Broken Hourglass (Sanscest Multiship)

Chaoter 18 - Cycle 2 Start

With a loud "Ha" a small child pounced on his mother. "Did I do good?"

"That's not exactly my specialty," Ivy hesitated, still unsure about this particular werewolf custom. "Maybe if you asked your father, pup?"

Bejng a non-werewolf, Ivy didn't understand why pups didn't get named. Blaze had attempted to explain that naming ceremonies were special and a good custom for making sure the pup had something that fit them, but her mate wasn't entirely convinced.

"Do you ever think about going back to your pack?" Killer asked.

"You are my pack," Ivy responded.

"I mean the one you left"

She pulled her child onto her lap and hugged him. "I love you, and I'm not going to leave you. I left my old fa-pack, because they didn't like that fell in love with your father. And you know what, they can eat-" she quickly shut up, realizing that kind of language was not appropriate.

Such a sweet sentiment, if only she could keep to it.

The pup nuzzled his mother and squirmed out of her grip. "Can we play more?"

"Absolutely"
—
Killer felt frozen, he tried to take a step, but his leg would not move. Luckily, Cross was faster. The pirate jumped over the railing and was in the water in less than a minute. The rest of the group rushed over to the railing, looking down to see Nightmare holding onto Cross and the two of them struggling to keep their heads above the waves.

"Rope!" Cross shouted. Shit. He saw a rope earlier, where was it?

Finally being able to move, Killer managed to spot the rope. Grabbing it, he tossed one of the ends over the side to the skeletons in the water below.

It was too heavy for him to lift by himself, but thankfully, the rest of the group joined in. They struggled against the waves, and the weight of Cross and Nightmare, nearly getting pulled in themselves.

A hand covered his and he saw Color across from him, grabbing the rope. "Shift. It'll give you a better center of gravity," the mer said.

For some strange reason, Killer felt he could trust Color. The werewolf nodded, and let go of the rope, allowing Color to take his spot. He shifted to his wolf form, and grabbed the end of the rope in his mouth. With the added force, they managed to pull Cross and Nightmare back onto the deck.

There was a small part of Killer's brain basically screaming at him to check on his packmates, to which he silently reminded himself that they were not his pack, and the fact they had been living together for the past few weeks was irrelevant. Nonetheless, he padded up to Nightmare to check on him first.

"Are both of you alright?" Dream asked

"Three of them," Ink corrected. "Well, technically four but, the last one doesn't really count."

"What?" Dream responded.

"One," he points to Cross, "two," he points to Nightmare, "three," he points to Nightmare again. "And ghosts can't get hurt, so that one," he points to a spot next to Cross, "doesn't count."

Nightmare straightened up and stared at the group. He cleared his throat. "I-um. We haven't exactly been honest. I'm Night, and this," he held out his hand with a pile of black sludge on it, "is Mare."

The small goop creature made a warbling sound. "They can't understand you," Night remarked.

There was a shocked silence for a moment until the artist spoke up again. "Wait, this is a surprise? I thought we all knew. It was very obvious."