The swim away from Tideton seemed a little too casual for Entaria's taste. However, it also seemed that no one was coming near them because of Occolad. Were people afraid of him? Are they really that prejudice against Abyssians?

She had heard stories of how barbarous and sneaky they are, but she has never felt safer around anyone before. She actually cares for the guy.

Entaria glances at Occolad every so often. Sometimes he would glance back at her, wondering why she keeps doing that, but just ignores it. Deep in thought, Entaria wonders why he helped her in the first place, since he's such a "terror" among her people.

The duo was at least a two hours swim away from Tideton, the abyss edge slowly becoming more and more shallow. In fact, the entire scene began to change. The new area is quite peaceful and beautiful compared to Tideton's grim atmosphere.

A giant rock structure catches her eye. "Occolad, what's that?" she asks as she points.

Seemingly caught in deep thought, he jumps. Then he gives her that mischievous smirk. "Oh. Well, let's go see then."

Entaria looks at him, concerned. But she follows him anyway.

He leads her around a corner, where they can see more of the structure. It isn't as tall as she expected it to be, probably the height of a small house.

His hands point at the shitty entrance as if he is proudly presenting something he made.

Entaria just stares at him in confusion.

Occolad smiles nervously. "Uh…. Yea this is what's left of the first old orphanage I was in so-"

Entaria sigh. "I see. Are you that proud of it?"

He laughs and shakes his head. "Nah, just…. I feel almost at home. Even though I was here for two months before a boulder smashed the entrance."

Sure enough, a huge ass rock was right around the corner. Of course.

Entaria adjusts the pack on her shoulder and curiously swims to the boulder, looking around the broken corner. "There's still a bed frame."

Occolad quickly follows. "Oh, yea that was the really mean old lady's sleeping area. She was killed by the collapsed ceiling."

He seemed too happy about it. "... did you do it?"

He glares at her and laughs. "You think guppy sized me was strong enough? I think not."

She shrugs and smirks. "Never know."

They move onwards down a path that descends into a large colorful valley of coral. Entaria gazes at the beautiful sight as she spots a few huts in the distance.

Occolad floats down the deeper water."That's where we're going." Entaria follows behind.

As they come closer to the buildings, a large rock wall catches her eye. Then a swirl of bubbles rising to the surface. "And let me guess… whirlpool…"

Occolad winks at her. "Precisely!"

She groans as they get closer to a fence surrounding the small town.

"Halt! What is your purpose!" A group of three guards block a large gate leading to the whirlpool.

Occolad clears his throat. "uh, we are just passing through!"

The obvious leader of the three approaches them. "You are not in a protected caravan. We were given orders to assume anyone with a group of 3 or less is considered unsafe to pass unless given special orders from a member of royalty or high order during the season of high tide."

Entaria looks at Occolad. "High tide?"

Occolad nods. "When water on the surface is higher than it is suppose to be. It puts pressure on the crevasse where this specific whirlpool starts."

"Wow you know all this?"

He shrugs. "Use to live in the orphanage here." Entaria nods.

The leading guard shoos them away from the gate. "Besides. The gates of most towns are under extreme caution because of the Siren situation. It is difficult to let you pass without special permission."

Occolad thinks. "But what if she is the daughter of the Eastern King?"

The guard laughs. "She is not around. She has been run off. Rumor is she's dead because she didn't know how to take care of herself."

"But I am his daughter! I am Entaria!" she yells, pissed and offended.

The guards all burst out laughing. One falls to the ground while the other tries to help him get up, falling down himself. "Hahaha yea right. Get lost kids."

The two angrily storm away as the grown ass men laugh hysterically.

"I can't believe this! Word is getting around quicker than I thought! Father must be so embarrassed and ashamed…"

Occolad smiles to himself as he floats around the whirlpool wall. Entaria glares at him. "What are you doing?"

"Going through the whirlpool."

"Uh… excuse me? Are you TRYING to get us killed?"

He glances back slyly. "If that was true, we wouldn't be here."

"You know what, although I'm a monster, I'm at least civilized. I am NOT going through that vortex of death."

Occolad is already swimming around the wall. "Alright suit yourself. I'll go have a decent meal and a place to sleep while you get sliced in half by Cirene's awesome machete."

After a moment of silence, Entaria reluctantly follows, cursing under her breath.

They approach a small opening in the protective wall around the back. Why didn't they keep up with maintaining the wall if it is such a dangerous place? She takes note to have Father take care of it later.

Entaria follows Occolad through the small hole. He stops to make sure no one sees them then gets out, holding onto a rail.

Entaria emerges and her hair is immediately whipped around. "I can't see!"

Occolad quickly pulls her hair together and she holds onto it with one hand, and the other gripping his arm. Toned arms. "Why do I have so much hair…" The sound of the whirlpool almost drowned her voice.

"Okay so we need to go down there." He points to an opening down below with railings wrapping around the vortex perimeter.

"Down there?! I thought we just needed to go around?"

Occolad shakes his head. "Most of the town is underground."

Entaria groans. "Alright… let's just focus on not dying…"

The pressure of the swirling whirlpool pulls on their tail fins but they power through. Entaria ends up holding onto a rail with both hands, not caring about her hair.

Occolad slides carefully ahead to check the next set of railing when he hears a crack.

Entaria looks down at the small rail she is holding onto as it makes a lot of noise. Suddenly, the end closest to Occolad breaks off.

The railing is hanging by a bolt and Entaria quickly goes back to the previous stable rail.

"I can't get over there!" she screams.

Occolad tries to reach over but his end of the rail begins to loosen. They really need to get this fixed.

Occolad starts to look for a safe solution. Then he looks at her bag. "Hey! Try out your amulet!"

She glares at him. "Are you serious?! I can barely control it!"

"It's the quickest thing I could think of! And it could be good practice!" The roaring of the whirlpool gets louder.

She hesitates. "Do it!" he yells.

Entaria sighs then reaches into her bag with a free hand. "Okay I have it!"

But she loses her grip and the amulet flies into the vortex.

"No! No no!" Entaria immediately jumps into the whirlpool without thinking.

Occolad takes a moment to process what just happened. "W-wait! Are you fucking crazy?!"

He waits to see if she shows up, preparing to jump in himself.

Almost instantaneously, there is a flash of green, a force pushes him away, and they are down at the entrance they were trying to reach. He is flung down a long tunnel and lands hard on the stone flooring.

A large shadow he can only assume is Entaria flops down near him. The siren's body flashes and changes back into the small girl Occolad was more familiar with.

He quickly pulls himself over to her lifeless body. "No no come on. Wake up." He shakes her shoulder.

Entaria slowly rolls on her back, opening her eyes. "Oh god, what happened?"

Occolad sighs with relief and helps her up slowly. "You got us out of there. I thought you were a goner once you jumped in."

She looks at him with a confused expression. "I did what?"

They slowly swim down the corridor towards poor lighting. "You went into the whirlpool after your amulet. You're insane!" He laughs. "But that was awesome!"

Entaria blushes. "Oh my god I went into that thing? Why didn't you stop me! I could have died!"

He shrugs. "You think I didn't try? You're too quick."

She looks back then down at the amulet in her hand. "At least we made it through… I don't want to do that again…"

They silently make their way out of the cave-like path into an underground town.

Occolad turns and points to the town. "Welcome to Benthic. Home of the second largest ocean dweller orphanage of this region."

She looks around in wonder at a covered town, then at him. "So this is basically your hometown?"

He thinks. "Kind of. You can think of it like that. I was only here for about seven years. After that, I snuck out the back gate and went straight down into the Abyss region."

"Oh…" Entaria looks down. "It must have been nice being able to go wherever you wanted as a kid. I was always stuck at home with Father."

Occolad starts to swim down a path into town. "Well not really, not when you have to survive on your own. You got parental care and even more than that. I had to keep my eyes down when I went near anyone bigger than me. We fought for food and hideouts."

Entaria keeps silent.

They make their way into town quietly and approach a slightly larger hut a little ways in.

Occolad leans in to whisper to Entaria. "Okay, listen. The people we are here to see… I'm not too keen of them, and I'm not sure how things will be with them… they're very… umm…" Suddenly the door swings open.

"Well well. If it isn't Occolad."

A beautiful bleach blonde, light purple colored woman stands tall in the doorway. "I thought I saw you sneaking around out here." She crosses her arms.

Occolad sighs. "Hi, Feltia. We need a few favors from you guys. Now I know it's been a long time and-"

Feltia suddenly gasps. "Princess?! Oh my! Occolad! I didn't think you would bring a girl of royalty home!"

Entaria shyly waves. Occolad, obviously irritated, waves his arms. "No it's not like that. We just need your help then we'll be on our way and-"

"Oh nonsense. You're staying here until things clear up." She drags them through the door and shuts it quickly behind them. "You shouldn't be out there anyway. The town's leader has been looking for you, Occolad. He wants your head on a plate."

Occolad groans. "Still? Can't he get over a few measly pieces of jewelry? It's not like I was the one who killed his wife. Besides, that was a long time ago. How is he still on about that?"

Entaria glares at him. "You did what?" This gets her a scoff.

"He did let go of it, but he heard you were still alive! He is old and only wants to arrest you. Maybe kill you I dunno. Either way, you need to hide out here. They have the gates blocked."

He laughs. "Not the whirlpool."

Feltia sighs and smirks. "How did I know you would go through at high tide. You never change, little man." She gently punches him in the arm and they laugh.

Feltia looks at Entaria. "So what was your name again, sweetie?"

"Entaria. And I had no idea he was such a criminal in more than one place."

Occolad groans. Feltia glances at him, smiling at Entaria. "Oh please, he has been the sneakiest member of our group. Well known as a slippery thief throughout the entire region.

Occolad stares out the window, checking for guards through the curtains. "I'm not like that anymore. It was survival, and you know that."

Entaria frowns. "A group?"

Feltia smirks then yells through the room. "Koda! Occolad's back! And he brought a friend!"

Occolad groans yet again. "Great."

A crash can be heard and a peppy sky blue girl with long black hair slams into the room, almost knocking over a table.

Her bright blue eyes light up at the new and familiar faces. "Oh my gosh hi!" She zooms to Occolad and hugs him tightly. "Occolad you came back! I thought you were dead!"

Occolad shoves her off of him. "Yea yea missed you too, kiddo. But no, I'm just wanted."

Feltia rolls her eyes. "Koda I told you he just has an arrest bounty."

Koda looks sad. "Oh… right…" She looks at the princess. "Hello! You- oh my gosh! You're the Eastern princess!"

Entaria awkwardly curtsies. "Sort of but yes…" Koda takes Entaria's hands. "You are alive!"

Feltia shoos the girl away and looks at Entaria. "I thought your hair looks different?"

Entaria feels her hair. "Y-yea I usually have this part clipped up. But… I lost it before I left home."

Koda becomes emotional. "Oh that's so sad!"

Feltia coughs. "Well, you need not worry about that right now. I'm sure you guys are hungry."

They both nod.

Koda bows her head and rushes out of the room.

Feltia points to a table. "Please sit. I'm sure you guys are tired. She will make you some dinner then we will show you to rooms."

Occolad raises a brow.

She sighs. "We run a bed and breakfast, dumbass. Read the sign."

Sure enough, there's a sign right outside the door.