“What was your problem? You don't like kids?” Eva asked when they finally were away from any humans. She couldn't help her frustration and tone.

 

“They are… weird, it is… strange I was one,” Viola sighed, her previous hardness gone. Back to her normal self.

 

“Do you hate calves too?” Eva huffed.

 

“I do not hate the human children,” Viola explained indignantly. “Calves are… not for me but they are… acceptable.”

 

Eva ignored the desire to mention how adorable Viola was considering she was annoyed right now. “So… what was that all then? I've never seen you like that.”

 

Viola winced and shifted uncomfortably in the water. “I… I am nervous that… you will want to go back. That humans would remind you.”

 

“Go back… Like on land?”

 

“Yes, but cannot change back. Do not want you to regret,” Viola explained.

 

“I don’t Viola, I promise,” she said, wrapping her arms around Viola.

 

“But what if you change mind?”

 

“Well… there's not much that can be done is there? I’m blackfish now.” Viola seemed unconvinced. “Look, I’m not saying I don't miss things, I miss a lot. But I certainly don’t blame you for it, ok? You saved my life, either way, I wasn't going back on land. I don’t regret being alive. I don’t regret meeting you.”

 

Viola nodded hesitantly, “I am sorry.”

 

“Thank you,” Eva sighed, letting out a long breath.

 

“So… we are in… Aruba. How we… get home?” Viola asked, tracing her fingers over Eva’s shoulder.

 

“We’re definitely on the other side of the continent, which means we’ll have to go all the way around,” Eva sighed.

 

“We must go to…. cold waters? That will take many moons. There is no… space to pass?”

 

“No,” Eva winced. “Well maybe… Panama.”

 

“What is Panama?”

 

“The Panama Canal links the Pacific and the Atlantic. If we… if we follow the coast… that way we’ll eventually get to it. Maybe we can sneak through, hide among the ships rather than go all the way around.”

 

“This would work?” Viola asked, excitement flickering into her voice.

 

“Maybe? I’m not sure, but Panama is just that way. I don’t know how long it would take but on a map, it's quite close. From photos the water is fairly murky, we might be able to go unnoticed.”

 

“I trust. We do that then.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Yes, Eva. I want to go home. We try this. Go around if… not possible.”

 

“Ok,” Eva sighed nervously, “Ok. We’ll do it.”

Their swimming continued but now with renewed purpose. A goal to drive them forward. Aruba had seemed impressive on the horizon but the mainland was so much more. Land that reached as far as the eye could see.

 

What Eva had not expected was how dry the mainland was. Rocks and sand and hills. They stayed off the coast with plenty of distance between them and the shore but Eva was too curious to not get a little close. The environment was so different from home.

 

Soon however there was another problem, the cost began to curve south. Away from the direction they were supposed to go. A massive bay which the other side could not be seen.

 

“Shit… if we keep going East we'll lose sight of land, we could get turned around. But if we follow the cost it will slow us down a lot,” she explained in annoyance.

 

Viola gulped down the fish she was eating. “I have watched the stars, we will not… be lost. I can find”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

Viola nodded, “I am.”

 

“Then we keep going,” Eva decided.

 

The days continued to pass. The landscape was becoming greener and greener. They crossed many strange land masses, curves and bends. After several nights they emerged around a bend to see a city in the distance. They stopped for food and continued on, Eva managing to convince Viola to let them approach the island off of the mainland which housed a lighthouse.

 

It rose from the water abruptly and vanished just as quickly. A brief mountain above the water. Green sprinkled the island like hair, and several buildings were built into steep slopes. With the bright blue ocean, it really was beautiful.

 

“How will we… know when we are in this… Panama?” Viola asked, keeping low in the water behind her.

 

“I… I don’t know but look,” Eva said pointing towards one of the boats docked at the lighthouse island. Nothing about it was particularly interesting except the yellow, blue and red flag which flapped in the wind.

 

“The… cloth?”

 

“Yes, it's a flag. Every country has its own and boats almost always fly one.”

 

“So you can… determine location with… flags?”

 

“Well… in theory, I don’t know what country has that flag and I don’t exactly know what Panama’s flag is either. I think it's red, blue and white with squares,” she winced.

 

“It is something,” Viola conceded.

 

“Better than nothing.”

 

“Yes, we will find… Panama, Eva. I believe in us.”

 

Words had never inspired her so. They continued along, the city disappearing behind them. The lands were rolling hills of green, dotted with occasional signs of human settlement. Roads mostly but some buildings. The infrastructure was very different from what Eva knew but it felt to some extent like being on vacation. Seeing all these places she had never been before.

 

Soon after they passed another city, this one smaller, lacking the port and ocean use the previous one had. This city stretched, following the cost until all that was left was a road. Bridges stretching across gaps provided at least some coast to follow.

 

The coastline became more and more remote, leaving civilization behind until it was gone completely. All that was left was a wall of green in the distance to follow along as the coast curved North. Then it abruptly cut south. A long bar stretched along the coast out in the ocean, some kind of human structure Eva didn't understand. The space was suddenly far more populated and soon they were swimming along the edge of a city.

 

Still, they never saw more than the edge, the city presumably down the artificial river they had avoided in favour of following the coast. The world truly never ceased to amaze Eva and this adventure was only further showing that.

 

Days continued to pass, occasionally finding coastal settlements or developments. They continued on, fatigue beginning to replace the initial excitement of the adventure. Eva still occasionally saw the same yellow, blue and red flags, which she had come to learn was the Columbian flag. They were making progress but it was a very far journey.

 

The sense of urgency had long faded though, neither of them too worried about Talbot somehow tracking them down out here. That had been a mistake.

 

It was early morning now, a thick fog oozing from the sea around them. It was strange, an eerie effect that seemed to shrink the world around them. Obscuring any sight of the cost, any sight of anything at all. They stayed below the water though it too had grown murky and obscured.

 

Viola seemed just as perplexed as Eva which certainly did not put her at ease. Still, the strange cloudiness could be dealt with and didn't impede them. It was just… unnerving. The sounds that soon began were so much worse.

 

A strange hissing groaning growl reverberated through the water. Too alien to be a whale call, too living to be a machine. Up to this point, Eva had felt safe in the water, that they were at the top of the food chain and nothing would come after them. That security shattered in an instant as something large moved through the water. No… many smaller somethings.

 

Viola whistled at her, her own fear evident as they picked up their pace. Trying to get the hell out of there before things took a turn for the worse.

 

The alien sound echoed through the water again, a mass of something wriggling and swimming just out of sight. Circling around them, trapping them in. They both surface, the fog even thicker, practically blinding them.

 

“What is happening!” Eva yelled.

 

“Do not know,” Viola replied. “Something in water. Too loud to… see.”

 

“Shit,” Eva growled. She had no idea what the hell was going on, this seemed almost… supernatural. She really didn't want to find out what was lurking in the dark. The water was darkening, the thick fog blocking out the sun, or maybe whatever was here with them was eating the light. Either seemed equally possible with the sounds this thing made.

 

They were trapped, whatever it was apparently content to simply circle around and around. Never coming into view, never going so far they could escape. That made no sense… unless…

 

“It wants us trapped!”

 

“To eat?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

The things growled again, this time accompanied by another deep sound. The effect seemed to part. Something thin and long shifting out of the way of something else… a motor. A boat.

 

Someone yelled something, the words were drowned out by the things. Eva’s heart rose in her throat as something breached through the fog, silvery and pointy. The bow of the boat followed by the rest of it. A man in black searching through the fog wearing a familiar black military uniform. “Talbot,” Eva shuddered. He had found them, he had found them and had whatever the hell this was at his disposal. 

 

They needed to get the hell out of there. She dove to remain unnoticed, Viola following and clicking furiously. She felt very confused and scared but they knew one thing. This effect seemed to be following them. Whatever was out there was only circling… but what if Talbot’s boat was in the way?

 

She kicked forward, Viola whistling her uncertainty. This time however their strange prison did not seem to follow them, instead Eva got closer to the edge. The swimming things came into view, silhouetted and murky, their forms took shape. Not many small things, not even many big things… it was… well Eva didn't even know.

 

This swirling mass of shapes writhed and swarmed. Clicking and screeching and moaning. Talbot was making a good case for himself by being a familiar enemy. Swimming into… that seemed like a death sentence. Or worse.

 

The motor of the boat cut off, and everything seemed to calm. Everything except it. Eva didn't move, unwilling to give her position away. They could not go through whatever this was, they could not go under it either. Which only left them with one option. They had to go over it.

 

She did her best to quickly and quietly communicate her hazardous plan. Viola seemed to already be on the same page. No more keen to face… that than she was.

 

Viola however did not let her take the lead and instead with a whistle to follow shot towards the surface. Eva didn't have time for anything else but to follow. Building speed before breaking through the surface, leaping into the air and through the fog.

 

Time seemed to stop in this white place. With nothing to touch, air on all sides. Then it struck. A hissing scream, a blur of movement. Claws, teeth, tentacles, beaks, a mass of violence cutting into her, pressing and pulling and tearing until just as fast she was hitting clear water. The fog disappeared as she kicked forward through the pain, Viola ahead of her. Red streaked the water as they swam furiously.

 

Eva didn't let herself think about whatever that was. She glanced at herself, cuts and scratches covering much of her body. It looked bad but the cuts seemed shallow. Viola kept swimming, whistling for them to keep going and not to stop as she led them deeper and deeper before abruptly veering towards land.

 

She could taste the blood in the water but losing Talbot and that thing took priority. Once they were safe they could rest and recuperate, Eva wasn't sure she would ever truly recover.