Midday had not yet fallen when the sultry sizzle of a grey late morning whose murky heavens heralded an unsettled, crackling atmosphere and the droning song of cicadas accompanying the steamy day was disrupted by a final anguished howl of a mighty perishing beast. Within the perimeter of Ore Creek Crossing, whose dimensions were greater than maps suggested, towards the wooded area encircling the Mill Pond gathered five to remove some Magickal monsters whose presence was unwelcome in the area.This creature in question resembled the Mundane praying mantis, but tall as a man, it's knobby figure a peaky, poisonous green with two pairs of spindly, jointed legs jutting out from either side and two tapering forearms that resembled scythes, and they twitched pathetically with the dwindling cadence of it's dying heart. On either side of it's triangular head, it's orbed yellow eyes with their hexagonal planes lightened to a lifeless white, and it lay prostrate in the scraggly grass before bursting into crumbling dust.
"Alright! That's the five Grassy Creeping Mantrids!" Peyton Lynch, hardly five foot with tiny wrists narrow enough to furl a forefinger and thumb around, roared in triumphant glee, slamming her fists together in a brash exhibition of her temper and strength. She had been the one to fell the Mantrid and four others with just her hands, which were armored up to her elbows in spiked iron gauntlets that resembled chain-link and pyramid studded bracelets when in Mundane life, and she was jumping about in the euphoria that accompanies a great victory."Oooo and it looks like we've got those Armored Gravel Borers at twelve o'clock! You want them, Turnbull?"
"It would be my pleasure, " was the sole acknowledgement of her alarm from her partner, who tucked the brim of his blue baseball hat over his eyes in preparation. Her antithesis in both tall, strapping build, and pensive mood, the austere Grant Turnbull stood at the highest ground in the area, his longbow at the ready, the sole implication of any emotion a twitch of an eyebrow as he drew back his bowstring, hocked within it an arrow made of oak with viridian fletching. His target were the aforementioned Borers, a dozen beasties about a foot in length. Their segmented forms were encased in sheets of armored grey plates asymmetrical in outline ,gritty and craggy as stone in surface and filmy white wings tucked across their back. The most ferocious characteristic were the snaggy pincers that equaled the body in length and could crush the beloved gravel that they feasted upon, and while human flesh was hardly incorporated into their diet, they had been documented burrowing hunks of meat out of hapless men who ran afoul of them in gravel pits. "Sagittarian Missile!"
Upon releasing, this, the one arrow seemed to cleave itself into eleven tipped with blazingly bright feathers, each one piercing through the rocky exoskeleton of the Borers in a gush of milky grey juices that fell dewy and translucent on the clusters of grass before consecutively exploding into tufts of colorless powder that vanished in wisps on the wind."Excellent, that's 720 points to me..."
Sloping downwards past the trees towards the marshier band between lake and grass, the final three had their forces concentrated on a single monster, the lone remnant of a horde of aquatic horrors flopping forth from the shallows of the Mill Pond's Magickal waters. Though too small to really warrant the honor of monster, the crablike Freshwater Scuttleclaw was still five foot in height and width without it's forearms, which were each as long as it's body with claws like jagged scythes that twitched open and closed in a display of belligerence. Moreso than the Armored Gravel Borers or the Grassy Creeping Mantrids, the Scuttleclaw was clad in armor, a muted brown hue speckled grey and green that mimicked it's lakebed home, and this heavy plating left it's sideways scuttle plodding and awkward.
"Ooh,aren't you a handsome boy?" Monica Shoal cooed adoringly to the enormous crab, her blue eyed countenance reverent towards the cancrine behemoth, and she pressed her hand flush to the top of it's shell and stroked it while Peyton's thin face contorted into a scowl and the crab's eyestalks, given it's limitations of emotional expression, seemed to curl inwards in bewildlerment."Eww, Monica, it's a giant ugly monster crab, not a dog!"
"So? All aquatic creatures are precious darlings in my book! "Monica squealed, clasping her hands together in admiration of the abomination. "Besides, even ugly monstrosities are worthy of love! You should know that, Peyton!"
"If you three have this under control, I think Peyton and I can go double check the woods one final time," Grant declared, aware of Peyton's temper, too great to contain to her tiny figure and Monica's aptitude with her trident, and reasoning that one battle was sufficient for the morning. "The last thing I need is one rogue monster to cross over into somebody's backyard on the Mundane side- it's happened before and it's a nightmare."
"Yep, that's always fun..."
"On it, Turnbull. OI PINCHY!!! OVER HERE!!"Adam Van de Groot, tawdry and hardly heroic in all his burly Hawaiian-shirted glory exclaimed, cackling brazenly as the crab swung at him with it's pincers only to seize around his Zweihander fleetingly. He turned to present his decidedly more handsome backside to it, slapping the wobbly flesh in taunting, only to leap backwards and jab his sword once the tips of it's claws skimmed across the seat of his shorts." Are you just crabby because you're gonna be boiled up and served with a side of butter?"
"Nice job distracting it Adam, but be careful-that's a....large target you're offering it," Eirik Petersen warned, pressing his rose rimmed spectacles back up his nose as his hand quivered out to his side, jittery with the sheer volatility of his explosive volcanic and seismic Magick, drizzles of viscous molten rock collecting on his fingertips. "Just a little bit more...Basalt Flare!!!!"
With one swipe of his hand the wizard had cast a spell that doused the Scuttleclaw in a deluge of lava that flared a violent, blazing orange in the sunless morn only to darken to a fine black film that crumpled and crinkled upon splattering the front of it's claws, and the crab released an agonized howl. While it's face was unscathed, it's scorched claws were scalded a delectable crimson flecked with creamy white, with a tantalizing, salty steam swirling skywards that elicited a rumble in Adam's substantial belly and saliva to moisten his lips, and it hurled the heft of it's useless pincers towards the trio.
"I'm sorry, you're a beautiful, precious creature, but even I can't let you stay here, you're invasive and disrupting the ecosystem," Monica declared, shuffling backwards as the claw almost struck the blue baubles holding her blonde ponytail in place and at once she had caught it against her golden trident, the turquoise and aqua of semiprecious jewels inlaid amidst the blade shimmering despite the clouds. She may have been a ranger of the aquatic domain, but she, like most other Supernaturals had limited Magick she could incorporate into her fighting, and she swung her trident around in a wide crescent. This in turn seemed to draw water from the undisturbed Mill Pond into a whirling, misty whirlpool that swirled viciously in midair and caught the undaunted Scuttleclaw as it rushed her." Charybdis Vortex!"
The Scuttleclaw was sprawled upside down amidst the convergence of sparser and sparser splotches of grass and sandy dirt, it's legs heaving in floundering vain to flip itself right-side up, and Adam shrugged with a grin at Monica, realizing the water ranger in her admiration for the aquatic realm, may have objected to killing one of the creatures under her attendance. Boring the tip of his sword into one of the jagged fissures breaking crooked cracks across it's apron with one foot to retain the immobilized Scuttleclaw, the mass born upon it an adequate restraint, and the other lodged in the moist dirt, he delved into the enticingly exquisite meat before propelling it upwards with a yank of his brawny right arm. It's gurgling, for it's mouth was wreathed in a froth of misty bubbles accompanied this shattering of it's underbelly cleaved open, flesh springing forth from the patchwork of cracks, though lamentably, the Scuttleclaw jolted four or five times in the Mill Pond's muddy beach before dwindling from chitin exoskeleton into a jiggling, popping layer of yellow lather that was washed away with the following sweep of waves across the earth. "Dad said that all crabs come in a flip top box!"
"Thanks Adam-I know it's invasive and it was causing trouble, but it's just so precious I can't kill it!" Monica explained, her gaze dangerously ardent towards the lake where the Scuttleclaw had fallen, and she pounded a clasped fist upon her breast.
"And there's probably going to be stuff I can't do that you can do later on, so it works out!" Adam shrugged, as without valid explanation he felt an alien warmth upon his broad face from her gratitude.
"That's the last of the monsters in the area!"Peyton dashed forwards as the Scuttleclaw residue was washed from the land in a bath of lake water, in tow a placid Grant whose hands were nestled in the small of his back, his gait plodding and thoughtful as he approached Adam.
"Well done, Adam, it was a pleasure to fight with you," he congratulated Adam, a hand upon his meaty shoulder in praise.
"Same to you, Turnbull"the brunet grinned, flushing vividly with each commendation from the experienced fighters."But...now what?"
"Well, I'm going to return this to the Colosseum before two, when the mission expires," he extracted the mission card from his denim vest, it's pure white state envious considering in the four days spanning his possession of a Colosseum Card, Adam had accomplished damages from sousing it in soda and forgetting it in the washer so impressive, it was streaked white with creases. "And then we'll disband and go on our merry ways for the rest of the afternoon. I would enjoy teaming up with you again, though, both you and Eirik- in fact I might see about doing another mission towards the evening."
"Well, would you like to celebrate a bit with lunch at the tavern?" Eirik, who had been detailing this skirmish in a small green notebook proposed to the other three who responded in accord while Adam's broad, rotund stomach, having recalled it's mourning over the fallen Scuttleclaw, scrubbed from the earth with the lick of a soft, quiet wave, displayed it's displeasure at the vacancy within with a thunderous rumble.
"Lunch sounds good Eirik-there's just something about monster hunting sure gives you an appetite," Adam stated as the quintet, points divided up accordingly amongst them, came back into the heart of Ore Creek Crossing, gravitating towards the beloved tavern with it's characteristic red shingles and occasional performances by visiting bards, only to see one of the employees pinning a sign to the closed door.
"Aw man,it's closed! I was looking forwards to their onion rings!" Peyton spoke, not with her characteristic fierceness but rather a dejected, muted quiver as the man padded back, apologetic in mien, other Supernaturals retreating upon sight of the red scrawl declaring the tavern out of commission for the day." Sorry kids, we're closed until we get the pipes fixed- we got a leak this morning! We can't get any running water in the kitchen or bathrooms,and we can't get a gadgeteer in until tomorrow!"
"Would a wizard with fire Magic work to wield any holes in the pipes?"
"I'd have to be 18,Adam."
"Do you think there's a water witch or wizard out there who could use their Magick to get business flowing again? "Adam asked next, a light flickering in Eirik's lavender eyes as the wizard's clever mind was turbulent with theories and thoughts on the problem he wasn't apt to impart until he was satisfied with his final conclusion." That's possible, Adam, but there's plenty of decent restaurants on both the Magick and Mundane side of the Mill Pond-we can always come back,too."
"Well I probably shouldn't be eating out so often anyhow-my waistline will be thankful," Garret decided, and Peyton shrugged as the quintet stepped back into Brighton to disband one at a time lest the Mundanes take interest in five youths emerging from the spindly bowels of a cast iron lamp. "Yeah, I guess I should be more careful with my allowance- there's some new gauntlets that are coming out!"
" I'm going to the lake if anyone wants to come with me! The waterpark at Martindale Beach might be open and that's always fun!" Monica suggested as they went forth, though the exhilaration of a joint victory dwindling as the others took leave with casual words of departure, Adam and Eirik lingering on the corner.
"Well if it's just the two of us, there's a restaurant not too far from here we could go to-I'm friends with the owner's daughter and she usually gives me a discount," Eirik offered, his next statement appealing to Adam's unconscious Dutch frugality. "I'll pay, too!"
Eirik ushered Adam westwards down Main Street past a block of half a dozen shops he passed by when engaged in his usual summer shenanigans, buildings unmemorable in their muted brick and concrete with the occasional embellishment of protruding signs or vast windows offering a teasing glimpse of the goods stocked until they came to the final building on the block. This small, homey cafe was the tallest building occupying it's row, with living quarters done in a half timbered style above the brick of the dining space, and light blue paint against an oval of grey was it's name, the Silver Moon Cafe. "Huh-I must've walked past this place how many times but I never really bothered going in..."
"Well that's going to change."
In opposition to the rambunctious, convivial ambiance of Ore Creek Tavern and consequent odor of fried, greasy food, appropriate for plotting Magick endeavors or dancing feverishly to the rowdy bards hosted periodically, this cafe was subdued and silent with the attendant scent of pastries and coffee, the five or so diners restrained in their lone concentration on eating or reviewing the daily paper. The walls were done in the same pale, creamy blue as the sign and bedecked in simple, yet lovely oil paintings of forests, lakes, and even the likeness of the Mill Pond, and Adam stopped to admire these, subconsciously cringing at how his tread was amplified to thunderous stomping in the mausoleum-like quiet, mortified at his self-perceived ruckus, and he flinched again as he realized beneath his feet were white tiles flecked with wan shades of grey, as surely he was trailing something in on the glossy tile. Furnishing this cafe were five booths along the wall and three circular tables of pine, each with a ring of six chairs upholstered with a dark, rich blue cushioning and lavender tablecloths sprawled over them almost elegantly, silvery antique lamps whose shades were inlaid with carved sylvan scenes, and a piano in the corner. "Well, I can't see us planning our next monster hunt here, but it's nice enough...I think Angie would like it."
Eirik had seated himself at a window booth awaiting acknowledgement from the waitstaff, Adam mimicking his actions, tapping his ever restless fingers on the top of his thighs and looking around to see a familiar duo. Kat Kohler and Addie Frosch occupied the corner booth, where the former was indulging herself in what seemed to be her third bowl of ice cream and the latter nibbled daintily at a strawberry parfait when she wasn't gesticulating to a column in her copy of Sorceress World, a magazine with a lustrous cover and pink stars on the cover outlining it's featured pieces on blackhead potions, the most handsome up and coming bards, and fashion for broomstick riding . Adam had gleaned from Eirik that Kat, perhaps indicative of her fierce fluctuations in mood, could manipulate ash and smoke and the glamourous Addie's command of sparkling spores and poisonous vegetation had elevated her to be the fourth-strongest spellcaster registered at Ore Creek, though he couldn't recall them completing any missions. The two witches seemed to care for sitting about and chatting, their babble punctuated by the occasional giggle in his presence, and they only stopped at the slightest suggestion of recognition by Adam, who was still convinced he was one topic of interest. He relaxed when he realized the two were more responsive not to his glance, but the entrance of the strangest girl Adam ever saw, greeting her enthusiastically and summoning her to their booth .
A thin colorless waif with white-blonde hair woven into waist length plaits and heavy makeup that made her look like a bisque doll drifted towards them slowly, the lone suggestion of movement a slight ruffling of the flowy shawl wrapped around her shoulders and the faint indent of her knees against her layered skirts, and Adam couldn't help but envision her as a wispy, ethereal creature lighter than the air who could be swept skyward by the lightest breeze. Her face was somber and she reciprocated his tentative wave with a standoffish stare that sent him into a shudder, then returned to shuffling the menus under one arm, and he realized she was the lone employee in the dining room.
"Hey, isn't that-"
"That's Lucia Talvinen, she's one of my friends; we sat next to each other in geometry last year," Eirik stated, as if he inherently realized what questions bothered Adam's usually idle mind, and the brunet nodded. "Talvinen, Talvinen...why does that sound so familiar?"
"Heya Adam!" Roger Nieminen emerged from the kitchen, an empty box with under one arm, and he waved cordially to Lucia before plodding over to the duo. While inclined towards a serene silence rather than inconsequential chatter and speaking the first word like Adam, Roger was nonetheless a cordial youth, his phlegmatic temperament agreeable to most, and he didn't mind calling on schoolfriends he saw when he came into town with his parents.
"You work here too? I thought you had to be 16 to get a job!"
"Not usually, just helping dad make deliveries-we sell a lot of produce to local restaurants and food wholesalers, and my uncle's usually our first stop."
"Uncle? So that means..."Adam faltered in his speech as he eyed Lucia, severe expression absent as Eirik quietly spoke to her, likely seeing to lunch for the two of them, and then Roger, realizing the two had the same cornsilk hair with some form of decoration(he had a paisley handkerchief wrapped around his brow while she had a crown of woven lilies of the valley atop her head),blue eyes so pale they seemed white, and alabaster complexion ."Huh..." "
"Lucia Talvinen's my cousin;we moved down together during the last recession to help out family here," Roger said, picking up a set of tongs and pulling out a cherry pastry for himself from the display . Adam nodded, recalling his time in the fourth grade when he first met the recently transferred Buford, Eirik, and Roger, the last a towheaded Yooper boy who had already sprouted to a respectable height for his age, spoke with a slight Finnish lilt. While vaguer, the memory of a small girl who seemed to trail behind him like a cold, pale satellite was there, though she went unnoticed for the five years he knew Roger due to the contrast in the company they kept. "Something like third removed, I think? I don't think we have much blood between us,if at all.."
"I guess I never paid attention," Adam admitted as Eirik, akin with Lucia in their composed introversion , could warm her chilly veneer and elicit a hushed, demure response from her lips and a blossom of pink on her pretty white face, and the brunet recognized inattentively he was ordering lunch for the two of them.
"Well I gotta go, still have a ton of chores to do and then I was going to go fishing, "Roger withdrew behind the counter with a haphazard gesture of departure." Kivaa päivää! ! Bye, Luce!"
Adam's heart stung in disappointment at Roger's, whose company was scarce outside of school, fleeting presence, but he reverted back to his witlessly cheery manner and tapped Eirik's hand,giving a shudder that comprehended his impression of Lucia.
"Be nice, Adam, she just needs time to warm up to get accustomed to someone as loud as you-she's very shy, and you're probably scaring her.Wait a month or two before you pass judgement. Look, she's already brought lunch!"
Lucia was wheeling a cart towards their table whose contents included a platter of sandwiches, plates and cutlery, a basket of half a dozen cookies, salads, and a pitcher of water as wordlessly she set the table with more attention to the presentation than her frosty aura suggested, and drawing a murmur of approval from Adam's belly. In arms reach were the thickest sandwiches-club, ham, turkey, and roast beef packed so full with cheese, vegetables, and thick, creamy butter that the toothpicks bowed from the bulging foodstuffs, and if they weren't enough to sate him, then there was the salad, with artfully arranged tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots and onions nestled amidst the romaine leaves. Eirik was already nibbling on a ham and cheese sandwich and Adam picked out a roast beef and Swiss one for himself, finishing off three others before speaking." Ore Creek Tavern's got the atmosphere, but the food's better here! "
"Your arteries should appreciate a break from all that grease and fat for a day, "Eirik agreed." Speaking of Ore Creek, I'd like to get to the bottom of that before the day ends-it's a cornerstone of the Supernatural economy in Ore Creek and if it goes under, it could-"
He paused warily as Lucia drifted by once more, lavender gaze settling on her in fear she had inadvertently eavesedropped, though he relaxed at her next words, indicating no attention to him or Adam.
"I thought I just mopped that," the blonde murmured mostly to herself,and she glowered at the corner where water once more pooled idly before gliding off for the proper cleaning implement."I must be losing my mind again..."
"You were saying, Eirik?"
"It could collapse the economy and result in Ore Creek's status as the Magickal Quarter of Brighton to be revoked and we'd have to head to Ann Arbor for anything Supernatural."
"Uh yeah, like that's ever gonna happen," Adam laughed, shuddering internally at the notion." How could you tell the difference between Supernatural creature and weirdos on the street?"
"Their Supernatural quarter is larger than Brighton's, but it's very dirty, cramped, and hectic, with the bleakest, ugliest architecture since the Soviet Union,"Eirik agreed, Adam envisioning the brutalist concrete monstrosities he had seen in photographs and grimacing as the wizard continued."And you've seen how insane the traffic into it is-imagine being a pedestrian!"
"Well cross your fingers you don't have to step foot there unless necessary.."Adam said, tempted to punctuate this statement with a tremendous belch of approval, but settling for picking a sliver of red onion from the salad bowl, the final surviving morsel of their lunch before their departure. "That outta hold me for half an hour...Now let's get the Tavern and Ore Creek back in business!"
-----
Eirik had bid a still mopping Lucia farewell and he and Adam had crossed over into Ore Creek Crossing with little more to note, leaning up against the lamppost until they slipped through to the other side, the tavern their destination, though they only got twenty paces before they were interrupted.
"Huh,"Adam ended the silence of their stroll, unearthing his phone from the vast pockets of his shorts as it buzzed in alarm, and Eirik glanced up in inquiry at his lone utterance, little inflection to suggest any mood;in fact the brunet showed greater reaction as he realized that Magick seemed to have no bearing on technology, the closest proximations of it that Mundanes could conceive ."What's that?
"Just Dad sending a message to the bunch of us-apparently two restaurants and the microbrewery downtown have burst pipes and Main Street has flooded the had to take a detour home."
"That's at least four businesses on the Mundane side,"Eirik observed."I was watching Lucia-she seemed to do nothing but mop, and she was cleaning whatever water there was, but as soon as she turned, it seemed like more appeared out of nowhere
"I didn't see that, but my gut's starting to tell me something's wrong, and I have a pretty good relationship with my gut-if it's telling me something, I listen!"
"Oh I'd believe you've got a healthy relationship with your stomach,"Eirik admitted, glancing at the plentiful flesh pinched to a protruding swell at his waist by his belt, unable to resist the bit of snark.
"Well doncha think it's weird that the tavern in Ore Creek has water issues and so do two restaurants in Mundane Brighton?"Adam began,and Eirik nodded as they strode across the cobblestones, and Adam turned to see the three-tiered font had run dry, it's barren pools sparkling green,gold, and blue."And the fountain's run dry!"
Adam's observation was rendered incorrect as soon as it left his chapped lips, as the fountain murmured ominously before reviving with a torrent of water that sloshed viciously into the tiled basin and ricocheting off into the streets, Eirik recoiling from the splash of water against his loafers.
"Yes, and that's what's concerning me," Eirik squeaked as they continued to the tavern, where ankle deep meandered listlessly from the subterranean plumbing. "The tavern employee said they couldn't get any water in the restaurant, which struck me as being different than having an issue like a broken pipe. It got me thinking that maybe the water's there,but it's giving them difficulties, and that maybe, just maybe, there's a water monster behind it interfering with the water on both the Magick and now the Mundane side..."
"Aw crud, you've got what, earth and fire Magick? That's vulnerable to water, right?"
"Not only that, but the family I'm thinking of isn't just an aquatic creature like the Scuttleclaw, but it's literally made out of water,meaning standard physical attacks and spells are usually ineffective, as it can just reform, not to mention they can return to any body of water to recharge or vanish into the nearest sewer system," Eirik ." If it's what I'm thinking of, it moves slowly underground absorbing water wherever it finds it, and I'm pretty sure a simple pipe wouldn't stop it from taking a drink or two."
"We'll manage it somehow,"Adam vowed, clasping a hand on Eirik's and squeezing it" We usually get through alright, and I'll protect you."
"You can be worryingly optimistic sometimes, Adam,"Eirik replied, though the brunet could feel the pulse beneath his broad palm settle into a healthier rhythm as if relieved, and his heterochromatic gaze followed Eirik's lavender focus on the water from the tavern, whose output had ceased and instead, the stream seemed to be squeezing it's way along the cobblestones to the barrier between Magick and Mundane, and a gulp could be heard from both.
"Freaky-it's like it had a mind of it's own! Didja see how it moved? "
"And did you see where it was headed towards, Adam?"
"Yeah,right into Mundane Brighton! And I got a hunch on where it's gonna be!"
---
With her characteristic enigmatic teasing, Addie had left Lucia,Kat in tow, to tend to other business and as if Fortuna had spun her wheel upwards,the blonde was left to work undisturbed for a half hour,most of this devoted to that damned water that seemed to trickle back with each stroke of her mop,until she was interrupted by a thunderous tread she has the ill fortune of being acquainted with not an hour prior,and a quieter step welcome to her senses. "Back so soon,Eirik?
"Heya Luc,"Adam greeted with a smile, the somber blonde recoiling in distaste from his boisterous tone, and disapproval at the shortened nickname. "Random question-how long has that water been there?
"Since noon,"Lucia replied,sighing in vain at the persistent puddle."And it's apt to be spread further if I don't clean it."
"That sounds like it, Adam,"Eirik whispered, and Lucia quirked a slender brow at the two boys, so unlike yet deep in congress, and she concentrated her hearing on their dialogue but only caught traces of pipes,water, and instinctual knowledge of where there be monsters before Adam addressed her again. "You've got a spigot in the back,right?"
"Yes but--"
"Cool,thanks, Luce!"
"Wait, you two," Lucia began, but as she anticipated, impetuous Adam ran off as soon as she opened her mouth,and to her horror, the reasonable Eirik mimicked this,and she sighed, gliding after the duo to elaborate, but not before replacing her mop with the corn broom stationed by the door for idle sweeping and following the duo."It's rarely operational-if you need water, we have a scrap sink and buckets in the back..."
"If that's the case, you might want to call a plumber, look!"Adam exclaimed,green and brown eyes investigating every pore of concrete, brick, and cinderblock of the dank alleyway, the only features greater in size than a motley splatter of stains a dumpster, recycling bin, and a handful of pails and cardboard boxes, and he heard the drip, drip, drip, characteristic of water, the anticipated spigot on the back of the restaurant. This unremarkable three and a half inches of piping wept with a translucent liquid whose claggy consistency distinguished it from water, and rather than soaking into the coarse surface of the concrete, it seemed to coagulate into a wobbling oblong puddle that soon assumed the dimension of height in addition to it's length, and in tandem with it's growth, so did the trickle from the cafe's spigot advance into a splashing torrent until it was drained.
"Oh,"Lucia breathed, broom out in front of her as she wisely shuffled towards the back entrance of the cafe, but a gush of the viscid fluid against the hefty exit sent her scuttling in retreat as it solidified into a barrier, with more of the liquid closing off the avenue leading to the sidewalk, and Adam felt the peach fuzz on his arms bristle in tandem with his great stomach heaving in an unconscious alarm to a Preternatural presence as the aquatic monstrosity, complete, arose."You knew that was in the pipes, didn't you, Eirik? Whatever that is..."
"'Course he knew, he's a wizard and he's smart; I just had a hunch on how to find it.I know this isn't what you normally see in the back alleys, but we'll explain later!" Adam grunted, shielding both Eirik and Lucia with his girth, and he clutched the toothpick-sized charm hanging around his wide neck and squeezed until his thick fingers encircled the hilt of his Zweihander, held out from his body in a burly arm as an exhibition of rash courage, though he yelped once he pivoted to view the horror. This watery creature was corpulent in girth, tapering at one end with a series of budlike protrusions, squirming tentacles all around, and from it's other end was what Adam supposed was it's mouth, filled with tendrils topped with a series of rounded heads, and these fanned outwards to collect whatever they touched- crumpled papers, a trashcan lid, and a cardboard box, among other rubbish- and draw them into it's throbbing body. The only structures that seemed solid was a nutlike purple organ that drifted from one pulsing end to the other inside it amidst the occasional bubble. Adam, who had been thinking up more of his usual witless commentary, straightened his posture to an appropriate rigidness as the garbage it consumed was reduced to a murky goo within it's body, the size magnified slightly."Whoa, big freaky amoeba!
"Pretty much,"Eirik confirmed, pushing his spectacles up his nose. "It's a Ravenous Holothurian, a water Monster made of caustic liquid beneath it's thick membrane, and those two orbs inside it are it's only solid parts, and they make up most of it's organs, so as long as it has an entrance it can fit them through, it can travel through just about any drain. They'll eat just about anything they can ooze over, even if it's poisonous and hurts them ( they don't have much in the way of higher thought processes), and they grow by absorbing liquid. Normally they're not a threat, as they melt in most bodies of water and sort of drift along, but they've been known to cause problems with plumbing in more developed areas as they absorb so much liquid, the pipes burst."
"That would explain all the pipes bursting downtown," Lucia, who had been observing silently with what Adam was beginning to deem her distinctly enviable serenity in spite of imprisonment with him and Eirik said, and the wizard nodded." It mostly just eats by extending the tentacles in it's mouth or by oozing over items and absorbing them, and direct contact with it's insides can cause alkali burns on the skin, so put some distance between you and it, and it'll shoot jets of it's innards on occasion-that's what's on the door. If you want to fight it, you have to damage it's insides, though poisoning and freezing are also effective."
"Hey Eirik, you're a volcano and earthquake wizard, and those are a type of fire and earth Magick, right?" Adam asked as the Ravenous Holothurian slid towards the empty cardboard boxes, stroking it's oral pseudopodia over them and finding the texture agreeable, extended these tentacles and engulfed them; the brunet had contemplated plunging his sword into the purple nucleus, only for it to slide to the other end of the monster as it moved away, and he had regrouped with the blondes to strategize." If it gets hot enough, doesn't water flash to steam? What about dousing that thing in lava?"
"I could try, but all that steam is water expanded, and it has to go somewhere," Eirik warned his fingertips twitching viciously with the burnt orange and brown hues of Earth Magick."I'm worried I'd just cause a small-scale phreatic eruption again and damage the surrounding buildings."
Lucia exhaled in what Adam wondered was a disregard for the Supernatural strangeness and a resignation to be useful in some manner as she proposed another strategy. "Would it be possible to stun it and then attack that orb inside it? "
"That's the safest option,"Eirik agreed." I have a few less destructive spells in my arsenal, and this one has a higher accuracy than most, so I'm comfortable using them. Once it stops moving, you attack it's core, Adam. "
"I'm raring to go when you are."
"Excellent, excellent, here we go...Earthen Thunder! Eirik cast his spell, and though arguably unimpressive against the volcanic and seismic horror he was capable, Adam still jolted in time as the gritty concrete ruptured into a thousand fragments rough in cut, and the lot was hewn in two from the tip of the wizard's feet to where the Ravenous Holothurian slithered slowly towards the dumpster, and this seismic force was great enough toss the gelatinous monster end over end. Colliding with the nearest wall and flattened from the impact, this creature wobbled and jiggled in recoil, and though it's nervous system may have lacked the sophistication to register anything but the simplest responses, it was still immobile and Adam acted upon it's vulnerability. Hurtling forwards maniacally, sword poised to slash and hack, Adam cackled as he thrust his blade into the shaking Ravenous Holothurian, only to cry out as he was yanked forwards by the blob, the cytoplasm engulfing the blade of his sword,and he let out a string of choice coarse words as he failed about,managing to submerge his foot into the Holothurian." Alright,I can get another weapon at the Mortis House,I just got let go so I got two hands,a foot, and 32 teeth to pull myself out.."
Adam, being an unorthodox protagonist, relinquished his hold on the sword he had wielded improperly for two weeks and staggered back from the reaction, his foot freed with a sticky sucking noise in a futile attempt to retain his fatty flesh for it's next meal, landing on his hindquarters and watching as the Holothurian slurped the rest of his sword down, almost engulfing it's hilt when a new foe arrived. A shot of green and brown fell from the sky to buzz the Ravenous Holothurian, and it in turn seemed to spit out the lukewarm, tangy metal of his sword in favor of this new living delicacy, and the brunet scrabbled for his slimy weapon, his eyes cast skyward in thanks.
"Hey Eirik! Adam! Up here!" Kat, soaring aloft on a broomstick, she sitting up front and plotting it's course with the slightest dip of her body or shimmy of her hips while Addie rode sidesaddle behind her to cast her spells. "Word on the street says you were trying to find out what's been causing all the water trouble!"
"Oh trouble's easy enough to find, it's fixing it that's the hard part!"Adam quipped, ready for another strike on the Ravenous Holothurian once the flesh of the leg he had caught in it stopped prickling with hives.
"Kat, Addie, are you two..."an astonished Lucia began as her best friends, presumably Mundane like her, continued to taunt the aquatic beast.
"We're witches! Surprised?" a cocksure Kat cackled as Addie, whose Magick was more potent, touched two manicured fingers to her lips in a soft kiss, and Adam was slow to distinguish this as the beginning of a spell until she brought forth a verdant miasma of a million spores suspended in midair and beckoned them into a swirling frenzy . Though her gesticulations were slight and delicate, the silver bracelets on her thin wrists clinking with every fine twist of her supple wrists, the spores were swirling in a hectic storm, coiling and twisting towards the Holothurian. These spores descended, flickering in the feeble shadows of the alley until their engulfment inside the mass of jiggling water. "Floating Lepiota!
"Well, yes, it isn't every day the two people you've been friends since fifth grade with are providing aerial support for a monster battle."
"Tch, I've got ash and smoke Magick! That doesn't do jack squat on most days, and it's especially useless against this blob! Ash would just dissolve and it's got no eyes, so a smokescreen won't work for a distraction," Kat groused, lurching skywards before the blob could retaliate."I'm just driving!""
The gluttonous, bloated Holothurian, having gorged itself on spiky fish spines,sagging vegetable scraps, three dozen egg shells and other delightfully revolting remnants of the Silver Moon Cafe's functions,was now scaling the dumpster of morsels and hardly regarded these spores until they were consumed completely, corkscrewing in an internal current until ingestion. At this point, the wriggling monster, watery, pulsing mass contracting with it's locomotion, reared back in discomfort as it flushed a fetid, tainted opaque green, and it seemed to contract in size, it's writhing erratic in it's poisoned agony and the opportunistic Adam charged again. Chortling courageously, he sank his sword up to the hilt into the Holothurian, which was starting to weep translucent moisture tinged yellow, the droplets dripping down the bulge of it's body, and as he withdrew there was a pathetically underwhelming, runny eruption of the same water. Spurned on by his triumph, he turned at the leaking water creature and grinned in a manner that could be classified as stupid, courageous, mad, or a blend of all three as he swung. " Take a big bite of that,you amorphous aquatic abomination!"
Once more, his Zweihander sunk into the Ravenous Holothurian, but given the force of this blow, it sliced right through the shaking flesh an inch from the nucleus, only for the orb to be propelled to the other side, and disregarding all insults, jeers, and profanity from Adam, it turned on the only one of the five to not offend it in any way, gravitating towards Lucia, maw full of tentacles writhing. Adam saw Lucia cornered, for even her slightest step out of it's path had it trailing her and he and Eirik, who had been casting silent spells pelting it with stones to no avail, rushed towards her but their presence was unnecessary. The tentacles, slick and undulating pushed towards the blonde, who shoved her broomstick out and batted at them with as much power in her light body, scowling at the monster. "I've seen The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife and read enough poorly written stories to know where that's going, and I'm having none of it."
Her eyes widened as it shot a twitching mass of five tentacles towards her, a wall to her left, more tentacles to the right and the beast ahead, and Adam, being a head taller than the other four, came running, resorting to all the behaviors he knew others found obnoxious, stabbing at the blob only for it to seize and shudder as the blonde, hands thrust out in front of her, opened her eyes to look out at a sheet of ice crystals and a layer of powdery snow around the detatched, frozen tentacles, wide eyed Lucia illuminated with a wintry indigo glow.
"Alright Lucia! You're one of us!" Kat cheered while Addie smiled in approval."Kat and I have been looking for a third witchling for our group, the Weird Sisters! You're perfect for it!"
"Well then, I hoped, but never expected you to be a Supernatural!"
"Nice,Luce! What did ya do?"
"I don't know, I just imagined how much nicer that wretched sea cucumber would be if it couldn't gorge itself further on us,"Lucia admitted, flicking one of her plaits over her shoulder. "Perhaps it would slowly waste and wither away in the wind?"
"Try more creepy thoughts, see what that does! "Adam suggested, jamming his heel down in insult upon the ice encrusted tentacles.
"Focus, Lucia, there should be a little voice in the back of your head, maybe more, and you're going to repeat whatever it whispers into your brain-the Supernatural in general is fickle and we can present at any time, usually when we need it most, "Eirik urged gently, and she nodded, eyes shut as she was enshrouded in an aura of opal blue Magick, and rose just as Adam conceived, her slight figure swaying in the meagre breeze as she ascended, a few inches off the pavement just as Adam had conceived, a frail, dainty thing drifting on the wind, the dread in her pearly blue eyes betraying her placid face and poised posture.
"Twinkling Blizzard! !" Lucia nervously cried, layers of cotton, linen, and lace skirts aflutter and her cornsilk plaits swept backwards in the frosty gale her words summoned, her eyes closed as she now soared an impressive twelve feet above the concrete, broomstick clasped in one hand to steady her. The muggy air took on a chill that had the four beneath her shuddering in gooseflesh, and the colorless sky darkened to a wintry black shot through with a rainbow of flaring, radiant light above, and silhouetted against this aurora she raised a hand to call a snowy tempest. Snowflakes mingled with the frosty gusts sweeping across the sky,and Lucia gave a flick of her hand, silver jewelry jangling as this blizzard fell upon the Ravenous Holothurian, slivers of ice intertwining with the descending snowstorm as it painted the watery beast in sparkling white. Beneath, Adam had been goading the Holothurian towards him with the surviving rubbish in the alleyway only to leap back with unanticipated agility, Kat swooping downwards as Addie continued to sicken it further with her spores, and Eirik was erecting a wall around it, casting his spells in silence, his hands mere inches from his sides and the tips of his fingers twitching as if merely resting, but the quartet halted once Lucia ascended into the sky. Though entombed in snow, the heap of flakes sifted off the blob suggested it was shivering and twitching, until these tremors ceased and the snow soon melted, and released from it's cold white grave was a frozen Ravenous Holothurian with fissures forming across the sheath of ice encasing it, cracks delving below this face and into the now solid creature. With one last tremble, the now solid water beast shattered into hunks of ice that thawed in a heartbeat,the trickling remnants dripping towards the most convenient storm drain,and the starlit gloom lightened to it's original unsettled grey, the only suggestion of the fight an abnormally tidy black alley void of the grime and garbage characteristic of such a location.
Lucia's feet wavered hesitantly where she hovered, wintry Magick abandoning her in the absence of Supernatural terror, and unsure of how to manipulate it, she fell, dainty finger scrabbling for anything but air, and she screamed, closing her eyes and awaiting the inevitable smash of her delicate bones against the concrete. Adam saw her sway unsteadily as her Magick failed her, and he scrabbled with arms outstretched, welcoming the tiny,shivering witch into his embrace. She opened her pearly blue eyes when her anticipated agony never came; instead she was admitted into a set of sturdy arms catching her at the crease behind her knees and the back of her narrow shoulders, her lithe form wedged against a broad barrel chest, tropical flowers splashed against a swatch of red polyester in her peripheral vision and in front of her, the black lace of her tights stretched over her bony kneecaps, and she gazed up to see Adam's chins, then his broad, yet not unhandsome face and his curiously mismatched eyes.
"Well you handled that better than I did, my first Supernatural encounter," he joked, still holding her trembling figure, and she released her broom with a clatter."You didn't get ten years of your life scared off of you getting caught tresspassing and releasing a ghoul! At least I was in an armory."
"Could you please start from the beginning? I only have an inkling of what you four are talking about," Lucia whispered . "Supernatural-just what or who is that?"
"It's like a separate world full of fantasy and Magick,," Eirik began,"And it's always there if you look hard enough; in fact, most myths, legends, and paranormal stories are based into accidental glimpses of the Supernatural. Those who can sense this world are called Supernaturals, such as yours truly-I'm a wizard with fire and earth based Magick, or to be more specific, volcanic and earthquake based Magic, and my family consists mostly of spellcasters.I'd say you've got snow and ice Magick, which is a subcategory of water Magick, but the fact that you could fly without riding a broom makes me think you've also got some wind based Magick."
"Ditto, but all I got is powers over stupid smoke and ash," Kat added as she and Addie landed,stumbling stiff and bow legged as the spore witch dismounted with her usual elegance.And my older sister's got deep sea magick and Addie's a nature and poison witch with her spore and fungus Magick!"
" And Adam?" Lucia asked, and the brunet reckoned her icy flesh seemed to warm against his forearms,, and he shrugged." Nah, I'm just a fighting, farting brick, I guess, which isn't so bad; Angie's pretty and smart, Brandon's reliable and hardworking, so at least I get something. So far though, I've met some fighters, like Grant Turnbull and Peyton Lynch, Rangers, who are kind of like nature guardians-Monica Shoal's a water ranger, and I've had the misfortune of meeting a thief- Kyle Dillinger."
"But they seem so nor-Mundane at school..."
"Then that means they're doing something right-it's generally a good idea to not broadcast any superhuman or Magickal abilities to the general public," Eirik continued. "Especially if you come from a Mundane background like Adam. There's nothing wrong with that, nor is there anything less Supernatural about you, and chances are one of your ancestors may have been one. However, it can take it's toll on a person, being alone with such a secret and nobody to share it with-in the past it wasn't unheard of to have Supernaturals committed to mental hospitals or to be lobotomized."
"In theory,those of us born in Supernatural families are supposed to seek out our Mundane-born contemporaries, but that's easier said than done,"Addie explained, twirling her hair around her finger alluringly in a manner reminiscent of Octavia ."Normally there's only vague hints that new Supernaturals may appear in a certain area but it usually isn't narrowed down to an individual for someone to go and welcome into the community"
"That day by the creek, I had gotten both word of a new Supernatural who had been around for a few days and of monsters in the area, so I put two and two together and went to go see and I met Adam."
"You saved me, too. I'd be Vampire Vine waste if you hadn't come along"
"Adam," Lucia started, the brunet's skin prickling in delight at her recognition of him, and to hear his name from her voice, the frosty, frigid tones he had hastily determined a reflection of her person giving way to a designation of soft and demure. " Who found you before Eirik if you were fighting by yourself? You'd have to have gotten some prior experience with this Supernatural."
"Well, to begin with, I really shouldn't have been there but you know the Mortis House out on Bauer Road? Well I went sneaking around there just to see what there is to see and apparently it's been bought by two immortal Supernaturals who caught me trespassing and long story short, I got out of it on the condition I team up with them, and I even got a souvenier!"the brunet grinned, finally setting Lucia down to tug at the needle sized Zweihander strung around his brawny neck in a tepid try at levity.
"Immortals,"amazed Lucia breathed, then giving a sigh of acquiescence to the unstructured order of the fantastic and straightening to a proper posture."Well, if you can have a shrinking sword and I can apparently fly and create snowstorms with a flick of a wrist, that seems within the bounds of possibility. They must be interesting to work under, given they've been on this earth for so long and experienced so much..."
"Yeah, interesting "Adam shrugged in a manner that comprehended his nonchalance, and he reckoned he saw a smirk tease at the corners of Lucia's soft lips."One's a thief who turns into a spider and the other's a grouchy old warlock."
"They are proof that immortality does not always coincide with maturity,"Eirik concluded,Adam grateful for the conclusion,as though he was typically compelled to speak,he knew his nonchalant chatter was useless and awkward in contrast to Eirik's exposition,especially as he stood incapable of a spell at the outer perimeter of the quintet like an alien interloper among the wizard and trio of witches ."You can pass your own judgement on them when you meet them, either at the Mortis House or Ore Creek, but that's a job for another day."
"True, I should be getting back to work before they notice I'm gone,"Lucia agreed, toying with one of her long plaits and startling when she saw the tips of her fingers frost over with icy crystals."The dust bunnies have probably multiplied ten times over,or who knows,we may even get a customer. "
"Well if you're not busy, you can join Eirik and I if you want,"Adam offered." The Supernatural doesn't really run on a set schedule, and neither do we."
"You boys might not, but Kat and I do, and I'm afraid this will have to be farewell for the afternoon, darling, the two of us have other affairs to tend to before four oçlock," emerald-eyed Addie whispered alluringly with a flip of her blonde hair, that luscious dahlia perfume smothering Adam's senses and eliciting more feelings within than he knew what to do with; he could acknowledge her physical loveliness, but in action she was unnerving."Though I think Í'll keep my eye on you, Van de Groot, you're interesting..."
"See ya around, Adam,Lucia,"the stocky ash witch waved goodbye, and jogged to match Addie's long, graceful strides.as the two vanished in the direction of Ore Creek Crossing, and Adam could feel his stomach settling once the blonde was gone,turning to address Lucia once more." How about it? You'd be great! "
"Adam,Eirik,you saved me and I'm grateful,"Lucia sighed."And I now have an explanation for those two disappearing every time I turn my back."
"Kat and Addie? Yeah, that'd make more sense for you to be with those two,seeing as you three are witches."
"It isn't that I don't want to be with you or them, it's that there's too much I don't know about this to make a firm decision. Weren't you apprehensive about the...Supernatural world once you learned of it? Surely,you weren't that gung-ho about fighting monsters and going on quests right away? There's so much you don't know about this all, doesn't that scare you?" "
"It shouls,but why should I let that stop me?"Adam grinned,and she bristled at his admission,Eirik standing between them an amused spectator."What I do know is that I don't have to mow the lawn and that's good enough for me!"
Lucia sighed once more,something that was sure to be the only appropriate response to Adam's nonsense before putting an end to the conversation. "Well some of us are less sanguine about running headlong into the unknown. I wish you and Eirik luck in your endeavors and will support you two and the rest any way I can,but I really need more time to think this all over and learn how to use this Magick. All I know is that as of today,I can't see myself accompanying you,sorry..."
To be continued...