Eventually, the adrenaline faded, leaving Saira with the cold, heavy realization that she was stuck on a beach, soaked to the bone, and out of breath.
She let out a long, dramatic sigh and collapsed onto the dry sand, pulling her knees close to her chest.
Her anger had burnt down into a quiet, mild annoyance.
A few feet away, Eagre remained perched on the edge of the shore, halfway in the water.
He was nursing the side of his head where a faint red mark remained, his luminous eyes wide and staring blankly at the distance.
His ego wasn’t just bruised; it had been pulverized, dragged across sharp coral, and fed to sea urchins.
Saira watched him for a moment, twirling a silver strand of drying, salty hair around her finger.
“So,” she began, her tone so calm and conversational she might as well have been sitting in a cozy parlor.
Eagre flinched, his aquatic ears twitching as he shot her a cautious, defensive side-eye.
“Why did you save me when you could have just left me to die?” Saira asked, tilting her head with a deceptively innocent look.
“Are you saving me for later?
Am I your emergency food?
Are you going to marinate me in saltwater and keep me in a cave until winter?” Eagre blinked, utterly lost.
“What-no-” “Or maybe,” Saira continued, leaning forward with a conspiratorial whisper, ” are you keeping me alive so you can feed me to your pet sharky?” Eagre stared at her, his jaw slowly slacking.”pet…sharky?” “Don’t play dumb with me, salmon-boy,” Saira said, shaking a finger at him.” Every monster on an eerie island has a giant pet shark named Bitey or Cleofintra that eats innocent shipwreck survivors.
Is that your grand plan?” Eagre buried his face in both hands, letting out a long, agonizing groan.
“I don’t have a pet shark!
I dragged you out of the sea because you looked at me, insulted my art, and then passed out.
I wanted to demand an explanation!
I wanted you to apologize!” Saira stared at him blankly, eyes blinking in utter disbelief.
“You saved my life because you couldn’t handle my three-out-of-ten critique?
That’s just petty.” “My song is an ancient, irresistible enchantment!
Kings have wept!
Navies have sunk!
And you-you mouthed numbers at me!” Eagre snapped, throwing his hands up in the air, his fins flaring dramatically.
“Well, if you wanted a ten out of ten, you should have worked on your harmony, salmon-boy.
Pitchy is pitchy.” Saira dismissed him with a lazy wave of her hand before pushing herself up and stomping right to the water’s edge.
“Which brings me to my main point: you made this choice,” she declared imperiously.
“I was peacefully sinking toward eternal peace and freedom from debt.
You snatched me out of the abyss.
Therefore, my current state of living is entirely your fault.” Eagre blinked, his glowing eyes widening.” My…fault?!” “Yes!
You broke it, you bought it!” Saira snapped, crossing her arms.
“You ruined my death, so now you have to take responsibility for my life.
I demand full hospitality.
Three meals a day, fresh water, and dry bed.
Now go and catch some fish for me, you peasant!” Eagre sat frozen in the shallow surf, his mind reeling.
He was a myth.
A terror of the seven seas.
And he had just been court-ordered by a broke gambling addict.
Before he could process his utter defeat, Saira turned her attention to survival.
She gathered a pathetic little pile of dry twigs, sat cross-legged in the sand, and grabbed two sharp stones.
Ten minutes later, Saira was red-faced, covered in soot, and aggressively glaring at the unlit wood.
“Useless, stupid rocks!” She snapped.
Eagre narrowed his gaze, jaw working silently like he could chew through this entire situation if he tried hard enough.
With that ridiculous demand hanging in the salty air between them, Eagre begrudgingly dove into the deep blue.
Less than two minutes later, he erupted from the surf, tossing three plump, freshly caught fish onto the sand right at her feet without ceremony.
It landed with a thud.
Dead.
Fresh.
Probably not poisonous.
“There,” Eagre growled, resting his arms on a rock.
“Fish.
You are taken care of.” Saira didn’t even look at the fish.
She pointed imperiously at her miserable pile of wood.
“Light it.” Eagre’s gills flared in disbelief.
“What?” “The fire!” Saira barked.
“Use your ocean magic or lightning or whatever you have to start a fire so I can cook these.” “I am a creature of water!” Eagre yelled back.
“Fire is literally the exact opposite of my nature!” “Well, improvise!” Saira insisted, entirety ignoring basic elemental logic.
“I can’t eat raw, slimy fish, salmon-boy- I will get parasite!” Groaning in sheer, agonizing defeat, Eagre dragged his tail into the shore to figure out how on earth a water spirit was supposed to light a campfire.
He knelt in the sand, gently blowing on a piece of dried sea kelp, trying to channel aquatic static or friction- looking less like a feared terror of the deep and more like a deeply stressed scout leader.
Saira stood over him, hands on her hips.
“Focus.
Put some emotion into it.” Before Eagre could turn around and bite her leg off, the sky above Aethel suddenly cracked open.
A single, violent streak of bright purple lightning shot out from a rogue storm cloud, zapping the tiny pile of wood with absolute precision.
BOOM!
The thunderclap shook the beach, and Eagre scrambled backward into the shallow water with a shocked, cat-like hiss.
When the smoke cleared, a roaring campfire was crackling merrily on the sand.
Eagre stared at the fire, then up at the sky, his jaw hanging open.
“What in the seven seas…?” Saira immediately broke into a victory dance around the flames, kicking up sand with unearned triumph.
“Ha!
I knew it!” She shouted to the heavens, shaking her fists in divine celebration.
” I knew the gods favoured me from the start!
Take that salmon-boy!
Divine intervention, baby!” “The gods didn’t favour you, you lunatic!” Eagre yelled over the cackling wood.
” A freak atmospheric discharge almost turned us into ash!” “Details, details!” Saira sang out, completely unbothered as she impaled the fish on sharp sticks and propped them over the fire.
She wiggled her fingers toward the ocean, shooing him away.
“Your presence is no longer needed.
Go on, shoo.
These fishes are mine.
Go hunt yourself another one, you peasant.” Eagre’s lip curled in indignation.
She claimed the entire haul as hers by right of fire and superiority.
Eagre let out a high-pitched, furious hiss like steam escaping a kettle, and threw himself back into the ocean with a dramatic, massive splash- determined to hunt the largest, most spiteful fish in the sea just to eat it right in front of her face.
Thank you for reading!