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Nathair followed her gaze as she took in the massive area they were in. Rock had been smoothed over time by waves, sand, and salt, leaving a giant hole in the side of the mountain cliff.

Within the water below them, parts of a small ship lay wasted and eroded after hundreds of years of lying there. There wasn’t much to it since most of it was under sand, and the mast had long broken in half. At night, during high tide, water nearly came to the ledge they stood upon.

He guessed that the ship had sunk not long after the Demons’ arrival on Earth, and it had been used in a futile escape attempt. There was an abandoned and dilapidated port only a few kilometres south of here.

“I didn’t know we were so close to the ocean,” Linh stated at his side, her voice raspy with awe.

The pond in which he’d met her may be close, but Nathair was lightning fast beneath the water, and no creature was speedier while submerged. The tunnel they’d swam through just to get tohis own nest had required her to take a breath halfway through when she’d started kicking at him. That had been after minutes.

Adding to that, they’d been walking on a slight decline at a rather brisk pace for a little over an hour. They didn’t linger long anywhere.

The cliff here dips in more than anywhere else along the shore.It was as if the ocean wished to shape this part of the land.

“Can we go down?” she asked, peeking over the ledge to look at the water. “I want to check out that broken ship.”

Nathair inspected the water from a distance. He didn’t trust it.

He held his hand up for her to wait as he climbed his way down. He entered the shallow pool without sparing her a glance. A small rock landed on his head from her trying to peek, but he ignored it as he lowered himself.

The moment his torso was beneath the surface, and he lay down, he opened his mouth and let water rush into his lungs. His gills flared, and the change of breathing technique made the iciness of the liquid suddenly bearable.

All seemed silent. Everything seemed empty. All he saw was muddy sand and rock, and the underside of the overturned ship beneath the water.

He waited, closing his sight to concentrate.

Then the surface stopped rippling from him disturbing it.

Subtle, minute thumping eventually vibrated in the water, and Nathair opened his sight. The moment he launched himself in that direction, with his long back fins flaring from underneath their hidden flaps, a bubbling shrill sounded.

A Demon leapt from the sand to swim away, but Nathair’s unmatched speed had him grabbing it by its back flippers. When he lifted it from the water, it hissed and squealed with a seal-like face. It even gave a deep bawk as it tried to swipe at him, its red eyes dazed and confused.

Considering its lack of human features, he knew it’d rarely, if ever, eaten a human.

While it wiggled, he merely tossed the small and mostly defenceless Demon into the sun just before the cave opening. It rolled against the sand and immediately began to scream.

The Demon writhed, its void-like, skinless flesh immediately melting. Sulphur wafted from it as its purple insides were exposed before they, too, began to bubble. It writhed to bury itself beneath the sand as it flung it around in waves.

It didn’t matter. It couldn’t get itself underneath quick enough and disintegrated halfway buried. The rest bubbled and stained the yellowy grains in a melted blob of dark purple.

Rather pleased with himself that he’d been wise enough to double-check no Demon had come to seek shelter in his territory, he lifted his skull to Linh on the ledge with bright-yellow orbs. The colour instantly snuffed out to white, since she’d fallen back on her arse and looked utterly horrified. He tilted his head towards the now deceased Demon.

I did not consider how gruesome that may be.He thought she’d be relieved that she now knew for certain the water was safe.

He climbed back on the rock next to the pool and then cautiously slithered up to her. The scent of fear coming from her was light, but enough that he halted his breathing the moment he emptied his lungs.

Dark orange lifted into his orbs when he took in how frazzled her expression was as he drew closer. Her eyebrows were scrunched in obvious distress, and her lips were parted as though she’d silently screamed. She stared at the obvious puddle in the sand that had once been a Demon.

The moment his head height came to hers, where she sat on her rump, she gasped and recoiled to the side. Only to settle immediately upon looking at his skull.

“Holy shit! You were so fast!” She brushed her hand over the top of her hair as she averted her gaze. “It was like you knew where it was. You just leapt towards the sand and suddenly a Demon sprung from it. A-a fin even came from your back!”

Her little heart was racing, her breaths shallow and short.

Without being able to speak with her to soothe her, Nathair just rolled his skull in annoyance. He folded his arms and let out a guttural groan from his throat.

“You’re right,” she grunted out with forced nonchalance, throwing her hands up. “Sorry, didn’t mean to freak out.”

His head reared back at her sudden change of tone.She got over that remarkably easily.And her response had a quiet snicker rasping from him.