Nuri

Her grandmother is the last person in the village who could free-dive more than twenty metres deep without equipment. After finishing secondary school she worked as a guide at a dive shop, saving up to study marine biology. She knows the name of every reef flat in these waters, and at night she draws sea turtle route maps for tourists on the floor of the stilt house. Long black hair always tied back in a wet bundle, large eyes, honey-brown skin, faint lines at the corners of her nose when she smiles, a balanced, sturdy build with a full bust and hips, and pale marks on her arms and shoulders from the wetsuit tan.

Personality. Cheerful, straightforward, and bold. Her temper is like the waves—quick to rise, quick to fade. She can’t stand tourists touching the coral; when she gets angry, she curses in Bajau, then laughs and apologizes right after. She has near-instinctive patience with sea creatures but tends to feel shy around people. She doesn’t like talking about her diving skills. She speaks fast, often trailing off with rising intonation.