Gwynneth and Donovan had swam a lot in the past hours. The movement in the water had felt tense and at many moments, Gwynneth felt as if she were fighting a current. She also felt as if she had been dragged along by the seal. As if Gwynneth were a cat on a lead, and the seal was a human trying to get her to go on a walk.

She felt a little sad because she felt that she was a burden to the seal, and to Donovan. Both being faster, and that she was slowing them down. The seadragon girl thought many disparaging comments about herself, she suddenly looked downcast and remembered that they were still being followed.

There was a slight shift in the ocean's current. And the temperature was slightly warm, and there was a distant sound of tails moving side to side. The noise was like a drum, each beat getting louder with each hit. The thumping sound of the tails pounding back and forth, compared to the up and down motion of Donovan's tail confused Gwynneth until she realized what happened.

Her frills behind her ears flared out as she turned her head to see five shark-people pursuing them. They were soldiers and warriors armed with pointed teeth, spears, daggers, and large fish-hooks. Some of them wore armor on their shoulders with spikes, but only few of them.

A couple of them were hammerheads, one was a tiger shark, another a bull-shark, but the leader, she was a great white and had dark blue-black, villianous and piercing, dead eyes. Her scales were much like her actual counterpart, for her shark tail was dark gray on the top-back side, and white on the front-bottom side, and her skin was blue gray. She did not have hair, but had a structure on her head made out of rigid, tough, almost bone-like cartilage that formed like a hairstyle, which was reminisint to a haircut where one side was shaved and the other was kept long. She was also much larger than the men around her, and was nearly twice the size of the hammerhead and the bull-shark beside her. The leader wore armor on her which covered her shoulders and torso, but had slits for her gills at her sides to breathe. All of the shark soldiers had five to seven large slit-gills on either sides of their midsections, had sharp fins protruding from their arms, and pointed dorsal fins on their backs. And each wore a countenance of a predator.

Gwynneth's frills fanned out more displaying an ombre of purple to orange and yellow as she shrieked, "THEY FOUND US!"

"Argh!" Donovan grimaced, "We almost had lost them!"

"Five against two, and a seal,"Gwynneth spoke with a calculating tone, "and they are armed with weapons. "

They were still swimming away while conversing their plan when Donovan said, "you make it sound pretty dismal."

"Not entirely," Gwynneth objected, "I have a plan!"

The sharks had advanced and kept getting closer by the second. Gwynneth let go of the seal and turned to face the shark-people, her hair floating around her gently as she moved. She raised her hands spreading her webbed fingers into a fan, and spun, as she chanted sending a large current upon the soldiers. Gwynneth looked like flurry of yellow-green, orange and purple as she had spun around, her leafy fins floating around her.

A pale blue-violet aura emitted from Gwynneth as she used magic to defend herself against the soldiers. A male tiger shark darted away from the seadragon's attack. He was armed with a serrated spear and at a rapid speed bolted toward Gwynneth. He went to jab her in the stomach with his spear but she flipped over, and was above him.

She caught the weapon with one of her hands and bent it away from where he had pointed it at her. Gwynneth used both her hands and twisted his hand that held the spear, and she caught the weapon. She held it far from his reach and kept a hold of his arm.

Then using magic she created a purple aura around the spear and thrusted it at one of the other shark soldiers. The spear whizzed past the female great white shark, and struck one of the male hammerhead people through his chest. A cloud of crimson bursted out of his chest and made the water around him red with his blood. The spear went through his whole body coming out the other side and fell until it found itself caught between two rocks at the seafloor.

He plummeted to the seafloor slowly with red cloud-plumes of blood trailing after him. The hammerhead had dropped his weapon, a razor-edged fish hook, upon being struck and it had sunk down to the seafloor next to his dead body.

Another hammerhead took the opportunity to attack Gwynneth, while she still held the tiger shark. Then Gwynneth quickly restrained the tiger shark man by wrapping her cloak around both his throat and the gills at his sides, then tightened it. He gasped and choked. If Gwyneth were stronger, the part which was tightened around his neck could have ripped off his head. Gwynneth then unwrapped the cloak, then summoned power into her hands and aided herself with magic. Her eyes glowed as she clenched her hands into fists and thrusted one of her arms at him and struck him on the side of his head.

The extra strength she gave herself from the magic allowed the punch to be more than twice her normal strength. Which when she hit the tiger shark, he tumbled backward through the water unconscious.

But the other hammerhead was gaining up on her. Right then Donovan was fighting off the bull-shark and the female great white leader. Donovan himself created large currents with his arms and tail that pushed his adversaries away from him. The large male bull-shark man who was armed with a dagger came up to Donovan and slashed the side of his cheek with the blade.

Fortunately Donovan had pulled away from the attack and the blade made only a slight laceration. There was only a little blood, but it was barely visable. Recognizing that Gwynneth needed backup, Donovan disarmed the bull-shark, then took the dagger and pierced the shark's arm, making a deep incision, and then flung the jagged blade aside. He then punched the shark on the nose.

The bull-shark shouted and clutched his wounded arm. Then he violently drew back from Donovan and swam away from the fight, still screaming in agony.

Donovan then swam over to Gwynneth at the right moment just when the hammerhead was about to stab Gwynneth in the chest. And he lunged at the shark-man and knocked him out of the way.

"Thanks!" Gwynneth gasped.

Immediately she then put up a teal, blue and green barrier of magic around herself to protect her from the other enemies. As well as weave an enchantment to protect Donovan from serious injury. The two then worked together to disarm and drive away the other shark soldiers. Donovan and Gwynneth fought them off with their combined strength, Gwynneth managed to bash one of the shark soldiers in the head at the same time, Donovan sent another flying through the water with an intense punch in the gut.

"RAARGH!" The female great white charged at both of them screaming, her spear raised above her head. "If you don't come with us willingly we will take you by force and kill your friend if we have to!"

The woman spoke with such contempt in her voice, and was stubborn. The disdain in her voice was directed at Gwynneth. Her threat was almost venomous, like a cobra's or a komodo dragon's spit. She was going to do all in her power to execute her mission. She snarled at them as she jabbed and darted at them both missing them by inches. But this only angered the great white more. Her eyes glowed with rage as she slashed at the water with the spear.

Gwynneth threw her arms out on either sides of her and flicked her fingers, as if tapping imaginary piano keys and shouted out a spell. The spell caused a funnel of water to engulf the shark woman and separate her from Donovan and Gwynneth. Then Gwynneth's face contorted and her eyebrows narrowed, she clenched her jaw and closed her eyes and casted a non-verbal spell. Simultaneously, she made motions with her hands to generate the spell.

A mythical water creature appeared suddenly summoned by the spell. It had at least six arms and was goatlike. It had a blue frill behind its head and a ray-finned-fish tail, black fur and two glowing white-blue eyes. The creature was not really there, but was an illusion. However it was able to move, and touch things. The creature helped Gwynneth and grabbed the weapon away from the shark woman. But the woman attacked and bit the creature on its shoulder with her extremely sharp shark-teeth.

But the goat creature and the shark woman continued fighting. The great white thrashed at the creature and clung to it with her webbed talon-like hands. But the goat creature that Gwynneth had conjured up kept the woman occupied and allowed Gwynneth and Donovan to get away.

"That should buy us some time to leave and escape them!" Gwynneth exclaimed and they continued swimming on.

Donovan took the lead as they left, and soon they were reuinted with the seal. The seal barked at Gwynneth kindly and was happy to see that she was alright. Gwynneth beamed at the seal, and felt happy that she and the seal had become friends.

She then held onto the seal who gladly helped aid her in swimming fast. And then Gwynneth and Donovan were off on their journey. As they left, Gwynneth casted a spell to take their smell away from the water so that the sharks couldn't follow them any longer.

They continued heading east and managed to get far ahead. The water was very cool, and did not change too dramatically.

Gwynneth still struggled a bit and her poorly built seadragon tail was a hindrance, it slowed her down. And she had to violently move herself side to side and up and down, while simultaneously stroking her arms. She even tried to imitate the motion a seasnake would do to propel and move itself through water.

"Gwynneth," Donovan said, "you have been having trouble swimming, do you want to take a break?"

"Sure, that would be great," Gwynneth sighed, "thanks. I always have had trouble swimming, even as a kid. I usually prefer swimming in a calmer manner anyways."

They then went up to the surface to take a break. Both swam upward, Gwynneth still holding onto the seal. And then their heads broke the surface they all gasped in unison.

"Donovan! I suggest you keep your neck under the water!" Gwynneth noted, "your gills are on your neck, and you might suffocate if they aren't getting water."

He coughed and then ducked his neck back into the water so that he could breath a little better. "Good idea," Donovan replied.

They treaded in the water there for a while taking a break from their long and strenuous journey. Gwynneth looked up at the sky and shielded her eyes from the sun's bright rays with one of her hands. The sun was nearly above their heads.

"It is nearly noon," said Gwynneth pointing out the sun's location, "the sun is nearly in the middle of the sky, so it is a little before noon."

"Thanks for figuring out the time," Donovan responded, "it is hard to believe we've been out here so long."

"Aye, it seems almost like we just had left,"Gwynneth said, "we have gotten really far though. Might need to eat something soon."

"You're right,"he said with a small sigh.

Gwynneth turned to the seal, "hey do you know were we could get some food?"

The seal barked a little then ducked under the water.

"We better go follow it then," Donovan said.

"Obviously," Gwynneth replied.

They followed after the seal, and dove under the water. Gwynneth adapted and was able to swim on her own by perfecting on of her previous methods of swimming. Moving her tail up and down, she managed to swim similar to an actual seadragon, except at a faster—though a strong current could have also aided her easier.

The two followed the seal to a calm place where the seal went hunting for fish, and most likely cephalopods like squids or octopus. Gwynneth watched as the seal hunted for food and an idea formed in her brain.

"We could do the same," she suggested, "and hunt for some fish."

"True, "Donovan said.

"I could make a tool, that we could use to capture some fish," Gwynneth suggested, her eyes lighting up with many ideas. "Or I could use magic..."

Her head started hurting suddenly, and she clutched her head. The distress was palpable, and even the seal who was farther away could recognize it. The seal even turned her face to look in Gwynneth's direction, then dove away to look for something.

Gwynneth's frills flared behind her ears. She still was experiencing a horrible headache, and her face went pale, she looked very ill. The water around her brushed against her and also added to the agitation. Gwynneth floated down, slowly to the shallow seafloor and held her head in her hands. She pressed her webbed fingers against her temples and forehead, proceeding to massage her head.

Donovan showed concern and had a contorted face expression his eyebrows curved upward. He asked, "are you okay?"

"No," Gwynneth said shaking her head. "I used a lot of magic in that battle with the sharks, and it used a lot of energy... I feel sick."

Gwynneth grimaced, her face was filled with tension. "I need to eat something, or rest, "she said.

"We'll eat soon, I thi—" But Donovan was interrupted.

The seal appeared suddenly and swam back to them with some fish hanging from her mouth. The seal beamed as she swam to Gwynneth. The seal opened her mouth and dropped one of the fish in front of Gwynneth. Then she swam toward Donovan and gave him the other fish.

"Thank you," Gwynneth said in a weak voice. But her eyes showed a huge amount of gratitude. She accepted the fish and began to eat it, raw.

No one questioned Gwynneth, but she continued to eat the fish. It was not red meat, and was definitely not salmon. It had white meat and was not too flavorful, but it was better than a fish from anywhere else. It still had flavor though, and had a simple and pleasant taste.

She ate anyways and was rather hungry. As she ate, the color of her face went back to normal, and see was starting to get better. It took a little less than ten minutes to finish the fish until all that was left was the tail, and some bones that she couldn't chew. Gwynneth, gave her leftovers to the seal, who happily obliged and ate the tail.

The seal gnawed on it until there was nothing left, then before barking once, she went back out to hunt for some more food for herself. Donovan wasn't sure what to do with the fish that the seal had given him. He held it in his hands and thought for a little.

"Well, I guess it is not the most prettiest meal," he said in a light hearted, funny and slightly sarcastic tone.

Not completely finding the humor in it, Gwynneth only laughed slightly and thought to herself, this guy hasn't seen an ugly meal before, that fish is a great meal.

"You okay, Gwynneth?"asked Donovan. "You seem to be getting better."

"Yeah I am,"she replied and a bright tone, "the fish did wonders. I feel less ill, and my energy is coming back."

"I never thought that using magic could drain one's energy," Donovan said before taking a second bite into his own fish. "Yuck, fish skin is scaley...it is like eating something related to a merman."

Gwynneth was sitting on the the sandy ocean floor, on a rock. She had been staring off into space. But she looked up to add some relevant information.

"Fortunately, Mermaid-Merpeople are so distantly related to fish, that the last time we were ever related, fish weren't fish, and bacteria were the first life forms on Earth. And the four limbed land-fish creature that other things evolved from overtime was what connects us to fish," Gwynneth spoke. "Simply, the common ancestor to any vertebrate is the only thing that connects us to fish."

Gwynneth continued her lecture and Donovan only half listened, and when he added information, she corrected him.

"You should also be glad that we are able to digest the scaled skin of fish," Gwynneth added.

"How come it took so much energy out of you?" Donovan asked.

"Because, I had used so many strong spells, especially conjuring the creature," Gwynneth answered and sighed a bit. Her tone became stronger when saying, "Of course magic drains one's energy, it is all about the balance, if we could freely use magic without a price or consequence what would the world be like then!"

She folded her hands in her "lap" and looked around her surroundings. They were silent for a while and waited until the seal got back. After a couple moments the seal appeared from the forest of seagrasses and kelp. The seal had a cephalopod in her mouth this time, and its tentacles were wriggling out of the sides of her mouth.

The seal swam over to Donovan and Gwynneth showing them her catch. It was a squid. The seal floated next to them and began to chew the squid. The seal persistently gnawed its rubbery and chewy skin and tentacles. The seal chewed for a while and enjoyed the meal. But after she was finished the seal suddenly bolted upward toward the ocean's surface.

A flurry of bubbles followed behind the seal as she stirred up and agitated the water around her with her rapid movement. Donovan and Gwynneth looked at each other and nodded and followed the seal's lead. They both emerged out of the water shortly after the seal. The seal bobbed in the water and exhaled and inhaled.

"You must have needed some air," Gwynneth said to the seal, "didn't you!?"

The seal barked in reply. Gwynneth laughed with a happy tone. The seadragon woman serveyed the surroundings and looked ahead of them. She examined the horizon, and the waves. There were long and thin clouds in the deep azure sky. Gulls and pelicans flew in the sky. In the distance to the east in front of them she could see the outline of the North Island of New Zealand and parts of the South Island. The outline was like peaks of land above the sea, and she could see the shape of the coastline and some mountains.

"Donovan! We are getting really close!" Gwynneth pointed with her hand and exclaimed, "I think I can see Mount Taranaki!"

With a curious expression Donovan asked, "what is Mount Taranaki?"

Gwynneth gasped and stared at him with astonishment. She thought to herself, one would think he would know some of this. One would think that he was taught some geography and history of the lands around.

"Mount Taranaki is a mountain on the North Island," Gwynneth began, "it is actually a dormant volcano. I learned about New Zealand, and a bit of Australia by reading. So I know some random facts, about wildlife, environment, and landforms, and names of certain cities. I keep thinking it is near Wanganui, and another place with a 'W'. But those at closer to the middle-ish areas of the island..."

"How did you learn all that?" Donovan gasped, "When did you learn all that information?"

"Over a year at least," Gwynneth answered, "I read from books."

Books do exist in the underwater world in which Gwynneth and Donovan belong to, but they are very different from paper books.

"The atmosphere is off," Gwynneth spoke.

"What do you mean by that?" Donovan asked.

"I feel a foreboding feeling," Gwynneth answered.

Donovan reassured her, "there is nothing to worry about. Must be reactions from our battle back there."

"That could be true," Gwynneth replied, she still thought it was something else though. "I also kind of wish I had another fish to eat..."

So Gwynneth plunged back into the water, and with the help of the seal, went hunting for some more food. They swam through the cool water looking for more fish to eat.

Along the way, Gwynneth plucked bits of seagrass with her hands. The green plants felt squishy and cold between her hands. She also grabbed and tore out some strands of green and brown-orange kelp and started to weave them together. Her fingers held each thin, leafy strand precisely and intertwined the seaweeds, grasses, and kelp into braids. Her activity slowed her swimming a bit, but would prove useful.

After a couple minutes of aimlessly trailing behind the seal and braiding seagrasses, Gwynneth had made a makeshift net.

"I made this," Gwynneth showed her invention to the seal.

The seal nodded as a response. Gwynneth nodded as well, "I'm going to try to use it to catch some fish."

Gwynneth and the seal worked together to gather some food. The seal would chase the fish, while Gwynneth held her net with two hands and spread out her arms wide enough to keep the net open. Which then the seal chased the fish into the net, and at the right timing, Gwynneth quickly wrenched the two ends of the net together to close it. Whenever she had closed it at the right moment, she would catch the fish.

After a couple tries, Gwynneth had caught a meal.
"WOOHOO!" Gwynneth cried, "I actually did that!"

The seal barked as a reply. Then with a burst of energy, they swam up to the surface where Donovan was waiting.

With a huge pop noise Gwynneth's head broke through the surface of the water. A few moments earlier the seal bobbed up as well. Gwynneth beamed and showed Donovan her seaweed-net which contained at least four fish. She raised the net above the surface, demonstrating her catch.

"You took a while," he said.

"Yeah, but I got some good food!" Gwynneth beamed and she grabbed one of the fish from her net then said, "here you can have one."

"Thank you," Donovan replied accepting her offer and taking the fish.

Gwynneth dug her hand into the net and grabbed a fish for herself. Then like a ravenous animal, she began to rip apart the fish with her hands and shoveled the meat in her mouth. Within seconds she had devoured half of the fish.

"I should slow down," Gwynneth said to herself with a short cough.

Then she slowly ate the rest and finished with a satisfied smile. "How was your fish, Donovan?" Gwynneth asked and treaded in the water, still holding her net closed tightly.

"It is good," he said.

"Cool," Gwynneth replied and then went to fidget with her net.

Gwynneth grabbed two ends of the net and knotted them in a bow to close the bag. She double knotted it so the seal was tight but not permanent.

"There," Gwynneth sighed,"now we can save the other two for later."

Gwynneth suddenly stared at Donovan and noticed the slash on his cheek from the battle. She pointed in the direction of his wound with her finger and said, "Your injury seems to have healed rather quickly."

"Really?" He questioned in a calm tone. Donovan held one of his hands out of the water and felt the side of his face where his injury was. He had webbed fingers and his skin from his forearm down to his fingers faded from his pale, peach, white skin into deep blue scales that sparkled in the sunlight like sapphires.

"Yes," Gwynneth responded, "the skin on your cheek seems to have sealed back together, and there is no blood. Hasn't scapped yet, might leave a small scar though."

"Yeah," Donovan replied.

After their conversation, they treaded in the water there for a while before continuing on their journey. For a while Gwynneth had begun a conversation with the seal about mundane things like how the seal's day was going or how was her meal. And sometimes they talked about the journey, and asked the seal what she thought of the fight.

But then they immediately continued swimming in the direction of the Island ahead of them. Before leaving, Gwynneth tied her net around her back almost like a quiver, by making a strap out of a thick strand of kelp. She strung it around her, the net on her back, and the strap crossed her chest. Afterword, they rapidly plunged under the water and swam. Gwynneth held onto the seal again and at a faster pace the whole group swam forward in their journey. Donovan pointed out a current and led the group into it so they could travel even faster.

With the current on their side, following behind, pushing them forward they had picked up the pace. The deep blue water moved around them in fast movements. The atmosphere around them was frantic and vigorous. Gwynneth's hair billowed behind her like elegant strands of fabric, or like swirling winds shaping clouds. More seaweed had tangled itself in her braid as she swam adding to her untamed, leafy, nature looking appearance. Her cloak dramatically cascaded around her like a thick veil of purple light and water. But due to the net, it was slightly restrained, like a contained chaos.  Dovonan's blue hair flung back with the current like a flag in the wind, giving him a wild and regal look. And while the other two where majestic mythical creatures, the seal was a graceful animal that smoothly swam through the water, fast as a bird flying in the air.

Donovan led the way, being the fastest swimmer. But Gwynneth and the seal swam just beside him. Together they continued their journey.

The current had proved very helpful in their travel, and due to the quickened pace they had gotten far ahead. The group swam through large kelp forests, silky kelp brushing against them. The kelp almost danced in the current similar to trees or grass in the wind.

Gwynneth smiled but her smile faded because she remembered something she had observed earlier. She kept her hold on the seal and together they caught up to Donovan. They soon got out of the kelp forest and Gwynneth motioned for the surface soon after, because the seal needed a breath of air.

Gwynneth let go of the seal so she could go up to the surface faster. The seal bursted upward out of the water to breathe. Gwynneth and Donovan stayed underneath and chatted briefly.

"Something was odd," Gwynneth pointed to Donovan's neck, "I recognized it earlier, though I was too hungry back then. Your necklace is gone, I'm surprised you did not notice it sooner."

Donovan felt his neck and his eyes widened when he realized it was gone. Donovan cursed and shouted, "HOW DID I NOT NOTICE IT?"

"Not sure, it was one your neck," Gwynneth stated, "it must have fallen off in battle or earlier when we were escaping."

"Aaaaargh," Donovan said aggravated.

The seal then swam down to where they were and Gwynneth beamed at the seal. While Donovan was still fixated on his lost necklace.

"I should have noticed!" Donovan said.

Gwynneth reassured him, "I'm sure the currents could have picked it up. Maybe it might wash up on the Island!"

"Which one?" He asked eagerly.

"Hmm, not sure," Gwynneth shrugged. "There is now way I could tell which direction it could go..."

There was a pause, the seadragon floated around gently in the water and tried to come up with a plan. The current around them was moving in a East direction.

"We can follow the current to mainland and go from there," Gwynneth decided.

"Okay, then let's go!" Donovan said.

Gwynneth held onto the seal again as the group left, aided by the current they swam through the blue ocean as fast as they could. The farther they swam the closer they could see the rock of the islands beneath the water.

Their journey had been long and tiring so far, but the rest proved to be much more relaxed then before, due to the help of the current. And so they left with the rays of the Sun shining through the blue water creating a more cheerful and optimistic atmosphere.

~***~