Click. Click. Click.

Click. Click.

"These claws are at least useful as a drumbeat for the priestess's song. I am so bored," Kai yawned stretching his body, "we've got so much time on our hands to spend."

Click. Click.

"Yeah. I think I can sing too," saying that Zaren swam to the centre of the clearing on which they were acquainted. He hummed a whale song dancing to Kai's rhythmic clunking of claws.

Gabby and Sal sighed, their faces sick of boredom. "You know what? I'll go and explore the city. We need to make a living here." Sal wailed as he left the place, swimming with his eel fish tail which was unfortunately not that attractive as others'.

After a while, the dust from the sea bed was suddenly disturbed as it rose to blur their vision of the underwater city.

"Who's there?" Zaren stopped, taking his defensive position as if he was holding a dagger, despite not having it. Kai immediately backed him by offering help. "Reveal."

There was a soft, scared and feminine mumble, "it's just me."

As soon as the dust settled in, the bizarre silhouette took shape against the light. Zaren frowned, staring the girl up and down; her body was almost in the shape of a rhombus, because of triangular shaped fleshy flaps extending on either side of her torso. While her face was pretty normal for a teen girl that she appeared to be, her tail was pointy with a lethal stinger of some kind. "Who are you? I almost killed you."

"Sorry, but you sing so well, I was so drawn." She admired Zar with a pair of beady hazel eyes. "I...I am Ava Ray, by the way."

"Ray, as in 'Stingray'?" Zaren raised his brows to mask the red hue that was spreading on his pale cheeks.

"Yes, sort of." The new girl shrugged, "you must be the killer warrior that the people are talking about."

"Yeah. It's me." Zaren beamed with a widened chest, Kai rolled his eyes and sat back with others. Kids were hell bent on building a sand castle on the sea bed, even though tides crushed it several times. Sheila was already busy running errands for the high priestess to collect medicinal seaweeds and corals, she was already, somehow, convinced that she had to join the league of priestesses.

Ava giggled, "I knew it. That makes you an Orcan, what's your sweet name again?" Asking that, she flirtatiously kept batting her long eyelashes and played with a curl of her Auburn hair.

"It's Zaren, you can call me Zar." The blush didn't seem to fade away from his face, at all.

"Zar? That's so cool." Ava giggled again circling him around, as if she was desperate to feast her eyes with his muscular self.

"Avamelia!" A croaky male voice broke through the waves. "Go back to your house." Ava panicked and staggered before rushing and leaving the place.

Another Orcan male, much elder in appearance swam and stood in front of them. He was followed closely by his female companion. They both donned the same white and black pattern of killer whales. "You should not get distracted during this crucial time. Whole of the city is humming the war song. Come, it's time for some practice." The female one spoke in a stern tone.

"Practice what? Besides, I don't know you guys."

"My son, I am the head of Orcan community. She is the lieutenant in general of peace-keepers, and of course my beloved wife." The elderly merman introduced himself elegantly.

"Come with us, you need to learn so much about battle skills. And, you guys can join your respective community. You shall be fairly placed in the hierarchy." The orca-maid pointed at Gabby in particular.

"What do you mean by hierarchy? I suppose prophecy doesn't say anything like that." Kai crossed his arms, his face sceptical.

"What good can a scavenger do in the warfare?" The orca-maid chuckled.

Gabby's bushy brows knotted into each other, "take that word back, you bimbo! We are no scavengers for good, we have some dignity still left with us." Gabby's big mouth was her strongest weapon and she didn't hesitate to use it, like always.

"Awe. Tch. tch. tch." The orca maid eerily circled Gabby clicking her tongue, "I know, truth always hurts my dear. That lobster boy with claws would be appointed to scrape and pick the barnacles clogging our coral reefs. And you, you'll be probably given the job of a house-maid, what are those tentacles useful for, you think?"

Gabby's face sagged, so much so, she was at the verge of crying. "It's alright aunt Gabby." Zaren rushed towards her and gave a soft sympathy -rub on her shoulders.

"Aunt? Ah...Such. A shame." The orca-maid pouted her thin lips, which made Gabby's eyes and lips quiver in anger.

"You don't have to be mean about that. We got it, we'll be resuming to our respective jobs. It's not like we're guests here, we are probably stuck here in these creatures' body, like forever." Kai spat out everything that was running amok inside his nine-track mind. The scene felt like a déjà vu, it reminded him of the atrocities he and his father had to face on the RMZ ship. Even though Gabby used to have an upper hand up there, her broken pride now, somehow, made Kai feel her pain.

"Alright. If you guys can excuse us, we got to prepare for the war. Come on Zar."

Kai stomped his foot and pursed his lips in mixed feelings of jealousy, rage and desperation; if he were on the land, hot steam coming out of his ears would have been unmistakably apparent. "I hate this place."

Zaren turned around before he disappeared into the red kelp forest as he followed the Orcans, with a look that Kai had never seen on him. It was proud, worrisome with only a hint of sadness.

"It's okay Kai. It is what it is. You are not responsible for any of this." Gabby stood beside him, her face bidding farewell to Zaren.

"Thank you Gabby," but Kai was starting to have that guilty thought in his head, ever since the seagull betrayed him.

"Let's go find some job, the high priestess is taking too much time to get us a new home anyways." Gabby sighed and dragged Tibby and Bo along with her, "Enough playing!"

"It's okay Gabby. She did say that housing facilities down here do take time, the city certainly seems overpopulated." Kai followed her closely, while Chip swam by his side.

"You know Kai, I should apologize to you for being mean earlier. It felt good when you spoke against that bimbo."

"Oh Gabby, cheer up. Nobody's perfect, you see. That's the meaning of life. You learn from your mistakes."

"You have got such a saccharine​ smile, do you know that? It's contagious." Gabby grinned, still dragging Tibby and Bo with her tentacles along the way. "I just hope Zar won't become one of them.

"You should stop over analyzing things. He is an Orcan, so he is a warrior by default. That's it." Kai flashed another one of his toothy grins.

"Hi."

"It's you again, Ava Ray." Kai just missed from bumping into her.

"Yeah. I think I can help you guys. My mom works at the reef, she can get you people some jobs." Ava shyly voiced her opinion and rubbed her neck gently.

"That's very kind of you Ava. But we prefer doing that ourselves," saying that Kai turned his face towards Gabby as if he was waiting for her approval.

Gabby first nodded and then shook her head sideways. "I...think we need a roof on our heads immediately Kai."

"Okay. Deal. What do you expect in return?" Kai asked, facing himself back at Ava.

"Oh. That's my pleasure, no returns accepted." Ava giggled, showing her palm in an apparent disapproval.

Kai frowned before he followed her into the kelp forest, the tubular structures were crimson red in colour and raised till they reached the surface to bask in sunlight. Chuchip brushed and pulled her fingers on long and dancing leaves, they reacted to her touch by emitting light through their veins and wilting as if they were 'touch-me-not' plants.

As they stepped out of the thick kelp plantation, there was a huge clearing with crowd packing into each other at ever other corner. The hustle bustle of the market echoed everywhere.

"Three for two. Three for two. Best herring combs you can ever find!"

"Salty sea kelp. Extra salty. Makes your every bite delicious!"

"Pickles! Get your ladies and kids some pickles!"

"Wow!" Gabby swirled around scanning the market area, it was full of sparkly lights, motels, couples and children, all different in their own ways.

Ava giggled again, "this isn't even a half of what the city has to offer."

"Snail paste! It keeps your skin young and beautiful for ever. The slimy content has many medicinal values---" an old granny with tentacles similar to Gabby, stopped them trying to sell her beauty products. Even though she was old with silver hair and weak bones, her skin looked spotless and less wrinkly.

"Grandma, it's okay. They don't have anything to buy on them. They are the guests that everyone is talking about." Ava held granny by her arms to explain.

"Oh!" The granny laughed, "all hail the sea goddess. Time to avenge my son's death. Time for war!" She muttered to herself waving her hand and shaking her head, as she disappeared into the crowd of the market.

"Phew!" Ava sighed, "poor lady. She lost her son last year to that evil witch."

"And why is that?" Kai questioned out of curiosity and fear at the same time. He half hopped and half swam with his impossible set of legs sticking out of his back, as he tried to keep up with Ava's speed.

"It's a long story. The sea witch summoned the drought ages ago. The light orb right there, it is the sea goddess's spirit, she was the witch's twin sister to begin with. Although she sacrificed herself to rejuvenate what was left of us, sea witch didn't end it there. She would attack the city again and again. The priestesses made a deal with her that they would send a person per month randomly from the city, so that the witch could be pacified. You see, sea witch derives her energy and youth from feeding off of our spirits, that would be inturn by feeding her own sister's spirit, because we all are her children. Yup! That sums it up."

"Hmm. Interesting." Kai raised his eyebrows, one of his newfound legs scratched his head.

"I know, it sounds so...so..." Ava tried to find the proper word squeezing her eyes.

"Unbelievable? Fantastical?" Gabby chimed in.

"Yes. Exactly. Here we are, it's our home sweet home." Ava stood on her door step and knocked the door. The house was multi storeyed with ginormous conchs and seashells stacked upon each other, the walls were painted with subtle shades of peach and blue. There were beautiful corals grown all over the lawn.

A squid like child with cone head and blue tentacles opened the door to welcome them. "Squidink! How long does it take to open the door?"

"Ugh!" The kid shook his head and rolled his eyes before darting and retreating away. "Mom, Ava has brought some guests."

"Oh dear. I am sorry, I was so caught up in the work that I didn't hear you guys. Come on in." The lobster like lady was at the door to welcome them with a polite gesture.

Soon, Kai, kids and Gabby were served with sea-weed cranberry soup. Gabby slurped all of it wondering at the thick texture and vivid layers of taste it had. "So good. How do you cook this? I have never cooked anything like this before."

"It's pretty easy. I'll teach you the recipe some day." The lobster lady assured, "and coming to the matter, what brings you here?"

"Umm..."

"Mom!?" Ava buried herself in the squishy chair, fighting the embarrassment her mom was causing her.

"It's alright Ava." Kai cleared his throat as he placed the expensive seashell crockery on the table gently, "we are here to find some new jobs for both of us."

"Okay. Let's see what I can do." Ava's mom turned around to go through her diary of events. The book was almost similar to the opus Kai had seen before.

"So, Kai. There are two spots left for this year's recruitment for coral reef maintenance. And, Gabby. I think we'll have to wait for you to get a house maid's job, unless you want to start up with your own business. What are you good at? Knitting? Baking? Selling?" Ava's mom went on chatting casually asking endless possibilities of job options for Gabby.

"I'll stick with the maid's job for time being." Gabby tugged her lips up in a pushy smile.

"Alright. That was easy. Will inform you as soon as possible."

Kai and Gabby left Ava's house content and burping their hearts out, still reliving the deliciousness of the soup.
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Word count - 2220

👆👆Ava.

Thank you for being here :)