Inane Verbiage

VI

This time around, when everything clears I find us in a place that couldn't be more different than the grey, dull colours of the goblin market - a deserted beach with sand so white and fine it looks as though we're treading on snow.

 I'm about to ask just where we are when Eros breathes out an awed "The Mermaid Isles" as he gapes reverently at the clear turquoise waters.

 I blink. "What?"

 "It's the nearest place in Gaia to the Mermaid Kingdom," Caoimhe explains (and I mentally note that she seems equally as wonderstruck with the view as Eros and I - a comfort, somehow). "It lies just on the border of the Kingdom and is the only way to get there."

 "…oh."

That's when I notice that there is nothing on the beach but us, sand, water, plants and more sand. "Just how are we supposed to reach there, though?"

Caoimhe's mouth quirks slightly beneath her beard. "That's for the two of you to find out."

 "Wait what?" Eros tears his eyes from the ocean and turns to regard the leprechaun in confusion. "Don't you know how to get there?"

 She shrugs. "Nope."

 "Then is there any idea how we could get there?"

 Caoimhe lets out a non-committal shake of her head. "Not a single one."

 Now it's my turn to face her, eyes widening in shock. "What?"

 "I'm your guardian - I'm supposed to make sure you don't run into any trouble that could've been avoided, not spoon-feed you all the answers."

 Well okay she has a point there, but "didn't you say you know where the Osiris stone is?" 

She nods at that, but before I can heave a sigh of relief she continues with a "but I never said I knew how we could get from place to place." 

"Great." Eros lets out a loud groan before falling onto the sand, rubbing his face with a hand in frustration. I feel like doing the same, but I decide that  I'm not going to give up as quickly as him (which is ironic because he was the one who was all I-MUST-GO-ALONE in the first place) and turn to face Caoimhe, desperate. "You said you don't know how to get from place to place, which means that you do know the places where we need to go in order to reach it… right?"

 The leprechaun suddenly lets out a brilliant grin, revealing a gold-chipped tooth and startling me so bad I nearly lose my balance and fall to the ground with a yelp. "That I do." 

"Great!" Eros exclaims again, this time in a distinctly different tone as he all but jumps to his feet and shoots Caoimhe an expectant look. "Zeus told me that he foresaw that there'd be a ship of some sort, something to do with the Mermaid Kingdom, and finally some 'begging' with the Fae King - by which I'm assuming that the Osiris stone is kept in the Faerie Kingdom?" 

Caoimhe nods in response (and I resist the urge to dance a jig in triumph at my unexpected success). "The Osiris stone is indeed in the Fae Kingdom, but His Majesty won't be giving it up easily, especially when Ay can easily get his hands on it once it's on Gaia." 

It's as though I got hit on a head with a lightbulb. "That is why we have to go to the Mermaid Kingdom isn't it? Because there's something there that the Fae King wants and we can use that to exchange for the Osiris stone?"

 The leprechaun lets out another affirmative. "And although I can't go with you, I do know exactly what he wants." 

"Why can't you come with us?" I can't help but ask in bewilderment. She'd followed us thus far, after all.