Annan had a dream.
He dreamed he was a boy. He followed a fisherman's child from the village to a hidden bay, where he saw a beautiful girl curled up inside a shell.
Sunlight fell across her luminous, ivory-white skin, making her seem to glow.
The boy moved a stone, scooped up a handful of pearls from beneath the rock, and showed them to him. "Whenever she cries, she makes pearls. We're going to be rich! I'm only telling you. Watch her while I go tell the Town Chief. We'll split the money."
The boy ran off. Annan looked curiously at the girl in the shell. Her beautiful face held both delight at discovering something new and sorrow at leaving home.
Didn't she like it here? Of course not... How could a fish from the sea like the land?
"Do you want to go back?" Annan asked her.
"I... want to see the land," the Girl in the Shell said. "He said he'd take me to a big city, where I could see Dragons and Elves."
"He's lying to you. He wants to sell you to the Town Chief," Annan said.
"Then what should I do?" Panic crossed the girl's face.
Annan set down the pearls, stood up, walked behind the shell, and pushed the Giant Clam. It plowed a deep furrow through the sand.
After pushing the Giant Clam into the sea, Annan straightened and said softly, "Go... Don't cry anymore. Find somewhere a greedy person can't find you..."
Annan watched the shell slowly sink beneath the water, then woke from the dreamlike vision.
The Burnt Girl stepped out of the powerless Blood Pearl. Before Annan, the Giant Clam withered like a flower and turned to ash.
The loosened Blood Pearls began to collapse, burying every trace of her