The girl dove into the water. Frea had always loved swimming, and she had always been worse at it than Yasha next to her. She kicked her legs and enjoyed the feeling of her muscles tensing and relaxing. The water was warm, despite the fact that it had been frozen over not twelve hours ago, and she paused for a moment to watch the sunlight stream through the surface, visible on the tiny bits of dirt floating everywhere.

Her gaze traveled up and she watched as Yasha circled the red hull of the fishing boat Frea had just leaped from, before following her towards the bottom.

There was a noticeably cold boundary around six feet deep, when she left behind the part that was directly warmed by the sun. That was also where most of the surface level waves formed, and the water became calmer as she descended. It was a lively place, Frea could see colorful, if small schools of fish in all directions. They darted away as the two neared.

She swam deeper and the pressure in her ears and throat increased. It was nostalgic, chasing Yasha down into the depths one rhythmic movement after the other.

This was the first time in three months Frea had a long swim, and neither she nor Yasha wanted to head back to town just because the day's work was finished. This depth was the limit for unfortunate land bound people without gills.

Deeper still and she saw the first hint of what would soon grow into a kelp forest. She stopped and just floated there as Yasha found entertainment.

They stayed underwater, chasing the small fish that weren't profitable laying nets for. She was even further outclassed when it came to hunting underwater, with Yasha swimming rings around the fishes that easily avoided her.

Yasha rubbed against her arm and through their bond Frea felt a familiar feeling of both joy and playfulness. The bright little fish moved in quick bursts as Yasha neared, but they were simply too small to move far enough in their twitches, and Yasha was plenty agile to catch them after their ineffectual escape. They were more toys than food in truth; she had gotten her fill during the day already, corralling fish into nets.

A smile played on her lips as she worked to keep up with Yasha against the stream of the river. They could easily lose an hour playing like this. After three months spent huddling inside and counting the days until spring equinox as the snow fell and the ocean was frozen over. Time had less meaning underwater though. Except it didn’t, of course.

She looked towards the surface again. She wished they could’ve stayed longer but there were still things that needed doing on the surface and one of them had to be the responsible one. The girl kicked her legs and reluctantly swam upwards.

Frea swam towards the small wooden pier. She waited under the surface for Yasha to curl around her torso and shoulder before heaving herself up—

A metal fist impacted her face. She reeled back but a gauntlet grabbed her shoulder before she could fall into the water. Frea screamed in pain and felt panic from Yasha. She instinctively brought her clawed hand up to the gauntlet trapping her.

Before she could rip it off a shock went through both of them. Her muscles seized for a heartbeat before going limp, she collapsed in the dark figure's grip. Yasha went unconscious, still wrapped around her. She could make out three moving shapes through bleary eyes.

“That was easy.”

“Let’s cut her throat an’ throw her in the bay”

A smack.

“No. We grab the serpent, we get out of here.”

*******

Her nose hurt. That was Freas first thought as she came to. She opened her eyes to a red brick wall right in front of her, another behind her that she was slumped against. With a finger she gingerly felt her face, realizing it was caked with dried blood. Her nose had been broken, she found after some careful prodding. Why was her nose broken?

The fist. The shock. Yasha!

She stood up, her gaze searching the alley she found herself in. A few more steps brought back clearer memories. Someone had waited to ambush her on the pier. They had attacked her, someone had cast a spell. Lighting or Paralysis or something, Frea didn’t know.

Yasha was gone, probably captured. Right?

Yes, her bond told her. Her friend was still alive. Frea paused and closed her eyes. Her bond was still there, that feeling somewhere, like a mark on her soul. Never uncomfortable though.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She guessed those had been adventurers. A notoriously amoral lot, with a respect for coin and a disrespect for people, law, and decency. Frea wanted to kill them. The strength of the feeling surprised her, but only slightly. She wanted to make them bleed, to rend them with her claws, to claw their eyes out.

Blood flowed down the palm of her hand. She let out a breath into the cool night air and unclenched the fist she had been making. Always dangerous to do that, with sharp claws instead of nails. The light of a distant lantern reflected off the crimson on her claws. She promised herself it would be their blood next time. Frea just had to find them.

The sun had set while she was out and the sky was dark, it had to have been at least four hours since they were ambushed. Someone, probably the adventurers, had dragged her a hundred feet from the shore into an alley and then left her there.

The pier she had mistakenly chosen to surface at was a small and temporary one. Built to handle the higher water line and increased traffic that came with spring melts, it would be disassembled in a month or two. Even so, today was spring equinox. There should have been more people around, but she saw only a drunk man and woman staggering down the street holding and pawing at each other. She had slept for closer to six hours then.

Frea looked for and found not a single track of her attackers, neither on the wooden pier nor the cobblestone road. No trail of blood, not even a scuff mark.

She sat down at the same spot she had been attacked and let her feet play with the water; it made the pit in her stomach lessen the tiniest bit. How was she going to find Yasha? She had no trail, no clue, they were gone six hours ago and she was outnumbered even if she did manage to find them.

But no, she had one clue. Maybe. She could maybe ask at the Hall of Adventure. Perhaps her attackers had found a contract there. A guild in all but name, they let anyone put up quests that they could not handle themselves. Attacking people in broad daylight was illegal, but a bounty on live magical creatures was surely not. She could ask about the three fuckwits there.

Her eyes returned to the dark sky. Of course, couldn’t do that until tomorrow. Right now she had to head back to the orphanage. She stood up after deliberately not washing her face; the dried blood might earn her some sympathy from Mrs. Miller.

The night air was cool but not cold against her skin and it made her feel exposed as she walked along the mostly empty stone streets, hugging herself. She was wearing her most valuable possessions, shorts and a breatsband, woven from some fabric the shopkeeper had said contained merfolk hair. Frea wouldn’t have bought it if she believed that, but regardless the fabric worked wonderfully. It was unobtrusive in water and always remained dry on land.

If she was ever walking on the street in just this however, Yasha would be wrapped around her torso and shoulders instead. She was naturally much much more attention grabbing, with her purple and blue scales, to say nothing of when she actually tried to be eye-catching and flared her beautiful frills and spines.

A tear rolled down her cheek and she let it, not wanting to smudge the blood even more.

****

She found her way to Harbor street. It was the only street in the town of Shamut well lit by light crystals. On both sides were two and three story buildings made of brick. Almost all of them were shops, set up along Harbor street to attract the eye of wealthy shipping merchants and newly paid sailors alike. That reminded her, she hadn’t collected her pay today—yesterday. She would have to do that as well when the sun rose, if they even let her.

She began walking towards the orphanage but was quickly stopped by a pair of guards.

“Halt!”

Frea turned and saw a man and a woman in breastplates, skin slightly darker than her own. They both had a baton in one hand and a spear strapped to their backs. She met the brown eyes of the man and watched as his expression went from bored to wary. Oh right, she looked like she'd been in a fight.

The man, who was the same height as her, stepped in too close while the woman stayed back and kept her hand close to the enchanted whistle at her hip.

“What’s your name?”

“Frea.”

The guards looked at each other. She saw the woman's eyes linger on her gills and claws.

“We were attacked, and a group of adventurers took my friend. You have to help me find her, please”

“What did these adventurers look like? And what does your friend look like?”

“Yasha is a sea serpent. She’s a bit longer than me and has purple scales on her back and light blue on her belly. There were three of them, and one of them had a gauntlet, another one is a mage. They all wore black. I think, I didn’t really see, they ambushed me and took her, six hours ago”

Their faces didn’t change much, but Frea thought the man's face lost some of it’s attentiveness when she described Yasha.

“Understo—six hours? Should have reported this earlier.”

“I was unconscious.”

“Six hours. Think it’s a Sleep spell?”

The woman spoke quietly for the first time, addressing the man.

“Not much to go on anyhow.”

“Miss, we’ll report this to the detective. Now…”

Frea thought what she wanted to say was “Stop looking like an animal on Harbor street”

“We’ll find your pet. Good luck.”

It was a clear dismissal.

“Yes sir.”

Frea walked on, reminded why she didn’t consider going to the guard. These were royal guards. The king was three hundred miles upriver.