Evvie enjoyed the calm breeze rushing against her skin as she soared through the sky above the shifting islands of sand below her. It looked peaceful enough down there as far as she could tell; beautiful even, so it was hard to imagine that it was home to a bunch of evil crabs as the rumors suggested. Still, it had piqued her interest so she had no choice but to investigate these claims, especially if the crabs were indeed kidnapping tourists and stranded seafaring folk, vanishing them from the world without a trace.

She tucked her wings inward a bit as she descended onto one of the sand islands in a shape of a circle around 60 feet wide. The small crabs occupying it scurried out of the way at the last second, not anticipating her coming from the air so suddenly so barely managed to escape in time as her feet slammed into the nearby sand, spraying it up every which way and causing the island to shift downward a bit, filling it up with more water. She wasn't trying to kill them with that attack but was going to try the good cop/bad cop approach, perhaps startling them into a confession right off the bat.

"Are you evil crabs or good crabs?" She questioned them, placing her hands on her hips.

She got no reply, only cautious movements from them as they studied this new intruder, most half buried in sand. Some dug themselves down deeper and out of sight. Others seemingly lost interest and went back to their business of...whatever it was they were doing beforehand. Crab related activities.

"Please tell me what happens to people, okay?" She asked more politely this time, switching to good cop. "Disappeared guys? You know?"

Still no reply. This was going nowhere fast. She let out a sigh.

“Why are you talking to crabs?” A voice rang out suddenly behind the young dragon-kin, carried with a lilting Irish brogue but strangely thick and breathy, as if the speaker had just stopped crying. She stood at the edge of the small island, the waves lapping at her feet, and indeed it seemed as if she had just emerged from the water because she was completely soaked. It was a shame as well, because the saturation marred her strangely unearthly beauty and plastered what looked to be a glorious head of red hair to her scalp, distorting her appearance. For all intents and purposes though she still looked quite human, and despite her sudden arrival at an island that could hardly be considered accessible she didn’t seem that unusual save for one thing. She wore a frayed wedding dress.

This wasn’t an ordinary by-passer out for a swim.

The Wraith fixed Evvie with a piercing glare, her eyes red-rimmed and chillingly pale blue. Her face had twisted into one of minor irritation, but it looked prime to furrow into a deeper anger if she was not immediately placated or left alone.

“More importantly, why are you here bothering me with your stomping and loud noises?” She asked again, this time with less interest and more guarded threat in her voice.

"I'm in...inves...invessy grating," Evvie replied matter of factly even after struggling to find the right word for her actions. "Invessy grating the disappearing people."

She didn't seem to act as if this situation was in the least bit odd even if she did have a little jump from the surprise of the newcomer's sudden appearance. By now most of the crabs had vanished underneath the sand, perhaps to blame from this newcomer startling them, but they had clearly been of no help anyways. Perhaps this women would have the answers she sought? By the looks of things she had been in the water for some time, so maybe she was even one of the disappeared individuals who had washed up here? In that case she could use some help and not the other way around. However, Evvie sensed some bad intent coming from the way she was talking, unless that was just her mind playing tricks on her. She wasn't quite sure what to make of this young woman who was only a bit older then herself.

"Are you...disappeared? Or know anyone who has?" She questioned. "It's become a problem recently."

She held her staff calmly at her side as to not provoke this women, who perhaps was getting harsh with her just because she had been afraid.

Am I disappeared? What was this foolish little girl talking about, the Wraith thought through her words furiously, searching for some hidden insult. Anna’s eyes narrowed as she assumed the strange winged creature may in fact be exploring the nature of the deaths of many a fisherman around the sand islands. The spirit within her reacted to her sudden anger, creeping across the wet sand and seizing control of the water around her.

“They all deserved to drown.” Anna spat vehemently, answering the riddle of the missing sea-farers and their fates. Though she hadn’t technically claimed responsibility for their deaths, she might as well have. She ran two fingers down a strand of dark red hair, squeezing until the water dripped down her hand.

“I think you should leave now, I don’t like to see young women get hurt.” She warned Evvie ominously. She seemed to be staring past the young dragon-kin now, as if lost in her own little world as she stood with the tides at her back, washing over her bare feet. Her expression was one of anger, but also unbearable loss, pain, and suffering.

Deserved to drown? What a cruel thing to say. That made her really angry, a fact which clearly showed on her face due to her wearing her heart on her nonexistent sleeves most of the time. Her tail flicked behind her as she eyed this mysterious women, pondering what to do next. Whatever the case may be, leaving her alone wasn't one of the options that she was considering.

"You involved? How? I'm not going 'till I know!" She exclaimed. "...or beat you up, if bad answer!" She added as an afterthought, figuring that it was possible this girl was the one behind the attacks. So far her only suspects were her or the crabs and the crab situation was not looking all that enlightening. This girl was the better option by far to question if she were to get to the bottom of this case. Detective Evvie was getting close. She could smell it.

While waiting for the reply she noticed that water was creeping up on her, the sandy shore retreating by the second. That didn't bother her too much at the moment because she could easily take flight. She wondered how this woman would deal with the problem. Worst case she'd have to rescue her, but she wouldn't make any such move until the situation became apparent. Plus the waters around here weren't too dangerous for anyone that could swim. Evvie couldn't but she heard most normal people can around these parts.

“I’ve given you a warning, I think you should leave now while you still can little girl. He might not let you… once he arrives.” Anna continued to stare off into the distance over Evvie’s shoulder as she gave another somewhat disturbing warning. It was fairly likely that Evvie would interpret this to mean some other person was going to enter the scene, the perpetrator of whatever crime had taken place here. However, there was no one else, nothing physical at least, only a force of darkness that was indiscriminate in its wrath.

Anna’s gaze suddenly fixed on Evvie with a sudden alertness that was probably quite disturbing, something inhuman in the hunger etched upon her near perfect features. She rose one hand and with it the water rose behind her as a thin tendril, snake-like in appearance, the serious threat she posed evident now, Evvie would have only moments to react.

“Too late.” She spat, gesturing forward with two fingers as if commanding dogs, the thin tendril of water shot towards the dragon-kin at the speed of an arrow, covering the roughly thirty feet between them in a second, the end pointed towards her centre hardened with spiritual energy and as sharp as steel.

Evvie fell for the trap; hook, line, and sinker. Turning her head, she put on a confused expression when nobody was there, and she had plenty good enough vision to spot him if he was...unless he was hiding off in the water somewhere? No...maybe he just hadn't gotten close enough yet...

She turned her head and was about to make a statement that she couldn't see him so perhaps this woman should clarify his current position, when Evvie saw a tendril of water getting poised to lash out at her. Startled, she jerked her body towards the right just as it carried out it's evil intentions, piercing into the left side of her abdomen just below the ribcage. She let out a grimace as she held up the gauntlet on her right wrist, breathing a quick burst of fire into it. The flames and metal quickly engulfed her body as the gauntlet began to magically form itself into a suit of armor perfectly fitting over her figure. Luckily this would also serve to cut off the water tendril inside her body from the source, ceasing the attack from progressing any further.

Due to the circumstances of the battle she decided to leave her wings unarmored at the fleshy, "wind catchy" parts, as she would call them, so that she could retain her ability to fly. She also left her face open so that she could breath more fire and not restrict her vision. Lastly, her feet were also left bare out of habit and it was the beach, so wearing shoes here would feel doubly weird and could lead to her destruction, probably.

With her armor formed and her staff held at the ready as she more carefully examined her opponent. She had lost enough time to do so that another attack could be coming her way at any time if the woman was quick enough. If there was nothing new to defend against, or perhaps even as a defensive measure depending on the circumstance, she would shoot out her flames to try and envelope her entire body within them. The 30 feet between them was not far enough to avoid a flamethrower and a flamethrower was no match for her, meaning it would quickly and easily be getting some revenge for Evvie if all went according to plan.

Anna’s eyes widened slightly as her tendril of water pierced the girl despite her attempts to move out the way. She felt a little sick to her stomach, though the creeping cold running through her hands told her it was not her causing the pain Evvie felt. It didn’t really matter though, it was her body, and this was what she was now.

Her eyes widened further as the creature started breathing fire, before narrowing as another bout of fury overcame her. She hated the heat of it, it reminded her of the pain life brought her. Her left hand was already moving, as the tendril being manipulated by her right shot back as it was severed and then leapt wide to Evvie’s 9 o clock, before lashing back towards her with the intent of slicing straight through her at shoulder height.

She looked possessed, as if conducting some demonic orchestra, as her right hand whipped the original tendril across (with the point maybe six feet past Evvie) her left hand was causing the second tendril to drive a groove through the sand. It was like a shark was crossing through the earth towards the dragon-kin who was already being forced to deal with the slashing blade of water.

Evvie’s armour was forming while this was taking place, though if it would have time to cover her and protect her from the blade only time would tell. Even if she was lucky enough to survive the slashing swipe of the original tendril, the other was heading straight for her. If Evvie still took the time to go on the offensive, she would have put herself in a seriously precarious position.

Evvie switched her staff to her left hand as she swung it outwards in order to deflect the water that was arching towards that shoulder. With the staff's high durability she considered it unlikely that the water would be able to outmatch it in a clash. While this was going on she noticed something else speeding straight her way, possibly the same type of water tendril. It would be hard enough to use her staff to defend against one of them, far less both coming from different directions unless she was able to get a good spin going, which wouldn't happen in time. Instead she opened up her jaws and let loose her torrent of flames to intercept the spot that the attack was coming from. It would have to survive the intense heat long enough to clear the remaining distance, but just in case it did she began to maneuver herself further backwards and ready to take flight if she was able to knock the left tendril away from her and where her wings would have to spread outwards.

Her armor would be fully formed within a second by now.

Evvie made a commendable effort to defend herself from the tendril of water, but it was evident that she had little experience with fighting someone like Anna. Unsurprisingly, as the tendril of water made contact with her hastily risen staff, it bent. The remaining six feet or so of water that had protruded past her wrapped around the staff, forming a hook shape, with the likely effect of cleaving into the top of her spine from behind instead, with moderately less momentum. The flexibility of water coupled with Anna’s deadly ability to harden it at will was a dangerous combination, as the dragon-kin was about to find out.

Now Evvie was for all intents and purposes surrounded by Anna’s tendrils, with one still rapidly approaching from the front and the immediate threat of the after-effects of the original attack still posing some threat. Evvie may still choose to breathe fire to negate the momentum of the attack heading towards her, though it would be less effective than usual as it moved through the earth rather than the air.

If Evvie was struck by the tendril from behind, she would be unlucky to be seriously injured due to her efforts with the staff. However, it would be a dangerous set-up as she would likely be off balance and pushed forward, directly into what would then be the second tendrils path towards her stomach.

Evvie's muscles in her left arm strained as they pushed against the water that was now wrapping around the staff. Having fought against flexible weapons before she had considered that the bendy nature of the water would do the same to her here, but she had no choice but to put herself into this situation due to needing the block the previous attack by it, coming up with no other way to do so in such a short amount of time. At least as far as she was concerned she still did the right thing but the water was still a very big issue and in her backfield now. She had bought herself very little time and there was too much water wrapping around her defenses then what would be preferable, but she could still do something to help herself out here. Rather then hit her more vulnerable spine/neck region she tilted forward as quickly as she could, the tendril of water smacking into the slope of her tough skull to result in a far more glancing blow. She could feel the back of her head become wet either from the water or her own blood, or more than likely both. It certainly hurt bad enough for it to be her blood, all right.

The flames and metal of her suit appearing over her body now extended up to her head area so would hopefully do something to stop the water there from further misdeeds. As much as a pain and a distraction that attack was she still had to do something about the other one. As she was bending downwards, both forcefully and intentionally, she reached out her right hand to try to stop the tip of the water should it come out to attack within reach of her hand. Her armor spread out from the gauntlet on her right arm so it was already completely formed on her arm, the rest of her body well on the way to completion as well. She knew that attack could very well bend in this attack as well but if she had the tip contained then this would limit the water's options, she hoped. Plus, like her block with the staff, it would buy just a little more time for her should she succeed.

Though the water could indeed bend, to drive up the force necessarily to actually cut someone with its hardened edge required a high velocity. When moving that quickly it was hard to make anything other than minute manipulations. However, her blade of water had made contact with her opponent’s head, and Anna was sure it would be enough. Unfortunately, she had underestimated just how hard Evvie’s head was.

Quickly observing that her opponent was not falling lifelessly to the ground she abandoned the original tendril of water, letting it splash to the ground as its momentum was spent. This allowed her to divert all her attention to her frontal attack, which had been building speed and volume beneath the earth. Evvie was armoured now, but would it be enough to stop Anna’s piercing attack?

Because Evvie had not been thrown forward like Anna had hoped there was no reason to immediately bring the water from just beneath the sand to strike at her like she originally planned. Instead she drove it through the earth a few feet further, building pressure within a grimace. There was only a few moments between this and her earlier attack, but Evvie had time to prepare herself with a hand set forward to ward off a frontal attack.

Suddenly, the earth directly below Evvie’s feet exploded outwards, as Anna herself lifted both hands high. Water rushed out like a geyser, icy cold and with the force of ten fireman’s hoses. It would be like getting hit from below by a car, an unpleasant experience for anyone. As the tower of water burst upwards however it acted unusually, spreading open like a fly-trap as if trying to envelop its prey.

Her readied hand had nothing to grab, meaning that the attack must have headed off in a different direction than anticipated. For the brief pause in the action she began to try and flap away to regroup when the geyser erupted. She let out an unusually shrill cry, taken off guard and not particularly enjoying being drenched in water or cold temperatures. Putting all of this together was not pleasant indeed. Luckily her armor was up so it didn't have as much skin to come in contact with but it still found enough of her to have a decent enough effect. Looking at the water above her she realized that she had nowhere to fly to unless she cleared the way. She breathed fire upwards as she tried to ascend, hopefully bursting a hole in the attack. On the downside, repeatedly using her fire like this would soon leave her short of breath and cause her to drown even more quickly should she get caught.

The geyser burst, capturing Evvie in the rapidly ascending water. Sand splattered the ground around Anna, a testament to the pressure she had built up before unleashing it on the intruder. She could flap her wings as much as she liked, there was no outrunning this volume of water bursting from the ground, and now she was in the Wraith’s icy grasp.

The water passed Evvie, who had intended to just fly straight up and out of the encroaching liquid, spouting fire. Her breath was hot, but the water was moving quickly and it was icy cold, and she had directed her escape in the wrong area. The tower of liquid reached its peak, and following Anna as her hands dropped dramatically sank back down, curling in at the peak to drop a heavy volume of water down on the flailing dragon-child. The water evaporated quickly under the effect of Evvie’s fire, but Anna had a degree of control over water in all its forms, and was diverting all her attention to reducing the effect the dragon’s fire could have. As the water collapsed in on itself it leapt from either side of the column, intending to effectively trap the dragon’s wings and prevent her from fighting her way out of the expanse of heavy water falling down around her.

As the heavy volume of water collapsed down on itself, Evvie would likely be trapped inside, and the weight of the water would be more than disproportionate to its volume. Anna used her spiritual energy to place greater pressure on the water, forcing Evvie down and hopefully under the sand, to drown like the rest.

Evvie's face showed her surprise when she couldn't break her way out of the trap. Her fire and physical strength combined wasn't enough?! This woman was even more dangerous then she had realized! The island of sand all around her was falling into the water and she along with it, any amount if strength doing no good to try and maintain her ground under this circumstances. It was hard to retain her focus and the armor was weighing her down anyways, so she let it slip away as she slipped into the water, the metal dismissing itself in a flurry of bubbles due to the fire that normally accompanied it being quenched instantly.

She kicked and flung around the sand a bit as she flailed helplessly in the water, unable to swim even without the magical water keeping her down. Her struggling eventually ceased and her eyes closed, her consciousness fading into nothingness.

She could have drowned her of course, drew her into the inky depths and left her there with the others. It didn’t seem right though, even for a Wraith. She had a soft spot for young women like herself, such weakness.

The water pressure eased as Evvie slipped into unconsciousness, and Anna almost tenderly drew her to the surface of the water, forcing the water from her lungs as she deposited her on a small island of sand. The water lapped at the Dragon-kin’s heels, and it was no sure thing that she would waken before she was forced into the water again, but there was naught else for it.

That was more than enough kindness for one day.

Anna returned to the sea, her tears mixed with the waves.