Liza had been right about one thing. Slowing down and noticing things was important. Especially for me, someone completely unfamiliar with these lands and ways of life. The devil was in the details, after all, and if I never paused to breathe, I’d never be able to see the little things.
I let the water wash over my feet. I hiked my dress up to my thighs so I could dangle my legs up to my knees. The cool of the water combined with the warmth of the sun to lull me into a sense of relaxed peace I hadn’t felt in ages. I lay back on the rock, feeling myself start to doze in and out of consciousness as fatigue caught up with me, and my eyes begged for a nap.
I must have dozed off for a few minutes at least, but when I woke it was abrupt—violent.Slimey. Something viscous wrapped around my ankle.
My eyes flashed open at the cold intrusion to my warm nap. A beat later, my body was dragged over the rocks, the sharp edges scraping at my skin as I was pulled into the water.
I flailed as I was yanked completely underwater. I tried to swim upward, but whatever had me by the foot was very powerful. I kicked, thrashed, hit something. Several somethings.
Was there more than one of these creatures? It felt like I was surrounded. Something circled my wrist. I freed my arm just as another arm wrapped itself around my neck.
I used my other foot to slide my captured ankle out of the sticky arm. Were those tentacles? With a kick upward, I broke through the surface of the water and inhaled a blissful breath of air, felt the beat of sunshine on my face. I tried to yell for help,but I couldn’t get it out of my throat before I plunged underwater again.
The creature had a better grip on me this time. Something had wrapped around my neck, my arm, and my leg. There was no way to escape from this, at least not the way I’d been fighting. I needed a new plan, one last-ditch plan before I had no more oxygen left.
I closed my eyes tight. Liza’s face flashed before me.You just need to pay attention,I heard her saying.
Maybe there was something I could use if I just paid attention. I blinked my eyes open in the murky waters, and even through the darkness, I saw it. The halo glowing around my body. My powers were here, and they were active. They were waiting for direction fromme.
I blinked my eyes shut and focused on feeling for my powers. As I sank deeper into the depths of the swimming hole, I could feel them growing stronger, begging to be released.
I focused on the fury I felt at this attack. I wanted to help the people on this island, the people who had already put their faith in me. I couldn’t do that if I was dead.
Then one arm was free. My anger was funneling my magic into venomous fire. I was burning tentacled arms off me, one after another. I reached for the one around my neck, and the second I put my hands on it, the arm recoiled like it had been blistered.
I shot upward, realizing I still had half a tentacled arm in my hand. I had burned it, severed it and not let go. I scrambled up the rocks, tossed the tentacled arm onto the ground, and watched it thrash for a moment before it went still.
I looked down into the water and saw ablubof bubbles in the center of the swimming hole before the thing eventually retreated, and the surface of the water went still.
I glanced up to see several folks strolling in the distance. Islanders, two men slightly older than me, looked shocked as I sloshed up to them in a sopping-wet dress.
“Help,” I gasped. “I need Silas. Or a Ranger. I’ve been attacked.”
One of the men nodded and, without hesitation, rushed toward the nearest shop presumably to call for help. The second man waited with me, not saying much of anything, just watching me carefully like whatever I had experienced might be contagious.
“Ranger X is on his way,” the first man said upon his return. “He’ll be here shortly. Can I help you with anything? Are you all right?”
“Fine,” I gasped. “I just need to rest.”
I returned to the edge of the cliff and waited until Ranger X showed up soon after. I thanked the two islanders for waiting with me. They’d kept a safe distance from me until help had arrived, probably because I looked like a woman from a horror movie—stringy hair, clingy white dress, red marks on my arms and legs and neck. My back still stung from where I’d been dragged off the rock. It probably looked like I had claw marks down my skin.
They looked more than happy to be dismissed at X’s arrival. I didn’t blame them. I didn’t want to be here either.
“Alessia.” Ranger X scanned my sopping wet body head to toe. “Are you all right? What happened?”
I nodded at the rapidly shriveling tentacle that was on the ground. “That happened.”
“What the hell?” Ranger X crouched beside it, careful not to touch any part of it. “It can’t be.”
I crouched next to him. I shivered at the close proximity to the terrible thing that had just about killed me. At its mutilated armthat looked kind of like an octopus, but it couldn’t be. Octopuses weren’t so… aggressive.
“I think it’s a miniature kraken.”
“A kraken,” I deadpanned. “Because those are real?”
“As real as lycanthropes.”
I sighed because he made a very good point. “Let me guess, you don’t usually see them on this island?”
