Iris awoke with a groan. She raised a hand to block out the sun as she squinted open her eyes, groggily taking in her surroundings.
"Welcome back," Eli said, "I was starting to think we'd need to carry you to Titus."
Iris groaned again as she sat up on her elbows, "how long was I out?"
"Only about five minutes," Autumn said, "you know how easy he worries."
Autumn was sitting cross-legged on the beach, peering into a fishbowl large enough for a person. Though recognizable as a fishbowl from its contents, it was crudely shaped, the glass was glazed and discolored in spots, and a large chunk of wood firmly corked the opening. Inside was water from the lake, and the golden fish.
"What do you think?" Autumn asked, looking over her shoulder at Iris, "made it myself from the sand."
"Not bad," Iris replied, "I didn't realize we were taking it back alive."
"Neither did we," Eli said.
"It turns out none of us could bring ourselves to kill it," Victoria said.
Iris glanced at Eli. She had personally seen him put down several wild beasts without hesitation.
"He was just flopping! There was something not right about it," Eli insisted.
"Hey, I'm not judging," Iris held up her hands in mock surrender, then leaned in to get a closer look at the fish, "I'm glad you didn't kill him, he's kind of cute when he's not trying to break my ribs."
The fish was chubby and round, the size of a small person, and true to the tales had a full body of shiny golden scales -- not simply orange, but genuinely glistening gold like they were cast from the metal itself. In most respects other than the shining scales and impressive size, it kind of did just look like a regular goldfish.
"His name is Johnny," Autumn said.
"Don't name it," Eli groaned, exasperated.
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Sometime later, the four of them entered the Flopping Fish. The Fish Wizard appeared from the back with a smile that instantly turned sour when he saw them.
"Did you seriously come back without my fish?" He asked, deadpan.
"Nope!" Iris said, plopping her bottomless bag upside down on the table. The drawstring loosened and the mouth stretched as she tugged up on the bottom of the bag. Soon the bag expanded wide to slip around the circumference of the fishbowl. As the top of the bowl slipped out, the bag quickly snapped back to size and cinched itself shut. The fish was wide-eyed with fear, floating motionless in the water.
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"Fancy bag!" The Fish Wizard exclaimed, then moved in close to examine the fish, "alive! Very interesting, wasn't expecting that. Hmm."
He pulled a magnifying glass from an unseen pocket of his robes, peering closely at the fish from various angles.
"Poor thing is absolutely terrified," he observed, "better than dead, though! Hah! Hahahaha!" he broke out into uncontrolled cackling, pointing a furious finger at the fish, "AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! You're mine, and you're alive to see it! HAHAHA!"
He uncorked the fishbowl, then grabbed a staff from where it leaned against a nearby wall. He waved it in a circle, conjuring a horizontal portal that floated waist high in the air. Inside the portal were the dark waters of ocean depths. He reached out with his staff and swiped the fishbowl off the table and into the portal with a splash.
"Couple hundred years in there oughtta do it!" he yelled into the portal, before slamming his staff on the ground to close it. "Well then," he continued, propping his staff up against the table and adjusting his robes. He didn't move to catch the staff as it quickly slid off to the side and clattered to the floor, "deal's a deal, just like we said. My quarters are in the basement, don't bother me. Lift is out back, take some empty crates with you so it looks legit."
The Fish Wizard promptly turned and disappeared into the kitchen behind the bar.
"Did he say the basement?" Autumn asked, "isn't this whole place built on a pier?"
"It's probably better we don't ask questions," Eli said, "we just secured ourselves private housing and our own backdoor entrance to the city." His pride in their accomplishment was evident all across his face.
"Not bad, team lead," Victoria said, "though I think Iris shares some of the glory."
"We all contributed," Iris said, "I just got mad because I got beat up by a fish, that's all."
A small child dressed in ragged clothes pushed open the door to the bar and peaked inside, "here you are mister! Just like I said!"
The door opened wider, and an exhausted looking Titus stepped in. He flipped a gold coin to the kid, who quickly stashed it in a pocket and hurried off. "You guys weren't easy to find, that's the third street kid I've bribed."
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Sometime later, the party sat in a booth at a noodle shop in the Underbelly, just a few doors down from their new temporary home. As they exchanged stories about their day, Titus explained that he had spent most of the day healing major wounds that required immediate care, which he had no complaints about.
"Then we start losing a guy," he said, "he's dying, quick. He's not my patient, but the guys working on him don't know what to do. They keep saying they can't heal him as fast as he's dying, no shit. So I stepped up to heal him, and they tried to stop me! They said my methods were too crude, that this was a case for the experts. Meanwhile, the guy is dying, right there in front of the experts!"
He paused to take a swig of his drink, then continued, "so, naturally, I shove the most pompous asshole of the three out of my way, and slam a bolt of healing into the guy's chest. It left a gnarly scar, but he sucked in a breath and kept breathing after that."
"Hell yeah!" Autumn shouted, "what did the pompous assholes do next?"
"They,..." Titus started, sheepishly, "they kicked me out of the camp."
"What?" Autumn yelled, "that's bullshit! You saved that guy's life!"
"It's fine," he said, "I mean it's not, and if I get the chance I'm going to kick all of their asses, but it's fine. That was the last patient in critical condition, if they want to let me off work early for my trouble then I won't complain."
"You did good," Eli said, "you were saving lives while we were staring at empty waters waiting for a fish."
Despite the efforts they had gone through to gain access to the lift, Eli made the call that they should wait until the next morning before heading into the city, as they were all exhausted and dirty. This got no complaints from the others.