173 Fishman island: The old temple

He was not out of breath his temporary accomplice was though. She leaned against the wall taking deep breaths as she attempted to stop huffing. Through the course of her mad dash her trusty scarf had come clean off, letting everyone who was interested get a look at her face.

With slow deliberate steps she got to her feet, her heaving chest no longer puffed out as conspicuously.

"What...?" Fawkes asked, unable to formulate a coherent question in this situation. I mean what could he ask her. 'Why were you running?' 'Who was chasing you?' Did it even matter to him?

With a shake of his head, he gave up. Unfortunately, for him, the day only became even more absurd from there, for with a small scream the fishwomen turned to him. "Who are you? Why are you chasing me??"

Suffice to say, that Fawkes was annoyed.

With a small defeated sigh he simple stared at her till she calmed down, an unnerving curiosity invading her eyes as she began to look him over.

"Big. Buff. Really strong..." she began to mutter to herself as she walked all around him.

"You can't be that old geezer!" She concluded after her investigation. "He was way more pudgy then you!" she nodded as if she had solved the world's most confounding mystery.

"We aren't even the same colour! How could you confuse us?" Fawkes snapped aghast when he realized that she had confused him with the fat fishman that had been chasing her.

"Don't sweat the details!" She said with a mischievous smile, before she began to skip into the tiny encampment.

It was a small village like settlement, located on the outskirts of the island. Corals spread as far as the eye could see as tiny huts with purple and green reef ceilings glared dully at him.

A small roadway could be seen leading inward, a ditch on either side with a small quantity of sea weed flopped soullessly on the greying streets. Most of these huts had a single stone door from which people would exit or enter with a simple rock like walkway constructed for over the ditch.

At the very corner of the small road of huts stood a relatively bigger one, this one made solely of reef. Even the door was merely a cut-out of the stuff. A single hole was drilled over the structure that seemed to act much like a chimney. It was to this hut that the women walked towards.

The smile on her face had faded somewhat as she walked forward, wading into the group of people that stood going about their daily lives.

Children in tattered clothes ran around and when a few crossed her path she would blankly ruffle their heads before continuing forward.

Fawkes groaned slightly. He was curious now.

"Do you know what this is, stranger?" she asked sonorously. Now that he paid attention to her voice, it held a magical tone to it. It almost felt as if every word she spoke belonged to a song.

"Not really stranger" he replied insipidly unable to let the slight mocking tone out of his voice.

He smiled humorously.

"This is the old temple. Whatever you see before you, once belonged to the greatest school of Fishman Karate, the temple.

Humpf. Now look at it. Barely able to make ends meet..." She muttered as she walked forward, nodding towards an old crippled women that sat on her doorstep grinding down what looked to be a certain grain.

"After the Island was forced to cede some of its authority to the World Government, it was forced to disband all formal schools of karate. Whoever remain are only solo practitioners... Till a few decades ago, they didn't particularly care that the rule was followed, but after fisher tiger, they decided to be a little strict with us..." she chuckled humourlessly as she finally made her way to the reef door.

At its side hung a small bell.

She rung it waiting patiently. On the other side of the door shuffling noises could be heard.

"Why tell me this?" Fawkes asked. He was curious might as well ask... After all he had never met anyone here nor had he heard of the so called temple.

"Because you are human." She replied simply.

"If you are down here, that can only be because of two things. Either you are someone that is respected by the royal family or you are strong enough that they cannot control you. Either way, it will be interesting seeing how you take this information." she said bowing slowly as the door creaked inward.

Inside the decrepit hut stood a group of old people. Even the one who had opened the door was someone who had more wrinkles than they had skin.

As soon as the women entered the door she glared at the women at the very centre. It was someone that looked more fossil then alive, yet still somehow she breathed. She had a positively Machiavellian grin on her face as she looked at the brown coated women.

"Little Laurel, how was your little escapade?" She asked cackling at the very end of her question.

"You lied to me old goat! The Lyre doesn't do shit! You sent me on a fool's errand!!" she roared as the older women cackled louder.

"But wasn't it fun?" she asked smiling cheekily with the two teeth she still possessed gleaming in the light of the lamp hung on the wall on the side.

"Bullshit! I even tried to play it! It was so out of tune that I felt like someone was dragging out my bones and playing drums on my spine!" She snarled.

"Hush tunist." an old man who had been sitting down with his eyes closed called out, his voice sounding like every word that he said out loud would be his last.

"Let us old bones indulge ourselves somewhat on these last few days." he finished before going back to his meditation.

The group nodded somewhat vigorously as the women in the middle pouted.

"Old prankster, stop tricking the poor girl." another women chided from the other room as she came in rolling over a wheel chair.

"Fine..." the women grumbled before looking over at Laurel.

"You want the damn Lyre take it, it's in the prayer hall! You've kept us company for long enough. Soon this house shall no longer belong to us, and when we leave there will come a new Tunist. Your effort has been recognized." she finished on her croaky tone before she fell silent.

Within a few more moments her breath too had fallen equally silent.