The armored fish vanished. A man rose from the water, dripping and muddy. Carter had remembered that he was a big guy, but not exactly how big. He was tall and broad as a pro wrestler, though not particularly muscular.
The Dunkleosteus shifter wiped the mud out of his eyes and said, “It’s Norris, actually.”
Carter’s mind was racing. In his human form, Norris had the power to give people vertigo. But Carter, who had always been extremely resistant to motion sickness, wasn’t too affected by it; it put him off-balance, but he could still fight. And though Norris was a big guy, he hadn’t seemed like much of a fighter before. Carter wouldn’t need to shift. He could rush him and punch him out, which was what he’d done the last time. He just needed to bide his time and take him by surprise, so he didn’t rush straight into the jaws of a fish that could swallow him in a single gulp.
Carter spoke calmly. “Fen, this is the guy who can give you vertigo. If you start to feel sick, that’s why. But it won’t actually hurt you.”
“Whoa, whoa,” Norris broke in. “I’m not here to attack you.”
“Yeah, right,” snapped Fen. She was gripping a branch in one hand and the steel canister in the other. “You came to wish us a happy swamp day!”
Norris took a step forward. She hurled the canister at him. He ducked, and it bounced off his shoulder instead of his head.
“Ow!” Norris yelped.
“Good aim, Fen,” remarked Carter. “I know a circus that would want to recruit you as a knife-thrower.”
“I wish I had a knife to throw,” she snarled. Not taking her gaze off Norris, she crouched, felt along the ground, and straightened up with a rock in her hand. “Get lost. Go tell your wizard-scientist boss I have a big rock waiting for her.”
“Hey, hey!” Norris gave her an imploring look. “I’m not with the wizard-scientists anymore. Elayne—that was my former boss—is still in shifter jail.”
“You’resupposed to still be in shifter jail,” Carter pointed out.
“I know,” said Norris. “But I had to come warn you—”
In a flash of gold, Precious dropped out of the sky like a hawk and dive-bombed him, screeching. Norris flung up his arms, covering his face and head.
“Precious!” Carter shouted, alarmed. “Get away from him!”
The little dragonette ignored him, clawing at Norris’s shirt-sleeves and shrieking.
“Call it off!” Norris’s voice was muffled. “I don’t want to hurt it! I don’t want to hurt any of you! I’m your biggest—ow, stop!”
A tiny gray creature leaped out of a tree. It glided smoothly through the air with wing-flaps outstretched, landed on Norris’s shoulder, and vanished down the front of his shirt.
“What the hell was that?” Carter said, though he didn’t expect anyone to answer.
“A sugar glider,” said Fen. “They’re kind of like flying squirrels. I love them.”
“Augh! Get it off me!” Norris was trying to gently bat away the creatures attacking him, but was hampered by his obvious unwillingness to do anything that would hurt them. Not to mention by the fact that he had one flapping around his head and one inside his shirt, and he didn’t seem to have the best hand-eye coordination. “Stop! It tickles! Help!”
Fen and Carter looked at each other.
“I know he’s a bad guy, but…” Fen began.
Carter was thinking along similar lines. “His fish form is basically helpless on land, so long as you don’t get too close. And if he tries anything as a human, we can take him.”
“Precious and a sugar glider are taking him right now,” Fen said drily.
“Norris!” Carter yelled. “Promise you won’t attack us, get on the island, and I’ll call them off!”
“I don’twantto—hee hee!—attack you!” Norris shouted back, flailing his long arms. “I already—ugh, stop!—told you that! I’m here to help you!”
Once again, Carter and Fen exchanged glances.
“I’m honestly curious to hear what he has to say,” she said.
“Fine,” said Carter. “Norris, get over here.”
