This part's art belongs to rejected3 on tumblr. It's pretty much irrelevant to the story other than that it's Keith being annoyed by mermaid Lance.

xXx

The sun rose on Keith sitting by the embers of the dying fire, setting various packages and objects in front of himself, checking each to ensure that it met his criteria. As the morning slowly grew brighter, Lance stirred from where he rested below the waves and swam closer to shore. "Whatcha doin'?" he asked.

"I'm getting ready to save my crew," Keith answered shortly.

Lance's voice was suddenly right next to his ear. "Why do you have all this stuff?" he asked.

Keith recoiled, staring wide-eyed at the strange sight before him. "Since when could you come on shore?" he asked, startled. He could see drag marks in the sand from the edge of the water to where Lance was now.

Lance shrugged. "Since always." He grinned. "I can stay on land just so long as I stay nice and wet." He wiggled his eyebrows.

Keith gave him a disgusted look and turned away.

"I'm sorry, I heard that was a human joke and I thought I'd try it out! Don't get mad at me!" he pleaded.

"Do you even know what it means?" Keith asked in a weary tone, moving a bundle of dried fish to the side.

Lance beamed. "Not really," he said in an oddly proud voice.

Keith nodded slowly, clearly done with trying to understand why Lance must be this way. "Clearly."

"But what's all this stuff for?" Lance repeated.

"I'm getting ready to get my crew back," was the firm reply as he stood up and surveyed the various supplies.

"Well, isn't that optimistic." Lance picked up a strip of leather. "What's this for?"

Keith took it from him and pocketed it. "That's a sling for Pidge in case they got rid of their stuff."

Lance furrowed his brows. "I have no idea what you mean by any of that."

"You know, a sling to throw rocks. And the guys who captured them might have gotten rid of their usual weapons, so I made a sling for Pidge until we get away and can find something better. The rest of them..." He shrugged. "The pirates will have similar weapons, or they can improvise."

"I... see..." Lance said hesitantly. He looked at the remaining things resting in the sand in front of Keith. "So what's the rest of it for?"

"It's mostly food and water, since I can't just eat raw fish that you bring me, and I've already told you that I can't drink saltwater." He paused. "Well, technically--" He shook his head. "Nope, never mind. It would just complicate things more."

Lance nodded. "Okay, so what do you need help with?"

Keith picked up several of the packages and carried them over to the boat. "Well, it wouldn't seem that you can carry anything, so nothing you can really help with." He dropped them in the bottom and returned to the pile of coals that used to be his fire. "You might want to get back in the water," he commented, noticing Lance looking rather uncomfortable on the dry sand. Lance nodded and turned around, then shoved himself back into the quiet water with a few pushes of his powerful tail. As Keith picked up another armload of supplies, he saw how Lance was moving and grew curious. "How strong is your tail?" he asked as the mermaid settled comfortably a few yards from shore.

Lance shrugged, glancing back at the glittering appendage. "Pretty strong. Maybe not as much as some, but I like to think it's on the stronger end of the spectrum. Why?"

Keith dropped the packages in the boat and shook his head. "I dunno, it's just... interesting. And it's more conversation than none."

Lance nodded. "I see." He swirled his finger in the sand in front of him. "If you want conversation so bad, why don't you tell me more about that... whatchamacallit... uh... captain of yours?"

Keith paused as he grabbed the last of the waterskins. He swallowed hard, then started back toward the boat again. "What do you want to know?"

Lance shrugged absentmindedly. "What happened to him? You said you'd... lost him, I think?"

"Well..." Keith busied himself with organizing the supplies in the boat, partially so he wouldn't have to turn back to Lance. "He... he went missing sometime between an attack and a storm. We fought off some pirates just in time to go head-on into a tropical storm. We didn't have time to look for him in the monsoon, so I took charge where I needed to." He stopped with his hands resting on the bench. "But... once it'd blown over, we couldn't find him anywhere. We'd seen him during the fight, but no one had seen him since we'd driven the pirates off. Since I was the first mate, the chain of command meant I should take over." He stood straight and stared inland, his back still to Lance. "We're going to look for him as soon as we free everyone."

Lance tilted his head. "Are you sure he's alive, though? I don't mean to be the bearer of bad news, but he's probably dead."

Keith abruptly turned to Lance. "He's not. He's a skilled sailor. He knows what he's doing, and he knows how to survive. He's probably waiting for us at a port somewhere right now," he said firmly. He turned and set the oars in their locks. "But first, we have to save the crew. I'd like your help, if that's at all possible, but I'm pretty sure I'll manage just fine with or without you. The only difference I can figure is the rate at which I go insane, so are you coming with me or no?"

Lance sat up in the growing waves eagerly. "Of course I'm coming! This is the most fun I've had in ages!"

Keith nodded, mostly to himself. "Good, now I'll go crazy faster." He tugged at the stern of the boat, not really caring when the waves splashed against his bare feet. Once he'd gotten it into the water, Lance started swimming alongside him. As soon as it was deep enough for him to get in without it scraping the sand below, Keith hopped in and sat on the bench, facing backward. He reached for the oars, but saw Lance grinning up at him. The mermaid cracked his knuckles and put his hands on the flat butt of the boat, then started swimming. It was no time at all before they were moving forward at a considerable speed. "Thanks?" Keith said uncertainly.

Lance smirked. "I've got you covered."

Keith settled more comfortably in the seat. "So how long can you keep this up?" he asked nonchalantly.

"I can do this all day," was the confident reply.

"All day?" Keith raised an eyebrow skeptically. "No breaks?"

"Well, I don't know about NO breaks, but I can keep this up for a long while." He paused. "Why, are you in some kind of hurry?"

Keith leaned forward. "Well, every minute we take in reaching them is another minute where they could be killed or sold into slavery, so yes, I'm in a hurry."

"Ah." Lance nodded, paling slightly. "I see."

Keith nodded slowly. "Yes, so I'm sure you understand if I'm being short with you."

Lance cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So... want to talk about something else, then?"

Keith grinned at his discomfort, but figured he should probably change the subject. "Are you friends with fish or something?" he asked.

Lance was clearly relieved. "Yeah. Well, sort of. To an extent. I speak this language that most fish speak, or at least understand. Not all of them can produce the sounds necessary to speak it, but most of the time, it's easy enough to understand what they're trying to get across. It usually has to do with food."

"What's it like?" Keith asked.

"Well... a lot of it is like--" He let out a couple dolphin whistles and clicks. "And some of it is like--" He let out a deep bellow. "But there's some that's more like--" He hissed loudly. "It's bits and pieces of a bunch of different creatures' sounds and languages mushed together to the point where everything understands it. I'm not really sure why or how, but if you tell just about any sea creature--" He whistled through his teeth and made a noise between a bark and a growl. "--they'll get that you need help."

Keith imitated the noises. "Like that?"

Lance thought for a moment. "Weeeelllllll... the whistle was a bit high pitched, and you kinda skimped out on the bark, but I'm sure it'll get the point across just fine." Keith's response was narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms. Lance laughed nervously. "All right, no need to kill me over that."

Keith nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, I need you to push my boat," he agreed.

Lance stuck his tongue out at him. "Ha ha. Very funny. But seriously, it almost sounds like you're saying you want their mother or something like that. It depends on how well they know it." He shook his head. "Nevermind, it would just be more confusing."

"You ought to teach me some more of this language. Just in case I need to talk to a pack of dolphins or something."

"It's a pod," Lance corrected immediately.

"What?"

"A group of dolphins is called a pod," Lance repeated. "Not a pack, or whatever you said."

Keith raised an eyebrow. "What difference does it make?"

Lance gave Keith a disgruntled look. "Pack is wrong, that's what! Who calls a group of dolphins a pack?"

"People who... don't care?" He gave Lance a meaningful look.

Lance glared at him. After a brief staring contest, he huffed. "Do you even know where we're going?"

Keith sat up confidently. "Of course. They're heading to port at their island. We're going to intercept them before they get there."

"And... do you know where they are now?"

"I know where they're going. That's enough."

"Do you know where WE are?"

"We're going the right way. I recognized the berries I ate. They're specific to a certain region that's southeast of where we need to be. So we need to go northwest. And guess what direction we're headed?" Lance looked clueless. Keith sighed. "Keep going the way you're going," he said exasperatedly and turned to face forward.

After a while of silence, the boat slowed, and he heard some sounds that he recognized as the language Lance had told him about. He turned to see him chatting with a sailfish, absentmindedly forgetting to push the boat. He didn't say anything, but listened curiously as the mermaid conversed with the fish. Eventually, the fish darted off, and Lance resumed pushing the boat. "What was that about?" Keith asked casually.

"He's gonna help us find the ship," Lance answered simply.

"What's he going to do? By the time he finds it and gets back to us, it'll be too late."

The response was a grin. "Not if he tells his friends to tell their friends to tell their friends."

Keith opened his mouth to reply, then stopped. He thought for a moment. "Are you telling me you're getting all the creatures in the sea to help us?"

Lance tilted his head and curled his lip as he thought about that. "Well... the shallower ones. The ones that can actually see it and come back and tell me."

Keith paled as he the full implications dawned on him. "You're telling me that you have a network of fish willing to help you at a moment's notice with anything?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. They don't have much else to do with themselves, so why not give them something to do? Usually, they're excited to have something to do to get out of their mediocre everyday lives."

"Oh." Keith grew quiet again.

Lance drew alongside the boat, and it took Keith a moment to realize that it was keeping its inertia even though the mermaid wasn't propelling it anymore. "So there's this current that goes in the direction you wanted to go for a while. I needed a break soon, and I figured now was as good a time as any. So I'm just going to let you drift for a while. I'll catch up soon, but I have to go do some mermaid stuff."

"Wait, you're just going to--" But the mermaid was already gone.