🧜🏻‍♀️🧜🏿‍♀️

The first thing she noticed was the smell of the sea.

A salty, yet nostalgic smell that reminded her of her childhood, when she would play in the waves with her father. Some days, they would sit in a beach bar at sunset for milkshakes. Quickly, this memory was accompanied by the sound of the sea - splish, splosh, a calming rocking sound that never stops, no matter what happens in the world. A constant that always soothed her in stressful times.

Then she opened her eyes, as feeling returned to her skin, and the sweet sensations in her heart drowned to her stomach.

It seemed that Dream the Cat was tied up on a boat. A very, very old one in fact - it was made entirely of rotting wood, looking as if it could fall apart and sink into the endless depths below at any moment; a cruel chance under a beautiful azure sky.

It didn't help that there were two pirates stomping about. One was a striped brown raccoon girl, with excitement from seeing Dream wake up simply shooting out of her eyes. The other was a blue hedgehog.

Blue... hedgehog?

Sonic the Hedgehog?! What was the world renowned hero doing her, wearing (as she perceived it to be) a quickly-thrown-together pirate cosplay? How strange it was, finally seeing the legend in person.

But actually, more importantly... what was she doing here? She could immediately tell this was not a dream. Her psychic powers made it easy to distinguish reality and fantasy.

As the raccoon screamed gibberish, she felt the soft touch of a hand from the other side of the pole she was tied to. It seemed there was someone else being held hostage with her, which soothed her somewhat.

Finally, as the raccoon caught the hedgehog's attention, his expression changed from bored to smug. He waltzed up to the white cat.

"Aha! It seems you're finally awake. Yeesh, you were out like a light for hours!" Sonic shot the raccoon a stern glare as he said darkly: "I guess she was bonked on the head a little too hard."

The raccoon pouted. "Well, it's not my fault we had to kidnap them in the first place!"

Them. So there really was another person with her.

Sonic sighed. "Whatever. I'll go check if the other one's awake."

"No need." A soft, feminine voice suddenly spoke out from behind the white cat. The stranger's fingers moved, feeling Dream's (making her a bit nervous). The voice seemed calm and collected, like Dream herself.

"It seems I'm not alone," the voice continued. "Although I would like to know who's with me, I'm much more interested in why you've taken us, Sonic. Marine. I thought you two were better than this."

Interesting. The other girl knew their kidnappers - not only Sonic the Hedgehog, but the raccoon too, who's name was Marine.

Sonic chuckled. "Hey, it's not like we're gonna hurt you or anything. I'm not the Sonic you know anyway." He crossed his arms behind his back. "Here's the deal. We will untie you both and explain the situation. However, you're not allowed to even try attack us. This is a new ship, very delicate..."

Dream wanted to say something, but decided to keep her mouth shut.

"So delicate, in fact, that even one little spark of fire could set the whole ride alight. And we don't want that to happen before we've even decided on a name for her," Sonic finished.

"It's the Mariner!" Marine interjected.

Sonic turned around to have the raccoon and crossed his arms. "I don't care if you're the captain, we are *not* calling her that. Too self-absorbed."