The malnourished gap-toothed man once again checked that none of the oarsmen was watching after he secretly placed the chocolate bar into the boy's hand. He closed the boy's fingers tightly, then shoved his hand towards his pocket so that no one would see what he'd given him. Once again, motioning for the boy to be quiet as he looked at each of the oarsmen individually, causing them to shift uncomfortably under his suspicious scrutiny. Only Noah heard what he whispered to the boy next.

"Keep it hidden. Keep it safe. Do not let anybody take it."

The skinny bearded black-skinned man spoke to Louis with a lowered voice and intensely serious tone. He gripped the boy's shoulders earnestly as if the fate of the world rested upon this.

Noah watched as the boy nodded as he quickly hid the chocolate inside his shirt. After witnessing what had just happened to the guards due to their harassment, it was doubtful that any of the oarsmen would risk the boss's wrath by stealing the half-eaten chocolate bar from Louis.

***

A week later, after Noah had recovered enough. The boss sent him below deck to act as an assistant for Uncle Joey. The portly tattooed Asian cook, who always has something to dramatically complain about. Uncle Joey wore a grease-stained white bandana on his bald head while working in the kitchen with a matching stained white apron tied around his waist.

In front of Noah was a fresh fish carcass taken from the boss's net. His job was to take the filleting knife and remove the bones. The fish was actually grade two, the first one they had successfully caught in months. The crystal had already been taken by the boss.

Noah's eyes had been glued to the crystal as he watched Uncle Joey remove it. It was clear and held no abilities, yet there were two conspicuous points of white-light flashing in a random sequence at its corners. Noah watched with longing as Uncle Joey swiftly wiped the blood off with a filthy rag before handing it to the waiting boss.

"Haiyah!…Nephew, why you like this? You will cut off finger like this!" Uncle Joey criticized Noah's first attempt at filleting the fish.

"No! No! No! Cut like this! Stand over there, let Uncle Joey show you how!" Uncle Joey took the knife from Noah and began to cut with practised ease, too fast for Noah to follow.

Noah didn't respond as he watched Uncle Joey work before receiving the knife. He once again attempted to carefully fillet the fish. Uncle Joey watched briefly before nodding. He then returned to his own fish that he had been filleting. Uncle Joey stacked all of the fish fillets inside a large pot after the fish were prepared before letting out a heavy sigh.

"Nephew, do not watch. This makes Uncle Joey sad."

Pink-lifeforce gathered at his hands as Uncle Joey referred to himself in third-person. He aimed the flow of pink lifeforce into the stacked fillets. While Noah watched, the fillets began to alter form with the white-lifeforce of the fish collecting together to mutate into a stack of cubes, similar in appearance to tofu.

The cubes were actually the same as the rations Noah had bought from the store after arrival. Containing condensed lifeforce. Forming amid the questionable reddish-pink goop, he and the other oarsmen had become accustomed to eating.

"So terrible, so goopy, tastes like sad. Haiyah!" Uncle Joey reached up to scrunch his filthy bandana into a ball as he yanked it off to throw it to the floor before wrenching his apron off.

"Was that your ability?" Noah tentatively asked Uncle Joey.

"It is not ability. It is abomination. Ruins fish until nothing left. So criminal. Haiyah!" Uncle Joey ranted.

Uncle Joey dramatically clutched his heart while waving his other hand towards the questionable goop surrounding the neatly stacked rations, looking away from his creation.

"Nephew, take it away. I can't look at it anymore. Haiyah! Wait, I will take ration cubes, you take fish goop."

Uncle Joey scooped up the rations. They appeared superior in grade to the ones Noah had bought from the store. He suspected that was due to the higher-quality ingredients taken from the grade two fish. Uncle Joey plucked one of the ration cubes from his collection to examine it closely from every angle.

"Nephew, eat this. It tastes sad, but it makes you stronger," Uncle Joey tossed the grade two ration cube towards the stunned Noah, who hurriedly caught it in both hands.

"Go! Take the goop away, so sickening. Haiyah!"

Uncle Joey turned away from Noah while casting one last dejected glance over his shoulder towards the remains of their butchering. Letting out a heavy sigh, Uncle Joey began to mutter to himself in another language as he began to clean his workspace with a filthy rag.

Noah placed the grade two ration inside his mouth and eagerly swallowed it. After almost a month of only surviving on the questionable goop created from the waste of forming rations, it was a welcome change. It was convenient that Uncle Joey was looking away, or he would have seen the purple-light appear under Noah's skin as lifeforce was released by the grade two ration being digested.

Noah's withered skin visibly recovered by a minute amount. It would've been hard to explain had anyone caught it happening. Noah felt the hope of recovery for the first time since he'd escaped death. Surviving only by a twist of fate as Ronan stopped to gloat over his defeat.

Noah wasted no more time as he picked up the large pot of goop to carry upstairs to distribute among the oarsmen on deck. When he reached the top of the stairs, the guards dipped their own bowls into the unappetizing goop. They both then spit inside the pot before the oarsmen could take their portion.

The oarsmen's bowls were stacked in an untidy pile in the corner of the run-down hut. Noah carried the pot of goop inside the lean-to as the oarsmen lined up impatiently outside the door. In order of the strongest at the front and the boy at the back.