I shakily shot another arrow at the kraken, which batted it out of the air, sacrificing one of its many tentacles. It summoned another barrage of ice spikes, which were blocked by one of my impromptu shields that shattered under the force. I had no idea how long the battle took, or how long it will. I stumbled, one hand holding my side in pain.

Before I could recover, a huge wave crashed into me, sweeping me off my feet and slamming me onto the sand violently. I lay there, stunned by the pain. Getting over the shock, I scrambled up and raced towards Flint. Even though I already patched his wounds up with some of his plasters, the massive force of the wave was no good for his body. I was surprised to notice that his eyes were open. He glanced at me.

“Willow, I can’t stand up. Too cold.” He rasped, his voice barely a whisper.

“I know, I’ll try to get you somewhere safe. Luna, shield. Riley, run ahead, up the beach to find a spot for him. Warm him up.” I picked Flint up in my arms. Both animals yipped. Luna formed a large ice shield, the largest I’ve ever seen her make, behind us as more missiles shot towards us, the shield blocking all the missiles with a few small cracks. I trudged upwards, too weary to increase my speed.

We made it to the top, though the kraken’s attacks could still hit us, it being relentless in pursuit. I lay Flint down among the trees, while Riley tore apart various plants and piled them next to Flint, lighting it on fire. The kraken’s waves hopefully couldn’t reach there. Sadly, I noticed that Flint had once again closed his eyes.

I ran down again, withdrawing my bow. I formed another arrow, pulled the bow back so much that my hands started to shake, then released. I guided it towards the kraken. It sailed right past it. I stared at it, then angled my gaze up to the sky.

The kraken, seemingly unimpressed, spat a large column of water at me. “Luna, defend!” She formed another shield, knowing what I was doing. A forceful stream of water thudded against the shield, pushing back against us, but not enough to disrupt my focus. After a long time, an arrow, at high speed, landed from the sky right onto the kraken’s head. Then, Twillight Bay’s peaceful atmosphere became thunderous.

The kraken, hit by a high-speed missile that sank right into its head, gave a huge roar, the last one it will ever give. It thrashed, a giant wave crashing foward. With what remaining strength I had, I split the wave in half in front of me and Luna, Luna conjuring yet another shield in front of me in case my strength waned.

The wave ebbed and returned to the sea. The kraken floated on the sea, motionless. I stared at it. A faint blue glow emanated from the body, gradually growing in brightness. As the entire thing was covered in azure light, the light all flooded towards the top of the beast. They gathered in a spot, so bright I had to look away, just noticing my intense fatigue, barely holding myself upright. When the glow faded, I saw an object hit the kraken and bounce into the water. I used my hydrokinesis to pull it to me, trying to determine if it was what I thought it was.

“-happening? Got to check on Flint. Willow, we must go! Look at me!” I was shocked to hear Luna’s voice so clearly now and speaking perfectly. Ignoring it temporarily, I looked at what had just floated into my hands. It resembled the shard from Earth Flint had but was blue instead of brown. The shard of Water.

I put my attention onto Luna. “I’m assuming that this shard is the reason for you being able to speak to me like this now?” I said, purposefully not looking at her eyes.

“Yes! The shard has amplified my capabilities.” A large shard of ice, larger than the ones she had previously been able to make, appeared in front of her. It fell, only cracking a bit when landing. “See?”

“Now we really have to go check on Flint.”

“Oh no! We got too distracted. Go!” I burst into a run, but fell as soon as I took a few steps, falling onto the beach. Luna looked up. “Oh. Your injuries. How do we treat them?” Despite my pain, I sat upright and pulled out the shard.

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“Let me test this out.” The best technique Water people could use is to channel the energy of moisture into our bodies to speed up the healing process. Only the pinnacle of our tribes managed to perfect this technique, though. I figured that with the enhancement of the water shard, I could probably try. Cascade himself taught me for half a Rotation, after all.

I closed my eyes, channeling the energy from the sea, a vast source, into my body. With the help of the Water shard, the process took less energy. I groaned as pain shot through my side and my arms. I released the hold. My wounds hurt much less than before, now light, shallow wounds instead of deep rips and cuts. I headed over to Flint to examine his condition.

He was worse than expected. The kraken hadn’t targeted him after I dragged him up, but his wounds were still a deep red. Riley whined, nuzzling closer to Flint. His clothes were torn apart on his stomach, a ragged mess, mingled with flesh and dried blood. His face still bore a defiant snarl, and he was making some groaning noises, which I took for a good sign. I laid him on his side, and tried to see if my technique for healing would work. It didn’t. Not a huge surprise. I noticed his bag on the side, with a container outside. I picked it up. “Riley, know what this is?”

“He says that he saw Flint pour it on his wounds before. Healing salve, I suppose.” I opened it and poured it onto various parts of Flint, mainly his stomach. He lurched forward, awaking with a gasp. His eyes darted towards where I was pouring on the healing salve.

“Don’t use too much, I only have so much!” Flint exclaimed.

“It’s alright. I have more.”

“I don’t know if it’ll work for me.”

“Aside from being cold, it’ll probably be fine.”

“Cold isn’t fine.”

“And you won’t be if I didn’t put more of this on. Do you have any more of those wound plasters?”

“I’ll do it myself. I don’t need you fussing over me like I’m a baby.” An emberfig appeared in his hands, and he tore into it. “Mind leaving me alone for a while? I need to switch my clothing.” I went with Luna to the shore, staring at the sea idly. The body of the kraken disappeared when the shard formed, condensing all its power into one item. I needed to show Flint the shard. “I’m done!” He shouted.

I walked back over to him. “Luna, if you don’t want to talk to me, then I won’t hear you, right?”

“Yes. Only when I direct my thoughts at you will you hear me. Though we need the shard to do it. We will be able to do it independently once our bond grows stronger.”

“Can Flint hear you?”

“I doubt it. Flint, can you hear me?” Flint didn’t respond.

“Who are you talking to?” We had some more time to talk before, Flint, now in a fur coat addressed me. He doesn’t seem to be in much pain.

“Luna. The Water shard heightens our capabilities.”

“Yeah, I suppose – wait WHAT?! The Water shard?”

“What did you expect from a gigantic ancient water beast that almost killed us? An apology?”

“I thought that I should have done more.” He seemed disappointed in himself.

“Come on, what else could you have done? You even made the kraken half blind, and you were exceptionally prone to practically everything it could throw at you. You did a very good job. Your last arrow was the most powerful one I’ve ever seen! Don’t be disappointed.”

“Thanks, I guess. Now what do we do?”

“We both need to take a rest. The kraken inflicted a lot of wounds on us. We can’t keep going like this.”

“But the kraken probably disturbed the wildlife, so the pufferfish won’t be attacking us.”

“Let’s not take that chance. I’m too tired to properly defend us if they do. And no,” I shushed him as he opened his mouth. “You won’t be defending us. Your wounds need time to heal, and if you get hit by a pufferfish it’s gonna be horrible for you. Better safe than sorry.”

We stayed at the bay for a few more days, waiting for our wounds to heal. I hunted every day for us, being the least injured. Even Riley seemed to have sustained wounds, a few gashes on his sides, which Flint patched up with some plasters. When I asked him how much he had, he shrugged and closed his eyes. A huge bundle of it appeared on the beach.

Both Flint and Riley seemed to be afraid of the sea now, choosing to move our camp up from where it was destroyed. Flint only leaves camp to take walks and practice his archery, with Riley constantly following him. I used my spare time to talk to Luna and understand more.

“If you can actually talk to me fluently, why could you only send me simple words before?”

“Because I couldn’t send across more complex words, you wouldn’t be able to hear it.”

“Why can you do it now if the Water shard only enhances our capabilities?”

“It widens the channel of our mental link as well.”

“Can you send me pictures as well?”

“I’m not quite sure how to do that. Let me try.” Luna closed her eyes, then opened them. “I think it’s possible, but I have no idea how to do it.”

“No worries. This is good enough.”

A few days into our rest, after Flint’s wounds were almost completely healed, we packed up our stuff, dismantled the barrier, then returned to our journey.