Erin let out a deep sigh of relief as they pass the zone border. The quest had auto-updated to match the level of the zone, now showing a gray 8 in her log. The quest indicated the highest level of any mob in the zone - it had a range of 1 through 8.
It had been a tense trip, but thanks to the Sonar package she'd picked up, it was uneventful enough. Being able to spot the players was no guarantee that they'd be able to outrun them, but they had gotten lucky.
They had arrived in Vortex Reef - the least popular starting zone, with good reason. A giant sinkhole sucked down water into an infinite abyss, which caused the entire surrounding zone to slowly orbit it. Porous volcanic rock floated in a ring around the zone like some kind of underwater asteroid belt.
She knew the zone well - she'd helped make it after all. In her biased opinion it was one of the coolest places in the game, but she could see why it was a bit overwhelming for a level 1 Landlubber in their first diving suit.
She made for one of the biggest asteroid-lava rocks, recognizing its shape. Sure enough, with a bit of searching she found a nearly hidden entrance behind some draping kelp. She beckoned her companion on. The tunnel twisted through the entire rock, lit inside by phosphorescent algae, and she took the left side at each fork, until it widened out into a small grotto.
"You can sleep here," she signed back. "This cave is pretty unknown - I don't think it's even on the wiki." Her hands rapid-fire spelled the word w-i-k-i, and she idly wondered how well the automatic translation worked for someone who really couldn't hear. Neither one of them was actually fluent in the language - they were both just using the same program to communicate.
He signed back, "Can they still track me here?"
She nodded, "They can, but they still have to find the entrance. If they just follow the marker, they'll be led straight into a rock wall. If we're lucky, they'll think it's a bugged quest and move on."
She sighed, and thought about how weird it was to sigh with her mouth while talking with her hands. "The bad news is, I have to log out soon, so I can't watch over you." She considered the sonar item in her inventory. It had wiped her out of currency, but...
"Oops, I dropped that really useful sonar item, " she said, aloud for the first time. "Where did it go?" She pretended to look around for it cluelessly.
He picked up the idea quick enough, sliding over to pick it up. He stopped moving when he touched it, his eyes focusing on a menu she couldn't see. He was awfully close.
It was just starting to get uncomfortable when the sonar turned into bright light and disappeared from his hand. A bulge in his forehead seemed to bubble out a massively, before shrinking back to just slightly larger than it had been. She felt a sudden thrumming vibration pass through her.
"Mutation", he signed after a long pause. "I have echolocation now." She suddenly found herself wrapped in a hug. He retreated immediately, thrashing the water in haste, signing, "Sorry. Thank you! You have no idea how much this means."
"Don't worry about it! By the way, what's your name? I'm Erin."
"I'm..." then he laughs, a strange sound underwater.
"Just call me Jonah. I've been swallowed by the sea, so it's only fitting."