There weren’t a lot of options immediately available to Kaldalis now. He could have made his way back out into the woods to find Balrim and Myrin, but he immediately worried that they’d call the third meeting as soon as he was out at the ruins again. Failing was out of the question. He couldn’t break his word to the council - even if Demriv was the only one who had seemed to listen.

With the council gone, Kaldalis allowed himself to express his anger for a moment, snarling over at the near-empty approval bar on the left side of his vision.

“Great. Just fucking great.” He went to stomp away from the building furiously, but without a real direction to go in, he just stomped his way in a circle on the rain-softened dirt. “This is absolutely fucking perfect.”

Stomping down the mud for a few seconds made him feel a little better, and helped him realize that what he was doing wasn’t really useful for anyone.

Balrim’s words had gotten into his head. It was possible that the council was trying to set him up. If they hated adventurers as much as he feared, they might be trying to force him to fuck up to pin the blame on him when Zara invaded.

But that wasn’t necessarily the case. What he feared was malice might simply be incompetence. Or, more likely, discourtesy. Cerh and Jetmorpan seemed to want to ignore him at every opportunity, and Captain Kensah seemed to actively hate him.

It might not have been an attempt to sabotage the peace effort as much as it was dismissiveness towards him personally.

Despite it all, though, it was on him to reach across the gulf they were putting between him and them. He had to take the steps they demanded of him, and jump through the hoops they set up. If that meant putting himself on a short leash, then that’s what he’d do.

He took a deep breath and blew it out slowly through his nose, trying to calm down. Kaldalis had managed to think his way through it without making an ass of himself, but he was still very upset.

With that in mind, he knew where his next stop was. He tried not to stomp his way through town as he headed toward the beach.

The sound of the ocean was instantly calming. A lungful of salty air soothed Kaldalis in ways he couldn’t find words for. He found himself looking for a floating dock and finding none, as that was a feature that had been built on Cotanaku, so he just stepped up to the edge of the water and got his bamboo fishing rod out.

Before throwing his line into the water, he went to his pet menu and let Ein out, letting the puppy run around. The little corgi took to the surf with joyous gusto, yapping at the waves as they splashed in and out. Instantly the dog’s antics cheered him up as well, and he was already feeling more calm and in control before his line even hit the water.

As he fished - and had an energetic corgi pup sprinting up and down the beach - he tried not to focus inward too much. His first train of thought regarded the beach itself. The boats had apparently had their fill of running supplies to the island, but the Rambutan was still anchored off the coast. A few longboats were grounded here on the beach, up above the high tide line, and he imagined that a couple were likely back at Cotanaku to facilitate travel between the camps.

He considered, for a few casts, that he could probably influence the council to establish a floating dock out here just like Forturns’ back at Cotanaku. If he could get them to talk to him, he knew he could make a case for making it easier on the boats transporting goods in and out of the camp.

A dozen casts after that, he was feeling back to his old self. Fishing was a useful outlet for his stress. He imagined it physically leaving his body and passing into the ocean with every cast, though more realistically the brief bursts of energy expended on reeling the fish in were what was actually giving him catharsis.

It wasn’t until just then that he realized how he was on thin ice, emotionally speaking.

Fishing was the only outlet he could really count on right now. His friends had become his burdens, and if they became the source of his stress again, what was he going to do? He didn’t want to talk to one pair of friends about the other, that would feel too much like gossip.

What he needed was an outside ear to talk to. Someone who could listen and provide good advice. Someone he could trust.

He needed Heluna.

Kaldalis found himself staring up the coast to where he knew Cotanaku was, even if there was no visible sign of it from here. He pursed his lips in thought as Ein tumbled across the sand into his field of view, yapping at his own hindquarters as his stubby little legs kicked up wet sand behind him. Even Ein had come from Heluna, and now with a fifteen-minute leash on him, heading back for any period of time was asking for trouble.

Despite all the other familiar faces he’d left behind in Cotanaku, Heluna was the first one he actually missed. Sivima would likely be a great resource now that he was getting into crafting, and he still didn’t know who to go to for information besides Bangen, but Heluna? She was something he couldn’t replace.

Like she was a true friend.

He shook his head at that, first gently, and then violently. Friend? Heluna? That was… Well, it wasn’t absurd. He felt strongly that the AI in this world was sophisticated enough that mistreating the NPCs was morally wrong. But to count them as true friends? To treat them like therapists? That was dangerous. If he wanted help with his emotional issues, it was going to be much healthier to develop that kind of rapport with a real person. Not a computer program.

He grimaced at the thought of making a friend with the explicit purpose of turning them into an emotional dumping ground. That thought chained right into a wince as he realized he had started doing that with Heluna already. If he wanted to treat the NPCs in this world with respect, he had to realize what he was doing with her was questionable as well. He’d turned her offer of friendship into the beginnings of an abusive relationship.

Kaldalis only went to her when he needed to get something off his chest or receive some sort of emotional comfort. He’d treated Haldir as a means to an end, and he would be damned if he did the same to Heluna.

Or anyone else, for that matter.

If he was going to think of her as a friend, he needed to reciprocate in some fashion. What could he do for her?

Before his mind got any farther than remembering how nice dinner with her had been, the tip of his fishing rod took a sharp dive - sharper than anything he’d ever experienced before, in this world or any other.

“Oh-” he started to curse, but before he could even get the bad word to his lips, the pull against the bamboo rod almost yanked him from his feet. His teeth clacked shut as he tensed every muscle to pull against the fish that had taken his bait.

It wasn’t until he was dragged three huge steps into the water that he was able to stop himself. The waves lapped against his knees, and his armored boots filled with seawater instantly. He pushed the thoughts aside as he stomped his way backwards, holding onto his bamboo rod as it bent nearly a full semicircle against the immense pressure of whatever he’d hooked.

Kaldalis made it two steps back towards the beach before whatever it was pulled again.

It was inexorable. Irresistible.

He was carried three more steps out into the ocean, seawater lapping at his mid-thigh now.

Kaldalis was sure he hadn’t just hooked a fish. He’d hooked a sea monster.

Ein seemed to sense what was going on, and was standing at the waterline, yapping at him. Kaldalis used the sound as an anchor, aiming his back towards it as he staggered backwards, pulling against whatever had his line. There was no telling what kind of movement the fish was making in the water, because his entire being was focused on just keeping a grip on the fishing rod.

It was a wonder that nothing had broken yet, and he suspected it was due to the flexible quality of the bamboo. He almost hoped that the line would break and let him get back to the shore safely. But the last thing he wanted to do was cut the line himself.

He’d never admit defeat.

If this fish wanted victory, it would have to take it from him by force.

“Stupid fish,” Kaldalis growled, gritting his teeth as he pulled. “You think you can beat me?” He took another step back, and felt the water running out through the joint in his armor’s knees. “Just who the hell do you think I am?”

The weight of the water in his armor had been helping him anchor himself, and as it drained out, holding against the fish only grew harder. He put his back into it, and felt his tail thrash as he intentionally overbalanced himself.

If the line broke, he was going to land on his ass pretty hard, but this thing was strong enough to drag him out to see if he lost his footing. He trusted it to support his weight as he leaned his entire weight against it.

“Yeah, that’s right,” he grunted, taking two more staggering steps back. “Come here, fishy fishy fishy. I want to talk to you for a quick second.”

Another huge pull came, one that threatened to take him from his feet, but he leaned against it as hard as he could, letting out a wordless yell of effort. He didn’t lose any ground this time, and when the pressure reduced to a manageable level again, he found himself cackling, as if that meant that he was only moments from triumph.

“Is that all you got, bitch?” Kaldais screamed out at the ocean, taking another staggering step back, emerging from the surf fully. “Come on! That can’t be everything!”

Down around his ankles, Ein gave one more yap of concern and then there was a little pressure at his shin as the corgi pup clamped his tiny little teeth down on one of the leather straps holding his greaves in place.

The corgi was pulling up away from the ocean, as if that little bit of extra pull might save Kaldalis from going into the drink again.

It would have been adorable, if Kaldalis could have spared a moment to think about it.

Now that he was out of the water, and the worst seemed to have passed, he could concentrate on the fishing minigame properly. The line jerked left and right in huge, powerful strokes, and he leaned against it as he always had.

Monster or not, this was just another fish.

All he had to do was play the game.

Even as he started to reel it in, and saw the huge dark shape in the water just beneath where his line passed beneath the surface, he focused his attention on bringing it in nice and slow. No rush. No panic.

“Just another fish,” he grunted to himself. “Just another fish.”

He could see his catch clearly in the shallows around the beach before its stamina finally gave out. It was huge, and when he finally finished reeling it in, he had to step back out into the water to get both arms around it to lift it and pull it out of the ocean.

As soon as he touched it, he knew what it was. It was at least ten feet long from snout to tail fin, and its skin felt like fine sandpaper to the touch. It was a likdon. The fish he needed for Sivima’s quest.

Once he had it out of the water, he could see it looked like a cross between an eel and a shark. It had a long body, flexible and thick with muscle, but a torpedo-shaped face filled with a terrifying number of teeth. He was still out of breath from the fight with it, and so almost dropped it when its mouth flapped open at him as he examined it. With a thought, he banished it to his inventory, and felt a sense of satisfaction as Sivima’s quest ticked up one more time.

“Three down,” Kaldalis said, dropping to one knee and scratching Ein behind the ears. “And my little fisher dog was such a help! Yes he was! Yes he was!” He laughed as the dog yapped in joy at the attention.

He told himself that the excitement of the catch had been so distracting that he couldn’t even remember what he’d been thinking about before hooking it.

It was a lie, but it was the best kind of lie.

One that was more comfortable than the truth.