The frantic beating of Kara's heart caused her to choke. Rion pounded on her back, and she winced. He apologized profusely and then handed her the fruit he'd procured. "Do you eat grapes?"

She couldn't bring herself to interrogate him any further.

And-- she'd never seen grapes, but she could tell they were a plant fiber and put one in her mouth. The soft skin popped against her tongue and she gasped and almost spit it out as the juice dribbled down her chin. Her eyes turned to his as the sweet flavor penetrated her senses.

Everything else was forgotten. Kara chewed, tasting... and knew she had died and gone to another realm. "This is exquisite." 

Rion's laugh rang out. "Never had a grape?"

Kara popped the grape and contained the sweet juice, more flavorful than any algae made fruit had ever tasted. Her eyes closed in delight.

Rion watched her, satisfied that something in his world had caught her attention favorably. Glad she had stopped her questioning of his Quarso involvement and Quildor.

He tossed a grape into his own mouth. They sat companionably munching for several moments until Kara finally leaned back against a rock and stared out into the darkness. Rion kept his side in complete contact with her, steadying her, and lending warmth and cover at the same time. The breeze was crisper up here on the ridge than it was down in the glen where he'd taken her to heal. Women of his culture may have worn a shawl or a small sweater over their dress. Kara's uniform would have kept her body temperature at a steady degree, but he liked her in the common gown of his people and didn't suggest she change.

Her hair blew into his mouth and nose and he gently lifted it out and tucked it behind her ear. Familiarity with her person had happened over the time spent, although being in close contact with his own people, reminded him that the freedom he felt touching her was not acceptable even in his disgruntled society. He also realized that having her thus gowned and eating food grown in his own backyard was heady elixir to his senses.

They had lost the dutiful warrior zeal they'd been trained to feel toward each other. He cocked his head on a bent elbow and contemplated her. She was watching the village, taking in the vista from up here. He sensed her thoughts were simple, wondering, actually awestruck. He looked out at what she saw and tried to see it from her point of view. In her eyes, the landscape was stark, overwhelmingly beautiful and so large!

That moment came back to him-- earlier when she'd seen the enormity of the ocean, and been so awestruck. Her wildly broadcast emotions, when she wasn't guarding them, were exciting to him. To see the potential in his world from her point of view, and find her comparing them in his favor warmed him like nothing else had. It seemed a burning testimony that his desire to take her away and start afresh was worthwhile.

He let his arm creep around her and brace her from the back, and felt gratified when she simply leaned against him. 

"Kara."

"Hm?"

"Do you think you could ever leave the-- the fight? Down there?"

"Maybe."

"I mean, could you ever put your own desires before the good of your people?"

"I might want to, but I doubt it."

"What if you were to-- fall in love? Be married, have a child? Whose needs would come first then?"

She popped another grape into her mouth and smiled crookedly. "Why, the child would have claim on me then."

He turned back to the sea, smiling. "And then your people and your man?"

"No. First my man. If I had to save my child and then my man and then my people, that would have to be my priority. That is why I never intend to marry."

"What? You mean at least until you find the Talisman?"

"Maybe not even then. It will be some time before our people are able to integrate. I can see fights in the future. My people are arrogant, yours are cocky, but humble. And these people--" She indicated those living in the crude huts and taverns in the village. "They are as much followers and uneducated about what is happening in the world as those living so contentedly in the undersea domes. Our cultures are so different. Not to mention, Quildor and most of his Quarso would have to die for my people to successfully integrate on land. My people would dominate-- yours wouldn't take it well."

What she said was true. He realized it with every fiber of his being, but he couldn't let it drop about the man and child. "What if you fall in love first, before you find the Talisman?"

She held a grape out in front of her, considering and then she turned to him with a smile, knowing why he was saying these things. "It can't happen. I can't fall in love."

********

Jerrika tied her hair back with its own strands, and barefoot, entered the cool tunnels of Sentinel. Having never come from Quildor's domain toward Galantyne, she was lost and tried several tunnels, encountering patrols of Salimantor cloaked Minions as she slithered carefully further and further into the dark interior. Her eyes had adjusted to outside light, her skin  to warmth. She shivered and hugged herself as she snuck silently along the damp walls in the general direction she supposed the entrance to Galantyne to be. She had to get back to the fortress. She had information that would help the cause, she had to find Kara!

As she slipped silently her heart thundering in her ears, she couldn't help but ponder the freedom she'd felt while flying above Quildor, the freedom to choose to fly or to stay. There had been so much desire in her, and Losira had concurred, freedom to simply fly away. The air had been crisp and clear, surely not tainted with toxic or lethal fumes. At least not while she was in Harpyiae form!

She thought of Ondrea. How beautiful, how pure and sweet. How fragile, how strong! Kara's mother was alive! Alive!!! She couldn't wait to tell her! Where would she find her? On the training field? Training and waiting for permission to rescue her? Yes!

She thought of seeing Taan again, or Korlon, or.....

Ahead she sensed a presence. Jerrika flattened herself against the mountain wall, feeling with her fingers for a water opening she could flee through. She could meld, but it had been so long, she wasn't sure of her skill. In the water tunnels, she could transform and Losira could get them both out!

The damp rivulets running against her fingers were no help, they were everywhere. She inched back, holding her position against where she felt the strongest presence. Was it a Minion, a Shadow Eater? She couldn't be caught again! Absolutely could not allow that to happen, she turned toward the mountain walls and searched frantically. Her fingers slid into each crevice, seeking an opening, even a small one would afford her some measure of safety.

"Princess." The voice came from inside her Zalez, and Jerrika threw up her shields, pushing herself as far into the closest passage that she could. It was barely a sliver of a crevice, but she felt the smoothness of worn water rock, the continuous ease of pressure as she inserted her body, feeling Losira waiting for purchase. They would work together...

"I see you, Princess. You think you are free, but I have you now!" The evil in the sneer caused Jerrika to shove with all her might against the rock, and as it gave she started to feel the transformation of flesh into fish. It felt exquisite, liquid and cool--

Suddenly a rough hand grasped her arm and spun her out of the wet opening and Jerrika was flung against the far stone wall inside the dark tunnel of Sentinel. She saw the evil glow of goggles covering the eyes she knew from before... from a different room, a different time.

"You can't keep me, Quildor!" She hissed, feeling more bravado on her lips than in her heart. His grasp tightened against her skin as it prickled in fear and she wrenched back and forth, lashing out with her feet, to no avail. He was determined to keep her.

"Adara's magic was snatched by Nimiane, who stole the scepter as well. Ondrea is free, and has fled, and you... you should have kept flying. Returning to tell Galantyne his mother is alive, were you? Returning to tell Taan his wife is still breathing?" An evil leer blew his foul breath in her face as he pulled her close to him in the fluid darkness. "But you failed, didn't you Princess? Oh yes, you failed!"

Jerrika was no match for Quildor, his upper body was well-muscled, and he had kept himself in good shape. Her lack of exercise combined with her injuries made her weak. As she struggled she knew the battle would not be won in a physical match, it was too late for that. He had dragged her away from the fissure that might have saved her life. If she wanted to survive this time, she would have to reach out in a different way.

Jerrika was smart; she'd always been considered the smart one. She was the serious girl, the realist. Now was the time to really let her inhibitions go. She had conviction, she had determination, she had honor, and she was not going down without a fight. Not this time.

She may not have defeated Quildor in their last encounter, but she had survived him.

Jerrika closed her eyes and stopped struggling. She went absolutely limp, allowing her body to float freely as she was dragged along, she suddenly felt weightless, bodiless. Her hair brushed the floor, her arms and fingers fell free, and suddenly her mind touched something that made her heart beat faster.

"I need your help." She whispered into the presence. She realized it was a good presence, a familiar presence, but one she had not encountered before. "I need your help!" she said into the swirling ethereal Zalez around her. Was it the mountain; was it an entity inside the mountain?

"Fight evil." Came the return message.

"I need your help. I am no match for Quildor."

"You are Ondrea's daughter. You are pure." Came the reply and Jerrika felt a surge of white hot air encompass her. The blistering air seemed to permeate her skin and caused Quildor to let her go with a yell. She opened her eyes and saw Quildor jumping and leaping as the fire consumed his robes, as it licked at his body and illuminated his face contorted in pain and rage. Jerrika felt herself slipping backward, pulled by the presence she had sensed, a real being, a being with a body!

She could hear Quildor's screams as he fled away from her and her new protector. She regained her own strength and reached out to touch the being that had rescued her, and felt a rubbery scaled hide. In the darkness, as she reached once more for the tunnel walls, she heard the sound of rushing wind, the tinkle of waterfalls, and instinctively leaned into the water.

"Follow me, love." Came the mysterious voice in her mind and Jerrika trusted that voice, much as she had the voice of Ondrea.

Jerrika followed.

*******