“W-What’s going on?”

  Mari looks around in a panic as a shiver of five sharks burst out of the water, surrounding her, Meg, and Vira on the pier. Meg immediately gets close to Mari, facing out towards the ocean to keep her safe from this sudden threat, while Vira faces the nd, covering the Erune’s other side.

  “I don’t know what’s going on here, but these sharks certainly don’t appear to be friendly.” Vira draws her sword as the sharks circle the group.

  “Yeah, it’s just like this morning… I’m gonna need your help again, Ursu!” Meg calls out.

  “Sharrrk!” Ursu lets out a battle cry as she emerges, ready to fight as Meg pulls out one of her combat knives.

  “Shaaark!” One of the sharks suddenly swoops in, shortly followed by the others, and Meg and Vira start fighting them off, swiping at the sharks whenever one tries to get close, while Mari does her best to simply stay out of harm's way. The sharks aren’t letting them off easy, however, and are noticeably more aggressive than the smaller group that had harassed Ursu earlier in the day.

  “We’ll need your assistance too, Luminiera!” Vira calls out. “Do take it easy on them, though. We still don’t know why these creatures are attacking.”

  The primal beast flies out of Vira, along with a series of bits, and immediately jumps into the fray, flying around and shooting low intensity sers at their attackers to try and keep them busy. It’s not enough to stop the sharks, but it does ease some of the pressure on the grounded fighters.

  “Why are they attacking us!?” Mari yells as she cowers in fear from the constant swooping.

  “They certainly are persistent, aren’t they?” Vira lets fly a rapid flurry of strikes to deter a pair of sharks that had both swooped in at once. “It feels too organised for a random attack.”

  “Huh? Why would a bunch of sharks want to attack us, though?” Meg delivers a left hook to a shark that was flying by her, allowing Ursu to headbut it with incredible force.

  “Honestly, I had hoped that you might have had an idea as to why, but we can save the theorising for after we’ve dealt with them!” Vira swiftly kicks a shark after Luminiera forces it to change its flight path, the tag team strike knocking it away from the group for a few precious moments. It ultimately serves little benefit in the long run, however, as the sharks don’t seem to have any intention of backing off no matter how much the combatants keep them at bay. Meg and Vira barely even have time to breathe, let alone pay attention to anything other than the sharks attacking them at any given moment, as they continue fighting the group off.

  “I-I don’t understand…” Meg says after a while, suddenly sounding very worried. “Why did it do that?”

  “What’s happening?” Vira asks as she continues to fight.

  “The… The shark…”

  Vira looks over at Meg to see her looking downwards at nothing, seemingly unaware of the pair of sharks charging right at her.

  “MEG!” Vira calls out.

  “Shaaaaaaark!”

  “Wha…” Meg looks back up, finally noticing her incoming attackers, but with no time to react. Fortunately for her, Vira runs around from her left, using the hilt of her bde to knock one of the sharks skyward, while Luminiera swoops in from the other side and forms a light construct in the shape of a bde, crashing it down in front of Meg, which forces the other shark to veer off.

  “You must focus on the battle, Meg!” Vira chides her.

  “Sorry, I-”

  “EEEEEEK!” Meg is cut off by a scream coming from behind, Vira jumping in to save her has left the other side unguarded, and another two of the sharks are now diving right at Mari, who is frozen in pce as her attackers draw ever closer. Luminiera quickly fires off a volley of beams at them in hopes of driving them away. One of them takes a hit and turns back, but the other avoids the attack, and is now only moments away from hitting its target.

  “MARI!” Meg calls out. She starts sprinting over to try and protect her, but there’s no time, she’s not going to make it…

  “Leviathan!” The group hears someone call out from a distance.

  Suddenly, a water spout shoots in their direction from the next dock over, carrying none other than Djeeta along with it. The captain unches off of the spout, delivering a flying kick to the shark mere moments before it reaches Mari, sending the creature rolling across the wooden dock.

  “Hehehe!” Upon nding, Djeeta turns to the others and grins widely as she gives them a thumbs up. Everyone, even the sharks, are stunned by the spectacle, with the exception of Meg who proceeds to angrily stomp right past her, towards the shark that just took a boot to its side.

  Without saying a thing, Meg grabs the shark with one hand, starts running back towards the end of the dock with a terrifying look on her face, and throws it like a javelin. Everyone watches it soar through the air at incredible speeds, but Meg doesn’t even wait for it to hit the water before turning back to the sharks that still remain.

  “Leave us alone, you stupid sharks!” She yells, and the three of them turn tail and fly off in a chorus of “Shaaark!”. Once they're gone, Ursu and Luminiera return to hiding in their respective partner’s bodies.

  “Wow! Great work everyone!” Lyria runs down the docks to rejoin the group.

  “Yeah, good thing you got Djeeta there just in time!” Vyrn says as he follows behind.

  “T-Thanks for the help!” Mari says, still a little shaken from the encounter. “We really appreciate it, don’t we, Meg?” She turns back to the end of the dock, where Meg is just standing there with a troubled look on her face as she looks downwards again.

  “Mari… I’m sorry.” Meg says after a few moments. “I wasn’t good enough… You… You almost got hurt again…”

  “But I didn’t, and that’s what’s important, right?” Mari grabs Meg’s hand.

  Meg sighs softly, calming down a bit as she looks up to face Mari, but struggling to look her in the eyes. “Yeah, it’s just… I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you…”

  “Well, that is the point of being in a crew, is it not? We’re all able to watch each other’s backs to ensure no one gets hurt.” Vira says as the captain nods behind her. “That being said, it’s important to remain focused in battle. We’re all very lucky that Djeeta got here when she did.”

  “That’s a good point, actually.” Mari looks back to Meg. “You got, like, really anxious there for a moment. Did something happen back there?”

  “O-Oh! No, nothing happened, really!” Meg says nervously as she starts walking back down the docks to resume their journey back, and the others follow. “I was just… confused about why we were getting attacked back there.”

  “I must admit, I’m rather concerned about that as well.” Vira says from behind. Although I don’t see how it would cause that strong of a reaction. I certainly hope her anxiety around confessing to Mari isn’t impacting her ability to fight...

  “Yeah, that’s twice now that sharks have attacked today, what’s goin’ on?” Vyrn asks.

  Mari looks down in thought. “It is really strange, yeah, they were really aggressive when that meteor nded in the ocean a few years back, but they’ve been fine ever since. Now that they’ve attacked twice, though, I don’t think we can just say it’s just a coincidence or whatever. Do you have any idea what might be going on, Meg?”

  “Honestly, I don’t have a clue what’s happening anymore…” She says, holding her arms. “It’s just one thing after another today…”

  “Well, do not worry Meg.” Vira says as she stares right into the other woman’s eyes. “You’re not the only one who wants to get to the bottom of this, and I swear on my honour as a knight that I shall not rest until I’ve eliminated everything that would threaten Auguste!”

  “O-Oh, t-thanks, Vira!” Meg says with a nervous smile. “B-But you know… Maybe e-eliminating the problem is a bit extreme… What if there’s something going on behind the scenes?”

  “Oh, of course, I should have specified that I pn to eliminate the root cause of the issue, no matter what form it may end up being!” Vira announces triumphantly. “Anyone who dares to cause problems for these isles will face quite a swift punishment indeed, hehehe…”

  “G-Gee! That’s… great…!” Meg tries her best to smile.

  Vira can’t help but notice Meg’s reaction to her decration, but she doesn’t get a chance to dwell on it before Vyrn speaks up.

  “But how’re we meant to do that without any leads? And what if a bunch’a sharks attack again?”

  “Right. Until we figure out what’s going on, we have to assume they’ll attack again…” Lyria looks around nervously, but Djeeta takes her hand, giving her a reassuring grin.

  “The captain’s right. We’ll just have to do our best to keep everyone safe while we search for more clues.” Vira turns to Mari. “Do you have any means of defending yourself?”

  “Well, I’ve got the shark uncher at home, but with Ursu stuck inside Meg and all the others acting weird, I don’t really have many sharks to unch at the moment…” She muses.

  “Shark uncher…” Vira takes a moment to wonder whether it’s worth inquiring further before continuing. “I… think I can take that as a no, and as such I don’t believe it would be wise to leave you on your own in case the sharks attack again. Make sure you stay close to Meg at all times until this matter is resolved.”

  Mari wraps her arms around Meg’s torso and hugs her tightly, causing the battle hardened woman to let out a quiet squeal in surprise. “As if I wasn’t pnning on doing that even before the sharks showed up!” Mari grins.

  “Well it never hurts to be vigint, and who knows, maybe this will give the two of you time to talk about things.” Vira gives the two of them a sly smile, which they both return with a look of confusion. “Things that have been on your mind recently.” She follows up impatiently.

  “Oh, r-right…” Meg says once she finally realises what Vira’s talking about. “I’m sure we’ll have tons of time to talk about the… t-things… once the shark stuff is sorted, y-yeah.”

  Mari looks between the two of them suspiciously, and is about to say something when someone calls out from afar.

  “Mommy, look! It’s the dy from the posters!”

  Everyone looks over to see a young human child running towards them, and her mother trailing behind. Mari lets go of Meg, who then jogs over to meet them in the middle, kneeling before the child with a smile.

  “Hey kid, what’s your name?”

  “Menie!” The child excitedly announces. “And you’re Meg!”

  “I sure am!” Meg chuckles. “I guess it’s kinda hard to miss that around here, huh?”

  “Yeah! You’re the super special hero who beats up all the bad guys!”

  “I’m not anything special, you know. I’m a normal girl, just like anyone else!”

  The girl looks at her in amazement. “Really!? But you’re so big and strong!”

  “I am, but I worked really hard to get this strong!” Meg pumps a fist.

  She gasps. “Can I get that strong as well?”

  “Of course!” Meg leans in and lowers her voice as if sharing a secret. “Wanna know how I do it?”

  “Yes please, yes please!” The girl squeals.

  “Okay, so the first thing is that you need to know which muscle groups to focus on. First up is…”

  Meg then proceeds to have a long conversation with the child, patiently answering every question she has, and keeping a smile on her face the whole time. The rest of the crew watch the exchange from a short distance away.

  “My, that’s quite sweet, isn’t it Mari? I do have to wonder where our captain and the others have run off to now, though.” Vira looks around the area after noticing the sudden absence of Djeeta and the others, only to look over to Mari and see that the Erune is almost white with shock. “...Mari?”

  “I… I had no idea…” She says after a moment. “...Do you… know what this means?”

  “I’m… not certain I follow.”

  “It means…” Mari grabs Vira by the shoulders and looks her dead in the eyes. “It means she’s AMAZING with kids! How is this the first time I’ve been made aware of it!?”

  Mari lets go of Vira and pulls out her notebook, feverishly scribbling on one of the pages.

  “Are… you okay, Mari?” Vira reaches a hand towards her friend out of concern, but stops when she starts speaking again.

  “I’m adding more bedrooms to the floor pn. This changes everything, Vira! How did I ever think just two extra bedrooms would be enough for our future family!? I don’t care if she’s a human and I’m an Erune, I’m going to figure out a way we can have kids together!”

  Vira narrows her eyes. “...And the part where the both of you are women…?”

  Mari shoots Vira a quick, judgemental gnce. “Keep up, Vira! If I manage to solve the whole race thing, taking care of the gender problem will obviously be a piece of cake in comparison!”

  Vira looks down at her hands while Mari finishes her sketch. Is… Is this how other people feel when I talk about Lady Katalina…? No, I’m far more reserved than this, aren’t I? …Right, Luminiera…? Vira’s primal companion chooses not to respond to her thoughts.

  Mari closes her notebook and raises a fist triumphantly. “I swear upon my honour as the Auguste Tourism Association Chairperson that at least one of us is going to get the other pregnant! No, wait, Megnant!”

  Vira watches as Mari starts giggling to herself as she pictures what her life will be in the years to come. “Well, if nothing else, I can see how you got a job in marketing…”

  “Oh, good point! If the kids like her this much we’ll need to work on more lines of merchandise targeted towards the younger demographics, that’s a market segment we clearly aren’t taking full advantage of. I’m going to have plenty to do once my holiday is over. And by the way, don’t think I didn’t see what you were doing earlier, Vira!” Mari points at her.

  “W-Whatever do you mean?”

  “It’s real nice of you to try and encourage Meg to propose sooner rather than ter, but you really don’t have to. I just know she’s going to propose on her own any day now!” Mari sighs before walking towards Meg and the child.

  “She… really isn’t…” Vira mumbles to herself before following.

  “...and remember to invest in high quality protein, okay? The cheaper stuff just isn’t gonna get you the same results.” Meg says, continuing to teach Menie, who is now sitting on her right bicep, all her bodybuilding secrets.

  She nods enthusiastically. “Got it! I’m gonna be a cool hero like you are one day!”

  Meg grins. “If you keep working hard you’ll get there before you know it, Menie! Now, me and my friends have to get going now, okay?”

  “Okay…” The child feels rather dejected about having to say goodbye.

  “Sorry about this.” Menie's mother says. “She’s been so excited to visit Auguste, and now that we’re here it’s hard to keep her in one spot for too long.”

  “It’s okay Ma’am, I’m gd she’s enjoying her visit!” Meg holds her hand out towards Menie. “Gimme a high five before we go!”

  The child doesn’t do it though. “What’s up with your hand?” She asks, giving it a curious look.

  “My hand? I don’t think-” Meg looks at her hand, and gets quite the shock to see that it’s changed colour. Her palm has turned a stark white, and the rest of the hand is grey. Both colours quickly fade into her regur skin tone at her wrist. “O-Oh this? It’s nothing, d-don’t worry about it!”

  “Okay!” Menie gives the high five, and Meg puts her back on the ground.

  “Bye, Meg!”

  “See you ter!”

  The two wave goodbye as the parent and child walk off, and as soon as they’re gone, the smile Meg had put on vanishes completely as she turns back to the crew.

  “Guys, what’s going on with my hand!?” She asks anxiously as she holds on to her wrist. She can’t help but notice that the newly coloured skin feels a little weird as well.

  “That’s quite strange…” Vira says as she and Mari inspect the hand. “When did this happen?”

  “I don’t know… I-It wasn’t like this when we fought the sharks, was it?”

  “No, I definitely would have noticed it.” Mari takes the hand and starts feeling around it a bit. “It’s weird though, this skin looks and feels a lot like…”

  “Like U-Ursu, yeah…” Meg finishes Mari’s sentence with a slight blush. “But why would the skin on my hand suddenly go all sharky?”

  “Um, can I take a look?” Lyria asks, running over.

  “And where did you three go all of a sudden? Katalina would be furious if something happened to you.” Vira gives them a stern look as they approach.

  “Sorry, we saw a cool rock that looked just like the drawing of a crab on the treasure map and thought it’d be important…” Vyrn expins.

  “You think you might know something about Meg’s hand, Lyria?” Mari asks.

  “I think I’ve noticed something about the presence I can feel, yes. I won’t know for sure until I’ve taken a look though.” Meg holds the hand out in Lyria’s direction, and the blue haired girl holds on to it with both hands, closing her eyes for a few moments.

  “Oh, this is it!" She says as she opens them again.

  “What’s going on?” Meg looks more anxious than ever.

  “Whatever it is that’s giving off primal beast energy is inside your hand, Meg!”

  “What!? So it was coming from Meg after all?” Vyrn excims.

  “H-How do we get it out?” Meg asks quickly.

  “We’ll need to figure out what exactly the object is and the effect it’s having on you before we can think about removing it.” Vira says in a firm tone. “If it’s causing physical changes on this scale, removing it hastily could easily result in you or Ursu getting seriously hurt.”

  “Well, how do we figure that out!? We’ve already spoken to every doctor in the area!”

  “Oh, wait!” Mari suddenly yells. “Since we know this definitely has to do with primal beasts now, what if we ask that Poseidon guy? This totally seems like something he’d know about. Can you call him out or whatever, Lyria?”

  Lyria looks down apologetically. “I’m sorry, Poseidon’s not exactly… on me right now…”

  “Huh?”

  “You see, Lowain and his bros asked to borrow him the other day, I’m pretty sure they said they wanted to take him to a nearby isnd to get him something to drink. I guess he must have been thirsty or something…”

  “I think ya mean they wanted to take him out for drinks. Right, Lyria?” Vyrn points out.

  “Yeah, that’s it! But they still hadn’t returned by the time we were dropped off here, so Poseidon’s still with them.”

  “Well, so much for that idea…” Mari grumbles.

  “It is rather unfortunate for us, yes.” Vira nods. “Although I must say, I’m rather proud to hear that those three have started to explore new horizons, and haven’t given up after how their previous romantic pursuits pyed out. Still, we need to get to the bottom of what’s inside Meg’s hand…”

  “What if it’s the core shard?” Djeeta asks.

  “Oh, the missing part of Big Boy’s core!” Vyrn says.

  Vira takes a moment to think. “I must admit, that would make a lot of sense. But that doesn’t expin how it ended up inside Meg here. Was that shard the cause of Ursu’s strange behaviour this morning?”

  “Can we just forget about all of this for now?” Meg asks. “I’d really rather just go back to Mari’s pce for the night.”

  “But Meg, what about your hand?” Mari reaches for Meg’s hand. “Maybe we can-”

  “Mari. Please.” Meg says firmly, moving her hand out of Mari’s range. She sees the look of surprise on the Erune’s face after the fact, and sighs.

  “Sorry… I’m just…” She says, holding her head with her other hand. “After getting attacked by sharks, and everything with Ursu, and this primal stuff, and the…” She stops herself. “...I just don’t know if I can handle any more weird stuff today…”

  “It’s okay, Meg. It has been a long day, hasn’t it?” Mari replies with a soft smile.

  “Thanks. We can keep searching for leads tomorrow, okay?” Meg starts walking back towards Mari’s pce without even waiting for an answer, and Mari just watches her leave for a few moments before she feels a hand on her shoulder.

  “She’s probably just tired, the rest will do her some good.” Vira says. “Just make sure you’re there for her when she needs you.”

  “Yeah, we’ll figure it out! We always do!” Mari gives Vira a smile before following Meg, and the rest of the crew follows suit. Perhaps they’ll find the answers they’re searching for tomorrow…

  SyntaxSpeedway