After a restful day, Val met with Tavras early the next morning. Not so early that she fit in a morning run before dawn, but an average person would consider this bright and early. The key word there was 'bright'. Val enjoyed sleeping until the sun was up for a change.

A sea serpent laid along the sand bar with its head above the water.

This made Val’s feet drag through the sand in a slow approach.

Foofy had the same response except he also lowered his ears.

“Why is that sea serpent here?”

“You can either swim by sea serpent or swim by yourself. The choice is yours.” Tavras started walking out to his own so-called pet.

Val looked back to hers. With a grumble, she followed his lead and said, “Come on, Foofy.”

The sea serpent could not come any closer to shore without beaching itself. Between needing to walk out into the water and the sea serpent itself, Foofy stood fast on the beach.

Again, she coaxed him, this time using Keep the Peace. Her ability removed not only aggression, but also fear, so this would help him on both counts.

They walked out to the sea serpent together and everyone climbed onto its head and neck. Its eyes seemed to glare with particular hate at Val.

“By any chance is this the same serpent from the other night?”

“Yep. Don’t worry. I doubt that he would try swallowing you whole again,” Tavras said as he patted the sea serpent on the head. “Next time that he tries eating you, he will probably make sure to chew first.”

Val tried to shoot an unamused, sidelong glare at Tavras, but really, she gulped.

The sea serpent pushed itself off the sandbar and returned to open water. They skirted along the shining waters beneath the sun at a nice, steady but easy pace.

“How far away is Iharu and Fangarus’s Preserve?”

“Not far if we let the sea serpent go its full speed.” A sly look crossed Tavras’s face.

“No. I don’t think that Foofy would like that.” Neither would she for that matter, so Val spoke for the two of them.

“He seems to be doing just fine right now. Hold on tight!”

By 'hold on tight', Tavras obviously meant that she should hold on to Foofy tightly. Val grasped him to her chest with one arm, while the other locked onto the sea serpent’s fin. Her output of Keep the Peace doubled for what would happen next.

Air whooshed past as the sea serpent gathered speed. It dove itself beneath the water, and Val winced away, expecting a sheet of water to go slapping into her face, full force. Not a drop of water ever touched her, however.

Her breath held for a few seconds, but no water pressed against her lips and nose either. Val took a breath of crisp air. Likewise, her eyes opened up without being assaulted by salt water.

All around, water wavered in a sphere that danced with the waves and sunlight above. Their bubble of air turned the sea serpent into something of a submarine, a perfect viewing deck to observe the ocean.

“Amazing,” Val breathed. Her wide eyes took in everything beneath the water like this.

A school of fish split in two and raced away when the sea serpent swam by.

In particular, the fish drew Foofy’s attention in his pacified state.

“See? You and Foofy seem to be liking this.”

Quite certainly, the only reason why Foofy did not collapse from a doggy heart attack was her constant use of Keep the Peace on him. While she had been thinking about doing some exposure therapy to help him overcome his fear of water, she had never imagined doing it all at once like this.

Underwater, Val thoroughly enjoyed herself. She cuddled Foofy close in her arms and looked out to the water all around. When she had enough with looking outward, she turned inward to Tavras. As always, he was a pleasure to look at.

“When we arrive at Iharu and Fangarus’s Preserve, I want you to practice being a boy around them. I’ll introduce you as such, with your masculine variant of Valentine. Let’s see how long that you can pass before they notice.”

“Okay,” Val said, her voice drooping down. Apparently they really were going to go through with this terrible and awkward plan, trying to pass her off as a boy.

An awkward silence persisted for a long while.

“Well, we are nearly there!” Tavras cheered.

The sea serpent pummeled upward to the surface. With the momentum that it had gathered, it launched into a snaking pattern of arcs in and out of the water.

Val clung onto its fin and did her best to hold on to Foofy, but this wild rollercoaster ride of a sea serpent did not give her much of a chance. If not for Tavras, she would have flown into the ocean waters beyond.

Tavras added an arm around her to help steady her. Once the sea serpent had slowed down and settled on the surface, he laughed. “You okay there?”

“Yes, thank you.” Val could feel herself blushing profusely. This felt incredibly happy, having Tavras hold her as she held Foofy. All of them even sat on the head of his good-for-nothing sea serpent just like they had met.

Tavras pulled himself away from her and pointed out to their destination.

A larger island than his own Paradise appeared in the distance. While she had assumed that Fangarus and Iharu had been raised on the same island that she had been on, they seemed to have had their own island this whole time instead. As Tavras had informed her before, Iharu and Fangarus’s Preserve was the place with the behemoths after all.

They drew closer until the sea serpent stopped to drop them off. Foofy jumped off of the sea serpent first and began an immediate doggy paddle to shore.

“See? He is excited to become a divine beast.” Val slid off of the sea serpent’s fin and started swimming after him.

“I’m sure that’s it.” From the top of the serpent’s head, Tavras dove into the water. His body stayed submerged beneath the water until his head popped to the surface a ways in front of both Val and Foofy.

They followed him and arrived on the beach, dripping wet at least until Tavras had dried them off. On this new island, Val stuck close to Tavras’s heels and Foofy on hers.

“I’m assuming that you know where we’re going,” she said. This would not exactly be the place to wander off, given what Val already knew about those behemoths.

“We’ll wait at the tree line. Fangarus will greet us there. He can gather sensory information through plants—Plant Sense—so he will know that we have arrived on the island once we are in range.”

Val remembered how Fangarus had developed that ability even as a child, having located Iharu in the forest on the day that the behemoth had stabbed him. Over a century had passed since then so Fangarus and Iharu both could only be more powerful, worthy of their titles as a god and goddess.

When she had met Tavras, everything had happened so quickly that Val had not been allowed any time to worry. Now, she had some time in advance for her heart to begin pounding away. She was about to meet two more people of power, a god of wilderness and a goddess of beasts: Fangarus, Brother Wolf and Iharu, the She-Wolf.