He was sweating, but he closed his eyes and listened for his opponent. Back in his paludarium, he had fought cheetahs, and what he had learned from such an experience was that he had to wait for the cheetahs to come to him, and lay a trap. 

He heard the quietest footstep coming from his left and sneezed in that direction. He knew he had Shiske in the palm of his hand now.

To his surprise, Shiske stood his ground, planting his sword in the ground. Kaz cringed as small pieces of Shiske's skin was flayed away in the blast, falling off, and yet, the human still stood. 

Once the breeze had passed, Shiske took his chance. He grabbed Kaz again, and threw him into an iron box with no windows.

Kaz pounded on the box. "Let me go! Let me go now!"

Inside the box, he saw a tiny speck glowing on the floor. His eyes widened. It was glowing an eerie, purple color. He began to feel sick to his stomach, and, as if the floor was magnatized, he was drawn to the floor without his permission. He panted, trying to get up, but the force held him to the floor. What is this…?

He heard voices outside his box. Alleendelle asked Shike, “Please, I’ll take him out of here and I won’t let him out until he promises to leave you alone. I think he is quite young and inexperienced, and he is single-minded as demigods often are. Don’t use Galendite on him, you know how painful it is to gods.”

Shiske growled. “Very well. But first, you must heal me.”

“Will do. First I’ll heal you, then you can hand me the little god.” Alleendelle said.

Kaz’s skin began to feel like it was on fire, but he still couldn’t move. He breathed in deep and attempted a sneeze. It made a dent in the iron, but not enough to free him. He heard more muffled voices, but was in so much pain that he couldn’t pick the individual words being said out. He fell asleep, and was obliged to, as it prevented him from feeling more pain. 

*** 

Belle ruthlessly hunted a school of fish, stabbing them with lightning speed with her spear. She gritted her teeth and growled like a wild animal. "So close, I was so close! He slipped right through my fingers and embarrassed me!"

She looked down at her arms as she struck at the fish, cutting through the water around her. Her arms were horribly scarred up--long ago, when she was a child, she had been caught by a fisherman, who had tried to kill her. He began by removing the scales on her arms, and now they were as barren and ugly as a human's, and marred by dozens of scars. Looking at them only fueled her anger. 

Her spear jabs became a tornado of flurries until all the fish were dead. She seized one and bit into it, then collected the rest in a basket. 

I hate humans, and now, I hate demigods more! I was so close to having access to a soul, but now, I'm back to square one! Belle swam back to her school and went into her tent, where she buried herself in aand and took a nap. 

When she woke, she came face to face with Uther yet agin, the shark merman He said to her, "Do not despair, Belle. It's not over yet. I have a plan. So long as there is a demigod on the surface, we shouldn't give up."

Belle listened, but her webbed hands twitched with anger. 

"I have learned of a spell that will allow you to walk on land. The only problem is, we have to capture an elf to cast it." The man said. 

"Great. Very helpful. How are we supposed to capture an elf?" Belle growled. 

"Excellent question. I have been listening in on the conversations the sailors have been having on the piers. They say there is an elf on the town pretending to be a human. We only need to figure who it is, and then capture them, then we can grow you some legs." The man suggested.

"It's a decent idea, but there's no way we can find out who the elf is if we can't walk on land, unless the sailors spill the beans of their own accord." Belle grumbled.

"Belle, you fool. They're sailors. We can buy their loyalty, and get them to capture the elf for us. We just need to find treasure." The man said. 

Belle's eyes widened. "Of course! We can find Eladium in the sea caves and that will be enough to bribe them for sure! But… We will have to fight a whaaldroon to get it. They are always defending the caves." 

"I will be with you." Uther told her confidently. 

Belle managed a smile. "I don't understand why a merman should look out for anyone but himself."

He shrugged. "I feel no love toward you, but I feel the need to preserve your life and happiness. You are, after all, my daughter, technically." 

Belle snorted. “Please, merpeople feel no affections toward each other like human parents and children do. But… I appreciate your help. Let’s go.” 

The pair swam through the murky sea, swimming past turtles, fish, eels, and many other sea creatures. Some of them, Belle killed for sport and ate their bodies raw. Afterward, she continued on her way. Belle felt queasy and uneasy as she went (she always did, as it was the curse of the mermaids) but today, she felt even queasier. 

She had to pause for a moment to pant. 

Her father put his hand on her back. “Are you OK, Belle?”

Belle snapped, “Do I look OK?”

It wasn’t just living in a soulless body that made her feel sick. She couldn’t deny that her heart was aching from other things, too.

“No, you don’t. Are you thinking of the past?” he questioned.

She a trout from her bag and bit into it. “Of course. It’s all I can think of--the ugly, hideous traitor.” 

“You should forget that boy. He wasn’t worthy of you. He was human, and can only have human dreams and desires. He could never love a soulless creature.” he reminded her.

Belle’s sharp fangs bit even harder into the fish, and when it was only bones, she tossed it aside. “It doesn’t matter, anyway. I doubt I was ever really in love.” 

She paused for a moment, resting on the sea floor, waiting for the current wave of pain to pass. 

The boy she had known was named Popp, and part of why she had liked him was his silly name. His father had been a powerful warrior, and taught him how to be a powerful, ruthless, but moral warrior. It had cracked her up, because she thought Popp was an undignified name for such a skilled warrior. He had told her his father named him that because he had popped right out of his mother’s womb with little to no trouble. Belle hadn’t known what a ‘womb’ was, and she didn’t understand or comprehend blood relations in the same way he did. He would constantly talk about his parents–their wishes, their dreams, their desires–and she was astounded by how much their opinion meant to him. She couldn’t fathom caring about another person that much. 

She snapped out of her reverie, realizing that getting lost in thought about a boy she wasn’t sure she ever even cared about was pointless. Especially since he ultimately told her that he could never love a soulless creature. She let that fuel her anger, and continued on her way again. 

In the distance, through the green algae and gray waters, she could see a cave coming into view. And guarding that cave was a whaldroon. It was asleep in front of the cave, its body large enough to block entrance to it completely. It had black eyes, a small head in comparison to its marshmallowy, white body, and a horn protruding out of its nose. It had arms, but no legs–only a fin. 

Belle took her father, Uther aside and whispered to him, “How do you suppose we do him in? It’s not as easy as taking out fish, or even humans. They’re smart little buggers.”

The man stroked his chin. “It has magical powers, too, that it uses instinctually… it likes fish, and you always carry around fish with you in your bag, right?”

Belle pursed her lips. “But… those are my fish.” 

He put a hand on her shoulder. “There will always be more fish. There may never be a chance at getting a soul like this again.”

She nodded reluctantly. She retrieved fish from her pack, and remembered, “There’s a trench nearby, and it’s pretty big… we might be able to get it stuck in there.”

“That’s a good idea. That’s my girl.” the man said.

Belle rolled her eyes, wondering why he was trying to act like a human father all of the sudden. Regardless, she lied out the fish in a straight line from the whaldroon to the trench. Then, the pair hid in a bushel of kelp and observed the whaldroon while it slept.