4 Ambush

>Inquiry: Why deviation in route? Must avoid ship as previously agreed.<

>Storm to the North, many little ones fleeing, must protect.<

>Hold island. Must avoid ship at all costs.<

I'm about to give the command that freezes the island, the one I gave to halt the island's slide underwater without consent from Ocean when something it says stops me cold.

>Ship gone.<

Ship gone? What's that supposed to mean? There's no way a ship that size would be able to move faster than Ocean was pushing the island.

>Inquiry: Where did the ship go?<

>Ocean covered ship. No risk now.<

No risk. Ocean covered—but that means—I don't remember getting there but I'm on my knees in the water. The ocean covered the ship. I send out a pulse of thought and Ocean tells me what it did.

Ocean is more than a force of nature, of that I've been intimately aware since I first asked it to move for me. The problem with it, the difficulty in our interactions has always been perspective. I say small, it thinks island instead of continent. It says cover but means submergence—a wave so great that it must have blotted out the sun before it capsized the ship that strayed too close to us.

"Is everything all right? Damon?" I can't find the words to answer my sister. Despite various fights and some near-misses, I've never been directly responsible for killing anyone, let alone an entire ship full of people. I feel myself going numb.

I rise out of the water and instead of siphoning it off to stay dry and warmer like I normally would, I let it drip off of me like anyone else would have had to.

I'm disgusted. That I was forced to move the island, that my direct actions caused hundreds if not thousands of people to lose their lives, and that Ocean was so senseless to choose the lives of unthinking sea creatures over the lives of so many humans.

"I just need to...get away. Ocean—the island will be fine." I couldn't say anything else. There's no reason to pass my own guilt on Maliah, she has enough to worry about as it is.

I run into the forest. Despite the revulsion at what my powers have done, I go to the nearest tributary of the ocean and use it to take me away from the shore. The water encases the entire lower half of my body and creates a vessel to take me away. I don't even pay attention to where I'm going, I just know that I have to get away from that place. That's the reason I don't see the attack coming.

Something huge tackles me, a dark shape emerging from the trees too fast to track with the eye. Instinctively, I bring up the water I had been travelling on—too late to block the attack but I use it to cushion my fall. Since I don't have time to fully prepare, most of the water crashes around me and I lose control of it. It seeps into the ground and out of my control. If only I'd held onto it, then perhaps what happened next would have hurt less. My attacker uses me as a springboard, landing on my body, impossibly, with outstretched arms and then flips me head over heels. The air rushes out of me like a kick to the gut and I have an odd sense of Déjà vu when I land and roll to the base of a tree for the second time today. I'm just glad I'm not on my face with a mouthful of dirt like the first time.

I get up slowly to assess my injuries, which are surprisingly few after what I just went through. I'm more alert than I appear as I rise from the ground but I'd rather my assailant not know that. I've been through too many of Lito's lessons, and beatings to let a simple ambush be the death of me. I let my right arm go limp by my side and lean heavily on the trunk of the tree while I stagger to my feet. Despite my training, a chill of dread fills me when I hear the voice of my attacker.

"Looks like my trap bore fruit, din't it Boulder?" A laugh that sounds like gravel spilling on the ground comes from the same general area. My eyes track the two brutes as they weave their way through the trees. I must have been thrown further than I first thought but soon I see them: Joss the Beast and his favorite accomplice, Boulder.

Joss cuts an impressive figure—standing my height but twice my weight. His muscles are layered on thick and his tanned skin is stretched taut against them. His bare feet seem to act more like the paws of a panther; each footfall measured, precise and sensing as if ready to pounce at any moment. He stalks up to where I lean against the tree and stops a couple meters away, looking more like a creature of the forest than a man. What's terrifying is that however intimidating he is right now, it pales in comparison to his true gift. I'm just waiting for him to activate it. When I saw it for the first time, I thought he was a monster pulled from nightmares. Some people never stopped believing it.

He is the anathema, the "what-if", the tribe's reminder against straying too far from your family line. His father, my uncle, had an affair with a Penta woman. The child developed abilities more in line with the Penta who are universally Therianthropes—typically able to shift into the form of one or more animals, but always animals of this world or of known mythology. Leopards, eagles, snakes, griffins, even pegasi but Joss turns into something that wouldn't look out of place in Hell. Since his father was born into the Ena, the most powerful of the five families, Joss's transformation is less complete but far more powerful.

Instead of simply changing himself into an animal, Joss becomes a bestial creature that some call demonic. His skin becomes a near-impenetrable hide that can stop anything short of a full sword thrust. His nails become claws as strong as daggers and his entire body thickens and grows taller. He calls this his hunting form and while in it he's been known to stalk wild boar in the forest and eat them raw.

Since his transformation fits closer to the abilities of the Dio family than the Penta, the elder of the Dios offered to formally adopt him. At age ten, Joss infamously spat at the elder's feet and said he'd rather stay with a parent who wanted him than be given such secondhand charity. The articulate verbal attack was less about the man who tried to adopt him and really directed towards his birth father: a man who didn't so much as disown him as never acknowledge his existence.

"Don't look so surprised Prince." Joss's smile is predatory, though of course, most of the things he does could be described that way. "It was only a matter of time before someone was called to carve a piece of flesh from the Empress's kin. I'm only surprised it took this long for someone to call on me."

I grimace at his words. It's not like I'm unaware of the politics in our little community, being son to the head elder I'm sure I've been privy to more information than most of the tribe. The way he speaks is like those unhappy with mother's rule, saying she's instilling herself as the supreme authority and balking at the votes of the council.

"It was hard for me to keep quiet when they paid me, I'm sure you know I would have done this for free. Their price was for a thorough beating but I have something a bit more permanent in mind." Joss's smile shows me that his teeth have already sharpened into fangs and I know that I've run out of time. The problem is that I still need to buy another minute at least.

"I've gotta hand it to you Joss, you've almost thought of everything. Throwing me here, away from a water source. Letting me move the island before you make your own move. Very...industrious of you."

"I have thought of everything." His voice comes out harsher than before, hissing through a mouthful of jagged teeth. "You're bluffing." His transformation is almost complete but he still holds his position and his eyes dart around me, actions speaking against his words.

I knew my 'almost' would give him pause, make him think that he forgot or simply didn't know about a nearby water source. That would be the end of him, both of us know that. He's seen what I can do with a mere fist-sized ball of water. Unfortunately I'm not so lucky. It's the pause I'm hoping for, despite his short fuse, he is above all, cautious. Like any predator.

"Besides." He shows that vicious smile again. "Even if I haven't thought through everything, Boulder is more than enough to pick up the slack." There's a rumbling of affirmation from the thug next to him. He's also begun to change, rocks unearthing from the dirt and rolling across the ground to cling to his body, building on one another to form his armor.

"Oh that's right, I forgot about your hot date." As if I could forget about golem standing next to him. Luckily he's just about as intelligent as a pile of rocks. The stones continue to build onto him and in the places that aren't covered yet I can see that his skin is also starting to harden and turn a dull gray just like his armor. I swallow, hoping I didn't provoke him past his obedience towards his superior. I just need another thirty seconds.