Love Poison No Cure Needed

Troublesome Men 3.8

Sorrel laughed as he climbed out of the pool and headed towards the bathroom. Rather than for a typical human biological urge Sorrel needed a moment to reduce the amount of water he’d absorbed in the pool. A waterlogged plant was a plant with slower reflexes. Also heavy.

As Sorrel  walked past the grass slope he noticed that Sephy had disappeared from where she had been sunning on the hill and laughing at him. He felt along the bond for a moment and felt nothing but smug satisfaction. Thus assured that Sephy was fine. No doubt terrorising someone or eating lunch he stepped through into the bathrooms and headed for the showers.

He stepped into one of the stores and pulled the door two only to realise that the lock was broken. However, he had already turned the tap on and was too lazy to change it. No like he was stripping. Besides the shorts didn’t cover much and without the consideration of gender differences the bodies all had the same things, what did it matter what others saw.

Sorrel let the fresh water surge over him as he focused and rinsed the salted water from his hair and then stepped out of the spray and drained the rest of the excess water out. Shaking his hands as he finished he felt much lighter. It was time for another round he would not be defeated by the striped watermelon sized ball and its net.

As he turned the water off Sorrel contemplated and discarded various ideas about how to improve his match. If only because he wanted to wipe that smug smirk off the selkie’s face. Eddy would not be leaving today with that smug amusement intact.

“stupid pretty i***t flaunting yourself and trying to catch the lord. I’ll see about you.” A brittle voice proceeded a pair of hands shoving Sorrel against the wall. Sorrel inhaled and identified the smell of seaweed, oil and salt with an overlaying scent of eel. Having established that the attacker was definitely not human.

There weren't many uninitiated humans at the private pool, but it never hurt to be careful. So once Sorrel was assured of the inhumanity of the fool he decided that he would be quick rather than nice. He wanted to get back to the game after all.

Sorrel braced his hands on the wall and straightened them. The man caught off guard by the strength that easily surpassed his own stumbled back. Sorrel’s hair flicked out and grabbed one of the man’s flailing wrists. As Sorrel twisted aside he used his hair to yank the man forward so that he slammed into the wall. As the man staggered back Sorrel reached out and knocked his head forward again. This time the man didn’t stumble, he just dropped like a rock straight to the floor.

Sephy looked the downed man over. Older close to thirty in human years meaning he had to be between 80 and 200 for an Other. Sorrel didn’t recognise him as someone he had met before so obviously the man had developed his grudge on his own.

Sorrel thought about trying to wake the man to ask why the sudden attack but decided to go with his first plan. He didn’t actually care and he wanted to go back to playing ball. As he walked out though he did politely grab an out of order sign and sit it in front of the stall. The man wasn’t seriously hurt. Beastskin healed fast and Realmskin weren’t far behind so Sorrel figured the man would be up and about in no time.

As Sorrel hopped back into the pool Adie spiked the ball to the other side of the net gaining a point. As Meg cheered and Chris groaned Adie turned to look at Sorrel and his nostrils flared before he frowned sharply.

“Are you okay?” Adie asked as he moved over to Sorrel.

“Yeah, just some i***t with too much intention, not enough thought.” Sorrel shrugged.

“Hmmm, alright then.” Adie nodded agreeably before moving back to his spot while Sorrel moved into position in the centre. They’d tried previously having Sorrel on the outside to receive less targeting from the ball but it was easier for the others to make a recovery if Sorrel was in the middle and the ball couldn’t immediately go out.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” Eddy suddenly groaned as he dropped dramatically into the water just before Chris served.

“What?” Meg asked as she stopped staring at Chris and followed Eddy’s line of sight to the pool entrance. Immediately Meg groaned as well and threw her hands in the air. “Are you f*****g serious Ned. Its all well and stupid for you to hang out with your humie cronies talking trash at their bar. But why the f**k would you bring them to a Realmskin operated private pool when it’s been forbidden for them to be initiate?” Meg muttered even as she turned away and raised a hand to wave twice at Christian who was lounging at the far side of the pool in a chair with the CD player on the table in front of him.

Christian straightened slightly in his seat and glanced at the newcomers before flicking the CD player so that it immediately started playing ‘Bridge over Troubled Waters’. The song caused the other occupants of the pool to turn as one and looked at the newcomers.

The group of three was the clearly kraken Ned with his black hair and vaguely grey tint to his skin. As well as two clearly uninitiated humans in shorts that showed off muscled skin as they sneered as everyone looked at them.