Morel was somber when he came back to the bridge. The fight had been over something Ulfvar had said about him, but he wouldn't tell me what. He did say that, once he had dismissed Knuckle and talked to Ulfvar alone, the conversation didn't go well. "He said we betrayed his trust, and that he didn't care how sorry we were. If he could walk away, he would, but he'll see this out to its end, given the fact that we have no plans to return to land anytime soon. I wish I'd never taken him on board."

"You can't blame yourself," I said, putting my arms around him. "You gave me the final say, remember?"

"I'm still the leader of this team, and as team leader, I'm responsible for everything that goes on. Yes, I let you make the choice, but I didn't have to, Mar. The responsibility ends with me."

I could see that I wasn't going to win this argument, so I just held him a while longer. Then I kissed him goodnight and headed out to attend to my evening chores. As I pulled the door closed behind me, I noticed he was staring out at sea, frowning.

####

Ulfvar's angry silence gave way to constant biting remarks. He seemed to make it his business to make sure that Morel and I never got a moment alone. He was forever referring to Morel as "old man" and began questioning his every decision, stopping just shy of insubordination. If no one else was around, he would hint that I was on board solely as Morel's "woman," not as a pro Hunter, or he'd make comments on my appearance. When he walked past me, he'd find ways to bump into me - again, only when no one was there to witness it. If I took him to task, he told me I was getting upset over nothing. I thought of talking with Morel about it, but I didn't want to start a fight - the boat was too small as it was. I debated going to Knuckle or Shoot, but it felt awkward, and I was afraid they'd just go to Morel anyway, so I remained silent, angry with myself for given Ulfvar a chance.

Perhaps because of Ulfvar's subtle campaign against us, perhaps due to the size of the boat or the fact that we couldn't remain in a romantic haze forever, Morel and I began to irritate each other. During our first adventure together, the only one on our team who had snored was Meleoron. Maybe it was the difference between sleeping on the ground and sleeping in a hammock, but now Morel was snoring for part of most nights. The first few nights on board, it wasn't a big deal, but over time it began to wear on me. My hammock was close enough to his that I tried poking him one night to rouse him and stop the snoring, but he was a sound sleeper, and after a few jabs at his ribs, I got upset and poked him hard enough that I fell out of my hammock onto the floor. I startled Shoot and Ulfvar awake, but Knuckle and, to my sorrow, Morel slept right through it. Ulfvar cornered me the next day and gave me a hard time about not being competent enough to keep from falling out of my hammock. I just walked away.

Short on sleep and annoyed by Ulfvar's behavior, I didn't take it kindly when Morel started making comments to me about the need to pick up after myself. When I'm camping, I am the queen of "leaving no trace," but if I stay in one spot, I have a tendency to let my belongings get scattered around a bit - a tank top here, my hairbrush there. While we were technically in the field and on the move, being in a boat was more like being in one place than not, and I fell into my habit of not always picking up after myself as much as other people might like. One day Morel mentioned to me that he'd like me to do something about my clothes, which I'd left in various places belowdecks. When I went to pick up, Ulfvar followed me to tell me he'd expected that I, of all people, would be a little neater.

"Because I'm a woman, I suppose," I said.

"Well, yes," he said with a smile. "I thought you all were trained to be neat."

"I don't know why that's important for women and not men," I snapped. "Anyhow, it's none of your business."

"Stop being so touchy," he said. "Are you on the rag or something?"

"GET OUT!" I yelled. Of course, on a boat the size of the Sea Fog, someone was bound to hear me, and the nearest someone was Morel. As Ulfvar left, Morel peered belowdecks and asked me if everything was okay. I should have told him right then and there about everything Ulfvar had been doing, but instead I snarled, "Just being a good little woman and picking up." Morel opened his mouth to say something, then apparently thought better of it and left.

Between my bad habit of scattering my belongings and the fact that I perversely wanted to be less domestic than after Ulfvar's comments, it wasn't too many days before things were back to the way they'd been when I'd first been asked to pick up. Morel mentioned it to me again, this time with a bit of an edge to his voice. I complied, but I wasn't very gracious about it, and we were short with each other for the rest of the day.

Despite all of this, we had happy times together. Morel, Knuckle, Shoot, and I often talked and laughed over our meals, refusing to let Ulfvar's attitude get us down. There were times when Ulfvar would say something that set Knuckle on edge, but between the warning looks Morel was giving him and Shoot's calming influence, he managed to avoid reacting in anger.

There was also a particularly lovely afternoon I spent with Morel when we managed to slip away together. We had entered the whales' hunting grounds the day before, so we'd thrown out the sea anchor and were occasionally correcting our position in order to stay in one spot, more or less. Morel took me for a swim, promising to get me as close to the whales as possible.

As we we swam toward the pod, something was bothering me... and then I realized what it was. I tapped Morel on the shoulder and motioned that I wanted him to follow me to the surface.

"Need to catch your breath?" he asked.

"It's not that," I replied. "Did you forget to tell us that the whales have Nen, or did you not know that?"

"They have Nen?!"

Well, that answered my questioned. "Yes. I sensed it. But I've always been able to tell individual Nen users apart before. Each aura is unique, like a fingerprint. The whales are different. They all seem the same. Now that I've experienced their auras, I could tell you if we were in the presence of a Reev's whale, but I can't distinguish one whale from another."

Morel seemed speechless for a moment. "Why would they have Nen?" he finally asked, not really expecting me to answer. "No one's observed the whales using it. And while they're intelligent, I didn't think..." He lapsed into silence. Then he smiled. "Well, Mar, your ability came in useful after all. That's quite the discovery!"

We swam closer to the whales and tread water while we watched them make bubble nets around schools of fish and then feed on the trapped animals.

"I'll bet you could do that," I said.

Morel laughed. "Of course I could! Wait here and let me get my pipe."

When he returned, he took a deep lungful of air and dove underwater. A short while later, bubbles rose to the surface, gradually creating a large ring. To my delight, some of the whales shot up through the bubble ring, swallowing the fish Morel had enclosed. He surfaced next to me and we watched the show.

The next day, Ulfvar took his campaign to a new level.