Albion's POV

I froze for a moment before spinning back around and peering over the side of the rocky ship. The rain began to get harsher, but I cared none about that as I saw the visage of a child in the waves.

"What on earth?" I questioned with shock and tried to lean over the edge to get a better look. I was choking myself on the side of the boat, trying and straining to see what I could definitely tell was a young boy.

He had somewhat shaggy black hair and eyes which looked like the very ocean he was swimming in. He was afloat with no problems despite the crashing waves. He had a cheeky little grin on his face, his teeth sticking out slightly. He looked mischievous, without a doubt.

He was for sure a ghost. There was no denying it in my mind. How else could a little boy be swimming in the ocean like that without any care?

He gave me an exaggerated and excited wave. "Hello!" He then spun around in circles a few times, almost like a hyper puppy. "I'm Ler."

I thought that the ocean gave a collective sigh for a moment, before another figure rose out of the water. This figure was older, very handsome, and seemed extremely annoyed with the younger boy. The two shared the same eye and hair colour and were undoubtedly related.

Great, this ship was haunted by two drowned brothers who were probably trying to pull the entire crew down with them. It was just my luck I had come aboard when they began to put their plan into motion. Surely, they were going to drive us insane one by one until nobody was left on the ship.

"Ler, we do not make rash decisions like telling humans we exist," the older man scolded and flicked the side of the younger boy's head. The figure's hands were very strange. I hadn't seen anything like them., There was skin connecting their fingers, and their nails were very long and sharp-looking. "That could've been your last moment."

Ler pouted. "But it's not. You wouldn't let it be my last moment, would you Hudson?" Ler grinned at the other man, Hudson, cheekily. "Besides, he seems nice."

"Oi, don't push your luck. It doesn't matter how nice people seem."

I must've been seeing things, I had to be. There was no other rational explanation for what I witnessed next. As Hudson was telling Ler off for 'showing himself to humans', the water behind them rippled. A strange shape which blended perfectly into the water, came out of the water and splashed Ler with water. It was only as the object made contact with the water again, did I notice the tail-like appearance of it.

The two figures, or at least Hudson, had tails. The two of them had mermaid tails. It was like my old picture books, or the make belief games that I used to play with the other children in the village. I was staring right at a man with a mermaid tail, in the middle of the ocean.

The rain began to lash down and the waves were getting higher and higher. My legs were weak from what I just witnessed, and I was knocked backwards, lying on my back on the deck. I stared up at the sky and all I could see was the shimmer of Hudson's scales. My heart was hammering quickly in my chest, and I felt like my breathing was restricted.

"He's gone," Ler's voice met my ears through the sounds of the rain and waves. "Why'd he leave?"

"You scared him," Hudson informed him with a sigh. "Come on, let's go back under where it's safe."

Then I didn't hear any more of their voices. I felt like I had been asleep and just woke up from a very strange dream.

"Albion?" Sindri's voice called over the rain as he rushed towards me. "Are you alright? Did you have a fall?"

"I'm fine." I let him help me to my feet and we rushed to get to some kind of shelter. "I just lost my footing. The rocking knocked me over." That wasn't a complete lie. I was sure that I wasn't going to tell him about any people with tails, that would be stupid of me. He would think that I was insane, and I'd probably be sent overboard.

"Happens to the best of us." He patted my back and grabbed me a towel to dry myself off with. "Sorry, I didn't expect the storms to be this bad on your first day. We would've stayed overnight if I had known. We're usually good at predicting the weather, but this one snuck up on us." He seemed genuinely perplexed about where the storm had come from.

"It's not your fault." I began trying to dry my hair, which had started getting into my eyes and making it tricky to see. "You can't predict the weather. Did you get that barrel patched up?"

Sindri nodded. "Yeah, it wasn't an issue at all, I don't know why they didn't just do it themselves. It was the smallest of holes, and near the top, so it wouldn't have caused any bother."

I hummed. "Maybe they just didn't want to be held responsible for it?" I guessed. "Best to get things sorted and cleared up straight away. I wouldn't want to get in between some men and their ale."

"Oh, yeah, you're spot on actually. It was Von who had noticed it. He's a sweetheart, but he's pretty new to this life as well."

"Von?" I repeated. "You've mentioned him before." Von's fiancé had gotten pregnant before their wedding, and it was pretty obvious that Von wasn't the father. Sindri had mentioned it briefly when he was telling us about his crew. Von and one of his brothers were part of Sindri's crew, alongside their uncle Bo. Sindri had elected not to say much about Bo, which was often a bad sign. Sindri had offered them a space on board before they came back to pick me up. They had lost a few of their crew members from sickness recently, alongside a few simply choosing to go back home to their usual lives after spending years at sea. "As long as all's fine and sorted."

"Oh yeah, all done now." He clapped his hands together and glanced around. "Want a full tour of the below deck now? I can show you the storerooms and walk you through daily life?"

I hesitated, the memory of that woman creeping back into my mind. Surely, she was just making stuff up. I was certain that this ship couldn't be haunted, up until I saw the two creatures in the water. Ler and Hudson had scared me to the point of fainting, that wasn't a normal occurrence for me. I didn't know how they were there; my brain wasn't making any sense of it. I hadn't believed this ship to be cursed or marked until the experience. Granted, I had probably cursed it myself several times during my bout of seasickness.

"Sure," I replied. "I'd like to get a good grip of the place before I make any stupid mistakes which have people making fun of me for the entire time I'm here." I moved some hair out of my face and reminded myself to get some kind of fabric or bandana to wrap around my head. I'd probably look like a pirate, but I didn't care much.

"You're not going to get away with that for long. This lot are a bunch of imbeciles. They'll make fun of absolutely anything or anyone. It's all in good fun, of course. If you asked them seriously to stop, they'd try."

"Try?" I asked with a laugh and a shake of my head. "Better than nothing, I suppose."

"You're already in a sailor's mindset, lad. Better than nothing is the right way to live here." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "Come on, come on. I'll show you around the great Red Star. Time to get to know your new home. You'll be spending quite a few days here."