"So he just started blipping, out of nowhere?" Victoria asked.

She and Iris were on the storage deck, sitting on the floor of a small open area between crates where Littletooth viciously chased after the toy that Victoria tossed around. Iris had been cleared to move freely about the ship, so long as she checked in with Titus at several points throughout the day for a check up and a top up on healing magic.

"Yep," Iris sighed, "he did it twice, right in front of me. He hasn't done it since, thankfully, but I'm scared to let him out of my sight now."

"That's weird, does Abby know anything?"

Iris shook her head, "I think she was surprised as I was."

Victoria dangled the toy -- a plush rabbit with one ear torn off -- just outside Littletooth's reach in an attempt to prompt him into flying. He kicked off the floor and desperately flapped his wings as he leapt, but failed to get any significant lift to catch the toy when Victoria raised it higher than he could jump. When he landed, he blew air out of his nose and angrily shook his head.

"It must have something to do with the void," she said after a moment of thinking, "I can't think of any reason he could inherit powers from you, maybe if he was a familiar -- but I've never heard of it happening with a regular animal before. I don't know how it would even would."

"My journal calls Abby a 'void aberration,'" Iris explained, "I haven't found any reference to anything by that name in any books, but I've been working on a theory about it. It's hard to really put into words, but things work differently in the void. Like, everything. I'm pretty sure time doesn't even really exist there, at least not the way it does normally. Most things I put in come out completely unchanged."

"Most things?" Victoria asked.

"Yeah, everything but Littletooth. He always comes out hungry, even if he's been in the void since the last time he ate. At the same time, though, he's not really growing much, and I think that also has something to do with the void."

"Hmm," Victoria pondered, "we could really use an expert for this. I don't think we'll be finding one on this ship, though."

"Then I'll just have to become the expert," Iris said with excitement and determination, "it's time to start doing some experiments."

"I'm interested," Victoria said curiously.

"Experiment number one is simple, I just need to let Littletooth spend more time outside of the void and see what happens. Now that the captain knows about him, there's not as much pressure to keep him hidden. I'm sure the crew members on night watch saw me chase him down on the main deck anyway, so word's probably already going around. It's just a matter of keeping the little guy out of trouble."

"I can help with that," Victoria said, "don't tell anyone, but I really don't do very much work around here. Lately I just pretend to look for Gerald."

Iris laughed, "yeah, we figured. And thanks, your help will really make a difference. The real excitement comes with the second experiment I'm thinking of, though."

Victoria leaned forward with interest, "go on."

"I think it's time I explored inside the bag."

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Victoria blinked, "you mean like, going in there yourself?"

Iris nodded, "I need to know if it differs from the regular void, and it also wouldn't hurt to learn more about the void in general. My blip ability technically takes me through the void, but it's really quick and that's kind of the wrong way to describe it anyway. It's more like I stop existing for an instant, and then come back somewhere else."

"But that can't be what's happening to Littletooth, because he's still digesting food and getting hungry again while he's in there."

"Right, but he's also not growing, so maybe he kind of exists when he's in there, and kind of doesn't?"

Victoria leaned back against a crate and thought it over for a moment, "you could be on to something. Are you sure it's safe to go in there, though?"

"No idea," Iris shrugged, "but it seems safe enough for Littletooth, and I put a slime in there once too and he came out fine. Not to mention, Abby just straight up lives in there."

"If we're going to do this, let's do it right," Victoria said, "we'll tie a rope around you in case we need to pull you out, and it probably wouldn't hurt to have Titus around in case you get hurt somehow."

Iris nodded, "good ideas. I'll wait until I'm fully healed first, too. Oh, and we gotta invite Autumn too, she'll be furious if she misses out on something fun like this."

"Oh, definitely," Victoria agreed, then pivoted the conversation, "Littletooth aside, how have you been?"

Iris sighed and leaned back until she lay across the floor, "stressed. That whole mermaid thing really took it out of me."

The curl of Abby's tentacle rose out of the bag, the end of it wrapped around a fluffy pillow that momentarily got stuck in the opening of the bag as Abby pulled it out. She offered it to Iris, who smiled and placed it under her head. Abby then withdrew another pillow, this one round like a seat cushion, and offered it to Victoria.

"Tell me about it," Victoria said, taking the pillow from Abby and placing it underneath her, "the crew's acting like it's no big, like they deal with these sorts of things all the time. Makes me wonder if that's how we sound to regular people."

"Probably," Iris said, adjusting her head to look over at Victoria, "even before I got powers, people always seemed surprised that I considered running off barefoot into the woods a casual pass time. I guess to us, fighting off feral mermaids as they overrun the ship seems like a pretty weird pass time, too. Think we'll get used to it?"

"Oh definitely," Victoria said, "just like we got used to trekking across the wilderness, and just like we got used to fighting giant, hallucinogenic spiders, we'll get used to this too."

"You're probably right," Iris said, averting her gaze towards the ceiling. Though it was generally quiet in the storage deck, it wasn't uncommon to hear the footsteps of pirates in the crew quarter's overhead. "I'm dying to know what's coming next, though."

"I think I can give you a hint on that one," Victoria said.

Iris propped herself up on her elbows and looked to Victoria attentively.

Victoria laughed before elaborating, "word around the ship is that our next stop is a place called Gellorn Keep, one of the last great giant cities."

"I heard the boatswain say that name! Wait, is it a giant city, or is it a city where giants live?"

"The second one, which I guess also means it's literally a giant city too."

"How big are they? Are they friendly?" Iris sat fully upright as she launched her barrage, "do you think the captain will let us off the ship? How long are we staying?"

Victoria laughed and motioned with her hands for Iris to calm down, "I don't know the answer to any of that, but I do know a few more details."

Iris hurriedly nodded for Victoria to continue.

"For starters, it's not just the giants that lives there, too. I overheard some crew talking about the 'little guys' who are going to work on the ship, apparently they're also residents of Gellorn Keep, and have some pretty important repairs to make on the mechanical deck."

"Yeah!" Iris said with excitement, "I know a little about that. The bulk of the mechanical deck is taken up by this big mechanism that somehow involves a bunch of sails, I'm not really sure how it works or what it does. But it's really hard to work in there, it's incredibly cramped, it makes sense that smaller people would have an easier time working in there. What do you think they are? Gnomes? Halflings?"

Victoria shrugged, "no idea. Apparently, though, they're experts at whatever it is they do."

Iris fell back on her pillow, smiling when Littletooth stomped over, spun around a few times, and then collapsed into a cozy ball up against her shoulder, "a city of giants," she said wistfully, "this'll definitely be one to write about in the journal."