Water pressed in around Kal, making it hard to hold the breath in his lungs. Emru's gigantic tongue rose up from below and pushed him toward the front of her mouth until he pressed up against her strange, bristle-like teeth. Water rushed around his body and through the teeth as she expelled the water from her mouth.
The massive tongue receded and his ears popped like when he went up to the caverns on Felli's Peak. They popped again as air rushed in to fill the space left by the tongue. The mage took his first breath since hitting the water and from the intense humidity and warmth wondered for a moment if he was actually breathing air.
"Try not to breath too much until we surface," came Emru's voice from the darkness. "Humans can drown just from the moisture in the air if they stay in our mouth too long.
"Ria, mask," gasped Kal, despite the whale's warning. It was like trying to breathe warm soup in there. The water-breathing mask appeared in his hand as he cast the glowing orb of light, but he didn't immediately put it on. Instead, Kal turned to Kashka kneeling beside him and pressed it to her face before powering the mask's runes. Though designed for breathing underwater, the runes only let a set amount of moisture pass through. The rest collected on the sides of the mask and ran down to drip on the cat's chest.
"That looks quite handy," said Emru's avatar as the cat held her breath and Kal took the mask back. "I believe we are out of their arrow's range and will surface soon."
Kal shook his head and lifted the mask to speak, "Wait a little longer. They have a mage up there too."
"So what happened? News doesn't get down to me very quickly, and I didn't know you were stuck on land until Roka said you were trapped in the city. She needed me to stay on the surface and watch for a signal to pick you up."
"We weren't really trapped," said Kashka before taking the mask again.
"Assuming you have been swimming away from the shore this whole time I think we should be out of range of any spells," Kal offered.
"I haven't heard anything hit the water behind us, not even arrows."
"That's a good sign, then. Kashka's right. We had a run-in with a magic user in the castle but stayed to help some women in the monster-girl slums."
Emru angled upward and opened her mouth at the surface. Water splashed over Kal and Kashka's backs as fresh air flowed in, cycling out the musty, damp air in Emru's mouth and removing the need for the mask. It also took away some of the fishy smell, which Kal appreciated. Kashka was a little disappointed since she found the scent quite enjoyable, even if it made her stomach growl.
As the whale swam back to The Scarlet Bitch, Kal and Kashka told Emru of their adventures since disembarking.
The avatar's eyes shined in the light from the magic orb. "So did she?" Emru asked when they finally finished.
"Did she what?" the mage asked in turn, confused.
"Did she get pregnant?"
"Kairi? We don't know. There wasn't enough time to check as we ran from the soldiers."
"Aww," Emru pouted. "It sounded like she was a lot like me. I wanted to hear she got her daughter."
"You know, it's my daughter too." Kal grumped.
"Oh, sorry. Most of us don't talk much about our babies' fathers unless it's bragging about how they caught and how long they kept him."
"Hopefully, that will change once there isn't as much of a stigma on fathering a monster girl."
"Maybe everyone should stop calling us 'monsters,'" offered Kashka. "On rare occasions, I heard humans referring to us as hybrids instead of monster girls." She looked at Kal, "Your translation spell works too well. You didn't hear the words I said." The cat then directly sent him the words 'Hajin' for hybrid and 'Alwahsh Fata' for monster girl.
"Hajin..." muttered Emru. "I don't mind being called a Hajin. It feels better than 'monster.'
"I think this will be an easy sell, but let's run 'hajin' by the girls on the ship and see what they think. How much longer until we get back?" Kal asked.
"Oh, we've been swimming in front of them since about halfway through your story. I didn't want to interrupt and," Emru's avatar blushed, "I was enjoying the time with you. Here, I'll put you on my back," she said, holding her arms out to Kashka.
The cat accepted the hug as Emru's whale mouth opened, and a moment later left Kal sitting alone on Emru's tongue as the muscular tendril on the avatar's back whisked them outside.
Seconds later, Kashka sent him her and Emru's hushed conversation.
"Kashka? Do you think that rescuing him will convince Kal to give me a daughter?" the whale-woman asked, her eyes shining with hope.
"I'm certain he made up his mind to do that already. I think your swim with him yesterday convinced him, but rescuing us didn't hurt. He's just working on overcoming your similarities to the sandworms."
"Do you think he might...?"
"Yes, but... your breath smells like fish and seawater, which I don't mind, but Kal won't find very pleasant."
"But he..."
