No Still Waters [DragonSong]

[Juno]

Knocked a little off-balance Awiergan righted herself cautiously with a playful glare shot his way. He was lucky she found his form of playfulness endearing, she was sure any other man might have been gravely injured amongst their games. Somehow she still found it difficult to see him as anything more than a gentle giant, perhaps a little too trusting in that.

"The world is a large and interesting place if you know where to look," she finally decided, at last remembering to get her jab in as she lightly bumped back against his shoulder. The score had to be even, wouldn't be fair otherwise even if it was a lighthearted game.

"I suppose you could find new things. Or at least things that are new to you," she agreed, privately a little envious that he might have the chance to see the world with such innocent eyes.

[DragonSong]

"Exactly." He beamed and, without seeming to think anything of it, grabbed her hand with his. Her fingers almost completely enclosed hers, and the thin webbing between them probably felt strange to her human senses, but obviously didn't make much difference to him.

Still grinning, Luca swung their hands back and forth between them like an excited child. "C'mon, I bet if we keep looking we'll find the treasures you hid."

[Juno]

She was a little taken aback by his gesture but didn't refuse him. Instead, the pirate simply straightened up and stared at their joined hands for a moment as she let him tug her along, testing a small bit of resistance before deciding it wasn't worth the effort or awkwardness to separate them. She privately enjoyed the contact anyway and didn't see any reason to ruin it, she knew no one of consequence in the city they might happen upon anyway.

"It might be better to give it up," she warned lightly with a small smile, shrugging as her eyes scanned the stone along the street. "There's plenty more interesting things to do or see, and we could follow the rivers further inland if you get tired of the city," she offered.

[DragonSong]

"Whatever you'd like." Luca smiled at her and gave her hand a light squeeze. "You are my guide after all, I'm following you."

[Juno]

Awiergan chewed at her lip at his reminder. It wasn't that she wasn't able to make a decision so much as she felt guilty for taking advantage of his time, dragging him around for her own selfish wants when there were better things they could have been doing with his limited time. After all, how many of his kind truly got to explore her world that way?

"Let's finish this street," she decided, smiling warmly. "If it's not here we'll move along, but I've just- I've got a feeling about this place. I remember it and I'd like to find it if we could."

She returned her attention to the stone upon the ground, gently toeing at it to see if anything wiggled or if anything didn't fit quite right.

[DragonSong]

"Alright." He shrugged easily and resumed mimicking her, towing stones and rapping lightly, behind to listen to the ground as he'd seen her do.

[Juno]

By the end of the street she was exhausted and her fingers ached from picking at all the stone. She was irritated at all of it just for not being what she'd been looking for, but there was a corner at the edge of the crossroad that finally gave way to her pestering. The stone slid free from the others so easily she was cursing herself for not remembering the specific spot she'd left her key before.

Kneeling down, she fished the dull key from the small pile of dirt, clutching it triumphantly to her chest. She laughed hysterically with relief as she replaced the corner piece and stood to dust herself off. "After all that it was right here," she murmured incredulously.

"I can get the box later, as long as I have this," Awiergan explained, tucking the key into a pocket. Truthfully she intended on doing so privately and not drag him into it in case there was trouble. "Is there anything you want to see before it gets dark?"

[DragonSong]

Luca smiled with relief when she found what she'd been looking for, tilting his head as he considered her offer.

"Well...everything." His smile turned teasing. "But I understand that isn't feasible. I'll just follow you, I've gotten quite good at it."

[Juno]

She rolled her eyes playfully at that. "You're not going to have any stories to tell other merfolk when you get back, you know. Just how you spent your time here following around a crazy lady that's too good at hiding things from herself."

Chuckling, she took a moment to look around and gather her bearings before setting off down the road to head deeper into the city. It was only a few moments more until she tensed and paused abruptly, though. "How long until you need to visit the river again, you think?" she wondered aloud.

[DragonSong]

He chuckled. "What, you think that isn't an entertaining story?" he murmured lightly as he trailed along with her.

His head tilted a bit in the other direction and he mused, "Well, I can go up to three days...but I'd think as frequently as possible would probably be good, yes?"

[Juno]

"Probably, yeah," Awiergan mumbled thoughtfully, falling silent for a moment as she thought on it more. "Want to go down today maybe? Before it gets too dark? We can handle this later, I'm not in a rush," she offered, patting at the pocket she'd hidden the key away in.

[DragonSong]

Luca shrugged. "Sure, if you'd like."

[Juno]

"Because you'd rather shrivel up and die?" Awiergan rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue childishly for a moment but altered her path to veer down the next side street that would bring them closer to the riverbank just beyond the city. "Like I would let that happen."

[DragonSong]

He chuckled again and bumped her shoulder lightly. "My body lets me know when it's in danger," he pointed out with an arched brow. "Though I do appreciate all your help."

[Juno]

"All danger? Or just the drying-up bit?" she asked lightheartedly, trying to veil how curious she was about it. She expected him to have better instincts than a human, but a great depth to his natural instinct had the potential to be quite helpful.

[DragonSong]

Another laugh and he crinkled his nose at her. "Mostly the drying-up bit," he chuckled, bumping her shoulder yet again before grabbing gently for her hand as they walked.

[Juno]

"Only mostly?" Awiergan teased, laughing at the shoulder bump but quieting at the contact of their hands. She accepted it easily, grasping his hand slightly with her own without missing a beat before giving it a gentle squeeze. "Good thing you have me here. Keep you from waltzing up to all the "vicious" land beasts. Never know what might have a taste for merfolk."

[DragonSong]

Lucas laughed, then suddenly sobered. "Wait- nothing here would actually try to eat me, would it?"

[Juno]

Awiergan smirked playfully and gestured out beyond the city with her free hand, "Well who knows! There are plenty of beasts that would eat a human if given half a chance. Dragons and other sorts. You'd probably be a delicacy to them, even."

[DragonSong]

He swallowed nervously. "Really?" He shivered, muttering to himself, "And I though krakens were a problem..."