A rumor has been lurking in the Pacific. It boards ships and platforms to steal all manner of supplies, cuts fishing nets, and scratches fresh coats of paint. Most of it got chalked up to sailors making excuses for their mistakes, but these days no one can be sure. The reports were centered around an uninhabited island in the Pacific so that’s where they hope to find a human with a sea-based power at rest—assuming it was a human.
Chen used the water's reflective surface as a portal. Uncle Deimos, Four-Leaf, and Teumess climbed from the shallow depths onto the coast, the only evidence of their arrival the ripples in the water and prints in the sand that were soon washed away. Teumess and Four-Leaf brought their standard gear—merely rifles and black kevlar—while Uncle adorned his new mask and coat.
Uncle crouched down and cusped the scorching in his glove. The sun would dry their armor in the short time it took for the sand to flow between his fingers. The only sounds on the island, when the sun was at full mast, were that of the wind and water. Not even seashells could be found along the shore. The sky was clear of birds to the horizon. The jungle itself was still as a corpse without maggots.
Little Birdie landed on Uncle’s shoulder and told him he wasn’t going to be searching for long. Something under the deep blue was making waves—something big—and it was approaching the island. Teumess and Four-Leaves took point with his clones. Uncle found cool shade under a palm tree. Something crept towards the shore where its size started to splash the water against the sand and the silhouette grew bigger.
It seemed that a whale would be the one to climb onto shore, but what broke through the surface first was its limp hump being pushed up. The reveal of the whale's face showed water cascade over its lifeless eyes and blood dribble from its slack jaw. Something pushing the whale from underneath now faced the resistance of the sand, some of which gathered in the whale’s mouth.
Once half the carcass was on shore, the half still in water was thrown out to beach the whale on its side. The whale was spotted with bruises as if it was beaten to death by something much smaller than itself. Pockets of skin were torn off, seemingly from a careless removal of barnacles.
Whatever killed the whale has physical strength but lacks discipline. A ravenous beast that knows no fear and spares no mercy. What kind of monster could it be?
It’s a child.
A little girl. A gray-skinned little girl rounded the tail fin. A gray-skinned little girl who was bald, and had fins, and scales, and gills, and muscle, and a mouth full of sharp teeth that were as slick with blood as her grubby hands. She had not noticed the invaders yet because she was too focused on her next meal. When she did, she jerked in place, hands on the carcass, and slowly turned her look at the invaders. Her eyes popped open and she lept to a battle stance with brandished fists and flared teeth that both dripped gore.
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The Four-Leaves and Teumess put down their guns and held up their hands. Teumess backed off to the side while the Four-Leaves edged forward to encircle her with her back to the water. Kicking off the sand, she speared straight into a clone. The clone was dragged through the air and then across the sand. A double axe handle from her caved in its head before the other clones could move.
She crawled out of the grave to pounce at another clone’s leg, and swept its footing out from under it so that she could punch out its spine in the next fluid motion. She was onto the third clone by the time the first finished dissipating and another could be split off from Four-Leaves. Teumess backed away.
The third clone had its throat torn out by her jaws and collapsed on the ground. In the midst of her slurping its esophagus like a noodle, Uncle picked her up by her ankle and held her upside-down at arm's length.
She flailed in his grasp before she was tossed straight up in the air. She landed stomach first in the palm of his hand like he was holding a football. Before she could chomp at his arm, she was tossed over the trees and into the endzone on the other side of the island. Uncle leisurely removed his leather coat while the bristles of the jungle thicket encroached toward the beach. She speared out of the bushes into the outstretched coat held in Uncle’s hands. Though he was flung through the air, he wrapped the coat around the girl, tumbled into the tides, and held tight against the thrashes as the rabid beast had her energy sapped. The thrashes got weaker and weaker until they stopped. The coat was opened to reveal that she had fallen asleep.
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The Gator and the sleeping Shark were alone under a canopy of coconut trees. The others searched the island, confirmed that the girl had eaten every other animal down to the bugs, and left. He came up with a name for her as he lit the campfire: Lanying.
“What, are you a single father now?” asked Chen through Little Birdie.
“Bye, Auntie.”
“She’s probably Polynesian or Phillipino.”
“Bye, Auntie.” Tyler shooed Little Birdie away.
Lanying drooled in her sleep, her mouth slightly open no matter how many times Tyler closed it. Her soft cheeks made gentle sways to the rhythm of her breadths. An abandoned treasure, this child, the crime saved from absolute heinousness as her parents at least did not turn her over to the Pantheon. Admittedly, Hannah might be the only other person who could actually raise such a child. A tantrum from her would be a bloodbath for normal humans. All the more reason to prepare humanity for the inevitable.
Lanying yawned, stretched her arms out, and got up to walk, still in a sleepy daze from her nap. She crashed into a tree, fell on her butt, and was bonked back into dreamland by a coconut.
Maybe this won’t be that hard.