A gentle, unseen current, as if obedient to Devon's silent will, slowly carried the strange trio back to shore. They were stranded on the same sandy beach where the ridiculous chase had begun, as if closing one chapter of a comedy and opening a new one. The two suns in the sky began to lean towards the west, bathing the world in a double light—one warm golden, the other bright white—creating long shadows that danced on the sand.
Devon, with a grace utterly unaffected by the previous underwater collision, walked out of the surf and immediately lay flat on his back on the warm sand, crossing his hands behind his head as if nothing could be more natural. His white robe was, somehow, almost completely dry.
Shia, whose energy seemed inexhaustible, followed with a few powerful flicks of her tail fin. She crawled out of the water, her pale skin glistening, and without the slightest hesitation, climbed onto Devon's body. She made the man's stomach her pillow, snuggling comfortably on the hard muscles she had earlier that morning referred to as "rock abs."
"Hehehe," she giggled, pressing her cheek against Devon's black shirt. "You're warm. Like my favorite coral that's been sunbathing in two suns all day." Her voice was muffled by the fabric, sounding content and comfortable.
Aqua Mizune, meanwhile, remained in the shallows, only her head above the surface. Her reddish-pink eyes blinked, staring at the scene before her in utter confusion. A human who could breathe underwater, who had just made her scream in terror, was now casually serving as a bed for the wild shark girl. Her calm and orderly world, governed by currents and seasons, had been completely turned upside down in less than an hour. Every instinct told her to flee, but an impossible curiosity, fueled by the absurdity before her, held her in place.
Devon was completely unperturbed by Shia's weight on top of him. He merely smiled faintly. "I'm glad I can be of use," he replied with amusement. Then, something even stranger happened. Devon reached out his hand to the side, into the empty air beside him. From nothingness, he pulled out the same worn-covered book—the book that should have been destroyed in the Leviathan's stomach the night before. The book appeared perfectly dry, as if it had just been taken from the most well-kept library shelf.
Aqua's eyes widened at the casual magic. It wasn't a trick. It was an impossibility performed so nonchalantly, without showmanship, without explanation. Her fear lessened slightly, replaced by bewildered awe. This man was not merely a strange human. He was something else.
"Ah, my dry bark book!" Shia exclaimed happily, lifting her head slightly. "Are you going to tell one of the stories from your tummy box?"
"Perhaps better than the source directly," Devon said, opening the book with one hand. "Aqua, you might also be interested. It could answer some of your questions about complicated land dwellers." He glanced at the shy mermaid with an inviting look.
Hesitantly, Aqua used her arms to push herself a little further onto the beach, her magnificent tail creating a beautiful sweep in the wet sand. She kept her distance, but was now close enough to hear clearly.
"Alright," Devon began, his voice calm and deep, like an ancient storyteller. "The next chapter is about... a gardener and the rarest flower in his world."
Shia was immediately intrigued. "Flowers! Are flowers yummy?"
"This gardener," Devon continued, ignoring Shia's question with an amused smile, "found a flower whose petals would snap shut if anyone approached too quickly. It was a very shy flower. If you touched it roughly, it would wither. If you gave it too much water, its roots would rot. If you gave it too little, it would dry up."
Aqua found herself listening intently. Somehow, she felt the story was about her.
"So," Devon said, his eyes seemingly staring into the horizon, "the gardener learned. He no longer tried to pick the flower. Instead, he simply sat near it every day. He watered it gently, not with a bucket of water, but with droplets of dew that he collected in the morning. He didn't touch it, only made sure the soil around it was loose and warm. He spoke to it, telling it about the sun and the sky." Devon paused for a moment, a wry smile playing on his lips. "And after weeks of patience, one morning, as the first sunlight touched it, the flower finally... bloomed on its own, revealing the beauty of its deepest core, only for the gardener."
Silence enveloped them. The story was simple, but laden with layered meaning.
Shia broke the silence with a furrowed brow. "Weird story. Why didn't the gardener just use fish fertilizer? That's the best for making anything grow fast! Then he could eat it!"
Devon chuckled softly. "That's because, Little Shark Girl, not everything beautiful in this world is created to be eaten."
Aqua's cheeks flushed. She understood the metaphor. Gentleness, patience, a careful approach... this man, in his strange and convoluted way, was apologizing and explaining his actions at the same time. Her courage gathered a little.
"You..." she whispered, her voice barely audible. "What... are you?"
Devon closed his book and turned to her, his smile now mysterious. "I am the answer to a question you didn't realize you were asking."
The answer didn't help at all, but only fueled Aqua's curiosity further. "How... how can you do... all that?" she asked again, gesturing vaguely towards the book, then towards the ocean. "Talk underwater... appear out of nowhere... everything."
Devon looked at the two setting suns. "How does a fish swim? How does a bird fly? They don't think about how. They just do it because it's their nature. I just... do my nature."
Shia snorted from atop his stomach. "Your nature is weird," she muttered.
Aqua mustered the courage for one last question, the most important one. "Why... why are you here? In my world?"
Devon was silent for a moment, his gaze becoming distant, as if seeing through reality itself. "Every story needs a reader, Aqua Mizune," he said softly. "But sometimes, a reader gets tired of just watching from afar. Sometimes, he wants to feel the sand between his fingers, feel the warmth of the sun on his skin, and hear the laughter of the characters directly." He patted Shia's head gently. "Sometimes, the reader decides to jump into the pages of the story himself."
This time, the silence that followed felt different. The answer, though an even bigger riddle, felt like the purest truth. Aqua stared at him—the mysterious man who spoke in metaphors, who served as a pillow for the shark girl, who could conjure books out of thin air. Her fear had completely evaporated, replaced by a wave of overwhelming awe and confusion. She didn't understand this man. Maybe she never would. But for the first time, she felt it didn't matter.
"So," Aqua said, her voice a little stronger now. "You... are a reader?"
Devon smiled genuinely, a smile that reached his hidden eyes. "That's one way to see it. And so far," he said, glancing from Shia, who was starting to snore softly on top of him, to Aqua, who was staring at him with wide eyes, "this is a very interesting story."
The two suns finally touched the horizon, painting the sky with colors of orange, purple, and pink. The scene on the beach was surreal: a mysterious entity, a sleeping child of nature, and a shy princess whose world had just become much bigger. The silly conversation and ridiculous scene had melted into the beginning of the most unexpected and impossible friendship. And in the midst of it all, Devon felt deeply amused.