Prologue: Just another day

Fedler is climbing down the ramp of the ship to stand on the docks again.

"Yeah. What is it?"

She is confused by this whole situation.

He makes sure no one's overhearing, then - "That girl on the docks has no mind Breeze can read. She's probably with Faith's people."

The hunter is surprised by this revelation, and she doesn't know what to say to that. It takes a moment for her to compose herself. "So... is that a problem?"

"What?" Konrad can barely get a word out before Mihai dashes off, and he looks over at the woman singing, certain now that she will win this little contest. "Well, how about that..."

"I don't know. But it can't be a coincidence that she's watching a ship carrying a payload the Leader of the Coins has come to personally supervise. We're not on bad terms with them, but i've got a bad feeling about this."

"I..." Fedler thinks for second. "I don't know what to make of this, but it'd probably be a good idea to finish this job first and figure out the rest later."

Meanwhile, Breeze is confused by everyone's reaction. Unbeknownst to her friends, she's forgotten this little bit of trivia concerning Faith's people.

Konrad will watch, distracted, and turn around and get back to work when he hears the sound of another crate being added to the carriage.

When the fairies return minus Breeze, Steve says, "New girl only! That's it, now turn it down low and a bit slow." He joins her to show what he means, slowing down the tempo by adding a heart beat between lines and not projecting as loudly either. "Perfect! Keep it up till I tell you to stop."

He now turns his attention to the fairies. "Good work guys. But now it's time to take it all and put it together. It is time...to get funky. Hiccup, Truffle, and Waffle, step forward please." The three fairies move to where Steve indicates. "Good, good. Now Waffle, I need you to do this..." And he organizes them into a three-part a cappella replacement for a drum set, to support the song they are all singing together. "That's it. Just watch for the changes fellas. Now the rest of you get over here. When I point at you run through the song as normal once and then stop. Got it? I'll sing through it once so you know how it goes. Got it? Perfect."

He motions for New Girl to stop and starts singing for all he's worth. Here are the lyrics. He points at the fairies when he wants the chorus repeated.

Steve's song:

If all goes well he'll take a bow and share the applause with the others.

The fairies are more than happy to sing along, and once they realize how much effort Steve is putting in this, they also try to do their best. The New Girl doesn't even hesitate and she joins the chorus when Steve signals the fairies. What started as a silly prank has now turned into an singing performance, and the makeshift choir has attracted a crowd of at least thirty people; deck workers, passerby and a few more fairies. Even the small group of sailors that accompanied Mihai and Konrad have stopped working. The rest of the crew on the Barracuda is listening in as well.

Once the song ends, a round of applause rises from the audience. It lasts for a good minute, and the choir members naturally form a line, join their hands together and bow. A few people even approach Steve and put a few pieces of copper and silver in his hat.

"Oh, that was so fun!"

               "You think they caught my good side?"

                                                         "I'm thirsty. My throat is all scratchy now."

       "We'll buy some soda with our silver!"

                              "Pizza too, don't forget. We totally deserve it."

"Let's do it again someday!"

Once the crowd has finally dispersed, Steve notices that the New Girl isn't there anymore.

Tips:

____________

Mihai, Konrad, Breeze and Fedler

Breeze is still clapping.

"Wasn't it awesome!?" she asks her friends.

"...Steve actually did a good job," Fedler admits.

"Just gotta bring them over for the wedding, i guess."

"Yes, what a fantastic performance. I'd call for en encore if we weren't busy." He looks around for the girl. "Aaaand she's gone, of course. Breeze, that woman we saw just now was like Faith, wasn't she?"

"Hmm?" The fairy doesn't appear to understand. "Faith, the lady that looks like Deremonda? How are they similar?"

"Huuuh?" The blue-haired girl tilts her head. "Oh! You're RIGHT! Their head were like, no light sparkling and stuff!"

Fedler smiles and shakes her head.

"So we got light sparkling?"

"So... we're getting back to our job?" Fedler asks with a raised eyebrow.

Steve smiles at the applause and happily collects the money in his hat. He goes to thank everyone but notices that New Girl has slipped away. He's disappointed but refuses to spoil the moment for himself or the fairies. "Well done everybody! Now we celebrate with pizza! Troops,
move out!" He marches with the fairies back to his friends.

"I just need to pay the fellas and get them set up with their pizza and I'll be back. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes tops."

He'll lead them off to the restaurant, pay them each a gold for a job well done, and pay for 3 pizzas and ice cream for the fairies. He'll asks the owner to take care of his friends and tips the man with the money they collected for the performance.

He'll walk quickly to get back to his friends.

Once Steve is back, Mihai explains - "Steve, that girl was one of Faith's."

"That explains why she was so good at copying me and why she never looked tired." He takes off his hat and wipes his brow. "Sorry I lost her. I was hoping she'd tag along for pizza with the guys but that was clearly a lost cause. Oh well."

The fairies thank Steve profusely over the huge amount of money they've received for this job. Then they're quickly off to celebrating.

"That's ice cream!"

"Don't put it on the pizza!"

____________

"I'll make sure to tell Zelk everything," Fedler teases.

"Yeah, that was so fun," Breeze innocently adds.

"Well, go with Konrad to the warehouse this time, and take Breeze along. Once you're there, find some excuse to take Breeze within reading range of the bystanders, see if we've got any more surprises lying in wait. Just... be a bit more discreet about it, if you can." - he glances a at Breeze for just a second - "Goes without saying, if you happen to find someone, try not to spook them."

"Konrad, you'll have to cover for him with Stefan if he starts getting annoyed. Just tell him he's running recon or something - it's the truth anyway."

"Not if we are playing tag, right Breeze?" He puts his hat back on and smiles at the fairy. "Let's get going. I've kept everybody waiting long enough."