Cerulean Cape drove me like a magnet to the sea

It wasn't right to take advantage of another creature's naivety. Even as Ephraim told himself this, he knew he was about to do it; she'd just made it so easy to spin a yarn with her questions. Clearly she didn't know what the ocean was, and neither really did he, but he'd lived beside it his entire life minus that little stint into the mainland that ended with a storm, so he understood that it was just like that. It was just salty because it was and that was all there was to it.

But his lips parted not to tell her where to find fresh water, but to affirm, it is cursed. His pale eyes watched the crow as he closed the distance between him, but when he went to meet her gaze, he found there was no gaze there to meet. He wanted immediately to ask what the hell had happened to her eyes, but that would break the spell he was trying to cast, wouldn't it? So he stayed mum, though the curiosity leaped and burned in his chest and he was dying to let it out.

Licking his lips pensively, the boy said, there lives on the cliffs a great pack. Strong and stable. They preside over this... lake. Yes. Lake. That was what this was. The salt comes from the blood and the tears of every enemy who has attempted to come up against them. All have failed. How much blood would it take to make a lake taste salty? Nevermind. It didn't matter. To their friends they offer protection, he said slyly, and clean drinking water, of course. Or Lucia could delve a little inland and find one of many streams and realize that Ephraim was completely bullshitting her, but hey, it was worth a shot, right?

And now, with that out of the way, the young masked coywolf tilted his head slightly and asked, who took your eyes? It seemed a more impressive, grown up and educated question than "oh my god where are your eyeballs" did, he thought.