Author's Notes: The adventure continues. Thank you for the wonderful reviews over the last chapter, I didn't really except so much—or any—considering the year long hiatus this story sort of had to suffer through. Well, hoping to NOT let that happen again! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Chapter 10

Danny woke up, gasping for air and shooting straight up off his back where he had been lying. His eyes had sprung open, and they stayed wide and frightened even as he took in his surroundings.

Beach, ocean, night sky. And between him and all of that, were rough walls, carved by glaciers years ago and left behind as the world grew. Danny was still trying to suck in air by the time he realized he hadn't been just lying prone in a cave by himself at nightfall. That familiar purring met his ears as Phantom's tail swept around him from one side, and the merman's nose and lips burrowed into the nape of his neck. Well. There explained why he hadn't been attacked or eaten. Now Danny understood, after seeing what Phantom could turn into, why others—even the ones twice his size—gave him a wide berth. Phantom was a force to be reckoned with. Danny shivered—not out of any real fear—just surprise and because Phantom was colder than him, which was the norm. His aching limbs and joints were cradled against Phantom's larger body, his large hip fins, so very much like wings now in their size, draped round him like a blanket. He still felt ill now that the adrenaline was leaving him, and his bones throbbed. He was sure if he looked under his wet suit he'd find plenty of bruises. Still, he shrank back against the merman's flank and curled up, using the bigger body to take his weight and hoped to rub the shiver out of his own water logged frame.

And for about two minutes, it worked.

Danny closed his eyes, hiding in Phantom's shoulder for a bit as he listened to the merman's unique breathing. The rasp of his exhales from dried gills told Danny that Phantom had been out of the water for a couple hours, maybe longer. And they were in a cave Danny wasn't familiar with, since the ones he was familiar with weren't this small.

Leaning into Phantom's black mass of smooth scales, Danny gained control of his thoughts. Hmm, these scales…that reminded him of their strange color they had taken on when he had…

Freakshow. Freakshow!

This time, Danny jerked back from the merman's cuddling and shook his head when the merman shot him a questioning glance.

"Freakshow." The one word had the merman's nose scrunching in distaste already. Any other time, Danny would agree with him, but circumstances being what they were…

"Phantom, w-where is he? What did you do with him—please don't tell me you—" Danny couldn't even finish the sentence. It made him sick to his stomach.

Baleful, big neon lime eyes blinked at him, but Danny would not be moved. Phantom dropped the cute act and whuffed at him dryly, flattening his head fins. Clearly, Phantom didn't think their first exchange after such a harrowing episode should be about that cruel human. He wanted cuddles, dammit!

"I left him on the ship, Minnow." Phantom spit, sounding wicked. "After you decided to push an anchor over the edge and get dragged in with it, I abandoned that little bottom feeder and left him to Fate's clutches." A sly smirk played up his purple-grey lips. "I'm sure he got everything he deserved."

"So he's…dead, then." And, technically, Phantom had killed him. Even if he hadn't done the finishing blow, he had certainly gotten the ball rolling.

"With any luck." Phantom commented dismissively, and Danny swallowed. He tried desperately to remember what Freakshow had looked like last time he'd seen him. Unfortunately, it worked and he remembered horrifically clearly. The memory alone made the smell permeate his nostrils. Blood was supposed to be red, but that had been black as oil and so thick it hadn't spread correctly. If Danny closed his eyes, he could remember the dark color of the man's blood as he bled out in Phantom's murderous grip, and how his best friend had watched with feral satisfaction as he mauled the human.

Danny wanted to throw up.

The same body that was now curled around him in fact, suddenly harmless as a goldfish and with all the adoration of a love struck puppy. Phantom went back to nosing into Danny's gilless neck, purring so hard both their bodies vibrated as he held the human close. Danny knew what Phantom was doing; he was trying to comfort him. Closeness and soaking each other's presence in was about the most comforting thing the two had for one another, something that they both understood well before the language barrier faded away. Ever since they'd gotten comfortable with one another, touches spoke far better across their little bond than most anything else. But now, it felt…dirtied. Danny rubbed his arms absently, feeling a new, deeper chill settle in his bones.

One Phantom or he couldn't soothe away.

Blue eyes glanced tiredly out the opening of the cave. It was definitely too dark to go anywhere now, they would have to wait till morning. He was stuck here, wherever here was. The jet ski carried the GPS, and his map had been left for safe-keeping in the ski. He had nothing but the clothes on his back and whatever was left in his pockets. And Phantom was still pestering him for affection, but something had hardened in Danny and he pushed off. Forcing his aching legs under him, Danny kept his back to Phantom and his jaw set.

The air, when he walked out of the little cave, was stagnate and smelled like rain. Merfolk were mobile weather radars, and Danny had picked up what they knew quickly. You could smell weather, you could feel it in your bones, if you knew how to look at the sun and the moon and feel the wind. A quick look at Phantom confirmed his suspicions; a cold front was pushing in from the North, common for the last few weeks before fall. The water temperature would drop, but would never hit anywhere close to freezing here in the tropics. That would only happen farther up North. Still, he was feeling chilly now, right in his bones.

They must be farther up than they usually strayed.

Glancing at Phantom who had followed him like always, he paused. Phantom, who now seemed so different and so new to him, blinked back innocently. The discussion with Freakshow was over, but his human was acting like it wasn't. Danny turned away and mumbled something about making a campfire.

He spent the next good half an hour constructing one, but the dampened wood didn't make for the best starter, and his lighter was long gone. Sitting with the little fire pit off to the left of the cave's mouth, Danny wondered if crying was an option. It wasn't cold enough to freeze, not yet, but just a little warmth would be—

There's a click-clicking noise, and then a burst of short, hot bright lightning too dazzling to look at the slammed into the tinder. The wood ignited, and soon began to build, with the barest trace of wind to let it pick up. Danny looked from the fire to the merman, who closed his mouth and made a face absently. It was probably the taste of the lightning when it came from his throat. Clearly, the taste was not pleasant, or Phantom simply wasn't used to it yet.

"So…you're just going to do that all the time now?" Danny didn't mean to be condescending, or sound suspicious but Phantom probably would have picked up on it even if his other half had said it with every positive intention he could muster.

"Does it frighten you?" Phantom asked, in-between running his long tongue over his double canines and the slightly burnt roof of his mouth. Danny looked away.

Clever Phantom.

"No. Y..yes, I don't know!" Danny threw his hands up but scooted to sit before the fire, hugging his arms in a form of self-comfort. "How, how did you do that? Before?" When the merman tilted his head and fanned his head fins for more detail, Danny rambled on.

"You turned all—all white! Like ghostly, and your jaw opened, and you…you breathed lightning! Phantom, merman don't breathe lightning, no one breathes lightning!" He cried, nearly hysterical.

"I do." Phantom said, matter-of-fact. You had to admire that kind of black and white declaration. Usually Danny did. Right now, he scoffed at it, but went back to what had previously been said. During his short outburst, Danny saw a piece to a puzzle laid out before him, not a corner or a side. But a middle. And that middle was making all the difference, for it was changing Phantom's story.

"…ghost. The name the Reef gave you was Ghost—why did they call you that?" Danny asked slowly, realizing he himself had hit the nail on the head. As it were. Swallowing dryly, the human watched the merman's shrug.

"I told you already, Minnow." Phantom said softly, like it was a secret. "Every night we swapped stories. I have been telling you. I know what I am."

"…those stories…about the merman falling in love with, with woman? And vice versa? About, about the castles on the sea in Ireland and, and how a woman died because she was in love with a…" Danny shivered heavily, staring in those ghostly green eyes.

"The other part of you isn't human. It's Banshee." Danny spoke, feeling numb.

"While I think Banshees are some type of human…yes. Correct, clever Minnow." Phantom hummed and went back to watching the fire. His attitude was too lackadaisical for Danny's liking. It just felt like his partner had been hiding something, and he didn't like that either. But now, the middle of the puzzle was growing, spiraling out of Danny's control it felt like. His brain started drawing connection rapidly and he felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner.

"And that's why you picked up English so quick, that's why you understood me even before, why you…why no one can find anyone like you. You don't belong in the tropics you were born near Ireland—you, you have ghost powers too, and Banshees predict deaths and th-they're deadly. You can kill people and not-" Danny shook harder, and Phantom snorted in worry.

"And not even care." Danny finished, staring right at the merman.

Phantom watched him for a moment, green eyes narrowing. He seemed to be picking up on Danny's unease, and instead of coddling and soothing his fears, Phantom was in the mind to give the young man a good dose of reality. Phantom's fine lips straightened to a thin line, and his head fins folded back to show his annoyance at this whole topic that had cropped up.

"You're scared of me." Phantom pointed out blankly. Danny's scowl deepened, but he looked away.

"I'm scared for others because of you." Danny corrected blithely, and his tone worked. Phantom blinked and fell into stunned silence. Danny decided to keep the upper hand long as he could, and stood. Even as his heart screamed to turn around and talk it out, his head was on a whole other train track. Phantom wouldn't let him get away so easily it seemed, however.

"So I should have let Freakshow kill you? Or have Pariah be controlled into killing you? I can tell you now; I've seen how he hunts. It would have been slow. Painful." Phantom frowned at him, and Danny tried to ignore the worry hiding behind Phantom's cruel, cold words. Phantom only ever sounded worried when Danny was concerned.

"I'm not allowed to follow my instinct but humans are for foolish reasons? A human killing a younger, defenseless human is alright for you, is it? Even if it meant it would kill me, too?"

"Kill you too—what?"

"There is no life without you, Minnow." Phantom said without missing a beat, and the human ignored the way his ears and cheeks went flush at the declaration. Who didn't want to hear words like that said to you? It was incredibly touching, especially coming from the creature who saw things in few categories. Most of them being prey, annoying, or enemies.

"So—so what? You'd kill yourself if I died?" Danny spluttered. "Don't you dare go Romeo and Juliet on me!"

Phantom tossed his head and slapped his tail on the sand, displaying his frustration. "I remember that story you told me, Minnow. Star-crossed lovers, feh!" He snorted and rolled his eyes, a habit he'd picked up from Danny. "I would not kill myself. But I would not fight it, if Death were to come. Why should I? You are my reason. You are my heart."

Well, Danny knew that. The merman was perfectly happy lazing about on rocks, sunning himself and sleeping all day. It wasn't until Danny suggested they explore the ocean around Amity and the Reef that Phantom's life changed. True, exploration was dangerous and deadly, but if Danny's parents hadn't dragged him onto their boat all those years ago, he and Phantom would never have met. This was getting off topic, fast. Most of their discussions did to be honest. Danny brought back his glare and tried again.

"You killed Freakshow." He accused, trying to put as much disappointment and bite into the statement as possibly.

"I protected you." Phantom hissed back, though it didn't come with a show of teeth. It just meant merman was as irritated and stubborn as human. "And that, I will never apologize for."

Danny turned away, and glared into the flames until they died out.

Not another word was said that night.

Danny pushed a little more into Phantom's long torso, rolled over once. Twice. Then grunted and tried lying on his stomach, half his face buried in the merman's black scaled hide. He was just starting to move once more when the blanket of fins covering his legs pulled back and snapped up at him with enough force to get his attention.

"Hey!" The young man sat up with a scowl on his face after he'd been whacked.

"Lie still and sleep." Phantom muttered, his eyes still closed and head resting on folded arms.

"Bite me." Danny said, before deciding he wasn't cold anymore to justify sleeping against his merman. So he stretched out on the sand, between him and the modest fire of driftwood.

"Rather be gutted than poisoned." Phantom said, and Danny snorted.

It was the second—or the third?—day of their little escapade.

And it had been a long one. Danny was dry now but with no jet ski he had been forced to swim. Or rather, hold on while Phantom did the swimming for them, tail and fins pushing them almost tirelessly on. The frills and fins Phantom carried meant the merman could glide along the water with little effort when the moment struck him. By saving his energy for only when it was needed like jumps or maneuvers, Phantom rode the waves and currents as if he were a bird in the air. And he had no trouble pulling three full grown adults, let alone skinny Danny. For almost the whole day they had been in the water, heading steadily North, sometimes North-East depending on the wind Phantom lifted out of the water to smell. Danny didn't know what Phantom was following; maybe it was based on instinct, maybe memory alone. But he wasn't in the mood to ask, or really speak at all with his partner. Danny wasn't worried about being followed, because a merman like Phantom was a hard creature to track.

Danny shifted again, unable to relax. He was dry, warm enough, and had eaten. He had even been swimming, or at least had been leaning into the force of the ocean that Phantom created when he picked up speed, which in it of itself was something that could wear down your bones if you weren't entirely used to it. Still, every time he closed his eyes sleep did not come. His stomach somersaulted thinking about the events that had gotten them here. Some people sometimes had to look back and ask, 'how did I get here?' but not Danny. He knew.

He knew, and somehow he still didn't entirely regret it.

Danny stole a glance to his left, where Phantom's huge bulk covered any chance of seeing the sparse jungle behind him. For a second, Danny thought he was asleep and was almost mad about that, too. But when his eyes raked down toward the merman's face, toxic green eyes were giving him a hooded stare. Phantom was tired, but he remained awake and alert, because his head fans were up too. They flicked toward a cricket's call somewhere in the jungle.

"…what?" Danny couldn't help it. He felt sour and grumpy and he wasn't sure if it was all directly aimed at Phantom. But half of it was and that was good enough for Danny, even though he knew deep down it wasn't fair.

"Is this your life now?"

"Yours too." Danny pointed with a nod in his direction.

"That was obvious, I go wherever you go."

'Except inland.' Danny thought secretly, and the idea made him sick to his stomach. 'Inland, to college, to a job, to a new chapter in my life and you aren't invited and it scares the hell out of me. Without you, I'm nobody. You're this legendary creature, possibly the only one that exists in the world…and I'm just plain little Danny Fenton.'

Danny realized Phantom was staring at him worriedly now, and Danny covered it with a scoff.

"I honestly haven't given it much thought, why?" Danny bit back, trying not to be nasty. He tried, at least. Not many people could be snippy with Phantom and live to talk about it.

"Because to travel in the ocean without a plan is as good as a death sentence. I'm sure Pariah's looking for us." Phantom said. "Not to mention your—parents."

"Were you going to say kind?" Danny demanded. "My kind is looking for me? If they are, it's only because I'm traveling with a merman who straight up killed a guy."

"This again?" Phantom wrinkled his nose and slapped the sand with his tail. He was irritated and it was growing by the second. Suddenly, tired and hurt and lost, Danny didn't care. So he took it out on the first thing that presented itself. In this case, his best friend.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do, Phantom." As he said this, he stood up, brushed off his pants and stood by the dying fire.

"I'm going to take a walk, and think. You can do whatever the hell you want, I don't care. And then? We're going to travel. Go up North, or West, I don't care. We're going to lie low." Danny reminded as he stood up on shore, shaking his hair out.

"I mean it. We're getting as far away from Amity as possible so I have time to think."

"Just be sure you know when the thinking ends and the running begins, Danny." Was all Phantom said, before he turned and curled up to sleep for good this time. Danny scowled the whole walk up and down the beach, and tried not to let Phantom's words follow him like a ghost.

Two days later, and the duo continued north.

They choose to stop in a tiny town nestled around a fishing spot—so much like a tinier Amity it made Danny a little homesick—and it was the perfect place to rest for a few days. While Phantom lurked under the docks and scared the local seabirds, Danny took a few fishing jobs. He got paid pretty well because he kept dragging up netfuls of fish, chased there by a certain green-eyed shape flying along under his rented boat.

The fisherman asked for more of his time, but Danny left after only two days.

The next town was even smaller, and it didn't really remind Danny of any place at all. He wasn't even positive of the name until the third day. He only fished once or twice, not willing to take food from the mouths of the villagers who already worked hard at their livelihood. The human took a few more odd repair jobs, fixing under sides of sloops again with Phantom's invisible aid. What few merfolk they saw had no care of the land dwellers that sometimes invaded their waters. And so they gave Phantom confused, almost disturbed looks when they saw him helping Danny and acting like an obedient guppy. No one came closer to investigate them though, because Phantom would turn and flare his scales until they glow, and bared his teeth in warning. The entire time, though Danny kept his eyes peeled, he did not see one merman that even remotely resembled what his merman looked and behaved like.

Almost a week had passed, if Danny's rough estimate was correct. He didn't exactly have a calendar with him, but he had been counting the moon and noting its change in size. What he didn't spend on a hotel he saved for food and other essentials, but mostly he saved. Phantom hunted for him, they slept curled together and sharing body heat in caves or on the sand bars when the weather was alright. And sleeping under the stars was almost second nature to Danny by now anyway.

It was at the third town, on his third job there, that something finally happened.

The relatively easy fishing job was only taken by Danny because he was tired of traveling under the water and wanted to travel on top of it. Phantom had put up his usual protective argument but it had been half-hearted. Truth be told, he wouldn't mind the time alone to hunt and race any passing dolphin that caught his eye. The merman hadn't been able to go full tilt in a while and he was getting antsy, because any time Danny wasn't swimming with him Phantom was lurking under docks, and that was no place to cause a scene.

As luck would have it, a little fishing boat with her modest crew was heading his direction. And so, after a little fee and the promise to help out where he could, Danny was given a spot aboard. The work was hard, the food was stale and he slept incredibly well whatever night he wasn't on watch, but he was glad to be leaving the archipelago of Amity behind. It also gave him a chance to see a map, and get a better grip on their surroundings.

They were maybe two days travel between islands when a storm hit, grey wind with biting teeth and rain so hard it felt like pins hitting your skin. It was maybe a few steps from a winter storm, which struck Danny odd but then he lost his train of thought because—

"Maaannn overboard!"

The calls sounded from the crow's nest, and a few more echoes as other ship hands flung toward the sides, searching for the unlucky soul. A broken bit of railing gave away the likely point of exit, in fact.

"Starboard quarterrr!"

Danny heard the call and slipped and slid his way to port bow instead, making sure he wasn't seen. Shouting would only attract attention; so he dug into his pockets for his fresh supply of pebbles and threw almost the entire amount in. They were lost among the waves in a blink, sinking into oblivion. But moments later, a familiar head popped up, and the merman crowed questioningly at him. Danny was glad he had the foresight to paint the stones bright pink, their sharp color standing out to Phantom's sensitive eyes.

"Phantom! Don't let him drown!" Danny shouted and pointed, knowing Phantom could hear the other men calling by now.

Phantom turned and dove back under. With that taken care of, this time Danny scrambled through the howling wind and sleet to the mast, grabbed the longest line of rope he could find and fastened a knot. One to the mast, the other to his waist.

"Where do'ya think yer going, laddie!?" Someone snapped, but Danny ignored him and ran over the edge. A swell raised the ship high into the air, making Danny's fall a little farther than expected, but he maintained his aim and his dive kept him from any injury. When the rope went taut, he left himself get hauled back a bit. Okay, not going any farther now. Squinting in the salt water, Danny pushed above surface and whistled, waiting for a response. He got it in the form of a high pitched shriek and a flash of luminescent green somewhere to his left. It almost hurt to look at, but Danny reached out with relief, keeping his other hand on the rope to steady his body in the onslaught of waves. Phantom's body glowed bright as a star and he pivoted, pushing the half-drowned human into Danny's hold.

Above them, if Danny strained he could hear the muffled voices of the crew, and suddenly the rope round his waist was dragging them through the rough water.

"Pull! Put yer backs into it! Puuull!"

"You see that light!? You see it!?"

"Green as sin! It couldn't be a—not this far out!"

"Merfolk off the starboooarrd!"

"Aye, pull! Last thing they need—is ta get eaten!"

Danny hid his grin as he felt them both lifted. His muscles ached and he was severely out of breath, but the second they were both over the railing Danny allowed himself to roll and lie on his back uselessly for a few seconds. Someone cut the swollen rope off his waist, which he was grateful for.

Still catching his breath, Danny thought he heard faint comments of getting a harpoon but he didn't acknowledge them. No one could catch Phantom, and this storm would only help him once he turned off the glow of his body. By the time Danny could sit up without vomiting, the storm was ebbing away as they moved into its calm, if tense eye. The Crows nest reported no more sightings, not of merfolk or anything, which was also luck.

"Boy—yer a bleeding fool! Coulda drowned!" The Captain roared to him, and Danny had the decency to look sheepish. He hid his bitterness—he HAD saved a man's life after all. Take it from him, drowning in the ocean was no way to go.

"Aye, he did save Westley though, Cap'n." Someone hedged, and a chorus of murmured agreement answered him before the Captain could. The crew hadn't been mean, but they also hadn't been the most welcome. Since, after all, he was just a stranger traveling with them, but now Danny saw looks of reluctant acceptance and a few of amazement.

"Not bad work for a ship-boy." Someone else said.

"Still!" But the Captain grumbled and stopped his scolding. Everyone turned their attention to the rescued man, who was shaking and coughing but seemed mostly unharmed.

"Last thing I remember…something circling me…I swear, Cap'n…" The man shook. "It was big—bigger than any shark, black as the devil and just as wild, I—"

"Well that damned glow prolly belonged to what was huntin you, Wes.' Thing showed up after the boy jumped in ta get you—he prolly wouldn't have if he'd seen what we saw!" Someone joked, ribbing his friend who sneered in agreement.

"Alright, alright, you lot! Geddim below deck. Nearly drowned and now he's seeing sea monsters, tch. Nuttin but a lil mer out there, prolly lost." The Captain grunted and noticed Danny hanging off to the side. "You see anything like that, boy?" He demanded, a little bit nicer after his daring—if foolish—rescue.

"No, sir. Just a lot of water." Danny went for stupidity. He wasn't sure if he should be insulted or not that it worked so well.

"Thought so." The Captain nodded, patting his shoulder with one meaty hand and stomped off.

Danny supposed this was his way of saying 'good job' and took it in stride.

Later that night, when the storm had calmed and no one was looking, Danny tossed an apple over board. It bobbed for a second before it was snatched by something bigger than a shark, and certainly black as the devil himself.

Danny broke into a fond smile for the first time in days. Despite their arguments, Phantom had never let him down.

"I hate to tell you this, Minnow, but it seems we're lost."

"Lost?! As in where the hell are we!?" Danny demanded, trying not to panic. He spluttered, nearly swallowing salt water as the merman he was holding onto dipped neatly.

"Well, we are in the ocean." Phantom commented as he surfaced again. He spread his fins and batted them a few times so he didn't drift, looking around at the little speckle of islands in the distance. At the very least, it wasn't sunset yet. They floated like that for a second in the waters.

"I will slap you." Danny warned, looking over toward the cluster of islands too. It was…small and probably didn't have a lot of incentives to stay but it would have to do for now.

Phantom cackled and dove back under after he heard Danny take a deep breath. When he resurfaced it was to perch up on a sand bar, steadying himself and letting Danny slide off his broad tail to get his legs under him. The tide was slow and ambling, and the water was shallow enough. Danny slide down and stretched, trying not to feel like Jello.

"Kind of….reminds me of the cove." The human commented, pulling his little pack off Phantom, who waited patiently.

"There's an opening." Phantom directed him, sniffing the air towards the cropping of sea caves. His head fans were spread as wide as they could go, flicking at every little imperceptible discrepancy he could pick up on.

"Well…I don't see anything else that's available that doesn't scream death." Danny said begrudgingly.

Danny had been right, it was small. It had a high hill far from them that didn't look promising, and he couldn't see through the thick trees that grew tall and wide. Definitely an empty isle, at least by human standards. Danny gulped and instead turned to his left, eyeing the opening. Water lapped lazily into it, but the tide probably wasn't going to be a problem as long as Danny kept an eye on it. He and Phantom both headed into it. They didn't need a lot of Phantom's glow, most of the cave's ice was reflecting easily off his illuminated scales and that in turn reacted to the glowing algae lining the floor and up the walls in lazy mottled patterns. It was pretty, Danny had to agree, but that didn't mean it was safe.

"M'gunna see the other side of this place. If I can't find it in five minutes, I'll come back." Danny said, still pushing dripping bangs from his eyes.

Phantom didn't acknowledge Danny leaving, but he knew that he'd seen him wander off. Few things escaped the merman's attention.

Wind howled outside, and Danny grumbled and wandered back from the opening. The dark sky to the east was normal for the time of twilight, but the dark sky to the west was most certainly not.

"That moved in fast." He grumbled under his breath, now understanding why Phantom had suggested the little isle.

No ships or merman were getting through this weather, Danny decided. He returned to Phantom a second later, but stopped because the merman had wandered after him anyway.

"The cavern ends over there. Sand bank." Phantom informed as he pulled himself back into the water with a happy shake.

"C'mon. Let's check out the back." Danny waded through the waist-deep water, fighting the goosebumps that prickled his skin. "Maybe this island is at least a little hollow."

Phantom seemed unbothered by the chilly water, which Danny supposed made sense since it had been dropping slowly over the past week and a half. As long as it didn't drop drastically, the merman could adjust, a trait Danny envied. Danny wondered if Phantom's adaptability had anything to do with his bloodlines, mixed though they were. A Banshee. A ghost. Another mythical creature—who knew two outside species could make something new like that? Something so…powerful.

Thinking back to the merman's white sockets and large, gaping maw made Danny shiver for an altogether different reason. Phantom's tail rubbed along his ankles affectionately, probably unaware of his thoughts. This action just made Danny feel even worse for being scared of his best friend, no matter how briefly. And on the other hand, having something like Phantom on his side was probably the best defense Danny could have aside from a gun and he didn't like guns. A bullet wouldn't come back if you asked it. And maybe it took a few times, but for the most part Phantom did come back when Danny asked.

It was then Danny trod on Phantom's tail, cursed and pulled back, apologizing. But the merman wasn't paying him any attention; he was crouched low in the water, just his dorsal fin and his eyes and head fins out of the water. Danny followed the merman's gaze, knowing the merman was already turning his scales black in an attempt to blend in.

"What is it—?" Danny whispered, but Phantom didn't answer because he didn't need to. Danny tensed up too, and was barely aware of the merman herding him up against a bundle of slick rocks. Ahead of them the tunnel opened in maybe a sixteen, fifteen foot diameter, with a few more tunnels heading somewhere. In the center was a deep pool, its deep blue waters bubbling as something huge and heavy surged up from the middle and headed for the closest shore.

"Oh man…" The human moaned. The noisy splashing provided Phantom more than enough cover to haul Danny down and press over the smaller human. Still tucked behind the rocks and now wedged under his merman, Danny peeked out from under Phantom's chin, trying to control his breathing. Phantom was even silent, his freshly watered gills and slow breathing keeping him from making hardly a sound. The merman shifted his bulk more over Danny and watched the creature with his usual intense, slitted gaze.

The monster was half the size of Pariah but bulkier and moved with more grace on and off land. Its white fur glistened as water dripped from it, and it seemed unhindered by the fact the water was near freezing. It was more bear than human, but it was still horrifyingly bigger than them and stalked toward their hiding place with absent grumbles and growls. Possibly, it was checking over its territory and if it found Danny or Phantom all hell might break loose. Danny swallowed, instantly recognizing the monster from his mother's lessons and Vlad's personal accounts.

Danny knew what part of the map they had entered, and he instantly wished they hadn't.

"I know where we are…" Danny hissed to his merman. Judging from Phantom's predator stare at the beast ambling closer and closer, he was figuring it out at the same time as Danny was.

"We're near the Far Frozen." He breathed, stilling on instinct. Beside him, even Phantom shifted his weight uneasily.

This was not good.