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"Good," sighed Ninetails-as-Rao. "You don't know how much this means to me. If there is anything I can ever do to repay you, I will see to it that it is done." That was another of many untruths.

"But we must hurry now. Come with me, I will show you the way."

~~~

Ninetails led Lorelei along the beach. She had the impression that Lorelei wasn't used to walking on land. She found the most inane things interesting and dipped herself in the water every now and then to keep her skin damp. Ninetails put on their best impression of patience with it all, though they wanted to bite the kelpi whenever there was an interruption.

They could tell that Lorelei had some misgivings. To distract her, they told an ancient story from their homeland, one where a lion fought a dragon to defend a small island nation. That seemed to work well, and before long, they had finally arrived. They stood on a familiar patch of sand, the one that Ninetails had first crawled onto after that fateful shipwreck. Squinting, they could just barely see the tip of the mast of the sunken ship emerging from the waves.

"There it is," they breathed, eyes fixed on the resting place of the fox rods.

"Of course," replied Ninetails. She described the rods and their last known location to her, being sure to give as much detail as she knew. They hated being forthright and honest with anyone, but this was a situation where information was necessary.

"Good luck," she murmured to the kelpi, watching her prepare to leave.

Uzoamaka walked along the beach. She was taking something of a vacation, and this was rare for her. She liked to work and keep herself busy. Normally the caravan would be back out in the desert sands again by now, but they had put in for some major work on their wagons. The upgrades wouldn't be done for another week or so, and so she had gone on a bit of a side trip.

It had been ages since she'd seen the beach. She was so used to the desert that the sight of water next to the sand was a bit of a shock. She dipped her hooves in, enjoying the cool feeling. A gentle breeze blew by and the acrid scent of fox reached her. Apparently some had made the beach their home. She smiled, looking up to try to spot them.

Instead of a fox, she saw a mare. She paused, her heart beginning to race a little faster. Something was wrong with that mare.

The wreck was deeper than it looked. Lorelei had to surface twice for air before she even managed to figure out the best way into it. It was pretty clear that this was a different sort of boat that usually came by the Kawani waters. Its lines were all wrong, and it had a different number of masts. Lorelei had no skill in reading human letters but could still tell that the ones carved into the side were of a language she'd never seen before. The boat reminded her of the look of Rao. It was clear that they were cut from the same cloth of a shared homeland.

Curious, she finally made her way inside.

There were bones, but that wasn't surprising. Human bones didn't frighten her. Her mother Isenath did occasionally drown humans, after all. It was when she saw the seaweed encrusted skull of a soquili that she grew more somber. She realized that it should have been obvious to her that soquili would have drowned with the ship as well, but somehow it didn't occur to her until this very moment that Rao hadn't been the only equine passenger on board.

The timing couldn't have been worse. Ninetails waited for its most treasured possession and knew it would only get it back if the illusion was upheld. Now, here was a random unicorn that saw it for what it truly was. If Lorelei came back while the unicorn was still around, its cover would be blown and the kelpi could run off with its precious fox rods.

Confounded and enraged, Ninetails let out a hoarse growl and lowered its head threateningly.

Fear and tension filled every bone and muscle of Uzoamaka's body. A sharp equine whinny escaped from her throat and she pointed her horn at the walker.

As if that would help her when the beast attacked. I might die, she thought dizzyingly. Some dazed part of her brain realized that these might be some of her last moments breathing on this earth. This was what horror stories were whispered about. This was the sad story that one told about a friend of a friend who had been killed by skinwalker attack. Against all odds, she was the one who had come across this monster. She was the one that was now staring her own death in the face and sickeningly unable to do much else with herself.

She was frozen, and she was afraid.

The demon didn't have to ask twice. Uzoamaka cried out, turned, and ran. She had never been so frightened in her life. She bolted, barely daring to even breathe. She dared to look behind her, one of the bravest things she'd ever done. The monster wasn't following her... yet.

She ran more. She ran until her muscles screamed, and then kept running. She had thought she had seen two eyes in the monster's face, but she belatedly realized it had only been one. One terrible eye, and one hidden by bangs. Somehow, she didn't think there was a second eye underneath there. She hated herself for her cowardice, and yet, what else could she do? The skinwalker was obviously on some sort of dark mission, but she was powerless to stop it. She would tell the next soquili she saw about what had happened... that was the best she could manage.