I was woken up early the next morning. Aggie informed me that the upper bosses had changed their minds about letting Adam and I back into the lake. Someone with specialized skills had volunteered to help and we were to assist them in their tracking.

I didn't know how much tracking could be done underwater, but if someone was willing to help look for Filmore I was more than willing to go back into the lake. Adam didn't seem so willing but he was there waiting.

"I don't understand why we are doing this. We've already gone over it."

"If there is still a chance to find him we should take it."

"He's not there. This is pointless," Adam slapped the surface of the water with the palm of his hand.

"He has to be somewhere and maybe this person can find him."

"Waste of time, we should be hunting the crabs."

"There are other people hunting crabs. We're the only ones able to look into the deep."

"Well unless there's another water type then this person is useless."

"You don't know that," I protested. Why was he being such an ass?

There was some movement on the shore and I was distracted. Instead of arguing with me more he dove under and swam away.

"Stay together!" a woman yelled from the shore.

"Should I stick with him or wait here?" I called back.

The woman swore a bit but then waved at me to stay put.

A group of black-clad guards were standing around someone I couldn't see from shore. Whoever it was, they were small. Very small. They wouldn't send a child, would they?

Then the group parted and a woman stepped out around them. Maize. It was Maize. I wouldn't have been more surprised if my own mother had stepped out.

Chance had said that Maize was skilled. I knew that she had to be in order to protect Janette from kidnappers, but I hadn't thought about what those sorts of skills could be used for.

Maize stepped into the water. One of the guards handed her a buoy, attached to it was a curled-up length of rope. The water magicians that had been scanning the shallows had used them so that they would be able to rest in between free dives. Was Maize a freediver?

Could she even swim with her wings? They were stronger than they looked to be able to hold up during sudden strong wind gusts, but that was completely different in the currents of the water.

She didn't seem to be concerned and jumped right in ignoring some instructions the woman on the shore was trying to give her at the last minute. The woman began to yell her instructions from the shore as Maize surfaced and swam towards me.

"Let's find him," she said to me gripping onto her buoy to stay surfaced.

"Right," I agreed taking the end of the rope.

"We should check areas where there is a significant amount of debris. Tree roots, branch pile-ups, areas with lots of loose rocks," she pushed her wet hair out of her eyes.

"If that's what you want, but Adam and I already checked all those areas. Honestly, I think he may have found a cave and got trapped."

"Understood," she nodded. "Where is the male?" She looked around then down into the water the best she could.

"He's being moody. He already took off," I explained.

She nodded and looked around.

Stolen story; please report.

"Um, about caves, I..."

"Not now," Maize met my eyes. Then her eyes moved towards the shore with the group of people watching us. She was right, we couldn't talk here.

"There are some areas with dense tree lines that have log pile-ups. Do you want to start there?"

"Yes," she nodded and gripped the buoy.

I dove under with the end of the rope in my hands. I tied it around my waist and began to tow Maize. The drag of a second person was difficult. It was harder than I thought it would be. I found myself a bit winded when we reached the tree line. Gasping for air underwater was always an odd experience. The water flowed through my gills harder than normal since I was taking in more water. They burned a bit and I was glad to have a moment of rest while Maize swam around inspecting the tree line.

"What are you looking for?"

"Signs of Goblin Crabs."

"Why?" I was confused. We were looking for Filmore not hunting crabs.

Maize turned and looked at me. "You live on the coast." It was more a statement than a question. She already knew that I did. "Goblin Crabs are scavengers."

Oh, oh shit. The implications of that hit me.

"I'm looking for signs of crabs and signs of a mass feeding event."

"You," I cleared my gills, not because of debris but because I really didn't want to say what I was thinking. "You don't think..." I really couldn't finish. Gods Above.

"Goblin Crabs will attack and eat a disabled person alive. They are capable of dragging prey for distances. There will be signs of that though if that's the way it went."

"You don't think he's alive then?"

Maize paused in her paddling around. "The crabs are a problem. If he was injured then he was most likely attacked. Depending on how hurt he was he may be able to fend them off for a while, but the longer he's missing the weaker he'll get."

The weaker he'd be the most likely he'd be attacked and eaten by the monsters. It was a very real possibility. Adventurers knew that and usually formed parties. If you were injured your party members wouldn't leave you to be eaten alive by monsters. Filmore was alone.

"Not here," Maize said finally. I'd been caught up with my thoughts and found myself feeling a combination of emotions because she was here with me. Comfort. Security. Knowing that someone I trusted was out here with me made me feel safer.

I hadn't realized that the anxiety of being alone had been floating around in my brain until that point. I'd become very good at ignoring my fears. If I had realized my fear sooner I may have been more clingy towards Adam. I no longer felt like I could swim alone.

"Caves," Maize swam up to me.

"Caves?" I questioned. My brain couldn't switch gears so fast.

"Chance," Maize whispered and looked around. "Underground?"

Oh! Right, I still needed to tell her about the cave.

"I think I found what you are looking for. There is a cave that leads to the ocean. They have a bunch of emergency boats stockpiled in the cave. There is a door and it probably leads into the underground cave network."

I described the inside of the cave the best I could. Then I told her about the magic that kept the cave entrance hidden from the outside and the dangerous whirlpools lurking right under the surface. I didn't want her thinking that stealing a boat and leaving The Island would be easy. Not that we could just leave with the magic bubble barrier that Chance had talked about in place.

Maize had me take her to three more spots before we needed to eat, wet boiled eggs and wet hard cheese. They were the only foods I'd found that held up well in the water. Maize had a jar of drinking water with her. I hadn't thought of it. I never got thirsty in the water. Clean drinking water that wasn't tainted by the saltwater of the sea would be essential for survival. Yet, I hadn't seen any sort of food provisions inside the emergency exit cave.

What did that mean? That it wasn't needed? Why wasn't it needed? It was a few days from the mainland on the big boats. It would be even longer in a rowboat, some food and water would be necessary. Were they depending on being rescued by the larger boats once in the water? That was possible, but what if the bigger boats couldn't launch?

I mentioned my thoughts to Maize.

"I can think of two possibilities. Each person is responsible for their own emergency kit, but if it's a sudden emergency you can't expect people to be near their kits at all times. The second possibility is that there are emergency kits placed around the underground for people to just grab when evacuating. It could be a combination of both."

It made sense, but it didn't seem to be efficient to me. What if no one in your boat was able to grab a kit? You couldn't leave it to luck to end up with a water magician on your boat to produce drinking water.

Mystery unsolved. Maize and I continued to search.

In my heart, I still hoped to find him alive, but my head was telling me that Maize was right about the monsters.

"Not good," Maize pointed towards the shore. It was an hour before sunset and the crabs were becoming more active. We couldn't get close to shore. The monsters were swarming and even attacking each other. We had to keep our distance or several crabs would jump into the water after us. As long as we stayed away they didn't bother us.

My heart sank. There was only one reason for them to swarm like that so aggressively. They'd found food. A large source of food.

"We should go back and let the squads know about it. We can't take this many on." Maize sighed. I felt like she wanted to, but was taking my lack of land maneuverability into consideration.

We had to leave it to the extermination squads. They would be able to determine what they'd been feeding on. Thicker bones would be left behind. We would have to wait until tomorrow for answers.