to probe curiosity [.Seren.]

Getting back to town had been annoying, but uneventful. It took him a while, since he was on foot. He considered himself lucky to have some healing capacity since it was impossible to continue a good pace in the dark without encountering some kind of obstacle. He'd certainly been through worse than a midnight run, though, and he took the opportunity to sift through some plans forming in his head.

That morning had been more action-packed. Despite having such a late night, he woke up well before dawn could send her rosy fingers into his room. He had things to set up. Anonymous letters to send. People to arrange. To add to all of that, he was called in to the restaurant to pick a new paint color since his first choice was no longer available (he had some choice things to say to the painters, that was certain).

He paid a boy hanging around the marketplace to give Jenna a message that he'd be waiting for her at the port. Soren had dropped by his house to change, then it was immediately out to the port, where a sailboat would be waiting.

Boats made sense to Soren on a visceral level. Even if this modern sailboat had functions and movements that weren't identical to those he had grown up with, the ex-viking still felt most comfortable at sea. He leaned against a railing on the boat and tipped his head back to let sunlight touch more of his face and neck. He was wearing a loose white shirt that draped lightly over his torso, and navy trousers. No shoes.

Paul, one of the men in his employ, wandered over and said, "Mr. Karlsson, she's ready. Are you casting off right away?"

"No. I have a passenger today. Maybe." It wasn't absolutely certain that the infuriating woman would actually show up. He sighed and tried not to relive the night before. He wasn't a fan of losing his temper. It made him feel too young and out of control.

It took a few minutes for Jenna to convince the Tavern owner that it would be okay if she wasn't there for the day. It also took her another few minutes to actually find the boat Soren was at. The sylph didn't really have much of a taste for boats, but she wasn't deathly afraid of them either. Plus, she realized that if he was actually capable of telling her where Jonathan was now and what he was going by - she definitely felt okay with trying to find the torc she dropped in the ocean.

Today, Jenna was wearing grey yoga pants with a dark blue tank-top revealing her midriff. She figured they were going to be most likely in the ocean anyway so it was acceptable to have some tight fitting clothes. As she walked up to Soren's boat though, the woman let out a long whistle. "It sure is pretty," she said to him as her wings were splayed out - causing the occasional stare by some simple villagers passing by. Standing right by the boat though with her hands on her hips, Jenna waited before stepping onto it. She may be constantly and utterly annoyed with the man and had broken into his house, but to the outer appearance she still had all the common courtesy in the world.

His blue eyes roved a little before returning to her face. "It sure is," said, for a moment unsure if he was talking about the boat. Then he was sure that he was talking about the boat and his smile was more than a little proud. "You like her? Freyja was built a few years ago."

He gestured to the rest of the boat. "Your vessel, Milady." He was pleased enough that she showed up that he was willing to set aside any ill-will from the night before. With a sudden burst of exuberance, he cast off the mooring line and called over to Paul, who had made his way onto the dock, "I'll be in contact with you when we get back. Be sure to keep things at the restaurant in order."

Soren had never lost his sea legs. He moved over the boat with all of the ease of a bird flying through familiar woods. He knew this particular boat so well he could have navigated it blindfolded. With well-practiced movements, he guided his vessel out of the port. He shouted over to Jenna, "What are our bearings? Where do you think you dropped the torc?"

As Jenna walked onto the boat, she nodded at his comment of her really liking the boat. Jenna didn't spend a lot of her time around boats, so it was hard for her though to really notice the complete difference between a pretty and ugly boat. At least this one did seem visually appealing.

Looking out to the water though, she tried too understand the appeal for this kind of thing and came up short in her imagination. "A little west of here," she hollered to him as she looked up toward the sky. "I wasn't that far off from the coast," she then said to him as she held onto the boat railing. Her wings started to hug closer to her body as a sort of protective measure, her obvious state of discomfort beginning to slightly show.

Soren handled his boat better than he handled any 'relationship' he'd ever been in. He took Jenna's directions with a nod and a swift correction to their course. He was in excellent spirits, despite the situation that had led him to be out here. He reflected on the necessity of making time for more sailing in the future. He had been so busy of late that it was a rare pleasure.

Eventually, between his steering and her direction, they wound up around where she said she had dropped the torc. Jenna's discomfort had not escaped him, but all he could really do was minimize as much of the jarring movements as he could.

He looked at the sky as he weighed anchor. The wind concerned him, but he wasn't going to say anything to Jenna just yet. Better not alarm her if they were about to go diving. Soren called to Jenna, "So, how would you like to do this? I've got wetsuits if you need one." He pulled off his shirt and stretched out his arms. He was more than ready to get this done and out of the way. The torc was important.

He suddenly grinned. "How about we make this interesting? We both dive and the first to surface with the torc wins."

Jenna stared at the sky as Soren sailed the boat to where they needed to go. As they stopped in the spot that she had told him, Jenna looked around and noticed nothing but water. The thought made her even more uncomfortable then she cared to say. It wasn't like he would say any caring words if she did bother to mention her discomfort around so much water.

Feeling the wind pick up though, Jenna's attention was quickly back in the skies once more. A few moments passed and it seemed as if something occurred too the woman, but without much use of her facial expressions. Hugging herself, Jenna frowned as she looked over to the were-dragon. "I'm not that useful in water," Jenna said to Soren - stretching her wings out and then having them hug close to her body once more as if to make a point.

Watching the man smile for a moment, Jenna shifted in her spot - determining that maybe Soren was attempting to bring her focus on something other then what seemed to be going on in the skies. For the first time in a while, Jenna actually had a little bit of trouble being baited into something that actually seemed fun to her. "I'm not sure about this, the wind doesn't feel right to me," Jenna decided to verbally express her discomfort in the situation now. Plus, she concluded there was no way she was going to get in that water unless she felt one hundred percent comfortable with everything else going on.

Soren shrugged. "If our deal means so little to you, you can always stay on the boat while I dive. It's not going to get found any faster if there is just one person looking." He took off his pants, revealing the swim trunks he had been wearing underneath.

Jenna's misgiving had him shrugging again. "It's likely to storm in a bit. Good way to stir up the blood. We've got enough time to find the torc. I'd rather recover it before the storm arrives. The currents could carry it to a different location if we wait too long. I'll make sure we're out of the water before the storm hits. Trust me." He was in no way worried. If there was something he knew well, it was the ocean.

He put a foot on the railing and cocked his head at Jenna. "I don't know how much Aodhan told you about me, about where I come from and who my people were, but I won't let you drown." With that, he flashed her a grin and executed a flawless dive off the edge of the boat.

Jenna watched Soren silently as he made his move to get in the water, and once he was done and in the water the woman sat there for a little while longer trying to figure out if she should really go or not. The whole situation was giving her the goose-bumps it seemed and she rubbed her arms in response. "Stupid dragon," she muttered briefly to herself as she took a seat on the boat. If she went into the water, Jenna decided that she was only going to just be the slow one and the woman didn't necessarily appreciate that.

The skies seemed to grow darker as the passing minutes went by and Jenna let out a small sigh as the winds picked up in response. She hoped he would be able to find it quick enough, Jenna suddenly wasn't enjoying the trip as much as she thought she would.

Soren wasn't bothered by the water- even though it was quite cold the further he dove. The water was a bit turbid, which was only further indication of the storm to come. He did spot it, though, right before he ran out of air. The were-dragon burst through the surface to suck in lungfuls of the stuff, shouting up at the boat, "I saw it! I'll be right back!"

Another breath and he was back under. This time, he was able to make a beeline for the torc, glittering from the depths, half-covered in silt and sand. His lungs burned as he finally reached the bottom, his ears complaining about the pressure.

No dice, he needed to go back up. A curse exploded from his mouth in a burst of bubbles and he kicked towards the surface. At the surface, the waves were beginning to pick up, but he had to try once more. He looked at the sky, inhaled, and went under again. The currents buffeted him as he futilely tried to reach the bottom. The torc- it was so important, but he ran out of oxygen before he could reach it. He didn't even get as close this last time.

When he broke the surface, it was clear that diving again would not only be detrimental to his own safety, but the safety of the unhelpful person on his boat. He muttered ancient curses to himself, occasionally pausing to spit out briny water. It was good that he was a strong swimmer- the waves were getting rough. He pulled himself onto the boat and unceremoniously began making the preparations to get them out of there.

He didn't even look at Jenna.

Jenna felt incredibly useless sitting on the boat while Soren was in the water desperately trying to get the thing that she stole from him in the first place. The second that she started feeling bad about all of this though, Jenna had to remind herself why this situation happened in the first place. Constantly reasoning this out was what made her sit there content the whole entire time.

When Soren shouted that he saw the torc, Jenna stood up for a moment and waited... and waited... and waited...

As time passed and Soren got back onto the boat and started to act as if they were going to sail away, the sylph looked frustrated for a moment looking back at Soren and then the water once more. "Wait! Is it straight down? If you know where it is that makes it all the easier now," Jenna supposed what she had dreaded the most was swimming through the water clueless with her what she thought was over-sized cumbersome wings on occasions.

Carefully, Jenna laid out her palms in front of her and winds started to rush around her as she did so. For a moment as she drew from the winds in the sky that had been becoming more and more powerful, it almost seemed like the air had gone silent for a moment - the only noise coming from the large ball of rushing wind in Jenna's hands. This ball started to move then slowly toward the water as Jenna moved her hands in accordance with it. As she waved her hand down, the ball of wind pushed against the water starting to make it's way toward the ocean floor - leaving a narrow field of vision in it's path.

During this time though, Jenna failed to notice the rain started to slowly sprinkle from the sky. She also didn't notice for once that the wind had picked up again, and was blowing against her wings quite heavily.

Soren was trying to get Freyja dis-anchored when Jenna uttered her question. He looked over at her, frowning in confusion. If she wasn't willing to help before, then why- his face went blank as he watched her use her power to open a path through the water.

The storm, however, had his attention. He crossed the boat with ease and hooked an arm around Jenna's waste. He raised his voice above the storm and told her firmly, "We can come back later. You don't want to be out here when the storm really hits." He could handle storms, but he wasn't going to endanger the lady he cared about. Yep, he had worked too hard on Freyja to let her get smashed by a mere summer storm.

His bright blue eyes sought Jenna's out. "Use your trick next time, okay? We need to get out of here. Do as I say and we'll get back to port in no time." She hadn't trusted him before, at least not enough to go in the water. He hoped she would have enough sense to do as he ordered long enough for them to get back to the docks.

The storm had picked up and Jenna had her focus sorely on the water and her ball of air. A few moments passed and as Soren wrapped his arm around her waist - Jenna jumped in surprise and pushed herself away from him quickly. As the rain started to come down harder, Jenna had to put her hand up to her face - partially to avoid the sharp sting of the rain and to hide the pink blush that had come to her cheeks from the man in her presence.


"Don't touch me," she said to him sharply - seeming unnecessarily sharp with him. With those words though in the distance there was a flash of lightning that pierced through the skies and Jenna's expression almost seemed pain at the flash of light. Gripping the sides of the boat with her wings being pushed around quite a lot, Soren seemed to have gone back to handling the more necessary things on the boat.

Jenna in question, was quite a sight to behold though as the wind seemed to pick up even more. Her hair which had been held tight in a bun, had slowly started to get loose and tendrils of her hair started whipping around with the wind. Closing her eyes, even though a the storm was starting to get worse as minute passed by - with the wind rushing past her for just a split second Jenna felt like she was at home in the skies once more. She felt like she was floating once more, in her natural form...


BOOM

The sound of thunder shocked Jenna out of her daydream, and also into the realization that the harsh wind in question had caught her under her wings and lifted her about 35 feet into the air. Letting out a scream that was a mixture of shock and pain, Jenna's body tensed as she focused her mind around the air near her - the process causing the winds to calm just enough for her to come careening back to the boat. Landing on her side Jenna quickly grabbed both of her wings with her hands and hugged them close to her body.

Soren backed off with his hands raised, wondering where this defensiveness had been when they'd met. Physical contact didn't seem to piss her off then. He had more to deal with than a fairy with her wings in a twist. The storm was picking up and he had to rely on centuries of instinct to make sure the boat didn't capsize. As it was, they were getting blown pretty far off-course despite his efforts.

His desire for privacy (which was strange now that he thought about it) had prevented him from asking Paul along for the trip. Next time, he would know better since Jenna was absolutely useless for sailing. In fact, there was a harrowing moment when she got blown off the boat. She was lucky enough to land on the boat, but that sort of thing was not exactly what he needed to be focusing on.

He took enough time to go up to her and place a hand on her shoulder. "There's rope," he said, raising his voice to be heard above the storm. "Make yourself a lifeline." Soren tried to smile reassuringly, despite the ocean spray hitting him in the face intermittently. He hadn't put his clothes back on since his dive, but he ran a little warm so he felt fine.

Soren didn't have time to keep reassuring Jenna; the storm would rage regardless. The Were-dragon got back to his feet and went back to what he was doing. Occasionally, he laughed and shouted ancient challenges at the skies. He felt almost completely at ease. The only pang of worry stemmed from his passenger.

Soren came to talk to her and she barely heard his words through the storm, nonetheless she eyed the rope he was talking too and went over to it to tie it tightly around her waist. Soren's smile was only slightly reassuring mostly because she knew that it was only there to try and help her feel comfortable. Jenna sighed as the storm raged on - the rope she had connected to herself being tied to the based of the mast of the boat.

She felt completely useless as she was being right now, and felt bad in turn. Throughout all her centuries of having experiences with boats Jenna still hadn't bothered to learn anything about them - sailing was never something she was good at or preferred despite the fact that she could easily help sailors with her control over wind at any point in time. Storms were even worse, even though they were naturally common throughout the year. What could she possibly do to help at all?

First off, Jenna hated the mood this whole situation was making. Chewing on her lower lip she stood up with her life line still in tact and watched what the winds were doing. She was already soaked from the combination of the ocean and the rain and the winds themselves almost seemed hateful for the time being.

While Soren busied himself with doing whatever he was doing boat wise, Jenna looked up toward the sky once more. When had been the last time she had been on a boat? 50 years ago? Shaking her head, Jenna closed her eyes and in a moment it seemed as if the wind stopped beating on the boat that Soren and her were in. This only happened though about double the size of the boat, meaning that it could easily be seen in front them and behind them that the storm was still raging on. The reaction of the immediate calming of the winds around them though in turn caused the ocean in their general vicinity to calm down as well.

"This is as much as I can do for not finding the torc immediately," Jenna then said - her normal cheery attitude seeming a little dampened by how focused she was.

Soren was coping the best he could with the wind and waves. They would be making slow progress, but it was progress. Thus, it came as a bit of an insult when his passenger decided to take matters into her own hands.

He ran a hand through his waterlogged hair and ventured carefully across the boat. Since the winds in their vicinity were quieted, he was able to hear her. He heaved a sigh and said, "As much as I understand and appreciate the sentiment, this is a sailboat. Freyja requires wind to move unless you're suggesting I row us to shore." He arched an eyebrow and spread his hands expressively to encompass the boat, which was a mite too big for one person (even a person as tall and well-built as Soren) to row anywhere.

He was interrupted by a harsh grinding noise accompanied by a sharp jolt of the boat. His expression changed to one of dismay and he muttered, "No!" The jolt took him to the edge of the boat. In the storm-gray waters of the ocean, he could barely make out the shape of a creature about 1.5 times the size of the boat.

Not good. Soren wasn't blind to the presence of other sorts of predatory creatures of legend, but he wasn't expecting one so close to the island. He knew immediately that Freyja was taking on water- it was in the way she sat in the water. His dark blue eyes flashed a fiery red-orange and a great cloud of smoke billowed from his mouth when he said to Jenna, "She's going down. Grab the kit next to the mast. I'll take care of the rest." With that, he dove off the side of the boat.