The Messenger, the Warrior and the Healer

[Our Lady Muffin]

If anything, the three hundred dollars they had to pay to go on this trip was, in his opinion, totally and completely worth it. It was not often that Kian's mother could spare the time or money to take him out of the city so this was the first time he had ever came to this beach. It was cloudy, the ocean was freezing, the sand was a dingy grey, the rocks slick with moss, his rain boots was itchy and his raincoat felt a size too small. Even still, he was content. The group of students looked to be having a lot of fun on the West coast beach. Kian took a chomp out of his ham sandwich and stretched his legs out before casting his gaze around him. All his classmates were chattering happily amongst each other as they had their lunch. The teachers sat on top of one of the many flat rocks that overlooked the ocean. Kian moved a bit when somebody went tromping past him, rain boots kicking up some sand. "Sorry, Kian!" The boy apologized, a wide grin on his face.

Kian returned it with a smile, "No problem." He said though he was a bit annoyed at the little grains of sand that got onto his sandwich. Kian wasn't even sure if the boy heard his reply as, no sooner had he grinned his apology, he had turned and ran off towards his group of friends gathered ontop a fallen log. He sighed, deciding it wasn't worth it to mull over such pointless things and started to pick the sand from his sandwich.

"A bit of sand isn't that bad," A familiar voice piped before a plump Chinese boy plopped down beside him. He grinned and adjusted his glasses, "Pretend it's seasoning."

"Hey Bryan," Kian greeted as he peered at his sandwich, frowned and then went on to take a brave bite out of his sandwich. "Where'd you go?" He asked through a mouthful of food as he threw a sidelong glance at his friend.

His friend was digging into his backpack for his own lunch. "Potty." He replied simply and in that way how close friends were perfectly comfortable talking about their bodily functions with little discomfort. He fished out his own soggy ham sandwich and unwrapped it from the plastic wrap before taking a big bite. Bryan made a face, "This is gross." He said, mouth full.

"Shut up and just eat it." Kian said putting one hand out behind him and leaning his weight back on it. Yes, a one week trip to 'study' the Pacific ocean and the surrounding Redwoods was definitely worth three hundred dollars. He would make it up to his mother one day. Somehow.

[Notebooks]

Despite the windy weather that has been lingering since the beginning of the week, the school trip seemed to be going fairly well for most of the students. None of them had been obligated to do any learning, or take notes, and Jim had especially come to enjoy the latter, since it allowed him to catch up on some sleep. He had considered mingling with the other students for a while, but one of the damp rocks located near the sea, had looked a lot more comfortable than the cold sand. The spot also made an excellent make-shift lunch table, which had been exactly what he needed at the time. He was used to having lunch around 11', and was just finishing up the last bites of a fresh apple. The teachers had warned him not to touch any of the trees that were planted in the neighbourhood of their hotel, but he hadn't bothered with their warnings. The juicy, green apples had simply looked too tasty, and it wasn't as if he got caught. In fact, he had been snacking on fruits from those 'forbidden' trees since day one, and the owners were yet to notice. It wasn’t as if he stole, or at least not in his opinion; the trees were plenty and so were the fruits they carried.

He took another bite and leaned back, hitting the flat rock with his back. The noise of children laughing dulled a bit, and he listened to the splashing of water colliding with the rocks that rested further into sea. He was a natural born slacker, and wasn't planning on moving any time soon. Resting felt good, some sort of reward for dragging himself all the way out to the beach on a cloudy day. He watched the clouds for a few minutes, finishing the last of his apple and wondering if the stars would come out again at night. At home, he had used one of his mother's old telescopes to locate them, and find out their names. It hadn't been hard to figure out a use for them after that; they made excellent navigating devices, whenever- and that wasn't very often -he had come by an opportunity to use them.

He liked the stars just as much as he liked his freshly stolen apples, dashing across grassy fields or cleverly avoiding school tasks and chores. All by all, he was a good student, despite appearing disinterested with most of the subjects. The only part of school he hadn’t quite mastered yet, was the reading aloud. His dyslexia didn’t cause too much trouble when he tried to read on his own, but combined with his performance anxiety, and the fact that his ADHD didn’t let him focus, it made him reluctant to read in front of others. Luckily, his seat at the back of the class ensured that he went unnoticed during most classes.

Jim stuffed the core of his apple into a plastic bag, he kept in his backpack and yawned. Then he began humming, and his gaze drifted to the sky, where the clouds made different shapes as they drifted by. Once or twice, the sun slipped through and he could feel a comforting warmth radiate down on his skin, taking away the feelings of cold that the wind has brought with it. He bent his knees and tucked his hands in his pockets, trying to make the feeling last as long as possible.

[HowlingWolf]

Thunk. Swish, thunk. Swish, thunk. Swish.

Miss.

The tiniest drop of sweat slid down from her silver hair, across the pale skin of Alex's forehead, and past her pitch black eyes as she shot the camp-provided bow with the arrows that accompanied it. She was using it in the Archery Glen, a place that could only be located if you did research online and asked a camp counselor specifically where it was. The bow they had given her was more than worse for wear, with chips and streaks in the faded wood and low-quality string that had once been black but had dirtied to the color of grayish-brown. The arrows were also pretty bad, made with flimsy wood, feathers that had been sloppily put on, and arrow heads that might have been suction cups for state of dullness they were in. The only thing driving the arrows through the target at all was the force Alex was putting into it, making every one hammer with a satisfying sound each time they made contact.

She had been shooting arrows for quite some time now and her fingers were starting to get the slightest bit of a red color. Alex, having been absorbed in her touts, sighed as she didn't hear the thunk on he wood. She had missed. Setting the bow down and deciding she was done for the day, she went out into the trees to find the arrow. After about ten minutes, she found it, quite some distance from the target.

The Archery Glen was Alex's way of getting alone time to herself and escaping all of the other classmates that had come on the trip. Honestly, she would have preferred to pass and instead just stay home, but her mom and step-dad had made her go, saying that she "needed to make some friends" and this camp would be "the perfect place" for that. Psh. As if that would work. Alex thought, walking almost angrily back to the bow, her black combat boots crunching the leaves beneath her. Why do I even need friends? I have me, myself, and I, and that has never hurt me before.

Alex had never particularly enjoyed extensive contact with other people, although she was fine with occasional greetings. That was probably what caused her not to have any friends. Add that to the fact she looked completely strange and different than anyone else and she loved to do things most girls didn't; she absolutely loved anything that had to do with sharp objects, like knives or arrows and swords. She took archery, taekwondo, fencing, and pretty much everything of the like. In short, she was one girl not to be messed with.

[Our Lady Muffin]

If anybody paid attention, they would have noticed the ocean growing more restless. The noise of its waves lapping up against the many fallen boulders had grown just the slightest bit louder; white foam crowded around the base of some of the rocks. Somewhere not too far from the shore, a small head slipped up from the water's surface. Sickly yellow eyes regarded the group of teenagers on land with a hungry expression. Heavy locks plastered to it's scaly blue skin as it's almost triangular pupils dilated and it disappeared back into the water's dark surface; the creature's tattered tail flicking up into the air for a second - creating a faint splash - before it glided soundlessly back into the ocean's cold depths.

A group of girls was drawing large hearts and various other words of remembrance on the sand before crowding together to take a picture. Kian watched on with dull interest as he finished the last of his lunch and balled up the plastic wrap before shoving it into the side pocket of his backpack. Beside him, his friend was still eating while casting his bespectacled gaze around. The blond boy grunted a bit as he pushed himself up onto his feet, dusting off the sand from his pants. His friend made a noise of complaint, "Quit it! You're getting sand in my sandwich."

"Seasoning." Kian said with a grin and a shrug. He gave his friend a nudge with the toe of his bargain-store-green rainboots, "My turn to potty. Be back in a sec." He didn't stay to hear his friend let out an annoyed huff before turning and heading back to the main campsite. Taking the gravel path that cut through the forest and led him towards the collection of porter potties, Kian could hear the whistle of arrows as he past by the archery practice area. He looked over and saw a girl (what was her name again?) practicing her archery with a look of intense concentration. He had no intention of disturbing her though and continued on his way to the toilet. Maybe he should take the opportunity to try archery for the first time ever. It was a cool looking sport and seemed like a relatively quiet one too so it seemed to be just right up his alley.

He was contemplating this possibility as he finished up his business in the less-than-pleasant porter potty. Stepping out, no sooner had the door shut behind him when his vision suddenly went black. Well, not really. It was weird, he was still seeing but it didn't feel right; his vision was dark around the edges and he felt like he had shut his eyes. Looking around, Kian realized that he was no longer surrounded by hideously green porter potties; he was back on the beach by the edge of the forest. There was some girls screaming and the teachers were directing the kids back towards the camp in an urgent manner; the ocean was erupting into great waves and he could barely make out a few figures by the rocks - though who he couldn't tell. And then it was gone. There was the sound like a vacuum cleaner sucking up something too big and Kian's head exploded into a beautiful cacophony of sheer and utter agony. A pained cry escaped him as he fell back against the door of the porter potty, leaning heavily against it as he doubled over, a bead of sweat trickled down his temple as he pried his eyes open. He was back...back here? Kian moaned a bit in pain as he reached up to cradle his pounding head. Goodness; what the hell was that? Was there something happening out there? Should he go check? Or stay here, where it was safe?

Maybe he was coming down with a really bad fever or something. He should probably go look for the teachers. Yeah, they would know what to do; give him medicine or something. Taking a deep breath, he rubbed his temples with the heels of his palms before gritting his teeth and stumbling his way back to the beach.

Meanwhile, near the clump of rocks by the shore, the creature surfaced again though, this time, it had come up behind one rock and was peering from behind it. Only it's eyes and the top of its head was visible above water. One humanoid hand was pressed up against the surface of the rock, it's nails were long and jagged, its skin an odd shade of blue. It could see a boy lounging on top one of the flatter boulders with his hands in his pockets. It hissed a bit though the released air only created a few bubbles on the water's surface.

[Notebooks]

Jim’s mind had began to enter a state of inattentiveness. That was why he couldn’t fake an interest in the goings-on of the beach that stretched around him. He couldn’t even force his eyelids to remain open without letting them slip into a half-closed state of weariness. He wasn’t tired enough to sleep, though. Just a little drained, as if he had spent the last hours running about the sandy dunes and joining the other students in their childish games. His thoughts couldn’t put the feelings into words and he decided to give in for a while, and let his eyelids slither into a close.

The wind has ceased its brief squalling and now blew at a slower but noticeably colder pace, forcing the sea to grow but slightly wilder. The harsh movement of the waves was characterized by the advancing of the sea towards some of the smaller rocks. The green clumps of moss and seaweed that had once covered those, were pulled off by the wind and dragged down into the arms of the sea’s cold embrace. The height of the tempest seemed to be nearing, but didn’t appear to have an impact on anything other than the sea and the darker growing skies. At land, the unsuspecting students were yet to notice the taller growing of the restless waves or the pulling of the wind on the sand around them. An old and odd enchantment hung around their necks, forcing them clasp onto the feeling of safety and cheerful Saturdays such as this one was supposed to be. Some of them held hands while running in circles around a large sand castle that had been discovered roughly a half-hour ago and sang an old camp-fire song that was barely suitable for children their age. One other had isolated himself from the noise-making groups of students and headed for a quiet spot near the teachers. She was a tad bit chubby and wore a cheap black vest that covered her unruly curls with a dark brown hood. The water slumped to her short and clammy boots, but it went unnoticed and she advanced towards a flat, large rock on which some of the older members of the school trip had seated.

lengthy fair fingers reached across the surface of a flat, comfy rock that held a brownish backpack and an idle young learner who owned they belonged to. He searched the backpack for a pair of black-rimmed spectacles without moving his head out of the comfortable position he lay in, and then dragged them out by the temple tips. He couldn’t bare the metal-framed spectacles but his eyes had began aching as a result of not having wore them for several days. If he didn’t wear them, his eyesight would begin acting up and his brain would make a mess of the dept and distance of several objects such as the sea, the sky and all else there was to be seen.

His mother had often complimented him on how brilliantly genius the old spectacles had made him appear but he hadn’t taken her word for it. The other students had glared whenever he wore them and they made blending in with all the others a lot less easier than it had been. Or perhaps he couldn’t stand the fact that his mum had once told him about how much he reminded her of his father with the spectacles on. They trimmed his face a little by the side, and made him push his hair a little out of the way, making it appear less messy and more neat. Except for he didn’t have any interest in looking neat, or clean at the time. Spotless, blank figures stood out more than regular small children with messy haircuts and large brownish backpacks that enjoyed sunlight and sitting on flat rocks.

Other than how the man had looked and behaved about fourteen years ago, he knew nothing of his father. In his wildest imagination he was a tall figure with lighter hair than his, that had been forced to leave his family for more urgent matters. Perhaps the man was a traveller that had only been passing by, or a gambler unafraid of one-night stands. Whoever he was, Jim wasn’t quite sure yet on whether or not he wanted anything to do with him although he could not deny his curiosity.

[HowlingWolf]

Alex thrust the dull arrow into the quiver with the others, not caring at first, but then her mind took over and she felt almost back for treating the weapon carelessly. Checking it over, she made sure that the arrow tip hadn't broken off of the thin wood, while smoothing out the feathers as best as she could and then placing it back In the quiver, this time carefully. What's-His-Name, a boy in her class who had walked by a little bit earlier, presumably to the pathetic excuse of a bathroom, went past her again, this time walking almost as if he were drunk. However much Alex wanted to assume that and have a reason to hate her school more, she knew just by looking that the boy had never drunk anything. Courtesy to her stepdad on that ability. He drank everyday, and she knew the full extent of what a drinker looked like.

It wasn't like the school had ever done anything bad to Alex, but it was the way her mother had made her go. An ex-wife to a famous general, who's name slipped Alex's mind, she had done a brave deed once and instantly got her dream job afterwards. Her mother, Janice, had gone out to visit her husband during his time at a camp where visitors were allowed, being somewhat close to civilization, and some doofus had accidentally shot a gun wrong and it hit another guy through the femoral artery, which was apparently someplace that would kill, if not treated immediately. Being the only one close enough to help, Alex's mother rushed to his aid and did her best to quench the bleeding until a comrade could come. The man's life was saved, thanks to her. The story instantly went viral, hitting the newspapers and tvs. My mom became somewhat of a celebrity, and she got a leading position at an insanely expensive clothing store that was somehow still in business, even at the insane prices for a pair of jeans even. She made tons and when she could support herself, she divorced her military general husband and went on to marry another rich guy that had invented a new, more efficient bottle opener or something, after a few years. Alex was about five at the time. It was her first step dad.

Alex had never met her real dad, who had dated her mom for a little bit. She had gotten pregnant but then her father mysteriously disappeared just before Alex was born, without a single warning or explanation as to why he left.

Now, Alex's family of three lived like royalty, in a huge white mansion of a house, even though her mother and stepdad never even went to work. They just kept getting paychecks and more money. Unfortunately, because of it, Janice expected Alex to want to live like a princess, like "every other girl wanted" and even when Alex refused, she made her. Her mother forced her to go to fancy parties and dress up, even when she would have rather been hunting or shooting, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, and crawling around in the mud to see a doe with a fawn. Thus, this school was chosen. It happened to be the closest school to them, and had "plenty of girls that would just love" to be her friend.

She couldn't have hated it more.

As Alex walked back to the beach to return the bow and arrows, she saw a clump of rocks that would be a great place to stay away from others. The boy from before was right ahead of her, but she didn't bother saying anything to him, even if he did look a little sick. Not her problem. Her problem was returning the bow, and then getting to another quiet corner, away from people.

[Our Lady Muffin]

This was probably taking a top ten spot of worst headaches - and that was saying something too, considering all the headaches he got. It was bad enough that Kian's mother worried that he had an aneurysm or something. But, of course, he had tried to assure her that he didn't. And even if he did, what could they do? They couldn't afford going to see a doctor and his mother's meager day job as a customer service representative at Walmart didn't exactly provide the insurance they needed. He would usually pop a Tylenol or two in situations like these but the camp had forced him to give up his medicine to the teachers. It was policy, they said, can't have them accidentally overdose!

Stupid.

When he finally came to the mouth of the path and stumbled out of the forest, the pain was so bad he felt about ready to throw up. "Agh," He muttered, rubbing his temples with the heels of his palms again. "Stop it, head, you're being stupid." He said to himself, not even noticing the company he had behind him. Kian looked around the beach. There was his fellow camp people doing a crazy little dance and song around a sandcastle. His friend had kicked back on the sand and looked like he was taking a nap and the teachers...the teachers were still talking on their rock. But the ocean looked like it was going a bit nuts. Were the adults even paying attention? Surely with the waters that restless, it wasn't very safe to be so near the ocean. What if somebody fell in and got sucked it by the tide? But Kian didn't really care at that moment. He just wanted his Tylenol so that this stupid headache would go away.

He headed towards the teachers, deciding to walk along the shores instead of cutting across the beach and passing right by the other kids. He preferred to keep his pain hidden so, taking a deep breath, he straightened up and tried to walk as normally as he could.

As he approached the water's edge, Kian saw two others students there. One of them was a chubby girl who looked like she was also heading towards the teachers, the other was another boy who was seated ontop of a rock and was putting on his glasses. Kian recognized them both and didn't know either one of their names. Gosh, maybe he should make an effort to learn the names of his camp mates. He didn't want to spend seven days with them only to not know their names by the end of it. But that would have to wait because the very moment the water from the ocean lapped up against his boots, Kian's headache disappeared.

Though, at the time, he hadn't really noticed because his already short attention span had been snatched away by the ocean exploding.

A vile creature had sprang up from the waters. It looked like some deranged version of The Little Mermaid. From the waist up, the thing was as human as blue-skinned-yellow-eyed could be. It was lean, its ribs showed quite clearly. The waist down was a whole different story altogether though. Where there should have been legs, there was only a fish's body. Covered in glittering grey scales, it led down to a wide fish tail which looked rather tattered and dirty. Dead seaweed and barnacle clung to the creature's skin as it shot out of the water. It let out a strangled cry, anglerfish-esque fangs bared as it dove straight for the bespectacled boy on the rock, its clawed hands curled and ready to attack.

[Notebooks]

Had one of the teachers stopped chattering about and paid some attention, he might have noticed how vacant the beach grew. The small groups of tourists that had been admiring the old, dusty dunes had been vanishing one by one. Some because the guide thought it wise to see some more of the city before returning them to their hotels, others because one of them felt the rain coming or was a tad bit ill perhaps. Nonetheless, some strange events, occurring all at the same time had forced tourists and sun-baked adults alike to abandon the sandy beach and head for the safe streets for the city. They entered their cars and started the engines, departing and leaving the teachers and students by themselves.

Occasionally, one of the students would notice the vacancy and make an attempt to alert another but then distraction struck and it was forgotten. The chubby girl was one of them, because when one of the other students waved at her, she dropped her bag and headed straight for her, oblivious to all else that was happening.

Putting an end to his current train of thought, he gave his dark-rimmed spectacles a slight twisted and then pushed them onto the bridge of his nose. The world around him immediately sharpened, forcing him to blink a few times in order to grow accustomed to a new sort of vision. Meanwhile the oily smell of rotten fish had began to fill his nostrils, and had he not felt the hairs on the back of his neck rising, he might have never seen it coming. The eerie feeling that had started to form in his stomach, froze him in place and left him waiting for the defeated quiet to explode in the sound of what he suspected to be a wild beast. Then it did. He pushed the palms of his hands as hard against his ears as he could, attempting to protect his ear-drums as the sound of a wicked cry filled the air around him. The pleasant sun-light above him, had been replaced by the shadowy figure of a bizarre water-creature hovering over his tiny physique.

He forced himself onto his feet and then ordered his now gone-feeble knees to leap, to find himself having landed roughly two feet from his position at the edge of the rock. It all took place in a second and without even noticing, he had grabbed hold of a small log that must have been lying with him on the flat rock. The log felt cold and waxy in his small hands and it didn’t do him any good that he couldn’t stop shaking either. The spacious beach looked to him as if it had been reduced to only the small flat rock and the beast before him. He took another leap backwards, only a second apart from the last and then aimed for the creature, he could not strike, however. For the small advantage that the log had brought him, was compromised when he came to realise that the salty sea water had made the already flattened rock too slippery to stand on, and fell. His back hit the hard surface of a what felt to be a clay-like substance but was only hardened sand in all reality.

His breath quickened and his heart raced as it had never done before. Somewhere in the back of his mind, there were the remains of his instincts telling him to run. But they blurred before reaching his mind and he remained lying in the sand with one of his legs twisted in the wrong direction, and the other resting on the edge of a small part of the flat rock. His grey eyes watched the sea-creature through the black spectacles, and he suddenly got the urge to pull them off in an attempt to make it disappear out of his sight.

[HowlingWolf]

Alex was almost to the building that she had borrowed the boat and arrows from, located only a few yards from the forest, when a huge splash caught her attention. She whipped around, her straight silver hair whipping along with her and covering her eyes for a second before she forced it back. Gasping, Alex got a good look at what had amused the splash: a huge merman type monster. It was humanoid from the waist up except it had scaled blue skin and lightning yellow eyes that seemed to glow compared the shade of its skin. Long, sharp, fang-like teeth were sprouting out of the creatures mouth as it hissed. The bottom half of the creature was completely a fish, with blue scales fading into grey towards a ragged tail that looked at if a couple boat motors had hit it. Even from the distance that Alex was standing, she could see a small shine of goop covering the creature, like a mucus film. Gross.

The creature was standing over a boy that was familiar and probably the only student that Alex knew the name of, and only because he sat in front of her in class. As she watched, he did his best to get away from the creature but ended up falling on the sand with his leg twisted at an odd angle. The creature was still going after him.

Glancing around frantically, Alex wondered why no one was freaking out, running around and screaming bloody murder. Wen she saw, no one was even surprised. "Do you not see that...that thing right there or are you just blind?" She all but shouted at the nearest people and pointed. When they looked over they just shrugged. "So he got scared from a bird? I wouldn't be worried. He's just a wimp. But then again, I'm surprised you care." They said and went back to ignoring everyone.

A bird? What? How can they not see the really ugly monster hovering about ten yards from them? Whatever. I have to help Jim! Alex thought. It wasn't like her and Jim were friends, but they knew each others names, and that was about the closest to a friend she had.

Yanking an arrow out of the quiver, Alex fumbled to put it on the string and fired blindly. Unsurprisingly, her shot missed the thing by a long shot. Bad thing was, she had probably gotten its attention. Nocking another arrow and this time aiming as best as she could while her arm was shaking, Alex fired the arrow, praying dearly it would hit its target.

[Our Lady Muffin]

Kian never really truly understood the feeling of being paralyzed until that very moment. His feet felt glued to the sand as wide, hazel eyes stared at the scene before him. Luckily, it seemed like his classmate had better reflexes and instincts than he did because the boy had managed to scramble out of the way though, from the looks of his leg, his escape had not gone without cost. The merman - who definitely not from The Little Mermaid - landed on the opposite edge of the rock with the lower half of its torso still in the water. The rock was wide enough that, when the creature hissed again and tried to reach out and grope for the fallen boy's foot, the tips of his claws just barely brushed against the bottom of his sole. But The impact from its fall kicked up a huge splash and somebody behind him screamed (though it didn't sound nearly as panicked as it should have been). "Eugh! Birds!" The girl had cried before running off into the forest with her friends. But the splash was enough of a jolt to get his limbs moving again and Kian, without really thinking (because who thinks, really, when their getting attacked by horrifying mermen?), bolted forward and towards his fallen comrade.

Just as he bent down to try and hook his arms around his classmate and drag him back, the sound of an arrow whistling through the air cut a little too close for comfort by his ear. Kian snapped his eyes up in time to see said arrow land in the waters far behind the creature. Miss. But whoever had shot that arrow had still done a great deed as the horrid creature turned its eyes from them to the archer. It let out a screech like How dare you as its sickly gaze landed on the girl.

But no, this was good; this was a distraction. Kian turned his concentration and efforts back to his classmate as he tried to drag him further away from the monster. "Ohgodohgod, are you okay?" the thing couldn't hurt them on land, right?

Wrong.

Meanwhile, the merman had let out a pained cry as the second arrow buried itself in the creature's shoulder - though it didn't go very deep. Enraged, the monster snapped the arrow off like it was nothing more than a nuisance and turned its full attention to the girl. It raised it's bony hand; dark ribbons of water wound its way up the merman's arm before gathering in it's fist to form a broken - but still very sharp - triton.

Somewhere nearby, Kian could hear the teachers getting up to their feet. "Kids! Get back to the forest," One of them - the presumed leader - instructed. He didn't sound the slightest bit panicked at all considering the otherworldly merman. "The tide is coming in strong." It was at that point that Kian realizes this was exactly what he had saw in that weird flash at the porter potty. The splash, the figures by the shore, the teachers directing kids and that almost playful scream - this was it! But he didn't have time to think about how he had had that glance into the future as, looking up at the merman, he could see that it was preparing to hurl the broken, seaweed tangled, barnacle covered triton towards someone - Kian assumes it was their archer - behind him.

Oh, god, somebody help!

The triton was hurled.