Logan’s p.o.v:

    As soon as I woke up the next day I went straight to tracking down the device. Patton need us to find him as soon as possible. I get the devices location pulled up and I see that it was in one spot in a cove that was about a day’s drive away. We actually went to that exact cove about a week or two ago. We never saw anything that could be special. But I did know that the cove was pretty hidden. Patton was the one who knew about it.

“Oh hey that Crystal Cove!” A female says behind me

“Gah! Oh its you lady Gaurdia.” I say then I realised that everyone else was awake. And doing stuff.

“What about Crystal Cove?” Elisabeth asked now gaining everyone’s attention over here.

“There is a dot on the screen and its looks like its at Crystal cove.” Gaurdia says

“Its the device I had roman put on that ship. Im wondering why they are at the cove though.” I say.

“The crystal cove is close to the water location.” nightlara says. I see the three girls look at each other.

“You dont think…”

“Its really happening at the same time.”

“BUT WHY HURT HIM!? I mean like really! The new Throned King and Queen’s SON!” Gaurdia says. Before freezing and covering her mouth.

“Wait what?” I hear virgil ask.

“Patton’s parents had recently inherited the three location’s thone. Meaning they are now King and Queen. Patton Doesn’t know this tho. Recently. The water and land locations was taken over and we helped seal the Sky location. Opal and Winter Haze however are…. Taken prisoner while both location’s guards and citizens are under a type of mind spell.” Nightlara say. I was taking everything in and thinking. Is that why they wanted patton? Did they attack these locations.

“Come on. Maybe we can catch them before they leave to the ocean. Even then we can still turn into merpeople.” Elisabeth says. We all nod and quickly grab the stuff we needed. I then thought of something.

“Crystal cove is over a 12 hour drive. We can’t exactly go over the speed limit.” I say.

“Oh dont worry about that. We got that covered.” Gaurdia says. The other two girls nod in response.

Patton’s p.o.v: 

-Ealier-

I looked at the floor. I was so tired. I was also hungry again. I was fed last night and recently had some water before they decided to tie me to the sail post thing for the rest of the journey. They had pinned me against the post making me stand on my toes a bit. They then tied my Anckles together and tied them to the bottom part while a couple others were tying my hands above my head. Once they were done with that they went back to their duties while Mast came up to me a bit. He forced me to look up at him a bit.

“You know a fun thing we could do? Your tail scales can regrow, right?” He asked. I froze. Fear filling my body yet again. This person could do anything to me now and I couldn’t do much about it. And what he was Hinting at was to turn me into a mermaid and take some of my scales.

“Or something else. But you can make the choice. For now. Why dont you just hang out here while we come closer to our location.” He said before letting my head go again and walking away. I have been looking at the floor since then. I even closed my eyes for a bit before noticing how the ship soon stopped. I looked up after a minute hearing footsteps coming towards me. My arms hurt a lot now. So do my legs but more so my arm.

“ Have you made your choice yet or do I have to choose?” Mast Asked. I just glared at him a bit.

“Ok then.” Mast said and nodded to behind me a bit. He was smirking now before untying my ankles. I soon see someone bring over a bucket and another bring over something. They gave the item to Mast and my eyes widen. It was a scale cutter. Those things hurt it like hell if used on a living thing that has scales. Next thing I know is I have water thrown onto me. Not just any water. This world’s sea water. A water Unittien’s magic can tell which water is just water with salt or water from the sea in each world. If a water unittien gets wet by sea water. They turn into a merperson. My dad is a water pony unittien so and I am a hybrid….. My legs turns into the light blue tail with dark blue like wave patterns and White hearts. I also had A crystal like pattern that actually had shiny scales. Like silver like scales. Mast look at my newly formed tail before kneeling down and touching it.

“Gag him.” I hear him say next thing I know I have a gag stuffed into my mouth. I started to panic a bit. Mast then started to take some of my scales making me scream in pain. It hurt so bad. It hurt and I wanted to be away from this. Everything hurt. Now just my tail now that was actually being pinned down by Mast’s ‘Men’ as he still took them. After a bit they untied me completely. I could just make an escape. I want to. But Not now. I plan to let the pain subside as Mast does what he was going to do with the scales he took. I noticed that my tail was bleeding a bit but it wasn’t too bad. He did take quite a bit of scales but it wouldn’t be too noticeable right now. I laid there on the ground where they left me. Pretending to be too damn weak to even move.

Yes I was weak but I could still get away. I could possibly get back or get to the secret cove near home. Those of us know the cove and call it Cret Cove. Cret Cove is a safe haven for unittiens and trusted friends of unittiens. These trusted friends are friends of unittiens that get unittien crystals from either a royal family or a powerful guardian that could tell if you would gain ill intent towards a unittien. I soon noticed no one was paying attention to me and I quickly started to make a run for it. It was my chance and even if I was in pain, It was better to do it now then not get another chance. As soon as I got to the edge, Mast came out and yelled seeing me escape. I then saw a bit of a light that ment someone was tping into the cove. I quickly jump off before they grabbed me and I hit the water. I end up with so much pain it takes me a second to realise that I still need to get somewhere safe. So I started to swim. I felt the gem that was canceling out my powers still around my neck which ment that All I could do was swim as fast as I could. Which wasnt very fast since I was injured, Tired, and hungry.

“Patton!” Wait… Virgil? I looked behind me to see virgil swimming to catch up. I didnt sense Mast around nor did I see him. I stayed still for a second just staring making sure the arua matched. It did. I smiled and swam closer to virgil. 

“Patton. Are you alright? How did you? Who went after you in the water?” Virgil asked obviously worried.

“Im ok… i think. I took the opportunity when I had it.” I said then that last one struck me.

“What do you mean who went after me?” I asked softly. I know my voice had shown the fear I felt having that question settle in. Virgil looked at me a bit before Looking around a bit and pulling me to someplace with a serious expression now. We continued to swim as fast as I could go. I kinda clinged onto Virgil a bit seeing that we where in a dark area. Vigil held onto me and guided me into a cave. We kept swimming more into the cave before We go into a lit up area. 

“Nightlara, Gaurdia and Elisabeth had tped us all to Crystal cove. We heard shouting on that ship and we got onto the docked boat just before the person who had a knife to your neck yesterday, And yes we know about that, Looked back and smirked before jumping back in. Me, Gaurdia, Elisabeth, and Remus went after him. I saw you swimming in the distance but I wasn’t sure. I didnt see that dude yet.” Virgil explained.

“He told me to call him Mast. I have no Idea what he wants with me tho.” I say softly having tears in my eyes a bit in fear. Virgil pulls me in a gentle hug. I hug back clinging onto him again. He was actual safe contact. He was also warm and safe. I closed my eyes for a second before hearing laughter. Virgil pulled away and quickly pulled me behind him. My eyes were now wide open again. That was Mast’s laughter.

“Silly little one’s! The shadows do talk ya know? Especially MY shadows.” Mast had said finally appearing infront of us.

“Stay away from us!” Virgil growled. I noticed how some of the shadows moved and kinda wrapped around me and virgil. But unlike Mast’s Shadows, These were comforting and safe. They were most likely Virgil’s shadows then. 

“Why should I?” Mast asked coming closer. I noticed that Virg’s Shadows were staying hidden from Mast but was acting like they were going to hide us.

“You know of the newest law, Right?”

“Well, one, Im a shadow too. A corrupted one at that. And two, They can’t kill me if they can’t catch me.” Mast said. I froze in fear. Was he really going to hurt Virgil to get to me? What was he planning. Before anything else happened Me and Virgil were tped away quickly. To a new place. I had closed my eyes and stayed close to virgil.

“Hey, Pat, open you’re eyes please? You Can’t swim if they are closed.” Virgil said. I opened them and Looked around a bit. We were in an underwater flower field. I know because I could see Flowers that grew underwater under us and around us from what I could see. I was actually looking down. I looked at Virgil’s tail for the first time. It was Purple with dark grey Clouds. A couple of the clouds had a lightning bolt coming out of it. Then he had some black markings that looked to be glowing a different shade of purple and they looked like shadows a bit. I then realised something and I looked at virgil.

“You can do Magic” I say. Virgil looked surprised and nodded a bit.

“We had found out I was a shadowling the day of you’re disappearance. The day after we met the three girls and I got to train with Elisabeth and Malichi. They both said that I actually learned fast. I learned How the make the shadows be like a shield, How to teleport with them, Speak to them, How to look at visions and memories of both myself and Other people, and I Learned how to fight with shadows.” He says.

“T-thats awesome!” I say smiling then remembered.

“So umm. I know from the beginning by the way.” I say softly. He looks at me a bit.

“Did you not tell us or at least me to keep me safe?” He asked. I looked at him in surprise before nodding a bit.

“We kinda figured.” He said. I smile softly before he gently takes my hand and begins to swim again.

“We need to get back to the others tho. Nightlara and the girls have to tell ya something.” Virgil says. I nodded halve awake now. I was sinking into the safeness of virgil and my tiredness. After a bit of swimming I just fall asleep. I know because one minute im swimming with virgil and the next I feel my eyes closing and Im out like a light.

Virgil’s p.o.v:

We were swimming to get back to the others when All of a sudden I feel Patton stop swimming and start to kinda sink a bit. I looked at him and see that he had passed out. I quickly scoop him up and continue to swim. Im hoping its because we are underwater and all that but Patton was really light. I noticed the bruising on him now and I keep myself from tearing up. When that dude, Mast, Had appeared, I had felt patton’s body tense up alot and Had started to shake in fear at the sight of Mast. I had sensed what my shadows had when they had touched patton. Patton’s fear was High and when the shadows had touched him he flinched before relaxing. Elisabeth had told me that A person’s shadows have different feelings to each person. For example, If elisabeth’s shadows touched patton, He would feel a cool ness with safeness and authority, My shadows was Safe and Warm to him. I could tell. 

“VIRGIL!” I hear roman call out. I look to were I heard it and saw roman a bit.

“Hey Ro. He’s safe now.” I say turning so he could see Patton’s sleeping figure.

“Finally… Whats up with his tail?” Roman asked. I knew what he was talking about. It was missing some scales and it was bleeding a bit when I first saw him. It was also showing some scars that was possibly put on his legs.

“I dont exactly know. All I know is that he is extremely tired. We were actually swimming when He passed out.” I say. Roman nodded a bit and we continued to swim to the cave that we all had agreed to met in before splitting up. We soon reached the cave and came out of the water part. The reason why we had chosen this cave was because It had two ways out. One under water and the other on land that was actually close to crystal cove. I set patton down first  away from the water on the sand while roman pulled out some towel he had brought to dry ourselves off faster and become human. We did just that before carefully doing it to Patton. Once he was in human form I saw more stuff that I wish I didn’t. 

“OH god.” Roman said softly before grabbing the first aid kit. One thing I did know was that Most of the time, if a unittien is injured in human form and they turn into any animal or into a Mer Person, some or most of the injuries are hidden. In Patton’s case, It was A Lot of injuries. Not only did he have more brusies, But His arms were Cut a bit, It looks to be at least a day old, The of course the cuts from his tail. Was showing on his legs. His cloths were also torn up a bit. I mean they could be fixed and his shorts weren’t cut near that area. I then noticed that his hands had small indents of were I would assume would be rope on his wrists and Ankles. His wrist looked more like they were rope burned a bit. I gently pulled patton into my lap a bit as Roman came over and started to clean and bandaged the cute and put some ointment on the sun burn he also had. It wasn’t much of a sun burn but it seemed like he was left out in the sun for a while. I also saw some shadow burns too. Shadow Burns are burns that are caused by shadows. These are usually caused by shadows that are too cold or too hot that stays on the skin for a long period of time. He had some on his arms and then there was some on his legs. The once went up to mid thigh and wrapped around right there. Just looking at that made me uneasy. Did he do anything to patton that wasnt just….. From the use of Hands and/ or feet?

“ HEY YOU GUYS!” Remus yells out entering the cave through the water way. We jumped and roman had made the be quiet motion and then pointed to Patton. Remus was confused until he saw the sleeping pat before nodding a bit.

“I’ll go find everyone else. Ok?” He asked. We both nodded. Before he swam away. We needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Roman had said that the other people on that boat had evacuated and hid away. They either went into the water or had ran off on the land. They did manage to get at least 3 of the people and Nightlara and Tped them into a pocket dimension where should would hold them until we could properly sentence them. I looked at patton and had noticed that I was combing through his hair gently with my fingers. He was still sleeping and I actually wanted to sleep to. I had slept last night but not to much so I was still kinda tired. Plus I had used my magic and we swam a lot.

“If you need stormcloud. You can sleep for a bit. I’ll keep an eye out and I’ll wake you up if anything happens.” Roman said. I nodded a bit and Leaned against the rock behind me as I started to drift off into sleep. I also made sure Patton was in my arms protected. I dont ever want anything like this to happen to him Again. With that I drifted off to sleep with a sleeping patton in my lap and Roman on guard.