dancing with the devil, yet the song won't end.

I.

He remembers the day his father left, the day his father had left to go on an expedition that had been labeled as dangerous, but the man was stubborn. There was no telling him what to do or when to do it, he just never listened. Puffy knew that, and she knew he'd never return from it, but she couldn't tell Clay that, should she? To reveal to your only son that his father would never be returning because he and his crew would become buried beneath their own ship at the bottom of the ocean? That was nothing to tell a child. Instead, she told him a little white lie; she told him that his father would be gone for a very, very long time and might not come back for that very, very long time. Clay accepted this as the truth when he was seven. That's when he left, and he didn't know any better.

Years go by, and just as told, his father never came back. He never learned the real truth, instead just assumed by the time he was older that the man decided the place he'd found was better for himself and left his family behind. Clay grew bitter towards him, refusing any topic related to him, but luckily neither him nor his mother were too fond of discussing it anyway, so it was left in the past and they both decided that was fine.

Puffy ended up taking up the same job as her husband when the boy was around ten, yet never accepted anything longer than a week when it came to leaving. Whenever she'd leave, he'd mostly stay home on his own, figuring he was old enough to take care of himself at his age. He woke himself up, took himself to school, brought himself home, did his homework, made himself dinner, and got himself ready for bed. That's how his routine would go when he was home alone, except when he had no homework, then he'd play with the other kids in town.

They lived in a relatively small sort of village by the sea, and it was one of those places where everyone knew everyone. The way they purchased goods didn't come from money, except from an unvalued type of 'currency', which was simply silver shaped into messy circles to count as coins. That's all it was to them: coins, and nothing more. They would either use this, or would trade items if it came down to it. Rarely any crime occurred due to this, and everyone had their job. They all respected one another, and on special occasions would gather in the town square to celebrate something if they truly felt like. For the most part, the town was simple and nothing was too complex, since most of the buildings in the area were the same minus the warehouse by the port, which was large enough to house thousands of containers either ready for shipment and exportation or ready to be distributed to the town after importation. By the warehouse was a smaller building that housed all of the processes of financial matters of the docks and also alternatively served as temporary housing for any port workers who had to stay late and couldn't make it home for the night.

As for the rest of the town, all of the houses were relatively similar, following the same architecture of wood logs on each corner followed by either stone or wood to make up the walls with windows spotted around; compared to the rest, Clay and Puffy's home was just a little bigger, but it was nothing to boast about. They were both humble people who lived a comfortable life and rarely complained, if at all, about what was around them.

The one thing that made Clay and his mother stand out was the fact that they were hybrids, and essentially the only ones there. The two of them were humans mixed with sheep, both of them sporting a set of furry ears that came from their head and a pair of pointy horns that would curl around these ears ( moreso in Puffy's case, not so much Clay's since his hadn't grown in yet and wouldn't start until his next birthday ). They weren't regarded as any different from the rest, though. As a matter of fact, Puffy was extremely respected due to being practically the only captain in the port at this point. Everyone knew the two by name, and most even regarded Clay as 'the captain's son', and the young boy took great pride in this nickname slash title of his. He'd jokingly use it as ways to get small discounts on goods, yet it never really worked since everyone was fixed on their prices and what was good enough to them for trade.

As for friends, the boy could happily say he had a rather large friend group and could be considered 'popular' in school ( but the qualifications of being popular in his school varied compared to other schools.. it was just because of all of his friends and the fact that he was kind to everyone ). Despite this, he only had two people he truly considered best friends: a boy named George, and another who was persistent on being called Sapnap. He always clung to their sides during school, and them to him. They were practically inseparable, always sitting together at lunch and playing together at recess, and they would frequently play together after school should they all finish their homework within reasonable time before nightfall. Out of the two of them though, Clay had a growing fondness towards George, and it wasn't that he preferred him over Sapnap, he just believed there was something different about him that attracted him to George. They would hang out a little more as a duo rather than a trio with Sapnap, even going as far as to designate a tree out in a field nearby as their hangout and meeting spot. Sitting together for hours on end, George would point out different constellations and stars to Clay, but the latter would never really listen to the former, opting to zone out and listen to his voice rather than his words.

When summertime came, that's when the band of boys would hang out the most. Lack of responsibility made it possible, and they would essentially hang out all hours of the day, harmlessly terrorizing the others in the town. However, one particular summer Puffy had been offered an extended trip to explore that she couldn't pass up despite it being an indefinite amount of time away. She had to gently explain to a hysterical fourteen year old Clay that she wouldn't be abandoning him like he believed his father to do, but she believed this would be a good opportunity for the both of them. "Please just let me go with you, mama," he wailed at one point in their conversation, burying his tear covered face in the fluff that was Puffy's hair, to which she had to refuse. She couldn't risk her only son getting hurt, or worse killed, while at sea. Once he'd calmed down, she told him he'd be staying with her other two siblings, Jonathan and Reem, until she got back. There was no telling when she would and that's what scared Clay the most. He had no idea what to expect from his aunt and uncle, since he'd never met them or had only ever remembered meeting Jonathan. The name Reem didn't ring a bell.

The next day, she had him packing most of everything of his to bring to Jonathan's apartment, multiple suitcases being loaded for moving. He was still uneasy through it all when they walked through the door, standing in the middle of the living room awkwardly while the other two had been bringing in his belongings to the room that would be his for the time being.

This would be his new life, and he didn't particularly enjoy it now.