The man took the rootsphere and looked around, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. Son of a... Oti groaned and looked at Shreya. He placed the rootsphere on a branch of a nearby tree, using the water inside both the root and the tree to temporarily bind them. "You're coming with me," he said, grabbing Shreya's hand. He didn't give her a chance to object, running with her back toward the sea.
Standing on the beach near the water's edge, Oti noticed another drakkollis flop onto the sand. He looked at the being. Different from the last one, he thought. Not the time!
Oti looked at Shreya and held her shoulders. "Forgive me for this," he said. "And believe me when I tell you it means nothing." He pressed their lips together, his eyes emitting a blue glow, then jumped into the sea.
The instant they touch the water, gills grew on both sides of their necks. Otikoro swam, his wings acting like flippers, while holding Shreya's hand. She might've been stunned at first, but his kiss was purely to give her a temporary ability to breathe underwater. It would be gone by the time they got back to the islands. They swam into the crack in the sea floor, emerging into the treasure-filled room which Oti knew all too well.
"I fucking knew it," he whispered, jogging silently down the staircase with Shreya right behind him. He and Shreya stopped at the bottom of the staircase, and he looked at the mermaid sitting on top of Lakiillo. He listened to her speak, and he listened to Lakiillo's unsure reactions to her words. "Wait here," he whispered to Shreya.
Otikoro stepped out, walking confidentially into the room. He folded his arms over his bare chest, his wings glistening from the water.
"Oh, Serunai," he said, a slightly wistful expression on his face. "I remember when I was your king. With my best friend? In our bed? Lakiillo, I see you've already met my queen. She's the very definition of a crazy ex." Oti sighed slightly. "She was my wife in a past life."