𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 || 𝗷𝗷 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸

- the royal merchant -

"I'm gonna dream about shipwrecks..." JJ says with a smile, yawning as he pulls Melia closer to him and resting his eyes shut.

"Night bird!" He calls out to John B, smiling at himself.

"Night bird shit.." JB responds with an eyeroll, turning over on his hammock.

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They were all out in Pope's dads boat once again. Driving through the marsh to get out to the ocean, equipped with all of their stolen gear for their merchant search.

Melia was sat beside Kie, the boys sat across from them - except John B who was driving.

"All right, JB. Pin it here!" JJ calls out, looking down at the map once again. They were exactly where they needed to be.

"Roger that! X marks the spot." John B smiles, stopping the boat rather quickly. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen." John B starts, pulling out the camera.

"To going full Kook." Melia says with a grin, though her face kind of hurts from bring beat only one day prior. She takes the camera from her older brother and starts lowering it into the water.

She finally lets go and the camera's motor starts working, it swims deeper and deeper down into the water. Kie helps Melia, slowly feeding the rope down to her.

They all watched the screen intently. JJ had moved over to the boats wheel and was controlling where they went.

"All right, JJ. We're right over it! Ten seconds northwest." John B instructs, watching his tablet screen as the image of their boat goes over the top of where they needed to be.

"Got it! Ten seconds northwest..." JJ quietly repeats to himself.

"One hundred feet!" Melia calls out, seeing the red line which marks each hundred feet go down into the water.

Pope gasps at the screen, backing up from it. Melia's head literally whips around from where she was looking.

"What, what, what, what?!" Melia frantically asks, chewing on her lip.

"It's nothing..." Pope says with a sigh.

Emilia groans loudly, angrily turning back to feeding the rope into the water.

"Sorry! I thought-"

"Don't do that to me, man!" JJ yells from inside the boat, shaking his head.

"My bad! I just thought I saw..." He defends.

"Well you didn't, did you?!" Melia snaps, furrowing her eyebrows. JJ and her brother turn to look at her. She can feel eyes on her back.

"Sorry... I just really want to find it.." She mumbles, staring down into the water.

Pope nods, understanding her stress. He goes back to watching the camera, his eyes squinting as he makes sure not to miss anything.

"And, to quote The Hobbit. 'Down, down, to the Goblin Town." He utters with a sigh, watching as nothing happens on the screen.

"Down, down, you go, my lad." He finishes in a funny accent.

Melia snickers at him, smiling and shaking her head. Pope grins at her, relaxing now he knows she's not annoyed at her or something.

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A while goes by, Kie had started marking how many hundred feet they were at with chalk on the rubber sides of the boat.

"Four hundred feet!" Melia announces, watching the red line fall beneath the water surface once again.

Thunder rumbles in the distance and Emilia tenses up slightly. She shakes it off and tries to keep looking down at the water. She can feel JJ glancing at her.