Tender Waves - A DreamNotFound Story

Chapter 6: His Majesty Would Like To Go Home Now

.....Yeah, I'm the crazy ass. Sue me.

The one with the white bandanna and weird medallion came walking out after a few minutes. The moment the humans surrounding George saw him coming towards their group, they immediately broke out of their hesitant mindsets. Two men stooped and roughly picked up George, much to his protest, and the prince struggled against them as best they could.

"Still haven't moved?" the bandanna guy said in a bored tone. "Chickens. Can't believe I had to come out here to make you grow some balls."

"Sorry, sir," a few people muttered, shuffling their feet.

"Get him some kind of water container," the first ordered. "Can't have him actually drying out."

Someone affirmed this request and hurried away out of sight, although George didn't care much at the time.

"That's not how this works," some crazy-looking horned dude said off to the side.

"Oh? And what do you know, Doc?" Bandanna raised an eyebrow.

"LET ME GO!!" George demanded, flailing around in the net he was still in.

The bandanna person looked at him before looking away. ".....Sorry, but I don't think that's a good idea," the guy mumbled. "You're....an interesting case."

"I still say we should put him back," the guy with the many gems muttered, his arms crossed next to the horned person.

He had been followed out from the same room by a cat and the shady horned Doc male just a few seconds earlier. They had said nothing, only watching from a distance as they too studied George pressed up against the side of the ship. It seemed like this bandanna person had power over these humans.

Not like George would be able to act on that. 

"It's not up to you, Skeppy, and your say was already heard," Bandanna responded shortly, not taking his eyes away from George.

"Not much of a say," Skeppy snapped.

The bandanna-man merely sighed. "Where's that goddamn water?" he looked around, obviously irritated.

"Here, Sir!" someone called, lugging over a giant oval cylinder with the help of another crewmate. 

"A barrel?" the cat-guy almost wrinkled his nose in disgust in the light of the lanterns.

"It was the best we could do, and fill up," the other crewmate explained sheepishly.

"Get him in, and put him in the brig already,"  Bandanna turned away, walking over to Skeppy and the two others. "Dream wouldn't want to come out here and tell you guys to do the same job twice."

"Yes, sir," one of the people holding a struggling George gulped. "Right away, sir."

It seemed like this Dream person, probably the masked male from earlier, was the highest on the food chain. People may have regarded Bandanna warily, but Dream seemed to be at the head of everything after all. George's fate was slowly becoming bleaker and bleaker with each passing second, and his desperation was ebbing because of fatigue.

"NO!" George protested, trying to throw a punch at one of the men.

His aim never made it past the restrictive net, and he was soon carried over to the full barrel. He was unceremoniously dumped inside by the two men, rolling out of the net into the large wooden container, his head and neck poking out as he tried to get in an upright position. This new 'home' was less comfortable than the net, his tail awkwardly scrunched up against his body as dark sea water half-heartedly lapped at his skin.