Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tianara quivered a little under his hand. She kept her gaze out the window, looking like her mind was miles away. In a way, it was - she was looking for that taste of something alien, trying to figure out how far away the creature was without drawing attention to herself.

She shut her eyes against the relief that came with his words. He couldn't have any idea how much the offer had hurt, and she had wanted him to agree. But now...

There had to be something she could do to shield him. She couldn't stop the magic rubbing off onto the people around her any more than she could stop breathing. But there had to be something else.

"I should update Sorry," she mused. "She ought to know about this."

((OOC: ...*drags self online* I am going to die. Let's just get that out there.))

Tianara glanced back, a little half-smile playing around her mouth. "And of course, there's the little problem that they're all supposed to be coming here, isn't there?" she murmured. "We'll have to figure out soon what it wants."

That said, she stretched out to Katalina, and began to relay events.

Tianara couldn't have known it, but the magic she was using was attracting Its attention far faster than her mere presence would have done.

~

It raised Its great head, letting out a low growl. The scent was there now. Stronger now. Near where the little human had been before.

And the magic was tugging on the water-currents in Its mind's eye. Slowly, it began to turn around, lumbering back through the trees the way it had come.

It reached towards the puny being that had tried to touch Its mind before. It would not harm the little creature - the human might not even notice Its presence, not this time. It merely wanted to assure Itself that the prey was safely nearby this time, before It wasted more of Its time.

((OOC: Haven't even started them. crying Studying and homework and people keep calling me and WHY DID I EVER WANT A SOCIAL LIFE.))

Tianara paused in her speech, and turned to look at Joshua.

"Did you feel that?" she half-whispered.

Something. Something ancient, and rotted, and oh so cold.

"Joshua?"

And it was coming.

"We have to go."

Closer.

"Right now!"

She sprung up to her feet and grabbed his hand. "Come on, we have to go, we have to go."

Anywhere. Anywhere that wasn't here.

((OOC: *nomnomnom*))

Tianara wasted no time making her own decision. If it could be in the water, she thought, it would be there already.

"Hold your breath," she said simply.

Then she pulled him to the beach and into the water.

How deep could it follow? How far did she have to go? There was no time to get Joshua's skiuuba things, so she would have to hope that enough of her power had rubbed off on him that he would be able to manage.

If he couldn't...

If he couldn't, she might be able to help him. But she didn't know for sure.

She'd never done it before.

((OOC: Not sure what you're waiting for, lovely. It's up to you whether Joshua has spent enough time around the merfolk and their magic to gain some of Tianara's super-special-water-powers or not.))

Tianara hadn't taken him too deep. There wasn't any time to hang around, but she didn't want to drag him in and have him drown. She moved towards the surface in easy strokes, always moving farther away from the beach. If necessary, there were rocks out in the cove where Joshua could recover himself.

She glanced behind her. Nothing yet, but the feeling of something evil closing in was stronger now. She was afraid.

They had to keep moving.

But she had to make sure Joshua could breathe.

Looking back again, she rose to the surface, with Joshua - hopefully - in tow.

((OOC: Nope. All up to you. biggrin ))

Tianara didn't seem to have any academic worries about whether the creature would be visible or not. "Come on," she said. "We have to move faster."

She didn't know what they were going to do. If they could make it safely out of the cove, there might be a chance that someone would give them shelter. But who...

Her eyes widened. Aria hadn't left so long ago. How far away was she by now? The girl wasn't an ocean child, but she had merfolk blood.

"Joshua," she breathed. "We have to hurry. Can you...are you all right?"

Could he breathe? was what she meant.

Tianara looked at him for another second, hesitating. Would he regret his brave words?

No time to turn back now. "Tell me if you need to stop," was all she said. Then she struck out for the open water.

She'd already been telling Katalina to reroute the ocean children - they couldn't keep them at the cliff until the creature was gone. They just had to keep going and hope that the mermaid was able to handle the information.

It was debatable whether Tianara remembered that the ships were a danger all on their own now. Since the water she was heading for was prime fishing territory, it was likely that the danger behind them had erased any thought of the danger ahead.