Like hell those bastards were destroying the only family she’d ever known. It didn’t matter that she’d known them for less than a day. Holly knew down to her soul that this was her family. It was her one shot in life to find home, acceptance, and love, and she would die before letting anything happen to it.
So with the aid of Grampy’s toxic cooking, they were able to slow down the assaults on the barrier while Holly used whatever the hell magic she had inside her to shore it up.
Both children had magic too, though Tommy’s seemed to be a surprise to the boy. He’d been with Merry as she’d been carefully floating the toxic food out of harm’s way before dropping it on the bad guys.
Tommy had been clinging to her, tears streaming down his face, shouting, “Go away! Just go away!” at their attackers, when suddenly one of the attackers began to cry. Then another, and another.
As Tommy yelled at them, the elf-pirates closest to him melted down like toddlers needing a nap, running away and shouting, “Meanie!” and “I’m telling!”
Tommy turned to Merry with wide eyes and said in a whisper, “I finally got magic.”
Merry had given him a quick hug and went back to chucking food at the bad guys.
With Tommy’s newfound ability to project his emotions and Merry’s ability to fling the corrosive food far and wide, they made for a devastating combo.
Clayton’s pantry was loaded to the brim, so they would have ammo for ages. As long as Grampy kept cooking, and the children could hold out, they would be able to mitigate the damage the shield was taking. And since Holly had a lifetime worth of rage and neglect to vent, she was pretty sure she could hold up the barrier until help came.
Help needed to come soon, though. Holly was beginning to regret all the coffee she’d had at breakfast.
Merry took the plastic container from Eira and sent her back for more ammo. When Tommy tried to grab a handful, Holly grabbed his hand before he could touch the hazardous treats.
“Merry’s got this,” Holly said. “I need you to go over there and start crying your heart out.”
Tommy was a sweetie-pie, but his inability to focus required Holly to work constantly to keep him on track. Honestly, what would they have done without Holly?
Tommy gave her a solemn nod and hurried to the bow of the boat. As soon as he got there, he opened his mouth and began to wail. Immediately, Holly's eyes began to water, and her heart twisted in anguish, so she shouted, “Focus, Tommy. Point your energy at the elf-pirates!”
“Sorry, Holly!” Tommy closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and howled again.
Holly’s tears dried, and her heart was her own once more. The elf-pirates, however, were not doing well.
In the distance, there came crying and wailing from grown men and women. Some stomped their feet and refused to fight anymore until they had a snack. Holly heard one say, “I’m not fighting until I get my red shirt. Where’s my red shirt?!” Another elf-pirate cried for his mom to take him home because he wasn’t having fun anymore.
“Nice job, Tommy,” Holly shouted. “Keep it up!”
Beside her, Merry concentrated as misshapen balls of food floated out of the container. They wobbled, but Merry’s control was improving by the minute, so when she began magically flinging them toward the elf-pirates, each strike was met with multiple screams of agony.
“How long have you been able to do this, kid? You’re amazing,” Holly said to distract herself from the pounding against the shield.
“Today,” Merry answered with a small, proud smile. “Well, I’ve had magic for a couple of decades. I lost control of it for a while, but today it started coming back to me.”
“Decades?” Holly snorted. “Sure, kid. Whatever.”
Merry gave her a knowing smile but didn’t argue.
“Really? You’re older than I am?” Holly wasn’t stupid. If Mal was a monster and magic was real, why couldn’t a little girl be a few decades old?
Merry put a finger to her lips. “It’s a secret. The grown-ups don’t know. Tommy and I couldn’t tell them everything about ourselves because we didn’t think they’d believe us.”
“Your secret is safe with me,” Holly promised. She didn’t understand why they needed to keep their past hidden, but she knew how important it was to keep certain things from some adults.
She winced when a particularly willful elf-pirate slammed against her shield.
Her shield. Yes, it was Holly’s shield, now, wasn’t it? It started out as someone else’s, but it had changed. Originally, it was blue and tasted like polished armor, the kind she imagined a paladin from a fantasy novel would wear.
Now it was a warm, stubborn brown. It might not have looked like much, but much like a dense thicket of unforgiving thorn bushes, her shield wasn’t giving a single inch.
Thorns? Could Holly shape her shield to do damage when someone touched it? She shoved the image of wild, unforgiving thorn bushes into her shield, and within seconds, the screams of wild emotions from Tommy’s sector of the boat, and the screams of agony from Merry’s sector were joined by elf-pirates from all sides.
