Amanda didn’t immediately chuck the ruined donut away but one moment she had it and when Sirius next turned to look at her, after being distracted by a junction, she no longer had it. Whether she’d thrown it back into the sea or just turned the thing to ash he wasn’t sure. He was kinda glad she hadn’t done it in front of him. He knew it wasn’t edible anymore but having to watch her throw it away probably would have hurt a little. In hindsight he probably should have done that instead of giving it to her. Sure, she’d said it was the thought that counted but he hadn’t been thinking that by giving a ruined present to her he was making her throw it away. What if she felt bad about that? He should have just done it himself.

  Sirius got so lost in his thoughts that he stopped paying attention to where they were going. Not that he’d been one hundred percent sure of the route back, he’d only been this far once before when Beatrice had shown him the fish market.

  It was currently too late in the day for the fishermen. The area was populated almost exclusively by a specific type of eel-eating crab, usually bright blue in colour but sometimes dark purple. The crabs were nocturnal, and highly aggressive toward other species. During the day they lived deep down where the light barely reached. At night they’d come up and feast on the eels that sometimes travelled up river. The eels were very good navigators. Unfortunately Sirius was not an eel.

  Sirius had spent quite a bit of time studying a map of the city of Cap, just in case, but the place was built of so many spiraling tunnels like a rat maze that once more he had no idea where they were. It didn't seem to bother Amanda though. In fact, she seemed in good spirits since the jump.

  He paused at the next junction.

  “Something wrong?” Amanda asked.

  “Did you know that all Sargasson eels come from the same place?” Sirius said, still thinking about the eels.

  Amanda laughed. “What?”

  Suddenly he realised what he’d said. He shook his head. “Sorry, I’m ah not sure where we are.”

  “Maybe we should ask for directions,” Amanda replied.

  Sirius frowned and looked around. They’d seen only one person so far, a late morning fisherman, but that had been a way back now. Sirius wasn’t sure he knew how to get back there either, assuming the person was even still there. Then he saw her smirk and realised she was joking.

  Seeing that he hadn’t laughed Amanda inquired, “Surely you carry a compass?”

  Thinking it was probably too late to laugh now and realising that he’d completely forgotten that he did indeed carry a compass, he groaned, cursing himself for not paying attention once again. He’d been prepared but done a terrible job of thinking on his feet. It was something Amanda was much better at, just going along with things. Sure he was pretty good in a tight spot when it was something he was well practiced with, like fighting or anything shipping or fish related, but the second he was in unfamiliar territory, like dealing with diplomatic stuff or navigating through parts of the city he hadn’t been in, he felt rather useless. He did his best to pretend that he knew what he was doing and the others seemed to think he did a good job with negotiations and things but the truth was he’d been absolutely terrified the first time and even now he dreaded the inevitable meeting with the council of Cap and what would be riding on it. It was more terrifying to him than the people chasing them.

  Beatrice was alright and Sandy was friendly enough but some of the other members of the council could be a bit stuffy and stuck in their ways and there would be a lot riding on careful wording in the hours to come. The others said he was good at it but he was pretty sure that was just because he was careful about what he said and somehow the less he said the smarter people assumed he was, up to a point. Say too little and people simply assumed he was a brute. He hated the looks of fear he sometimes got because of his size, so often he'd try to say the most reasonable and logical thing he could think of in the calmest voice he could to make them feel at ease, just enough. Sometimes that intimidated people even more but in an entirely different way.

  Amanda hadn’t been intimidated though. And Amanda was someone who was good in a tight situation, even ones that she’d never encountered before. She just did stuff by instinct and somehow got it right most of the time. She didn’t waste time planning or trip over her words. She just did stuff when it needed doing without even needing to think about. Sirius always felt if he didn’t think about what he was going to say then he always ended up putting his foot in his mouth somehow. But Amanda was so quick and adaptable even if she messed up, she’d already be fixing things before Sirius had thought about what to do next. She was impulsive and often acted without thought but sometimes that was exactly what was needed. There were times when impulsiveness made sense. Their current adventure was proving that you could not plan for everything. In a way, they balanced each other out.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  He held up the silver compass that he’d inherited with the coat and he watched her warm brown eyes light up.

  “Great,” she said, “Then all we have to do is keep track of roughly how far we go in each direction and try to keep going roughly north. It’s not so different from caving in a way. I don’t suppose you have a pencil and paper?”

  He started to shake his head but then remembered that he had those in yet another pocket. He handed her the compass and then reached into one of his many coat pockets to retrieve the pencil and paper, both of which were magically dry. When he next glanced at Amanda she had a funny look on her face.

  “What?” he asked.

  She looked up from where she’d been studying the compass. “It’s infused,” she said.

  “What?”

  “The compass.” She held out a hand. “Give me the pencil and paper.”

  Sirius handed it over.

  A moment later she handed them back. “Nope, those are normal. Evidentially, we need to check out the rest of the stuff in your coat though.” She turned the compass over in her hands a few times as she stared off into space with a thoughtful look on her face. After a few moments she asked, “So what were you saying about eels?”

  He shook his head. “Oh, nothing, I was just thinking about how eels are good navigators was all.”

  “And that they come from the same place?”

  “Not all eels, just the ones in these waters. They’re all born by the same island, well, collection of islands technically. They live most of their lives in fresh or brackish water and when they’re old and about to die they swim back to the islands and lay their eggs. They’re still not sure how the eggs actually get fertilized though but they know its not until later because none of the young male eels have testicles.”

  “They don’t even get to have sex until right before they die?” She asked.

  “Well, they likely don’t even get to do that. A lot fish species fertalize the eggs after they’re laid.”

  “Poor fish. I’m glad I’m not an eel.”

  “If you were you might be able to navigate out of here though.”

  She held up the compass with a smirk. “I might be able to anyway.”

  “I thought it was used for finding people?”

  “And things, like the ship. Also, we know who’s on the ship.”

  “Don’t you need something belonging to the person or thing or..?”

  Amanda nodded. “It makes it easier. Have you got anything on you?”

  Sirius shook his head. “I don’t think so.” As he fished throughout his pockets he asked, “You think you can still do it?”

  “Maybe. It is a strange infusement and I haven’t done a huge amount of tracking magic before. Can’t see how it can go wrong though, if we’re already lost.”

  “Could send us in the other direction.” He held up a set of keys. “Would these work? They’re the keys to one of the lock-boxes on the ship.” He continued searching his pockets, even pulling the lining out of a couple. “I’ve also got a waterproof logbook, a novel I’m currently reading from the ship’s library which is not so waterproof.” He winced, “And a map, also waterproof.”

  “A map? That’s ironic.”

  “It’s for further up the coast. Technically everything belongs to the ship.”

  She laughed. “I guess we’ll try the keys.”

  Sirius handed them over and put everything else away.

  “I’m surprised your coat doesn’t sink you given how much stuff is in it.” She clutched the keys in her hand and focused her attention on the compass.

  Sirius shook his head. “I think it counteracts that too, not that it would make a difference to me.”

  Amanda didn’t answer this time. She was busy staring intently at the compass. Sirius didn’t want to disrupt her focus so he stayed silent.

  Eventually she looked up and nodded toward one of the tunnels. “I think we go this way.”

  “You’re sure?” Sirius asked. She didn’t look sure. He wasn’t too worried now though. Even if it was wrong, if they kept walking eventually he was sure he’d find something that looked familiar. That or someone they could get directions from. There was a risk their enemies had trackers too but there wasn’t much they could do about that other than keep moving.

  “No,” Amanda replied with a smile, and she started off confidently down the corridor.

  Sirius followed. Taking notes with the pencil and paper as they went.

  The ground and tunnels changed several times over. Even the lighting was different. Almost all of it was electric but the colours had been specifically chosen to give a certain atmosphere in each area. The section they were in now was bright cool light that resembled daylight. It wouldn’t be but it did make Sirius feel like they were near the entrance to a cave rather than deep inside one. The ground too, had become more uneven, almost like an outdoor path. Rather than smooth flooring, tiny stones of gravel had been spread throughout this area. Along the way, pockets in the wall had been dug out and filled with dirt. Ferns were growing in all of them. If it weren’t for the ceiling overhead, Sirius could have believed they were in the jungle.

  That feeling grew a thousand times over when they burst out of a tunnel and suddenly the area opened up so wide that the ceiling was too dark to see. Someone had strung tiny light up above though, just bright enough that they looked like stars. Around them the floor was covered in loose soil and large trees grew up and out of the earth. An entire forest lay before them.

  It was hard not to believe they weren’t outside. But outside the sun was up while in here it was permanent night. A subtle purple illuminated sections of the nearby walls as well as along the gravel path that wound its way into the forest, splitting into different directions up ahead.

  Sirius was so busy admiring the ceiling that he almost walked into Amanda who had suddenly stopped.

  “Oops sorry.”

  She glanced up fast enough to notice what he’d been distracted by and her face broke into a grin. It soon faded back into a worried frown as she turned to look back down at the compass in her hands.

  “Why’d you stop?” Sirius asked.

  “I thought we were close but this doesn’t look like the ship at all. I think this is the underground forest Beatrice mentioned.”

  Sirius nodded. “It’s fine. I know where we are.”

  “You’ve been here before?”

  “No.” He smiled. “I saw it on a map.”

  https://www.historytoday.com/archive/natural-histories/sexual-eeling