Gemini panicked as she flailed about in the water, desperately trying to break free from the bond pulling her down. If she didn't get to the surface, she would run out of air and drown.

Then she remembered something. Everyone had been taught to shapeshift when they were twelve. It was a pity that they couldn't choose the animal(s) they would shift into though. Instead, it was dependent on their names and its meaning. When she had shapeshifted for the first time, she had turned into a beautiful blue dolphin. Maybe that could help her through this trial...maybe...what other option did she have?

She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She pictured a dolphin with its sleek body and shiny black eyes. Then Gemini imagined being a dolphin, a sea creature cutting effortlessly through the water. Slowly, she felt a tingling sensation spread throughout her body, followed by slight pain as her bones shifted.

Gemini winced. She probably should've practiced shifting more often. The more she shifted, the less painful and effortless it would be.

When the tingling and pain stopped, Gemini looked down at her new body. The bond wrapped around her ankle was gone and she quickly swam to the surface. She felt a sense of freedom as her body cut through the surface of the water and into the air before plunging back down into the foamy waters.

It was then that she saw what had been holding on to her, dragging her down into the watery depths of the Sapphire Sea. Looking up at her was a giant creature, about a hundred times her size, with eight long tentacles. Its blue-green skin was rough and seemed to blend in with the ocean, making it hard to spot it.

Gemini paled. There was only one such creature like this living in Eden-Ilias the Giant Octopus. Not much was known about him, except that he was a giant blue octopus that resided at the very beach she was at. Whether he was a friend or a foe, Gemini didn't know.

Shit, she thought. I hope he doesn't eat dolphins. Do octopi eat dolphins? Oh right. It's the other way around. Dolphins eat octopi. But this octopus is huge! Maybe I can just make a run for it.

Gemini willed herself to swim towards the border of Eden, pumping her fins as hard as possible to swim faster. However, before she could get very far, Ilias pulled her back.

"Where do you think you're going?"

Gemini gulped. He talks. Ilias talks. I thought octopi are deaf? she thought. But this is Eden. Everything is possible. Maybe one of the gods gave him the ability to talk.

"I'm just going to the edge of Eden, collect some pearls and swim back. So if you please, I'll be on my way," she said in a series of clicks and whistles.

"Not so fast!" Ilias boomed.

Gemini bit the tentacle wrapped around her as hard as she could. Ilias gave a cry of pain and let go of her. She took the chance to swim away, biting fiercely at every tentacle that tried to grab her. "Stay away from me!"

"Enough!" Ilias roared. He swept Gemini aside, sending her in a dizzying tumble through the water.

Once she had righted herself, Gemini was about to make another dash for it, until she saw Ilias. His whole body was curled up in pain as he nursed the bite marks on his tentacles. Her heart felt heavy as she observed him closer. Maybe she shouldn't have bitten him that hard. Or even bitten him in the first place.

You were just defending yourself, a little voice whispered.

Yeah, but I didn't have to hurt him like that, she reasoned with herself.

Gemini swam forward slowly. Ilias saw her approaching and drew back, but stopped when Gemini said softly, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hurt you. Please let me help."

She swam closer to him before she shifted back into her human form. She gently touched the bite marks and ran a glowing palm over the wounds. Slowly, the blood stopped flowing and the skin of the tentacle closed over. Soon enough, Ilias was as good as new.

Gemini was grateful that everyone was taught basic healing magic that was easy to master and useful when it came to healing minor injuries. And in this case, it was really helpful.

Running out of breath, Gemini shifted back into a dolphin. "Once again, I'm so sorry for biting you. If you don't mind, I'll just be on my way to the Great Waterfall."

"Oh, you can go, but first, you'll have to answer two of my riddles," Ilias said. "The first riddle is you see a boat filled with people. It has not sunk, but when you look again you don't see a single person on the boat. Why?"

If only dolphins had eyebrows because Gemini sure wished she could raise hers. How did an octopus come up with such challenging riddles?

"They all went below deck? Or they jumped overboard?"

Ilias waved a tentacle around threateningly. "No and no."

Gemini gulped. She had forgotten that this was a trial. And a rather stupid one in her opinion.

How can people just disappear? They're all still alive, but I can't see them? That doesn't make sense.

"Hurry up. I'm hungry," Ilias grumbled as he eyed Gemini.

Gemini panicked as she wracked her brain for an answer. She didn't want to become octopus food, not when she was so close to finishing her trials.

Wait, 'single' as in not taken. That means they're all either dating or married...it would be hard to determine if someone is dating compared to being married...

"All the people were married?" Gemini guessed.

"Correct! Now the second riddle is what word in the English language does the following: The first two letters signify a male, the first three letters signify a female, the first four letters signify a great, while the entire world signifies a great woman. What is the word?"

Uhh, let's just take this step by step. Two letters that signify a male would either be 'him' or 'he' and three letters that signify a female would be either 'she' or 'her'...'he' and 'her'! Then add a letter to 'her' to signify a great...'hero'? Heroes are great. And a great woman would be the female version of 'hero' which is 'heroine'!

"Heroine!"

"Correct!"

Gemini cheered as she swam around in happy circles. She had guessed all the riddles correctly without becoming octopus food!

"Now, shift back, human," Ilias commanded.

Gemini shifted back to her human form as Ilias wrapped one tentacle around her waist and lifted her on the edge.

She swam to the edge and pulled herself up onto the rocky ledge, careful not to fall over to her death. Surveying the wide selection of pearls that shone in the brilliant light, she picked out a few pure white pearls. They were smooth and perfectly round, about the size of her smallest nail.

When she was done picking out the pearls, Ilias kindly brought her back to the beach, making sure to keep her head above the water. And when they neared the coast, he deposited her on the sand with one of his long tentacles.

She dusted the sand off herself before she paused, staring at the scene in front of her. Aries and Leo, the Sun God, were rolling on the sand, laughing like there was no tomorrow. Their faces were red and tears rolled down their cheeks as they clutched their stomachs.

What was happening? Did they lose their minds or something? Or did the afternoon sun kill half their brain cells?

"Uh, am I interrupting something?"

The boys quickly collected themselves and stood up to face her. "I see you've passed your trial," Aries noted, seeing the bag of pearls in her hands.

"So, how did you find old Ilias?" Leo remarked, a playful smile on his lips. "Fun, right?"

Gemini rolled her eyes at his playful nature before saying sarcastically, "Yeah, very fun."

Leo nodded. "Good, good. Now I would love to stick around, but I've promised Cappy I would go help him buy the cake for Scorpy's party. See you around, Gemini. I look forward to serving with you one day." With that, Leo strolled off, whistling a merry tune.

Aries placed a hand on her shoulder and looked straight into her eyes. "Remember, Gemini, never judge someone based on first impressions. Sometimes, even threats can become your allies if you know how to tame them. And friends, your enemies if you push them to it."

"Is that what this trial is about?"

Aries gave her a sad smile and patted her back. "That's up to you to decide. Now, would you like to go to Pisces' bridal shower? She's been bugging me to invite you."

・‥...━━━━━━━☆☆━━━━━━━...‥・

What do you think about Gemini's shapeshifting?

Were you able to solve the riddles?