The Diamond clan was not unfriendly, far from it, it was just that the Pearl clan tended to gather her up rather protectively and whisk her away to the cold waters of their territory. Adaman had specifically intercepted Ingo and Dawn on their way to the settlement. The man’s scales glittered in the late morning sun as he circled around them in a hypnotic sort of dance. It was relaxed, especially for someone like Adaman who Dawn was sure was unable to relax given his impeccable sense of time.

Although Adaman could be deceptively fast with a few quick swishes of his tail, it didn’t seem like he wanted to attack or to lull them into a false sense of security, but he was acting decidedly un-Adaman-like with his small talk. Ingo chatted with him politely but was bristling with each interruption as the Diamond clan leader managed to insert himself between them and their intended destination.

It took Dawn a few passes to realize, but Adaman seemed to be herding them back to Diamond clan territory with his ever-tightening circles. He knew that infringing on Ingo’s space would make the warden want to put more distance between himself and Adaman, the blue haired mer was taking advantage of that.

“Lord Adaman,” Ingo’s voice finally cut through the conversation like a spear launched through the water. “I’m terribly sorry, but I must get Dawn to the settlement posthaste. Mistress Calaba has a lesson for her today about the practical uses of seaweed for dressing wounds.”

Unbeknownst to Ingo, Dawn made a face of revulsion. Seaweed was not amongst her favorite things. Seaweed was both slimy and rubbery to her adolescent taste buds and smelled of rotten dead fish to her, from the kombu that Beni used to make his seafood-based broths to the seaweed salads she distantly remembered her mother trying to feed her when she was young. When Dawn swam in the sea, she was the only one to screech in panic as pieces of seaweed clung to her bare legs, her brain conjuring images of sea monsters that would drag her to the deep to drown her.

She would rather die than learn more about the disgusting vegetation that the sea had to offer.

“Ingo!” She hissed, loud enough for both of them to hear, but low enough to clue into both of them men of the conspiratorial nature of her beckoning hand. Ingo excused himself and leaned down, his ear close to Dawn as she whispered to him, “Maybe I should go with him. We don’t want to offend Adaman by rejecting him, y’know?”

The warden paused to consider this. It wasn’t that he didn’t take it under advisement, he just wanted to keep an eye on Dawn, and he would not be permitted to tag along to Diamond clan territory with them. His concerns lie with her… chatty disposition. Dawn was a friendly girl, it was nearly impossible not to like her, but she often spoke first and thought later.

“Is there a specific purpose for Dawn’s departure to your station?”

He was trying to stall without being perceived as rude. Adaman waved his hand, mentioning something about Mai needing some help with some items Dawn would find of interest. Ingo was not listening.

He would not be there to help her recover if she said something suspicious. He would not be able to protect her if Diamond clan saw through, at times, tissue thin lies that she had to spin on the fly. If they tried to hurt her – No, Ingo didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think about how small and delicate she was compared to every other mer. He didn’t want to think about how Melli and Iscan were already suspicious of her.

All he had to do was say no, then it would be the end of that discussion. Adaman would have to accept his choice.

“Ingo,” she must have seen something in his dour expression change minutely, she poked his cheek with a pout on her face. “Trust me. I promise not to say a word.”

He truly wanted to believe that.

“Exhibit caution around Melli and Iscan if they are there. Understood?” Dawn gave him a thumbs up and a bright smile. This was a fun, new adventure for her. “Please do not take this lightly. If anyone were to find out-”

“I’ll be careful!”

She insisted, big black eyes pleading to let her go. His ear twitched and his eyes softened at the expression, nodding in Adaman’s direction in a wordless acknowledgement. Ingo knew Diamond clan was just as protective of pups as Pearl clan was, she would be safe with them.

“I believe Calaba will understand… I will expect you back here promptly before sunset, so that I might escort Dawn back to the settlement unscathed.”

Adaman nodded, offering his reassurances as Dawn joined him at his side. The warden tried to ignore the uneasy churning in his stomach as he watched them go.

After Adaman’s little tour of the settlement, he and Dawn joined Mai at the outskirts. The warden was chatting with some of the other clan members when she noticed their approach and broke off the conversation to greet them. Dawn liked Mai, she was the second mer she ever met, and she had been nothing but kind to her. She was one of the few who didn’t outwardly said anything about Dawn being unusual for a mer. Not even weird looks. Mai was easy-going and took every Dawn said in stride with a serene, unbothered expression.

“Ready to go on a little adventure, kiddo?”

Mai asked after her initial greeting, smile widening when Dawn nodded emphatically. Ushering the teen away, the warden explained that she needed Dawn’s help searching the insides of a wreckage from one of the rifts.

Dawn encountered many rift distortions on land and in the sea, they came in the form of dark bubbles that blotted out the light around it. They would only last for a few minutes, but strange things would appear in them that seemed familiar to Dawn. She explored them, hiding from the animals that were going berserk – like being inside the rifts was driving them into a state of madness. Captain Cyllene, Professor Laventon, and Ingo all warned her to stay out of them, Laventon saying half heartedly because he was also so excited to see what things appeared inside those mysterious distortions.

“What fell through the distortion this time?

“Not sure if I’m being honest.” Mai hummed, allowing Dawn to race ahead and play in the water in her excitement. “They’re big, almost as big as me, so I can’t get inside to investigate.”

“Why not ask Arezu or Sabi?”

Mai was silent for a moment, long enough for Dawn to swivel her head to look at the warden.

“Sabi gets distracted to easily, and Arezu is… indisposed.”

Although the moment was stilted, Dawn shrugged it off and allowed herself to drift back to fall alongside her. She knew why Mai and Adaman had wanted her help as soon as the water grew colder and colder. Gaeric wouldn’t attack Mai for entering their territory with Dawn in tow. It sucked to be a chess piece, but if it got Dawn out and about in the ocean then she supposed she didn’t mind.

------

Ingo returned empty handed and prayed that he ran into Calaba first. He knew one person who would not be thrilled that his ward was not accompanying him. Although Gaeric was only slightly smaller than him, his fellow warden had mastered a level of stealth that would have been envied by the likes of octopi and flatfish. Despite his best efforts, Gaeric had found him, and he was watching Ingo’s impassive face closely. They hadn’t known each other long, but Gaeric was inexplicably good at catching the minute details that his closed off expression had to offer.

“You look more mopey than usual. What’s the problem?”

Before Ingo could get a word in edgewise, he noticed Gaeric’s nostrils flair and his eyes moved around the cavern, not seeing Dawn and instantly becoming suspicious.

“I assure you I am not moping.”

“Uh-huh,” Gaeric hummed, clearly not listening, and leaned in closer to peer around him. Dawn was nervous around him thanks to past interactions, so she took to hiding behind the large mer. “Where’s your pup? You smell like her, but I don’t see her.”

Ingo was not the lying sort, especially not with his clan mates, and, despite knowing Gaeric would not like the answer, he told his fellow warden the truth.

“Ah, she is spending the day with Diamond clan to get better acquainted with them.”

“SHE WHAT?”

------

The long metal tube that Mai eventually led her to looked as though it had been here for a while. There was no crater that would have telegraphed the momentum of such a large object crashing into the ocean floor. The sand had settled around the outside of the tube, like it had been here for a while.

“There shouldn’t be anything in there that can hurt you, but I’ll be right here if you need me, alright?”

Mai pried opened the double doors, a flurry of bubbles escaping the tube just before Dawn poked her head inside. The warden didn’t let the door close. She wanted to leave an easy exit for Dawn just in case something was in there.

Dawn prodded around. The tube was pretty barren, a few blown out glass windows and what seemed to be structural polls, and colorful bench seats. Whatever had been in the tube had most likely drifted away by this point or was scavenged by the local sea life.

Limp safety posters had turned mostly transparent from the salt water dotted the walls, the symbols seeming somewhat familiar to the teen as she swished before them, squinting at the assemblage that offered a warning. She remembered that big red text often indicated something important or dangerous to the reader.

“Is there anything specific I should be looking for?”

She asked Mai, tearing her eyes from the posters that seemed to only grow blurrier the longer she looked at them.

“No, nothing in particular.” The warden admitted, peering into the car with a massive eye. “I know you take an interest in this stuff.”

“Oh! Thanks Mai.”

“Sure thing, kiddo.”

Huh, how funny, Gaeric referred to her by the same little nickname. Actually, she and Gaeric bore a lot of similarities.

Dawn didn’t spend nearly as much time with Diamond clan as she did with Pearl clan, especially since many of their number were more suspicious of her, but she did know Mai was the eldest warden and everyone seemed to look up to her like everyone did with Gaeric.

Somehow, what they felt resonated with Dawn. She felt like a lot of people looked up to her for guidance wherever she was from. That was when she felt a mild buzzing blooming at the back of her head, uncomfortable and hot when she lifted her hand to run the spot tenderly. This always happened when she tried to remember something from before she dropped into Hisui. Did she maybe have siblings or people close enough to call siblings? She felt like she knew the pressure of having all eyes on you and she could sympathize with Mai and Gaeric.

“I don’t think there’s anything in here, Mai.”

“That’s unfortunate. Some of the things you find are real treasures.” That made Dawn blush, a sheepish smile coming to her face as she exited the tube. Mai was always taking interest in what the pups did and said, listening with an idle fascination, a soft smile, and infinite patience. “There are a few more of these closer to the drop off, let’s go take a peek. Stay close to me.”

------

Ingo expected the roar of indignation, it rattled the very foundations of the icy space. He attempted to be calm, but knew it was fruitless, nothing was going to keep Gaeric calm at this point.

“The situation is temporary. She was quite insistent that she go to maintain the piece between the clans.”

The interrogation that followed wasn’t unexpected, but his fellow warden’s explosive reaction was not entirely expected at the mention of Mai.

“Mai? MAI? Ingo, we have to go get her right now!”

Ingo looked at him, utterly perplexed as Gaeric’s whiskers twitched with a barely contained frustration. Mai was the least of his concerns among the Diamond clan. She was kind to Dawn, she knew how to be gentle, but also knew when and how to treat her like the teenager she was. This was something, Ingo noted, that Gaeric failed to understand. He wasn’t sure if it was because he harbored suspicions of Dawn, if he didn’t quite know how to deal with a runty teenager, or a combination of the two. Gaeric was an excellent mentor to the pups, and they all seemed to adore him in return – perhaps Dawn’s distrust of Gaeric made their already tentative relationship more strained.

“I fail to see the issue.”

“Mai’s going to corrupt her!”

“Pardon?”

Gaeric grit his teeth to stifle a growl, hands resting on his shoulders and claws digging into the black fabric as if for emphasis.

“Mai is going to corrupt Dawn. She’s going to twist her mind so that she might be more receptive to the ideologies of their false god.”

Ingo stared at him blankly. Although he practiced the teachings of Pearl clan, Ingo didn’t really understand the nature of the schism and the lingering animosity that arose from it. He was looking at it as an outsider and understood they had differing truths and ideals, but much of what he was able to glean from listening to Melli harp on and on about the topic, much of Diamond clan’s ideology matched up with Pearl clans.

“I understand your concerns, however I think it would be unwise to barrel into a station at full steam.”

 His fellow warden closed his eyes slowly, his jaw clenched and a tight smile on his face when he reopened them. Ingo knew Gaeric did this whenever he started to get frustrated with Ingo and didn’t know how to tell him that politely.

“We’re going to go get her.”

“I don’t-”

“Now.”

------

“You don’t like any fish?” She shook her head. “What does Pearl Clan feed you?”

“I eat cooked fish.”

Dawn said, rummaging through the detritus at the bottom of the overturned tube. Some of the things she recognized. Bottles. Little colorful wrappers for sweets. A little hard case that reminded her of a clamshell with a pair of spectacles inside. Glasses case. Dawn lifted the glasses to her eyes and looked toward Mai with a grin. The warden was extremely blurry through the lenses of the glasses.

“How do I look?”

Mai exhaled sharply, less startled and more amused.

“A little silly, but I think you could pull it off.”

Dawn giggled and removed the glasses, finding the shift between her own eyesight and the lenses disorientating.

“I think I might keep these. If you focus the light with something like these, you can start fires pretty quickly.”

“Really?” Mai said mildly, watching her as she tucked the glasses and their case into her little bag. “Who taught you that?”

Dawn was about to answer when she suddenly was met with a wall of white. Not literally, but mentally. Whatever had just been on the tip of her tongue was gone just as quickly.

“I… Don’t know. Not Pearl Clan.”

Not Galaxy Team either. They used a little flint and steel to create sparks for flames.

No, this was knowledge that preceded her time in Hisui. The realization made her heartache with a familiar emotion for a home that she no longer remembered with extreme clarity. A fog that clouded her mind and misted her eyes when something almost seemed familiar. The sensation was hollow when she knew it should ache. Surely, she left people behind – people who missed her… right?

“Dawn?”

Mai’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She didn’t reply but resumed her sweep through the tube with little to show for her searching. A slip of paper with faded colors and letter that seemed familiar. Greens and reds that were nearly opaque from the salt water, but it reminded her of something… She used a slip like this for a boat – a ferry – to take to an island. This tube wasn’t a boat as far as she could tell. Not unless it was a weird underwater boat (which wasn’t even remotely possible to build, how would it be airtight?). In any case, she stashed the slip into her bag. Maybe if she kept it, it would spark something more in her head.

“How many more of these are there?”

“Just one more. The swim is a little longer so, if you get tired, grab my hood and I’ll tow you.”

Dawn insisted she could swim but found it hard to keep up. With each stroke of Mai’s tail, Dawn had to do five to keep pace adequately. She held onto Mai’s hood.

“Mai?” When she hummed in reply, Dawn asked, “Did you ask me to come so you wouldn’t get in trouble with Gaeric if he came across you looking for these tubes?”

The warden snorted, her eyes crinkling at the sides in amusement.

“I’m not worried about that ball of blubber. I could beat Gaeric with one fin tied behind my back… But you’re not wrong.” Mai paused for a moment, seeming to consider what she said next, before admitting to her, “It would be a bad look for Diamond clan if I were to just poke around in Pearl clan’s territory. I might not be causing any problems, but I don’t want Gaeric to fly into a tizzy about this. You being here might at least give him pause.”

In all honesty, Dawn had expected Mai to say something more akin to a reassuring lie. She knew Ingo and the other members of Pearl clan did that, but the Diamond clan warden said each word with sincerity.

Mai didn’t treat her like a baby.

Dawn appreciated that.

------

“Don’t you think you’re worries are a bit… premature?”

Gaeric deliberately ignored him. Nothing he said was going to derail him – Gaeric would march right over to Diamond clan, reclaim Dawn, spit a half threat-half warning, and return to the settlement to scold her. Ingo didn’t think he would let his fellow warden get that far.

Dawn didn’t deserve a scolding for a pragmatic decision.

“Where was the last you saw them?”

Ingo heaved a great sigh and told him where, following in Gaeric’s wake to avoid an incident between him and Mai. Of all the Diamond Clan wardens, Ingo liked Mai best. Not that he disliked the others! No, he just found himself relating to her more. Much in the same way that he related to Gaeric. It made him wonder if, at one point, if he had younger siblings he looked after.

Ingo felt like he must have, that or he had people who looked up to him as if he were an older brother figure.

The orca mer shook the thought from his head and focused on catching up to Gaeric. His expression was dark with annoyance. It did not improve when Ingo asked him his next question.

“Is there a particular reason why Warden Mai in particular makes you concerned?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Gaeric asked, jerking his whole body around to reply. He was puffed up with an indignation that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to ingo. Any time that Mai was mentioned, there seemed to be a near instant irritation from Gaeric. Ingo blinked, slowing to a stop, and waiting until Gaeric’s brow twitched and he exhaled sharply, shoulders slumping.

“I was not trying imply anything, Gaeric.”

“I know… Mai’s a lot more conniving than she looks. She’s a Diamond, she shouldn’t be trusted.”

“Do you have reason to believe she would harm Dawn?”

Gaeric hesitated and then shook his head. The next words looked as though they physically pained him to admit aloud.

“No, I trust her to keep Dawn safe. I just don’t like the idea of them spending too much time together.”

Ingo offered a nod.

“We will go retrieve her, but I must insist to calm yourself before we get back on track.”

------

The last tube looms in the distance, the whole thing sticking up vertically in the sand and creaking with their approach. Dawn edged closer to Mai, not liking the look of this one even a little. The sounds, the lack of other sea life, and the precarious way it jutted from the ground made her stomach queasy.

“You’re sure it’s safe, Mai?”

The older mer tilted her head, dark eyes sweeping over it.

“You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to. I have a feeling that this one might have more little trinkets that you might like just because of how isolated and undisturbed it is, but you can say no and we can head back to the settlement right now.”

Mai gave her an indifferent shrug and a neutral smile, allowing Dawn to make the decision by making her own thorough examination of the tube. This one seemed to be a lot more intact than the others as Mai suggested. This one had what looked like wheels on one side and it dawned on Dawn that the tubes were a vehicle. The word “bus” flashed in her head, but that didn’t sit right with her. It was some form of transportation, but that was the only thing that seemed clear to Dawn. She didn’t voice any of this, of course.

Swimming to the top of the transport, Dawn peered through the cracked glass and saw a few things dangling from the ceiling and a few colorful posters on the opposite end. Those were obscured by dark and sand, but Dawn immediately saw something that jumped out at her.

There was a symbol that stood out as clear as day on the right poster.

“I’ll go in. I’ll be extra careful.”

Dawn insisted, tugging on the doors but unable to open them. She waited, holding back the quiver in her hands when Mai pried the doors apart. She made a beeline for the poster and stared at the shattered glass covering, the same symbol that was on Ingo’s hat was on the poster, albeit almost as faded as the badge.

It was surrounded by symbols that had no meaning to her, but she recognized it as some sort of advertisement. There were… Silhouettes? Gray figures that were all lumped up. Nothing really distinguishable. Gingerly, Dawn pressed her fingers to the glass, absently wondering if there was a way for her to take this out of here to show to Ingo. It truly didn’t even occur to her just how odd that this symbol was here, in this transport that was clearly too small for the massive orca. Her discovery simply excited her for the rationale to cross her mind.

Eyes drifted around, trying to mentally map the space as she thought of other potential problems with this half-cocked plan. The paper would be super fragile, virtually untouchable without disintegrating, in all honestly, but Dawn was unwilling to admit that because she wanted so desperately wanted to show this to Ingo. Could she maybe pry the poster off the wall in its frame? It seemed to be bolted down tight.

Maybe if she had enough leverage…

Dawn’s eyes fell onto the other poster on the other side of the door, and she froze.

She recognized a word on that poster! In fact-

Dawn moved closer to that poster, the uncomfortable prickling in her head growing into a stabbing pain as she forced herself to look.

Sinnoh

That… That was Mount Coronet. But how was that possible?

Something was boiling in the back of her head. The burble of a voice that sounded familiar. It reminded her of Volo for some reason.

… There is a statue of an ancient ... Have you seen it already? According to myth, it was an extremely powerful ... Who knows? You may encounter something like it while you're traveling …

Dawn gasped sharply, her mind and body putting distance between the memories and the poster that were causing her such pain. The water around her face suddenly felt so warm.

------

Finding Dawn and Mai wasn’t too much of an issue. Gaeric had a sixth sense for Diamond clan members, probably from having to deal with sneaky little Sabi, and Ingo had his own sort of sixth sense to Dawn. Her habit of getting into her own sort of mischief made him hyperaware of where she was at all times. To both their surprise, Dawn and Mai were in Pearl clan territory – dangerously close to the drop off.

Why they were there was unimportant, it was imperative that they get them out of there. The drop off was absolutely not a place for pups. Not even a good place for adult mers because of all the strange things that lived in the drop off.

Ingo couldn’t help but shudder at the memory of his first and last hunt over the drop off because he was surprisingly awful at hunting and because he became Lady Sneasler’s warden. However, a hazier recollection was percolating just beneath the surface when they came upon Dawn and Mai. His limbs froze up, stopping all together as Gaeric pressed forward, completely unaware of Ingo’s sudden distress.

A burning pressure in his lungs as if he were holding his breath underwater too long, his thoughts molten from the lack of oxygen before he blissfully passed out. His next memory was of Palina’s dark eyes about six inches from his nose, the pain coursing through his body immense as… what was that thing? Ingo didn’t know, but it was crushing his tail.

The structure - That thing….

“Gaeric-”

Ingo began to say, but the mer was surging forward toward Mai with an intimidating growl. She looked their way, and her expression didn’t change much, indifferent if a little amused by their appearance.

“Warden Ingo. Warden Gaeric.”

It was polite for Ingo and a little frosty for Gaeric. It wasn’t hard to tell they had a history. If Ingo wasn’t acutely aware of minute changes in body language, facial expressions, and the tone and pitch of voices, he wouldn’t have realized. He almost didn’t realize now as a sudden and uncomfortable sensation crawled the length of his considerably long spine.

The structure…

“What is the matter with you? What would possess you to take a pup anywhere near the drop off?”

“I like to give the pups I watch over the benefit of confidence. They get a little more independent when I let them explore and do the things they want to do. I offered Dawn the chance to explore these… things, and now she is, and she loves it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

This structure… why?

“We can’t afford to waste time and coddle our pups into adulthood.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, but the space around us is a little less hospitable than your filthy river.”

They said there were no more. Just the one they found him in.

“As precious as you are about your space, at least we were more strategic about picking a location to settle than a damn glacier.”

“What do you know? What do you know about what we’ve gone through when we-”

“Gaeric.”

Ingo’s voice was sharp and cold like an icicle shattering into fragments on the ground. The other Pearl clan warden flinched. His bitterness and agitation in Mai’s presence evaporated when he heard that tone. He had rarely heard Ingo use it and it was petrifying when he did. Even Mai when still and quiet, a breath stuck in her chest as she waited in fearful anticipation. She had never seen Ingo mad – but she wasn’t sure she could call this mad.

“Ingo-”

Gaeric was not permitted to finish.

“You said there weren’t more. You explicitly said there weren’t more. I may have a faulty cab, but I know this is not the same one.”

Ingo did not understand the structures, but they triggered something in his head. Something familiar. He wanted to know so badly what it was. He was found being crushed by one, but nobody really had an explanation for it. Ingo had explored that one top to bottom once he had recovered, trying to find any clues or remnants of information that might clue him into the significance of these things.

Irida had told him after a long search that there were no more. He tried to ask for permission to look for himself and Gaeric jumped in to shoot the idea down. Ingo barely knew the area, he had said, and they had already checked all over – there was nothing left.

Gaeric had lied.

His fellow warden had a flash of something (was it fear?) cross his face before he recomposed and began defending himself.

“What difference would it have made if you had known about this? You couldn’t get in there even if you wanted to. It would have been a wild goose chase.”

“Wow, didn’t realize how much disarray the Pearl clan was.”

Mai smirked, folding her arms and leaning back to watch the show. Now that she knew the anger wasn’t directed at her, she could afford to watch Gaeric get verbally berated. She doubted Ingo had it in him to hurt Gaeric, he was remarkably gentle for a mer of his size, but Ingo could talk circles around people.

“Shut up, Mai.” Gaeric hissed before cutting his eyes back to Ingo. “Listen, I didn’t really know you back when Irida had us fan out to look for your pod. We came across a few of these, but they seem less related to you and more to the rifts that kept popping open. I’m sure they have nothing to do with-”

“You’ve known about this for that long?”

The tone was verging on disappointment, but it was hurt in a way that felt sharp going in and jagged coming out. Gaeric unconsciously crossed his arms and rubbed his biceps, growing more defensive with each passing second and he emitted an incoherent snarl of frustration. Yes, he recognized that he was making excuses. It would be no good to anyone to have Ingo distractedly swimming all over kingdom come.

“What difference does it make?”

There was a flash of wickedly sharp teeth and a deep growl that seemed to make the water vibrate. Behind him, Mai tutted disapprovingly, but Gaeric made no attempt to round on her – his attention was on his clan mate.

“All that time wasted, what a shame.”

“How long?”

The words were ground out with a note of impatience, like Ingo was moments away from lunging forward to shake some sense into him until Gaeric spat out the answer.

“We knew about a month after you arrived.”

“Hm, how peculiar that your Sinnoh did not deem you worthy enough to know of these things in your space sooner.”

A warning growl from Gaeric, but Mai ignored it. It was amusing to watch someone other than herself give Gaeric a hard time. This was easy pickings, but Mai allowed herself to be petty this once. A smile curved her lips, displaying rows of sharp teeth for only a millisecond before it disappeared.

“You kept this knowledge from me? There could have been remnants of my pod there – and now they’re most likely scoured by scavengers and wiped clean by time. This…” He seemed to be at a loss for words, casting his gray eyes around as if seeking out the right string to really emphasis how painful this felt for him. “Your actions are disgraceful.”

“Disgraceful? You think my actions are disgraceful?”

Gaeric bristled with rage, leaning closer to Ingo who remained unmoving and glowering. He opened his mouth, gnashing his teeth like he was between tearing Ingo’s throat out with them or just to intimidate the orca, when something white streaked across his vision. Ingo flinched and Gaeric immediately drew back, Dawn was shoving Ingo’s cheek as if to push him away.

“Stop! Stop! Let’s just go! Come on Ingo, let’s just go. Please? I want to go back to the settlement.”

Fright laced her words, pushing him with all her might until Ingo relented, moving in the direction of the settlement without so much as a backward glance. Crisis narrowly averted for now.

“Ah well.”

Mai sighed, stretching and eyeing Gaeric’s back, his shoulders still tense. She didn’t get to see them tussle.

“Mai?” He hadn’t turned to look at her, Gaeric was still watching the duo retreat into the gloom. “Do you think there’s something off about Dawn?”

It should have been something she laughed off. Gaeric? Asking her something like that? How ludicrous. However, Mai heard something in his voice, something that resonated with her all too well, and it made her pause and really consider what he was asking. He was asking as someone concerned for his people and, even if it felt a little preposterous that Gaeric would be worried about a pup like Dawn, she gave him the benefit of the doubt, just this once.

“I… think I know what you mean? But I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“Neither can I.”