The Destiny Detour

Underwater

Rosaliy

Panic reigned for an instant of sheer pandemonium. While Drake tried to force open the monkey's mouth and dig out the stone, and Quita tried to bite his hand off, Rosaliy channeled calm. She lived some version of this on a daily basis, after all. After all the bad options had been whittled away, all that was left was forging success out of chaos.

"It's ok," she said in her head. She cleared her throat and tried again. "It's ok."

"Senira's monkey just ate the stone," Drake snapped back.

In that moment of distraction, Quita landed a solid bite on his finger and scrambled away like a miniature monkey whirlwind.

"I know. I was there."

Rosaliy reached for Quita. Quita readily leaped into Rosaliy's lap, glaring out at Drake and chattering her displeasure with him. "Granpulpo is still coming to take Quita to Flifary Island. It's the same as before."

Drake shot her a deserved look, something in the derision and incredulity family of looks.

"We just have to figure out how to ride an octopus," she insisted, stroking Quita's tiny back. "It's still going to the right place, even if it's not taking us there."

"There is no chance it will be kindly disposed to you without magic," Drake grumbled. "You're asking to be eaten."

"What's our other option? Rip the stone out of her." He crossed his arms and shot her a look that said he would consider that option. Quita hunkered down further in Rosaliy's bedraggled skirts. "Wait, what did you say?"

"I said there's no chance—"

"No, no," Rosaliy interrupted. "After that."

"You're asking to be eaten?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed. "Eaten! We should be protected by the dome."

He stared back at her.

"In some ways, this is a better plan," she tried next. "If we can travel the whole way inside the dome, the Flifary will never see us coming."

"Inside an octopus."

"An octopus going to Flifary Island."

Quita scrambled onto Rosaliy's back, her head just peeking out over Rosaliy's shoulder, keeping an eye on Drake.

He took a deep breath. It was comforting to know a certain level of insanity could, in fact, rattle him. "How long do we have before it arrives?"

She had no way to know, but now that he asked, she had a suspicion. She reached out to touch the solid, glossy surface of the dome.

"It can't sense us in here." Rosaliy spoke with more confidence than she meant to convey. She was just guessing.

"So we have to drop the dome for Granpulpo to pick us up, and by 'us,' I mean Quita."

That sounded very likely. As long as they were making wild guesses, anyway.

Drake went on. "The dome that's protecting us from the legendary sea beast that crushes ships and consumes entire crews on a whim."

"Oh no," Rosaliy moaned, carrying his thinking a different direction. "That means we can't be in the dome until after the octopus spots us and takes Quita."

Drake stared, the meaning of her words slowly washing over him.

"On the plus side," she said weakly, "there is absolutely no way the Flifary would expect any of this."