"There really aren't," Tina agreed mildly. "But hey, maybe it'll be a good thing. Maybe."

"He said he'd been avoiding Gold for years," Rachel pointed out. "I can't imagine that's a good thing."

"I did say maybe, and Gold doesn't know he's here," Tina pointed out.

"And when he figures out his son's been avoiding him," Rachel pointed out. "You can tell him, I'm not going near that explosion."

"Yeah, I figured." Tina sighed. Great. That was not going to be a pleasant experience. "So what now? Do you want to go ahead and head back?"

"Up to you," Rachel said. "We still have another day or two. Do we want to head back early?"

"Not really." Tina grinned briefly. "I kind of want to go see that island he was talking about. I don't remember any islands here."

"Then let's go," Rachel said, grinning. "I'll follow you."

Tina led the way back to the coast, looking at the little boat Neil had used to get over in.

"I hate boats."

"It's the only way to the island, unless you feel like swimming," Rachel said, checking the boat over. She'd learned at least a little bit from Killian.

Tina sighed. "Fine, but you're helping me with this, I don't do boats." She started pushing it back towards the water.

Rachel nodded and helped her push the boat into the water again. Once it was floating, she got in and looked for the oars.

Tina helped row until they could see the island, and then she grinned.

"Not much farther, thankfully. Then we can explore the island for a day and then head back."

Rachel nodded, concentrating on rowing. She was definitely not in the right physical shape for it.

Tina jumped out first to push the boat to shore, since she didn't mind getting wet, and then she towed it up on the beach.

"Well, it's a pretty place, at least," she said, looking around.

"Yeah," Rachel said, hopping out and looking around. The island was really more like a pebble; it looked like a big ring of sand around a central lagoon that seemed cut off from the ocean proper. But the vegetation was lush and the sand was clean and it really was pretty.

Tina started walking, just exploring for the moment, though she did get closer to the central lagoon. Hey, it was pretty and quite possibly not salt water.

Rachel walked with her, looking around curiously.

"It's pretty here," she said. "Wonder why it's not on the map?"

"I don't know." Tina crouched down to put her fingers in the lagoon. "Water is even decently warm." She looked around again. She hadn't heard or seen anyone else yet, and it was making her a bit nervous.

That was setting off some warning bells in Rachel's head.

"If it's seemingly lovely, but not on any map, that seems a bit weird to me," she said. "Something's up with the island if it's so pretty and close to the mainland and still uncharted."

"I agree." Tina frowned, looking around. "Notice how quiet it is?" She started back towards the boat slowly, still looking around.

"Yeah," Rachel agreed, looking around uneasily. "Something's not right." The island was still just as lovely, but it was overlaid with a tension that hadn't been there before. "Come on, let's go."

Tina nodded and led the way back to the boat. Or where the boat should have been. She paused when she noticed it was gone, and bits of broken wood were floating out away from the shore.

Rachel stopped in her tracks when she saw what was left of the boat.

"What?" she squeaked, staring.

Tina saw a flash of scales and moved back. "Stay away from the water," she said, pulling Rachel back with her. "There's something in there."