Jake rushed towards the downed Kobold, stopping just short of the wall.

"Tergin, are you alright?"

The Kobold nodded while putting the last of the meat in his mouth. A few chews and a swallow later, he tenderly touched his leg, before prodding it a few times.

"It is still weak, but bones are hard to heal. Even after eating dragon meat." Moving slowly, the Kobold managed to hover in an almost upright position.

"We cannot stay here. Something must be distracting the other predators, or they would have shown up already, but it won't last."

The Kobold turned towards the hammer-head Dragon and made a deep bow from his waist. "Thank you, fledgling. If you survive the coming months, you are always welcome at our humble island."

Then Tergin began swimming forward, beckoning Jake with his hand.

"Come, we need to leave quickly."

Jake looked at the Dragon one last time before nodding his head. To his surprise, the Dragon nodded back before disappearing into the reef with a quick wave of its tail. A soft shout from Tergin made him turnaround and he propelled himself forward, catching up within a moment. As he did, he noticed that movement seemed to be even more supple than before.

"When we arrive at the outpost… don't tell anybody about this." Tergin said as he kept swimming forward, already moving more fluently than before.

"Why?"

Tergin turned his head, his yellow eyes half open and a severe look on his snouted face.

"Because eating Dragon meat, even that of a just-hatched Hydra, is not allowed. If they find out what we did, they will exile you and gut me before feeding my remains to the fish."

Jake felt the exhilarating rush he had had since waking up disappeared in a flash. He could hear from Tergin's tone that he wasn't joking around.

"Just hatched? How large do these things get? And why do they kill you but exile me?" He whispered.

He didn't get an immediate reply and was almost wondering if Tergin had even heard him when the Kobold sighed and chuckled.

"You know so little… An adult Hydra is so powerful that if it swam through this shallow part of the sea, it would destroy the entire reef you see here. That one hatched less than two moons ago at most."

Jake swallowed, wondering what would happen if mommy Hydra found out her young was killed and eaten.

"Will it's mother come to avenge it?"

Tergin stopped moving and gave him a stunned look.

"Mo..ther?" His voice broke twice before he managed to croak out.

Confused, Jake gazed back, wondering what was wrong, but Tergin was already swimming away, mumbling something to himself. Jake couldn't understand what he was saying, but from the tone, he reckoned that might be for the best. He quickly followed Tergin, who started talking as soon as Jake caught up.

"Dragons don't have mothers. So you have nothing to worry about. And as for the reason why my tribe won't kill you? It is because you are an Awoken, and killing you if you aren't out of control is sacrilege. Any Dragon who hears about it would wipe out our tribe, that what remains of it anyway."

Hearing the pain in Tergin's voice, Jake rolled on his side, inspecting the other. The Kobold's yaw was slack, and he was vacantly staring off in the distance.

Understanding the other was lost in painful memories, Jake held in the many questions he had, and the pair swam through the colorful coral reef in silence.

--

After traveling for a few hours, they made their way through a dense red cluster of rocks that bordered a vast sandy region. It was shaped like a weird elongated circle, where nothing seemed to grow. The only thing marring the pristine bed of yellow sand was a cluster of spiral seashells almost one meter tall.

The black and shiny objects were assembled in a tight cluster somewhere at the center of the shape.

Hovering at the edge, Jake got an ominous feeling that was getting stronger by the minute.

"Why do I get the feeling we should swim around?" He said, keeping his gaze fixated on the shells. It was the first thing either had said in hours.

Tergin didn't reply but just sniffed, which Jake thought sounded hilarious underwater and nodded. Then he gestured along the right side of the area before swimming forward.

Taking one more look at the black shells, Jake swam after him.

When they arrived halfway around the circle, Jake got the feeling something was watching him. Fearing the worst, he slowly turned his head towards the shells. A cluster of perfect white orbs, raised on purple tentacles, were looking their way, slowly turning as they moved along the circle. The tentacles were sticking out of the black shells, which had opened in the middle, showing rows and rows of small teeth.

"Tergin… what are those?"

Without stopping, Tergin took a quick look and froze.

"I don't know, but they don't seem very fast, let's hurry and move around them."

Jake nodded, wondering how the Kobold couldn't know, and picked up speed keeping an eye on the still unmoving shapes.

"DODGE!" Tergin yelled all of a sudden.

Jake responded by pushing himself to the sea bottom with a quick wave of his hands. Just in time, because milky white beams of light crossed through the area that he had been in moments before. They hit the side of a coral reef, turning it glowing white. A moment later, two fish floated out of one of the holes, belly up and their eyes wide open. They were twitching slightly, seemingly alive, but appeared unable to move.

"Again!"

Hearing Tergin's second shout, Jake startled and shot forward like a cannonball, crossing a large part of the remaining distance and leaving Tergin far behind. Reaching the far edge of the circle, he turned around.

The softly glowing eyeballs where shooting beams of white light at Tergin, who was desperately trying to dodge them. Just when Jake thought the other would make it, three beams of light intersected, and a small explosion of light surrounded Tergin. It was so bright that Jake could only see spots and stripes. Blinking as fast as he could, his vision cleared and found Tergin drifting motionless in the water.

"Fuck… not again."

Most of the shells ever so slowly moved towards the incapacitated Kobold while three remained behind and open.

Jake clenched his teeth and swam forward as fast as he could, causing a blurry line to appear in the water behind him. Reaching Tergin, he grabbed the motionless body before dodging to the side, which was a good thing. Several light beams almost hit him, grazing the motionless Tergin.

If he hadn't been underwater, Jake knew he would probably be sweating like crazy, and he took a sharp turn before rushing along the side of the open spot. If there had been any holes large enough for them to hide in, he would have taken the chance. But as it was, he aimed for the small passage at the other side of the sandy spot.

A weird sensation, as if the energy in the water was screaming at him, caused Jake to bolt straight up, barely out of range of another explosion caused by three intersecting light beams. Overshooting, Jake got his first unobstructed view over the reef. Startled, he saw they were almost at the edge, and would soon arrive at a long stretch of white sand that slowly rose until it ended above the water.

Before he could look for the fastest route, a high-pitched scream came from above him. Looking up, he saw one of the enormous turtles swim towards him, surprisingly fast for its bulk. Seeing the tentacles stretch forward, Jake panicked and spurted back down towards the reef, aiming for a small crevice with many colorful fish. Just when he arrived, he felt a soft tug on one of his feet, followed by a sharp pain. Ignoring it, he hid below an outcrop in the reef, scattering many tiny fish.

With his back pressed against the wall, he looked at the opening, but nothing followed after him. A small bit of pink water rose up in the water, distracting him. Looking down, he saw his left foot was missing a few scales, and a small piece of his flesh was gone. It was bleeding profusely.

A soft groan came from next to him, and he saw Tergin begin to shake as if he was having a spasm. It lasted for a minute, and then the Kobold moved into an upright position blinking his eyes and opening his mouth a few times.

"What.." He croaked, shaking his head in confusion as he looked around.

"You got hit by one of those beams, and I dragged you away from there.

Tergin nodded before seeming to sniff a few times.

"Blood… Where you injured?"

Jake nodded and raised his foot for Tergin to see.

"We need to get out of here fast and close that wound. Before, the presence of that Dragon kept other predators away, but now they will come. Stay here for a moment."

Tergin swam out into the reef, leaving Jake to wonder what he was doing. It took only a moment before the other Kobold came back, this time carrying some flat green plant. Unceremoniously grabbing Jake's foot, he bound the plant around it, and to Jake's shock, the plant tightened around the wound.

"What…?"

"These plants live on blood, but they don't harm anything. Instead, they will help close the wound quickly. Just leave it on and remove it before we leave the reef."

Trying to ignore the plant on his foot, Jake followed Tergin out into the reef and pointed towards where he remembered to have seen the exit.

"The reef ends over there, and I think there's land the same way."

"Good, that means we are close to Antraci island. Did you see the route?"

Jake shook his head before pointing towards a small path through the reef.

"No, but I am pretty sure we need to go that way."

Tergin nodded, took another look at Jake's foot, and then waved forward.

"Let's go."