Spear tips and old swords had pushed them towards the castle quickly. The scyllites were very quiet, none saying a word the entire trip, simply urging them along at threat of poking. Each was dressed in tatters of found cloth though this did little to hide their fish limbs and scales.

“Before I joined your group, sometimes people didn't greet me with weaponry.”

Alouella said, walking faster as a spear got a little too close to her back.

“I dunno, this seems comforting. I've met some of the nicest people after rough housing with them.”

“You were a boxer and this isn't exactly rough housing.”

The area just before the castle was more lively, scyllites coming out of patched homes to watch them, their faces devoid of any sort of noticeable emotion. Wormwood followed at a safe distance, swinging from roof top to roof top behind them.

Soon they stopped before the castle doors, thick, wooden monsters that split down the middle, the water logged wood scraping the stone of the mountain and leaving a brown wash of wood particles that washed back into the ocean.

A number of scyllites came out and were quickly parted by a much larger being. At least nine feet tall but stooped, rags of old priest robes stitched together and covering its body so nothing but the tail and snout could be seen when it emerged from the darkness of the castle and into the shade.

The noise Alouella made was a barely audible gasp, her whole body tensing until she was stiff as a board and she reached out, taking the nearest hand that belonged to Gwen and clamping down so hard her knuckles turned white. Seeing her reaction, Gwen took a step forward and to the side to shield her.

The shark looked down, the blue glow of eyes peering out from under a deep hood as she looked them over. A moments glance and she moved quickly, going to each guard and slapping at their hands. At first she spoke in the strange guttural, plegmy language of the scyllites but quickly switched to common.

“No no no no no no! Is bad, no weapon, bad.”

One of them said something but the shark vigorously shook its hands.

“Yes is way, see?”

It began to move its hands, gesturing to one side as though showing someone the way and what could be a poor imitation of a smile that showed a number of saw toothed, hook edged teeth.

It finally turned on the group and came close, eyes going from one to the next before settling on Alouella who shook as the shark came close.

“Leader, yes? Smart wizard girl, yes? Has staff, has robe!”

She picked and pulled at Alouella's clothes, swirling around her like a shark circling prey, or at least it looked that way to the elf who thought she might be dinner. It was hard to know what to make of it as the mood shifted to quickly.

“A-a-a-actually-”

Alouella stammered, the sounds stumbling out of her mouth before she could put them together into words. Gwen squeezed her hand and gently put the other up on the shark's chest.

“She certainly is our smart wizard girl but the leader of this expedition is him.”

She pointed at Clarke and the shark looked at him and back at Alouella before throwing her arms up.

“OH! Surprising, is surprising.”

She took a long last look at Alouella and swam over to Clarke. The way she moved, her tail swishing as though in the water.

“Welcome town. Is glad have you, enjoy visitors, love visitors. You stay long.”

Clarke offered his hand and they shook.

Stolen novel; please report.

“That's very nice of you. We didn't know anyone lived here and were quite surprised when we were stopped.”

“Visitors surprised all time but love visitors. Make happy, enjoy gold you find. Be rich. You stay long!”

He rubbed his chin. Friendly banter wasn't exactly his wheelhouse and he would have loved to leave it to Alouella since it was exactly her thing but the way she hid behind Gwen indicated something wrong.

“We don't want to stay too long. Did you say you wanted us to scavenge your gold?”

She nodded furiously.

“Yes, yes! No good gold here but you take if like.”

“Well, thank you very much.”

He watched her eyes, tiny blue pinpricks under her hood and every other moment was a glance behind him at Alouella.

I don't like that.

“Well, sorry to ask for more but would it be alright if we went into the castle for-”

“NO!”

The shark shouted. She'd straightened up, her teeth bared. The entire group, scyllites included, startled at how fast her personality switched. She quickly shrunk down, her fingers fidgeting one over the other.

“No, no, is sacred. Holy...church? Is for worship. Can not allow. Is very sorry.”

Clarke nodded but cursed mentally.

“Now, welcome guests? Food? Have big feast? Feed nice guests?”

It pointed to the nearby beach and a stack of old burned firewood that had obviously been used for bonfires. Clarke looked at the others and they shrugged.

“Suuuure.”

----------------------------------

The feast was, unsurprisingly, sea food and the cooking was far better than any of them expected but appreciated. Clarke had attempted to pry any information he could out of any of the scyllites but every one he questioned either didn't speak much common or waved the question away as, “holy, secret, yes.” and that was the end of it.

They'd been offered a “luxurious home” in one of the better kept broken down buildings nearer the castle but the offer was politely declined several times and they unwound around the campfire with the dirt taste of the miasma potion.

“That's certainly a very large, rough skinned obstacle in our path.”

Wormwood said. Alouella downed her drink and made a disgusted face.

“Maybe not. Did you notice how she kept trying to talk to me?”

“And followed you around? Yeah, I kept an eye on her. She really shouldn't stalk like that in just tattered robes. It's very revealing.”

“Revealing of what?”

Wade asked. He tossed his bottle at Clarke who caught it absent mindedly but gave him a dirty look for endangering it.

She leaned over and whispered loud enough for everyone to hear.

“That's a girl shark.”

He nodded slowly, wondering just what that might look like, if any different but Clarke kept it from taking root.

“What did she want? I saw she talked to you once. And you sort of...nodded a lot but never said anything.”

He'd taken his book out at this point and began furiously writing notes about the day.

“She wanted to talk to me alone tomorrow. I guess while you guys are salvaging treasure I'll see what she wants. But I feel like she can be trusted.”

“Hey.”

Gwen smacked Alouella's knee with her bottle.

“What was up with that whole...freak out?”

Alouella went red, embarrassed that it had finally been brought up and that she might have to say.

“Do I have to say?”

“It seems like it's a pretty big problem for you so yes. We need to know if you're going to freeze up again.”

Clarke said.

She sighed and worked her hands around her staff.

“Well...my mother was a famous water wizard so, naturally, she wanted me to learn that too. Father wanted me to learn earth magic but...well, I guess mother just has a way of making things sound better.”

“He does have a way of sucking the fun out of things. I bet he could make a bird lose interest in learning to fly.”

She couldn't refute Wade's answer, just nodded.

“Well, we went to the beach and my mother was showing me how to lift and control water, make it move how you like and in the process she lifted a large orb of water from the sea. It just so happened to have a very large shark in it.”

She rolled the staff in her hands faster now as the part she remembered most vividly returned to mind.

“The shark was scared, jumped out of the bubble and...landed on me.”

She traced a path from her bottom rib to her collarbone and pulled her robe away from her neck. Several teeth marks shown as lighter slices in her skin.

“And bit me. I just don't like sharks, alright? I won't swim, I won't go near a beach. It's never been a problem.”

Gwen snapped her finger.

“At least you got a cool scar out of it.”

“Hang on-”

Clarke stopped her there.

“You can't swim?”

Alouella shook her head, her face burning red. Wormwood laughed and got himself a dirty look from Gwen.

“And you can, city boy?”

“Of course. It's a useful skill to have if you fall into a moat while escaping a castle or live in a city with two huge rivers nearby. Can you?”

He asked smugly as though he already knew the answer.

“I can doggy paddle so that's like swimming. I can't help it if dwarves are thicker than other people!”

“Good dog.”

Wade teased her with a pat on the head and she immediately bit him so hard he had difficulty pulling away and fell off over when she let go. He rubbed his finger.

“Well, I can swim. We had a secret-”

Clarke interrupted.

“-grotto near the quarry in Greater Rens? I learned to swim there too. Isn't that where you used to hide your-”

“OOOOkay, maybe we should turn in for the night.”

There was the general mumbling of agreement as they unrolled their beds. They'd see what the shark girl wanted tomorrow.