Cleo almost jumped out of her skin in fear when the boat suddenly jolted, and couldn't contain the shriek that automatically filled her throat when a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder.

Kelmal gave a matching screech and burst into the air in an explosion of wind and feathers just in time for a blur moving too fast to see to come speeding past Cleo's face, barely missing her and forcing another small scream out of her in shock.

The hand on her shoulder lifted away—and then came right back down again a moment later, tighter than before, as Kelmal dove out of the sky towards her assailant with a scream fit to raise the dead.

And then Cleo realized a second too late what was about to happen, and tried to open her mouth to scream at her daemon to stop-

And then Kelmal pulled out of his dive at the very last moment, fanning his massive wings over the head of the girl Cleo had just managed to catch a glimpse of out of the corner of her eye in a frightening display of his anger, and the instinctive duck that the stranger dove into knocked the boat off balance, and the next thing Cleo knew, she was in the water.

Her scream of her daemon's name erupted from her mouth in a spray of bubbles of air that she needed to breathe, and all she could think, all she knew was that her stupid clothes were too heavy, and she was being pulled down, and her thrashing limbs were doing nothing at all to slow her descent into a watery grave.

The saltwater burned at her eyes, forcing them shut and throwing her into pitch darkness as the cold water continued to pull her down.

Beyond the crush of water in her ears, she thought she could hear Kelmal screaming. Just like she couldn't swim, he couldn't get near the water.

Panic almost had her opening her mouth to scream again, but she knew what would happen if she did that, and she desperately struggled to turn her aimless thrashing into something resembling swimming-to no avail.

Something suddenly latched onto her wrist, and before she could even begin to fight back—images of sea monsters and giant snakes flashing through her mind—she started getting pulled upwards.

The relief that she was being rescued had barely entered her thoughts before she realized that she was doing nothing but impeding the rescue effort with her thrashing, and somehow managed to calm herself down enough to do nothing but kick her legs, hoping to help get them out of the water faster.

Then her head suddenly broke the surface just as she was opening her eyes to peek, and the blue of the sky expanded suddenly above her, like the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen.

Then she finally got a clear look at the face of the girl who had rescued her, and realized she was going to have to amend that sentence a bit.

Rikki—they shared a few classes together, but never talked—pulled her back over toward Zane's stupid boat, and placed Cleo's hand firmly on the side so she could hold herself in place, before the girl grabbed onto it herself, lowered herself back underwater, then pulled herself onto the boat in one smooth motion.

"You saved me!" Cleo blurted out once the coughing had subsided, and she'd managed to clear the water out of her mouth from the countless small waves that seemed determined to splash her in the face.

Rikki—what was her last name?-raised one eyebrow as a large hawk with a brilliant red tail alighted on her shoulder.

"Normally, I would be basking in such praise," She said, leaning over the side of the boat and offering Cleo a hand, which she gratefully took, "But I feel compelled to point out that I'm the reason you fell in in the first place, so..."

Cleo wasted no time in accepting the hand offered to her, and probably clutched it tighter than was absolutely necessary. With a grunt, Rikki pulled on her hand, and Cleo was quick to pull herself up with her other one. Within just a few moments, she was out of the water and safely sprawled on the floor of the boat, Kelmal coming down to land on her chest and nuzzling her face lovingly with his beak.

"I thought you were a gonner!" He cried when she sat up, flapping his wings to keep his balance for a moment with his talons hooked into her shirt before lifting fully into the air and settling on her shoulder. He had to squint in the bright sunlight, and quickly buried his face in her hair to shield his sensitive eyes, humming softly in relief.

It was only then that Zane's continued laughter registered in Cleo's mind, and she sat down abruptly, not wanting to rock the boat again as she turned towards the docks.

Nate was doubled over laughing, and Zane was clutching his stomach, not too far behind. At his feet, Zharaina was giggling madly, looking like she was going to fall over.

Cleo glared halfheartedly, realizing only then that now both she and Rikki were stuck on the boat.

"I hate those guys." She muttered darkly, turning her gaze away to stare morosely at the water surrounding them.

A chuckle caught her attention, and she looked up in surprise, not recognizing the voice.

Rikki's daemon was perched on her shoulder, and Cleo couldn't be sure, but she thought he was grinning.

Kemal peeked out from the curtain of her hair, tilting his head to the side in his equivalent of narrowed eyes. "What's so funny?" He asked, half curious, half wary.

They'd only ever seen Rikki in the few classes they shared, but she didn't talk much, and they could sum up the amount of knowledge they had about her in two words. Pretty, and brave.

Brave, because she'd jumped almost five feet to land in the boat from the dock, and then rescued Cleo from drowning. Pretty because…well, she really was really pretty. Cleo might have even ventured to say that she was beautiful, but that sounded a bit too dramatic for the situation.

Cleo didn't know what sort of things Rikki and her daemon would find funny.

But luckily, she didn't have to wait long to find out. Because, grinning widely, Rikki reached into her pants pocket, pulled out a small, cylindrical object, and held it up for Cleo and Kelmal to see.

Cleo looked from the object, back to Rikki's proud grin, then back to the object again.

Comprehension slowly dawned, as, behind her, Zane's laughter abruptly cut off, and Zharaina let out a startled yelp.

"That's-" Kelmal started.

"You're the one that took the spark plug!" Cleo completed the thought for both of them, her mouth dropping open in shock.

Rikki's grin only got wider, and her daemon half-lifted one wing, which he began preening.

"Zane and his little princess are pigs." She stated matter-of-factly, shrugging as though it were no big deal, despite the continued presence of the smile on her face and the amusement she was barely trying to conceal, "I figured any way he could be put in his place couldn't be a bad thing, right?"

She sat down, and pulled open the cover of what Cleo assumed was the boat's engine. After fiddling with the insides for a few moments, Rikki brushed her hands off, and turned back to Cleo and Kelmal with another smile.

"So, want to go for a little spin?"