I opened my eyes and mouth at the same time, and was met by two incredibly painful sensations at once.

The first was the harsh, blinding light of the sun.

The second was swallowing a mouthful of saltwater.

I would've cursed and shouted in pain, but I was too busy choking. My ears were filled with the shrill cries of gulls, an uproarious splashing all around me, and my own pathetic attempts at not drowning right then and there.

Slowly, tentatively, I opened my eyes again, still gasping for air. I quickly wished I hadn't.

Adrift. In the middle of the ocean. An endless blue, with no land in sight. I was treading water, utterly alone, my glasses were missing, in the middle of the ocean.

My blood ran cold, terror crawling its way up my spine. I opened my mouth to scream, but a small wave chose that exact time to splash against my face. I sputtered and coughed, hacking up the disgusting saltwater. Struggling to regain my ability to breath was only a momentary distraction, however, as the primal fear made its way back to being foremost in my mind.

My feet, dangling in the emptiness below like bait. Hungry things that swam through the darkness, full of teeth and smelling fresh prey-

I viciously shook my head. Couldn't afford to think too hard now of all times. There were a million- No, that was wrong, there was only one question I had, but it wouldn't be answered by treading water and pissing myself out of fear until I sank.

Well… I was pretty sure I'd already done the pissing part. Did that attract sharks?

I forced the thought down, doing my best to ignore the sheer panic, that almost made me freeze up once more. Instead, I made a long, deep inhale, recalling an old, simple lesson from my instructor.

Breathe. Then act.

Fear could be strength in its own right.

I exhaled, then started to swim. I had no clue where I was going, or if I was further damning myself by getting further from land. But if there were gulls nearby… there was a higher chance that land was nearby as well. All I did know was that I would rather die of exhaustion then wait to be ripped apart by sharks.

I had no idea how long I swam. It could've been minutes, or hours. The sun constantly beat down on me, baking my exposed skin. My whole body ached, crying out in pain as I forced myself harder and harder to keep moving and afloat. I was a good swimmer, but endurance had never been my strong suit. Especially with no food or drinkable water.

I wished I could say it was courage or hope that kept me going for so long. Something noble, an inner strength that had been ushered forth by the dire circumstances. But that would be a lie. I knew damn well what kept me going.

Utter terror. Fear of sharks, fear of drowning, fear of dying, pick one or all three, didn't matter.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep-

Something brushed against my hand.

I definitely pissed myself right then and there.

Screaming and flailing, I desperately tried to swim away, up until I actually saw what had touched me. Something long and thin and… pink? Light purple? The tentacles of some kind of jellyfish?

The stuff clung to my hand, minute strands of purple wrapped around my fingers. No, it wasn't a jellyfish… it felt more like hair. It trailed through the water, leading to something that was most definitely not a jellyfish, but far stranger.

A girl, clinging to a piece of driftwood. She wore a long, frilly white dress, dirtied by the water and lord knew what else. Silver jewelry glinted in the sunlight, finely-made and delicate chains that looped through her hands and legs. The purple hair framed an absurdly youthful and beautiful face, stretching on past her ankles and to me.

Putting aside the fact that the girl looked vaguely familiar, I frantically swam to her. In a mad scramble I latched onto the driftwood, barely large enough for the two of us. As my fingers dug into the soaked wood, I sagged in relief and rested my cheek against its dank surface.

I stayed like that for a while, simply breathing and appreciating that I didn't have to keep kicking just to not drown. It was when I heard something sliding beside me that I finally looked up.

The girl was unconscious, which explained why she hadn't said anything this entire time. And her grip was slipping, her petite body slowly sinking into the ocean.

No! Don't leave me alone!

My hand shot out, despite my arm screaming in protest, and roughly grabbed her by the collar before yanking her back up. The fact that she was so damn light was probably the only reason I had the strength to accomplish that much.

The girl let out a raspy groan, but otherwise did little to acknowledge anything had happened.

I let out a ragged breath before looking back down at her. Her face looked pained, and now that we were so close I could see she was shaking. I imagined I looked pretty similar, both of us being up shit creek without a paddle.

But the more I looked at her, the more she looked familiar. I recognized her, I was pretty sure, but if she was who I really thought she was… Well, I was even more fucked than I originally thought.

A seagull's cry pierced through the fog in my mind, and I shook my head. Priorities. I had a raft, such as it was, but I couldn't afford to waste time pondering how I got here. All that mattered for now was getting out.

"C'mon," I rasped, pushing the girl further onto the driftwood and starting to kick my feet.

The girl murmured something under her breath, still seemingly lost to the world.

"As...terios…" she weakly whispered.

I kept swimming. One thing at a time.

My feet touched something. Something solid. I stopped kicked and started walking. Wading through water.

Couldn't see straight. Vision was just smears of blue and white and green. Shouldn't be that bad. Not that blind without glasses. Something was wrong.

My lungs were on fire. Every motion was like a molten dagger in my muscles. Every feeble gasp of breath brought little relief and more pain. I tasted salt and sand. The heat was stifling, roasting. An oven.

My legs shook violently as they took their first tentative steps on solid ground. I wrapped the girl's arm around my shoulders. So light. Couldn't leave her in that heat.

Slowly, painfully, I walked toward a dark spot in my vision. Shade. Had to be shade, had to be.

The instant I entered the shadow and felt cool air on my battered skin, I collapsed.

Faded in and out. Breathing and thinking were labors. I felt myself trickle away. Laid out on my back, sand pressed against my burnt skin.

There was a voice. A girl's.

My eyelids fluttered open. There she was. Luxurious pink hair fell like a waterfall around her face, tickling my nose. The girl was looking down at me with… with…

Golden eyes. Square irises.

They were haunting, otherworldly. Beautiful.

She was saying something. The words were foreign, muffled, and rolled right off me. Such a melodious voice.

My eyelids lost their strength, closing shut. Maybe for the last time.

Something warm on my lips. A liquid that slid down my throat, tasting of iron and tang. It filled me, coursing through my veins. It was like an electric shock, pure energy growing and growing and growing growing growing growing-!

The electricity lanced upward through my face, to my right eye.

BOILING.

I had no idea how long I'd screamed until I blacked out.

A gentle, soothing tune hummed over the ebb and flow of waves.

It sounded lonely.

With a groan, I clutched my head and and slowly sat upright. My body ached and creaked, dozens of tiny, dull points of pain littered across my skin. My right eye felt sore and bruised, so I kept it shut while opening my left to finally see just where I was.

Cerulean waves gently lapped against a shore of white sand, leading to a calm sea of the purest blue. A cloudless sky stretched on beyond the horizon, inhabited only by the distant arrowhead shapes of seagulls. A verdant emerald paradise was at my back, filled with chirping birds, chittering insects, and who knew what other vibrant creatures that lived beneath the trees.

A tropical paradise. It brought back memories of Ko Samet.

The humming stopped at my side. "So, you're finally awake," the girl's voice noted.

I turned, and there she was. Without a doubt, she was someone I could never have actually met, nor, frankly, someone I wanted to meet.

She looked up at me from where she sat. Golden eyes blinked, then narrowed. "Do you know who I am?" she asked.

There were only two people she could have been, but the name she'd murmured back then narrowed it down pretty easily.

"Euryale," I croaked, finding my throat dry.

The goddess blanched, delicate eyebrows furrowing as she shook her head.

"You mangled my name," she pointed out in a huff, folding her arms over her chest. "That's rather rude, considering I saved your life!"

I frowned. "... Uh, I did? You did?"

"Obviously," Euryale groaned. "You pronounced it 'Yuri-ale', which is just so, so… crass!"

Stiffly, I raised a hand to pinch the bridge of my nose, silently wondering at just how surreal this whole experience was. It had to be a dream, right? Even if everything felt far, far too real…

Like the dull throbbing in my right eye.

"Then how are you supposed to pronounce it?" I asked. Not exactly the most pressing question in my mind, but I had no idea where to even start.

"Your-eye-a-lee," she spelled out slowly, regarding me as one typically would a simpleton… before a smirk appeared on her face. "Though I'll excuse you this one time, since you did help me out earlier and it'd be a shame if I had to discard a new toy~"

I blinked down at the girl, staring dumbly. "...Okay, uh, hold on," I grumbled, shaking my head. "Did you just call me a toy?"

"Well, you are a man, aren't you?" Euryale retorted obviously, looking me over. "It's the fate of all men to dance to our tune, after all. The less you resist that eventuality, the easier this whole arrangement will be."

"Arrangement?" I echoed, bushy brows raised. "And what's that supposed to be?"

Euryale's smirk became a beaming smile. "Why, for you to be my bodyguard, of course!" she replied, leaning forward. "You already proved that you were willing to die for me, since you were sweet enough to not push me off our little raft and bring us all the way to shore, so it only makes sense that you keep protecting me until we find Chaldea and Captain Drake!"

"... But you're the Servant here," I pointed out. If she found it interesting that I knew of the term, it didn't show. "You're supposed to be leagues beyond anything I can accomplish, so why do you need me to protect you?"

"Well, I say 'protect', but I really mean 'distract'," Euryale admitted. "I was summoned in the Archer class, and I was never much good in close quarters to begin with. But if something attacks, you'll be in front so they'll go for you first while I shoot them. You should be excited to play the role of the brave hero!"

There was so much wrong with that statement that I outright flinched. I had to force down my first impulse to say "Hell no!", if only because she'd dropped the names of certain people that were my best bet of getting out of this… whatever it was, alive.

Euryale. Chaldea. Drake. All painted a glaringly obvious picture of just where the hell I was.

Lord, I hoped that this was just a really, really intense trip. Randy had mentioned getting shrooms for us at one point…

"Uh, hello?" Euryale spoke up when I didn't immediately respond, frowning at me. The childlike face seemed confused… and surprised. "Wait, why aren't you being affected by it?"

I gave her a baffled look.

"My voice!" she elaborated with a pout. "You're not supposed to be able to resist my voice, much less being so close to me for so long! Unless-" Her jaw snapped shut and her eyes widened. "Oh," she breathed. "Oh. Right."

"Your pitch wasn't exactly the best, so yeah," I groused.

"It shouldn't have mattered how I phrased it, you were supposed to leap at my words," Euryale said, resting her chin on a silver-decorated, dainty hand. "No mortal man should be able to… But now I see. This is because I saved you."

I fidgeted uncomfortably where I sat. Despite what she said, how she said made it feel a great deal more ominous than it should've been.

"... While I'm glad you saved me," I started slowly. "As well as for the fact that your hypnosis didn't work on me… how, exactly, did you save me?"

Euryale turned to fully face me. She was indeed a beautiful girl, but the downright mesmerizing effect she had when I first saw her was no longer present. She was still very much otherworldly, the eyes and hair were more than enough to make that clear. It just wasn't… overpowering, anymore.

"You were minutes away from dying when I woke up," she told me. The teasing tone was gone. "I… Well, I didn't want to lose a potential bodyguard, and…" Oddly enough, she seemed like she was pouting, eyes glancing to the side. "So, I… did the first thing that came to mind. I fed you some of my essence to speed your healing."

It took a few moments for the words to register.

"You… what?" I asked dumbly.

"I fed you my ichor," Euryale hastily replied. "But I didn't think it would…" She trailed off, giving me an odd look. "... Open your right eye."

Oh no.

I complied, and my vision briefly flashed. Then it focused, and all of the little details of the world felt clearer. Each individual strand of Euryale's hair, the rays of sunlight peeking from above the shade of the palm tree, the barest wisps of cloud high in the sky…

A seagull's harsh cry rang out, jolting me. Automatically, I looked to the source of the sound, spotting the bird off in the distance over the ocean. I could count every white feather, spot the tiny scars on its webbed feet, every minute discoloration on its orange beak, its black eyes staring back-

The bird seized up, wings going rigid… then it fell. And fell. Until it crashed into the waves with an undignified splash.

Realization dawned on me.

"The air is strange here," Euryale murmured, staring at me. "And considering the nature of this singularity… I might have misjudged the consequences of my actions," she admitted.

I raised a shaky hand to my right eye, covering the thing up.

There really wasn't much else to say in response to her statement, except…

"No shit, Euryale."