Much to Krill's apparent dismay, it was nearly pitch black by the time the group located a place to sleep for the night. The location they decided on was not nearly as impressive as the towering, multi-level sleeping nooks Pretie had seen the previous night. Standing before them were two chunks of sandy rock sitting a few yards apart, a somewhat crooked hole burrowing into each of them.

"Not perfect, but it'll do. Just one night, after all." Krill commented as they drifted closer. He poked his head into the compartment of one of the structures. Pretie watched with wide eyes as he picked up a wriggling hermit crab from inside, setting it gently on the sand outside. "Yeah, these'll work. This one's big enough for two. Ephyra, check the other for me?"

Upon his request, the mermaid floated over to the second rock, glancing into its hollow center. "Yep, same here. We can split up two and two."

"Melody, you're with me?"

Pretie could have sworn she saw a flush of red heat Melody's cheeks—just bright enough to notice beneath her dark skin—as she nodded hurriedly and swam over. Someone's got a bit of a crush.

"Great. I assume we'll want to get going early. If we're fast enough, we should be able to make it to our destination sometime tomorrow." With a final nod, Krill disappeared into the nook with Melody.

That left Ephyra and Pretie.

"I can, um, sleep out here," the girl blurted, pointing toward the sand. "I don't need to cram myself in there with you. Doubt it would be very comfortable. And I slept outside before and it was fine—"

"It was cold then, and it'll be just as cold tonight," Ephyra replied, her eyebrows raised. "There's plenty of room in here, Prettypants. You don't have to sleep alone on my watch."

Pretie crossed her arms, glancing distastefully between the mermaid and the awaiting nook. It was bound to be uncomfortable, and the thought of being in such a small space with Ephyra... The girl felt a flutter in the pit of her stomach. She was suddenly worried she was going to throw up—and Pretie could imagine just how well that would go in the ocean. "Well, maybe I don't want to sleep with—"

"Look, if you want to freeze your fins off, that's on you. But I am going to sleep in here, and you're more than welcome to join me." Ephyra started toward the hole before turning back around, a hint of a smirk on her lips. "Plus, it's much warmer with two."

Pretie watched the mermaid disappear into the nook, running a hand down her face. A very distinct part of her wanted to sleep on her own. I'm a princess, for goodness' sake. I've never shared a bed, let alone a tiny crevice, with anyone. But she had been cold the previous night, so much so that she'd barely gotten any sleep. Pretie rubbed at the goosebumps forming on her arms. The tip of her tail twitched, a clear display of her internal conflict.

I mean... Ephyra's been nothing but kind to me, she thought after a moment, staring at the lip of the rock's crooked mouth. It's not always obvious, but she's never done anything to actually harm me. I guess it couldn't hurt to sleep in there with her. Her face heated. It's just one night, and it's just because it's logically the best option. 

Pretie took a breath and drifted toward the nook, peeking inside. With Ephyra lying on the far side, it seemed like Pretie would have just enough room to lay beside her. She glimpsed a flash of teeth as Ephyra grinned up at her. Rolling her eyes, the girl maneuvered her way inside, wriggling her way into the crevice tail-first. The rock was rough against her skin as she brushed against it, but after a moment she had settled down on her side next to Ephyra—who was turned to face her. Of course.

"See? Not so bad."

"I thought we were here to sleep, not exchange pleasantries."

"Y'know, every time I question if you're actually royal, you somehow manage to prove it to me. Well done, Prettypants. Oh, sorry, I mean, Your Highness."

With the barely-there space between them and Pretie's refusal to risk touching her, all the princess could do in response was fix Ephyra with a glare. The look only resulted in a soft laugh from the mermaid.

"Whatever." Pretie mumbled after a moment, shifting to lay on her back. This way, at least, she could stare at the craggy rock above their heads and not Ephyra's sharp eyes glinting at her from the shadows. "We'll find the stone tomorrow, and I'll be back to my normal life in no time. No more dealing with annoying tails or equally annoying mermaids."

There was a beat of silence in which Pretie couldn't decide whether Ephyra had fallen asleep or taken offense to her words. The answer was neither, she found a moment later, when the mermaid spoke. "Why do you want to go back so badly?"

A bit taken aback by her question, Pretie rolled back over onto her side. "Isn't it obvious? That's where I live. It's my home."

"Well, yeah, but what's there for you? What convinced you that you need to go back so badly?"

She scoffed. "Look, it's their fault that I'm here in the first place—I mean, my father and Prince... I've already forgotten his name. I need to show them that they've made a mistake, that I'm not someone they can just send away when they're displeased with me. I just need more control over my own life. I think that, if I can go back, I can prove that to them."

Ephyra hummed thoughtfully. She raised an eyebrow, silently asking a thousand follow-up questions.

"I just... I'm so tired of being pushed around. Of being told 'do this, but don't do this' and 'marry this person because I said so.'" Pretie let out a breath, resulting in a ripple of her gills she still wasn't sure she was used to. She absentmindedly ran a finger across their ridges as she gathered her thoughts. "Maybe if I was born a boy, my father would have given me more control. But I'm a girl, so I'll never be anything but a figurehead for my father to push around the board."

"Why bother going back, then? If it's nothing but bad things back in Aecora, surely you—"

"What else do I have?"

Silence fell over the nook as she spoke the words. Pretie swallowed, feeling the burn of tears she knew would never fall. "What else do I have?" She repeated, softer.

Ephyra's eyebrows furrowed as she stared at the girl. What she was thinking, Pretie had no idea. She doesn't understand. I'm supposed to be back in Aecora. That's where I... 

"I just want things to go back to normal," she whispered after a long moment. "I want it to be as if none of this ever happened. I don't want to be here thinking about all of this 'what if this, what if that.' I just... I just need to go back to Aecora. That's where I..." Belong. But she couldn't seem to get the word past her lips.

"Where you..?" Ephyra prompted in a soft voice.

"I've never really belonged anywhere." The words took Pretie herself by surprise, out of her mouth before she could gather them up. She'd never said them out loud before now, but... It's true, isn't it?

"All of my life, I've never... I've never felt like I was supposed to be here. I'm too stubborn and rebellious for my father and the others at the castle, but too poised and royal for anyone else I've met. And... I don't know, where do I fit in? Back in Aecora... It's like I only exist for my father. I've never... I've never been allowed to be my own person." Pretie sucked in a breath. "I'm not even sure that I know who that is. I've been playing pretend for so long."

When Pretie managed the courage to meet Ephyra's gaze again, she noticed a soft smile on the mermaid's lips. It was kinder than many of her flashy, sharp-toothed grins. This one was gentle, understanding. 

"Oh, gods, please don't pity me. I—"

"I'm not pitying you, Prettypants. In fact, I've felt that way before. You sound a whole lot like me."

"What?"

Ephyra rolled her eyes, a bit of her characteristic smirk bleeding through. "Surely you didn't miss how those mermaids in the clearing acted when they saw me the other day."

Pretie hadn't missed it. She remembered how they had flinched away from her, wary and afraid, put on edge by her presence. "Yes."

"They all think that I'm a monster." Ephyra replied. Her smile had slipped again, though Pretie could tell she was trying to remain upbeat, her tone almost falsely humorous. "They think that, because of my tail and my teeth and how I cut my hair and whatever, I'm somehow different from any of them. I'm some creature they need to fear. They're the beautiful, perfect mermaids and I'm... I'm something else."

Pretie opened her mouth to argue, but Ephyra wasn't finished. She just shrugged, her arms nearly bumping into the girl with the movement.

"For a long time, I let that get to me," she continued, her voice no louder than a low murmur. "For a long time, I stuck it out alone. I assumed I would never have any friends, that I was demoted to this lonesome, depressing life and that it would always be like that because of who I am and how I look." A small smile twitched its way onto her lips. "But then I found Krill and Melody—both different in their own ways—and I realized that it's not always going to be like that. So... Maybe you haven't had much luck fitting in. But maybe it's just because you're trying to fit into the wrong places."

Pretie nodded thoughtfully as the words sank in. Maybe that is the case. But... If Aecora is the wrong place, what's the right one?

"I'm sorry about all of those mermaids," Pretie found herself whispering instead. "I don't understand why they would assume all of those things about you before they even got to know you. And I... I think you're very worth getting to know."

"You're one of the rare few to think so." Ephyra shifted, tilting her head a little as she adjusted her position. "You're something special, Prettypants. And, for the record, I think you're very worth getting to know, too."

Pretie smiled. An especially chilly current passed through then, making a shiver move through her body. She instinctively brought her arms up to hug herself, gritting her teeth against their chattering.

"Here." Ephyra murmured, and before Pretie could ask what she was doing, the mermaid had wrapped her own arms around the girl, drawing her close. Pretie's chest pressed against Ephyra's own, her head fitting seemingly perfectly in the crook of Ephyra's neck. "Sorry, I guess I should have asked. Is this okay? It's just that you're clearly cold and—"

"It's okay." Pretie whispered. She could feel her heart beating a mile a minute, but there was something comforting about being held like this. The girl hadn't realized how cold she'd been until she was enveloped in the warmth of the mermaid's arms. Her shivering subsided as she felt herself relax into them.

I wish I could find where I belong, she thought to herself as she let her eyelids flutter closed—and, somewhere at the edge of her mind, she realized the words were true. Pretie wished it more than anything, with a sort of desperate longing she hadn't come to recognize until now, in this nook with Ephyra, wrapped up in her arms.

Her thoughts were conflicted as she fell asleep, but she still heard Ephyra's soft whispering in her ear in the moment before she drifted off. "Sweet dreams, Prettypants."