Quirion sighed. “She probably knows what’s best for the babies that have already hatched. I’m not so sure about the eggs. There has to be a reason why she laid them here and not on the shores of the ocean. But I guess we have to risk it. Dre, can you help me with the hoses? I know just the place where to get them. Then we need magic, and start digging.”
“Do not fear, help has arrived!” The booming voice could only belong to one person.
“We don’t know yet if we can be of help, Uncle.” Alerion sounded amused.
“Of course we can help! We’re demons and witch queens and werewolves and vampires and a banshee! Help has arrived!” Corrywin obviously had no intention of letting Alerion dampen his mood. “Hello, Quirion. What seems to be the problem?”
“They’re dying and we need to help them! Dad, please, we can’t let them die! Mildred is counting on us!” Sammy threw himself at Alerion, who caught him and immediately started soothing him.
“It’s fine, Sammy. As my uncle has pointed out, we’re all here now.”
And they were. Quirion couldn’t remember ever having so many people on his peaceful island. It was a strange sensation, one he would contemplate later, when lives were no longer on the line. “Dre, we need to get those hoses. Milo, explain the situation.”
With that, he ripped time and space and dragged his brother with him. The hoses he was seeking were actually plants from one of the more interesting—aka dangerous—dimensions with huge, hollowed out vines and a tendency to suck in everything through the openings at the end.
“I think it would be best to make one rift directly at the shore to put as many of the ends into the water. Then another above the moat to get the water there.”
“Good idea, brother.” Dre batted one of the vines aside when it tried to suck onto his left thigh. Where do you want to go?”
“The moat.”
“Fine, I’ll take the ocean then.” Dre grabbed four of the thrashing vines—they had realized prey was nearby and were getting agitated—made a rift and dunked the openings into the ocean of Quirion’s dimension. It was a bit of a gamble, mixing the inhabitants and resources of different dimensions, but it was all they had at the moment. Quirion was counting on the viciousness and adaptive powers of the vines, which were the dominant species in this dimension, and resembled dandelions in their sturdiness. They started sucking the ocean water without a hitch. Dre came back to grab more of them. The good thing about the Sucker-Vines—Quirion had never gone to the trouble of finding a better name for them—was, that once they started sucking, they didn’t stop until they were either full or the source drained. And they wouldn’t get full, because Quirion found the opposite ends, sliced them open with his claws, shoved them through another rift, and rained the ocean water down on the moat. And not a second too late. Some of the tadpoles were onlymoving feebly. As soon as the water hit them though, they were almost instantly revived.
Farther down the moat, Quirion watched Mildred digging with stoic determination. Quirion leaned through the rift to see ahead of her, where the rest of the family plus the members of the book club were digging from the ocean toward the moat. Grann, Mavis and Maribel were leading the attack, so to speak, directing five giant shovels to move the loam and five pickaxes to carve the stone. Alerion, Barion and Corrywin were channeling their considerable magic into the witches, while Declan, Troy, Amber and Emilia were moving boulders out of the way to grant a straight line to where Mildred was digging. Milo, Jon and Sammy were standing at the sides of the moat, pushing tadpoles back into the middle before they got swept over the rim and onto dry land. Considering most of these babies were almost as big as the three mates, they had their work cut out for them. Quirion ducked back into the vine dimension to grab the next bundle. They could do this. No lives would be lost on his watch.
As more and more water poured into the moat, the situation relaxed a tiny bit. Mildred had now almost reached where the witches were digging. Emilia was high in the air, overseeing the last few feet to the meeting point. Holding the writhing vines in place to keep all the tadpoles nice and moist, Quirion watched the ancient vampire give her orders.
“Almost there. A little more to the left, Mildred had to veer off course, now, forward, lose the pickaxes, we’re too close, very good, Mildred is coming from above so perhaps you can breach from the bottom, yes, yes, I can see water. Careful, the barrier is crumbling, get back, we did it! We did it!”
A cheer rose from everybody when Mildred broke the last of the loam down and water from the moat started flowing around her and down toward the ocean. The moat was now draining,luckily taking the tadpoles with it, but they weren’t in the clear yet.
“Dre, more vines!”
“On it.”
Quirion watched which vines his brother grabbed and directed their opposing ends toward the moat, where the tadpoles were no longer being lifted over the rim but were facing rapidly thickening mud while the water flowed toward the ocean. Mildred had left the moat to make more room for her offspring to get flushed out. Quirion directed the vines to a spot behind the tadpoles, or so he hoped—because of all the mud, it was getting difficult to see a damn thing. His father appeared next to him with another bundle of vines.
“Barion is helping Dre. We need more water.”
They spent the next minutes literally hosing out the moat until they were sure all the tadpoles were gone. Mildred was sitting next to the breach, observing the proceedings with lazily blinking eyes. It was hard to see emotion on a toad’s face, but Quirion wanted to tell himself she was grateful. The low croak she made when the last tadpole vanished in the ocean definitely sounded like appreciation.
“Okay, what do you want to do now, son? Do we leave it like this? Then the moat is gone.” Alerion elbowed him. “And we can’t leave the rifts open for much longer. The fabric between is already suffering.”
Quirion leaned through the rift. “Grann, Mavis, Maribel? Can you close the moat off?”
The three witches gave a thumbs-up. Alerion made another rift to land next to them, then he and Corrywin poured magic into them again while they used the shovels to close the moat. After that it was a waiting game until the moat was filled again. Mildred hopped in, ducking under until only her eyes peeked over the water. Quirion and Dre shoved the vines back into theirown dimension, where they immediately started to attack them, the ends Quirion had ripped open already healing, for which he was grateful. He’d known they were sturdy and killing a few of them wouldn’t have had an impact on the dimension, but he was glad they didn’t suffer.
“Damn suckers. Let’s get out of here.” Dre kicked another vine that had tried to sneak up on him. “Barion was blabbering the whole time how this would make a great new level for the next installment ofDemon Wars. To be honest, I don’t see the appeal.”
“That’s because you’re a realist, not a gamer. You’re right, let’s leave.”
They stepped back into Quirion’s dimension where Dre was immediately assaulted by Sammy, and Quirion found his arms full of Milo. His mate was muddy all over and reeked of stale water.
“We did it! We saved all of Mildred’s babies!” Milo was so happy.
“Yes! Dre, my beloved mate, you were soooo brave, battling those vines! You are my hero!”
Dre puffed up like an idiot rooster in front of his hens. Then Sammy turned in his arms, looking at the others. “You all were the best! I’m so, so happy. Grann, Mavis, Maribel, I’m sure you’re the greatest witches to ever walk the Earth. Giant shovels and pickaxes? You’re so smart. Dad, Barion, Uncle Corrywin, lending your power was so badass. Declan, Troy, Emilia, Amber, how you handled those boulders. I knew you were strong, but that was epic! Milo, Jon, you were so brave, shoving the tadpoles back in even though the rim was so slippery. I’m so happy and proud to know all of you.” Sammy was crying now, at the same time smiling so broadly it seemed as if he had an inner sun shining on them all.
