Swimming along the ocean floor, skimming through the sand and over the reefs, the group were keeping their eyes peeled.

They were around the shoreline of the nearest island this wasn't Rottnest, breakwater island. Rottnest was a no go, it was a tourist attraction. But breakwater? A good spot to start. Empty aside from some seagulls and turtles, but big enough to camp on. Their first stop on their island hopping hunt.

There were quite a few small islands along the coast of Western Australia, and a chunk of them were by point break. All of them potential hiding spots for the pod.

They had a system, swim around the island to look for anything that had been left behind in the water and then go onto land and search the island. Beaches first, work your way inland.

Breaking to the surface for air, the group swam over to each other.

"See anything?" Pandora asked.

"Nothing" Icarus replied.

"Same, let's head to shore and start looking on land" Aries said.

They pulled themselves onto the beach, letting the sun dry them off as they discussed the plans again. They'd split up to cover more ground, the girls would go right and the other two left. Around the beach until they met on the other side of the island and then they'd try inland. Once they were dry and with legs, they parted into their directions.

As they kept and eye out for anything hidden in the sand, the girls had a few things to chat about now they'd graduated.

"You're officially taking a gap year then?" Pandora asked.

"Yeah, my brain needs a break" Icarus replied.

"If you do go to university or TAFE, what will you do?"

"Not sure. Toss up between fashion and pet grooming, love a good puppy"

That seemed like something she'd have fun doing. Although she'd have to be pretty waterproofed up for pet grooming, they won't wash themselves after all.

"What about you? Made any decisions yet?" Icarus asked.

"Not really... might do a mid year enrolment if I decide on University. I was thinking marine bio but I can't really get wet without popping a tail and well, fish science is pretty wet" Pandora replied.

"Yeah that's a bit of a road block... maybe something else costal that doesn't involve getting soaked. You can operate a boat so maybe something along those lines?"

"Hmm, maybe. I could probably get a job on a tour ferry or something. But I think I'd get bored of that after a while"

"If only you didn't need money to survive. I'd love to live the full time mermaid life. Like why do I have to pay taxes? Can't I just sit on a rock with my tits out and stare at the ocean until I die?"

Pandora snickered. Wouldn't that be the life? Pretty mermaids frolicking in the waves all day, just chilling on rocks with the gal pals. That was the ideal existence.

"I wish. Stupid money all it does is make things hard, if only we could just frolic around all day" Pandora replied.

"That's the dream, but hey sometimes jobs can be fun if you do something you love" Icarus said.

They were still young, only 18. They had their whole lives to figure things out. Fuck people who tell you that you absolutely have to go straight from school into adult life when you've only just become a legal adult. Cherishing your youth and freedom while you have it is the best thing you can do, create amazing memories, have fun, find yourself. Your older self will thank you for that.

On the other side of the island, the not-girls were scanning the sand as they walked, occasionally picking up a funky shell.

"What is it with us Merfolk and collecting every shell we see? We just put them in jars and never do anything with them" Zagreus asked.

"I think it's just hard wired into our brain. We're like penguins, we see a shiny and we take it" Aries replied.

"To be fair if someone gave me a really cool shiny I'd absolutely mate for life with them"

"Oh so that's how Styxx got you?"

To be fair, Styxx HAD given him some cool shines before. Maybe there was some truth to that joke.

"Well... I do have a few shinies from him" Zagreus admitted.

There was just something about shells, cool rocks and lost at sea trinkets Merfolk loved. Maybe it was a cultural thing, maybe it was an evolutionary thing. But whatever it was it always resulted in jars full of shells and rocks sitting on a shelf collecting dust.

"You see anything? It looks dead as hell on this island" Aries said, kicking some sand up.

"Nope. Just seagulls and the occasional cuttlefish bone" Zagreus replied.

"Then again this is the closest island to the mainland, maybe they'd have gone a bit further out for safety"

"Maybe, it'd make more sense to play it safe if what we think happened, did"

They were all pretty sure they knew what went down by now. The crew of the liberty somehow found out about the pod, possibly though Echo or someone close to him. They tried to capture one for either research or evidence that magic exists, and the pod sunk the boat in self defence destroying almost everything on it. And then the crew skipped town to avoid charges over the un-licensed boat.

The details they weren't too clear on, they hoped to get them when they found the pod. And what Echo's connection to the crew was, they couldn't imagine he did anything on purpose since from everything Icarus had told them he was a pretty good guy.

"You think Echo will tell Icarus' mum about everything that happened?" Zagreus asked.

"Hard to say. I know Icarus wants her to know eventually, I guess it depends on what they decide on as a family" Aries replied.

"Man this island is literally bare, I don't think we'll find anything"

"Yeah it's looking pretty empty. Although the next one over looks promising"

Aries looked out at the sea, just off in the horizon was the next island over. Further away from the mainland and also of decent size, not to mention it had more greenery and natural resources. This island seemed to be a bust, but they had high hopes from the next one.