Laguna Battle Challenge (Rigmor): The missing glasses

909 words > 3x225 (675)
4. A Short-Sighted Mermaid. It turns out Laguna thought you were her brother. To be fair, anyone kind of looks like Ronin to her from a distance… and it’s hard to keep glasses on underwater. In fact, she lost them recently. Draw or write your character helping Laguna with her vision problems. Do they help her find her glasses? Help her make new eyewear?

Rigmor wanted to reply something to their newfound sister, but a sudden tug at their sleeve stopped them – Brighid had reached their friend. Her spiritual bond with the witch doctor and familiar appearance were enough to break the spell over Rigmor's mind and bring back the old fears of the water depths. Panic stroke, as the witch doctor felt that their companion was about to drown!

Intuitively, Rigmor reached out to Brighid. To their own surprise, holding the raptor's head in their hands allowed them to share the positive effects of the mermaid's spell, such was the power of their spiritual bond. Now Brighid could breathe underwater too, as she took the form of a mosasaur-like creature – the raptor's feathers turned into scales and her limbs transformed into flippers, while the tail started to resemble that of the Rigmor's merfolk form.

Now that the danger had passed, Rigmor addressed Laguna, asking for an explanation for her actions. By this point Laguna had finally realized, that even in their marine forms the two strangers before her had little resemblance to Ronin. She replied to Rigmor, apologizing and explaining the situation. It turned out, she mistook the witch doctor for her brother because of her poor vision.

Aiding people with health problems was Rigmor's duty, so after they'd learned, that Laguna had no evil intentions, the witch doctor agreed to help her. While Rigmor couldn't heal the mermaid's eyes, they could try to find her missing eyewear.

Rigmor and Brighid followed Laguna to a kelp garden, where the mermaid had last seen her glasses. The underwater landscapes on the way there were so fascinating to the witch doctor, who'd never seen anything like this before, that they were often asking Laguna about their surroundings. The mermaid was surprised by such trivial questions, but answered them nonetheless.

Soon they reached their destination – a stone bench in a small opening surrounded by the kelp forest, Laguna enjoyed coming here to read. While doing so, she would take off the glasses to better see the text. Last time the mermaid was reading here, she fell asleep and when she woke up the glasses were gone. The currents here were too calm to accidentally carry them away, so she suspected someone had pulled a prank on her, however even after some time had passed no one had brought the glasses back. Their disappearance became a mystery to Laguna.

Rigmor asked the mermaid to outstretch her hand towards Brighid. Laguna found it strange, but the witch doctor explained how the raptor could sense her scent and find objects with a similar one. This ability was often used to find people lost in tundra, however sometimes witch doctors used it for finding lost items too.

After Brighid memorized the mermaid's scent, Rigmor beckoned the raptor to swim closer and pointed at the bench. Brighid knew what was asked of her, she examined the area and looked back at the witch doctor, chirping at them with confidence in her voice – she found the trace they needed.

The trail led the three quite far, to an underwater canyon, a home to a pod of aquatic creatures, which had many similarities to Earth's dolphins in shape and size. They were joyfully riding the currents between the stone pillars scattered around the bottom of the canyon, playing with a long ribbon made of kelp. The ribbon was shimmering under the sun rays, creating a mesmerizing sight.

Brighid let out a victory roar and rushed towards them, leaving behind a trace of small bubbles. Laguna tried to stop her, but the raptor had already swam too far, oblivious to the mermaid's call. Brighid was a fast swimmer in her marine form, but the agile creatures easily outmaneuvered their prehistoric pursuer, keeping the ribbon too far for her to reach. Feeling the futility of the chase, Brighid had to return to the witch doctor, who gave the raptor a pat on the back, as they knew, their companion did her best.

Laguna wasn't surprised by the outcome of the chase, as she was familiar with these animals. She asked Rigmor and Brighid to keep their motions to a minimum, so she could calm the dolphin-like creatures down. The mermaid sang another song, its tranquil melody attracted the animals close to her location and now they were swimming around the three travelers, examining them with curiosity.

As the creatures brought the ribbon with them, Laguna got a chance to take a closer look at it. Holding the ribbon in her hands, the mermaid could see various small items woven into it, which gave it its shimmering properties. Among them were the missing glasses, carefully intertwined with the kelp leaves.

Laguna told Rigmor, that she found what they were looking for, but before she could take it, she needed to leave something similar in return. The witch doctor got an idea, they took out a magnifying steamglass from their bag, an item they found during one of their previous adventures, and gave it to the mermaid to replace the glasses with.

Later Rigmor learned from Laguna, that the dolphin-like animals are migratory and don't stay at one place for too long, their presence in these waters was a rare sight. The ribbon they carried with them was of cultural significance, and although no one knew its exact meaning, it was important to not disrupt it, if one wanted to keep good relations with these creatures.