I jump from my boat to the stomach that’s as large as a Dromen, one of the king’s largest war vessels.

The stomach is… squashy. But there is something about the dullness of the scales that brings pain to my heart. This is a creature meant for freedom of deep seas and open skies, not this stifling lake and towering buildings.

I reach the wooden shaft coated in algae and mud, and a force of pressure from the creature's mind drives me to my knees. I crawl to the shaft imbedded in his stomach—even as he rails against my mind and gives me a blasted headache—nearly close enough to touch it.

I will not leave you like this, I say through clenched teeth, feeling my Gift flare like the sun and a vibration beginning in my core as I follow the green and gold soul-strand that is this leviathan to its source.

I let him see my intentions, true from the depths of my soul. But even then, he fights me. I sense other strands within his mind, strands that have hardened this creature against any help… even pure help such as mine. He expects every act of kindness to have a rod at the end.

My heart aches as this creature writhes. I could end him here and now. His existence has been steeped in pain from a young age. It would, perhaps, be a mercy to put him out of his misery. And yet, somewhere far within, there is a gentle light buried in the cold hardness and dark cold pool of his mind that draws me. I swim through his mind, dodging fish with spikes for fins and bulbous monsters I don't wish to look at twice, pushing myself deeper and deeper, searching for the light, struggling to unearth some warmth that may help me believe there is still hope. That he can be saved, even from himself.

The light grows before me, the water warming around me, even as he struggles to push me out of his mind... and then I'm before it. A single ray of light in a cold and dark world. When I touch it, I'm sucked into a memory.

A pool. Muddy waters which clog my gills and killed my siblings. My mind had barely opened when it was invaded by another. One seeking to control me. I fought, but only when I gave in did I receive rats. It was best to give in than fight.

But there was one. One who reached out in kindness one winter when the water was colder than usual and ice had formed around my gills. I was drowning, but he saved me.

Never did I see him again after that. But I vowed to repay him should I ever see him again.

I blink open my physical eyes, my head pounding a furious staccotto and my hands shaking with the strain of holding the leviathan in place with only my mind. But the face I saw... the face was much younger than the one I saw next to Darshius, the eyes more riddled with pain and less able to control emotions, but I know it was Lycus, the boy my sister’s in love with. One small act of kindness left a ray of sunshine within a creature whose very existence was planned for pain and control. And that is what I will seek to grow... if the creature will let me.

This one I seek. I seek him to offer freedom from his chains, I whisper into the leviathan's mind. And yours, I think, but do not say.

The creature stills in my mind. It’s the stillness of a predator, but it brings a calm in which I can study the problem before me. This creature isn’t too far gone. I can save him.

Rose… Can you hear me?

It’s a long shot… but, it’s almost as if I’ve felt her. When my Gift overwhelmed me, there were times it almost seemed as if she was still there. Now it’s time to see if the theory I have is correct.

Hopefully, it wasn't just a phantom pain.

I search for her in my mind, and the Leviathan uses that momentary loss of concentration to snap, bashing against the chains I placed around his mind and ramming through them. He wakes beneath me, and I grab a scale for dear life, watching in horror as the boat floats away from the thrashing creature.

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Terror threads through my veins as I kneel at the mercy of this creature. I throw a net-like rope at Rose, screeching her name and feeling for her through the many threads around me.

I connect with something, and I throw it at the wood breeching deep into skin and bone, and the threads wrap around the shaft and I grab the rope-like threads that feel like silk with my hands and pull just as the Leviathan undulates and thrashes, bucking me off and sending me airborne.

I lose my hold on the rope, but my mind doesn't.

I grasp once more, tightly, with both my physical hands to the light gold connecting me to the shaft and my mental will and pull.

The ballista bolt comes out with a loud squelch and the Leviathan releases a bellow I feel in my soul more than hear with my ears. The very water trembles and for the seconds I'm in the air, it feels like an eternity. I feel each frantic thump of my heart, study the thrashing creature below me as the tail rises up and nearly swats me from the air, but instead passes a mere arm length from me before hitting the water and sending a splash up that touches the bottom of the bridge some twenty horse-lengths above us.

The bolt sinks into the water and the creature rights himself. And I smile when a greater hint of warmth, something near confusion but not quite so angry, touches my mind.

The thread dissolves in my hands and I go limp just before I hit the water. Which hurts. You’d think face planting into water would feel better than hitting rock from fifteen feet up. Whelp… you’d think wrong. I think my nose broke.

Numbness grows from my soul to my limbs and my fingers twitch as my lungs burn for air… but my mind cannot seem to gather the strength to care. I sink further into murky water that welcomes me into its cold embrace.

My eyes blink open to darkness. I sink. Water flows around me, and its power spins me in a full circle. And for the first time since I went under, there is light. Moonlight shines off scales that glimmer oddly in the silvery glow. Two eyes darker than the surrounding water lock onto me as the creature who’s larger than a whale undulates like a crocodile, the scales shimmering with an almost inner light, outlining the entire thing with a weird green-ish glow in the icy, murky water.

And if I weren’t so numb, I’d be terrified. But… all I can feel is awe.

Two wings are pulled tight to his body, gently waving in the water while his four clawed feet are tucked to his body as he coils, almost snake-like, through the waters.

This creature is not a Leviathan. He’s a blasted dragon.

Blood and gunk colors the air behind him from the wound, but he seems not to mind. Slit eyes watch me as I take in a breath, my body spasming as it rebels against the water filtering into areas meant only for air. My back arches and the last bubbles stream from my lips as I scream, but no sound emerges from my lips with the last precious air bubbles.

Didn’t think I’d die by drowning.

Jaws bigger than anything I’d ever imagined and glistening with teeth as long as my arm open wide and I’m engulfed in a maw as everything goes black.

Whelp… guess I die getting eaten by a creature I tried to save. That’s more like it.

Don’t you dare die on me, you rabbit feces, jakanope eating as—

Ran, I want my last thoughts to be filled with puppies and rainbows. Not words I will ensure Momma washes your mouth out for.

You’ll be dead, what’s it matter?

I’ll ensure it even from Sixth. But…

… I’m not dead yet. Why am I not dead yet?

Don’t question it, Ran pants into my mind, somehow filtering her life force to me.

Don’t you dare die with me, crazy wolf.

A vibration spread from the water around me and I land on a tongue, even as my brain dims and the numbness coating me spreads to my bond even as I feel her try to keep me alive with the thread of her own soul as water pounds against my lungs and my body tries to expel it only to get more water.

You shall not die this night, little prey.

I’m spit from the mouth and fly into the air in an arc. I have zero say over what my body is doing besides blinking my eyes, so it’s quite terrifying, were I able to be terrified. I reach the pinnacle of the arc some ten feet in the air and then hit hard, hard ground.

My body spasms at the landing, my lips flapping like a fish as my body tries to decide if it wants to keep the water in favor of gasping for air or push the water out before trying to get the air it craves. I’m at the point I don’t really care just so long as it picks one and stops making my insides clench and heave and hurt.

Something pounds against my back and my body expels the water in a heave that wrenches itself with a strength I'd swear my body didn't have left with muscles I didn't know were that powerful.

Ow.

I gag and cough, my body wringing itself dry from the inside out and making my insides feel like they’ve been put through a stone mill.

I flop on the ground, sucking in air through a burning throat and aching ribs, my heart dull and soul wrung out.

Something soft and warm curls up beside me, and I cling to the warm fur as I drift between nightmares of large creatures chewing me up and spitting me out and blissful blackness.