“What if,” Jett interrupted my rambling thoughts, “we did both? Threaten them with a dragon and a kraken,” he clarified. “Throw in the pandemonium, too, for good measure, even.”
I mean…that sounded safer for Jett, but I didn’t know where one found dragons. Okay, I was the last person to ask about that because I could literally live next door to a dragon and not realize it. Um, if I lived on the surface, anyway.
“I know a dragon,” Jett went on, solving that particular problem before I could voice my question. “He’s on the police force here. We were talking and ended up making friends – both being pretty rare species and all. I bet he’d be willing to help. A centaur herd like that would cause serious problems in the town and the police force is small without too many supernaturals, so it’d actually be in his benefit to stop them now and make them back down – before they start causing trouble that the human police might try to step in and resolve. If we threaten them with both a dragon and a kraken, they’d have to be pretty stupid to try to do anything. One or the other, maybe, but not both of us. Plus,” he shrugged, “I suspect I can handle them on my own if it came to that. All I really need to do is toss them into the water and they’ll be doomed.”
Oh. Right. Jett had eight arms in kraken form, he could easily grab a centaur and toss them as high as he wanted, but yeah, if they hit the water, well…they’d probably die. Jett didn’t have much elemental magic in human form, but in kraken form, his water and air magic was pretty much off the charts and often spawned without him having to specifically control it. It would basically listen to his emotions and respond accordingly. It wasn’t uncommon for kraken to have storms follow them around, but if he were actually engaged in combat, it would definitely seek to pull the centaurs underwater and hold them there until they drowned if he threw them in.
Which was one of the reasons you really don’t want to fight a kraken.
“It’d be most helpful to have both of you and the pandemonium,” Sidney volunteered from the doorway to their bedroom. I had no idea how long he’d been listening, but he seemed very interested in this idea. “Because look at it this way – they’d realize then that they have super powerful opponents in the area that will be keeping an eye on them. A kraken out in the ocean, and a dragon in town. On top of that, though, the entire pandemonium might spot them, which just gives more potential eyes to see them if they act up and either deal with them themselves – pandemonium are no joke – or go get your dragon friend. Basically, involving the pandemonium just means the centaurs would be aware that they don’t just have to keep an eye out for one dragon and consider taking him off guard, but they know there’s also a lot of demons in town and that makes any attempts to bother the dragon, your centaur friend, or anyone else a lot harder.”
Jett nodded his agreement. “That seems sound. Honestly, the more force we show them, the better. A lot less likelihood that they’d risk doing anything if they realize they’re outmagicked here.”
I couldn’t help but feel hopeful at the idea of really being able to avoid violence, but I still felt worried about bringing Jett into this, too. “Are you sure you want to get involved? I really don’t want you to get hurt, but – ”
“Sage.” Jett rested his hand on my shoulder, a gentle smile on his face. “It’s not that big of a deal for me, it’s potentially helping the entire town, and, well, this is the first time you’ve ever asked for help. You’re always helping everyone in town, and we love that about you, but you never let us do anything for you in return. You don’t think I’m happy that I have a chance to do something for you for a change? Even if by doing something for you, it’s actually still just helping someone else?” He added with a wry smile. “Don’t worry, with Anthony’s help, I won’t get hurt. No one should.”
“We’ll keep your friend safe,” Sidney promised me. “And we’ll avoid actual violence.”
~~~~
I took deep breaths, trying not to hyperventilate. No, no, no – I was okay. This was all fine. I didn’t need to panic.
“You sure you want to do this?” Theo looked at me, concern written all across his face. “We can handle talking to your friend’s dragon friend alone.”
Silas gently clapped my shoulder. “She’s fine. Or will be.” He gave me a look, too, that said he wasn’t actually as sure as what he claimed. Probably because he knew me so well.
Charlotte was a few feet in front of us on the beach, looking around uneasily. Silas had helped her reach the beach, but she was still nervous about the possibility of running into the centaurs. Or being arrested for supposedly stealing that boat.
Jett caught up to us. “Okay, Sidney’s mad because I told him to stay behind with Zoey, because we can’t bring her up here. She’ll change at random and that’s not a good idea.”
“Um, Jett, this is Theo,” I motioned to the sea otter shifter, “and Charlotte.”
Charlotte turned around to survey Jett curiously. “I’ve never met a kraken before!”
“We’re usually pretty deep sea creatures,” Jett confirmed as he led the way towards the boardwalk and non-beach part of Port Fylin. “We don’t come up on land too often, but I’ve had to recently to help with my spouse’s cravings while expecting and handle their job deliveries.” Sidney made hand-crafted jewelry out of shells and things he found on the ocean floor that were fairly popular with some of the local shops. “That’s how I met the dragon – he was dealing with something for his work and noticed me checking out baby stuff. I was trying to figure out if any of it would work underwater or we just needed to build our own, which was what we ended up going with. He didn’t recognize what kind of merfolk I was and was curious, and we got to talking.”
I glanced at Theo, suddenly worried that the talk about a baby would bring him pain. He did have a sad expression on his face, but when he caught my eyes, he gave me a smile as if to say he’d be okay.
We’d decided to come in a group with Charlotte to talk to the dragon and pandemonium to make sure that the centaurs didn’t attack. Or, at least, to discourage them from doing so. They’d see her with four merfolk and that would hopefully make them pause, right? Because they didn’t want to start a war with the merfolk. They had to realize there were a couple hundred of us down in the ocean and if they started anything with us, it would be a bad idea. Even leaving out the part about a kraken, us oceanids could come on land easily enough – if we wanted to – and we had enough magic to cause trouble for them, plus we outnumbered them about seven to one.
Still, though, as I followed after the others, I wondered why I’d agreed to this. Yes, I had Jett and Silas here with me, so that was comforting, and I wanted to help Charlotte, and Theo seemed nice, but…this was inland. Really inland, not just on the islands. I hadn’t been in here for years and I found myself uneasy, scared that somehow someone would jump out at me even if I knew better.
Thankfully, we reached our destination without issue and Jett knocked on the door. The man who opened it seemed to be surprised at the group on his doorstep, but he let us in anyway and listened to us explain what was going on.
“A herd of centaurs.” Jett’s friend, Anthony, frowned in concern. “I’d heard a couple rumors of more centaur activity lately, but I was hoping it was just a rumor. Centaurs can be a pain to deal with.” He glanced at Charlotte. “Um, no offense intended.”
“None taken,” she responded with a shrug. “We are, I know. Or most of us are, if we don’t think through stuff before diving in. But point is, right now their territory is technically in question since I live here and am not a part of the herd. We do have some rules we follow as to territory stuff, so until they officially either recruit me, make me leave the area, or kill me, they’ll do minimal damage to other people – for a time. They’ll start to get antsy if they can’t find me again, and it’s already been two days since the boat incident. They’ve got to assume I’m dead right now, so they’re not going to have much of a reason to hold back. The sooner we can tell them otherwise, the better – but, you know, I’d rather not die, if that’s all the same to everyone else.”
“Yeah, okay.” Anthony leaned back in his chair. “So the hope is that with just the threat of a kraken, a dragon, and a pandemonium, they should back down, without us having to actually do anything.”
“Centaurs aren’t stupid, they’re going to know that’s too much for them to handle.” Charlotte shrugged.
Jett continued for her. “We figure involving the pandemonium will help keep you safe from the herd trying to catch you unawares after this, since they know you’d be easier to find than me. But with the pandemonium in town, too, it seems less likely.”
“Hmm, well, you’re right about me wanting to help just because they will be a threat and that’s part of my job. But yeah, the pandemonium will help – one of them works with me,” Anthony explained. “One of my police officers. Between Charlotte’s friend and mine, I’m pretty sure they’ll be willing to show up and help keep an eye on them afterwards. Any threat to me is sort of a threat to my officer, which means a threat to the pandemonium, too.”
Silas let out a sigh of relief. “Great, so next stop is the pandemonium, right? Then we just have to pick an island that’s secluded and big enough that humans won’t possibly see a kraken and a dragon on it when the time comes.”
Anthony nodded, but still looked thoughtful. “You think you can get some of the aquatic shifters to keep an eye out for humans nearby anyway? Just to make sure no one happens near the island by accident.”
“Sure.” Silas seemed relieved, actually, with this task. “I’ll grab my sisters – other sisters – and some of the other shifters, we can keep an eye out. Most of the time we can draw humans off just by jumping out of the water if need be, but we can use some magic if they’re particularly determined.”
“Great.” Anthony seemed satisfied. “So we’ll have Sage and Theo here to help with the elemental magic?”
“Yes,” Jett agreed. “I would have Sidney help, but he’s going to be looking after Zoey.” He gave me a rueful grin. “Sidney’s going to be pissed he can’t join, though.”
I almost thought of offering to take care of Zoey instead and let Sidney help trap the centaurs in mud, but, well, this was my idea, right? Err, well, not exactly mine entirely, but the part about getting Jett involved was my idea. No need to bring Sidney in, too, and put both of Zoey’s parents in danger.
Theo’s suddenly spoke up. “What if I watched the baby? I don’t have a lot of elemental magic, but I do know how to take care of babies. Sidney would probably be more of a help to Sage than I would and I can make sure the baby is well taken care of for a few hours.”
“Are you sure?” I couldn’t help the concerned question that popped out of my mouth. “You really don’t have to if you’re not up for it.”
He gave me a pained smile. “It’s fine, I think – I think it’ll be fine. I don’t want to never be able to be around small children again just because I lost mine. Someday I might even like to have a kid again, so I’d rather try to reach a point where I can be okay with it despite my grief. Besides, this way I could be more helpful.”
Looking at Theo, I couldn’t help but both hurt for him and feel proud of him. He clearly wanted to be a dad, and losing his own son had broken him, but here he was trying to take small steps to try to move forward and still be able to appreciate other people’s babies. That was brave.
“Baby kraken can be a little more complicated than your average babies,” Jett warned him. “Zoey will cry louder, eat more, and may randomly change into kraken form. It’s just a few hours, but it could be overwhelming. It would be helpful to have you look after her and free up Sidney, but only if you’re sure.”
Theo gave Jett a real smile. “Sea otters are very family oriented and we make sure to take care of the little ones. I’d be honored to look after your kid, kraken or not.”
“Well,” Anthony put in, “that would be good, then, we could then have two oceanids on hand – that should be more than enough to trap the herd.”
Jett grinned a bit. “And worst comes to worst, I’ll just toss them in the ocean. I know, Sage,” he gave me a kind look, “we don’t want it to get to that, but we’re not going to let ourselves get hurt, either, okay? I know you’re worried about me and Sidney, but we’ll be fine. Trust me, I’m not going to let anyone hurt Sidney and the most violence we’re talking about is me tossing them into the water and partially drowning them. I promise I won’t fully drown them if it comes to that, okay?”
I tried to look like I believed him and wasn’t still freaking out about this whole thing and just nodded quietly. I knew this was the best chance to avoid violence all together and Jett was positive he could handle them without it being too bad if they still didn’t back down, but…I was still scared. Just the idea of an actual fight occurring brought back all those memories of seeing that kid killed in front of me.
I never wanted to see something like that again.
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