Arrluk had known he would regret his decision to accept Desmond's demands, but he had had no idea just how thoroughly. The first was unexpected, though not impossible. Desmond had requested that Arrluk teach him what he knew about Tethyian sorcery.

"I mean, if we're going to be sailing across the seas with every possibility of stumbling across some other gigantic sea monster, don't you think I oughta be able to defend myself?" he had said.

It was a convincing enough argument, but Arrluk had his reservations. For one, even with all the best instructors in Tethyia at his behest, he himself was no master at the craft. For another, he had no idea how well he would be able to translate his knowledge to Desmond. Would a human be able to pick up magic from an entirely different species? Then again, he reasoned with himself, Desmond wasn't like other humans. Perhaps he could. . . .

His second request, however, was far more ludicrous.

"You what?" Arrluk had shrieked when Desmond first explained.

"Hey, no offense to you, you're cool and all, but I barely know you. If I'm going on this trip to who-knows-where, I'd at least like to see some familiar faces along the way. If you guys can do all of this" — he gestured around at the ornate, palatial room — "then I'm sure you can make it happen."

It was less of whether it was possible than whether he would be allowed to do it. Such a thing was more his father's jurisdiction. This he tried to explain, but Desmond wouldn't hear of it. So Arrluk had no choice but to relay the message to Hatak, using every ounce of cunning that he could muster to get his father to listen. It had taken quite a while, and a substantial amount of begging and reasoning, but Hatak finally caved.

Then there was the matter itself.

Arrluk, Desmond, and the two guards that had accompanied him earlier, Jino and Ivor, returned to the surface-world yet again, covering most of the distance through yet another portal, but they did not arrive at Bozeman Beach. They surfaced in a small lake looking out a large, wooden hut in a beautiful, sun-lit forest, in a place Desmond had named North Carolina. There Desmond crawled out of the water and, sopping wet, headed towards the cabin, whereas Arrluk and his men waited beneath the gently lapping surface.

Arrluk wasn't afraid that Desmond would run off; he may have been slightly abrasive at times, but he seemed sincere. He climbed out of the carriage too and, more out of curiosity than skepticism, poked his head slightly out of the water and peered ahead.

Desmond was standing at the door of the cabin, speaking to a girl that looked about his age. She was the first female human that he had ever set eyes on, and the difference was drastic. Her brightly coloured hair fell in sheets to her waist, her skin was pale as opposed to her dark friend's, and where Desmond was all muscle, she was curves. She looked both surprised and pleased to see him, her reddish lips drawn into a wide smile. They conversed for a few minutes, then she disappeared into the hut and returned with a small black device that she handed to Desmond, who held it to his ear and spoke to seemingly no one while she watched in the background. Humans were very strange.

He returned the device, then took her hand and led her through the forest, towards the lake where Arrluk was waiting. At this point, Arrluk emerged from the lake, though keeping his lower half firmly in the water.

Her eyes snapped to him. They looked at each other for a few seconds. Arrluk smiled. Then she screamed — a high, piercing scream that ripped through the cold earth air sweeping through the forest.

Desmond shouted out as well, but for the first time, Arrluk could not understand what he was saying, though he caught the enunciation of the words just fine: "Kayla, shut up! It's all right!"

He was flapping his arms at her, clearly trying to settle her: she stopped screaming, but she still looked very shocked. Gesticulating forcefully in his direction, she spoke again, and from her tone he detected fear and revulsion. "What the hell is that?"

"Just calm down, Kayla. If you come with me I can explain everything."

"Explain? Explain! He doesn't have a nose!"

"Yeah, that is pretty weird, isn't it?" Desmond cast an uneasy eye over Arrluk as he spoke, which made him feel uneasy.

"What is she saying?" he asked Desmond.

"Don't worry, it's going great!" Desmond called back in the rapid, Tethyian tongue, holding up both thumbs, though Arrluk thought that, for the first time, he was lying. Desmond turned back to his friend, who was looking at him in abject horror.

"Did you just talk to it?"

"First off, 'it' is a he. And second of all, yes. He's not going to hurt you, just come with me and I'll explain everything. Trust me, you're not going to want to miss this." And he held out a hand and flashed her a dazzling smile.

"Oh my God, your teeth are beautiful," she said in a much different voice, gazing at him in awe. "How did you get them like that?"

"Come with me and I'll show you."

She hesitated. Her bright green eyes raked his face for a moment, then passed onto Arrluk, and she visibly shuddered. But she took Desmond's hand nonetheless, which must have meant that he had managed to convince her. He led her over to the lake's edge, and Arrluk smiled at her again, more tentatively this time. She looked away from him with her face screwed up again.

"His eyes are creepy."

Desmond shrugged. "You get used to them. Wait till you see his tail."

"HE HAS A TAIL?!" she shrieked, but Desmond plunged into the water, pulling her below with him.

The ride below was not pleasant. Desmond and his friend, whom he had introduced as Kayla, spent the entire time engrossed in conversation, which Arrluk assumed was him filling her in on everything that had happened so far. The human language, which Desmond had dubbed "English," sounded rough and unmelodious. He had never noticed just how deep Desmond's voice was until he began to speak his native language.

Kayla, however, had a soft, soothing voice, as gentle as the morning's first waves. Jino had encased her head in a large air bubble to allow her to breathe, a tricky process as she kept thrashing around, both in alarm at her sudden dive and obvious fear of the three Tethyians, and which had a rather short time limit, which meant that they had to get to their destination quite soon.

The portal regurgitated them near the top of a small, near-frozen lake. Jino summoned a ball of Hyrule, which lit the darkness with a fierce blue light and caused Kayla to jump. The Hyrule spread out below the ice, melting through a large circle, and after a few moments Kayla shivered, hugging her arms to her body.

The top of the carriage burst upwards, through the circle, and as they surfaced the air bubble popped. Kayla gasped and began to talk animatedly while Desmond laughed. But then their eyes fell on the bank and they lapsed into silence; Arrluk followed their gaze and saw a tall, pale-skinned youth with light brown hair, heavily wrapped in thick, furry clothing, kneeling on the bank. It was layered with frost and a white, sand-like substance. The boy was watching them with his mouth hanging open, not even noticing the small, winged creature perched on a branch above him; a moment later a sticky white substance fell from directly overhead and splattered against his shoulder. Arrluk did not need to know much about earth's fauna to know what just happened.

"You made it!" Desmond called brightly as the carriage swam towards the bank.

As it bumped gently against the earth, Desmond and Kayla climbed out and joined the third human. Kayla pointed at his shoulder and giggled: the boy looked at his shoulder and cursed, seemingly realizing what had happened for the first time, then he ripped off the first layer of clothing. They began to converse again, but this time, instead of futilely listening in on their conversation, Arrluk looked around.

It was much colder here than it had been in that forest, and the sun was less prominent. This he was grateful for, as he didn't much like the sensation of its rays striking his skin. The tree branches were topped with that same white powdery substance as on the bank, the leaves glittering with frost. He could see other small winged animals zipping along through the treetops, twittering away. It was quite tranquil here.

But then Arrluk noticed two more humans, a rather large adult male and what appeared to be his son. The man's back was turned to him as he faced a patch of trees, but the son was looking right at him with wide eyes.

"Daddy, look! That boy is blue!"

"Sure, son," his father replied in an indifferent tone, not looking around.

"And his eyes are completely black, and he doesn't have a nose!"

"Sure, son."

The man turned around, adjusting the front of his trousers, grabbed his son's hand and led him away, still gaping at Arrluk.

Movement caught his eye and he looked up. The three humans were approaching them now. It seemed Desmond had taken less time to convince this one than Kayla. The other male didn't seem afraid, though he looked quite exasperated.

They met at the edge of the bank, looking down at Arrluk.

"Are they coming?" he asked Desmond.

"Yep!" he said brightly. "This is Ethan, by the way. Now, gimme the suckerfish —"

"Cuttlefish," Arrluk corrected, reaching into the bottom of the carriage. He thrust a small wooden crate into Desmond's hands, and he opened it with zeal. Kayla let out a scream of horror and retreated several steps; the other did not move, but was gazing with wide eyes into the crate.

Desmond, unperturbed, pulled out two large cuttlefish, fat, squid-like creatures with two large tentacles extending from their mouths.

"No, absolutely not!" Kayla shrieked, cowering behind a tree.

"Relax, they don't hurt at all," Desmond said in a soothing, reassuring kind of voice.

"How would you know, you just said you don't need it," Ethan said, looking angry and disbelieving.

"Well, I don't think they do. Come on, don't be a wuss." Desmond held one out to each, grinning. "Where do you want them?"

Kayla and Ethan exchanged looks, then Kayla inched forward, and both held out their hands. Desmond extended his own — the cuttlefishes' tentacles wrapped around their arms, sticking to their skin like leeches, and suddenly, a distinctly greyish, coral-like substance ran over their skin, solidifying instantly.

"Ew, now I look like a zombie," Kayla said.

"Well, I don't know what a zombie is, but I'm sure you look nicer than that," said Arrluk. Kayla looked shocked. It took Arrluk a moment to realize that he had understood her.

"Hey, it worked!" Desmond said brightly.

"What exactly worked?" Ethan asked.

"The cuttlefish have magical properties," Arrluk explained. "As long as they remain connected to you, you'll be immune to the effects of the water, similar to Desmond. I am Arrluk, Prince of Tethyia," he added, extending his hand.

"Yeah, I've heard." Ethan took his hand and shook, in that same peculiar manner as Desmond had, but Arrluk spoke nothing of it. He held his other arm out to Kayla, who recoiled.

Desmond gave her a very pointed look. She sighed and shook, but pulled away rather quickly.

"Well, now that that's done, I suggest we head back. We have much to discuss," Arrluk said briskly.

"Let me get this straight. So, Mrs. Hathaway, your batty old English teacher, is actually a sea-monster-owning witch, who tried to abduct you back in Montana?" Ethan said slowly.

"That's right."

"But right before she managed to pull it off, you were saved by a group of mermen who are actually from a secret underwater world and who were looking for you because the Prince of that world had a vision of the distant future, which included you?" said Kayla.

"Correct."

"And you had a nice chat with them because some ancient earth magic makes you immune to the effects of the sea and somehow gives you the power to talk to fish, including them?"

Desmond nodded.

"And now you're going on a trip across the sea to find some mythical cow-snake, which has eluded capture for thousands of years, to save the world?" Kayla added.

"That's about it," Desmond said. Both stared at him for a long time, their brows drawn together and their faces screwed up in a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief.

"Kayla, slap me," Ethan said suddenly, turning to her. She did not hesitate, but immediately planted her hand against his face. The slap echoed around the room. Ethan swore loudly. "Wasn't a dream," he said bitterly, rubbing his cheek.

"Nope," Desmond said simply.

"Dez, this is insane! You can't actually be serious."

Desmond gestured around the room, and at the greyish tinge now covering their skin. "Any of this look fake to you?"

"Why didn't you ever tell us about this?" Kayla asked. "About what you could do?"

Desmond shrugged. "Would you honestly have believed me?"

"Of course not!" she said impatiently. "It's like Ethan said, this is crazy!"

"That's why I need the two of you!" Desmond said. "A trip through this crazy world, where I don't know anything or anyone? Come on, please?"

Ethan rubbed his forehead, then said, "Dez, this isn't the same as calling us in the middle of the night to pick you up because you blew up your Dad's car —"

"That was one time!"

"— this is life and death. We could die. We are in way over our heads. What we should do — and right now — is go back to the real world, where stuff makes sense, and forget any of this ever happened. You go back to surfing in Montana, I go back to skiing in the Aspens, and Kayla can go back to overloading her parents' credit cards with nonstop orders of cheesy rom-coms in Whittier."

"Hey, they are not cheesy!"

"I can't do that, Ethan. I didn't just stumble across them. They targeted me. They're not going to stop. I have to see this through."

Kayla and Ethan exchanged looks again.

"Look, I don't want you to have to go through this alone, either, but what about us?" Kayla said. "We have families too — we're on vacation too."

"What vacation can be more exciting than this?"

"Vacations are supposed to be relaxing, not life-threatening!" she snapped.

Desmond sighed. "You're right," he said miserably. "Both of you. This is my problem, I should never have bothered you. . . . I'll just try to go ahead . . . alone."

"Please don't go there —" Ethan said.

"I'll just see you in January — you know, if I survive," he said dramatically.

"Aaaand he went there," Ethan said bitterly. "God, I hate you. . . ." He heaved a great sigh. "Fine. I guess someone needs to be there to keep you out of trouble. . . . I'll stay."

"Really?" Desmond said, with a sudden rush of excitement.

"Really, you dolt," he said dully.

They both looked at Kayla.

"I — but . . . but . . . ugh, fine," she groaned. "I'll go on your stupid trip across the stupid sea to find your stupid missing sea monster. But if we die, we are so not sharing the same afterlife. I've had enough of you two in regular life."

A wide grin broke out across Desmond's face and he launched himself forward, seizing both and pulling them into such a tight hug that their heads knocked together.

"Ouch —"

"Dude."

"So it's settled then?" said Hatak's voice. Desmond, Kayla, and Ethan broke apart, and Arrluk, who had been watching the scene silently on the other side of the room, looked around with the other three. His father was floating at the doorway. How did he keep sneaking up on them like this?

Desmond beamed. "Yes, sir. We're all going."

"Very well. Come with me, then, there's something I want to show you."

Curious, they followed him along the carpet-lined corridors and outside. When they reached the outer deck, their jaws fell open in sync.

"Father . . ." Arrluk breathed.

"Do you like it? I had it built a long time ago, for another reason of course. I had it on standby all this time. But now, I see a new purpose for it."

An enormous, magnificent ship was hovering before them, level with the balcony.

"It's beautiful," Arrluk said. "Does it have a name?"

Hatak shook his head, though he smiled. "I was leaving that up to the captain."

Arrluk contemplated for a moment, but found his mind strangely blank. Instead of continuing to rack his brain, however, he turned to Desmond with an expectant look.

"Wait, you're asking what I think?" he said, looking taken aback.

"Well, you are my co-captain, aren't you?" Arrluk grinned.

Desmond gazed up at the ship, his eyes alight with awe. He stared at it for several minutes in silence, his hands on his chin. Then he snapped his fingers. "How about . . . the Neptune's Treasure?"