Mari made her way through crowds of people. Balbadd was no less crowded at night. People strolled around with their sales carts, but they didn't move as fast.

"Would you like buy something, little lady?" A vender man spoke. Mari looked over the tings in his cart. There was jewelry and beautiful stones. But it was a sharp piece of metal that caught her attention. It was raw and jagged and she really didn't understand why it was even in this cart. She pointed to the piece of metal.

"Oh that old thing? I found that piece of scrap metal out by the docks. It's completely useless. You can have it if you want." He plucked it from the pile and wrapped it in a small cloth.

"Here you go..." he gave it to her and she reached into her pocket for money, but he shook his head.

"Take it. It's worth nothing here." She nodded and continued down the streets.

She weaved her way through drunks and homeless...well houseless people and finally made her way to the docks.

"Oh now how am I gonna get home?" she sighed, kicking up the dirt.

I had taken long enough to teleport there using Yama-chan's light magic, and it would take even longer to get back on boat.

"This thing is useless. I can't believe you bought this thing!" A voice yelled. For the corner of her she saw a slight glimmer and heard a grunt. "This belongs in the trash!"

Mari turned her head just in time to see a sword being flung out of a house window. It flew into a bag of sand right next to her head. The bag split, releasing sand everywhere.

"...lucky..." Mari sighed, turning to the badly abused metal.

"I don't think you're useless." she touched the handle and traced the swirled grooves until she had complete hold of it. She pulled a bit to hard and the heavy metal glided easily through the sand, sending her tumbling backwards. The sword clattered to the ground.

"Sorry about that." she sighed struggling to pick up the heavy metal. "You're very heavy." she giggled a bit.

Now most people would have seen her talking to a sword, but for Mari it was something else. She felt a pulse that ran from the blade of the sword up to the guard, through the grip and up into her arms. She smiled. It was no ordinary sword, but some kind of...life?

"You don't have to be afraid. You can come out if you want." She cooed.

The blade rattled a bit. "You don't wanna?" she asked.

The blade rattled some more and began to glow. "You're just scared, but it's okay." she smiled, bringing the blade to her cheek. She could feel what seemed like a heartbeat and a warm feeling that felt like body heat.

"I won't let anyone hurt you from now on." the sword rattled to the point where Mari wasn't able to hold it anymore. She dropped it and watched as it clattered off the dock and into the harbor.

She walked over to the edge of the dock and peered over the edge. Something was glowing and making the water bubble. She giggled as the bubbles popped on her cheeks.

But before she knew it, a large eye was staring back at her. It didn't seem to phase her, she smiled and waved down at the bubbling water.

She hadn't expected him to be that big. His eye alone was as big as her whole body.

"It's okay. You don't have to be afraid." She cooed again, see as the large man was a bit scared. His eyes peered out from just below the surface of the water, but Mari could see no more of his face.

"It's okay, those mean people can't hurt you anymore." She smiled, gesturing for him to see. He moved slightly, raising his head a bit more over the water.

"You're very big." Mari said, watching as his face began to show. He began to stand fully, his face moving high above her. Surprisingly no one seemed to notice.

The man made no noise but glanced at her before ducking back down to eye level, making quite large waves roll onto the sand.

"What's you're name?" Mari asked reaching out to touch his face. He growled in response, his eyes glow, seeming a bit scared.

"I won't hurt you." She reached out some more. She stopped and waited for him to respond back. His eyes dimmed and he became relaxed, moving closer to her hand until he fingers touched his forehead. He was completely soaked with water and his hair was tangled with seaweed and leaves. His body was cover with shells and stained with black ink. So was his mouth.

"Did you have squid for dinner?" she giggled, making the man sink deeper until his mouth was at sea level, forming bubbles at the surface.

She still had her hand tangled in his messy hair and she moved his from covering his eyes.

"Can you talk?" she asked, sorting through the wet mess. He made a grumbling sound and gave a slight nod.

"What's you're name?" she asked again, picking hermit crabs from his hair.

He grumbled a bit more, making the water bubble. Mari shrugged and ruffled his hair a bit more. She hadn't even noticed how far she was leaning out until she finally fell forward. She gasped a bit in surprise and closed her eyes waiting for the impact of the water. But instead a large gust of wind and sold ground was what she felt.

She opened her eyes to see herself surrounded by a rather large hand. He grunted again and sank down, leaving Mari above water.

"Thanks..." she sighed.

"These waves are going to tear the lines. We'll have to retie all of them." A voice said. Before she could react, she was being pulled under the dock. She found herself atop his large shoulders. He had sunken a bit more, careful not to his head on the bottom of the dock. Mari heard foot steps overhead and waited until everything was done, before she patted him to signal it was okay to go out again. He slowly waded through the water but instead of going towards the dock he turned away from it. He was beginning to sink deeper in the water and his hand came up to shelter her before he completely submerged himself in water.

She covered her mouth and nose, keeping the water out, but her eyes were free to roam and glance at the various fish and the beautiful blue of the ocean. She glanced down towards the bottom of the ocean and we astonished to see the man's feet hitting the ground, making puffs of sand fly up.

It seemed that they had walk for seconds, but when Mari turned back she couldn't see the docks anymore of the sand.

It was getting darker.

They were approaching a large stone arch and she admired it as the man passed through it and continued down. It was extremely dark and Mari was beginning to get scared, holding the mans hair in fear of falling or drifting away.

She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for something to happen.

"You don't have to be scared. It will be over soon." a low voice said, making her eyes fly open, just as they both disappeared down a dark fissure.