Where Geno starts feeling much better, getting to spend more time with whoever visits him, even learn a bit more about them.

No one's POV:
-

The next day Geno slowly opened his eyesocket waking up from his slumber. He yawned quietly and streched out his legs, satisfying cracks being heard. He still felt sick from the fever but... a lot more refreshed. Not once he had woken up in the night! His attempt to sit up on the bed proved to be much easier than how he was trying to do so yesterday.

"Good morning Geno." He looked to his right as Alter went from sitting in front of the table, to standing up and walking up to him. He kneeled near the smaller grinning gently.

"'Morning Al." Geno said in return smiling widely.

"How are you feelin'?" The priest asked as he placed a hand on the other's forehead, then on his cheeks. A faint idea of impression was seen for a moment once he touched there.

"Much better than yesterday."

"It shows too." Alter commented. "Less warm. And I saw you slept a lot, without disturbances?"

"Apparently..."

"You also ate. That's important too." The priest gave a faint look at the plate of soup, clearly most of it missing from the plate. Geno looked away, rubbing the back of his skull.

"Guess I finally felt... hungry."

"Great news. You're gettin' better."

"Yeah, thankfully..." Geno admitted, smiling on the outside but on the inside feeling confused and conflicted. He felt a ruin, a pathetic mess the whole day yesterday. No matter what Alter or anyone did to help him had barely made him feel any better.

The company of the others was nice but didn't distract him much from how he felt. And what did Reaper do? Just blew some air on the compress and sung to him! Then convinced him to eat, pretty much talking in the same way and manner as whoever else tried to do that!

How had he done that??? How bi-?!

... Why had he really bothered keeping him company...

"What's the matter son?" Alter asked. Ah, it showed that the smol was thinking intensively. He looked at the taller silently for a few seconds.

"... Where were you yesterday night?" He asked.

"I was asked by Aldo to help him treat Doctor Ramirez. There were some... complications." He huffed. "Really don't get why would they still call me to help aid..." For a moment he showed to be sad before inhaling quietly and smiling. "... Michael and Yalin were willing to watch you overnight while I was away. Everything went fine as it seems."

"Yeeeah, except they never came..." Geno thought. And despite Alter was looking right at him and his thoughts could basically be read out loud, the priest didn't question anything. He headpat the smol gently.

"Imma go get myself tea. Want somethin'?" He asked as he stood up. Geno shook head left and right. Alter nodded and walked out of the hermitage. The smaller stared at his friend leaving thoughtful. Was he actually aware Michael and Yalin were never here with him but the Captain?

Alter's POV:
-

I simply can't help it but be smirking widely. Atta boy Reaps. Thankfully you can help him much better than me or any of us.

It's true I was called to help the doctor. And truly, I asked Michael to keep an eye on Geno. Though Yalin heard me and said he would help too. He feels at times pressuring and overwhelming if he starts talkin' about religion, which in the past has caused him many times to come in conflict with me.

Even when I was simply standin' around and mindin' my business. Thankfully that was only in my beginning in this crew. He bothers to fight me less about religion and push it aside when it comes to the ones he's fond of.

Never thought I'd see the day he would enter the hermitage just for the sake of Geno and simply ignore that the room 'reeks of Christianity'. Until the moment Geno got sick he would avoid the hermitage as if it was causing him physical pain to even look to its direction, yesterday he almost flew and willingly to go there!

Heheh.

Though after hours, when Aldo told me that I could return to Geno and that he would keep supervising Ramirez for the rest of the night, when I went back for the hermitage, I realised cold was emitted from there. And I couldn't sense the presence of the young man and python anywhere nearby. I was ready to go and open the door, burst in quickly. At least until I saw the note pinned on the door.

I told the 2 to go back to sleep. I'll take care. You will be told when you can come back.
Reaper

A little bit calmer, I simply spend the next half-hour wanderin' around the ship's deck. I didn't feel the need to sleep, I simply prayed and thought and remembered... All while keepin' night watch. Until I sensed Reaps nearby, tellin' me that I could go back to the hermitage.

And much to my surprise and impression, I just saw Geno sleeping absolutely peacefully and quietly. No nightmare was agitating his lil' face during then and didn't do so until the moment he woke up. Whatever Reaper did with him, it certainly did much more good than I could ever accomplish.

He whether still remembers greatly whatever he was taught before fallin' into piracy, whether he's way too smitted with Geno. Or well, both. Now to wait and watch if Geno himself can respond the same way.

If there's really any time, as the concerned part of me says silently...

No one's POV:
-

Throughout the new day, despite Geno felt better than yesterday, he didn't feel any further impovement. But he was a lot more open and responsive to conversations and interactions, because whoever had come to visit him yesterday had come back once more to keep him company.

Michael had come to visit a little less times and in one of those matter of fact Dave was following after him. He hadn't enter the hermitage, just simply peeked inside, properly giving Geno the chance to actually see him, wishing the small sick skeleton to recover.

"Get well soon so I can properly beat your *ss up!"

At least in his own way as Michael explained.

"He just won't admit easily to say straightforward something nice." He completed laughing quietly. What a ray of sunshine he was.

would be a shame if in the close future something happened to him-

I MEAN-!

~

From Adrian, Geno heard stories when back to his homeland, even how had he ended up joining Reaper. Because of the beef Cretans had against the Venetians, Adrian was called like so many others to join their fight to free themselves off the dominators. Sadly, like so many previous rebellions, that didn't go well.

The human rebels were killed and their fortunes were completely seized. That was mainly the case for the peasants. For the more wealthy ones, unless they swore eternal loyalty to the Venetians, their lives could be spared and they could get to keep some of their rights and fortune.

The monsters of Crete weren't given the choice to die or swear loyalty though.

They got tortured and beaten up, starved, their pride and strength got broken and shattered. It was bound for many of them to die. But the goal wasn't for them all to eventually die. As monsters, they had a lot more strength and durability.

They could still be useful as slaves, so long as they showed they were able to withstand the torture. About a month or so later, Adrian had admitted that he had lost count then and wasn't certain, him and about fifty more few fellow monsters had survived.

But with how they looked, so broken and beaten up, they'd rather choose to die already. They were locked in one of the many galleons the Venetians had, to be send who knows where. And once more, just with the torture they went through, it wasn't certain that everyone would survive the trip.

Almost everyday Adrian had to watch 2 or 3 or even 5 at once giving up and dusting in their common prison cell of the ship. The dust of the dead ones would enter their noses, their eyes, their mouths, crying both from it and for their misfortune and abjection.

Their desperation was so bad from hunger, the food they were given being a ridicoulously small portion, some would grab the dust of the dead ones and eat it, to be given the slightest of false sense of being full. Adrian had done the same twice...

Until he had enough. Him and the others being tortured like that waiting to die or be sold as slaves? That wasn't very Cretan like.

If they were going down like that, then the Venetians were going down too. And so, Adrian and the largest of monsters still alive, gathering the last of their strength, they stood up and started stomping as loudly as they could the floor of the ship's bottom.

Many minutes of trying and struggling later, quickly loosing their strength but not their will and hope for an instant death or any way of escape, at last, they managed to break the floor, causing the water to flow in the ship like crazy. Until the Venetians came to check on the 'slaves' it was too late.

Until the moment they tried to do anything about the flood, salvation was out of possibilites. Panicking, they tried to prepare the boats to abandon the ship. But just as all humans had managed that, leaving galleon and monsters behind, a storm started quickly approaching right after.

In minutes the clouds filled the sky, rain started pouring down and the wind started creating huge monster waves, in seconds swallowing them whole, dragging them to the bottom of the sea. The ship was left to be beaten up by the waves, until a lightning struck and opened it in half.

Adrian had to watch as him and the other monsters were struggling to stay on the surface. Many didn't make it. Others held onto big pieces of wood. Adrian had managed the same, holding onto the very tallest mast of the once bright and majestic galleon that was being turned to toothpicks by the storm.

And he tried to hold on, he had even tied himself succesfully enough on the mast with ropes that he could reach, to make sure he wouldn't loose his grip from the very last thing keeping him alive and above the water's surface. The storm had lasted for so agonisingly long.

In tears mixed with the pouring rain, Adrian watched as one by one his fellow monsters were giving up and dying, weak from giving their last of strength to sink the ship before the storm came. Until he couldn't hear them anymore, just the crashing waves and the howling wind. Until he couldn't hear those either, having fainted.

How long was he out, he didn't know, but from some point and after he started hearing speech and conversations being heard very blurry in his ears. His vision was blurry too, the language he was hearing was nothing he knew or had ever hear. Little by little he realised he was laying prone on wooden floor.

Eventually he was able to see clear enough, that he was surrounded by unknown monsters, staring at him surprised and shocked, for having survived while in such bad shape as he would realise later. But he didn't have the strength to move, his throat was extremely sore. Salty water didn't count as anything that had helped quench his thirst.

"Νερόόό..." Was all he could say, beg in desperation. The confusion was clear on the other monsters' voices, not understanding what had the large cattle monster just growled.

Until Adrian saw the pair of black boots and white trousers approaching him, then kneeling in front of him. The figure of a small skeleton staring at him while grinning, then opening the flask he was holding, approaching it very close to the minotaur's mouth.

He had helped him drink the water he so craved. His mind and vision cleared some more, but he was still unable to even raise head properly. At least until the skeleton in front of him tilted his head to the right and spoke.

"Από Κρήτη παλικαρά;"

The energy Adrian had think he didn't have kicked in his system hearing the other talking to him in an understandable to him language. He shot his head up and managed to sit on his knees, shocked and surprised.

"Και εσύ;!"

"Μισός Αθηναίος."

Soon after, letting the first shock die down, typical questions of somebody having survived a dangerous situation after waking up from being passed out started being asked by Adrian. What had happened? Where was he? Where were his friends?

Asking Reaper, obviously the one who had given him water. And of course the one with whom he could communicate. It was revealed to him that he was spotted by the crew of the Reapers amongst the debris of the ship. Reaper had recognised just from a few wooden pieces that it was from a Venetian galleon.

And just by Adrian talking so very little, he had guessed right that he was a poor unfortunate soul tortured in the hands of 'La Serenìssima', being displaced from Crete. They had sailed up to inspect it and by command his men brought Adrian on the deck.

Shocked that he was still alive, being malnourished, dehydrated, barely breathing. When Reaper was asked by Adrian if they had found any other monster with him, the small deadly skeleton looked at him with a bit of sympathy in his expression.

"If others were meant to be with ya, I didn't sense any. We didn't see anybody else. I'm sorry lad."

Many seconds of silent shock later, all Adrian could do was slowly let his forehead hit gently the floor's deck, press his hands on the sides of his head and simply stay there. If he was silently crying or thinking was uncertain. No one approached him, just kept staring at him with mixed feelings.

Reaper asked him eventually if he wanted to tell him his story. Adrian didn't respond, he had said he just wanted to sleep... and never wake up in this world again.

~

"However Captain Reaper didn't give up on me. He had managed to get out of my head the idea of dying and encourage me to keep living. He offered me new purpose, to keep fighting and survive for the sake of my fallen friends. If it feels like my life changed for the better or for the worst by joining the pirates, anyone may think whatever they want. But I eventually loved it here. I made my new closest friends here. And just for my sake I got twice in the past to burst my anger on the damn Venetians! All hail Captain Reaper!" Adrian said, raising his fist in the air thrilled. "Ah, on the human ones that is." He quickly added then.

That whole narration had gotten Geno to be listening with hands on his chin, focused and interested. The time spent with Adrian was exciting through him narrating his past. Later Yalin had come to replace Adrian, for 3 hours. During then Geno had gotten the opportunity listen to the python monster playing music with an instrument named Kanun.

The melodies his hands were producing by hitting the strings had mesmerised Geno. Yalin claimed he could play Oud too, but when he was still living in Istanbul. The ship didn't have any and he hadn't find anywhere on the islands the ship would go to, which lead him to learn playing guitar too.

"Thessse handsss aren't for fighting, but they're ssstill capable."

Markus was again brief with his visit to Geno, wishing for a full recovery, except he wished it for the sake of recovery and health, not for beating the smol skeleton up like Dave had claimed. Casually Aldo had come to leave food for Geno, being a little more satisfied seeing him eating with a bit more appetite.

Whoever had come to visit Geno hadn't left the skeleton distressed or dissatisfied. Dave's short visit was rather funny. But no visit felt as surprising and as awkward and as electrified like the one when Ramirez became his supervisor for an hour.

To see him opening the door and stepping in had caused Geno to be looking at him with wide open eyesocket, the other staring at him with his typical 'indifferent glare'. After the first surprise followed intensive silence however, as the Alsatian proceeded to approach and simply sit on the stool near the hermitage's table.

Then he opened the book he was holding and started reading, in his loud silence ignoring Geno, who avoided to look at him too. At times he could feel him glaring him down, opening holes in his bones, luckily for only just seconds.

Reading and briefly glaring. That was all...

If...

"... Ramirez?" Geno asked quietly. The dog monster's ears visibly rotated, having definitely heard the small skeleton calling him, but not raising head.

"... What?" He asked after many seconds without taking his look off the book.

Geno opened his mouth but didn't start talking. He lowered head and clenched his fists gently. When he raised head again, Ramirez was staring back at him, waiting annoyed to hear the patient talking. He opened again his mouth, for the second time no sound coming out.

Acting like an actual fish gulping oxygen on the water's surface. By fighting to find his words and something about his expression caused Ramirez to actually let his book rest on his lap and stare at Geno with a less grumpy expression, more curious actually. On the third attempt to speak up... Geno huffed.

"Nevermind. Nothin' you'd care to hear about."

Smoothly Ramirez' eyebrows returned on being shriveled, giving him the glaring and grumpy expression he often had as he sighed annoyed and returned his attention on the book. He didn't comment anything and kept quiet.

The silence between the 2 however lasted for only seconds before Geno decided to speak up again, ask another question. However as if the doctor sensed him ready to talk, he snapped his head to look at the small skeleton.

"What?!" He asked abruptly. Geno raised hands in the air.

"Jeez, relax!" He thought. "... What are you reading?" He asked pointing at the book the other was holding. Ramirez rolled his eye annoyed, speaking 'french' in Catalanic.

"A very boring for your class analysis about traits and magical abilities." He replied. Geno didn't say anything, but observed better whatever he could from the book. The cover seemed well-preserved and fat enough in pages.

But aside that he didn't try to persuade Ramirez any longer and just proceeded to fiddle with his scarf in silence. Only many minutes later, when the doctor closed the book, stood up and walked towards the exit he hurried to speak once more.

"Can I read it too?"

The dog stopped walking, still keeping his back turned on Geno. Many seconds later he turned around, glared down at the other some more and then threw the book towards the bed rather gently. Geno helped with the landing in his hands by using telekinesis. He stared at Ramirez with perked up eyesocket.

"... Suit yourself trying to understand the horrible handwritting it has." The doctor said with that eternal sarcasm of his being hidden in his voice. He turned around and opened the door.

"... Thanks." Geno simply said, still surprised.

"Ew." The other did and dissapeared.

~

Alter had come back to replace Ramirez shortly after he left. And 3 hours into keeping Geno company, all he was seeing the small skeleton doing was reading. And in fact he seemed completely absorbed by it, dedicated deeply on studying the book in his hands.

"You like it son?" He asked, briefly interrupting the smol, impressed and happy his little friend was reading with such interest.

"The letters are a bit too small, but wow..." Geno took his look off the book to look at Alter surprised. "The details about human traits? The magic classes?! They're all written so carefully and well-put! How do I explain-, there are lots of details but it's just- interesting how they're written!" The priest couldn't help but laugh quietly and pet the other gently.

"Glad you like this so much son." He stood up. "Hopefully reading will help you to eventually sleep."

"Of course, when night-time comes." Geno stated, causing the taller to smile wider.

"Well, ya may wanna look at the time."

Confused Geno turned to look at the clock on the table, only for his eyesocket to widen up.

X:III

"Whaaa?!"

3510 words!