Anchors Away

꧁11:Wonders꧂

The night is silent, and so was the ship, with the waves slamming on its bow and the strong wind blowing the sails, being the only noise you hear.

At the corner of the deck, where empty barrels stood, is where the Siren was seated; looking down at the map that she held in her hands, feeling restless but tired at the same time.

Now and then, she would look at the moons and the stars adorning the night sky, then at the calm sea, then back at the map; sighing every time she did so. 

Boredness slowly consumed her entire being before she decided to put the map away and jump into the water; legs turning into a tail and the currents gently playing with her hair, she swam down to the Empire to inform her cousin, Ocean, about her plans for the following day.

Meanwhile, on the ship, Emily quietly walked around the deck, also feeling restless. She held a lit lantern as she checked for any rips on the sails when she suddenly heard water splashing from the quarterdeck; the deck at the back of the ship, above the captain's cabin.

Now alarmed, she quickly but cautiously walked to the quarterdeck to find out what made the sound, only the be startled by Aqua who was twisting her dark locks as if she was drying it after getting it wet.

"Oh, Marina, it's just you," Emily said in a relieved tone, she was glad that it wasn't anything scary like a sea monster or a Kraken maybe.

Aqua also had a surprised expression, she hoped that Emily did not see her turn back into a human, though based on her reaction she didn't seem to see it happen. The siren's shocked expression faded. "Uh, yeah hi," she responded to her awkwardly.

"Why are you still awake?" Emily asked, eyeing the siren's hair that seemed to be dry now, 'weird,' she thought to herself, she could've sworn she saw Aqua's hair still damp when she was startled by her on the way to the back; eventually, she just shrugged and thought it to just be a part of her imagination.

"I just couldn't sleep. I will be able to later though so I'll be fine," Aqua answered truthfully. "I see, then I'll be going now, ya sure you're gonna be fine?" Aqua responded to Emily's question with a nod before she was finally left alone again.

The siren returned to her original spot by the barrels and sat there until her eyelids felt heavy as the crashing waves lulled her to sleep.

~*~*~

Aqua's peaceful slumber was interrupted by the sound of the waves that grew louder as they became stronger, and by one of the rising suns when its rays hit her eyes, forcing her eyelids to open slowly. She squinted at her surroundings, not wanting to overwhelm her eyes with the brightness of the sun.

Most of the stars that once embellished the sky started to fade away, and are now replaced by two huge curved-shaped objects that intersected, forming a cross in the vast sky; it was the rings of the planet, They rarely ever show up so it was quite a sight to see.

Her eyes began to get used to the sun's glares, as she watched the rings disappear momentarily. "Beautiful, isn't it?" A low voice said, which startled her quite a bit.

She looked over to see Oliver resting his elbows on the other barrels, looking up at the orange sky, as his face was lit gold by the rising sun.

"It is," she responded with a smile, before focusing her eyes on the sky once again; catching a glimpse of the rings before they completely disappeared.

"It's the first time I caught a glimpse of them," Aqua mentioned to the boy beside her. 

 "Really? Well, I usually wake up at this hour so I almost always get to see them every day; guess you could say it's one of the things that can make me get out of bed."

"I'd rather stay in bed honestly."

The siren admitted, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear. Not wanting an awkward atmosphere, Oliver decided to start a new conversation.

"So, you like stars, right?" He started, "correction, I love stars," she said, slightly leaning forward and placing a hand on her chest.

"Right," The boy chuckled, "I know they're not visible anymore, but do you still wanna talk about'em?"

"Yes!" she said immediately and quickly turned her body to face him. "So what d'you know? Or, what you want to know."

"I know quite a few, I became interested in them because of this one friend I used to have," Aqua merely looked at him, with a hint of curiosity present in her eyes, and a look that seemed to tell him to continue his story.

"She'd always come and tell me new stories, I admit I don't remember some of them but at least I managed to remember the others, then one day she just never showed up."

For a second, the siren saw the look of sadness creep its way on the boy's face; all she could do at that moment was to stay silent until he spoke again.

"It's been a long while since that day so it doesn't bother me as much anymore."

"I see," she subconsciously said and thought, 'could this be the old friend that Emily spoke of?'

"Well then, what stories did you happen to remember?" She asked, to which he responded with, "I remember her telling me about the...The Pleiades is that what they're called? The seven sisters? Daughters of Altas ?"

"Atlas," she corrected, "yeah that one. And also Scorpius? And Capricornus?" He looked at her each time he uttered a constellation that he remembered as if he was asking her if he pronounced the names correctly.

Aqua responded to him with a string of, "mhm"s,  and "yes" es, indicating that the names and his pronunciations are correct.

"And the last constellation she told me about was Cassiopeia," he finished with a smile.

"Alright, so how about Lupus?"

"Oh yeah, she told me about that one too."

Aqua continued to fish for more constellation stories that Oliver might not have heard of yet.

"Cygnus?"

"That, I haven't heard of yet."

She started to mention a few more tales that the boy has yet to hear, he listened to each story and reminisced about the days when she used to tell him these stories; the days that she had little to no recollection of.