Submission (#1027) Approved

+8 shards (812 words)
+6 eth shards (prompt)

: +8 shards, +6 eth shards

-----

"Sooo... what do you think?"

The words filtered through Remiel's thoughts, and he forcefully yanked his mind out of the pages he'd been reading to blink up at his companion, "Huh?" not his most eloquent response, to be sure, but the words had come out of absolutely nowhere, and he wasn't sure he even understood what train of thought she was on. Could have been anything, really, since they'd been sitting at the beach side, under the same umbrella for a couple of hours in relative silence. The gods only knew what could have been fleeting through her mind.

However, he did the right thing and managed to pull his attention entirely out of his medical book to place his gaze on the girl beside him, watching her expectantly.

"God, you've literally not listened to a single word I've said the past few minutes, have you?" Siwa rolled her eyes in a good natured way, almost fondly, using the flyers and pages she was holding as a weapon, whacking the male beside her softly on the head with them.

"I'm sorry?" it was said as a question, with a lilt of his voice that made it quite obvious he felt some mixture of sheepish and frustrated for being interrupted when he'd been so settled into what he'd been reading.

"Do you EVER stop working? We're supposed to be having fun here, Rem, leave the medical journal!"

"I happen to be having fun as is."

The words were spoken with enough pout in his voice that Siwa almost rolled her eyes again. She was, however, in a good mood and didn't pursue that, instead offering him an out by once again repeating herself, "I was SAYING, while you were clearly ignoring me, that last night, when I went to fetch our food out to the tavern, I heard several wool talking about the rumors! You know, the ones about the pirate?"

Instantly, Remiels' ears pulled back flat against his head, "Captain Kallias Imber is a fable. Never real to begin with, and the rumors are nonsense," he thought the conversation over, and turned his gaze back to his journal, only to have Siwa's paw slap over his pages almost rudely, prompting a grunt from the male. Her paws closed over the book and with the smallest of tugs, Remiel released it with a sigh, allowing her to divest him of it, "Seriously, Siwa, you're more intelligent than this. Why do you even care? It's just a bunch of gossip, and an urban legend, no more than that," a pause, "May I have my book back, please?"

Using the book to fan herself, Siwa ignored the request as she looked over the ocean a few yards away, the water lapping at the shore, "I don't know, I thought we could go look into it!" he made a small, unbelieving sound from her right, like he couldn't believe she was going to make him do this, but was well aware she'd end up winning that argument anyways and was thus, prepared to go along with it anyways, "C'mon, Rem. You've literally been sitting here for three hours-"

"Two."

"-Almost three hours, and you you haven't so much as looked up from that medical journal, which may I remind you," she said while waving it around, "You shouldn't even be reading. We've been dispatched here on actual vacation, and to relax and have fun. You shouldn't be working on vacation. I'm sure there's laws against it."

Closing his eyes as if he was the only wool on planet earth that was suffering in such a manner, Remiel let out a sigh, "Fine, let's hear it. What do you propose?" It was clear he'd realized his book was not going to be handed back to him and he was willing to entertain her.

"I suggest tomorrow, we get ourselves some water, some backpacks, and we go out to search the coves nearby. The rumors I heard implied there'd be something there that could point us in the right direction, and if there isn't, then hey! No harm done; we'll have done some exercise and we'll have gone on a nice walk, it's a win win," she paused and looked at the journal in her hands, "AND, I'll even give you the journal back now, and WON'T tell our boss you were in fact, working when you should be on vacation, how's that," she offered the book over to him and Remiel let out another sigh.

He slowly stretched a hand and grabbed it back from her, "Fine, deal, tomorrow then."

Grinning, she offered him a thumbs up, stuck her headphones back in her ears and leaned against his side to listen to her music once more. The male for his part, adjusted his position to better support her weight and went back to his reading.

Tomorrow, then.

Reward	Amount
Precious Pink Sea Wyrm	1
Ethereal Shards	6