The sea was already calling to Alena as she travelled down the mountain with Damari at her side, his presence unnerving, but oddly comforting at the same time.

He had calmed down considerably as they walked back down the path, his blue eyes simmering as they watched her figure intently.

Every step she took jarred her senses, her quaking breaths making her realize how much being out of the water truly affected her system.

She found herself taking in deep breaths to try and even them out, swallowing the nausea that had begun to climb up her throat.

"Are you all right?" Damari asked, a dash of concern smearing itself across his face.

Alena scoffed and pulled the cloak tighter to her body, shivering for reasons unknown. "Concerned now are you? Wouldn't want to get the poor lad sick would we?"

"I didn't mean--" he started, before cutting off mid sentence, shaking his head while a frown settled on his face.

They walked on quietly again, and just before they made their way to the waters edge, Alena muttered under her breath. "If you keep frowning like that it will permanently be frozen on your face."

"What was that?" Damari asked, eyeing her suspiciously as she made her way to one of the jagged rocks.

"Oh nothing." she assured him, hiding her smirk when he turned to glare at her.

Refusing to back down, she hissed at him and untied the cloak faster than he could say stop, and without another word threw it at his face.

He choked on the cloth and threw it off his face just in time to see Alena's head disappear under the water.

For a moment he thought she had left him completely, good riddance to the bothersome woman; until she emerged with a grace he didn't think was possible when coming out of water.

The water cascaded down the mass of her black hair, the midnight length appearing luxurious and smooth to the touch, causing Damari to unconsciously desire to stroke his fingers through its silkiness.

Oh for the love of the gods, what was he thinking?

She may have been the one that had spared his father twenty years ago, but he was not going to fall for her in any way, shape or form.

"Love is weakness." he grumbled angrily.

Alena stared up at him in confusion. "Something else wrong now?"

He shook his head quickly, picking up the bag she had left on the rocks while ignoring her question completely. "What did my mother put in here? What did she tell you?"

Alena leaned her head against the stone casually. "I don't think she wanted me to tell you seeing as how she said it when you weren't present."

Damari frowned and began rummaging through the sack's contents.

"Hey!" Alena shouted, reaching for the bag. "That isn't yours to look through!"

He kept the bag just out of her reach as he pulled out the pink vial. "What type of witch craft is this?" he muttered, shaking the vial furiously as if it would magically tell him what it was.

Alena's lip curled back as she seethed in anger, but instead of screaming in his pompous face, she grabbed a hold of his ankle and yanked him into the water.

With a garbled shout, he fell into the ocean before reemerging a few seconds later, spewing out not only salty water, but salty curses as well.

"What was that for?!" he yelled at her, refusing to look anywhere but her face.

Alena's look of smug satisfaction then drew his attention to her hand, the brown sack held tightly in her fist as she looked at his water logged figure.

"Never mess with a woman who knows far more than you, Damari Callos." she chuckled, stifling her amusement when he struggled to get out with his water leaden clothes before falling right back in.

Pulling herself up with ease onto one of the rocks, she carefully looked through the sack until she found the letter she had been looking for.

It's rough yet smooth texture rubbed against her skin as she inspected its contents, the strange scrawl of ink against paper foreign yet familiar to her.

She couldn't understand the old Grecian writing at first, but as she looked closer, and Damari swore louder, the words slowly began to make sense to her.

If my instincts are right, and they most usually are, you will have finally found my family somehow, young siren, and I am gone.

I've never been able to properly thank you for sparing my life that day at sea, as I was just a young lad and didn't know of the true dangers that hid themselves in the deadly seas.

But as I thank you now, I warn you of what is soon to unfold upon you.

My Kaiya has foretold a prophecy to me, one that has intertwined you're destiny with our son, Damari. I cannot begin to describe the dangers you will soon face, while not only the fate of you and my son, but the fate of all of Olympus, is at stake.

Kaiya speaks of the gods and goddesses, the rumblings she has heard in dreams. Demeter has threatened life on limb for her daughter to be returned.. and if she is not.. she has promised to rain fire and famine across the lands, destroying all in her path.

Along with this warning, I beg you to spare my son.. if I am gone and he has acted as I believe is in his nature.. he will have chosen to give up on love.

His heart has withered due to my failures as a father and I am the only one to blame, I beg you to please show mercy on him as you did me so long ago.

It is the only way for you both to make it to the Underworld and I only pray that you heed the warnings and wishes of a father who has failed his only son.

Please.

Save my son and save Olympus.

~L~

Alena was quiet after reading the letter, the sounds of Damari's grumblings having stopped while she tried to understand what his father had meant.

"Given up on love," she thought aloud. "That would explain the unruliness."

"I can hear you, you know." Damari yelled, finally lifting himself from the water and draining his clothes of the unneeded weight. "And honestly it's getting quite annoying by the second."

Alena could feel her teeth grind together as she tried not to retaliate.

Show mercy, ha, we'll see Leon, we'll see.

She found the pink vial laying not too far away from the rocks, buried slightly in the sand, but seemingly undamaged to the eye.

"Thank the gods." she whispered, pleading with whatever deity was listening that Damari would shut up and listen to her for once.

Sliding into the sand, she made her way to the vial, lifting it delicately to the light so that she would be able to detect leaks of any kind.

Situating herself next to Damari's side, she wished she could remove the mar of lines that marked his face from his continuous frowning.

She lifted the vial so that it remained in front of her face, swallowing the anger that instinct told her to release. "I need you to drink this."

He eyed the mysterious bottle with doubt, leaning forward to pop the stopper and smell its scent.

Alena couldn't believe what she was seeing, his actions only causing her fury to rise within her.

"I'm not trying to bloody poison you, now drink the stupid thing before I shove it down your throat!"

He eyed her once more, acting as though her outburst hadn't even occurred while he slowly lifted the vial to his lips.

As the liquid sank down his throat, Alena couldn't help but laugh when he sat up straighter and hiccupped loud enough for fishermen near the docks to hear him.

His scowl was one she was starting to get used to, making her laugh all the louder when his attempt at being 'terrifying' was interrupted by another hiccup, sending her into another round of laughter.

She couldn't contain the strange sound of joy and it only bothered Damari more which made her wish she could do it everyday if just to see him try and shut her up.

"It isn't *hiccup* funny! Stop *hiccup* laughing at me!" he protested, trying to cover his mouth to stifle the embarrassing sound.

She laughed harder and held her ribs when an ache began deep in her stomach, causing her breathing to become labored when she tried to stop.

"It's funny, you have to admit that," she gasped out, moving herself back into the comforting sway of the water lapping at her skin. "So how do you feel? Any different?"

Damari threw the vial back at her and tossed the bag as well. "Mother made this bag specifically to prevent water from getting in, so perhaps you can take it with us."

Alena looked at him dubiously, trying to decipher whether he was messing with her or if he was telling the truth.

However, based on how he was acting it didn't appear like he was lying, so she took the bag and put the vial, along with the letter, back into the bag that contained the spyglass.

Securing it to her back, she made sure it was tightly sealed before looking back to Damari.

Instead of his usual sarcastic glare, his eyes were filled with fear glazed panic, his hands clutching frantically at his throat until his feet sprang into radical motion and he ran head on into the water.

"Damari!" Alena shouted, ducking beneath the waves to find him struggling underwater, his body writhing in pain as he thrashed back and forth.

"Damari, you need to talk to me! I know you're in pain, but you have to tell me what's wrong so I can help you!"

His eyes bulged even farther out from his sockets, a fury unlike any other boiling behind them as he clawed at his throat. "You..Y-You did this to me!"

Alena found herself nearly screaming at the idiot. "That isn't going to help us right now, now is it?! So I suggest you work with me here or die trying!"

He pushed himself away from her and laid on a sharp coral reef, his body shuddering with no real answer for its origin.

The jerk is going to get himself killed, this is what I get for promising his mother he wouldn't die. Not even two leagues into the deep and he's taking what he feels to be his last breaths. She shot a glance at his form.

Pathetic.

She swam to his side on the reef and was about to lecture him on his stupidity when she noticed three small indents on both sides of his neck, moving gently as she saw him inhale and exhale.

Alena smacked herself on the forehead. "Well that explains you're childish behavior." she said adamantly. "The potion your mother gave me allows you to breath underwater, you have gills now, so we may continue with the more challenging part of our journey."

Damari slid across the plant covered reef to the sand covered bottom, studying Alena carefully with controlled rage. "You let me drink that....that poison! Knowing I could have seriously injured myself or even died in the process!"

She shrugged her shoulders, laughing under her breath as she made her way past him, following the currents that led through mountains of overgrown seaweed.

Her glee increased when Damari attempted to make his way through the slick slime of the seaweed, succeeding in only catching the greenery in his mouth and tangling his feet in its binding grip.

"If you're so intent on getting tangled in something as common as seaweed, son of Leon, then I suggest you stay there and save me the burden."

Glaring at her obvious attempt at trying to leave him behind, Damari yanked himself from his restraints and stood not even an inch away from her face.

She could see him calculating his next move, but she didn't want him to move.

Oddly, she thought she wouldn't have minded if he inched just a few millimeters closer and..

Woah! Hold your horses there girl, what are you thinking. she reprimanded sternly, her new emotions beginning to conflict with each other as Damari leaned closer, Get your head out of that trap before its set!

"You aren't disposing of me that quickly, Siren." he muttered breathily, the way he spoke the word siren sounding as if he had actually swallowed poison, making Alena stumble back a bit, only to see that she was backed up against a rock. "I am here for a reason, and without me, you are doomed from the start."

Pride stormed through Alena's bones with a fire. "I am not d--"

"You are and you know it so I suggest you stop arguing with me, stop trying to get rid of me and face the fact that you need me, got it?" he asked fiercely, staring at her with another fire that she saw beginning to build.

"I--"

"I asked if you understand." Damari snapped, his patience wearing thin and his face moving closer to Alena's with every word, something she didn't mind, but found herself secretly wanting. "Do you?"

Fear crawled up her spine, the feeling foreign and unknown.

She didn't know a human being alive that could stir even the smallest trace of fear in her body, but this man stirred things in her that she never thought possible.

And that scared her far beyond anything she'd ever known.

The coldness in his movements betrayed the way in which she saw his body lean towards her, warmth radiating off his body and distracting her normally calm and proper thoughts.

"I understand." she sighed, lowering her head and dodging around the rock to escape his advancements. "But I lead this mission, do you understand me, Damari?"

His lips tightened, drawing her attention unwillingly to his every word. "I do, but you need to know that I'm not a child, and am not to be treated as one."

Her harsh laughter made him stiffen. "Believe me, you are a child compared to my age, but I will follow along with this charade of yours if you wish."

Damari opened his mouth to argue with her once more about his age, when a deafening roar echoed across the ocean floor, shaking everything around them.

He held his hands over his ears and looked into the direction of the sound with curious fear evident in his posture. "What was that?"

Alena's mouth thinned out into a line as she tugged the bag even tighter to her back before grabbing ahold of Damari's hand and pulling him into the direction of the chaos.

"That Damari," Alena whispered carefully, avoiding holes in the ground as they gradually swam next to each other, "is our next destination."

~*~*~*~