Lived a taniwha, keeper of space.
With scales shining bright,
It would guard through the night,
Its mana a legend to chase!
- Goldie Honorhide
“Can’t,” he puffed, and I saw gills on the side of his body under his arms. He had a leaking cut that went down his back and damaged a set of gills. “Out of stamina,” he puffed out, indicating the wound on his gills as if to say it was hampering him.
Then, the head of the Taniwha broke the water next to the ice. It looked like what I imagined a dragon head would be, with a snout, sharp teeth, and covered in scales. At the back of the skull was a ridge of scales, and several tentacles emerged. Some were damaged, and some had been cut off and were leaking blood. There were a number of scales missing as well. Being a small Taniwha, its snout was as long as I was tall. Hence, it could swallow any of us easily. I hate to think how big they can grow.
It was in my aura, so my spiritual sensing felt the build-up of spirituality from it. It was about to do something with its spirituality. I vaguely saw Yoboc’s arrow crack a scale, but I was concentrating on the spiritual.
I did the only thing I knew how to do. I shaped my aura in front of me, excluding Felix and the others. Then I activated Frigid Void for all I was worth.
A torrent of water spewed from the Taniwha’s jaws. I would have washed us all into the ocean if it hadn’t hit my aura, turned to ice, and dropped. A wall of Ice was forming in front of me. This was eating through my Spiritual energy, but the dwarves would be dead if they ended up in the ocean. I doubted Felix would last long, either.
Then I felt Felix adding his Spiritual energy to mine through our bond. I hadn’t remebered he could do that. A wall of ice was forming between us and the Taniwha and it was fusing together under the intense cold of the Frigid Void.
The Shark Mer was about to leap from the ice to avoid the water blast and then stood in shock as the water formed a wall of solid ice. “Holy Kracken Scales, how are you doing that?”
We all ignored him, including the Taniwha, which surged forward, busting down the ice wall. Its head was now in my aura, but as expected of something living in the arctic waters, its Cold Resistance was very high, and my Frigid Void had very little effect. However, even just being able to shut down its water abilities was huge.
It went to sink its teeth into me, and all I had to defend with was my spear. I braced, with my claws dug into the ice, and thrust into its mouth. The spear skittered off some teeth, not even slowing it. The jaw was slammed sideways as Goldie Shield Bashed it and then brought her axe down on its snout. The teeth missed me.
It backed off and went back under the water. We were under no illusions it wouldn’t be back.
“That was incredible,” The shark Mer exclaimed. I could tell his mouth was wider than on a human or dwarf. I guess it opened wider and accommodated all the teeth. “I expected that to be the end of everyone,” he continued.
Yoboc had another arrow notched and aimed at the Mer, “Expected or planned?”
What? I looked at them. The Mer raised both his hands non-threateningly, “Hey, I just needed help here.”
“Not convinced,” Yoboc said, and I could see Goldie was facing him with her shield up. “You are fast and can hide easily enough. Get off or be Taniwha bait.”
Just then, the ice rocked as the Taniwha bumped against it. The Mer dived for the side. No, that was not right. He dived for the packs. He grabbed the ore pack, and as he went over the side, Yoboc’s arrow cut a furrow in his leg.
The ore pack went over the side and would have been lost, except Felix got his teeth into a strap and held on. I dived for Felix as he was being dragged over the side. I grabbed the strap and stopped it from disappearing. I pulled it back up.
The Mer’s head broke the water, “No, you don’t,” he said as his knife ripped open the pack. He ducked away; otherwise, Yoboc’s arrow would have impaled him.
I got the pack back on the ice. It was about half empty.
I had my Aura out in the water as far as I could sense, and I sensed the Mer swimming for his life with a Taniwha after him. We should have some breathing room anyway.
“What was that all about?” I asked.
“Fucking Mer. Pirates, the lot of them,” Yoboc cursed.
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“Not all of them,” Goldie clarified. “Their concept of ownership is unclear to most.”
“It is pretty clear to me that they just take everything they can. Never trust a Mer,” Yoboc said.
“What was his aim?” I asked.
“It is pretty obvious he wanted the ore. He will wait and collect it off the ocean floor. He was probably looking for the most valuable thing and probably had a treasure-sensing skill,” Yoboc said.
“Mer are known for their enchanting,” Goldie clarified.
“I could probably dive and retrieve the ore,” I said, “as long as the Taniwha is gone.” My Clearsight, Spiritual Sensing, and Map all mean I would be fine locating it. I doubted it was too deep here.
“Head’s up,” Yoboc said, looking out to sea. “He is leading the monster back to us. With the extra blood he is losing, he probably can't hide, so he’s getting the Taniwha distracted with us.”
I looked, and the Taniwha was definitely coming back to us with something small and fast in front of it. Yoboc started shooting arrows, but he wasn’t aiming for the Taniwha.
“How do we kill it?” I asked.
“I don’t think we can,” Yoboc said. “For that, you need ships, harpoons, and explosives. Making it to shore is looking increasingly problematic.”
“I knew we should never have come,” Goldie muttered.
“What can we do?” I asked.
“I am trying to give it a feed, which might be enough for it to leave us alone, but he is a slippery bastard.” I took that to mean Yoboc hadn’t nailed the Mer yet. “We could distract it while you and Felix swim for shore,” Yoboc said.
They would not survive that, and I was not going to abandon them.
I shaped my aura and froze the water around our current iceberg, making it larger and stronger. It is a shame I can't create an ice cave, but I can’t create ice. I can only freeze what is in my aura. I looked down. I didn’t have time to dig into the ice, and Tremor would just undo what I had just frozen.
A large lump of ice was on the side where the Taniwha had previously attacked. “Let's put the ice wall at our backs,” I said, even though it was more of a hump than a wall.
“Get down!” Yoboc yelled, throwing himself on his back with a notched arrow aimed upwards.
I saw a flash of blue, and Yoboc shifted aim and fired the arrow. " I got him,” he yelled. “It was probably not a killing shot, but he is having a bad day.”
Then, the Taniwha left the water, following the Mer. Its large head appeared first, followed by a ring of scales, tentacles that flowed behind, and a long, eel-like body with a continuous fin on top. The head entered the water in the same place as the Mer, but the tail end of the body was not out of the water yet, so it crashed down on our ice.
That side of the ice submerged, and our side rose as we all slid toward the water. All our gear slid toward the water. I shaped my aura and froze the water, but my ice was continuously broken as the body of the Taniwha kept moving through it. Goldie slammed the spike of her axe into the ice and stopped herself, but Yoboc and Felix had no chance.
I crashed against the moving body of the Taniwha and was knocked sideways into the water as the ice slipped out from under it and bounced back up. My Clearsight saw all our packs slide away into the deep, but there were more important things to do.
I dived, grabbed Yoboc’s hand, and struck out for the surface. He was not kidding when he said dwarves were heavy and sunk. I shaped my aura and encased his feet in ice, which gave him some buoyancy. When his head broke the surface, I created more ice under him. He would have to chip his own feet loose.
I looked around, and Felix was paddling against our original iceberg and trying to scramble up. I saw Goldie moving to help him.
I looked around for the Taniwha. I couldn’t see it on the surface, so I took a breath and looked under the water. Clearsight really showed its worth here, so much so that I bet all Mer have it. I could see the taniwha in the distance, which was reasonably deep. It was not heading this way yet. Hopefully, it had snacked on the Mer, but I doubted it. That Mer was crafty.
I surfaced and pushed Yoboc over to the larger iceberg. Goldie grabbed his arm and hauled him up, ice and all. She then took to the ice with her axe spike and quickly freed him. I swam out a bit, shaping my aura and Frigid Void a section of ice. Then I held it steady, and I did it again and rotated it, freezing the edges so it made a wall or tall side to the ice. I was trying for a place to hide us.
Our scent is all through these waters and the iceberg, and our gear is at the bottom of the ocean. I was more upset about the ore than anything else. I pulled the new small iceberg with tall sides near the other.
“Everybody jump over to this, and I will push us away and out of the smell. Then we can hide,” I said.
Yoboc went first, and Goldie tossed Felix, then jumped herself with what little gear we had left. Yoboc will have to get out of his wet clothes. His cold resistance is lower than mine, and he does not have fur. Fur is great.
I swam hard, pushing the new, less stinky iceberg away from the other one. I was keeping an eye on the Taniwha, and it was heading back slowly. I soon used my claws and scaled the side of my new tall-sided berg and dropped down to hide with the others.
Then we sat still and waited. I ran my hand over Felix’s fur, rubbing gently. My fur was still wet as I hadn’t wanted to shake it off outside into the ocean and leave a larger scent trail. A thought occurred to me, and I shrunk my aura outside my fur and used Frigid Void. All the water froze, and suddenly, I had ice armour like the troll. I moved my elbow, and the ice cracked on the joint. There would be weak points, but it could still be useful, and now I was not dripping everywhere.
I grabbed Yoboc’s pile of wet clothes and froze them. I then beat the ice out of them, and they were basically dry. He got dressed again, very grateful. We didn’t dare speak or make much noise. A bit of cracking ice is normal.
We heard splashing, and the other iceberg rocked and made waves. We waited. Something scraped along one side of our smaller iceberg. We waited nervously.
Crack! An ice-splitting noise.
Splashing noises and waves.
We waited silently.
We waited as the sun went down.