I genuinely never thought I would ever think this… but right now, I am so glad that I have a child who doesn’t process his emotions properly. The rest of these boys are in no state to give us a reasonable account of things. Even Olmo is shaking. And no wonder Grant is so upset… his dad swam off after that thing.

  Dietrich: “Umm… your kid is a little… to the point… isn’t he?”

  Dwynfel: “Conversation for another time. Right now, we need to get some boats sorted and get back to that inlet!”

  Sonya: “On it…”

  Sonya ran off to the end of the Jetty.

  Dwynfel: “Agaroth, take the boys up to the hall and stabilise Nomius. As soon as you get back, we set off.”

  Agaroth: “Aye.”

  Dietrich: “Kid, before you go, how big was this shadow?”

  Olmo: “Fucking huge!”

  Alexi: “It appeared to be just over six metres.”

  Dietrich: “Thanks, kid.”

  Dwynfel: “Alexi, you’ve done very well. I’m proud of you. And Olmo, thank you for taking charge and getting these guys back.”

  Alexi bowed and Olmo gave a very shaky thumbs up. Agaroth gestured to the boys and they began to walk with him. The goblins that had been wrapping the boys in blankets went with them to help. I turned and headed towards the jetty with the rest of the party when I heard Alexi’s voice.

  Alexi: “Father.”

  I turned to see Alexi stood behind me. Agaroth was stood waiting for him. What is he waiting for?

  Dwynfel: “Yes, is everything alright, Alexi?”

  Alexi: “Please find Tadwick. I am… unsure of what to do when he is not present.”

  Upon finishing his sentence Alexi turned and walked off with Agaroth. He walked calmly… he was collected… as though nothing had occurred at all.

  Right… Tadwick… boats… need to get the boats sorted. I ran off towards Sonya, who was already at the end of the jetty, checking the boat. When I had almost reached her, I heard a horrendous crash, followed by a large splash. Whatever had just happened, Sonya had seen it… she looked horrified… her eyes were almost bulging out of her skull.

  I turned around to see that the jetty just behind where I was standing had been destroyed. There was no way that I could jump across to the other side… the wood was just gone. Fuck… Kiyui’s in the water… fuck… he’s nowhere near my side… what do I do.

  Boff rushed over to the other side of the broken jetty and reached down to pull Kiyui back up. As he did, a huge set of jaws emerged from the water. They clamped down on Boff and in a flash he was pulled down into the water.

  Dwynfel: “Boff!”

  Farrow: “What was that thing!?”

  Dietrich instantly rushed over, grabbed Kiyui with one hand, pulled him out of the water, and flung him back, away from the jetty edge. Kiyui was coughing up water and looked awful.

  Dwynfel: “That was a fucking crocodile!”

  Sonya: “It can’t be, they don’t live in these waters!”

  Dwynfel: “You saw it! That’s exactly what it is!”

  Dietrich: “We can argue about what it is when it’s dead!”

  Farrow: “Can anybody see Sir Boffrage?”

  Shit, where is he… that thing dragged him under… I can’t see him.

  Phoenix: “Over there!”

  Phoenix pointed way off into the distance at what was a kind of mound floating in the water… when I looked closely, I could just make out that it was indeed Boff’s armour.

  Farrow: “We have to help him!”

  Dietrich: “No! Kill it first, rescue second. We swim out there to rescue him first and we die!”

  Farrow: “How we kill it? We cannot see it in the water?”

  I drew my bow and started looking around for any signs of movement.

  Dwynfel: “Nomius always said to check for movement in the water.”

  Sonya: “That bow is going to be useless!”

  Dwynfel: “What?”

  Sonya: “The arrows won’t pierce it’s back. Unless it rolls over nicely, the arrows won’t do anything!”

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  Fuck… she’s right.

  Dwynfel: “Then what do we do?”

  Dietrich: “Lightning!”

  Phoenix: “I can’t electrocute an entire river.”

  Dietrich: “You won’t have to. I’ll draw it out…”

  Farrow: “There! Movement!”

  Farrow pointed off to the side of the jetty. There were very slight ripples in the water. The crocodile was making its way back towards the jetty from where Boff was. Dietrich bent down and started swishing her hand to and fro in the water.

  Dietrich: “That’s right… come this way.”

  Farrow: “Void.”

  Farrow reached her arm into the void that had formed by her side and she drew out a very large war hammer. The ripples in the water seemed to disappear about a metre or so away from Dietrich.

  Sonya: “Has it gone?”

  Dietrich: “Doubt it.”

  Dietrich stood up and lowered her halberd into the water… she started rapidly stirring it round. The rippling water agitated the crocodile and it burst out of the water in Dietrich’s direction. She dropped her halberd and lurched back.

  Dietrich: “Now!”

  Phoenix: “Lightning bolt.”

  The bolt of lightning shot past Dietrich and hit the crocodile. It was stunned for a brief second but not for long. This is the first proper look at the thing that we have had. The beast is ridiculously large… even bigger than Dominus after he was enlarged by that spell. It had a dagger sticking out of one of its eyes. That must be Alexander’s.

  Dietrich: “That barely fazed it.”

  It lunged forwards at Dietrich again. This time it landed right on top of her. She stopped it from biting her head by blocking it with her arm. The jaws were shredding through her armour and tearing at the flesh. She didn’t so much as whimper… she punched it repeatedly with her other arm and when its grip loosened, she removed her damaged arm and kept the jaws at bay by pushing the crocodile’s throat upwards away from her. Farrow rushed over and smashed the crocodile’s jaw with her war hammer. Its jaw became dislodged and was hanging loose. This really pissed the thing off. It spun round and smashed Farrow with its tail.

  Farrow went flying into the water. She began to swim back to the dock.

  Dietrich: “Go get Boff! We got this!”

  Farrow turned and started swimming towards Boff. Dietrich grabbed the crocodile’s jaw and started screaming.

  Dietrich: “Lightning bolt! Again!”

  Dwynfel: “Are you insane? You’re covered in water!”

  Dietrich: “Just do it!”

  Phoenix: “Lightning bolt.”

  Another lightning bolt shot right into the crocodile. It and all of the water around it erupted in blue light.

  Dietrich: “ARGH!”

  Rather than recoiling in pain, as I thought she would, Dietrich seized the moment and ripped the crocodile’s jaw clean off. It tried to climb off her, but she wasn’t having any of it. She wrapped her shredded bloody arm around its head and yanked the dagger out of its eye with her other hand. She proceeded to use the dagger to repeatedly stab the underside of the beast. She just kept stabbing, again, and again, and again... until it stopped moving. Then she stabbed it again for good measure.

  Sonya: “Fucking hell!”

  Dietrich pushed the crocodile off herself. It slumped onto the dock as she stood up and walked towards Kiyui and Phoenix.

  Dietrich: “See… easy.”

  Dietrich then proceeded to collapse to the ground and fall unconscious.

  Dwynfel: “Shit… is she okay?”

  Phoenix glanced over her unconscious body.

  Phoenix: “She’ll be fine. Blood knight, remember.”

  Farrow: “Assistance, please.”

  Farrow had made it back to the dock with Boff. Kiyui had recovered from his coughing fit now and moved over to help Farrow lift Boff from the water and oh fuck… no, no, no, no, no.

  Farrow: “I am sorry. He was like that when I got to him.”

  Everything from bellow Boff’s ribs was missing. And what Farrow had been able to recover was covered in lacerations. Shit… what if that’s happened to Tadwick… fuck… we need to get to that inlet… now.

  Dwynfel: “Sonya… is that boat ready?”

  Sonya: “Yes.”

  Dwynfel: “We are taking that boat… now.”

  Sonya: “Shouldn’t we wait for your friends?”

  Dwynfel: “By the time Agaroth gets back, and the second boat is sorted, the boys could well have bled out. And only the gods know how long Dietrich is gonna be out of commission for. We need to get to the boys now. Everyone else can catch up.”

  Sonya: “Understood.”

  Sonya hopped into the boat and held out her hand to help me in. I shouted over to everybody else.

  Dwynfel: “We need to get to get to that inlet as quick as possible. As soon as Agaroth returns take the second boat and meet us there!”

  Kiyui gave me a look of concern.

  Kiyui: “Be careful! You can’t swim!”

  Dwynfel: “We’ll be fine… that thing’s dead. We’ll just investigate the area until you get there!”