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Tianara smiled a little more naturally, tightened her grip on his hand for a second, and then turned and headed back down the hill - much faster than before. Once they got off the cliff, things would be all right, she thought.

A cold thought was niggling at the back of her mind - what if this happened again? They would have to find a way up from the water; they couldn't risk bringing the ocean children up that way, not if things like that might happen again.

So she moved quickly, not quite running but certainly going fast.

They had to let the merfolk know about this strange development, and then they had to find another way up into the cliffs.

"Yes," Tianara agreed absent-mindedly. Her mind had already been down that track, after all. Right now, she was doing a quick magical search of the nearby cliffs, looking for a magical signature she could understand or recognize. While she found several, none of them were any that she recognized.

She knew there had been some kind of magic going on. That hadn't been a natural occurrence.

Upset now, she reached out more - and felt something lash out back at her. Jerking back from it instinctively, she stumbled backwards and nearly ran into Joshua.

"Come on," she whispered, starting to run now. "We have to hurry."

Tianara caught his words only by tilting her head in his direction. When she heard him, she gave a quick shake of her head. "Later," was all she said.

She could see the ground coming up. They really were almost there now.

She could tell him all about it later.

Listening for another rumbling, or an angry shriek, she barely noticed when they were at last off the cliff wall and back safely on solid ground. She slowed after a few minutes, but didn't talk at first.

"Okay?" she breathed at last, pushing her hair out of her face so she could see him.

Tianara looked up at the cliff again, still breathing a little bit faster than normal. "Come on," she said instead. "Let's go back home." She was a little worried about the supplies they'd already stored there, but there was nothing to do about it. At least not yet.

She didn't think twice about referring to the cove as 'home', even though one day she knew she'd have to leave it. Right now, it was the closest thing she had to a home.

And she was trying not to be too sad about that.

Finally remembering to release Joshua's hand, she looked down as she started to walk back towards the cove. "Something wanted to hurt us," she said quietly. "I tried to find it. It...tried to lash back at me when I did. I guess it didn't want to be recognized."

Tianara knew what he was thinking, and mustered a smile to help him relax. "Yes, I'm fine," she replied. "It was just trying to keep me out."

She put her hands into her pockets again, looking a little unsure of herself. "I don't know," she said at last. "It sounded unhappy, whatever it was. Like maybe it didn't want to do what it was doing?" It was a guess, and sounded like one. "Or...I don't really know," she repeated. "It pushed me out again almost right away."

With a shrug, she admitted, "It's like nothing I've ever felt before. I have no idea what it was. Not ocean-related, at least not directly."

It hadn't felt like that.

She glanced back at him. "I don't suppose you saw anything? Felt anything? Nothing like that?"

Tianara stepped forward almost instinctively, before realizing there was really nothing she could say about it. "I was too," she said instead. "More than you think." She gave a weak little smile. "Still am, sort of - but not as badly as I was before. I thought..."

I thought you were going to die.

She shook her head, and didn't finish the thought.

"Some places you might be better than I am," she pointed out. "You'd be more likely to recognize a creature of the land than I would be, probably - and this was definitely a land-based creature. I would have known it otherwise." She sighed. "It doesn't really matter, not right now. We can come back and search for it again - I'm sure it won't leave. In the meantime, we should go back to the cove."

Tianara smiled a little, wearily. "You would have, once you'd realized it wasn't going to stop," she replied. And you might not even have been in danger if not for me.

She couldn't know that for sure, but it was a distinct possibility. If he hadn't been able to sense the thing, it might not have been able to sense him. Or even notice him.

But it had noticed her.

Putting that thought aside for now, she walked back down the path with him. They were both alive, and that was what mattered.