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Tianara's grin flashed again, easier and more relaxed than it had been since she got on the boat, although she still clung to the rail. "I don't know," she replied. "I certainly never am." She tilted her head back and let the sun warm her skin, smiling a little bit. Maybe this wasn't so bad. As long as Joshua didn't crash.

The little grin began to grow into a full-blown smile as Joshua continued. "Keep it up, and Kiro will have to poke my head with a seashell to get it back down to normal size," she teased gently. "And yes, my mother can be terrifying when it comes to her babies." For a moment, she looked sad - she was thinking of Kistad. Then she closed her eyes, took a breath, and let it go. Her brother was gone, somewhere where he was no longer suffering through the nightmare of being a passenger in his own body. That had to be enough.

She turned her attention back to Joshua. "But she likes you, even though she was a bit concerned back when I was...you know...cleaning up. Kiro and Jinx apparently had to work together to convince her that I was safer with you than anywhere else." The girl paused, then smiled. "But she believes it now, I think. At least, she hasn't given me any little checkups recently."

Tianara laughed a little bit. "Oh, no, she wouldn't do that. That would be too quick a release for you. She'd prefer to let you live and make that life a slow and painful living hell." She smiled lightly. "My mother's very gentle in most ways, but when it comes to her children, well..." A small shrug.

When the boat swerved, her eyes went wide and her hands immediately flew to the railing and clung on. She was dead white all of a sudden, and had to clasp the rail so tightly her fingers ached before she could stop trembling.

Boats were terrifying death traps for her, which was a very strong argument for the power of phobias, considering that this was a girl who could breathe underwater.

She heard Joshua laughingly admonishing his dolphin friend and made herself breathe more evenly, slowly prying her fingers loose from the railing one at a time. Firmly, she resettled herself in her seat. "So where are we going?" she asked at last, fixing her eyes straight ahead.

Tianara jumped again when Marie came up and squirted her, but she couldn't help but giggle at the same time. "Quit that, silly girl," she admonished laughingly. "Maybe I don't want to get wet." That would be a lie - she never minded getting wet - but still, Marie should think of these things.

Gently, she reached out and ran a finger down the dolphin's scar, even as she turned back to speak to Joshua. "There?" She risked a quick glance and nodded. "Okay. How many do you think we can get before someone starts to wonder what's going on?"

Then she frowned and continued, "Do people know you there?" That wasn't quite so worrying as it would be in the town that Joshua lived beside - after all, it wasn't like their hiding place was right above Tulo. But still, Tianara was concerned. If they couldn't disappear gracefully when someone started to wonder, they'd have to be more careful.

Tianara couldn't keep a quick smile from curving her lips when she heard the dolphin clicking merrily behind her for a little while. It was almost like Marie already knew she was teasing. It was for stuff like that that she loved dolphins - they were so clever.

She let out a breath of relief when Joshua assured her that he didn't often come here. "Good. That's good. We'll be able to pass it off pretty easily, then, I suppose. They might not even remember us in a few days - well, they certainly won't remember me, anyway." She gave a shy smile. "Since I have every intention of letting you play with the men behind those walls." The 'walls' were, of course, the counters. "They make me nervous. I always feel like they can tell I don't belong here."

With a grin, she pushed away her long black hair, thinking deeply. At Joshua's suggestion, she glanced up. Although she didn't precisely understand a 'family reunion', she knew what both words meant and figured it out from there. "I suppose that sounds okay," she said uncertainly. "But...well..." Looking embarrassed, she finally managed to ask, "Would anyone actually believe we were family?"

It was true that she looked nothing like him - was, in fact, nearly his polar opposite. Some people might buy it, but it would be a stretch.

Tianara gave an embarrassed, subtle little shrug. It was silly and of course she knew it. She was just a little on the shy side when it came to people behind the little, fancy walls. They were intimidating for reasons she didn't care to explore. Maybe just because they always seemed to know so much.

Annoyed with the turn her thoughts were taking, she pushed back her hair and listened to what Joshua was saying. "So..." she began uncertainly, "my mother is related to your mother, and we don't look alike because we take after the parents that aren't related." She thought about it for a moment or two, then nodded. "I guess that works."

It wasn't that she actually expected anyone to ask about it - she doubted anyone would care that much. But she was still uneasy about not having had plans for the questions they'd been asked last time, so now she wanted to cover everything.

She tilted her head and sighed. "Have you heard anything from Sorry or the others recently?" she asked quietly, trying to keep her voice down. She hadn't heard from them, and she wanted to know where they were in their notification of other merfolk.

Tianara gave him an awkward smile. "It...well, I don't think so either. I just want to make sure, that's all." She was never very good at explaining what she was thinking - hence why she was so often sure she'd made a mistake. "I don't want to get caught without something to say again."

She took his hand. It was warm and quite dry, she noted absently. Not like the cool, water-slicked touch of the merfolk. But pleasant in its own way.

Not really thinking of this as anything strange to be considering, she used her grip on his hand to help her get out of the boat. She nearly tripped over the edge, and without Joshua's helping hand would certainly have fallen into the water - not that it would have been a big deal, but it would have been a little embarrassing. As it was, she made it onshore again without further incident.

"No," she said with a mildly surprised glance his way. "We didn't ask them to check in - maybe we should have, though," she mused briefly. Then she shook her head. "No, I'm not worried. Just wondering where they're at so far."

Tianara gave him a quick, slightly embarrassed smile before looking over at the town. "I know there's nothing to worry about," she murmured. "But they're part of my family, in a...well, in a way. And I can't help it." She looked up at him, directly now. "Don't you worry about the people you love, even when you know they should be fine?"

She shook off the thought after a second, and walked alongside him towards the town. Her breathing calmed after a moment or two - this was, after all, just a town like the one they had recently visited. There shouldn't be any reason to fear. It was just two people picking some stuff up. Nothing for anyone in the town to be concerned about; most likely, no one would even remember them.

And yet she couldn't help but be concerned anyway.

It was the same as with the merfolk, she imagined. Joshua mattered to her, and she couldn't not be worried about what they were trying to pull off here. So she would just have to work through it, because it had to be done.