The weather had been warm for the middle of autumn, at least until they had landed on this island where the cool ocean breeze made night feel miserable.

Val curled up with Foofy as a warm bundle in her arms, trying to sleep. His body offered more than just the physical comfort of additional warmth, which helped her to stop shaking. Foofy also provided emotional support in their shared circumstance, both aching out here on the chilly beach of this island. As much as Val’s body ached from the day’s earlier fight with Tavras, Foofy must feel the exact same way. He had been battered by Tavras’s waves earlier today too, so the poor Dobie must feel exhausted.

If she had the energy, Val might have used Past Insight to see if Ross had indeed reached the Summit of Ascension and what his life was like there. For now, she just had to trust that he was well. Her usage of so many powers today left her drained, too extensively to activate any unnecessary abilities.

Despite the discomfort of her sandy bed, Val slept soundly for her first night on Tavras’s Paradise.

When she awoke, much more than a bucket of freezing water poured over her entire body. Enough splashed over her to drench her from head to toe, and the surge sent her and Foofy back several feet.

“Ah!” Val woke up at once and jumped to her feet. Not only to distance herself from that puddle of frigid water, but she also needed to stand so that her face did not submerge in the flood.

“Rise and shine!” Tavras cheered.

Her eyes took moments to adjust from sleep to the dark of night, but she did not have to squint to make out Tavras.

His hair, while mostly brown, practically glowed with some streaks of white. His eyes dazzled with far too much happiness, given the way that he had just sent a wave crashing over Val this far up the beach.

“It is not even light out yet,” she said, sounding whinier than she intended. Having freezing water dumped on her first thing in the morning had that sort of effect on her.

“The tides have changed, so as far as I’m concerned, it is morning. You have a lot of work to do.”

Val could not disagree with him there. No matter how miserable training with Tavras would be, any price to pay would be worth it for his mentorship. That included waking up before dawn.

“Would you consider yourself athletic?” Tavras asked.

Already, Val dreaded what kind of training regime he would have in store for her today. “I was moderately athletic, I suppose,” she said, thinking back to her time in the mortal world.

With her divine blood, she had been leagues ahead of any of the athletes at her high school. During gym class, she always had to try hard in the sense of concealing her supernatural strength. The restraints of mortal life had given her few opportunities to exercise to her full capacity. Therefore, among those with divine blood, she hardly expected herself to measure up at all anymore.

“Well, let’s see about that.” Tavras clapped his hands and took off in a run. “You have one lap to finish around the island before sunup.”

How many miles did the circumference of the island span? While Val balked at the distance that she would have to run, she made her feet start moving at once. Tavras was only getting farther ahead of her, so she had to sprint her first couple of strides to catch up.

Foofy darted into a headlong zoom, but he soon fell into a lope after her on her heels.

The three of them fell into a brisk, steady pace together.

“The early morning is peaceful, is it not?” Tavras asked.

The moon appeared over the crest of the waves on the horizon. Its light made the gentle surface of the ocean sparkle with a silvery effect. Similarly, countless stars twinkled overhead, much different from the starless city sky that she had always known back at home. With all of this light, the white sands of the beach appeared almost luminous as Val continued to run, her eyes taking all of this in.

“Yes, it is beautiful,” she breathed.

No other deserted island in all of the world could possibly have such a striking appearance. Something special, something magical about Tavras’s Paradise had to give it this quality of inexplicable beauty. While Val appreciated his domain, her exhalations came out a little staggered, especially considering how she had just begun to run.

In an odd way, could this be Tavras’s idea of being kind to her? Beyond just taking her under his wing and requiring that she exercise for training, perhaps this also served as a fun activity for them to do together. Val liked to think like that, anyway. An early morning run around his positively beautiful island could be Tavras’s way of showing his consideration for her. It was not the most irrational sort of wishful thinking that the mind of a young woman could conjure, at any rate. Val felt silly, even to herself, but she liked to dream a little.

Her heart fluttered too quickly relative to the brisk running pace that they had taken up. As they continued to run, her pulse evened out and so too, she fell into a rhythm with her strides.

Foofy no longer followed at her side, but rather he decided to run farther inland. There, he had less distance to cover which let him take it easy. His Dobie nose would stick to the ground, find a place to sniff, then he would run farther ahead of her and repeat this process. He sniffed the surroundings while he waited for her to catch up. Always staying within sight, Foofy could run back to her at a moment's notice if need be.

Val did not mind Foofy’s distance, because she had Tavras to run beside the entire time. As they continued on like this, he began to pull ahead of her. While she tried her best to keep up, the stitch in her side and her huffing breath made her want to do nothing more than slow to a walk.

“Keep up,” Tavras said. “I set the pace. If you slow down, you won’t complete your lap by dawn.”

His encouragement had little of the intended effect on her, but she pushed herself to catch up anyway. Some part of her still wanted to please Tavras, maybe even impress him, but her body had hit its limit.

“Tavras… I can’t,” she said between gasps.

“Perhaps you just need more motivation.” Up ahead of her, Tavras lifted a hand. By the slight movement of his fingers, water gushed forth from the ocean.

“No. Please no.” Val stopped in place and put her hands on her knees. If she would be drowned like a rat for punishment, she might as well stop running at least.

A massive horse, all made of water, came charging for her from behind. Its hooves pounded across the ground with greater strength than any living, breathing animal. The very ground seemed to shake with each booming step. To further exacerbate its imposing presence, a sheet of water formed its finned tail. That tail slapped across the ground as it charged straight for her. Muddied sand hurled upward in its wake, and soon, Val would be trampled along with it.

Immediately, she found the adrenaline within her in order to sprint. Her teeth leveled together harder than the blood coursing through her veins. Even as she ran her fastest, the watery image of the horse rushed after her and gained on her.

“Tavras!” Val yelled. She had no other words to say, but her meaning was clear.

This was simply outrageous. Could Tavras knock it off already? His wave had served its purpose of getting her to run again, but apparently he also saw it fit to punish her more thoroughly.

There seemed to be no way out of this, except for maybe taking him down with her. Keeping with her run, she no longer had the intention of attempting the impossible in outrunning that hippocampus. Rather, her eyes bore into Tavras as she headed straight for him.

Once she had caught up to him, she lunged and wrapped her arms around him. By all of her weight, she managed to take him down in this tackle. Either Tavras needed to call off the horse-shaped wave, or they both needed to suffer its impact.

Water crashed over them with the strength of the hippocampus’s front hooves trampling over them first. Shortly after, the tail smashed over top of them, sending them into the indiscernible flow of the rushing water.

Val could only cling onto Tavras and hold her breath, waiting for this water to recede and let her breathe.

Moments later, open air was restored around her. Val found herself sitting on the beach as she took in a gasping breath.

The sound of a barking dog filled her ears, but her mind hardly registered Foofy’s concern. Instead, Val happened to have her attention dominated by another reaction.

A jolly laugh rang right in her face. “That was great! It was quite clever of you, Val.” Tavras looked down to her, beaming.

His soaked hair plastered to his neck while drops of water slipped down his face, dripping from his chin. Similarly some beads of water rolled down the lines of his neck, drawing her attention to where his skin disappeared beneath his shirt. Even soaking wet after sending a monstrous wave after her, Tavras still managed to look unduly handsome. The water almost seemed to glisten off of him with the coming dawn.

While Val snapped herself from her daze, being so close to Tavras, she found that her arms were still wrapped around him. Normally, she would have pulled away at once out of shame, but she also felt the warmth of Tavras’s arms embracing her in kind.

Either by instinct or some higher-order desire, Tavras had wrapped her in this hug while they had endured the wave together. Could that possibly mean anything? As Val remained frozen in Tavras’s arms, he did not move away from her nor did he attempt to release her.

If anything, he leaned a little closer to her. “You really got me, didn’t you? You hit me with my own wave!” Again, Tavras laughed with his pure enjoyment at this.

“Well, you deserved it,” Val said.

“I deserved a hug?” Tavras cooed. His face leaned so close to hers, too close. “Thanks, Val.”

As much as she liked him, his proximity made her flustered. Val pulled out of his arms and scrambled away from him, backwards across the sand in a manner embarrassingly close to a crab. “Uh, you’re welcome.”

Yet again, Tavras continued to laugh, this time more like a chuckle, and also more likely to be laughing at her. He jumped up to his feet and stuck a hand out to her. “Let’s finish up our run. We can take the rest of it at a slower pace.”

When she accepted his hand up, she smiled and found it easier to look into his eyes now. “Thanks.” Her feet, heavy as ever, picked up to continue to run alongside him. At least she seemed to have won a little of Tavras’s respect, having earned a slower pace like this.

“Foofy,” Val called to invite him along.

They all continued in their run to finish that lap around the island.