The Time Hopper

Surprise Attack

I dived beneath the surface, eyes open and let myself take  second to orientate myself before I swam off, strong strokes towards Took's flailing legs with a closed lip evil grin on my face. What can I say, I have a 'penchant for raising cain', or whatever weird, old fashioned expression Miss Mari used to describe me. I swam down until I was almost touching the stony bottom of the lake, and waited long enough to establish that he hadn't caught me swimming over. Fool. You're never safe when Sadie is around. 

Though, to be fair to him, he didn't know I was back. If he did, I had no doubt that he would be taking the proper precautions, though I would argue he always needed to have his guard up. Time to teach him a lesson. I kicked off the bottom and grabbed his ankles, tugging him down harshly before releasing him and rushing to swim away. Unfortunately, none of us took surprise attacks well, and Took was no different. I saw his hand dart to his hair clip, and a second later it felt like the blood froze in my veins. Now would have been a good time to use my own magic, to reassure him that it was just me, but some idiot had left my book on the shore almost a mile away. 

He spun around in the water as silvery bubbles of air escaped my lips and made a dash for the surface, eyes panicked and one hand glued to his clip as he searched the now murky waters for his assailent. When he saw me, limp in the current with my face contorted in pain, I felt his hold on the blood in my veins vanish and my heart kick into high gear as it tried to get everything moving again, but the short attack had been enough to sap all my energy. He swam over, grabbing me beneath my arms and kicking off the bottom to carry us both to the surface as I began to choke on the water flooding my mouth and nose. 

We broke the surface and I gasped for air with a stupid grin on my face, coughing and clinging to Took as I kicked my legs pathetically in an attempt to help. From the shore, we had drawn some attention, the majority of the other children looking on in worry, especially when they saw me half drowned and clinging to him. Lucas, bless him, touched his ring and the water around us went still, easily holding us up as the waves and currents were halted. He flicked his index fingertip over the golden band and the water carried us to the shore and washed us up on the sandy beach, where Kat immediately scooped up a handful of sand and sprinkled it over us for no other reason than to be annoying, I think. Lila had left her barbeque and was now kneeling besides me, helping me sit up and patting my back as I hacked up lake water and caught my breath. 

"Satisfied, Sadie?" Alice asked from where she was still perched on the picnic blanket, happily tucking into a bowl of potato salad that had been for the group as I recovered from my near death experience. I grinned at her. 

"Worth it." I managed to get out before devolving into a noisy coughing fit, loud enough to disturb Alexi and clearly make him decide he wanted to read elsewhere. I watched him stand, I made eye contact with Eros, and I winced as the blue haired chimp emptied his jug of water onto the until recently serene child of death. The reaction... wasn't good. Alexi's mouth opened in a silent below of rage as Eros bolted down from his tree and raced over to me, taking cover behind my hunkered form and clinging to me like I would protect him. Alexi grabbed his flat cap, the strange hat he had decided to pour his power in, and chucked it to the ground a few feet away from him lest he accidently activate his powers and kill us all. Once that was out of the way, he silently began to storm towards us, a fierce scowl twisting his face. 

"No, you can have Eros, I choose life!" I yelled, hurrying to my feet despite the burning in my chest and wrestling with the blue haired boy as I tried to turn him over. What can I say, I liked Eros, but not enough to be killed as an accomplice for him. I didn't think I liked anyone that much. 

"Sadie, you absolute snake-" Eros yelled, before deciding that he didn't have time to berate me for my lack of loyalty and instead settled on... taking me hostage? Which was an odd move, because there was no way Alexi cared about me enough for that to do anything. Still, Eros twisted around until he was stood behind me, one arm wrapped around my neck as he pulled me back while pressing finger guns to my temple. He was a good deal shorter than me, so I was literally bending over backwards so he wouldn't snap my spine. Alexi reached us and tackled the two of us into the sand, coating me in the gritty stuff again.