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Unfortunately neither of the creeple were headed anywhere near an exit to the place. In fact, it seemed like they were just going toward, well, a whole lot of sand. Puella frowned. This seemed pretty boring, but she didn't want to say so with TK there. What if he thought that made her seem silly?

"Um, hi - " she began, leaning toward one of the two cloaked figures, but as anyone probably could've told her, they just glared. Ugh. She ruffled her skirt a little nervously, looked to TK, and turned back to them. "We were maybe looking for a route our, um, bus could take home. Or...a phone? Maybe?" She paused. "We'd be willing to do you a favor in exchange for the help, though!" she smiled.

Wow, being cheerful around other people kind of sucked sometimes. The cloaked figures were pretty reticent, though, and merely dropped something in Puella's hands. Out of instinct she caught - er - whatever it was, and then she watched as the cloaked figure pointed out toward the sand. Where there was - yikes - a w-whale, was it?

Oooookay then.

Puella nodded encouragingly at TK, but she wasn't sure how to work this ballista herself. She examined it carefully, brushing little fingers over its surfaces. "Um - um, I just have the one...shell." That was what they were called, right? "So I'll try to load mine first, I guess?" She watched the cloaked creeple back away hastily, and when she was fairly certain they could no longer see, she raised her eyebrows at TK again. "You haven't used one of these before, right?"

It didn't look that hard, though...well, too hard for them to figure out, anyway. There was a shooting arm, so there must also be a place where she could place her shot...oh, there it was. They'd have a much easier time of it later. "Okay, I think I've got it," she nodded, and then pulled herself behind the ballista to launch it. "Ready, TK?"

She waited for him to take cover as well before launching it.

Unfortunately the whale noticed immediately that someone was shooting at it, and it rushed in their direction, spitting sand up toward them as it did. Puella put her arms up to block it but it couldn't do much of anything when the sand was already getting in her eyes. "s**t!" she said, and then clapped her hand in front of her mouth impulsively. She didn't want to get sand in there!

Whale HP: 190/200
Puella HP: 29/30

Those shots had looked pretty painful...or, well, like they would've been painful, if they'd struck Puella or TK (or one of the villagers, cloaked as they were). As it was, it looked like they were attracting the whale's attention, but they didn't seem to be having much of an effect at all. Puella inched closer to TK, and said almost directly to his shoulder, eyes closed and mouth covered: "Do you think we even have enough of those shots?" It didn't seem like they'd hampered it much, if at all - their shots looked like scratches on it.

Oh, well. She reached down in a state of semi-blindness and tried to steady the ballista for TK to load his next shot onto, now that her, er, one shot had been used up. She knelt and held it carefully, even though it meant there was more sand getting in her way.

Who cared if she was dirty? Momentarily she sympathized with the villagers: she wouldn't want a sand whale in her vicinity, either.

Whale HP: 180/200
Puella HP: 28/30

Puella fell back quickly - she certainly didn't want to wait around and have the recoil hit her in addition to all the sand this whale was spitting up, after all. "I guess so," she replied after a moment, although she peered dubiously at his hands. They did not look big enough to hold anywhere near enough ammunition to take that whale down.

Still, there were other people helping out, right? Maybe? There had to be other ballistae somewhere in this village. Why weren't the villagers doing this again? Maybe they'd been doing it before.

Maybe they thought this was somehow appropriate payment for helping out. Puella winced a little at the thought. This seemed pretty dangerous to her! Also very dirty.

Although she had to admit - while the whale was clearly vicious, and also large, it was pretty slow. They'd only really been buffeted by sand, so far, and while it was annoying - and obviously potentially hurtful later on - it wasn't as big a deal as, say, being crushed under its fins. Or something.

Whale HP: 170/200
Puella HP: 27/30

Puella glanced over as he announced the next shot, even as she also kept her hands in the air to avoid sand. Smart move, ghoulfriend. The constant barrage of sand was wearing a bit on Puella's nerves but it seemed like TK was, well, a lot less affected by the matter. That was good, right? One of them was, well, made of bone and lacked eyes for sand to get into.

He did have a mouth, though, and Puella was a little impressed at his audacity, though she had to admit he wasn't that wordy of a guy. That worked to their favor, here.

Oh well. She hurried forward to hold the ballista down again, clenching her eyes shut the moment she was able to reach down and grasp it. "Let me know when you're ready again?" she asked, puffing up her cheeks.

Whale HP: 160/200
Puella HP: 26/30

Puella stepped back and shielded her eyes again as the whale made a low...moaning...sing-songy noise. She had not expected that. Had it been a particularly good hit? She inched one of her eyes open, but the whale only seemed - well, it looked a little more damaged than Puella did, relatively speaking (it was much more injured, to be honest, but it was also bigger, so the injuries didn't look bad at all - especially from this distance!). "Oh, it's still...there." Were there any more shots within eyesight? Puella searched for one frantically, but couldn't seem to find one.

"Um..."

Where had the villagers produced them from?

In her panic she didn't notice that the amount of sand that had been pelting her body was lessening gradually. But soon enough she couldn't feel any at all. Had the whale just...run away? Swam away? Air-swam? What was the word for it? It clearly didn't have the legs to run, but it also wasn't in water.

Well, it didn't matter. The big lug was gone. "I don't suppose you see those villagers, either, right?" Puella asked, looking around for them. Were they going to get information now? Wow, they'd vanished conveniently quickly, if you asked her.

WHALE HP: 150/200!! it has run away. Yey.
Puella HP: 26/30

"I think it's the closest we're gonna get," Puella answered, shaking her head as TK lifted the fin from the sands. Blech - she wanted a wash, and badly, but she was also pretty aware that washing up would mean she'd just get drenched and stay upset. Sand was shitty that way.

She took a piece herself, and then hesitated: she supposed she could keep it in her backpack? She'd packed for room, but it'd been because she'd been planning to purchase souvenirs, not because she wanted sand whale fin. Still, though - sand whales were a pretty rare occurrence, and it'd be a nice enough remembrance of...whatever this was. "I'm glad you were here, though," she confessed. TK had seemed to do much better with the deluge of sands than Puella had.

Maybe she'd show her strength later on, right?

Anyway, she headed off in the direction she was pretty sure they'd come from. Having eyes literally in the back of her head meant Puella didn't need to turn her head to see whether TK was following at all.