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 Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2008 10:47 am
"Nah," Alex grinned as her companion voiced her displeasure for the temperature of the water, "luck is for the superstitious. What we're doing here is a sure thing." The older woman kneeled in the back of the truck, grasping the heavy chain and mounting it to the back of the ski, nodding with satisfaction as it turned on. Holding one end of the metal in her hand, she looked over the beast's many coils, awed even as her bright eyes looked for the exact point to shift the creature's weight. It needed to be the right place or they'd be in greater danger than the dying serpent.
Without a word, she jumped off the truck and into the icy waters, her mouth twitching in dismay but otherwise not vocalizing her discomfort. Alex waded slowly into the ocean, her jaw set firmly as the cold fingers moved from her thighs to her hips, crawling over her stomach and eventually submerging to her chest. "Okay, th-THAT is c-cold," she informed Kinsey in an attempt of humor at being so deep in their situation. Taking a deep, shaky breath, her head disappeared beneath the water without so much as a blip on the churning surface.
The salt didn't bother her eyes, able to see under water while squinting fairly well, once again displaying her oversight of better preparing by forgetting the goggles in the shed. As she suspected, the creature's body - while heavy - was weightless under water, a portion even so far as to be suspended above the ocean floor. It was here that she looped the chain, having to physically move around the sinnous body due to its girth. The scientist in her was having a happy cardiac arrest at the sight.
Breaking the surface with a few choice obscenities for the chill waters, she quickly sloughed through and back to the truck, cussing all the while. The chain hooked back against the ski and she gave a sopping wet nod to Kinsey. "Done." No teeth chattering from her; it wasn't professional. "Pull out yonder," she pointed further into the ocean, "but not too fast, we don't want him t-to thrash." A stutter was acceptable, given her drenched attire, which wasn't very covering to begin with.
Giving the younger woman the thumbs up, she returned to the driver seat of the truck and moved the complaining vehicle out of the water's grasp. Her mind was working swiftly despite the cold settling in her bones, knowing that if Kinsey pulled the beast in that direction, the rest would move...exactly where she parked the truck. The damage the creature could cause would be extensive, but trucks could be replaced; opportunities like these were once in a life time.
Alex got out of the truck and scrambled to the side, enough to be out of the way of the coil but close enough to watch the movement. Content, she gave Kinsey the go-ahead nod. "All you, missy!" Under her breath, she murmured, "Hang in there, big guy."
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:25 pm
"Alright." Kinsey gave Alex and revved the engine, starting slightly. Oops. She hadn't meant to do that. Switching gears, Kinsey gave the modern beast some gas. She started forward slowly, until the chain pulled taught. Now, this was an enormous beast, so this would require a lot, and we mean a lot of force. Kinsey pushed on the gas and the jet ski gave a great roar, lurching forward and pulling the beast no where.
Kinsey groaned and shook her head. She wasn't going anywhere. "C'mon!" she growled, trying to force the machine faster. "C'mon c'mon c'mon!" she howled, before finally twisting around to look at Alex. "We aren't doin' anything!" she said, as though it weren't obvious enough. "That thing is huge, I'm not doing a thing for him!" She let off the gas for a moment, so she could hear Alex's reply. That's when the youth noticed she hadn't heard the beast lately.
"...Alex. He's not even moving. Could he even swim if we got him into the water?" she ventured, looking at the way the beast was impaled on the rocks. "...I think...he might be dying," she said, finally. "He's not moving, I think he's dying. But...I have an idea."
Unless, of course, Alex could heal him.
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 2:48 pm
The woman watched Kinsey on the jet ski, frowning at the lack of movement but not terribly surprised. The thing was massive, even if the water on their side, it was no small feat to move the dead weight of something so large. Alex could see her companion turn and say something, straining to hear after the engine was turned off, picking up fragments lost over the echoing of the waves against the cliff.
"Alex...not mov...swim...the water?"
She whirled around to look at the great serpent, who was indeed...not moving. The zoologist leaped over the nearby rocks and scrambled around the sinnous body, approaching the head without fear but with a great deal of panic. "Hey, heyheyHEY! Don't die on us!" she cried out to it, putting a shaky hand against the great eye crest, her chest heavy with frustration. "Just hang in there! The high tide will come, see, and..."
Her words were lost to the waves, staring with worried brows into the singular eye she could see. The second eye lid, the film over the massive orb parted, rolling slowly to look at her. Alex had never in her life felt so small, so insignificant and helpless under that gaze. How old you must be, she lamented, noting the cloudy haze in the creature's stare, knowing the signs of death all too well. Her hand brushed over the ridge of its jaw to the smaller scaled portion of the earlobe, the anxiety leaking out of her and slowly being replaced with sadness. How sad, to lose you here...
The Italian turned to look back over to Kinsey, her face mostly neutral although her voice was sorrowful. "If you have an idea, now's a good time. I think we're about to lose him, Kins..."
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 3:01 pm
Kinsey swallowed and turned the jet ski back on, steering the machine back towards shore. Once she was close enough, she turned it back off and jumped into the freezing water, yelping as she leaned against the ski and tried to push it onto the sand. Once beached, she jogged over to Alex, carefully avoiding the beast even though he wasn't moving anymore.
"Well..." she started, not entirely sure how Alex would feel about stealing the creature's soul. "You know what this is?" she asked, unclipping the soul bottle from it's little safe spot. "I could...take his soul. For my Raevan, and then he won't really die, right?" She frowned and shook her head. No, he'd still die. "Well, he'd still be reborn. So the world wouldn't realize lose their mythic beast, right?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 3:13 pm
She looked back to the great Leviathan, remaining still until she could hear Kinsey's bare feet on the wet stand. The woman glanced over to the indicated object, her eyes lighting with recognition. "Yes, I...I work part time for Kyou." Apparently she needed to review her information better, as she hadn't realized that the younger woman with her was the same Kinsey she had skimmed over before.
Kneeling, sopping wet, she looked over the muscular body and head to see if any sand had been stirred. There was nothing, not so much as a spasm of movement within the beast. It was dying; would this 'save' it? There was, of course, her moral ground of taking the soul of a living creature. Alex reasoned that this one wouldn't be living for much longer, with or without their intervention. Was it right? Maybe not. Would it work...?
Standing, she looked pensively to Kinsey, giving a short nod. "I think...what we witnessed before..." her voice was quiet and unhappy, "...were its death throes. I don't think he ever had a chance. So." Her bright green eyes shifted to the creature's still and unblinking eye. "If you want to give him that chance, I'm not going to stop you."
Alex sighed quietly. It wasn't the first beast to die on her watch, but it still hurt each time. The least she could do was watch that dim light in the large orb, to give it the respect it deserved as it passed.
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Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 5:15 pm
Kinsey sniffed and wiped her face off (it was the sea spray, damnit! and the cold water was giving her a runny nose!) as she watched Alex. Oh. She worked for Dr. Kyou? Had she mentioned that before? The youth clearly needed to pay more attention when she was chatting with people, even if she was trying to inhale her coffee. She needed to slow down and smell the roses!
Oh.
Right. The Leviathan. "Death throes?" she parroted, looking confused. She'd never heard of those before, but she'd take Alex's word for it. Animals were what she did for a living. "Well, yeah. I do. So." Kinsey paused, not really sure what else she was supposed to say. She walked up beside Alex, standing next to the beast's head, and set the soul bottle on his eye ridge. "I'm sorry about this," she said to the beast. Alex kept talking to him, so she should probably say something too. She was taking his soul. "But, it will be better. Promise." Kinsey finally reached out to pat him.
And that was the end of the Leviathan.
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Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2008 3:48 pm
Silence.
Even as the last spark of life left the beast's eyes, even as the body cooled under the setting sun, Alex couldn't believe what had been lost. She almost thought she could feel the serpent in the bottle near by, but she knew that was ridiculous. Her heart ached for what was no longer a part of their world, but slowly, oh so slowly, the scientific part of her mind was turning over the possibilities of what it could become. Was it redemption? Making up for a failure? Who was to say? They did what they felt was right - only time would reward them with an answer.
"Hey," she said at length, turning and giving Kinsey a small smile. "Let's go get your info filled out so I can give this to Kyou, huh?" There had to be a light in the murky situation, and if anyone could find it, it would be Kinsey or Kyou. Must have had something to do with 'K' names. Alex gave the serpent one last look, one last pat in farewell before turning and make her way over the coils.
"Let's load the ski and get back into the house. I have some clothes you can change into, and if you aren't afraid to tempt fate anymore than you already have, you can stay for dinner." Her smiled warmed a bit, deciding that the first thing she was going to do when they got in was hug Lorenzo. The woman needed a hug, and taking it out on Zoe seemed appropriate.
"We'll see where the rest of the night takes us."
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