When The Stars Died

Thalia and Ryder

"So, we must've been about thirteen, so only two years ago. This little sea village,what's it called? Port Karlos, that's right. We were on a shipping container, with our Dad, who was the captain, delivering canned goods to a town nearby. About ten kilometres north. It was the first time we had been allowed to go with Dad, so we were both pretty excited. Basically, the swell was huge and so were the waves. One gigantic wave, and I mean gigantic, because those ships are made to stay afloat in any weather, swept us onto our side and we capsized."
"That's when we lost Dad." Ryder added.
Thalia gave him a scathing look for interrupting, then continued.
"The ship filled with water because some new shipmate left open a door, and we sank. Luckily, I got out, even saved a bag with my shoes in it. You might have seen my boots laying around the Caves? Anyway, underwater, all I could see were crates of canned fruit and bubbles, bubbles everywhere. Tickling us. Then I saw Ryder. We joined hands and kicked to the surface, and looked around. Cans floating everywhere. A pair of gumboots, a jacket. We couldn't see Dad. So we ducked underwater, to see if we could find him. And we did. Through the blue, through the bubbles, though the salt, we saw him, holding onto the shipping container's rails. Maybe we didn't see it clearly, but we're pretty sure he was voluntarily drowning himself. I tried to swim down to him, but Ryder pulled me back up, to the surface."
"And I told her, I yelled it out, I said, 'A good captain doesn't let his ship sink. A great captain stays with his ship all the way,' and she nodded." Ryder said, a little sadly.
"Dad lived by that motto. A captain always goes down with his ship and all." Thalia finished.

"I'm sorry." Pandora murmured lamely.

"We accept it. We washed ashore here, but we were too scared to approach the village. I mean, where would we go? We didn't have a mother, when Dad went out on his ship, we were left with neighbours. We would've been locked into an orphanage. No thanks. So, we gathered a couple crates from the beach that had washed up too and wandered around the outskirts of town. Eventually, after a month or so of living on canned peaches, we found the caves. Somebody had already carved 'Dead Caves' into the wall, so we stuck with that name. We lived in the first cavern, here we could see the sunlight at daytime. One day, we snuck into town and stole a couple sleeping bags, torches and some batteries, nothing much, but enough to explore the caves a little. Ryder started carving the map with his pocketknife. We abandoned the wall map when we found the window cave. It was perfect. We had sunlight, and shelter. So we stayed there. There's other tunnels leading downwards from there, but they're dead ends, and unstable to use. So we left them."

"That is a whopper of a tale." Skeeter said.

"Put a shirt on, Bear Spirit." Pandora grumbled.

"I have a shirt... On... No I do not. I will find a shirt then."

"You do that."

Skeeter snorted and wandered off half heartedly.

They waited patiently for him to return.

Pandora studied everyone around her. They looked tired. Thalia and Ryder had matching black rings and bags around and under their beautiful eyes, and Joe's eyelids were drooping over his oil-black eyes.

When Skeeter returned with a red and white flannelette shirt, Pandora watched his movements. He seemed fine, energetic even. That little power nap really got him going.

When he noticed her watching him, he yawned, sat next to her and snuggled into her side.

"Aw. Is the little farm boy tired?" Pandora sneered.

Skeeter nodded. "Yes, my little potato. He needs to sleep." He gave her a bone crushing hug.

"Mmhm. Well, before you fall asleep on my shoulder again, you need to go get Thalia and Ryder's sleeping bags. Shoo. Here's the torch." She beamed.

Skeeter groaned but unglued himself from her and disappeared down the tunnels.

"Joe, here's a blanket." Pandora flung him a baby blue blanket she had brought. "It's pretty cosy."

Joe murmured a thanks and attempted to lay down to sleep. He ended up a puddle of brown skin and black moss intertwined with the blanket.

Pandora set out her own and Skeeter's sleeping bags, then sat down next to Thalia and Ryder to watch the squirrels form a tight red ball of fluffiness cuddling up to Fiercefur for warmth.

Eventually Skeeter returned, and everyone slid into their sleeping bags thankfully.

There was a little talk about Skeeter's plan, then silence, as sleep finally drugged them all into oblivion.

Hiya all.
I'm sorry for the poor quality & shortness of this chapter. It's just to get a feel of where everyone's at. Tell meh who you're shipping and what you think Skeeter's plan is!
~Sexy Beast
8-)