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Joey took a deep breath as he was being pulled under. He didn't want to be violent, but right now, he had no choice. He spun his body around and managed to somehow break free. He broke the surface and quickly said, "Most of them are, indeed the same, but then you have the select few who are kind." He tried to be kind, to show that he wasn't going to fight if she tried anything.

Joey stopped swimming. "There is always a minority." He shook his head. "I am sorry for what happened to you, but what am I personally responsible for?" He was getting closer to shore, but it was still a relatively long ways away. "You know nothing of my past, of my friends, of my personality...of my loneliness..." He said the last part quietly and his face fell, the kind mask falling to show his sadness. He began to swim again, this time more slowly.

Katalina easily kept up to him, relieved to be leaving. She stole a quick glance back at Narcis, who also sped up until he was on Katalina's other side. It seemed that they didn't have as much trouble getting along as they had acted like they did earlier.

She glanced at the Siren with a question in her gaze as they finally reached the entrance. Narcis hesitated, then put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm not going to," he told her, having apparently forgotten Joshua was there, as he didn't bother to speak in their own language. "Go on your way, little cousin. I won't make you do it."

"Father will be mad," pointed out Katalina, apparently having forgotten Joshua was there, too. "So will the patriarch."

Narcis gave her a sharp smile. "Better them than you," he replied. "I can deal with them. Just..." His smile faded. "Be more careful. Next time, it might not be me." With a vague nod in Joshua's general direction, he left them.

Katalina, also watching Narcis leave, jumped slightly. "Oh. Oh, yeah. I guess you might be," she said softly, her mind more on Narcis's words than answering Joshua. Seeming to forget that he didn't know anything about the situation, she continued as though he did. "It is a little tough to understand without a working knowledge of our clan politics and all that kind of thing."

With a little shrug, she said, "Narcis may not like humans very much, but he understands me better than anyone else in my family. It's strange because we're so distantly related." The faraway look on her face cleared slightly. "Are you ready to go back now?" she asked.

Katalina nodded. "That way," she agreed. "Just a touch more north."

How could she explain to him what she had yet to fully understand herself? It made things a little tougher, certainly, but she could probably find a way to explain to him. Did she want to, though? That was the problem.

That was also what she had to wonder about. Not only did she want to tell him, but did he really want to know? It would require a long, tedious explanation of her clan, their politics and beliefs, and the background of herself and Narcis both. Joshua liked to know things, but did he want to know that badly?

One way to find out.

"Remind me later," she said. "If you really want to know, I could explain a little."

Katalina chuckled a little, masking the dread that rose up when Joshua said he would ask her. She hadn't lied - no, she would tell him. But...
But he hadn't been raised with her family. He didn't really understand the family politics, the beliefs, the idiocy that had driven her to run away as fast as she could go.

Narcis had understood. That was why she'd shared it with him, before he'd gone to live with Riiya and Korai. Because he had been there. He would understand.

But Joshua hadn't. He'd had a family that he had problems with, she recalled. But human problems were probably different from mermaid problems. Would Joshua understand why issues that sounded so simple were so enormous to her that she'd chosen to run?

One way to find out, she thought again.

Katalina sped up suddenly, gesturing to Joshua to hurry. The reason for her urgency soon came clear as a loud engine blared through the silence. Normally, she would have heard it sooner. She would have dived to avoid it. But she'd been distracted and she didn't know how deep Joshua could go.

From the sound of the laughter coming from the same direction as the boat - towards them - Katalina guessed that the humans aboard weren't paying attention. Good for her - not so good for Joshua, if they weren't looking where they were going.

Aoife had doved under the water and then jumped out of the surface to flying over Joey and landing between him and Violet. "Leave him alone." She said with strength and ice in her voice that caused the water to drop to almost arctic temperatures.