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[center][b]I[/b][/center]

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It was a sound that made shivers travel down his spine.

The incessant, morose humming.

[i]”Out in the open seas, a ship sailed.
The sea below, like a thick fog, veiled.
Within the veil,
One, two, twelve tails.”[/i]

The singer’s voice, low and unaffected by the rough seas, kept a constant level of volume just loud enough to be heard and yet low enough to make the listener wonder if they heard the words correctly.

Out of everyone in the ship, the singer(an Old Sailor) was the only one that the Recruit had had any trouble getting to know. Every time he spoke to the man, he’d stare blankly at him for a few seconds, then turn away and corry on with his tasks while humming and singing the same four lines.

He had lost it, everyone said, a long time ago when a ship he used to sail on sunk into the depths, seas away. 

And in fact, one look at the Old Sailor’s appearance and the way he carried himself would be enough for a normal person to dismiss him as insane… The Recruit, however, was anything but normal. 

There was a certain darkness in the man’s eyes that spoke of things he had seen, things that had broken him beyond repair… Things that had stolen his speech, and taken the fiery spark of curiosity from his eyes.

For now the Recruit kept on working, making sure that the central structural beam of the ship was intact. It was an important job, one that he had been assigned merely a week after joining the crew due to his hard work and getting the head explorer to recognize his abilities.

Again with the humming, the Recruit thought. He had to tell the Old Sailor to shut up, or he’d go insane.

[i]”Out in the open seas, a ship sailed.
The sea below, like a thick fog, veiled.”[/i]

The Recruit turned to stare down the Old Sailor, but instead realized that the Old Sailor’s mouth was closed. He wasn’t making a noise.

[i]”Within the veil,
One, two, twelve tails.”[/i]

As the sound finished, the Recruit felt his own mouth closing. His heart skipped a beat, and his stomach turned.

He had been the one singing.