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Frye was in the valley of the Crater, training and practicing her skills. She liked to train a lot. You never know when you got to fight the unknown. She especially loves to train with her eels, and the one she was training with today was a giant, gray-colored eel named Nagi. She was actually the first eel Frye owned and trained ever since she was a little squid. Nagi had many scars from battles (and accidents thanks to a little inexperienced inkling at the time) that littered her body, with a few small rips at the dorsal fin and the tail fin that added more character to the eel's body to tell stories. The eel was huge! Big like a truck and possibly the length of three Master Mega's, as Frye likes to say. The inkling loved Nagi and felt like she wouldn't be Frye without her. "Whew! What session, huh Nagi?" Frye wipes sweat off her forehead and stretches her arms to the sky. Despite the eel not being able to talk, she can understand speech, and slowly nods, starting to coil herself up as there was a soft audible sound coming from the action, and it makes the inkling chuckle. "Guess I don't have to tell you twice to get some rest, grandma," a simple hiss came from Nagi as her deep blue eyes closed. Frye starts to cool down with a couple of squats and side lunges to get her legs and feet all nice and loose after an intense workout. Hmm? Suddenly, she sees a shape in the distance; the shape was white, black, and green in its colors. Is it holding an umbrella? Frye had a good feeling for who the shape was, and her eyes plus her gut never led her astray before. She walks closer and the shape becomes clearer. "Hey Marie!" Shouting at the figure and waving them down before starting into a sprint, she hopes that Marie will meet her halfway. For some reason, Marie stays in place and twirls her umbrella around. Huh? Guess Frye had to meet her full way, and starts sprinting faster to meet with the inkling to finally meet her up close now. "Hey, Boss. What's up?" She tilts her head down a bit due to being half a head taller than the other inkling. "Did I miss something?"
Marie just shakes her head, "No, you didn't. Just wanted to check on you and see how things were going," she exclaims as she twirls her umbrella and gives Frye a smile. "How has your training been?"
"Awesome! Nagi and I just finished," she turns her head to the resting eel a ways away, and is reminded, "Hey, you've never actually met one of my eels up close, have you?"
Marie's grip on her umbrella tightens and her body language stiffens, though the other inkling hadn’t noticed. "N-No. I suppose not. Why do you ask?"
"Wanna meet Nagi? She's the coolest!" Frye starts walking back to her eel thinking that her boss would follow her, but when she doesn't, "Hmm? Is everything alright?"
"A-Ah… Yes, yes. Everything is alright. I just need to get back to Alterna. Super busy right now, y'know," Marie avoids any eye contact. "It's busy…"
"Huh? But you said before I came up here that there was nothing in Alterna, and I saw you just lounging on the crates at the camp," Frye called her out because it was suspicious that Marie was making an excuse. She walks back to the other inkling. "Come on. I want you to meet Nagi," she turns her head and places her thumb and index finger on her lips to create loud whistling for the eel to hear. Sure enough, the large creature perks up and slowly makes her way to her master. Frye turns back to her boss. "She won't hurt ya."
"U-uh, actually I have to go back to Alterna real quick! I left my favorite pair of gloves and I need to retrieve them before they get stolen!"
"You mean the gloves that I bought you that you're wearing right now?" She points to the Squid Sister's gloves, which looked like the same black gloves she always wore but these ones had thin yellow and blue lines on the cuffs.
"Uh… my other favorite gloves?"
"What's wrong?" Frye looks at her concerned, never has she seen Marie act this way before. "Don't tell me you're afraid of eels, are you?" She scans the others face for any clues.
"Me? Afraid of eels?! Don't be ridiculous, haha," Marie gives a nervous smile and waves away any more 'accusations' of fear. "Why would I be scared of a large creature, with big eyes… and… sharp teeth…" she couldn't finish her sentence when Nagi stood tall behind Frye, her shadow shading the two inklings from the harsh sun. "A-Ah…."
Frye can see it on the other's face that she was terrified of the giant eel, her trembling figure and her loose grip on the umbrella were evidence enough, and she snorts at the behavior. "Hey, it's okay," the vampire squid puts a hand on Marie's shoulder to try and get her focus away from the eel for a moment. "Nagi is a gentle giant, trust me. The scariest thing she's done is accidentally tip a truck over, then tried to pick it back up," a low whimper came from the large creature behind her, who turned her head away embarrassed. "I'm sorry Nagi! I'm just trying to get the Boss less scared of you!" Frye fully turns to Nagi and gives the eel a big hug to comfort her.
Frye's storytelling for helping Marie overcome her fears of eels did work… just a little bit. Seeing an oversized sea creature become sad made her calm down a bit, knowing that Nagi had emotions seemed comforting for some reason, but the eel was still huge and menacing, and Marie couldn't stop her shaking. "F-Frye. Maybe we should d-do this another time. If I'm afraid of eels, which I'm not! Shouldn't we start with… s-smaller ones?"
"Well we could, buuuut… Nagi is right here," turning to the Squid Sister and walking so that she is behind her, Frye gives her a gentle push. "And like my Ma and Pa always say: better to jump in the deep end than to walk in the shallow end."
"What? What does that-" Frye pushes Marie closer to Nagi, and she starts to panic again. "F-Frye!" she tries to push back, "Maybe we should think about this more!"
"Don't worry, Boss," Frye finally stopped pushing Marie, and the two were some inches away from the eel's face. She places her hand atop the green inkling's and takes off her glove; Marie gives her a confused look. "So you can feel her better!" She gently grabs her hand and slowly brings it to Nagi's snout until it's roughly taken back by the owner.
"I-I-I can't. I-I-I just-" Marie looks at Frye to avoid looking at the eel. "She's horrifying!" Upon saying that, Marie hears a noise coming from behind her and she flinches, bracing herself as she expects the eel to be angry. When nothing happens she takes a peak and sees that the eel looks sad. The noise Nagi made was a whine, and the eel lowered her head to the ground in shame.
"Hey. It's okay, Nagi," Frye walks over to the large eel and squats down to pet her head. "Marie didn't mean it. She's just scared, that's all."
Watching this large creature suddenly become like a baby was giving Marie mixed signals in her fear-driven brain. A part of her wants to comfort the eel, but the other part says 'screw that and run away before it eats you'. She folds her umbrella and places it on the ground, it alerts Frye and she looks up at her. "U-Uh…" the green inkling fidgets with her hands. "Could-could you hold my hand?" She extends out her gloveless one to the inkling, still visibly shaking. "I-I think she won't bite me if you hold it."
Frye just looks at her and gives her a snort. "I already said she won't bite you," she gets back up and stands next to Marie, gently taking her hand and walking closer to Nagi. "She's not gonna hurt you, I promise. I won't let anything happen to you."
Marie blushes at the notion, it was sweet that Frye is keeping her safe even, according to the vampire squid, if it wasn't necessary. Now the two were a lot closer to the eel, and Marie's anxiety was getting the better of her. She wanted to reel back and walk the other direction, she wanted to scream. When her hand was inching closer to the snout of the eel, she shut her eyes and looked away so as not to anticipate what came next. She can feel her hand getting closer and closer until…… Nothing happened. Well, nothing bad happening that is. All Marie felt was her whole hand on the rough texture of Nagi's snout. It didn't feel as slimy or as coarse and jagged as she thought it was. Opening one eye to take a quick peak, she sees Nagi with her eyes closed, almost looking content. She made a noise that sounded similar to a purr. "Hah…" She let out a deep breath she didn't even know she was holding.
"Hah! See? I told you. And look at that," Frye lets go of Marie, but still keeps her hand close just in case it's too much for her. "She likes you. I knew it!"
"Heh. It's… It's n-not bad," Marie starts to relax, even shifting her body so that she's facing Nagi, and now both her eyes are open. All that anxiety and stress from before started to slowly disappear, and she begins to do small rubs on the snout. Nagi seemed to enjoy being pet, as her purrs became longer and there was a smile Marie thinks she saw. "I-It's almost relax-"
Nagi was tired from the training; her age and the fact that she took a nap before her master called her over just made it more apparent, and she couldn't help but yawn. And so, she did. Right in front of Marie. Her maw was wide open to show the sheer size of her tongue and her sharp teeth. Dark flesh that got more dim looking further into the mouth. Once she felt more awake, she closed, and saw that the green inkling before her was wide-eyed, terrified, and looked more pale.
“Uh oh,” Frye stands behind Marie and, just as she thought, catches her as she falls backwards. She fainted, and Nagi looked very guilty for what she did; not wanting to scare the poor inkling anymore, she slithers away from the two. “Nagi, wait! It’s okay, girl! I know you didn’t mean it!” Frye calls out to her companion before looking down at her boss, still holding her under her arms. “ *Sigh* Let’s get you back to base,” Frye grabs the umbrella and switches to carrying Marie bridal style to make the trip easier. She calls out to Nagi to come back with them to base camp.
~~~~~~
“Mmnh…” Marie felt dazed and confused, feeling light on her feet. Wait a second… She wasn’t on her feet, she was being carried by Frye. When did that happen? “Frye?” She stares up at her carrier. "What," she looks around to see where they are, or how far they've walked. Seeing as Marie can see the Crater base camp through the heatwave, it must've been quite a while. "What happened?" She rubs her temple.
"You passed out after Nagi yawned, haha," Frye chuckles as she looks behind her at the eel trailing behind. “She felt bad about scaring you, so she’s not gonna get close to you now.”
Marie looks back at the eel behind Frye and sees that she looked sad. It made the inkling feel sorry for Nagi. Seeing as she’s still being carried by Frye, Marie gets a little flushed. “U-uhm. You can put me down now.”
“Oh! Right, sorry about that,” Frye stops and gently places her feet on the ground. “Just wanted to make sure you were okay. You did suddenly faint not too long ago.”
“I know, and thank you,” Once Marie gets back on her feet, she shakes them one at a time to make sure she won’t drop on herself. “Is Nagi going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I think so. You’re not the first person to be scared of her, but she’s taking it pretty hard,” Frye scratches the back of her head. “I think it’s because you were the first to try and befriend her,” she looks back and sees Nagi had stopped a ways away from the duo.
Marie peaked over Frye’s shoulder to get a better look at the eel. She wanted to do something, anything to make the Nagi feel better, but she was still afraid. “Hey, Frye? Can you do something for me?”
“Sure. What is it?”
“Can you tell Nagi that… I’m sorry for hurting her feelings? I want to tell her myself, but I still feel-”
“Way ahead of you, Boss” Frye turns around and heads to Nagi, leaving Marie by herself for a while, giving back her umbrella and glove before leaving.
As Marie puts her glove back on, she can see Frye now standing in front of the eel, saying something before petting her head. However Frye made Marie’s apology sound made Nagi really happy, as her tail was wagging and kicking up dirt. It makes the green inkling smiled to herself. She sees Frye is done talking and runs back to her. “So, how does she feel?”
“She feels a whole lot better now!” and goes to hug her boss, lifting her up just slightly so her feet dangle in the air. “Thanks for doing that!” and finally puts her back down. Despite being proud of her boss, Frye still doesn’t understand why she is so afraid of them in the first place. “Hey, I have a question.”
“Ask away,” Marie approves as the two of them start walking again.
“Why are you so scared of eels anyway? Like, what happened to cause that?” The moment that was asked, Marie started to blush hard and turned her head away from Frye. “What’s wrong? You can tell me.”
“I… *Sigh* Please don’t laugh…” Marie takes a moment, a deep breath, and finally, “Have you ever seen that movie about those researchers searching for a legend from some village?”
Frye looks confused as she tries to recall from memory of anything that sounded familiar to what Marie described. A few came to mind, but none of them had things that would look like an eel. That is, until she remembers a very old movie from when she was a kid, an old black and white one. “Wait… Are you talking about Creature from the Deep?” She was having a hard time containing herself, her smile and her laughter. “T-That one… *Ahem* ... That one movie from a hundred ye-ears ago?” She couldn’t contain herself, and started to burst out laughing.
“I-It’s not funny!” Marie playfully beats up Frye’s shoulder, furious and embarrassed. “I was young when I saw it!”
“So did I, hahaha!” Frye wipes away tears from laughing so hard. “Sorry, sorry, but you can’t NOT expect me to laugh at that. That movie is so old and dumb, it’s hilarious!”
“Do not mention this to the others, or so help me Cod I will put you on paperwork for the rest of your life,” Marie starts to speed walk away, with Frye catching up to her.
“Come on! You gotta admit, it’s a little funny!”
Meanwhile, Nagi is happily slithering behind them, her tail still wagging as she trails along.