Chapter Fifty-Four: Under the Water
Nobody slept.
The only reason it was obvious was because of the exhaustion lining everyone's faces the next morning. Xaphile, finally giving up on it himself, rolled his sleeping bag up and latched it onto the backpack he'd been given at the start of their trek from Chisago.
Everyone else was already in the process of doing the same.
"What now?" Amelia asked, glancing at Gus from behind her glasses. "Where do we go?"
The blonde didn't answer immediately, instead choosing to walk over to the cliff side.
Tucking the map into his pocket, he peered in both directions, then seemed to spot something.
"Follow me," he grunted, waving them along. "We're cutting through the woods."
When he stepped into the forest and began to tread through the underbrush, everyone followed him without question. The walk took maybe about fifteen to twenty minutes, roughly, but when they arrived to the spot Gus had been leading them to, Xaphile blinked since part of the enormous chasm before them had crumbled and the side had fallen into a deep slope.
It acted as a shoreline.
He examined the lake with cautious eyes as he and the others headed downward to terminate in a rocky strip of beach that bordered the strange body of water. The lake itself stretched so far away from them that he could hardly see the bank of its opposite shore.
It glittered like malicious silver, churning and writhing beneath the sky.
He could hardly look at it for fear of going blind.
"We're not swimming across that," Ella finally muttered. "I can't swim."
"Discounting Sinmir and Vrael, nobody here can," Amelia noted, swallowing as she eyed the lake with nervous eyes. "Although, I dare say even if we could, we would still have trouble."
"But we've gotta get across, right?" Vrael asked, hesitantly looking around. "The people who can help Phil are on the other side of it, aren't they?"
"Yes, and I'm certain that this lake isn't the one we're looking for," Gus , staring at the cliffs in blatant fascination. "This gorge doesn't even look like a natural rock formation."
That much was true, since the gorge did indeed look unnatural. It was almost like it had been carved out by something enormous smashing into it at a very high speed instead of forming over a long period of time, like a crater.
Actually, now that I think about it, that would explain the weird melted rock, Xaphile realized, feeling amazed. Did a meteor actually fall here?
He didn't know, but the water and the chasm itself went on for miles in either direction.
If they tried to go around it, the journey would likely take weeks.
"We have no other option," Sinmir muttered, pointing at the shore. "The cliffs don't look like they end for a good while... if they do at all."
"So we have to swim it," Ella growled. "Gods, this is a nuisance. Does anyone have a trick to cross whirlpools?"
Xaphile did a double take, then looked at the water, squinting against the brightness of it.
"Whirlpools?" he muttered, frowning. "Where?"
After a few seconds, his sensitive pupils adjusted... and there they were.
His eyes widened when he counted seven swirling pools of water that marred the surface of the lake: seven gigantic spirals at least a quarter mile in diameter and an eighth of a mile deep in the depths of their basins. Staring at them made him feel ill, like he was getting sucked into them despite the fact that he was so far away.
"Let's get closer and investigate," Amelia suggested, leading them down towards the rocky beach with slumped shoulders. "Maybe if we look at this from another angle, we'll find a solution."
The wind only got worse as they neared the disturbed water, no doubt kicked up by the tumultuous whirlpools. There were long reeds growing in the shallows by the shore—a thick mire of cat tails, the type with fuzzy hot-dogs at the tops of their stems.
They went on for a good fifty or so feet before the water took command.
Everyone stared at the water, looking stumped.
"How are we going to cross those monstrous things?" Ella asked, shaking her head. "There's no way... unless we grow fins and gills, we're not going to survive trying cross this lake."
Amelia stiffened, then her eyes glittered.
"Gills..." she muttered, pushing her glasses up her nose as she thought about something. "Wait... a transmutation spell! That's it!"
Ella blinked, then turned to look at her.
"What are you going on about?" she demanded. "Speak up."
"Well, transmutation is actually a form of curative magic," Amelia gushed, lifting a hand and waving it slightly as she spoke. "I'm actually quite skilled with it, and I just so happen to know a spell that can give a human gills!"
"What are you planning?" Gus growled, eyeing her warily. "Even if you give us gills, Amelia, we'd still be sucked into the current and pulled down into whatever is causing the disturbance."
"Actually, perhaps we could swim under the whirlpools," Xaphile absently retorted, walking to the water's edge. "Whirlpools narrow when they grow nearer to the bottom of a lake or river; in fact, in most cases, they usually reach only halfway down."
They all stared at him as he knelt and dipped two fingers into the reeds.
"That's insanity," Ella hissed, clenching her fists. "Gills or not, none of us can swim. Breathing under water would serve little purpose if we can't move well beneath it."
"That's true," Amelia sighed, deflating. "None of us here can swim."
Xaphile deflated, shoulders slumping.
"I can," he muttered. "I can swim."
The words slipped out of his mouth on impulse, but when everyone turned to look at him, he swallowed down his jumping nerves. Straightening his back, he shook his head and folded his arms, tail sweeping back and forth in a rather jerky manner.
"You can swim?" Sinmir asked, narrowing his eyes. "Really."
"Yes," he confirmed, meeting the man's gaze head on. "I've been taking lessons since I was a kid. My middle school and high school both had required swim classes, so if Amelia has a spell that will let me breathe under water, I could go check it—"
"Absolutely not," Ella interrupted, shaking her head. "I won't run the risk."
"Why not?" he demanded, stepping forward and looking down at her with no expression on his face. "I could do it. I'm actually really good at sw—"
"It's too dangerous," the girl hissed, pushing past him. "End of discussion."
Xaphile turned and looked at her when she angrily started walking down the shoreline.
"You do dangerous things all the time," he pointed out; when she simply kept walking, he felt his irritation spark. "Don't ignore me."
It seemed, however, that Ella had no intention of listening.
"Phil, it's fine," Amelia finally sighed. "We'll think of another way."
He was having none of it.
Eyes narrowed, he tilted his head.
"I'll do it whether you want me to or not," he irritably called, folding his arms. "If you really want to ignore me, then I'll ignore you, too."
She stopped dead.
"What did you just say?"
"You heard me," he retorted, reaching up and ripping his hood off; Ella turned slowly, glaring at him with unconcealed anger when his hair whipped around his face like steel silk. "That's right, turn around and face me. I'm not going anywhere."
She took one step toward him, and then another, and then another.
"Tell me why I shouldn't just knock you unconscious for the rest of this trip," she hissed, eyes all but glowing. "Doubtless you'd be less annoying that way."
"Because you and I both know that attempting to do so will get you nowhere," he retorted, watching as she took another step toward him. Her expression—one of anger, threats, and impatience—did not waver. "Dangerous things happen. It's a fact of life."
"If something goes amiss, you could die," Ella snapped. "That is something I won't risk!"
"I won't let anything happen," he muttered, watching as she swept up to him and clutched his arms so tight that it almost hurt. "As of right now, we're stuck... and I'm the only one here who knows how to swim. As I see it, we don't exactly have a choice."
Her fists tightened on his arms.
"We'll go around," she growled. "You don't have to do this."
He tilted his head, regarding her with an emotionless gaze.
"You don't trust me, do you?" he quietly asked, making her stiffen; her hands went slack. "You really don't trust me."
For a long time, she just stared at him, eyes unwavering and firm.
"It's not that," she retorted. "I just don't want to risk an accident happening."
He sighed.
"Please," he muttered, "just trust me. I'll be fine."
She hesitantly looked out at the swirling pools marring the lake's surface, gazing at the enormous swirls with apprehension, then let out a sigh and let go.
"Don't die," she muttered. "That's all I can say."
She didn't look at him again when she stepped past and made to rejoin the others.
"Ella," Xaphile muttered, making her halt for a moment; she turned her head just enough for him to see her face in profile. "Thank you."
"I'm just wondering why you felt you needed my blessing in this," she said in a languid tone that he didn't understand. "Are there not others who would agree with me?"
Letting out a sigh, he walked over and set a hand on her head, gently tousling her hair.
"You're the only one with any say around here," he reminded her, then walked over to where Amelia was resting. "I've managed to convince her. Going under the whirlpools seems like a solid idea, so I'm going to give it a try."
"You should go into the water to investigate first," Amelia told him. "Tell us if it's safe enough for even the most inexperienced swimmer to attempt trying to get across."
"So, how does this gill business work?" Gus grumbled. "I know nothing of this sort of magic."
"In a nutshell, transmutation magic works by taking the essence of one creature and fusing their defining attributes with someone's body," Amelia explained. "For this, you would get gills and webbed fingers, but would likely lose your hearing and speech in the bargain."
"Well, no time like the present," Xaphile muttered. "Hit me with it."
"The transformation will be a little jarring," she noted, giving him a worried look. "You might want to strip down first."
"Why?" he warily asked.
"Because once you have the gills, you won't have time to get your clothes off," she explained, tapping the sides of her neck. "Fish can't breath out of water."
"Yeah, I'd probably freak out if I couldn't breathe," he muttered. "Good point."
"Be careful," Vrael mumbled. "Seriously, Phil."
Ella said nothing when Xaphile stripped, but he noticed that her eyes did wander across his chest and abdomen, lingering on the dark trail of fur rising out of his undergarments. His face burned and he turned slightly, which made her turn bright red and abruptly glance away.
His tail curled around his left leg once his clothes were off.
"Ready when you are," he muttered, tossing his hair out of his face. "Hit me with it."
"As you desire," Amelia replied, nodding twice before stepping forward. "I'll begin now."
When she began to chant and her hands erupted with golden light, she set them against his chest. He glanced to the left and looked at Ella, vision flickering when his hearing disappeared. He took one, then two, then three deep human breaths.
Ella's gaze stayed on his when his breathing grew shallow.
He felt cold chills creeping over his skin like twitching chips of metal, and with small motions he lifted his clawed hand to see skin-colored webs of flesh tying his fingers together, but then his lungs closed off and his vision blurred completely.
Xaphile choked.
Almost abruptly, he lost his balance and fell over, landing hard on his back. Scrabbling at the ground beneath him, he took a breath: air filled his lungs but did absolutely nothing for him... it tore down his esophagus, rattling down his not-breathing throat with a dry vibration.
He found himself grabbing at his neck in desperation, needing oxygen.
Something warm and firm was abruptly pressed against his lips.
Then, water flowed into his mouth.
His eyes widened with a jolt and he gulped down the water with a hoarse gasp, choking with joy as the oxygen-stripped liquid splashed out of his gills and onto his shoulders. When his eyes slightly came back into focus, he found Ella's face alarmingly close to his own.
She pulled back when he surged into a sitting position, but the water wasn't enough and he started gasping again. Xaphile felt her hands clamp around his upper arms and with a jerk, she pulled him forward. Before he could try to get away, she kissed him.
Everyone around them looked on with startled expressions on their faces.
Nobody made a move to stop her.
Xaphile forgot to open his mouth until she forced him to do it with her tongue, the unexpected intrusion making him shudder without control... but in that instant, he knew that Ella wasn't really kissing him at all since water came pouring out of her mouth into his.
Water that he swallowed without protest or hesitation.
His eyes flicked from her own—narrowed and staring, boring into his with an expression he couldn't name—to the water skin sitting next to her knees.
The cap lay discarded to the side.
He finally shoved her away, feeling the warmth of her mouth vanish, and grabbed the skin.
Lifting it up, he took two massive gulps out of it, keeping the water lodged somewhere in his chest without letting it seep out of his gills. He wasn't particularly sure what the physics of that little trick were, but it felt the same as keeping air trapped inside his lungs so he didn't dwell on it. 'Breath' held, Xaphile decided not to bop Ella one across the face for kissing him again.
They looked at each other, then she said something he couldn't hear.
He shook his head, 'breath' running out.
The water gushed out of his gills.
Lifting the bottle to his lips again, he swallowed more water and held it in, then pointed toward his long ear and shook his head. Rather than try and communicate with him any further, Ella stood up and gripped his left arm, dragging him to his feet.
She helped him all the way over to the water.
Xaphile expected her to stop on the beach and let him wade in on his own, but to his extreme astonishment, the girl actually waded into the water with him.
I didn't think she would go that far, he silently noted.
And did you think you could walk out there yourself? came an unexpected and rather biting mental reply, making him jump. You can't even breathe right like this... I'm sure walking would be nearly impossible for you to do alone. You fell over like a drunken cow earlier.
By the time she was chest deep, the water was up to his waist.
Dunking down, he submerged himself beneath the lake surface for a moment, took a deep gulp of water, held it in, then stood back up with water streaming down his body. Casting a glance behind him, he realized that everyone was standing on the beach, staring.
Hhe hesitantly waved at them with his finger-webs on full display.
Sinmir, grinning, said something that was probably not too nice since Vrael instantly elbowed him in the ribs. Ella tossed a word back over her shoulder; Gus gestured at his ear and said something with surprise on his face, to which she nodded and called something back.
Needing more oxygen, Xaphile leaned forward with a splash and buried his face in the water.
He gulped about a liter down before standing back up.
Be careful, Ella murmured, making his nasal cavity itch. Please.
I will be, he retorted, then stepped away from her and gave a small salute. Go wait on shore.
Without further ado, he turned and dove forward with a silent splash, drinking water down in the process. He felt relief slide over him when he swam beneath the water completely.
I'll let you know if its safe for you guys to swim across, he told her, kicking his legs.
Just don't die, she muttered, and he felt the tickle-itch of her mind disengage from his own.
The water was lukewarm as he swam through it, neither hot nor cold, not thin nor thick. It just felt right when it caressed his limbs and hydrated his unblinking eyes, but he still felt rather disoriented despite the rightness of it all. There were strange pockets of underwater reeds beneath him, every ripple of stem and stalk making his sides hum with warnings.
The lake got deeper as he continued on, making his way easier, but the plants muffled light until he was swimming in what felt like total darkness. Then he broke through to the actual lake and he was extremely disoriented by the sudden drop off.
It went from being ten-feet-deep-and-reed-filled to a-hundred-feet-deep-and-empty in an instant, the reed patch ending in an underwater cliff that he could barely see the bottom of.
The emptiness was far more intimidating than the dark plants.
For some reason, the thought of being so exposed... was disquieting.
Blinking, Xaphile took a deep gulp of water and swam upward with a kick and a twist, head breaking the surface with only a few ripples. His eyes weren't good out of the water, so all he could see on the shoreline were a few black shapes amid the swaying plants.
One of them waved, an action he was just barely able to make out.
He waved back before ducking into the water again.
Xaphile felt Ella in his head before she spoke.
What's happening? she asked, just as he poked his head back out into the emptiness and looked down at the drop-off. Is there trouble of some sort?
Well, have you ever heard the phrase 'It's quiet... too quiet'? he asked, clutching the edge of the underwater rock; his hair drifted around him in inky tendrils, long ears flicking. His tail, even when it was submerged, continued to drift back and forth. Because this is so quiet it's creepy.
Open up to me, Ella muttered. Let me see what you are seeing.
With sigh of hundreds of silky bubbles, he let his mind drift open and allowed her take a good long look at the enormous drop-off in the weird way she wanted to. Looking straight out didn't reveal much: just slightly opaque gray water and, far off in the distance, a glimmering silver funnel that was most definitely the underwater view of a whirlpool.
Unfortunately, the vast swirl was too far away to see the bottom of it, and looking down just revealed an abyss that faded from gray to disconcerting black after only a few feet. Looking up only showed the undulating surface of the waves above.
Try to cross it, but don't get near the whirlpool, Ella finally said. Don't dive down too far.
Don't gotta tell me twice, Xaphile muttered, then pushed out of the shallows. This mind reading thing actually came really in handy, by the way... it's nice to know someone is there during moments when I begin to doubt myself.
She was silent, but he knew she'd heard him.
Shaking his head, he focused on the task at hand.
It felt like he was floating in zero gravity as he hovered over the abyss, but aside from that, nothing really seemed out of place until he felt something strange move through the water.
Ella? Xaphile ventured, staring down at the darkness.
What? she demanded
Feel this, he retorted. Something's weird.
He suddenly felt their minds connect: he opened up again, letting her know the sensations going through his body. Even as far away as he was, he could feel the slow drag of the whirlpool's suctioning force attempting to pull him toward it in a vast, slow spiral.
However, the real trouble was brewing below him.
What do you make of this sensation? he asked, shivering again as thousands of undulating twitches came out of the abyss. He summoned up a memory of jumping sharks from a Shark Week program he had watched eons ago. You don't think...
Swim out twenty meters, but be ready to turn back at any moment, Ella snipped; he could feel the tension twanging in her thoughts in spite of her curt tone. Go slow.
With a tremor of nerves, he pushed out farther, swimming with long, cautious strokes.
He watched the darkness below him with wide eyes as it twitched and writhed, but mid-stroke a massive displacement of water beneath and in front of Xaphile sent him barreling backward and up toward the lake's surface without warning.
His arms spread on reflex to slow his ascent, fins and webs acting as a sort of backwards parachute. He looked down in shock as his hair streamed toward the black parts below.
Water streamed past in a darkening boil.
The surge frightened him, of course, but then he saw the thing in the blackness.
The hundreds of mouths stuck haphazardly onto a lump of a body alive with crawling barnacles and tentacles all adrip with cups and spines. It rose up like a horrid blimp from the deep, grinning a thousand grins as its single yellow eye—an eye as wide as Xaphile was tall—locked onto him.
An eye that never blinked, only stared, gleeful and dark and deep.
With a rush of bubbles, its mouths all roared so loud that Xaphile could feel the vibrations tearing through his whole body. He clutched his head, trying to block out the disorienting noise that he couldn't even hear, and with the numbness of terror in his limbs, he flailed.
The creature—nearly a half mile ahead of him and still so huge it seemed to block out the sky—began to swim towards him and he felt his heart fly up his throat. Instantly, he flipped over himself and shot back toward the safety of the shallows.
What in the name of Asgrog's forge is happening?! Ella demanded. What's out there in that water with you?!
As she spoke, he caught a brief flash of what all of them had seen from shore, a huge tsunami of water that had bathed the rocky shore in foam. A tentacle breaking the surface, and a demonic bellow of hunger that could wake the dead.
I'm in serious trouble, he fearfully retorted, giving her a flash of the monstrosity behind him. I need to get the hell out of here, pronto!
SWIM! Ella instantly screamed. SWIM, XAPHILE!!
As if she had to tell him.
He could feel the monster, so much bigger than he was, so much stronger than he could ever be, gaining so quickly. Even though he'd had so much of a head start, that thing had to have been swimming faster than a jet.
He was a hundred yards away from safety. It was at a hundred and fifty.
But by the time he cleared ten yards, it had cleared twenty.
I'm not gonna make it! he screamed, and as if in response he felt Ella diving into the depths of his soul, yanking a thread of music out of him without permission. He didn't falter in his swimming when she told him to slow the monster down with magic.
In blatant desperation, he grasped at Ella's provided music and saw it, molded it into something useful. Slow, plodding notes of solidity and height he wove into a stony net, and with the metal equivalent of a punch he let the wall-song—for that's what it had become—fly into the path of the demon behind him.
It was right on his tail at that point.
When it hit his wall illusion, he could feel it slow down, colliding with the odd musical barrier with a shudder of water and energy and force. But then the wall broke under the sheer weight of the creature's presence, and he felt it rocket forward after him again.
It was the monster's own eagerness that saved him, though: when it came barreling forward, it also made the water on his side of the wall rush out of its way, straight ahead and to the sides. He sensed and processed the shift in the water before his brain had even begun to think.
His limbs spread on reflex, catching the water behind him the way a base jumper's suit could catch air to slow a descent and he shot into the reeds with a violent tumble. It was bumpy and jarring, but all in all he wasn't harmed when he finally stopped the underwater roll.
The demon was too big to fit in the shallow shelf atop the underwater cliff, so it ended up colliding with it if the resounding thud he felt in the marrow of his bones was any indication.
The horrid creature began to thrash its fins and roar, churning up the water, and as Xaphile tried to ride the waves down by the roots of the reeds, struggling to get to the shore so he could scramble on land, a shadow loomed over him and instinctively rolled.
He didn't even know why he needed to get out from under it until a giant tentacle slammed into the water, right where he had been not even a second before.
The resulting concussion nearly knocked him out.
His head spun even as the tentacle began to thrash and search for him, eventually forming a 'u' shaped loop around where he was and blocking every single way out aside from the one behind him, which was back toward the monster itself.
He turned in the water, looking back at the edge of the plants for an escape.
A circle of gold—a big one—appeared briefly and locked with his eyes before disappearing behind the reeds.
The tentacle started to close in like a noose.
Ella! he shouted. Ella! What do I do?!
Get out of there! she screamed, and the moment she said it, he felt the creature start roaring again. We'll distract it!
He didn't reply, eyes roving everywhere until he focused on the surface. A shadow loomed large in the air, a storm cloud of bloodlust and hunger, but as he stared up at it through terrified eyes, he saw a bright orange flash careen into the shadow and drive it slightly back.
Fire, he realized; when the monster's tentacle rose out of the water to defend the main body, Xaphile rocketed forward into progressively shallower water. It got harder and harder to swim as he went along because the lake got choppier as it lessened in depth. He felt the wild waves breaking over his back and neck... then, his hands and knees collided with the lake's floor.
No longer swimming, he scrambled for the rocky shore, scattering drops in all directions.
When he finally hit dry land, he sat down and pulled his knees to his chest, turning to face the water and the monster that had nearly eaten him for breakfast.
The creature, unable to traverse the reedy shoreline, stayed right at the underwater cliff's edge, looming at least a hundred feet above the water's surface. It was even more horrible in the air, with its lumpy gray skin set with so many grinding mouths and razor teeth.
Xaphile flopped flat on his back with rocks pressing uncomfortably into his skin.
The huge eye nestled in the mouths was bleeding from the socket and Amelia—who was standing a little ways down the beach—was chucking fireball after fireball at the horrible creature. Vrael and Gus were firing arrows from their bows at the beast.
Sinmir stood behind them, and he was the first to realize that Xaphile had resurfaced.
He waved weakly as the blonde man ran over, mouth moving even though he couldn't hear the words. He skidded onto his knees, spraying pebbles in all directions as he came to kneel at Xaphile's side with a look that said he was about to have a major freak-out.
Finally, he thought when he saw Sinmir's relieved and worried grey eyes. Finally. I'm safe.
As if to counter that, he felt something wind tight around his left ankle.
Just as the creature gave a tremendous yank and jerked him halfway into the water, Xaphile caught a single flash of Sinmir's shocked face. Lunging forward, the prince gripped his wrists so hard he could feel his bones crack and grind together.
Xaphile grasped him back on instinct, webs squishing together as he pulled his fingers tight.
Sinmir's heels dug into the rocks as he tried to keep him from getting pulled under, but the tentacle sprouted barbs like some sort of weird plant. Xaphile's eyes widened and he let out a soundless scream, expelling fountains of water from the gills at his throat.
He convulsed, kicking his free leg as the barbs ground their needle-sharp lengths into his skin.
Something warm started spreading from the dozen finger-sized daggers in his flesh and his leg muscles went fuzzy and as limp as lead, but as he struggled and kicked, trying to help Sinmir pull him away, he realized that his efforts were futile.
He was running out of air.
Just as he was about to pass out, Amelia came tearing over, and with hands that shone gold, she clutched his head. He felt something on his neck grind... then, he was choking.
He coughed and hacked up the water in his lungs, and took deep, gasping breaths, but the moment he could breathe normally, he let out a deafening howl of agony. His ears popped and he could suddenly hear Sinmir yelling under the sound of his own hysterical voice.
"--EED TO AID ME, LASS!" he roared. "It's GOT HIM!"
"Hold on to him!" Amelia shrieked, lunging forward and gripping Xaphile under the arms with hands that still shone gold; as she pulled, the webbing on his hands and feet slowly disappeared. "Come on! COME ON!"
Then there was the sound of the creature's roars, a million breaking skyscrapers raining glass onto dying people. A shadow passed over his face, and then he heard a splash, the ring of metal coming out of a scabbard, and footsteps pounding over pebbles.
Amelia screeched and ducked.
"ELLA!" she cried. "WHAT'S GOTTEN INTO YOU?!"
There was no response.
A horrible squelching noise came next, and then the tension pulling his body taut snapped away with a monstrous screech, sending Xaphile careening backward up the beach. He collided with Sinmir, back smashing against the man's armored chest.
He instantly started shaking like a leaf in a gale.
The creature's tentacle had been severed, but he could feel his leg—still wrapped in a twitching length of bladed flesh—light up as if it had been dunked in lava or liquid steel from the knee down. He heard Sinmir shouting for someone, for a blanket, for something as his arms closed around him and started chafing.
Xaphile's mind slipped into an odd place, then.
He could see out of his drooping eyes, but he couldn't hear much beyond muffled shouts.
A new shadow came over him as time slowed to a crawl, and with another groan of absolute despair he felt that shadow draw close in a rush of heat that, for an instant, was too hot for him to abide. But then hands of that same heat closed over his arms and yanked his rigid body upright, Sinmir's arms falling away as the shadow spoke.
"Give him to me!" the shadow snarled. "Now!"
"Ella, your eyes," Amelia breathed, speaking in a muffled tone. "Your eyes are--"
"Shut up... and back away."
He suddenly found himself being pressed against something hot enough to melt his whole body.
He blacked out for a few moments, then.
When he came to he was lying on something soft, a bedroll someone had laid out.
He tried to move, but Vrael was holding down his arms and someone else was holding his legs at the knees. Amelia was kneeling between his ankles with one of Ella's daggers in her hands. She said something in a hushed tone as she started cutting the tentacle away.
Agony ripped up his leg.
Xaphile screamed in pain when she began to peel the barbs out of his flesh, one by one by one, and the spurts of blood and green slime jetting from each one made his stomach churn and his muscles cramp, and before he knew what was happening, he turned his head and vomited.
"Oh, Gods," Vrael croaked, shivering as he held Xaphile's thrashing arms above his head. "Oh Gods, oh Gods."
"Shush!" Amelia scolded, not looking up. "Don't panic!"
Disheveled brown hair framed desperate blue eyes as she cut a strip of her beige tunic away and tied off his leg with a makeshift tourniquet. She then attempted to touch his leg with her healing magic, but her hands were shocked away by a flash of bright green.
She gasped, eyes widening in horror.
She tried again... and again, and again.
To no avail.
"My magic won't work on him!" she wailed. "Something in the injury is repelling it!"
Vrael instantly crawled forward, arms glowing even more brightly than her own, but the flashes of green shocked him as well.
"Shite!" he whispered. "I think the wound has some sort of dark magic in it!"
"Please," Xaphile somehow got out; the word cost him so much strength that his straining neck went limp. His head lolled to one side, and he saw Ella... but unless he was hallucinating, her eyes were glowing bright blue and her pupils resembled a cat's.
Her face was screwed up and she was shaking, looking down at him with absolute anger mixed with something else... something that guilted him.
"Ella... I'm so sorry."
It was the last thing he managed to say before he fainted.