Koda comes out with two plates of food. She sets one in front of each of them.

Occolad immediately shoves food into his mouth. Entaria cringes then thanks Koda. "I didn't think about food until now. Haven't had time to even worry about that."

"Yea, probably because you keep shifting" Occolad mumbles through food.

Feltia becomes interested. "Shifting?"

Occolad swallows his food whole. "It's okay to tell them. As nasty as they can be, we can trust them." They all glare at him.

Entaria hesitates. Then brings out the amulet. The two girls stare at it in awe. "So long story short, I can turn into a siren."

Koda gasps. "You mean… one of THOSE monsters?"

Entaria nods. "I found this after disobeying my Father and going out into the deep reef."

"You aren't allowed in the deep part?" Feltia asks. Entaria shakes her head. "That's where Father found the sirens last. But I was drawn there by the amulet."

Koda's eyes glitter with excitement. Feltia however, is deep in thought. "So you were wondering what group I was talking about."

The sudden switch catches Entaria's attention. "Yes actually." Occolad grumbles.

Feltia smiles at the girl. "The three of us use to travel, just after we left the orphanage. We would travel from town to town, begging for food, stealing if we had to. We came across a man who knew of easy money."

Occolad mumbles louder. "Blackfin…" Entaria glances at him. "Mr. Blackfin?"

Occolad pokes at his half empty plate. "... He had just been kicked from your castle a few years prior. He knew of all the siren whereabouts and knew of future attacks. Which makes perfect sense now that we know he was head Vassal."

Entaria stares at the table. "What… what did you guys do?"

Feltia shrugs. "We hunted sirens. Well, weaker ones. Occolad here withdrew from our group just before he left. See, this place was our hideout. I'm surprised he would come back here after all that."

Occolad chuckles weakly. "I had a bad feeling…"

"So, was that how you knew Ularia?" Entaria asks.

Occolad freezes. "Y-yes. But no matter how much trouble she caused me… she never attacked me…"

Feltia reaches over and takes some of his food. "So you're telling me you lied about being attacked by the greatest siren warrior in the entire ocean?"

He bares teeth, becoming more and more annoyed. "I didn't say she attacked me. I said her little posse did. I probably wasn't even worth her time."

Koda sits across from Entaria. "I still believe you were a great fighter Occolad, we didn't do too well after you left."

Feltia eats the food silently. Tension fills the water.

He raises a brow. "Did you guys continue?"

Koda shakes her head. "We quit not too long after. We have just been doing small jobs here and there until-" Feltia grabs her friend's arm.

"No more. Let them finish their food then take them to the guest rooms." Koda nods, knowing she almost accidentally crossed a line.

Entaria finishes quickly. Occolad eats a little more then pushes the plate away.

Koda guides them upstairs quietly while Feltia tends to the kitchen.

Koda shows them Entaria's room first. It is a lovely, small open room with a vanity on one end and a one mermaid bed on the other.

Koda closes the door behind the three of them. "Um… I'm sorry about Feltia just a while ago. She has had a rough time after you left… we had a hard time living in this town and the odd jobs we did? Well… she got desperate and went behind my back and did some… night work…"

Occolad's eyes go wide. "You mean like… prostitution? Can merfolk even do that?" Entaria slaps his arm, which hurts a lot with her new half siren strength.

"Okay jeez sorry sorry… I'm just really shocked she would do that…"

Koda nods sadly. "Well, she was also… sent… to the surface…"

Occolad whispers "The SURFACE?! Was she mad? You didn't stop her?"

"I know, I didn't know about it until she came back from the surface bruised and filled with regret. She cried for almost a week. She did have a lot of money though, so we bought this place and I made her vow to start over and never go back to that again. She still won't tell me who abused her like that… but we don't talk about it anymore."

Entaria covers her mouth. "I didn't realize something like that really happens…"

"Well, Miss Princess. I think your father set the law to make it illegal, so you wouldn't have known. I'm just worried about her… But she has found a love in taking care of those who need a place to stay."

Koda stands awkwardly. "Well um… I want to ask that neither of you speak of that around her… I guess Occolad, I can show you to your room now. Make yourself at home Miss!"

Koda and Occolad leave the room.

Entaria wanders around the room, looking at the cute decorations on the vanity.

A few minutes later, Koda comes back in with a small box.

Entaria sits on her bed as she comes in, eyeing the box. Koda sits by her. "I almost forgot. Feltia and I were at the festival during the attack. We hid inside a building and waited it out. When we came out, they were gone and booths and parts of buildings were destroyed. All we could find was this, and a girl told us to find you and give it back."

"Who was the girl?"

Koda thinks. "She didn't give her name, but she was a pink Westerner? Blonde hair?"

"Claphora! Was she okay?"

"She had a few cuts and bruises, but she looked fine." Koda hands her the box. "This belongs to you. It's convenient you came here just a few days later. Well I'll leave you to rest. Goodnight Princess!"

"Goodnight and thank you!" Entaria waves as Koda closes the door behind her quietly.

Entaria swims to the vanity and places the box in the center. She takes the lid off and gasps.

Inside lies her golden hair clip.

Of all places to find it… Cleph always looks out for me. I must go back to them when it is safe.

Entaria dreams again of sirens in the distance. She fears they will come closer, but they do not. Somehow, she is relaxed.

The next morning, there isn't much light other than an underwater lamp outside her window. Entaria pulls her blanket off and stretches, shoulders aching from yesterday's sudden siren shift.

She swims to the vanity and stares at her tired looking reflection. A comb sits by her hair clip.

Entaria carefully combs her magenta mass, as it has not been tended to since before the festival.

She skillfully pulls the smaller side of her hair behind her head and clips it tightly so it doesn't move.

Feltia softly knocks on the door and opens smiles at her through her reflection.

"I see Koda gave you your clip. It looks nice on you."

"Thank you, I hardly ever wear it down so it's nice having it up again."

Feltia approaches Entaria. "Did you sleep well? I'm making breakfast soon so you have more time to rest if you like."

"No no, I slept fine. Thank you though." Entaria stares at herself. "Um, also do you have any makeup I could borrow? I haven't touched up in a few days."

Feltia's nearly dull expression turns into that of excitement. "Oh I thought you would never ask." She leaves the room and comes back almost instantly with a makeup box.

"Please, take what you need! And if you want I can do your eyes!"

Entaria smiles. "Yes please!"

A few minutes later, Entaria's face is cleaned up and made up with beautiful royal blue lipstick and purple tinted eyes.

"I love it Feltia, thank you so much! It's been a while so…"

"Eh no problem sweetie. I always love doing makeup. It's a hobby of mine to make people beautiful!" She poses gracefully at the word beautiful. Entaria giggles.

"Alright, come down when you're ready. Food will be served soon. I might need to wake sleeping beauty in the other room."

"No let me, I have nothing better to do anyway."

Feltia leaves the room laughing. "Alright, whatever you say hon!"

Entaria laughs to herself and slowly makes her way down the hall. She never noticed how nice the walls were, although it is in a small plain town.

She knocks on a door lightly and cracks it open. Alas, sleeping beauty is sprawled out on his bed shirtless and hardly covered with a blanket.

Entaria blushes a little, but waves it off. She quietly enters the room. All she hears is soft snoring.

Of course he has to snore.

She stand over his bed staring at him, then shakes him. "Hey, get up."

He groans and slowly opens his eyes. He stares at her with one eye half open. "Are you going to keep waking me up by staring at me every morning?"

Entaria rolls her eyes. "Get up, sunshine. Feltia says breakfast is almost ready."

He rolls to face away from her. She leans over him. "Come on, we don't have all day."

He smirks at her and opens his hand. The amulet.

"How did you get that!"

He turns to face her. "If you would stop staring at my scars, you would notice that I take it."

She grabs it in a huff. "I'm sorry, it's just noticeable."

He reluctantly sits up rubbing his face and messing with his hair. "Alright you wanna know don't you?"

She moves back a little and nods.

He laughs. "Alright I'll tell you later. Just not now." He goes to give her his signature smirk but his face goes blank.

Entaria looks around, then back at him. He just stares at her. "Um. What."

Occolad shakes his head then starts laughing. "You're wearing makeup. And your hair is back."

Entaria crosses her arms and smiles. "And I'm the one who stares. Right."

He rolls his eyes and mumbles. "Looks good on you."

She lifts a brow. "Excuse me?"

He leans back and flops back on the bed. "I said it looks good on you, it's called a COMPLIMENT."

Entaria picks up his shirt off the floor and throws it at his stomach. "Get dressed, weirdo." She storms out, smiling to herself.

Occolad stares at the door with shirt in hand. He also smiles to himself and slips on his shirt.

A few minutes later they all meet at the table. Occolad comes down messing with one of his shirt buttons.

"One of my buttons came off. It was a hard shirt to find too. Can't steal these in my size anymore."

Entaria glares at him. "Kidding kidding. I bought this. They don't make this style cheap anymore."

Koda and Feltia come out of the kitchen with bowls of food and snacks.

Feltia hands Entaria the pack she got from Blackfin. "Turns out we have to leave. I filled them with supplies. I'm sure it will be hard to find another rest stop, so we'll have to camp out."

Occolad chokes on a biscuit. "We?"

Feltia leans on the table with one arm. "Yes we. Do you have a problem with that, hon? Or were you expecting to get some alone time with... " she points to Entaria, who stops shoving food into her mouth, "'Miss Elegant' over here?"

Occolad shows no expression, but Entaria stiffens and blushes, trying to swallow her food whole. "Feltia, what are you going to do out there with us huh? You don't fight anymore and it's safer with less people."

Feltia calmly sits at the table. "Listen, Occo. I've been around longer than you and have seen what she can turn into. They are much stronger than you. No matter how strong you THINK you are. We are going with you and that's final. You need us if something happens."

Occolad looks straight at Feltia, then at Entaria.

Entaria managed to swallow her food and clean up herself politely. "I think it's for the best. Who knows what I'd do to you in that state. Blackfin is bigger than you and had a hard time holding me down until I was calm."

Occolad sighs. "Fine. Just as long as you don't get in my way after this thing has been dealt with."

Feltia leans back in her chair. "Fine by me."