WARNING: Daggers, blood, very badly written chapter(?)

Virgil glared up at the grey sky heavy with rain before looking at his friend in the crow's nest, a beacon of blue against the dark sky.

"Pat!" He called up, cupping his hands around his mouth. "What are you doing?!"

Patton looked down before clambering down the mast and landing next to Virgil, his normal cheery smile nowhere in sight. In fact, he looked a little like Virgil now, his face worried and drawn.

"Kiddo, do you have any idea where we're going?" Patton asked, fiddling with his compass.

"Uh.... West?"

"We're going to The Spirit's Triangle." Virgil's mouth dropped a little.

"Does Rose have any idea-?"

"That's what I'm wondering." Patton said. "I mean, she's gotta know, right? She's the best female captain in the whole of the seven seas, right? She's gotta know, right?"

"Pat, you're repeating yourself again."

"Sorry. Um, I'm gonna go talk to her." Patton looked at their fiery-haired captain at the wheel. "She'll listen to me, right?"

Virgil shrugged and leaned against the bulwark. "Only one way to find out, I guess."

"Yeah, yeah, right." Patton pushed his round glasses up his nose and stumbled over to Captain Rose. All these years at sea and he still hadn't found his sea legs yet. Not completely, anyway.

"Hey, um, Captain?"

"Yeah Patton?"

"You do realise we're sailing straight into The Spirit's Triangle, right Kiddo?"

"Patton..."

"Sorry, Captain Kiddo. Captain, sorry."

"Patton, calm down." Rose said. "I know we're sailing into The Spirit's Triangle, so far we're on course."

"But Captain, don't you realise what's in The Triangle?"

"I'm well aware, Patton. Merfolk and the like." Rose raised her eyebrow at Patton. "That's what you're worried about?"

"Um, yeah. Kiddo, I'm not saying it's a bad idea to sail into merfolk infested waters but that is exactly what I'm saying. I mean, think of the ship, for one thing. She'd be torn to shreds in seconds."

"Pat, calm down." Rose took one hand off the wheel to pat Patton on the shoulder. "We're not going to get hurt and we're not going to hurt the merfolk, if that's what you're worried about."

"I don't suppose you're going to tell me what we're doing, huh?"

Rose shook her head, a small smile quirking the side of her mouth. "That's between me and Janus specifically, sorry Patton. Now, back on deck, sailor. We're gonna need all the help we can get when we get to The Triangle."

Patton nodded and tried to smile his normal, cheery smile. It didn't hide the buzz of thoughts inside his brain from either him or Rose and he ran back down to the deck with more questions than answers.

"So, what'd she say?"

"Well, I'm not dead. So that's a bonus." Virgil laughed. "But I've got no clue, Kiddo. We're meant to be sailing towards The Spirit's Triangle, apparently."

"Jesus, what is Rose planning?"

Patton was just about to answer when there was a clamour of voices from the other side of the ship.

"I saw one! I saw one!" Someone yelled. "A mermaid!"

The whole crew crowded around the side of the ship, leaning on the bulwark and looking down into the water excitedly.

"Lower the nets!" Rose ordered.

"Nets?" Patton whispered, his voice being carried away by the sudden gale that whipped up around the ship. A yell from the other side of the ship alerted him to the danger they were all in.

Virgil was wrestling with a merman who had his arm wrapped around Virgil's shoulders and was trying to drag him off the ship. Either thinking fast or not at all, Patton grabbed the dagger holding up one of his sleeves and tried to fend the merman off with it.

The merman shrieked as the knife cut his arm, black blood spilling out over his shining red markings, and plunged back into the swirling ocean.

"Get away from the sides!" Patton yelled, half his words being carried away in the wind. He wiped the dagger on his trousers with a shaking hand.

"I think I caught one!" A crew member called out, trying to haul up a net all by themself. There was a great rush to help them haul the net onto the deck.

There was a thud and two indignant shrieks as the net landed heavily on the deck. The gale blew away as suddenly as it had appeared.

Curiosity insisted Patton push himself towards the front of the crowd surrounding the net. Turns out they'd caught not one but two merpeople. Both of them were hissing and writhing around in the net, the rope-like marks on their arms glowing so bright it was almost blinding.

The second merperson, biting at the air viciously in the direction of the crew, had wound the net around their neck. They started clawing at the net fruitlessly as it started to strangle them. Patton took a shaky step towards the two merfolk.

"Pat-" Patton cut Virgil off with a look. He would be alright.

Carefully, Patton bent down next to the merpeople and quickly cut the rope from around the neck of them before backing away quickly.

"I'm not about to let them die." He said, pinning his sleeve back up with his dagger. Rose stepped towards the merfolk.

"Do you speak English?" She asked shortly. The merfolk with green markings sought the hand of the other.

"Yes." The other said shortly, shaking their hair away from their glasses. "I'd say I speak better English than some of your crew."

"That wasn't the answer we needed but very well. If you don't mind telling us, how do you like to be referred to?"

The other merperson growled. "Let us go." They growled. "Let us go!" They repeated, louder, thrashing their tail.

"Remus." The other merperson said quietly. They looked up at Rose. "I'm Logan. He/him, as I believe you humans say. This is Remus. He also uses he/him."

Remus looked Rose up at down. "Isn't it horrid bad luck to have a woman aboard a ship?" He asked nastily.

"It'd be worse luck if we didn't have her." Janus said, taking a half-step forwards. Remus growled and bared his teeth at him and Janus jumped back.

Rose glared at the mermen before turning to the crew, a look of triumph on her face.

"Everyone, we've caught some mermen!"

This... is this a good first chapter? It's a long first chapter but is it a good one?
Bye,
Blaize