InsaneJournal

Let the only sound be the overflow, pockets full of stones
Who: Dylan and Gabby, with Urist (NPC’d) and various EMTs/Police (NPC’d)
Where: the river
When: late afternoon
Warnings: Violence, blood and drowning


Gabby had too many thoughts going on in her head, for once. She didn’t want to think about the destruction that had happened at the march, or be at home to watch the news. She needed to escape, to enjoy what was left of her time off from school. The summer was coming to a close, or at least summer break, and Gabby was going to celebrate and relax for as long as she could before the semester started up at the University of Michigan. Whenever that is. She was looking forward to it, of course, but it was still going to mean having a strict schedule and not being able to just go out whenever she wanted. Sure, she partied as much, if not more at college than she did during the break, but there was less that she needed to concern herself with when she didn’t have to worry about missing class by being hungover. She wasn’t a saint, and she knew that, but she had to draw the line somewhere once her classes started up again; she in no way wanted to waste time and money when she didn’t have anything to show for it later on. Either way, school wasn’t to be worried over yet, and Gabby chose to spend the afternoon in the most unlikely of places for a fire elemental.

At the river!

‘I feel like a broken record, telling you this, but you really are the most odd creature in the world. Isn’t Fire supposed to get angry at you when you neglect him? That could be the reason why he hasn’t accepted you as his child yet, what with all the time you spend with Water.’ Urist sat on the bank of the river while Gabby waded into the shallows. Were they far enough away from the--no, she was not going to think of that today. The fox had managed to hit on the weak spot in Gabby’s armor again, and she narrowed her eyes at him. She’d been worried over the exact same thing, and really, it wasn’t natural for any self-respecting fire elemental to enjoy the humidity or the water the way she did. “Well, with any luck, he’ll accept me anyway, and understand that growing up with my brother gave me certain advantages. At least, I think of them as advantages. Plus, it makes me different.” And her father at least had assured her that she was different in a good way. What other fire elemental could claim a love for ice cream? None that she knew of, and Gabby was sure that meant that she won something, somewhere. ‘If you count being stuck at level four for the rest of your life as winning something, then yeah.’ Gabby was just about to say something nasty when her bare foot slipped on a rock and she stumbled forward, the water closing up over her head. She came up out of the water laughing at her clumsiness, sputtering a bit at the sudden plunge. The water was deep enough that she needed to kick and paddle to keep her head up, but she found that she liked the exercise. “Yeah, why don’t you come out here and say that?” She knew full well that Urist wasn’t a fan of the water, at least not enough to be fully submerged. Swimming around, Gabby felt wonderful. The cool water was a perfect contrast to the muggy heat of the sun that shone down through the trees. If at all possible, it made the day seem a little less dark and horrifying than it had been. “You really should lighten up, Urist, your face will stay that way if you’re not careful.” Laughing, she swam close enough to splash the frown off the fox’s face. He darted back and away, out of reach of the water, a snarl on his lips. ‘Whenever you’re ready to rejoin the realm of the sane, I’ll be waiting.’

Idle fins were the devil’s playground.

Although the good weather seemed to make most humans happy, the same could not be said for merfolk. Or at least this merman in particular. Of course it was preferable to rain, but the heat lead to dehydration, and that was never any fun. Dylan started to get itchy-throated and headachy much sooner than on a cooler day, so he’d had to go back to the water before he’d really had his fill of human fun. Considering all that had gone on the previous day, it was a shame that he couldn't explore; something had happened to the buildings, something big. There were lots of humans that wouldn't let you go into certain places, but you could still sit and watch them paw around in the rubble, unearthing bodies. Just think of all of the interesting things he was missing out on!

Since the sun was clearly out to spoil his fun, Dylan had decided to stick to water until the weather became less unfriendly. The only problem was that he was bored.

For a while he’d gone back into open ocean to see if there were any fishermen he could bother, but only one little boat had caught his attention and after a couple of hours Dylan got bored of clawing their hull and shifting their anchor. Then he decided to try out a fun game he’d been taught by an orca; if you swam at a white shark until you hit them, you could disorientate them, turn them upside down and then drown them. Dylan didn’t drown the adolescent he decided to play with - if it wasn’t human and you weren’t going to eat it, then what was the point in killing it? - but it was quite funny to see it lying the wrong way up.

Once he’d let the shark go though, he had nothing to do. Again.

Returning to the river where he’d met the other mermaids, Dylan swam upstream to where the current slowed and he was more likely to find something to amuse him. Something was splashing about in the shallows, he could feel their vibrations through the water.

As it moved into further out, Dylan realised that the something was actually a human.

A human in the water that was still alive.

Now Dylan had eaten more than his fill the previous day, so devouring this tasty looking human was out. He supposed that he could bite her though, just for the fun of it. Her blood would be tasty and it didn't fill him up like their juicy flesh. A taste couldn't hurt; he could always eat her on another day. And if he bit her, they could say it was a shark or a big river fish; after all, why would merfolk bite?

Wrapping his claws around the human’s ankle, Dylan gave her leg a sharp tug and sank his teeth into her calf. Yummy.

Gabby was mid-stroke and mid-laugh when she felt something grasp her ankle. She was usually pretty fast when it came to moving, but Water tended to slow her down, seeing as it was her opposing element. She was pulled sharply down into the water, and she gave a startled scream before the river closed up over her head. Not only did something have her, whatever it was had teeth and Gabby screamed again once they pierced the flesh of her calf, a great gout of bubbles streaming from her open mouth. She kicked out with her leg reflexively, moving before she realized with a new stab of pain that pulling the injured leg would only exacerbate the damage done. She felt something rip as she flailed in the water, desperately stroking and kicking to get away from whatever it was that had her before her air ran out. Screaming didn’t seem to be helping the situation, but she was in full-on panic mode and couldn’t hold in the water-muffled sound. From the shore, she could tell that Urist was in a state of panic akin to her own. ‘Gabby, get out of the water!’ Kicking and screaming, Gabby fought to get her head above water, and she came up gasping for a moment to grab just a snatch of air. Whatever creature that had a hold of her was strong and even though adrenaline coursed through her body, it wasn’t enough to overcome the strength that held her.

‘GABBY!’ She knew she was in trouble and that she would have to get away soon, or the current might pull out more and more of her blood. The river had a stream of red running through it already, thanks to her attacker. With all her might, Gabby landed a kick to the thing that clung to her, hoping it would dislodge it so that she could get away. Without waiting to see if it would grab her again, Gabby swam for the shore as fast as she could, injured and bleeding as she was. Just breaking the surface felt like a relief and she gasped for air as she swam, hoping Urist wouldn’t have a heart attack. He was running back and forth along the shore, growling and snapping at whatever was in the water. Gabby tested the depth of the water, reaching down with her feet. Her head went under again as it was still not close enough to touch and she continued to swim, hoping against hope that whatever had bitten her wouldn’t be interested in pursuing her.

Humans were so wriggly, weren’t they?! The slightest bit of a nip and they began wheeling their arms and legs around as if it would do something to help them. All this one was really doing was spreading her blood out in the water; was it any surprise that they got attacked by sharks?

Dylan smacked his lips together thoughtfully; despite their many faults, you couldn’t really complain about the way humans tasted. Even the stupid ones tasted good. In fact the stupid ones often tasted better, which was an odd thing really. How could intelligence affect flavour? Did all of the richness of smart human flesh go to their brains instead of their bodies? Maybe he’d have to try eating a smart human and then a dumb human, just to find out.

For now though, he had this human. She kept opening her mouth, which didn’t really do much but help her run out of air. Dylan let her catch her breath for a brief moment - it would be no fun if she drowned! - but kept a good grip of her ankle, watching her claw and kick against nothing. It was all rather amusing.

Or at least it was rather amusing until her foot connected with Dylan’s face.

He let go immediately, claws instinctively cradling his face as the human made a dash for land. After making sure that his eye was fine and that his vision was fine, the now-disgruntled merman gave a hiss at his escaping victim and swam after her.

How far could a clumsy, injured human get in the water? Not far enough. Swimming along the riverbed, Dylan followed her towards the shallow edges of the lake. It was only when he got right behind her that he rose to the surface, pressing his claws against her back to push her down beneath the water again.

Hmm...maybe this could be a new game. Before she reached the bottom of the river, Dylan stopped pushing her down and swam out of her way again; when the human popped up onto the surface like a cork, he ‘d pull her back down. How long would she last before she became too tired to fight? Dylan was going to find out!

Gabby was so close to shore that just a few more paddles would have her touching blessedly dry land. That was not to be, however, as whatever it was that had bitten he touched her with those claws again, this time on her back and shoulders. She took in a gasp of air as she was plunged back under the surface, wondering just how long she could hold her breath if this creature was intent on keeping her under. She tried to rest, waiting to swim if the thing let go of her so she wouldn’t tire herself out, but it was a hard thing to do to relax when she was completely surrounded by water and a long way away from anyone who could help her. ‘I can help you! What do you need me to do?’ Gabby dimly thought that there must be someone nearby who could help her, and in any case, her cell phone was in her bag should they need to use it to call for help. Urist sent her the thought that he was on his way and Gabby felt slightly better about what might happen. If nothing else, someone might come to help and scare the thing off. Just as she neared the bottom, the thing let go of her. Before she did anything else, Gabby swam around so that maybe she could see what was in the water, attacking her. Although the water was clear, the fire elemental wasn’t sure what it was that she was seeing.

There was a boy in the water. With a tail. And claws, and gills, and suddenly Gabby thought she understood why it was that this thing was teasing her. It would only have to wait for her to wear herself out, seeing as it --no, he-- could breathe underwater. Did mermaids really eat people? Realizing that that was neither here nor there, Gabby swam up towards the surface, wondering just what sort of bullshit that Disney was selling with its singing mermaid who saved the prince’s life. This one hadn’t sung yet, but it sure didn’t seem too keen on doing anything but making her his lunch. If she could just get to shore, she could get out of the water and away from this thing with creepy teeth and claws. Breaking the surface, Gabby took in an inhale of breath, trying not to gasp and cough and failing miserably. If only her magic would work effectively in water, then she’d fry the fish’s ass. Even if it would work, it would take a lot of concentration, and that was something that she wasn’t sure she could handle with the adrenaline in her system, the blood loss beginning to make her feel slightly woozy and the fact that she was sure that she didn’t have long to test her theory. “Better to die fighting,” she sputtered and focused her magic into her hands as she pulled them up out of the water.

Of course, nothing happened immediately seeing as her entire body was drenched in the opposing element. But slowly, slowly steam began to rise from her hands as the water began to heat up. All Gabby could really hope for was that if nothing else, Urist might come back soon to give her magic a boost. If he were here, she was sure she’d be able to call a real flame and give as good as got with the carnivorous merman. “Fuuuck! C’mon!” She sent Urist a frantic thought and hoped he would come back before she became fish food.

Dylan flashed a big, beautiful smile at the human girl when she turned to face him, his white teeth tinged with the tiniest bit of blood. Humans liked to look at what was chasing them, even though it slowed them down. It was an odd habit and really, what did they gain from it? Other than knowing exactly what was going to kill them, the action served no purpose. He was too strong for her to overpower and too fast for her to out-swim; there was no escape for this one.

But something caught his attention. When the human swam up to the surface she held her arms out of the water in front of her as she tried to tread water. That was odd, he’d never seen people doing that before. Why wasn’t she swimming towards the shore? Why wasn’t she concentrating on keeping herself afloat? Most unusual.

He swam up in a spiral around the human’s legs. Once he reached her torso Dylan wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back down into the depths with him, where she couldn’t do her odd hand positioning thing. Under the water he grabbed hold of the human female’s wrists, looking at each of her hands in turn. There didn’t seem to be anything special about them. Dylan tilted his head and stared at the girl intently for a few moments, then broke out into a wide grin.

He let her go and shoved her back, waiting for the human to rush to the surface again.

The smile from the boy was dazzling, and despite the fact that he had just bit her and was now toying with her, Gabby was momentarily caught up in just how beautiful he looked at the moment. Until her eyes fell on the fact that his teeth were tinged with blood. Her blood. Whatever hold it was that his smile had on her was gone and she was back to thinking that he looked exactly like the way sharks seemed to smile at their prey when they ate. Distracted as she had been by his smile, it was no wonder that she did little more than cause steam to rise before he had grabbed her again. This time, Gabby couldn’t hold in the whimpering scream that his touch startled out of her; it was one thing to have his clawed hands on her back, but around her waist? No, that was where someone might hold her while they walked, and where Harley’s hands seemed to fit perfectly. It was not where a predator was supposed to touch her. It made sense that her thoughts would turn to Harley here and now, when she felt as though she were at her wits’ end. When the merman grabbed her hands and looked at them, Gabby grit her teeth, willing flames to her palms. The water seemed to shimmer a bit, and she was sure that her hands would feel warmer than they usually did, but nothing else happened. The way the boy tilted his head at her and grinned made him look almost harmless, like he was nothing but curious about what she had been doing. But Gabby knew better.

As soon as he shoved her away, Gabby swam up to the surface, taking a panting gasp once she got up above the water line. Urist, anytime now would be good! Help be damned, what she needed now was her familiar to come boost her power so she might at least scare the boy with the tail. The woozy feeling from losing so much blood was not going away, and it was making bright spots stand out at the edges of her vision. ‘Nobody would stop to listen to me, so I guess we’re on our own. Something about a talking fox didn’t seem to illicit any response besides fear or confusion.’ Any other time, Gabby would have laughed, but at the moment, she was just trying to survive. ‘Hang in there, Gabby, I’m almost back. Just keep your head above water, okay?’ Bringing her hands up out of the water, she used her legs to try to swim backwards, towards the shore and away from the merman. Whatever distance she got away from him wouldn’t be much, but she would need it to get any sort of flame going. Focusing on her hands, she willed the flames to life, a steady line of words coming from her lips, curses and prayers alike. Steam rose from her hands steadily, accompanied by the sound of hissing as the water evaporated from her skin. When the last of the moisture burned away, small little tongues of flame licked along her palms, shifting with the anxiety that Gabby felt in every cell of her being. It wasn’t much, but it was hot, and it was Fire, and just the presence of her element was soothing, bringing Gabby’s anxiety level down just a bit. Now, if only the merman would come close so that she could touch him. The act of concentrating so hard on keeping herself above the water while keeping the flames alive was draining what little energy she had left, and she knew it wouldn’t be long before she couldn’t do both. “Here, fishy, fishy, fishy.”

The human had started to head towards the river’s edge again. Dylan could have quite easily caught her and dragged her back, but he was quite enjoying watching the girl flounder in the water. Her kicks with her wounded leg weren’t very strong, and she was too busy holding her hands out of the water to use them in an escape attempt. Why was she doing that? There didn’t seem to be anything different about her hands when he’d looked at them, and yet she kept holding them out for some reason. Dylan didn’t recall seeing any other humans doing that, and she’d been swimming properly before he bit her, so she knew how to use her arms to paddle. What was it all about?

Dylan was going to find out.

He moved forwards, following the human as she tried to out-swim him in her awkward, floundering way. Dylan headed up to the surface and then swam down again, his tail arcing out of the water, scales shimmering in the light of the sun. His slow, effortless moves were deliberate, drawing out the moment before he latched onto her again. The human girl was in easy enough reach, after all, but where was the fun in moving quickly? Better to prolong her misery and suffering, as humans did to everything they lifted from the sea.

But then something caught Dylan’s attention. There were little orange lights in her hands, flickering like flames. Now he swam closer, rising up from the beneath the surface to look at what the human was holding. It couldn’t be fire because they were in water and the girl had nothing in her hands to burn, but it looked so real. Was it real? Even if the fire was a trick, it was a clever trick, and the pretend flames were pretty to look at as they danced in the girl’s hand.

“I’m not a fish,” he spat, giving the girl a sour look before focusing on her hands again. Dylan raised his claw out of the water and moved to touch the not-flames that the human was holding. They even gave off warmth, like real fire. How odd...

Panting with the effort of keeping her head above water and making sure the flames burned steadily in her hands, Gabby was feeling the weakness in her limbs, signalling the end of the adrenaline that had rushed through her. She had no idea where Urist was, if he was close enough to help her or if she was truly on her own. Not on my own, not yet. Despite the fact that she was surrounded by Water, her own element hadn’t abandoned her to a watery grave just yet. I know I haven’t been the best child of Fire in the world, but if you’re with me now, I need your help. She wasn’t exactly sure her element would hear her where she was, or at all really, but the thought that she was not alone was comforting. The flames burned just a little bit brighter at that thought and she relaxed a bit. The moment she did, she felt herself slipping back down into the water and she tried to tread back up to the surface. The pain in her leg was no longer dulled by the adrenaline and it was an agony of sensation with every kick. She lifted her hands up, hoping that at least they would not drop below the surface even as her head sank below the water line. She tried to hold her breath, willing the flames to stay bright in her hands, and she could feel that they were still intact. They wouldn’t remain that way if she didn’t find the energy to keep swimming.

Just then, she felt the presence of Urist in her mind again. ‘He’s close to you, Gabby, let him have it!’ Sure enough, the merman had ventured closer, his curiosity getting the better of him. With what remaining strength she had, Gabby surged up out of the water, kicking past the pain. She reached out for whatever it was on the boy that she could grab, grasping at his clawed hand with one of her own, her other flaming hand touching one side of his face. “Fish or no, you’ll still burn like one. TAKE THAT!” Urist’s presence made the next part easy as Gabby opened herself to her element, using what power and strength she could to make sure the flames on her hands didn’t go out just by touching the boy. It wasn’t much, but the small little tongues of flames on her hands stayed alight, burning what she touched. Once she was satisfied that, yes, she’d actually managed to burn the boy-fish, she got the heck out of there. Or tried to. She swam as fast as she could, crying out in pain several times as she attempted to paddle the last little way to shore. She wasn’t sure just how much blood she’d lost, but she could tell it wasn’t normal. ‘All you have to do is get to shore, Gabby, you can make it!’ The little fox was running back and forth along the shore, giving her encouraging thoughts. Her fingertips brushed land and she cried out in relief, digging her fingers into the ground to attempt to pull herself up. She only hoped the merman was distracted or injured enough to leave her alone for the time being.

Did fish actually burn?

Dylan wasn’t sure, and when the human girl grabbed him by the claw and touched his face, fathoming out an answer to that wasn’t exactly on the top of his priority list. He hissed sharply and wrenched his claw out of her grip, which wasn’t that difficult considering how puny the human was, and darted off beneath the water, his tail splashing against the surface as he swam away.

You see, this was the problem with the human world; they were forever shifting the goalposts. Dylan had learned that fire was pretty and warm, but also that it could burn you and that hurt. If humans touched it, then the fire burned them too. The girl had been holding fire, so judging by the rules of fire it couldn’t be real, or else the human would have burned herself too. But it had been real, and it had hurt him, and now his face and claw were red and white and sore to touch. How could she hold fire and not get burned? It couldn’t be because her hands were wet; his were wet too. Were there special creatures that could make fire? Dylan had never heard of such things, but he’d also never heard of a human that could talk to water and breathe through its bottom until Fluffy had spoken to him. Perhaps this human-looking thing was a fire-maker. As cross as he was, he had to wonder if she could make fire anywhere else too, like her mouth or her feet. It seemed only sensible that the rest of her could set alight too.

As his human victim crawled towards the shore Dylan lurked in the deeper waters, cradling his injuries. Nasty creature. He should have drowned it when he had the chance.

After sulking a little longer, Dylan decided that perhaps he would do just that. However, the fire-maker had found her way back to the edge of the river and was pulling herself back onto the bank. There was a funny-looking dog running up and down, watching her closely. She was clearly too big for the little animal to eat; was the dog her pet? If so, why did it not get into the water to help its owner? Dogs could swim, he’d seen them do it.

Dylan focused again on the girl. He swam up into the shallows as far as he could, most of his back and tail breaching the surface of the water. It would have been easier if he’d pulled himself up onto the sodden dirt, but if he got stuck there something could go wrong, and his tail wouldn’t dry out fast enough to change so that he could simply step back into his habitat. As it was Dylan made a grab for the girl’s ankle with his good claw. If he could pull her back into the water then he could put all of his weight on her head until she drowned. And then she wouldn’t make fire ever again, stupid creature.

Gabby had a moment of calm wherein it looked like the merman had escaped underwater after getting his face and claw burned. She hoped it would give her enough time to get out of the river. The fingers that she’d dug into the ground tried to find a sturdy grip and pull herself further out of the water, but the simple fact of the matter was that most of her strength was gone. A thought occurred to her and she continued to climb, even as slow going as it was. If she could just reach her bag, she could call for help. The police had the ability to triangulate a signal from a cell phone, right? When it soon became clear that she wouldn’t reach the bag in time, Gabby started to panic again. “Urist, my bag!” She practically screamed it, and the fox went running for it, taking it in his teeth to bring it to her. Fumbling in the contents, Gabby found her phone. She punched in the three little numbers and pressed the speaker phone, in case she lost the grip on it. When the operator’s voice came over, it was like sweet music. She tried to ignore the thought that help might not arrive in time if all the responders were still busy with the march clean-up.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

Panting, Gabby tried to get it all out as quickly as possible. “I’ve been attacked at one of the rivers in Scarlet Oak, Michigan, lost a lot of blood, please send help.”

“Alright miss, just stay calm, and stay on the line while I send you help.”

“Okay.”

“Can you get to a safe place?”

“I’m trying but--” ‘Gabby look out!’ Clawed fingers closed over her injured ankle and pulled. Screaming, Gabby threw the phone blindly, hoping it would land somewhere where the finned-boy couldn’t reach it to break it. The pain in her ankle lanced up her calf and caused a fresh wash of blood to bloom in the water as the surface closed over her head again. Kicking, Gabby brought her nose and mouth above water to steal a bit of air, hoping whoever came would be able to rescue her from the thing that wanted to eat her or drown her or both. She knew she would be lost if help didn’t come soon, as she didn’t have the strength enough to call anymore fire to her aid. ‘Just hold on, Gabby! Don’t let go! The lady on the phone says she’s sending in some people to help you!’ Now all the fire elemental had to do was keep herself from drowning.

The fire-making girl had been speaking to someone on one of those odd little pebbles that did the same job as the telephones people had in their houses, but as soon as he'd grabbed her she'd let it go. The person on the other end couldn't help her now, but it would probably be better if he drowned her quickly so that any humans in the area weren't alerted to her struggle. The mermaids in the river wouldn't be too pleased if someone found out about him drowning a fire-maker. Someone like po-lice. Or would they? Perhaps fire-makers weren't well liked by humans and he was doing them a favour by getting rid of one.

With his claw still hurting from the burn, Dylan wound his arm around the girl's leg and sank his teeth into her again. It would be a shame to waste all of this tasty meat, but at least if they found the thing's body then they'd just think that she injured herself and drowned. The humans might even be happy to find out that the fire-maker had died; fire hurt people, after all.

Dylan unclamped his jaws from around the girl's leg, the wound bleeding out into the water. Blood made the water look pretty; perhaps not as pretty as if it had glitter in it, but close enough.

The paddling that Gabby was doing was barely enough to actually make a ripple in the water, much less keep her head above the surface, despite the fact that she was in the shallows. The woozy feeling in her head was making it quite hard to think past the most basic of instincts. The arm that wrapped around her leg only resulted in her flicking the limb idly, as if she were twitching off an insect that would depart at the slightest disturbance. Not so much. She had a moment to look about in the water to see just what was happening before teeth sank into the already damaged muscle. A scream ripped from her lips, coming out as bubbles and a few bursts of sound as her mouth went in and out of the water with her feeble flailing. Spots danced in front of her eyes, both at the blood loss and the fact that she didn’t have enough air. Still, she kept screaming, completely panic-stricken, despite the fact that it only hastened her into the oblivion. The last of her air cut out and in her panic she sucked down water into her lungs, coughing and sputtering but finding no air. The fact that the merman let her go almost immediately didn’t seem to matter as Gabby’s body went limp just after he released her. Urist went almost insane with worry, barking and growling and coming close to the water to try to rouse his elemental. He splashed out as far as he could, grabbing a strap of her bathing suit to pull her in. ‘You better not be dead, you hear me?!’ His threat was met with silence.

Sirens broke that silence and Urist looked up at the sound. He didn’t want to be close-by when the EMTs came up, on the off chance that they thought he had done the attacking. Being locked up and put down would not help Gabby’s situation at all. ‘I’m going to go get your dad.’ Even if he couldn’t hear her, it made him feel better for having thought it. He scrambled away as the ambulance wailed as close to the scene as possible. Doors open and closed as the EMTs ran out, quickly assessing the situation and making a mad dash to the riverbank where Gabby lay unconscious. They went to work, pulling her up out of the water completely after they assessed that there were no broken bones. Checking for a pulse, one of the EMTs performed CPR. They went through the motions of the procedure several times before Gabby vomited up mouthfuls of water, her eyes fluttering open for a moment before closing. All the while the EMTs were working, a couple policemen were scouring the area, looking for what it was that had attacked her.

Dylan had been having second thoughts about eating the fire-maker when he heard the noises. At first they were hardly noticeable, but as the source of the noise drew closer they got louder and more unpleasant. Dylan didn’t really know what they were for, but there were lots of them around at the moment, both further up river and around the broken buildings in town.. He knew that they were definitely invented by humans though; birds and animals didn't tend to sound so loud or ugly.

Humans travelled around in little boxes on wheels called cars. Two normal cars arrived, along with a big box-like car; they all had red flashing lights on top.

The lights were pretty and Dylan wanted to look at them, but this was not the right time. There were po-lice in some of the cars, and he could only assume that the ones in the big car were special helpers to the police, or even special po-lice themselves. Clearly humans liked fire-makers more than Dylan thought.

As car doors opened, Dylan slid back into deeper water, turned on his tail and dived under the surface. His tail fin flicked out, making a small splash as he disappeared from the scene. He'd had enough drama for one day.

As the pair of EMTs began to look at the series of bites and wounds on Gabby’s leg and lift her up onto a gurney to transport her to the hospital, the police split up, searching up and down the shoreline. A splashing sound drew everyone’s attention just in time to see a huge tail flick out of the water to disappear under the surface a moment later.