Love Poison No Cure Needed

Selkies, Gorgons and Leviathans, oh my 3.5

Standing on the side of the pool with her hands on her hips was a coffee toned girl with curling brown hair in a red bikini. By human standards she looked a bit Hispanic in origins but as she leaned forward and glared her curls uncoiled and the eyes of thirty snakes focused on Eddy as they hissed in unison.

“Wow, wow, wow, their scales, this is practice, practice. Sorrel asked for my help. Sorry this is my girl, Meg. She's a little bit quick tempered but very nice.” Eddy waved placating hands at the Gorgan before he turned to explain to Sorrel.

Meg looked between the pair and then dove into the water herself. As she swam across the pool to them her hair further uncoiled until the wave of snakes fanned out around her head when she came to a stop and floated in front of them.

“Hi, I’m Sorrel. Nice to meet you. Sorry about borrowing Eddy if he was meant to be with you but he’s been a great help. I almost feel like I'll be able to handle swimming around humans without making it completely obvious that I am a hundred and ten percent not human.” Sorrel waved as he spoke as opposed to offering a hand shake given that Meg was using her hands to help her stay afloat.

“Hello, I’m Meg, caretaker and attitude adjuster for this fish brained brat. I’m just glad that he wasn’t causing trouble for others for once.” Meg laughed as she shook her head before directing a fond look at Eddy who protested.

“Hey, I don’t always make trouble.” Eddy suddenly smiled as he added, “Sometimes I’m asleep.”

Sorrel laughed in response. That was cute. The way Meg simultaneously reached out to smack him on the head was also cute. Sorrel wondered if he’d find someone to be that cute with. Though he couldn’t until next year since he was told he wasn’t allowed to date till he was 17.

“Ah!” Meg exclaimed as she was yanked down. She quickly resurfaced but spun in the water to see a tentacle as it once more stretched towards her. Sorrel swung his head and wrapped his hair around Meg’s waist securing her in place so that when the tentacle tugged again Meg remained fixed while a slight force ran through to Sorrel.

*What a rude little squid, you just wait I’ll deal with him.* Sephy sneered and the cool black duck that had moved to the edge of the pool to sun spread its wings and lunged at the water.

“Ah, the little bird will get hurt.” Eddy cried as he watched the small duck pounce at the larger squid like familiar in the water. “Ned’s Leviathan will crush it.” He muttered as he stared with a horrified expression.

Sorrel glanced at Eddy before looking at the squid err, Leviathan that was about the size of a Labrador. As Sorrel watched Sephy approach with her feet extended he supposed that the sight would seem pointless to others. If they thought Sephy was an actual duck. In which case Sorrel felt he should congratulate her since her seeming would have passed muster.

Contrary to Eddy’s expectations the duck accurately landed with its feet on the body of the Leviathan and with a beat of her wing Sephy lifted the creature from the water. The Leviathan stretched its tentacles out to wrap around Sephy but they grasped in effectively at the ‘feathers’ and were completely unable to prevent her from flapping her wings.

“What am I seeing?” Meg whispered as she clung to Sorrel’s hair while Sephy continued to lift the leviathan out of the water. The sight of a large dog sized squid being lifted into the air by a small duck left the pair stunned let alone the other inhabitants of the pool.

“Sephy, put him down please.” Uncle Christian appeared behind Sorrel.

*Tch, fine. Still he needs a lesson in manners first.* As she spoke, Sephy flapped harder and then completely ignored the nature of her seeming to perform a 360 degree backflip which spun the Leviathan in the air before she dropped it into the pool next to Sorrel’s.

“Sorrel.” Uncle Christian started only to be interrupted by the sudden cheers of the few other patrons of the private pool as they yelled about the menace getting what it deserved and how it would be good if it stopped dunking people now. Interspersed with comments about the amazingness of the duck.

“I didn’t do anything. It started things on its own Sephy just finished up.” Sorrel responded and shrugged as he pulled his hair around and lifted Meg out onto the edge of the pool since she was too busy cheering and whistling to stay afloat on her own.

“Well I think that is a good mark to the end of serious practice. You're going to play among humans right? You need to learn ball games then.” Eddy remarked as he pulled out a small inflated ball from somewhere. Sorrel looked from the ball to the expanse of bare skin Eddy was showing and then back to the ball.

“Selkies can store things in their skin when in their human seeming.” Meg commented as she turned back from her cheering when Sephy swooped down and landed elegantly in the pool to paddle around in a circle above where she had scooped the Leviathan from.

Sorrel smiled and shook his head at his familiar. A dragon was a dragon even a plant familiar one was still at the top of a food chain. Underestimating her on the basis of her seeming was a recipe for humiliation. He wondered if the lesson would be learnt of if the owner would come back for a repeat class.