.

Ailbhe and Ciara dodged the downdraft from his powerful wings and skirted the aft of the boat. "I'll check if there's anyone belowdecks," Ailbhe said. "Yuh go'n get the captain." Ciara didn't waste air replying and flew off towards the cabin. She pushed down the door handle with dextrous feet and flew inside.

Outside, the putting of the motor and the sound of the water being chopped apart by the propeller filled the air. Inside the cabin, however, it was curiously quiet. There was a faint whispering sound in the air that almost sounded like a radio show or podcast leaking out through a pair of earbuds, but she might have been imagining it.

And there was the smell. Somehow, the sea smelled stronger inside the cabin than it did outside.

[Freezair]

The whispering seemed to get louder as Ciara drew closer. But as far as she could see, the captain wasn't wearing any headphones.

Ciara's scalp began to itch.

Except... no. It wasn't her scalp.

It was her brain.

The inside of her skull, beneath her scalp, was on fire. Furious tingles ran up and down inside her head as the whispering grew louder. Greasy, gritty syllables flowed in and out of her ears, rooting themselves between the folds of her cerebellum.

No. I'm just imagining things! I'm only frightened of the stories I've heard! She set her teeth against the itchiness and willed it away.

[Freezair]

The air around her began to feel thick. Every beat of her wings grew harder, the air she pushed against more resistant. The whispering grew louder, and if she focused, she could make out what seemed to be words--but if she did, the itching grew. She wanted to claw her own heart out just so she could scratch it.

Something isn't right here, Ciara thought. But she was raised by the seaside. Even for an academic, she was tough. She had to keep going. She had to help the captain.

And so she fought, on through the green, gluey, horribly itchy air, until she was by the captain's side.

[Freezair]

"Captain!" Ciara shouted. "Somethin' isn't right! Yuh gotta get offa this--"

Then she saw the captain's face.

She was the source of the whispers; her lips gyrated wildly, spilling forth sounds that stuck to every inch of Ciara's fur and crawled up and down her insides. The captain's eyes had gone the horrible, soulless white of a dead fish, with a sickly green film growing within.

Things snapped together in Ciara's mind, though she wasn't sure how. The sky, the chanting, the captain's unerring steering--she was behind it, somehow; she was causing this, though why Ciara had no idea--

And then there was an earsplitting, metallic crunch.

[Freezair]

The thick air didn't matter. Ciara fled the cabin, the sea air washing away her prickliness as she bolted outside.

But the smell remained. And there was blood in the air, too.

Horrid, rotten tentacles that only looked half-alive yet writhed fiercely enveloped the boat, prying it in half with ease. In the splintering wreckage, Ciara spotted more people--people with the same horrible, glazed-over eyes, chanting without regard for their surroundings. A bunch of the crew was in on it, she thought. Not all of them, but enough.

Unfortunately, one of those in on it was the Tali. His eyes were blood-crazed, and every sharp point he possesed dripped with blood. The Paragon's skin was torn and slashed where he had tried to defend his passengers, but the Tali was relentless. He bombarded the Paragon even as one of his arms hung broken, though the dragon was clearly tiring.

The passengers on his back gazed on in wide-eyed horror.

[Freezair]

Ailbhe swooped by her sister, her tail trembling in the nonexistant breeze.

"Sis..."

Ciara looked out at the fight.

"We're too small tuh help, an' yuh know it," Ciara said. "We need tuh get back to the mainl'nd. We gotta tell that Tengumi that somethin's... goin' on. Summa his crew are intah somethin'... weird, castin' weird magic... doin' stuff I don't undastand..."

"I told yuh!" Ailbhe muttered. "S'just like those stories Pa told us... the cultists callin' up their dark monstuhs..."

But she was cut off mid sentence, silenced, by a tentacle lashing out of the water and reach up for her.

Ciara felt something wet as rot and cold as death wrap itself around her and pull her down.

[Freezair]

This is it, Ciara thought. This is the end. We're going to drown, just like the rest of them...

Bitter cold seawater closed over the top of her head, and she watched the rippling light grow farther and farther away. Her lungs burned and her vision grew dark until she could hold her breath no longer, and instinct forced her to draw breath.

First one. Then another.

And she did not choke.

She realized the truth quickly. I can breathe down here somehow. Those... tentacles must be letting me do that somehow.

Unfortunately, the revelations that followed were not so kind.

Oh, gods, she thought. They're taking us somewhere.

And they want us alive.

[Wild Pet Found]