Somewhere in the relative center of the marketplace thrown in disarray, Violant and her steed Huwcyn became witnesses how a llamhigyn y dwr was surrounded by soldiers from the garrison.

Orderic apparently had fallen off the startled horse when trying to confront the monster with the sword he wore at his belt. Now unconscious after falling badly, he wasn’t any help to the brave guards but had to be brought to safety instead. Violant found two soldiers dragging her uncle’s unconscious body away from the fighting. A trickle of blood flowed down his forehead. Orderic seemed to have hit his head when falling.

Seeing her foster father brought to safety, Violant was relieved. She knew that he wouldn’t have any after-effects from his fall and would likely wake up tomorrow evening with nothing more than a moderate concussion. Of course she remembered the incident but she had been too busy with her not so immediate future to remember it. In the young lady’s memories the llamhigyn y dwr was subjugated by the knights of the garrison but not few of them lost their lives.

Even in Violant’s previous lifetime it was unknown how the water leaper had ended up in the center of Avallach’s marketplace. The llamhigyn y dwr was a strictly aquatic creature after all and the only water source close by – except for the creek where Hanarr’s smithy was located – was a well. Most likely the water monster was a surprise randomly spit out by the other march. This happened sometimes but luckily not too often.

Now that it was there, the llamhigyn y dwr was a force to be reckoned with though. Its appearance was grotesque. The water leaper was gigantic fat warty toad – it was as big as a moose at least – and of muddy brown color, but it had no legs. Instead it had a long finned tail, reminiscent of a tadpole’s, and leathery wings on its back that looked as if someone had taken them from a dragon. This bizarre creature fought by snapping after the soldiers with its broad mouth, whipping with its tail, and croaking a bone-chilling shriek undermining the morale of its attackers.

Violant couldn’t stand the thought to just idly stand by and simply witness the fight with the water leaper from the sidelines. Since she knew that lives would be lost in the process, she thought to prevent this from happening. There was nothing the girl could do though. Had she confronted the llamhigyn y dwr at this point in her previous lifetime, she likely wouldn’t have lived long enough to meet Gervase, nothing to say about marrying him and getting discarded by him. Although, it wasn’t as if she still was the same little Violant from twelve years ago. Well, outwardly and physically she still was, but now she had the experience of fighting in the civil war with her, not to forget the massively increased magical aptitude of hers.

With renewed determination the young lady looked how she could possibly be of help. Not far away she saw a long flagpole at one of the abandoned stalls nearby. In her later years Violant’s weapon of choice had always been the spear. It wasn’t easy to handle, admittedly, but if mastered, it was the weapon with the widest reach if archery was to be ignored. Slowly but surely a plan formed in the returnee’s head. It wasn’t failsafe – rather anything but that – but she was willing to try.

“Do you see this pole, Huw?” Violant asked “I need it. Urgently!”

Although the water horse had his doubts, he didn’t question his rider. The girl often had crazy ideas he was nowhere near able to understand, but the thing was, and Huwcyn believed it was the same now too, those crazy plans of her most often worked like the girl had expected. If she said she needed the pole, then she would get it.

From horseback Violant snatched her weapon. It was a formidable spear as far as its grip was concerned but it was without doubt too long and too heavy for the present girl, not to mention that it lacked the most important part a spear should have – the spearhead.

The redhead, however, didn’t dwell on those trivialities. She signaled her trusty steed that he should storm directly at the water leaper.

The ceffyl dwr, no matter how crazy this request was, followed suit.

Now everything had to go exactly according to plan or all of Violant’s efforts would be in vain. For her plan to take out the llamhigyn y dwr to work, she needed to use magic like she had never used it before. The girl was aware of the concepts regarding higher magic but with her former mediocre aptitude she never had been able to put it to practice. Now it had to work more or less on the first try though.

Violant shortly closed her eyes, fully concentrated on the magic effect she wanted to achieve. Everything was clear in theory. If she had no spearhead she had to make one with magic, preferably based on an element which was a major weakness of the water monster. Her first try to form a spearhead from fire was a failure though. The flag at the tip of the pole was set ablaze in a matter of seconds but it took her a moment longer to put the flames out again, unless she wanted her weapon to burn to cinders. At least she seemed to have a good grasp on her magic power output, likely fruits of her arduous training to put her mediocre magic to use from her former life. The second attempt was more successful. At the tip of the pole a glistening spearhead made of ice was formed.

“Out of the way!” Violant shouted at the top of her lungs.

The soldiers and knights couldn’t help but look who was bursting so suddenly into the fight. Some even needed to jump aside when Huwcyn came dashing.

The water leaper’s attention also focused on the horse and rider drawing nearer with full speed.

The young lady readied her spear, awaiting the collusion.

The llamhigyn y dwr seemed to sense imminent danger. It desperately tried to evacuate to the air with flapping wings, something it hadn’t done before no matter how many armed men swarmed around it.

Violant was a step faster though. She realized the creature’s intention and thrust her spear forward, nearly throwing herself off her horse in the process.

The enchanted weapon managed to at least scratch the water leaper’s skin. What happened then, however, took everybody by surprise, the girl included.

At first the thrust really didn’t seem to cause more than just a little scratch, much to Violant’s frustration, and the water monster managed successfully to escape to the air, unfazed by the swords pointed at it by the men left back down on the ground.

Soon enough, though, shouts of amazement echoed through the marketplace. Violant couldn’t understand the entire ruckus. She had failed after all.

But when she heard Huwcyn whispering “What in the world have you done?” she directed her gaze to the llamhigyn y dwr in the sky. Starting from the superficial wound the young lady had managed to inflict on the monster, a thick layer of ice began to increasingly cover the water leaper’s body. The creature had a look of panic in its eyes as it was steadily enclosed further and further by the ice, all the while its wing movements became even more sluggishly. At the end of the day the creature was nothing more than an overgrown, winged, and cold-blooded amphibian.

Eventually, the llamhigy y dwr fell from the sky some distance from where the fight had taken place. During this crash an abandoned market stall was destroyed but luckily nobody got hurt. Shortly afterwards the layer of ice fully encapsulated what once had been the terror of the marketplace.

Shortly afterwards Violant lost consciousness, not because her magic consumption had been too large – although she could somewhat feel her magic power siphoned away – but because of the mental strains linked with usage of advanced magic. The knight commander and the ceffyl dwr saw to it that the young lady and her uncle were both safely returned to Avallach Castle. But that she should come to know only later when she woke up again.