"Aye, as the smarty mages say, time to book it!"

Tsarra sprints across the roof of the building and makes a big hop over to the next roof. She's not the most agile on land compared to in the water, but thankfully crabs aren't fast at climbing either.

Atolla laughs like a maniac as he pursues the pair across Sol City, leaving a wave of destruction in his path as the crabs smash into buildings, crates, and other clutter.

"Damn!" She exclaims between puffs of breath. "The salty bastard is so annoyin'! We need a way to outrun him!"

Tsarra gets to the edge of the roof where the gap between it and the next building is far too wide to jump. She looks down at a pair of horses hitched to a wagon sitting in the middle of the street.

"That works!" She jumps down and lands heavily on the back, he legs buckling making for a less than graceful landing. 

The pair of horses startle from the loud noise and immediately take off running down the street just as their driver opens the door to see them taking off. 

"Hey! Those are my hors-AAAAH!"

Before he can give chase, the swarm of crabs comes around the corner and sweeps through the street after the fleeing horses. 

Tsarra pushes herself back up and plops Hyll in the driver's seat. "Take the reins!" She then turns back to try and figure out a way to slow down the crabby tide. 

"I've never driven a wagon before!" Hyll shouted with equal parts fear and excitement. He took the reins and did his best to steer the horses through the streets. Luckily, most of the obstacles just moved out of the way for them. People were fleeing in fear of the crabpocalypse already, dashing into homes and generally fleeing. Hylltywyll didn't have to do that much. The horses were fleeing from the wave of crabs too, taking the Fairy and Tsarra along for the ride. Hyll steered them on as straight a path as they could manage, wanting to just get away from the crabs behind them, but the road was coming to an end ahead. They'd need to either run through an alley too narrow for the wagon or make a sharp turn.

Hyll looked back at Tsarra and shouted to her over the chorus of clicking and clacking. "This isn't good!"

Tsarra looks ahead as Hyll shouts. The alley didn't look good and the sharp turn would likely fling them from their seats! Wait. That might work! There wasn't buildings in their way, actually there was a drop as the road veered to the right and left while the city's rooftops sprawled out below what must be a few stories drop. Crabs could swim. Crabs could crawl. But you know what crabs couldn't do? Fly. 

"We're gettin' off!" Tsarra reaches over and grabs one rein, pulling it back sharply to one side making the horses skid and jerk to the right.

The triton woman grabs Hyll and jumps from the wagon with him under her arm just as the side of the wagon slams into a short stone wall that keeps wagons from flying over the edge. What seemed like a clever idea quickly became a terrible one. They had no way to fly either and quickly started to fall towards the hard cobblestone below them. 

Tsarra hastily says some weird words and Hyll feels the familiar sensation of gills forming on his neck as her spell takes a hold of him.^[1] She draws water from the air around them and it quickly swirls into a bubble.^[2] What normally acted as a way to trap something now became their escape vehicle! The water bubble absorbs the impact of their fall and rolls down the street just as the wave of crabs pour over the edge behind them like a red waterfall.

---

[1] Breath Water
[2] Water Prison

The crab wave flowed down the street behind them as they rolled in their ball of water. It felt like every time he encountered this fish lady, Hylltywyll was going to be growing gills. At least he wasn't drowning as he was tossed around in the ball, holding tight to Tsarra's head so the two of them didn't swirl around separately and hit each other in the sphere.

The horses and cart were swallowed up by the army of crabs flowing like a clicking clacking flood upon the poor poor denizens of the city. How could this have happened? Why would anyone do this? How cheap was crab meat going to be tomorrow? One fisherman locked inside his house cried out in despair.

Atolla roared as he rode the waterfall of crabs down, falling to the ground with a loud crack. The wave of crabs continued to flow, burying him beneath as he continued to shout behind the fleeing pair rolling away in the watery sphere. Beneath the crabs, the boiling water in Atolla's mouth suddenly and unexpectedly returned as Hylltywyll's spell suspension wore off. The water shot out, boiling the crabs spilling over Atolla and sending them into the air.

It was raining perfectly cooked crab legs as the crabs continued to wash over the streets.

Tsarra glances back over her shoulder as the all you can eat crab buffet fills the streets. The water sphere bounces and rolls down the street past a few civilians and wagons. 

"This is working surprisingly well!" Tsarra exclaims and looks back ahead just in time to see a battalion of soldiers of the Golden Army marching down the street, having been called in by the panicked locals to respond to this invasion of the capital. 

"OH SHIT!"

The fish woman bends the current inside the sphere and redirects it into an alleyway, making a sharp right turn before they could barrel through the armored unit armed with spears, swords, and shields. It was a good move even through the force of the turn was less than comfortable. Had they continued down the street they either would have bowled down the soldiers like pins or get skewered on their pikes and halberds. 

They don't stop or look back, but the sounds of shouting and the clank of dozens of armored feet running towards Atolla and his army of crabs rings out across the rooftops. Tsarra keeps bending the water until she has run out of magic and the bubble around them sloshes to a stop and leaves them sopping wet on the cobblestone safely away from the conflict. Tsarra lays on her back panting and just staring at the blue sky above them before she bursts into laughter. 

"That was incredible!" She laughs and gives Hyll a friendly head rub. "Ye are a crazy lil' bugger."

Hylltywyll finally detached himself from the back of Tsarra's head as they lied on their backs on the ground, Tsarra's head on top of his body. She gave him a little rub on the top of his and he crawled out from beneath her.

Hyll cackled, his fists raised in the air. "Woooh! Let's do that again! But maybe without the crabs next time."

They were both absolutely drenched. Hyll's fur was completely soaked through and dripping onto the already flooded street thanks to the collapsed water sphere. He dropped to all fours and shook himself like a wet dog, splashing water onto Tsarra and everything else around him to get the water out of his fur. He then started wringing the water out of his little hooded cloak until it was about as dry as he could get it.

Hyll hated being wet, but he also had to admit that that had been a crazy fun ride. It had also been a good way to escape that swarm of crabs that he still had no idea why it had even arrived or who that gross guy was with the wiggly beard. He seemed to have it out for Tsarra though.

"Hey, who was that weirdo? You do something to make him angry? He seemed real crabby." Hyll asked with a chuckle as he patted the side of his head to get some water out of his ear.

"Aye," the fish woman nods in agreement once she has caught her breath. "Ye are a riot to hang out with."

While she wasn't happy to see Atolla, the chase had been an excellent distraction from her Hearth's Day heartache. They had also successfully ruined so many dates and romantic antics of the boring citizens of Sol City. Hands down, best Hearth's Day ever.

Tsarra pushes herself up to sit. "Remember how we were caught by pirates after fishin' that book outta those sunken ruins? That bastard was the pirate capt'n. Clearly he's holdin' a grudge after we staged that mutiny." She huffs as if it was an overreaction.

"Anyway, avoid him if ye can." She gets up onto her feet and smiles down at Hyll. "This was a good day. Thank ye. Where are ye off to next?"

Hylltywyll thought about it for a moment, trying to remember the captain that they'd been dragged on board the ship of. That guy had held a blade up to him, hadn't he? What an awful guy! He looked a lot different then though, didn't he? Definitely smaller and a lot less crabby at least. The beard did look pretty familiar though, and the voice. He'd only seen the guy for a minute before being unceremoniously dumped into a barrel where he took a surprisingly pleasant nap for someone who was trapped against their will.

"Oh! He got a lot uglier than I remembered." Hylltywyll chuckled, looking up at Tsarra with a grin.

He was glad to see Tsarra feeling better. Not that he cared that much about her feelings, he just hated all the sad moping! Yeah, that was why! He could at least try to tell himself that, but he knew he'd been genuinely concerned when he saw something had been bothering her. Ugh. Whatever! It wasn't like they were fiends. The Fairy didn't have or need any friends.

"Going to go cause some more trouble, of course. There's a lot of easy marks in this city!" Hyll replied with a smile. He was only in this city at first because he'd been left behind, but he'd had a pretty good time here for the most part. He could stick around a little longer before trying to catch a boat or something to head back to the Villa and get back at Bellighul for unknowingly abandoning him. He should probably leave sooner rather than later though, with Atolla around.

"I'll leave soon though. Don't want to deal with that big crab again. What about you?"

"Aye, he's a repulsive bugger," she says with a laugh. 

Today sure wasn't what she expected, but other than fleeing from a crab invasion, which admittedly was kinda fun, she's had a good time with the little chaos gremlin. 

"Well I wish ye the best of luck in all ye mischief makin'." She gets up onto her feet and stretches her back. "I gotta find another ship ta work on. I'm nearly broke, an' land food is expensive. With any luck, I'll be back on the high seas in no time."

With any luck, she won't run into her old crew anytime soon. She certainly had a lot more fun with the tiny fairy than with them. Perhaps she was better off without them. Yeah! Who needs 'em. She's fine on her own. Or rather, fine with her new better friends. Er, friend, she supposes. But hey, one was better than none. 

She smiles at Hyll and goes to tip her hat only realize that she doesn't have it. "Oh, guess I'll go get a new hat first. See ye next time, lil' buddy."

Waving goodbye, she heads off to try and find a hat shop that hadn't been flooded with crustaceans.

"Heh. Land food's not expensive! If you steal it. That's what I do." Hylltywyll said with a smile up at Tsarra. Who pays for food? Only idiots pay for things. The Fairy had never paid for a single thing in their life! Only stolen or been given things. They still liked coins though, but not to buy things with. They just liked them because they were shiny.

They reached into the inside pocket of their cloak, which was also something they hadn't paid for themself, and pulled out a soggy piece of stolen bread. Damn! All their food had been completely soaked! He'd need to restock. Too bad the bakery they liked was probably flooded with crabs right now. He'd have to go somewhere else.

"See ya." Hyl absentmindedly replied as he gave Tsarra a wave goodbye as she walked away. "Huh? _{Little buddy...?}" He mumbled under his breath. Had she really just called him that? Huh? Why would she call him a buddy? Whatever. He shrugged it off and scurried away to find some place with snacks to steal, preferably one far away from the crabs. Hmph. Who's someone's little buddy? He didn't care... He wouldn't mind seeing that idiot again though, but he'd never tell that to anyone, especially her.