Some Things are Meant to Be Discovered (BillDip)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three Start

A young woman's laughter rang out across a small town, and all residents paused to stare up at the two youthful adults that catapulted from above, crashing into the soft sand and causing civilians to cough to rid their lungs of the debris that had billowed up from the duos landing. The female recovered first, giggling happily and adjusting a violet water hyacinth in her brown hair before pulling on the other's forearm and dissolving into full-blown laughter when her counterpart spit up sand.

Scowling, the male brunette playfully shoved her before darting ahead, grinning and weaving in between buildings, entering a kelp forest and diving excitedly through it. The girl nearly toppled over him from the sudden stop, and streaked around him, pushing past the beads hanging in the entrance and flipping through the interior, brushing past merchandise that included an array of different colored shells, rocks and flowers that one could literally find if they went a little ways further North of the settlement.

She ignored the angered shouting of other finned comrades, instead racing toward the counter that held another woman, lazily waving her fiery tail and occasionally flicking her head back so her equally as bright hair wouldn't get in the way of her healthy forest green eyes. When the other female glanced up, she immediately set the stone she had been messing with down, greeting the brown-orbed wonder with a quirk of the lips. "Hey, Mabel. How's my favorite siren doing?" She asked playfully, giving her a loving ruffle of the head before fist-bumping the blue tailed siren that had just caught up to her.

Pouting, the pink scaled girl complained loudly about getting her hair mussed whilst trying to fix it, earning a chuckle from the others. Buyers startled to swim toward the desk, voicing their complaints when none made a move to check out the small miscellaneous items that were resting in the palms of their webbed hands. Giving the cashier a farewell, the girl adjusted the satchel that rested on her shoulder loosely and wormed her way through the thin doorway leading to the private section of the tourist trap.

Mabel floated up stairs, avoiding the moldy railing that was attached precariously to the rest of the rotting boat that had been used for their home and shop. She glanced both directions and, when her brother deemed it safe, threw open the entrance to her room and pushed him into it, turning abruptly and slamming it, noise luckily being muffled by the water surrounding them. She yanked the bag off her shoulder, ripping it open before dumping the contents out and leaving her brother to watch in bemusement at the unfamiliar gadgets that were stored there.

She spread the items out, muttering incoherently as she picked a strange device up before throwing it behind her, repeating the process before digging her hand into the bottom of her satchel and tugging it out triumphantly, the coin firmly in place between her index finger and thumb. Placing it between her twin and herself, the brunette produced a coral pen filled with special squid ink, and a slab that was carved out of thick sandstone that was only created near the shore.

"Okay, Dip-Dop. What do we know about this treasure thingy so far?" She questioned, tone chipper while staring at her counterpart intensely with a writing utensil hovering over the board. He chewed his lip thoughtfully, cautiously raising it above his skull again before his eyes brightened, nearly dropping their newly discovered find and with strong gusto she never thought he could carry, he explained in a quiet voice that he thought he had seen this somewhere around the sea floor when he was scavenging for fish.

The female siren slackened her tight grip on what she was holding, shooting up and snatching his forearm before dragging him down the stairs again, flapping her fins enthusiastically. Tightly dashing around a corner, she nearly crashed into an elder that had been idly playing with silver nuggets engraved in their language, who looked up in alarm at the youthful twins. "Sorry, Grunkle Stan! We gotta go!" She shouted, skirting around the gray haired man who called after them, voice dripping with amusement to be back before the sun rises.