#ink.nat

Both you and Sienna made your way back up to the surface, climbing back onto The Blue Delilah.

While the two of you were underwater, Wanda and Natasha had incapacitated the last two “attackers” and managed to tie them up.

It really wasn’t a fair fight with Wanda there…

The squelch of your wet boots alerted both of them that you made it back onto the boat.

Noticing Sienna behind you, Wanda and Natasha were both ready to get back into it, but you stopped them before they could.

-----

You hold your hands out in a placating manner, “Alright alright, hold on just a sec! everybody can chill the fuck out”

Natasha raises a brow before lowering the gun in her hand. “Hearing that from you? Forgive me for my surprise but,” her gaze goes from you to the rather unwelcoming woman next to you. “Negotiating has never really been your thing, Jaws.”

Wanda nods along, moving all the assailants’ weapons to the opposite end of the boat out of reach. “I have to agree.”

A small sigh pushed past your lips, “Fortunately, I didn’t have to negotiate much at all,” you rested a hand on Sienna’s shoulder. “Natasha, Wanda, I’d like for you to meet Sienna; she’s my older sister.”

Both Wanda and Natasha were struck silent by this new information. Cuz how to you really respond to that?

Sienna kept her arms crossed as she stepped forward, “We can talk more when we arrive on Enoka.”

Your eyes widened as you finally had time to connect the rest of the dots and understand the implications of Sienna even being alive. “You mean Enoka is?-”

A bit of a warmer expression started to break through Sienna’s features as she addressed you. “Not without change, but she is alive and well, yes.”

---

You’d went back to steering The Blue Delilah while Sienna untied the other “attackers” that Natasha and Wanda had put out of commission.

The three of you found out that they were members of Sienna’s guard that patrolled the waters surrounding Enoka with her.

The six guardsmen, three men and three women, had warily introduced themselves at Sienna's insistence.

They largely kept to themselves as they were a group of few words... at least around the strangers they were keeping the company of, of which no one could really blame them. They saw no issue in having Sienna speak for them.

Sienna had mentioned that there were pirates that got a little too close to Enoka's jurisdiction lately, and the locals were particularly antsy at the number of potential incidents in the past few months.

Sienna had to up the number of patrols they went out on during the day due to this.

While you, Natasha and Wanda had no real idea who these "pirates" could be, independent or affiliated, there were plenty of desperate people coming out of the woodwork for answers and solutions in a post-Ultron world.

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

While the three of you were getting the full explanation from Sienna and her guard, it was unfortunate that they’d essentially cut their patrol off early to bring you back to Enoka. If Sienna and her guardsmen had continued their patrol, they more than likely would have come across the smaller boat tailing The Blue Delilah from a good distance away…

-----

The sun was starting to set when you saw the first bit of land; vibrant greens mixed with stone surfaces and accompanied by beaches surrounding the edges. It was like the familiarity of it was fitting together long lost pieces to the abandoned puzzle of memories you had.

“It’s just been here all this time and I didn’t even know…”

Sienna came to stand next to you, “But you did know, Y/n. Your connection to Enoka was never severed, that’s evident in you knowing exactly where she rests. You’d know if the island was truly gone. Eth lyon equsont' Y veah ys hyw ti okot uy' os goln ot ocem ckab su."

You rubbed the back of your neck, unsure how to give a full enough answer. “I was a bit preoccupied…to say the fuckin’ least anyways.”

Sienna merely eyed you for a second, giving you another once over now that she was closer. "Esod sith veah githanny ot od whit eth wot ahnum mewno tath uyo bugorth whit uyo? Uyor necst 's citapullryra tenetccandor no eth hedraed."

You clear your throat suddenly at the abrupt mention of Wanda and Natasha. both of whom were more than alert while keeping an eye on your other "guests" by the back end of the boat. "Somewhat. I mean, it's more than a little complicated, but they've both helped me. A ton. And their Names are Natasha and Wanda...... Natasha 's eth ostyn hedraed tath alos spaneph ot eb 'm niirfrgeld, sersit."

You glanced toward the end of the main deck where you caught Natasha's eye. Once Natasha noticed your attention was on her, she turned her head to face you. She wasn't the closest one to you at the moment, so it wasn't out of place for her to keep an eye and ear out for you.

Natasha raised an inquiring brow at your continued staring before you sent her a sharp smirk with a wink. You kept your body half turned in her direction before focusing back on the conversation you were having with Sienna.

Sienna observed the small interaction silently before she looked away from you and out onto the water, taking a second to think before speaking up again. “Sey, lewl, Enoka 's chum mesrall athn uyo ghimt bremeerm foeber eth ofdol." She let out a sigh before she turned and put her hand on your shoulder to get your attention. “Let me steer this thing so I can take you to the entrance.”

“The entrance?”

“I told you Enoka was not was not without change after all these years.”

Once Sienna took the wheel, the yacht was guided halfway around the island where a larger summit was seen. Formed into the bottom of the smaller mountain was a cave covered by the growing foliage. The Blue Delilah was steered into it before the engine was shut off.

“Your boat managed to fit in here, but you all will need to walk the rest of the way to the entrance by foot.”

Natasha was still on the cautious side, seeing as only one of the strangers here seemed somewhat trustworthy. “How far is that exactly?”

Sienna spoke up at the front of the group, “Not egregiously so. Many choose to just swim back and forth, but seeing as the two of you are merely human, walking is about the only option for you. We should arrive within the hour.”

---

As all ten of you left The Blue Delilah, you all made your way through the cave as it became a progressively tighter space to walk through side by side.

You decided to get a few answers while on your way; multitasking and all that.

After a while of walking, you came to what looked to be a dead end.

-----

Sienna, still in front of the group, waved her hand over the empty space, revealing ripple in the space that started to resemble a portal.

“This gate will lead into Enoka. You will have to enter one at a time since you’ll be unidentified in the passageway. It needs to analyze your signatures separately.”

You sent a reassuring look to Wanda while you squeezed Natasha’s hand. They were both still very cautious surrounding this entire situation. For you there was this inexplicable amount of trust you had. Whether it be from the nostalgia and anticipation of seeing your where you grew up or genuinely not sensing any danger, you couldn’t differentiate.

First went Sienna, then three of her guards, then you, Natasha, Wanda, and then the other three guards.

---

On the other side was beauty.

The landscape was, in fact, very different from how you loosely remembered it, but the view was one in a million all its own.

Half of the inhabited environs were above water; cabins, huts, and the like were strewn about and the summits surrounding them all had bridges connecting overhead.

The other half of the Island was also visible, but it was underwater.

Underwater, but not abandoned.

The were homes and buildings that were brand new shining from under the surface.

A good amount of them were made out of ruins that were apparently repurposed after the flood, but most of them were completely new and sleek.

In a way, it was like you'd never left...

Just like your connection with the hidden isle was never broken, so to was it's connection to you.

This was Enoka, your homeland.

** footnote: I wanted to use a completely different script for the Enokan language being spoken, but I couldn’t find a way to import it so that it was shown, so instead I made a simple code using typoglycemia (aka just unscramble the letters of each word). To make it so that it didn’t look as clunky, I sometimes replaced (i) with (y). Some words that end with vowels may have an apostrophe that takes the place of the vowel. Apostrophes can also be found at the beginning of words with vowels for fluidity’s sake. I didn’t think swears should be scrambled cuz that just *looks* off to me. The point of these changes is to have this resemble a spoken language more than it is a blatant tactic to confuse you.

While Sienna met with the Council of Nine, they came to the decision that the two humans were to be left alone for now. Not only because of their apparent connection to one of their people, that being Y/n, but Enoka herself hasn’t shown herself hostile toward them.

They could have been done away with as soon as they set foot on her soil if She wanted to, as history has proved before.

Of course there was confusion and disagreement among most of the council members, as humans have been nothing but trouble for them. But at the end of the day, the Council of Nine acts as Enoka’s mouthpiece, and to deliberately go against Her would be sacrilege.

-----

One of the oldest members in the Council of Nine, Gideon, was not as easily appeased at the “stagnant” solution, and decided to speak up. “But we were ALL there at LumeCrest,” A few of the council member’s eyes went downward, “Even She couldn’t prevent things from going tits up! We must be proactive in getting rid of all of our potential threats.”

“And we are, that’s why we’re discussing this here and now. Enoka sees all that happens on this island. If she believes that the outlanders are safe enough to be here, then that’s all there is to it. She has yet to change her mind, but if she does, we will be the first to know and act.” Leander, the member of the council chosen to be impartial while presiding over this discourse, definitely had his exercise in patience. 

Gideon would not let up, “But can She read hearts? She speaks to the mind, but can she foresee what these strangers will do? It would serve us well to be vigilant and get rid of the root of the problem before it decides to grow. And who’s to say that these humans couldn’t have poisoned one of our own against us and had them lead the two here?”

Sienna set her glass of water down firmly, her eyes narrowed and fixed on the table in front of her. “Mind your tongue. That’s my blood you’re smearing, you cretin.” She took another sip of water to cool her head. This greybeard would not be getting a rise out of her to try and discredit Leander’s point with bias.

The older man’s indignation was clear as he banged his staff on the polished flooring. “By Sthenya’s Wings!-”

Sienna didn’t even turn her head to look at the white haired man, “Don’t you dare attach my mother’s name to your tantrum, Gideon. I could care less that you’re my elder. Keep my family’s name out of your mouth. They have nothing to do with our conference,”

One of the younger members, Aeris, piped up as she ran her index finger around the top of her own glass, “Hells, Gideon, with your lack of faith in the fucking ground you walk on, it’s a miracle you’ve been on the council this long.”

There was a pregnant pause after Aeris was the only one to chuckle at the ridiculous debate. Leander eventually cleared his throat, “Regardless of our personal feelings, Enoka has spoken. To not heed her words would make us impious figures. If you still find you cannot trust or show confidence in Her judgment, then let someone else take your place” Leander looked between all the council members before releasing a breath to recenter himself. “That’s all that will be said about the matter. Our people will express caution with the outlanders and they will be monitored during their time here,” He nodded his head in Sienna’s direction, “And they will leave Enoka physically and mentally intact,” He stared directly at Gideon who continued to grumble under his breath. “This meeting has come to its conclusion, I trust all of you have your work cut out for you over the next few days. May Enoka hold your hand.” With that, Leander got up from his own seat along with all of the other council members save for one.

---

Despite her overall stoic demeanor, Sienna was overjoyed to have found her youngest sibling.

It doesn’t take her long for her to find you, Natasha and Wanda walking through one of the more secluded Enokan flower fields before joining you.

Realizing that the three of you have only been on the surface level of the living island, Sienna then takes it upon herself to show you all the developments that Enoka has gone through in your *ahem*... time away.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward between the three of you as it hadn’t been that long since your last conversation reached a rather unsatisfying conclusion.

Both Natasha and Wanda didn’t have the time nor were they really eager to explain that neither of them really felt wanted on the island. In an effort to say something, both women took to saying that the timing of going to Enoka’s main vessel was too soon.

-----

“It’s not that we don’t want to visit the…..being that we’re literally standing on, but maybe we do that when we’re more settled.” Wanda placed a placating hand on your shoulder as she could feel your rebuttal brewing.

Natasha looked toward the lighter footsteps she heard in the distance briefly before speaking up in a slightly louder tone. “Maybe sometime after we find where our bags were put.”

Wanda’s eyes widened slightly, “Preferably, yes.”

Your eyebrows still furrowed, you let up on the idea for now, “Alright alright, fine. But I’m gonna make sure that shit happens,” You were still slightly confused at their insistence, but you could partially see their point, maybe easing into it was easier?

You coughed a bit before you reached up to your neck to smack your apparatus a bit. It was then that you heard a slight sloshing sound that shouldn’t be there. “Tash’, can you come look at my bulbs real quick?”

Natasha came closer to see that the domes holding water around your neck were only half full, and only managed to splash against the gills on your neck instead of surrounding them. “It’s emptying.”

The redhead moved to tighten the bulbs or see if the reservoir needed adjusting before Sienna finally approached the three of you. “I trust the three of you have been staying out of trouble,” She raised a brow at the device around your neck with curiosity and a hint of apprehension. “Is everything alright?” I saw that around your neck when we met as well.”

You briefly tapped Natasha’s hands before going to remove  the apparatus yourself, “I’m just fine, my ‘rratus is just fuckin’ up. Probably from when you knocked it off my neck back on the boat.” Your eyes were looking over the breathing device with practiced diligence before sighing, “It looks like it’s an internal issue, and I don’t have my bag with my kit inside to try and fix it.”

“If it’s tools you require to fix your… contraption, then you would certainly find such if we go below,” She looked up at the sky to see the Sun just starting to wane following a darker blue hue. “We should make it by sunset if you’re in a hurry. Follow me,”

---

The four of you walk (it’s a walkable place for sure bud goddamn the three of you are getting your steps in) toward the center of the island that almost resembles a plaza with a gigantic sinkhole in the middle that certainly wasn’t there before in your memory.

Sienna explains that the sinkhole came about as a byproduct of the flood.

If you look over the lip of the sinkhole you can see an encased cross section of the newer underground/underwater parts of Enoka that have been developed over the past ten-plus years.

For mutants whose mutations don’t do well in water, there’s a walkway as well as elevator of sorts down to the lower levels of Enoka.

The four of you decide to take the elevator to the underground layer that’s between the surface and underwater layers of the living island.

Sienna makes it clear that Enoka has rebuilt herself the best She could and is now identified, not only what’s on the surface, but by three residential layers known as: The Survived (surface), The Buried (underground), and The Sunken (underwater)

There are just as many homes and establishments underground as there are on the surface and one could conclude that the same could be said for the underwater portion as well.

The underground is flooded in artificial light in the form of lanterns and poles that hold resemblance to streetlights.

It turns out that over the years, the Natural energon Enoka produces was synthesized to be used in smaller devices put around the subterranean portions of the island.

The natural energon has found many new uses, not only as a form of energy/power, but also helps produce stronger currents of electricity.

Those eclectic currents were then used to jumpstart their private network, allowing one to pluck signals from outside of Enoka.

et voilà: secured access to the internet and media from all over.

-----

Sienna had the four of you walk around the rim of the layer closest to the wall to avoid regular civilians as they had the habit to stare at Natasha and Wanda. The two of them not only felt but probably smelt off to the general population of mutants, and while you'd gotten agitated more than once at the squints and partial glares your partner and close friend received, you took to almost straddling the stone wall to minimize attention.

“Enoka certainly feels bigger than she was before the flood,” You rested your hand on the large stone wall that made up the integrity of The Buried. “Y teb u'yore a 'hll fo a tol torgresn, oto.” There was the smallest pulse underneath your hand that made you chuckle. You turned toward Wanda and Natasha and gestured for them to come closer to the wall. “Here, feel for yourself.”

Natasha didn’t need much convincing, but Wanda was a bit more hesitant. “I’m not stroking a wall, gup.”

Natasha’s hand stayed in one place, but the rough surface was rather warm as opposed to the cooler temperature of normal sediment. “She really is everywhere,”

You nodded at the russian’s remark with a flash of your pointy grin. “Basically,” You then reached for Wanda’s hand before she could protest and continued to goad her until she lightly placed it on the wall. There were a quick few pulses under the brunette’s hand that almost tickled and made her hand flinch.

You chuckled at Wanda's response as you slowly let go of her wrist while she kept it there, “ese, u'yore nief, Wandy.”

Sienna watched the exchange with a far away look in her eye.

~ “Just rest your hand on the tree, grumps. She’s not gonna bite your hand off if you touch her.” A younger Sienna had the adolescent version of you by the wrist to try and place your hand on one of the trees along the shoreline.

Younger you definitely fought a lot harder than Wanda seemed to be, “That’s not what Rudy said! ‘Noka snacks on kids and I don’t wanna get eaten!”

Sienna briefly chuckled before kneeling in front of you, “I told you that you can’t trust anything that that birdbrain says, Y/n. come here, I’ll show you,” She grasped your wrist once again and slowly moved your smaller hand toward the trunk of the tree.

Once it touched the scratchy texture of the tree, your little face scrunched together to brace for the impending chomp on your hand. A chomp that never came even after more than a few seconds. You slowly opened your eyes to see your hand perfectly intact before slightly blushing in embarrassment.

Sienna rested her hand on your shoulder as you focused more on the warm feeling radiating under your hand. “The last thing She wants is to hurt us, Y/n. The most she’ll do is reprimand you, and I’m sure Rudy knows that much well enough” You jumped slightly after feeling a few stronger pulses from the tree trunk under your hand, almost as if She was cosigning Sienna’s words. You laughed at the thought of the Bird boy that always managed to get in trouble or piss someone off.

Sienna took her hand off of your shoulder to ruffle your hair with a smile, “Ese, u'yore nief, Y/nn.” ~

Sienna cleared her throat as she returned back to the present. “The passage to The Sunken is just this way.”

---

The passage down to The Sunken is inside of some form of glass tube that allows the four of you to see out into the ocean,  where people and sea life alike are going about their day.

Aquariums have nothing on this view fr-

You’d gone down far enough that you can even start to see farmers at a few of the brine pools and sea farms by the ocean floor.

The difference in air was something even Natasha and Wanda had begun to notice as you could almost taste the residual salt that still hung in the air at this deep of a level.

-----

The four of you finally reached a space that looked more like a medical building of sorts. Though the expectant smell of sterilizer was replaced with that of pear and lemon.

“Everything that isn’t grown directly by Enoka herself comes out of this building. We’ve even started Sunken Gardens down here so that that our lowest layer has access to plants that were originally only grown on the surface. Our bigger brains do work down here.” She led you into one of the smaller laboratories that had shelves stocked with tools, machines, and naturally made (as well as engineered) chemicals and metals.

You inspected a stack of thinner sheet metal with a smirk, “Well ain’t that somethin. I’ll definitely be able to make hella improvements down here,” You grabbed a few sheets of the white gray metal and a mess of other things and set them on an empty table before you turned to the three women in the room. “This shouldn’t take me too long, but I don’t blame you guys if you aren’t too interested in just watching me.”

Natasha spoke up before the thought could fully register, “Watching you has never bothered me before,” Wanda and Sienna were content to pretend that neither had heard what the redhead said while she found the rubber tile flooring to be more interesting.

Sienna pushed ahead, “I figured you all would want to get to your belongings and where you’ll be staying sooner or later.”

At the mention of their belongings, Wanda perked up and agreed. “I really should,” The brunette gave a longer look toward Natasha before turning to Sienna, “Both Wanda and Jaws can stay here, but if you could show me where we’ll be staying that’d be great.” There were a few things Wanda had to look over in her bags, and maybe call Vision to unwind a bit, but maybe this would also be a small opportunity to have a positive interaction with Sienna.

Sienna, for her part, seemed neutral about the prospect, “We should get going now, since I believe your things were set up on the surface.” The security chief watched Wanda’s eyes widen at the thought of having to walk back up through the two layers before fracking a knowing smirk that looked very similar to your own. “There’s an elevator to The Survived in this building, no need to worry for your arches.”

---

Far outside of Enoka was a deep gray ship that was occupied by a great deal of armed forces in full black suits roaming around. Below the main deck in the cockpit/planning room of the ship was a familiar brown haired man standing over the screen in the center console showing a map with a small blip on it that was no longer moving. It hadn’t moved for about five hours now. The Brown haired man looked to his left at the woman at the helm steering the ship, “You told us we had to fall back, but how far out are we?” The woman internally sighed before taking her eye off of the waters in front of her. “A little over a week. I told you we would have to take this slow so that they don’t catch on. Stay on the move and circle around so we don’t get caught by their defense and surveillance. We’ve been over this, Graydon. I urge you to find your patience.” Graydon ran a frustrated hand through his hair before taking a breath and calm his rather antsy behavior. He looked back down at the virtual map with the steady blinking light on their target. “I know, Tar’. I just want to do this as soon as possible before the higher ups decide to pull us out of this job.” “Well they’ll know we’re there as soon as we step foot on the goddamn sand, so urgency isn’t really a factor,” Tara looked at Graydon for a second before putting the ship on autopilot and getting up. This isn’t a high level op. There’s only a 75% chance they’ll put us on more if we do this right.” She moved to stand next to Graydon before taking a look at the map to try and see what he was seeing. “What’s so important about this job that you’ve wanted to run it three different times?” “My birth mother was one of these muties. Said she wanted a place just like this for people like her where they could breed mutants and make more of them like rats. She’d go so far for her perfect world that she threw me away… She’s gotta be there, and even if she’s not I want to burn her dream to the fucking ground.”

** footnote: I wanted to use a completely different script for the Enokan language being spoken, but I couldn’t find a way to import it so that it was shown, so instead I made a simple code using typoglycemia (aka just unscramble the letters of each word). To make it so that it didn’t look as clunky, I sometimes replaced (i) with (y). Some words that end with vowels may have an apostrophe that takes the place of the vowel. Apostrophes can also be found at the beginning of words with vowels for fluidity’s sake. I didn’t think swears should be scrambled cuz that just *looks* off to me. The point of these changes is to have this resemble a spoken language more than it is a blatant tactic to confuse you.

Once you, Natasha, Wanda, Sienna, and the others make it to the heart of Enoka, you all are immediately taken to Sienna’s office.

It turns out that Sienna is now one of the “acting leaders” on the island, specifically the one in charge of the security of it.

Enoka essentially runs itself, she just has a number of people in charge of the maintenance of the island and the people living on it.

These acting leaders were going to take time to deliberate and come to a course of action in terms of your presence on the hidden isle.

The “acting leaders” make up something called the Council of Nine, which is basically their government on Enoka outside of Enoka herself.

With a warning from Sienna to stay out of trouble in the meantime, the three of you left the council room while she stayed to explain the situation in full to the others inside. Natasha’s gait was unusually hesitant as you walked. “So the island is…alive?”

You chuckled as you reached for her hand in a soothing gesture. “You can relax, Natty. Enoka hasn’t physically moved in centuries. Once we’re born, we’re taught that she uses all of the plants covering the land to speak to us, kinda like mini speakers everywhere. The council of Nine just carry out her will more directly.”

Natasha’s shoulders relaxed slightly as the three of you made it back out into the open air. It was a relief you were able to convince Sienna to let the three of you leave on your own without an escort. This way, the three of you could spend time together and actually make use of your vacation time.

You briefly squeezed Natasha’s hand before you took it upon yourself to put the wind back in all of your sails. “Now who wants to see some real cool shit?” Wanda nor Natasha were definitely more receptive to the lighter turn of events, what with your enthusiasm being as contagious as it was reassuring.

Even with all of the visible changes to Enoka, you are actually excited to show Natasha and Wanda around the parts that you do remember.

Remember the core of the cruise/expedition/vacation was based around getting closure on your previously thought to be GONE home.

So in a way we’re doing that just with extra steps-

The natural energon produced by the Enoka herself contained in all of the foliage is used as a medium for the living island to communicate through. Kinda like mini speakers all over the island.

You simply have to start listening…

Speaking of, there was fuzzy gibberish that Wanda was able to pick up on. The tone of it led the brunette to zone out from time to time as she attempted to understand what she was hearing.

You took them up to one of the summits called the Hollow Point, that has a cavern on the side of it. Inside the Hollow Point are a series of mines for iron, but the biggest area has a ceiling of glittering quartz geodes.

Once your stomachs began protesting the long exploration the three of you were on, you wound up being led back to the more populated area of Enoka to get something to eat.

The only problem with going further into the localized area of the island is that there were more eyes on the three of you.

Enoka is an island full of people with extra abilities and features, people born like you and Sienna; an island exclusively of mutants.

The citizens of Enoka see Wanda and Natasha as outsiders, yes, but they can also immediately tell that Natasha specifically is human.

Sienna was also not afraid to remind her of this on their way to Enoka.

You came across one of Sienna’s guardsmen as you walked down the beaten path. She seemed to be heading in the same direction the three of you were walking in. The woman was clearly still on duty with her silvery blonde hair and suntanned skin mostly hidden under her armor.

Wanda took the initiative to start a conversation by waving her hand in the other woman’s line of sight. “Excuse me,” The blonde glanced in Wanda’s direction, but didn’t really look at her. “Did you need something?”

Her accented voice was softer than any of you expected, but Wanda continued undeterred,  “Is there a place to eat down this way?”

The guardsmen didn’t respond right away, “Assuming that you want something on the surface,” She briefly eyed Natasha, “There’s a Brine-Baker down this trail on your right. You cannot miss it.”

Wanda gave a small smile, “Thank you…I don’t think we got your name before.”

The woman simply stared at Wanda before squinting.  “I didn’t give it.” There was a small upturn in her lips, “It’s Zal.” She turned to face forward again before taking her leave, effectively ending the brief conversation.

With the three of you making your way down to the Brine-Baker, your eyes widened at the building. “That’s what she was talking about. Come on, this stuff is great!” You almost dragged Natasha and Wanda into the establishment in your haste to get food to eat.

The BrineBaker’s hut was on the smaller side, but it was comfy enough. You found an empty booth for the three of you to sit at before looking at the menus that were already set in each booth. There were options ranging from saltfish, mussels, crab, shrimp, octopus, and even hagfish, to pretzels, salted caramel pies, dark chocolate tarts, and peanut brittle.

Natasha looked away from the menu, “I take it all the salted foods are why it’s called Brine-Baker?”

Having already chosen what you were going to get, you set your menu down. “Brine-Bakers are seafood shops/diners that specialize in serving dishes made with their harvest from the brine pools under Enoka in the deep sea. Brine Pool Farming is actually a profession here as far as I know, since you had a good few people on the island that were unaffected by the pressure of going so deep underwater.”

Natasha took another look at the menu with that explanation. “All these creatures get put in these brine pools? They have to be pretty big I imagine,”

You nodded along, “Sea creatures get big as hell the deeper you go, but they don’t last long in the pools, since they’re even bigger. We weren’t allowed to play anywhere near them as kids cuz we’d probably fuck around and ‘get stuck and die’.” You briefly chuckled at the familiar threat you heard as a child. “Once they’re in the brine pool for long enough, the salt forms a shell coating around them, preserving the creature inside. You just gotta pay attention when they’re ready to be taken out. It’s not as salty as you’d expect though, it’s just the way it’s prepared.”

Wanda closed her menu after picking what she wanted to eat. “Well, you learn something new every day.” She stacked all three of the menus on top of each other, “So are we all ready to order?” With the three of you ready, you called over an available waiter to take your order...

Not gonna lie, that food was scrumptious. And very filling.

After the three of you ate, you walked around the more isolated parts of the island since it seemed that you were still left to your own devices.

You were currently making your way through one of the denser forests. You wanted to see if there were any remaining flower fields on the surface that you could show Wanda and Natasha.

The fuzzy noise Wanda was hearing was louder around her as she zoned out once again. You and Natasha noticed this once again before both of you asked what was going on.

 Wanda’s eyes focus on one of the thicker trees with her eyes slightly squinted. “I haven’t stopped hearing this faint gibberish since we got here…”

Natasha stopped to listen out for said gibberish, “I don’t hear anything, and no one else seems to be around.”

You turned to look at the brunette with your brows slightly furrowed, “What kinda gibberish is it?” Rather than try to explain what she was hearing, Wanda just mentally projected it to you as best as she could.

{Solt hclid, --rwe ve-- u-- en--. Solt hclid,  Y 'ml---- --o rhee}

“Well It makes sense, since you can read minds and all…” The partial translation you were able to get just made you confused as you tried to piece the rest of it together. One thing was clear though, “Enoka’s calling out to you. She doesn’t project very often, since I don’t think there are other telepaths on this island that can reach her by themselves,”

Wanda attempted to digest what you’d just explained. It was one thing to have someone mentally project to her, as she hasn’t come across anyone else with telepathic abilities, but for it to be an entity that they were currently standing on threw her for a loop. And it presumably wanted her to respond.“Why would the island be calling out to me?”

To you, there were a few other things to consider, but you continued your musings aloud. “You’ll have to meet Her in person at some point. Both of you will probably,”

“Both of us?” Natasha watched as you gingerly picked a flower off of one of the taller exposed stems on the path.

“It’s cool that Wanda can hear Enoka directly, but neither of you are able to understand Her or anyone else on the isle because she hasn’t gifted you with her energon. All Enokan plants have it, but the sap from her main vessel should allow you to speak and understand the mother tongue. We should’ve brought you there first, really.”

Wanda and Natasha shared an uncertain look with each other before Wanda spoke up. “I don’t think that that’s a good idea, gup.”

You look back at them, confusion plain on your face. “Why not? You need to understand what’s going on if we’re gonna spend any amount of time here, and I can’t teach it to you two until you have that foundation. I don’t think you want me playin’ translator for all three of us.” You chuckled at that idea before you realized you were the only one laughing. “What’s up with you two?”

To you this was a simple problem with an even simpler solution:

Natasha and Wanda are suffering from a language barrier, you know how to get rid of said barrier,  so that’s what you should do.

Your excitement is what blinds you to most of Natasha and Wanda’s trepidation at even being on Enoka.

But why are these two so standoffish to be there even though they were just as adamant to go on this vacation? WELL there’s a number of reasons:

This was not originally part of the plan.

While they’re glad to actually visit your home, Natasha and Wanda exclusively have not had the most warm welcome from, not only Sienna and her troops, but also from the other citizens of Enoka.

The Enokan language is not just a cultural difference in language, but it also acts as a security for everyone that lives on this (again) hidden island.

Freely giving Wanda and Natasha a clearly exclusive buff is not a good idea, nor would they probably be allowed had that idea reached the ears of anyone else…

** footnote: I wanted to use a completely different script for the Enokan language being spoken, but I couldn’t find a way to import it so that it was shown, so instead I made a simple code using typoglycemia (aka just unscramble the letters of each word). To make it so that it didn’t look as clunky, I sometimes replaced (i) with (y). Some words that end with vowels may have an apostrophe that takes the place of the vowel. Apostrophes can also be found at the beginning of words with vowels for fluidity’s sake. I didn’t think swears should be scrambled cuz that just *looks* off to me. The point of these changes is to have this resemble a spoken language more than it is a blatant tactic to confuse you.