Quest

Chapter 21

The sky was filled with water immediately, and without warning before I had even finished my sentence. At first I thought it was just a wave crashing against the cliffside, but it was way too big for that. The water poured down like the worst rainstorm I had ever been in. Actually, it was kind of like one of those waterpark buckets where it fills up and then all comes down at the same time. Yeah, one of those.

"What the fuck!?" Holly shouted and covered her head as we all got soaking wet.

We didn't need to wait long for the source of the chaos. Something rose up out of the ocean a good distance away, something big and hulking. Water dripped off it's body as it thudded up onto the beach. It was like something I'd seen in a history book somewhere, some old drawing. What the fuck--

"DUCK!" a voice shouted, and I didn't argue. I did the deck, and everyone else joined me.

"Who said that?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"I thought that was you!" Terra asked, but was cut off by another stream of water the flew up out of the water from where the weird monster thing was approaching us. "What is that thing?"

"Why are we ducking?!"

But then someone leaped up over us. Their flowing cloak brushed against my back as they stepped into the wake and lifted a gun.

"FUCK!" I shouted and grabbed for my wand. I wasn't trying to mess around with some armed mother fucker.

Bang! The gun went off and reverberated against the cliffs that surrounded the beach. A rainbow stream of magical energy emanated from the end and struck the monster in the water. The monster reeled back and submerged itself. Enchanted weapons were a pretty big no-no, so shit was about to get substantial real. There was no way I was going to let this one go as far as I had let everything else the last few days. I palmed my wand and stood up.

"What are you doing?!" Warner asked.

"Saving our butts!" I said like the badass that I am. I raised my wand, ready to strike down this gun wielding mother fucker than deal with this monster thing before it came back up. "Back the hell up!" I shouted at their direction.

The cloaked person spun turned their gun back at me. "You think you're saving yourself?" her voice was growly and weathered, like it had been screaming for years. "Leave here."

"You'll regret those words," I retorted, and prepared to swing a spell at her direction.

The cloaked woman turned to face me and I nearly fell over.

My voice faltered, but I found the word I was trying to say. "Mom?"

I was sure that my mom's shocked expression mirrored my own. "You... you made it!" She lunged for me and wrapped both arms around me. "You actually made it!"

I was confused, happy, sad, angry and a lot more emotions all at the same time. "What is this place?" I asked, holding her out at an arm's length. I had completely forgotten about the huge monster that had attacked us literally seconds before.

"This is your mom?!" Warner exclaimed behind me before mom could answer. I looked back, everyone was standing in a half circle behind me.

"Who's this?" mom asked.

"Friends," Terra answered before I could and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Hi, guys?" Holly chimed in, totally ruining the moment. "I know this is really nice and was sort of the whole point of you coming out here, but can we remember the wicked monster awful thing that we just saw in the water?"

Chris nodded in agreement with his sister.

"Right," mom said grimly and turned back to face the water. "Not the greatest timing."