Shoreline

2

They left the bar and walked out to the parking lot. "You okay to follow behind?" Arthur asked.  Ava nodded and mounted her motorcycle flipping down the black visor. Arthur glanced back at her and noticed that she had a sea horse on the side of her helmet but it looked like the ones from his home, Atlantis. He also noticed she had an orca painted on the tank, he smiled to himself and climbed into the truck. They headed towards the lighthouse, every now and then Arthur repositioned the rearview mirror, his father noticed and turned to him, "She's on a motorcycle she'll keep up," he said.

"I know but. . ." he paused.

"But?" his father asked. "You like her don't you?"

"No," Arthur said and quickly glanced at her, "there is something about her, but I don't know what it is."

"Is it perhaps that she has sea creatures on her helmet and motorcycle?" he asked.

"You noticed that too?" Arthur replied.

"With a big obvious orca on the side of it how could I miss it," his father teased and elbowed his son in the arm playfully.  "Or the fact she's a marine biologist?"

"She is?" he asked a little surprised.

"Yes, I've read three of her books," his father answered. Ava revved her engine breaking their conversation as she sped up. They reached the lighthouse and pulled up outside, she halted her motorcycle and took off her helmet and shook her hair free, her eyes landed on Arthurs. "What?" she asked.

"Nothing," he replied, she walked past him and headed into the lighthouse after Tom. When she walked into the front room, she noticed her books on his bookshelf and smiled to herself, she turned to Tom. 

"If you knew who I was, why didn't you say anything?" I asked.

"Because I didn't want to frighten you," he replied, she nodded and continued to look around the room.

"Feel free to take a seat," he said and sat opposite her, Arthur sat across from her. She took the shard from her bag and laid it on the table.

"Where did you find this?" Arthur asked picking it up off the table. He could hear the call of the seas.

"I was out on the boat this morning checking on Mikey and his pod when that caught my attention and so I retrieved from a coral bed," she explained.

"Coral bed, that's strange," Tom spoke up.

"Someone's removed the trident from its resting place," Arthur said.

"Wait trident?" She asked and sprung up from her seat. "We were right?" she paced up and down. "You know how big this is for us? We are only a small group," she said. "This would get us noticed."

"Not just you, but my brother," Arthur said. "It would then cause a war."

"War?" Ava asked.

"Between land and sea, it will be a war of power," he explained. "Let me keep this."

"I can't, it belongs to my research group," she said.

"Then let me meet them," He suggested.

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," She replied.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because we're not a social bunch," she said her words turned into a whisper. Arthur chuckled to himself. "What?"  

"It's nothing. . ." Tom interrupted him.

"He understands your love for the ocean," he said, Ava smiled at him.

"Anything I can do to save it," she said. She looked up at the clock on the wall. "I should be getting back, it's getting late and we're out on the sea again tomorrow."

"Don't be silly we have a spare room, why don't you stay here?" Arthur offered.

"No it's okay," she said picking up her helmet and walked outside where it began to rain, Arthur followed her.

"May I join you tomorrow?" he asked.

"Sure," she smiled pulling on her helmet and offered a nod of thanks and drove back to her home not far from the harbour.