Minlings: The Merger, page 22
Jake didn't dare move, hanging in the entrance as he stared at the thing hanging in through the other opening. It resembled a mix between a hammerhead shark and a dragon and was at least the size of a great white. Dark blue scales covered the part of its head that he could see, softly reflecting the light. Its elongated hammer-shaped head was attached to a neck corded with heavy muscles. As it drifted a bit further in due to the current, Jake caught a glimpse of a sinewy lizard-like body with two rudimentary wings folded close to it.
Seconds ticked by, and the creature didn't move. Hoping he wasn't making a massive mistake, Jake began backing up slowly. He tried his best not to make any sudden movements or loud noises.
The creature seemed undisturbed and just looked at him, cocking its head sideways just like his parents' old german shepherd used to do.
When Jake pulled Tergin the last bit out of the cave, the creature blinked at him. Then it pulled its head back and lazily swam away, disappearing into the maze.
That didn't just happen, Jake thought as he felt his tension slowly drop.
He looked at Tergin, but the wounded Kobold had finally passed out. Jake resisted the incredible urge to shake the other awake and ask for an explanation. Instead, he tiredly shook his head and wished he could curl up and sleep somewhere.
No rest for the wicked, he thought, quoting one of Mason's favorite lines and continuing his journey over the reef. This time he decided to stay further from the top as he wound his way through the sometimes narrow corridors of the maze-like area. He occasionally popped up to see if he was heading in the right direction.
What he estimated was an hour later, he noticed that the colors began fading. Shadows stretched and darkened as the night began to fall.
Shit, Jake thought, the always-present panic cropping up again. He didn't have a lot of time left. If they were caught out here after dark, he had no idea where they could safely hide. The caves seemed the prime place for predators to search for a meal. He sped up, his fear propelling him forward when his common sense finally prevailed, and he slowed down again. This was useless. There was still a long way ahead of them, and it would be dark soon.
As he hung beside a round piece of reef, curving away, the soft noises surrounding him began to fade until only the soft surging of the sea remained. Within moments it became dark, and Jake huddled against the side of the reef. Though he could see in the dark, it didn't erase the fear. A dim orange glow came, increasing in strength, and he looked up in surprise. The light came from small growths covering some of the reef's lower parts.
A loud roaring tore through the silence, rippling with an almost tantalizing sensation through the water.
Jake jerked, pulling Tergin closer as he looked and searched in the gloomy surroundings for whatever terrifying deep sea monster had made it. Another roar came. It seemed to come from the direction he was heading in. As his heart rate spiked, he decided he wasn't going to try and stay here. He would just have to find a way around it!
Within seconds he saw that the only way around meant doubling back. That or he had to swim over the coral.
Steeling his nerves, he looked at the path ahead. The roars continued but weren't closing in.
I'll just go ahead a little, then take the first route around, Jake thought, trying desperately to convince himself it wasn't a suicidal, stupid idea.
As he slowly swam forward, towing the unconscious Tergin along, he suddenly wondered why he wasn't dead tired.
A large shadow hurtled his way, and he barely managed to dodge to the side. In a muddled, shadowy swirl, he saw a dragon-like creature hurtling past him, bleeding profusely. It slammed into a coral wall with a sickening thud.
A low, feral roar came from up ahead, and Jake saw a shadow approach. Instinctively he lowered himself to the ground while backing up against the coral. There was a tiny gap to his side, and Jake shoved Tergin's unmoving body inside, hopefully out of sight. Then he crouched down and tried to make himself as small as possible.
The shadow closed in, and his first thought was that there was more than one. Then a flat snakehead attached to a thin neck floated into focus, quickly followed by another, then another. Within a second, five heads, each dark gray, each the size of a shovel blade and attached to thin gray necks, moved forward. The necks were attached to a body like a sea lion covered in dark green and purple scales. Fleshy extremities, like four still forming paws, flapped close to its belly, propelling it forward.
Jake involuntarily held his breath as he stared at the heads, slit-like mouths filled with crooked yellow teeth and pupil-less black eyes.
Hydra, he thought, remembering the many-headed beast of Greek myth.
The Hydra inspected its surroundings, then rushed forward. Three of its heads focused on their prey while the other two looked around. Jake felt his lungs scream for air, but he didn't dare breathe when one seemed to look straight at him. The eyes focused on something to his side, then the gaze drifted off, and the head turned away.
Jake carefully drew in a breath as he watched the Hydra stare at its prey. The hammerhead dragon-thing shook its head, blood dripping from gashes all along its slender frame. Its eyes were half-closed, and its harsh breathing sounded like an overburdened bellow. It was almost the same length as the Hydra but probably only half its weight, and Jake had the feeling that it would be at a disadvantage even if it hadn't been so heavily wounded.
As he looked at the thing, he felt a sudden pang of pity for it. It was obviously not some mindless beast, or it would have attacked him in the cave. The Hydra surged forward, its multiple heads spreading out and snapping at the hammerhead dragon, and Jake pushed back the feeling. He was in no position to help. Ever so slowly, his hands moved down to the small ditch where he had hidden Tergin.
A sharp hiss caused him to jerk his head up, and his heart skipped a beat. One of the Hydra's heads was looking straight at him. It had its mouth open and breathed in his direction. The water in front of the black maw became hazy as if it was heating up quickly, and Jake swallowed and froze. The Hydra kept its single head on him, though.
Jake hoped the hammerhead would provide him with a distraction and slowly turned his head back to the main fight and immediately realized it was hopeless.
The Hydra was using two of its heads to attack the cornered hammerhead, blocking any escape route with the others while mauling the hammerhead's flank.
The hammerhead let out a long and pained whine as it snapped at one of the heads. The Hydra instantly pulled back that head and attacked with another. More and more of the heads joined in until only the one staring at Jake wasn't ripping the dragon to shreds.
The hammerhead dragon was still struggling, desperately trying to ward off the attacks, but holes and gashes covered most of its neck and flank by now, and Jake saw its movements had turned sluggish.
Jake swallowed and looked around. He had to get out of here. He would be next if he were still here when the Hydra finished with the hammerhead.
He looked in the direction the two combatants had come from and wondered if he should make a break for it. He looked down at the still form of Tergin, and a horrible idea crossed his mind for a moment. He would be much faster, maybe fast enough, if he didn't have to drag the wounded Kobold along.
The idea vanished as he remembered that without Tergin, he would have died that morning. The rugged Kobold had pushed him out of the way just when a giant crab had pounced on him. It had cost Tergin his leg.
Feeling hopeless, Jake looked at the Hydra. It was at least three times his size, and each of its maws was armed with razor-sharp teeth. And what did he have? Talons that probably wouldn't even pierce its skin and some unreliable magic he had no control over. Looking around for a weapon of some kind, the only things he could find were rocks. Deciding that anything was better than nothing, he swam to a rock the size of a basketball, ignoring the dangerous hiss from the Hydra.
Right away, he noticed how light it was, and he tried tossing it up. It slowly drifted up and then back to his hand, and he was about to drop it in disgust.
A soft cry distracted him, and he looked at the Hydra and its prey. In a stroke of ridiculous luck, the hammerhead had managed to get its jaws around one of the Hydra's necks. It was now using the last of its flagging strength in a futile attempt to gnaw it off, leaving itself even more defenseless. Smelling victory, the Hydra ignored the head that was stuck and used all of its remaining ones to try and finish the fight as quickly as possible.
Feeling the tension rise, Jake lost any cool he had left and began panicking. He needed to do something! Grasping at straws, he looked at the rock in his hand, trying to focus the weird energy on it. When nothing happened, he tried focusing on the muscle in his abdomen. It didn't react, and he felt his panic grow. Suddenly there was a soft contraction in his stomach, then another. Praying for a way to get out, Jake put his entire focus on the muscle, ignoring anything going on, and it began contracting faster. It felt like a piston, thudding steadily, but nothing was happening, not that he had any idea that anything should be happening.
A cry, loud and drenched in pain, ripped his attention away and back to the fight. A massive cloud of dark red blood tainted the water, drifting up from the hammerhead that had released its grip on the Hydra. The blood bloomed like a cloud and, within moments, reached Jake.
Coppery and hot, the blood leaked into Jake's mouth, and his mana-muscle went crazy. It shuddered once before contracting so violently that it seemed that it would collapse in on itself and implode. Then it began to pulsate, slowly at first but then picking up speed. Soon it was beating so fast that Jake could barely discern the individual contractions. A burning sensation flowed through his veins like molten silver. Any sense of control he still had moments ago was lost, and a curtain of red fell over his vision. His thoughts, clear though fearful before, muddled over as a burning rage took hold of him. Driven by only instinct now, Jake opened his mouth and let out a deep, primal roar.
You learn something new every...
"I don't bloody care what you think. I am going back to find Jake!"
Standing on a beach of smooth round pebbles and rocks, Mason struggled with the three Kobolds that were trying to hold him back.
"You can't help him! He is faster than any of us in the water and can breathe it without that plant!" Sandra shouted back, struggling to keep one of his arms pinned down.
Mason roared, his muscles bulging as he resisted the three's attempts to restrain him. All of a sudden, his roaring turned deeper, causing the stones around him to shake, and he lifted both of the Kobolds from the ground, holding them in the air before tossing them away. Willson, who was standing in front of him, pushing against his chest, stepped back, a shocked look on his face.
"Hey now, take it easy. We are just trying to…"
That was as far as he got when Mason kicked him in the chest, lifting him off the ground and sending him flying toward the water. The Kobold made only a single dull sound when he hit the ground before rolling over twice and staying still.
"If you wounded him, I will skin you alive!" Sandra snapped as she rushed at Mason, her face twisted in an angry snarl.
Before she reached him, Bolyr tackled her from the side, yelling at her. She struggled with him for a moment, roaring in anger before she heard what he was saying.
"Don't try to stop him! He is out of control. Look at his eyes!"
Still getting used to the fact she could understand him, she eased up and looked at Mason. The towering Kobold was standing still, snarling and roaring at the sky.
"Let me go!" she hissed but made no more attempt to act.
Bolyr slowly released his hold on her and turned back to look at Mason.
"He is awakening his heritage… If you get in his way now, he will tear you apart without knowing what he is doing."
Sandra sniffed, glaring at Mason. Something about his roaring was ticking her off, more than just the fact he had just assaulted one of her soldiers. With a final shake of her head, she turned towards where Willson was still lying on the ground, unmoving. "Whatever. Let him rot down there then," she snapped as she stomped away.
Bolyr shook his head and turned to Ensir, the other native Kobold, who was staring at Mason with a frown. "This is ridiculous… I hope the elders arrive soon. They should be able to hear this."
Ensir nodded before looking back toward the sea. "Are we jussst abandoning Tergin down there?"
Bolyr kept his gaze on Mason and shook his head. "We cannot help him. If the spawn of the sea dragon cannot get him out of there, then what could we possibly hope to accomplish?"
Without replying, Ensir gazed at the darkening sea while Mason kept roaring.
--
Jake instantly knew that waking up had been a bad idea. His arm hurt like hell, and his head and back felt like they had been used as battering rams. There was a soft keening noise nearby, and he tried to remember where he was. He faintly remembered having yet another dream in which he was a dragon—something about fighting off rivals trying to encroach on his territory, but it was a hazy mess.
He cracked open his jaw to try and relieve some of the tension and soreness he felt and noticed something stuck between his teeth, keeping it wedged open. Confused, he forced his jaw open further to dislodge it, and he heard a soft ripping sound. Blood flooded his mouth. Startled and confused, he coughed and opened his eyes.
He immediately wished that he hadn't.
He was lying on the ground, staring at a decapitated Hydra head lying a few inches in front of his face. The large bulbous eyes were being eaten by small fish that kept darting in and out to take a bite. One whisked away from him with a tiny bit of dark and slimy flesh between its teeth, and Jake shuddered with revulsion.
Please tell me that's not what I have in my mouth, he thought as he spat. It took a few times, then a large chunk of bloody meat drifted away in the water, and he gagged.
Stifling a groan, he tried to sit up but fell back in agony. His arm felt like it was on fire, which was weird, considering he was underwater. Using his other arm, he managed to push himself up from the seafloor.
Drifting up allowed him a look at his arm, and he almost became nauseous. The maw of a Hydra head was tightly locked around his lower arm, teeth stuck deep inside. They had penetrated his scales while the dead eyes lolled about in the head, staring at nothing in particular.
Jake swallowed back another mouthful of bile, coughing when he almost choked on some pieces of raw meat that got stuck in his throat. Annoyance turned into anger, and he spat the remaining slivers of dead flesh out while he tried to pry open the jaw of the Hydra. It was clenched firmly shut, and no matter how much he strained, it wouldn't budge. What if it remained like that? Would it get infected?
He let out an angry growl and began clawing at the thing's lower jaw apart with his talons. Bits and pieces of flesh and sinew flew everywhere until he could finally snap open the jawbone, prying it off. As he did, he felt the teeth withdraw from his skin, scraping across the hard scales.
He let out a shuddering breath and inspected his arm. There were multiple puncture marks, some of which had pulled open rips revealing bits of white bone. He looked away, swallowing as he hoped that the fact that there was relatively little blood was a good sign.
The soft, keening sound came again. He looked around so fast his body began drifting through the water, but he calmed when he saw it was the hammerhead dragon lying on its side, not too far away. Next to it was the unmoving body of the Hydra, all of its headless necks splayed outward like the fingers of a hand.
The hammerhead shivered as it tried to move closer to the corpse but seemed unable to drag itself the short distance due to its injuries.
Again Jake felt an odd sympathy for the creature, but before he could act on it, he looked around for any dangers. Blood and gore covered the entire area. Small fish and snakes darted in and out, grabbing pieces before rushing off to hide in the reef as if they had found some great trophy. High in the water, three of the colossal turtles were snapping up fish that came too close while keeping their distance from each other.
Seeing nothing that would prove immediately dangerous, Jake gingerly swam next to the badly hurt hammerhead dragon.
"You look like shit…" he croaked before cringing at his remark.
The hammerhead dragon raised its head and looked at him with big eyes before gazing longingly at the corpse, trying to drag itself towards it again.
"You want this? Fine, I guess you've earned it," Jake muttered before kicking himself for yapping on. What if he drew unwanted attention?
Although he was still wondering why he felt the need to help, he moved towards the massive Hydra corpse and began dragging it. It weighed a ton, even in the water, and moving it meant digging his feet in the sand and pulling it forward. The fact that he could only use one arm didn't help either.
How come this thing weighs so much, he thought to himself as he tried to recall how gravity worked underwater. Shouldn't this thing be easy to move?
He finally managed to drag it across a few feet, and as soon as the hammerhead could reach the corpse, it began tearing off pieces of meat and swallowing them whole.
Curious, Jake wondered why all the surrounding creatures stayed away from the Hydra's main body while seeming anxious to snatch up all of the smaller morsels. In a moment of astounding stupidity, he tore off a small piece of meat and began chewing it. Realizing what he had done, he almost spat it back out again. Then he realized it tasted like a mix of salmon and beef and that he was very, very hungry. Ravenous, he began ripping off large pieces, devouring them almost as fast as the hammerhead.
--
Time passed quickly, and Jake only came back to his senses when the sea started to turn orange from the rising sun. Looking down, he saw the almost unrecognizable corpse of the Hydra. Most of the meat had been stripped from the bones, and even the water surrounding it seemed cleared of any remnants.
