Brendan and I set up our camp by the lake. I stood by the waters staring down into its clear depths. I never thought we would find such an amazing place down here, underground.

“What now?” questioned Brendan sitting by the fire, drying his wet fur.

“Not sure,” I shrugged. It was such a vast place; it was hard to decide where to start.

“Master, you’re here to look for the crystal remember,” smiled Mila still swimming in the clear waters, it wasn’t very often that she got to come out like this, I suppose moving on dry land, even for a water spirit was hard or perhaps she was just enjoying herself.

“Right.” I kept looking around thinking about what I was going to do, even with her words I didn’t exactly know where to start looking, this place was so vast, and I suspected there was a possibility that there would be more tunnels like the one we came down nearby.

“I think this is going to take some time,” commented Brendan.

“Any recommendation Larana?” I asked wondering if she had any answers.

“This whole cavern is a good starting point, our first master often brought Animalia here for shelter, so spent quite a deal of time here,” responded Larana appearing to have a look around too. “How it has become more beautiful since the last time I was here.”

“The crystal you seek for the sword your mum wishes to craft will call to you,” added Mila. “All you have to do is start looking.” A grin crossed her lips. “It could be deep within the waters, amongst the trees or even high within the caverns walls.”

“You’re not helping Mila.” I slumped over, letting out a huge sigh.

“Perhaps you could start by checking in the water,” mentioned Brendan. “After all you can breathe down there.”

I looked at Mila. “And why is that?”

“It is one of my abilities that has passed to you master,” her eyes gleamed with this strange excitement. “The water, master is your playground just as the skies will be when you learn to fly.” Mila’s form changed to her more adult form. “Allow me to show you master.”

I glanced at Brendan. “Just go, you might find your crystal down there.” His body shivered. “I’m still warming up from our previous dip.”

“You sure?” I asked not really wanting to leave him.

“Yes.” There was a snarl in his reply.

“Alright, keep your fur on.” I stepped closer to the water where Mila was waiting for me. I gulped, I hadn’t really had any need to talk to adult Mila before, and my first interactions with her was a scary one.

“Come on already, the water won’t bite, and neither will I,” she taunted, perhaps getting impatient with me. I jumped into the waters, feeling the coolness rush through my fur, then I wasn’t cold at all, it was pleasant. I swam closer to Mila as she floated there on the surface. “Ready master.” I nodded. “Just follow me.” She dived straight down.

I felt a mixture of nervousness as the first time had been completely by accident. I took in a deep breath before diving down after her. My eyes quickly adjusted to the waters gleam; the clarity was just so stunning.

“Master, while in the water you’ll have nothing to hinder your movement, you can do whatever you want down here, even breathe,” she shook her head as I held my breath between breaths, I just couldn’t quite believe what was happening. “You can breathe water like air,” she swam closer. “See.” Mila glided her hand over my neck.

I touched my neck after she left to feel gills, the realisation almost made me dash for the surface, but at the same time it held this strange fascination, wanting to know what else her power could do for me.

“Lead the way Mila,” I said my words so slowly almost like I was spelling it out.

“Just swim,” she circled around me a few times before moving on.

I followed her as we swam past schools of fish, heading deeper to where the multi-coloured plants were, all dancing in the gentle current that flowed through the waters.

Mila speeded up, her expression filled with so much joy, then she stopped staring out into the distance. I swam up beside her gently placing my hand on her shoulder. “Mila, what’s wrong?”

Mila looked at me with an expression of sadness. “I used to swim in great lakes like this all the time, surrounded by my friends and family.”

“Friends? Family?” I repeated wondering what had brought this on.

“If you really knew how we came to be, it would break your heart master,” she shook her head, her cunning smile returned. “Use my power master, summon it to create waves, whirlpools,” her words were in a gasp, almost so enthralled that I would summon forth her power.

“Okay,” she was creeping me out, her emotions were all over the place, but the words she had spoken about how they came to be, breaking my heart troubled me. How was talismans created? Was it like Brendan’s brother Diluc? Or something far darker?

“Feel our connection, the same you would when using Larana’s power,” she mentioned speaking even faster.

I closed my eyes for a moment seeing the two auras that represented Mila and Larana. My power had grown since first making my connection with Larana, but it still paled in comparison to them both. I still didn’t understand how someone like me could learn to wield such raw power.

“Just like Larana but water,” I said to myself. I opened my eyes, holding out my hand, I began moving it in circles willing the water to move at my command and it slowly began to move. “Wow.” I kept going making it faster and stronger.

Mila swam around me towards the whirlpool I was making. “That’s it master,” her voice filled with such pleasure, did she get a kick out of this. “Now if only I could destroy something with it. Oh, the screams, the bliss of the lifeless bodies vanishing within the waters for all eternity.”

“Ok…” she was weirding me out again, did she really want to destroy things; I would have to be careful where I let her loose.

“More master, please,” she continued to swim around me.

“Alright.” I couldn’t refuse her, she scared me. I forced the whirlpool away from me, it went spinning even faster, looking more like an underwater tornado.

I looked around getting the sense of the feel of the water, it was different from the lake around Cathopia, far purer, perhaps I would take some back to show mum and Tigra.

I held my hand out in front of me, pulling the water in and condensing it between my hands. I could feel the pressure building up, until even I couldn’t contain it any longer. It went out in a powerful stream of water, I was pushed back as it released, breaking the surface above.

Mila was laughing now. “Not bad at all master.”

“That’s enough for today,” I said feeling the strain already, this was the first time since healing Brendan that I had actually used her power, so I wasn’t sure how much of my own power I needed to put into it for the use of powerful moves like the once I had just used. Swimming I noticed took hardly any energy at all or the speed of movement through the water.

I looked down to the bottom of the lake where I spotted something gleaming in the dimming light. I swam down to investigate. Hidden in the reeds was a crystal, it wasn’t very big, but it had what looked to me like the shape of a tiger’s face in it.

“What have you found master?” Mila came in to investigate.

“A crystal perfect for Tigra,” I replied reaching my hand out and taking hold of it. I felt this strange connection with it, I knew it was not the crystal for me, but something deep within me tucked at my heart, perhaps mum was right in the aspect that Tigra and I were connected. Well, she was my best friend after all, I felt kind of bad I had not brought her here with me, but perhaps a special gift would make up for it.

“You and that Tigra,” snorted Mila.

“You’ve known her two minutes Mila,” I commented. “You can’t say anything against her.”

“From what Larana’s told me and…” she stopped herself before saying her next line. “You love her,” she grinned. “Want me to give you lady advice, to catch your perfect mate.”

“Mila!” I cried wanting her to shut up. “Change back to healing mode please.” I didn’t want this version of Mila anymore.

“But master,” she seemed shocked.

“Mila,” I gave her a stern look. “I don’t need your destructive power at the moment, I’ll call when I need you to help me with some more practice later.”

“Fine,” she snorted as she went back to the cute and innocent Mila. “Sorry master,” she apologised.

“It’s alright Mila, you can’t help who you are,” I smiled.

“We should return to Brendan, he’s not going to be happy with you master,” giggled Mila.

“What?” I stared at her suddenly worried. “Mila.”

“You created quite the wave,” she smiled.

“No.” I wondered if me practising Mila’s power had echoed back to where Brendan was, the whirlpool and released power. I let out a nervous laugh, what were the odds of it hitting him. “I didn’t.”

“You’ll see.”

We both headed back to the camp site, Mila led the way as I had forgotten to take notice of where we were as I swam through the waters with her. I had enjoyed myself, finding out more about her and well, her other half. I couldn’t help but wonder the true extend of her destructive power in a real fight.