Chapter 33

Daniel sat on the window still edge a loop of vine coiled from where he had created the ramps to anchor him.

Down below was his club.

It was part of him.

When Luke brought people down, he was tempted to ask him to assign a guard to watch it. Maybe get Ingrid ready to defend it if anything came to near it. Then he realised how ridiculous that idea was. Once it was dark, they wouldn’t be able to see.

Tamara sat silently next to him as they both looked down at the changed earth below them. Less than a week ago, he had walked along that street drunk with a single care in the world. While there were regular flickers of movement around the place, nothing went near the tree.

Priscilla reached out, requesting a connection. Her mindset was best described as hesitant.

Quietly, he accepted, and he was presented with an image of six zombies. He did not need to do anything, but he knew the four of them were elites and the others regular. They were in one of the hotel rooms on the floor below not doing much. Then she glanced left and right and both corridors were empty.

No Zombies?

No Silly. She looked back into the other room.

No Other Zombies?

She glanced left and right once more. Yes.

Entire floor?

Dah.

Daniel smiled at the underlying emotion coming from the mouse. She was thinking, ‘I can’t believe how many times I have to explain that. It’s hard having a pet who is so slow.’

The connection died down with a promise from Priscilla to go downstairs to make sure that there were no other enemies threatening.

He gave an enormous sigh.

Tamara stirred next to him. “What?”

“It feels like we’re winning. Or at least that’s how I’m interpreting what Priscilla is sharing. Floor twenty is now almost abandoned and Priscilla is checking lower floors to see if they are forming a fighting party further down. But they aren’t because my animal sense has already confirmed that.”

She nodded. “Maybe we are. I mean maybe we are winning.”

He looked down at the club still unable to believe that had happened. It was less than a hundred metres, but when you converted that to floors, it might as well have been a hundred kilometres. “Doesn’t feel like it.”

Tamara patted his leg. “No one died.”

“Ivey.”

“Is still alive.”

He hit the window frame. Below the tree, leaves stirred, and the club was briefly revealed.

Perfectly Safe.

He could sense it even if he could not communicate openly with the weapon.

Almost thirty percent of his mana had regenerated.

Animal sense.

He went full power, and focused primarily downwards. Instantly, he had an awareness spreading out from where he sat. Mostly it was angled down, but it was not perfect. There were verticality’s and horizontal distance from him displayed. The six zombies below were now seven and the information Priscilla had shared was still accurate and they were alone on nineteen. The next floor looked like a standard zombie clustering, a scattering of groups and individuals, high teens in numbers. Seventeen was the same, and then on floor sixteen he only got a section, but it painted the same picture.

For whatever reason, probably the death of the super, they had spread out.

The magic was finished, but he still kept the impression of what he had felt. Unless they could somehow avoid his spell, there were no supers on the floor he had covered. Over thirty elites and a similar number of normal zombies along with a single Ultra on the seventeenth floor. The ratio of elite to regular was off. Too few normals for the amount of elites and Daniel suspected the answer was simple. The weak had been treated as food for the strong. With a bit of preparation, those isolated forces would be easy to defeat. Grind them down piece by piece hopefully to the ground floor.

Daniel considered what he had felt from his spell. His mind recapturing all the pertinent points his subconscious had registered in those moments the scan had been active. The way the ferals had been scattered. The slight movements they had been making versus the rigid discipline of earlier in the day. Back then it had felt regimented. The ferals when they had moved had been in condensed groups and there had been more still solitary ones. Those he had labelled as sentries standing by themselves presumably listening out for unexpected noise.

That structure had vanished. This time, it was more organic. More of the monsters were sleeping and lounging. It felt more… ‘Normal’. They were acting normal once more.

That artificial organisation that been displayed had been broken… hopefully for good.

A sign of them winning or another trap?

That super appearing when they had launched that first attack still shocked him. He still didn’t understand how both he and Priscilla had missed it, but if it was truly dead, then he guessed he would never find out.

Yet the fact it had surprised him meant he was not willing to accept that the ferals below them had lost their internal organisation. There was a chance that the invisible super had survived or that there was another one. No matter what he was going to progress slowly even if his heart demanded he rushed in order to be reunited with Blood Drinker.

“You’re getting ahead of yourself, Daniel.” He muttered to himself. They were not doing anything till morning and hopefully by then he would have more data to base their approach. Which reminded him he needed to plan out the night.

Daniel ignored actively pushed away the stress and studied the tree. There was a light breeze, and the leaves were fluttering independently of it. What type of tree was it? Was it magical like that plant upstairs that had moved by itself or like some of Jordan’s creations, or did it remain a normal elm?

Tonight he would stand vigil and go back to basics and craft weapons to kill. No more relationships drama’s he thought, remembering Ivey and then he saw Tamara move out of the corner of his eyes.

He laughed to himself.

“What’s so funny?” She asked. “You’ve been sitting there in your own world for about ten minutes and then you laughed.”

“What? Ten minutes?”

“Yes.”

He studied her. Had he caught a moment of hesitation? “What were you doing?”

She glanced away, embarrassed. “Watching you.”

“That must have been boring.”

“I don’t think you even realised that you were growing a seat.”

“What… I,” he looked, and she was right. He was now sitting on a comfortable seat, right up against the empty window so that he could look down at the tree below easily. “You’re right. All subconscious.”

“It’s fascinating. Watching how powerful you’re becoming.”

“Yet that super would have killed me easily.”

“Maybe, but I was more talking about compared to the rest of us. Are you now making me a seat?” she asked abruptly, changing the topic.

“What?” The seat that he had been sitting on had been growing transforming into a two person seat.

Tamara laughed heartily. “Oh god, you should have seen your face.”

“My subconscious,” he stammered.

“That makes it even sweeter.”

Tamara walked forward and examined the expanded seat. “Will it hold me?”

Daniel concentrated, and the power flared out. The structure thickened leaves blossomed to make comfortable, because there was still water and fertilised from earlier it took little energy.

“Of course it would have held you, but hopefully it’ll seem more luxurious now.”

She sat gingerly.

Daniel laughed. “What are you worried about? It won’t break.”

“No,” she waved her hands to reject that suggestion. “I didn’t want to hurt the leaves.”

“I don’t know if you can. They might feel soft, but they’re tough.”

She leant her head on his shoulder. “Are you going to tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“Why you’re as strong as you are? Why you’re so stressed about your club?”

“Well, that second question is straightforward to answer. You’ve got a weapon. You must be able to emphasis with what it’d feel like to lose it.”

“Yeah, I understand.” Mystic explosion as always was right next to her and even the mention of Tamara losing it caused her to reach out and touch the weapon as if to confirm it was still there.

The leaves below once more shifted at odds with the wind. “Hey, can you identify the tree?” He asked suddenly.

“I can check.” There was a slight pause. “It’s a mutated elm with a skill to suck blood.”

“Jordan’s is going to be excited when we get a cutting.”

“Boys and their plants.”

Daniel chuckled. “I’m not sure anyone has said that ever.”

“New world and I don’t see many people playing with toys.” She nudged his side. “That tree’s powerful. Nothing short of the lizard is messing with it, so I think your club is pretty safe. If anything else tries, the tree will eat it.”

“Serious.”

“Oh yeah. That tree is deadly.”

“That makes me feel better.”

“Why are you so strong?” She asked again.

Daniel did not respond. He was not sure he wanted to have this conversation.

“I keep telling you it’s okay, that you can trust me.”

“And I do?”

“So?”

Daniel looked down at the club. He had not realised how much he missed it. Finigan at his feet stirred, and he felt the flow of happy acceptance. “The mana event mutated me.”

“I know.”

“What?”

“Everyone knows. Or at least all of us with identification. Which is like everyone, apart from you.”

“Oh.”

“You look normal.”

“I have a patch of fur on my back.”

“Hair?”

“No fur.”

“How big?”

Daniel shrugged. “Not that large.”

“And that worries you.”

Daniel shook his head.

“You still haven’t explained what’s different about you?”

He looked up, wondering if anyone could hear him. Tamara noticed that look and half stood, and pulled out a small pad and pencil from her back pocket. “If you’re worried about someone else hearing, you can write it down.”

“You carry pen and paper.”

White teeth answered him. “Remember, I can see the future.”

He chuckled, recalling how she had supported Ivey in the earlier council of war by falsely claiming that.

He still hesitated to take the pad.

“I’ll burn the page after wards.”

Ivey had cautioned him so strongly… but Tamara.

He trusted her.

Then decided that was foolish and accepted the offered paper and wrote on it.

I don’t have an interface.

Tamara read it. There was a look of confusion on her face, and she took the pad back.

What about Beast Whisper?

Daniel probably should have included more in the initial message.

I have a partial interface from Ivey. I get set skills and set attribute points at each level. No choices!

Tamara nodded. Does it talk to you?

He laughed. “No.”

“Lucky.” she patted his hands. “It’s sort of what I thought. You could have told me and I don’t think the information is as–” She hesitated and smirked at him. “–Inflammatory.” The piece of paper burst into flames. “As you think.” She tossed the paper out of the window and it fluttered for a moment still burning till the flames stopped and it crumbled into ash.

“Magic is incredible.” Daniel muttered.

“Yours maybe more so than most. I can see what you are doing over there.” She waved at where the plants that had been used to construct the ramps were growing once more as he prepared for the attack they had to launch in the morning.

“I’ve wanted to for a while,” he admitted. “I mean. I’ve wanted to tell you. It’s just that I’ve been scared and Ivey kept insisting that I keep the knowledge to myself.” His feet kicked listlessly and once more he looked down at the tree that hid his club. Despite what Tamara had told him, the tree when it was not moving appeared unchanged. “The reason I’m strong is that I have my powers from being a mutant like Dave and then the set added by Ivey’s interface. That makes me twice as powerful as everyone else.”

“And twice as arrogant.” She smirked at him.

Playfully, he tickled her side.

Her grin broadened. “I’m not ticklish.”

“I am.”

“Really?”

Daniel pretended to be alarmed. “No.”

Her hand inched towards him. For a moment, he threatened to grab her.

Tamara smiled in delight. Her hand sprang forward and he let her. She tried to tickle him. He did not respond.

“I said I wasn’t.” Daniel reminded her.

“Tease.”

She pouted.

“As I said not ticklish, but I hadn’t finished explaining why I’m stronger. Besides those two benefits, I’ve consumed a lot of feral cores.”

Tamara’s nose wrinkled at that.

“I know cannibalization.” Daniel agreed knowingly.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Your expression did, and I’ve thought the same. Ivey as good as made me on the first day.” He lapsed into silence. “She was right. Ickiness aside.”

“Very icky.” Tamara agreed.

“But necessary for survival.”

Tamara patted his leg comfortably and leant her head on his shoulder. “I wasn’t judging just commiserating.”

“Every single one of those increases my strength. I think some direct benefit to mana pool and maybe even physical attributes, and then once I’ve mastered the abilities from them it’ll strengthen me again.”

“What do you mean? Once?”

“Unlike some,” he went to poke her, but she caught the offending finger.

“None of that.” she warned. “I didn’t do anything, mister.”

“Yes, you did. You got a manual on how to use your spells. I’ve had to learn mine through trial and error. For example, the lightning bolt I can unleash when I check the strength of the ability is only at the first of three levels. Speed is even worse. I’m still on level one and it has four tiers. Taking it all into account, I would be surprised if I’ve even unlocked half of my ultimate strength and potentially as little as a quarter.”

“Wow. You’re going to be.” She trailed off. “Don’t want to give you an enormous head.”

“It’s not something to be proud of, as it’s just my mutated human physiology. Which is the same as the ferals and why we couldn’t wait.” Daniel hadn’t articulated that concern before, but now it was vocalised it sounded like the truth. “We need to eliminate them as rapidly as possible. Both in this tower and out there. There’s a real risk that their power might grow as fast as mine. Maybe even faster.”

“Regular, elite, ultra and now a super.” She said quietly.

Daniel thought about that and the consequence of further supers evolving or even going beyond that point to something even more incredible. He shivered.

“Regular, elite, ultra.” She repeated and then looked at him. “What would you estimate the differences between them are? Each rank up is what five? Six? Seven times stronger?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Then the super…”

Daniel grimaced at that suggestion, knowing where she was going.

“If we assume the strongest feral after the event was only an elite, then the super is twenty-five to fifty times stronger than when it started.”

“I don’t think that’s likely in less than a week.” Even as he protested, he understood where she was coming from. It was the only way the high number of ultra’s and supers downstairs made sense and the observation that every day they had seemed to get stronger.

“I would be surprised if you’ve unlocked a third of your strength.”

“What?”

“Given the cores you’ve been getting and the fact you’re sort of the same as them.”

Daniel rubbed his head. “I don’t like where this is going.”

She laughed. “Oh, my god. I’m becoming a super hero just like happened in my worst nightmares.”

“If only it was that easy.”

“I know.” She put her arm around his waist. “Regarding your speed being one of four I’m wondering if going from one to two is the same as three to four.”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Levels can act like that or each might double the strength, which would mean level two is twice as strong, but then level four is eight times stronger than one.” She shrugged. “The ramp up could be even more extreme than that if the multiplication between levels is higher. You know each level is tens of times faster.”

“That’s scary. Can you imagine how fast I would be if it’s something like.”

“Yeah, and you’re already partially blur when you put your foot down. But multiplication makes sense doesn’t it. Those elite speed zombies we’ve seen they’re faster than you and can sustain it for at least four times as long without a backlash.”

Daniel nodded in agreement.

“I can’t imagine that in your terminology that they’re all at rank four. After all, how many speed cores have you consumed?”

“Lots.”

“So they’re probably rank two or maybe on the outside rank three.”

“God, if I got to rank three strength and rank four speed plus my passive strength I’d be able to solo everything on the floors below.”

“What? You’ll end up as strong as a super.” Tamara pretended to faint in awe.

Daniel remembered the thing that Ivey had killed. “I doubt it. But it’s a pleasant fantasy.”

“I’m not convinced it’s a fantasy.” Tamara looked at him. “I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not blowing hot air up you. I’ve had enough, arrogant big-headed idiots in my life. I’m extrapolating from what we know.”

“I don’t want to be responsible for everyone just because I’m strong.”

“Would you prefer someone else to have your skills?”

“Fuck no.”

She laughed.

Daniel studied at the swaying tree leaves once more. “I wonder what else is out there.”

Tamara tapped her skull pointedly. “Lots of nasties.”

“I know about the lizard, but is there anything worse?”

Tamara hesitated. “I very much hope not, but there’s going to be stuff out there that will probably make the super you fought look weak. Think of it this way. A heap of energy got dumped around us. It got into living things and made them strong.” She squeezed his bicep to demonstrate. “Where we are that influx of power was spread over forty-five floors and brought in that octopod, created the termites, the super and us. Down there at street level. Look at all those single stories. What do you think will happen if just the energy into those three threats got directed into a single lady bug? Or even a butterfly. Let alone the energy that went into all of us.”

“That would be terrifying, but is that even how it works. Does that encyclopaedia tell you that?”

“Ivey mentioned a few things that I should research so I can actually answer that. Yes, and no. The gist is accurate, but it’s more nuanced.”

“Getting to the country won’t be easy will it?”

Tamara laughed. “You know maybe the army will come save us.”

“What?”

She laughed harder. “That’s a joke. Some of the old guys upstairs were talking about it and not understanding why we’re risking our lives and fighting. They thought we should sit tight.”

“Idiots.”

“Yep, there’s some of them everywhere.”

They lapsed into silence. They experimented with spears that they could throw at monsters below.

A creature that looked like a rat popped out on the roof on the other side of the street. A hundred metres down and thirty metres away.

Daniel grabbed one of their practice spears and stood. “I’m going to try to get it.”

“To far, too small.” Tamara told him. “I’ve seen how inaccurate you are.”

“I’ll show you.” Daniel sighted the target pulled back his arm and threw. It went over the target’s head, missing by ten metres, and the next was short by a similar distance. The rat, completely unaware that it had been targeted, ran a little way, jumped and then glided to the neighbouring house and vanished from sight.

“The bloody thing flew.” Daniel said in surprise.

“More glided. But the more important thing to talk about is your throwing.”

“No, it’s not.” He protested.

“You were terrible.” She accused.

“It’s harder than it looks and I was trying to restrict myself to normal levels of competency. I was testing to see if we can use this to farm experience for other people.”

She looked at him eyes wide. “That’s your excuse?”

“Umm. I…”

Her lips quirked, and Daniel couldn’t help himself. He burst out laughing and she joined him.

While they chatted, Daniel alternated his mana between building the ramps for their next attack and animal sense to make sure nothing threatening was coming.

The zombies continued to act like dumb animals.

“And we’re really safe?” Tamara asked.

“Priscilla can’t see any signs of mobilisation. It might happen on the lower floors but,” Daniel shrugged. “Their infirmity has shut down and we’ll stay on high alert till we can push down more aggressively.”

Twenty floors below Daniel detected some type of boar sniffing toward his tree. Tamara reacted to his sudden tension by looking out the window.

“You don’t need to protect your club from that.”

“I know.”

“You’re going to do it, anyway?”

“I want to see if I can hit it.” Daniel stopped and caught her eye. In the light of the setting sun, she looked amazing. Then again, she always did. “Thank-you. You’ve made me feel a lot better about going slow. I won’t because of the kids, but at least I won’t be reckless because of,” he pointedly stared down on the tree.

The animal was quite close to the tree, but was clearly wary of it and did not want to get any closer.

Tamara stood up. “If we’re doing this. Then it’ll be closest to the pin.”

“What?”

“We throw together and whoever does the best gets a prize.”

“Prize?”

“How about the winner can make the looser to do anything they want.”

“Conditions? Restrictions?”

Tamara looked down and shuffled her feet. “Only if you want there to be.” Daniel tried to parse the information.

“You can shut your mouth.” She said gently, her hand going to his chin and pressing it delicately closed.

“I’m in.”

“You’re a boy. Of course you are.”

Daniel passed her the three spears. “Give me a moment.” The spears he was holding changed colour turning white. “White or brown?” He held his new spears out to her.

“Are there any differences?”

Daniel shook his head.

“I’ll keep these then.” She waved the standard brown spears he had produced earlier. “Once the first one lands it’s going to flee, so we should throw all three quickly.”

“Done.”

Tamara counted down.

They started throwing. This was a lot easier than aiming for the rat, as the creature was both significantly closer and larger.

Daniel threw his final missile before the first one reached the ground and then leant out to watch the results.

The boar was still next to the tree as his and Tamara’s missiles fell near it. His white one smashed into the ground, driving through what must have been a weakened footpath till it disappeared into the ground. It did however throw up gravel that hit the boar’s back legs.

One metre off. It was an excellent shot especially since Tamara missed by over ten metres. The animal startled and danced away from Daniel’s strike. It travelled parallel to the tree clearly recognising the danger of the mutated elm.

Then the second volley struck the ground. This time, his one hit it, catching its rump. It was purely luck because the boar had moved almost two metres from its original position. In response, it leapt closer to the tree, but not into it. While Tamara’s smashed into footpath significantly closer but still well clear of the animal.

His third throw Daniel knew was going to miss, so it all came down to Tamara’s last one, and he was feeling confident. He wondered how he should use that favour. Force her to go on a date with him? Or something more innocent?

Sure enough, his third spear was off course and smashed harmlessly through the roof of a car.

Tamara’s struck the animal.

Daniel’s jaw fell open.

It was more a graze that a hit and the spear itself shattered against the road. But it drew blood in a long streak down the animal’s side on its way down.

The boar reacted and leapt backward in shock.

It landed still visible to them but far closer to the tree than it had intended. The placid tree that had done nothing more than move without the wind touching it exploded into motion. A single massive branch struck the boar like a club. Another one bent and like what happened with his club the end formed into a spear. It struck straight through the animal, bending as it did so. The spear, instead of plunging into the road was moving parallel with it. Within a blink, the boar was skewered on a branch that extended almost two meters out from it.

The branch lifted it off the ground. They could see the animal kicking, but the tree had returned to its previous position with the branch the animal was stuck on back at a forty-five degree angle reaching into the sky.

This half tonne creature had been plucked off the ground skewered on a branch and then gravity took hold and slid further down. The branches of the tree that had been waving violently and allowing them to see the details close to the trunk stop waving and they could no longer see the animal.

Though they could hear its squeals.

Three of them and then silence.

Daniel looked downwards at the tree in shock. It was a tree, and it had… “Shit.”

“Woo hoo.” Tamara celebrated.

What? He looked at her and then remembered their bet.

“Score. I killed it.” She did an impromptu dance.

“Wait. My hit was harder. Your one only clipped it.”

“What?” Tamara put her hands on her hip in mock anger. “My missile literally scared it into the deadly tree which killed it. I was directly responsible for its deaths. Yours did absolutely nothing.”

“We both hit it. Closest to the pin means it’s a draw.”

“Nope.”

“What do you mean nope?”

“I got more experience. Which means I was deemed to have contributed more to the kill.”

“If you got experience, then I would have as well as we both hit it.”

Her eyes went unfocused. “Experience awarded for killing the Ice Tusk Boar has been assigned based on contribution. See.” She poked out her tongue at him. “The system measures the level of contribution.” Her eyes went unfocused once more. “Mutated Blood Ambush Elm, our friendly tree down there.” She pointed helpfully at it. “Has been awarded one hundred and eight-five experience. Tamara Jane Murphy that’s me, receives twelve and Daniel Grosse.” she giggled. “That’s a bad surname, by the way, receives three. Only three.” She crowed. “I win,” she did a little dance.

“You know I can’t check.”

“Mr Grosse I want you to think about this carefully before answering. Were you planning on calling me a liar?”

The objection died into his throat. “No, but the agreement was closest to the pin. We both hit.”

“Are you serious? Closest to the pin. If we both hit it, then it had to be who did the most damage and the independent system arbitrator awarded it to me.”

“Is it independent?”

“Yes. Oh my god you really don’t enjoy loosing do you. Are you now arguing that the unthinking system is on my side?”

“I thought Ivey’s was chatty? That doesn’t sound unthinking.”

“Nope. That’s only her interface. It’s a bit broken. The system is a series of algorithmic rules. If you want, you can ask some else.” Her eyes challenged him. Daring him to call her a liar. She gave him a cheeky grin. “You yield?”

“Yep. I believe you.” The alternative wasn’t worth it.

“I won.”

“Yes, you won. What do you want from me?”

“Are you wishing about now that you hadn’t already given me a seed weapon?” Tamara beamed at him as happy as punch. “Don’t answer that,” she ordered hastily. She lapsed into thoughtful silence.

“Well.”

“Hmm, Let’s see if you marry me you’re taking my surname.”

“What?”

“Your surname is terrible.”

“Okay if that’s your–”

“No, it’s not. It’s my backup if I can’t think of anything else.” She sat down next to him. “This is fun. We should definitely do more games of skill.”

“So, what are you going to ask me to do?”

“Well, I have my backup, but practically these things are best kept in reserve. Daniel, if you don’t get me breakfast in bed. I’ll ask you to do a nudie run when you get it. Daniel, if you don’t massage my feet I’m going to ask you to gather a hundred pairs of size nine runners to find the one that suits me best.”

“Is that what you’re planning? To hold it over my head to blackmail me to do lots of small things?”

She made small joyful sounds.

“And if I don’t play ball?”

“Oh, I know.” She clapped her hands. “I’ll make sure you get everyone to address you by your surname.”

“What!” Daniel looked at her, horrified. “You wouldn’t.”

“You were the one who didn’t want conditions.”

“Yeah because.” He stopped his face going red.

“Because why Dan? What were you going to ask me?”

“To massage my back.” He looked away, avoiding her gaze.

“Really, you want a massage? And that’s all you were going to ask?”

“Yes.”

“Dan?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think you can make eye contact with me while claiming you were only thinking about asking for a massage?”

“Don’t want to.”

“Why?”

His cheeks were very red, and he studiously looked out the window. She laughed and hugged him from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder so she could look over him and out. He was incredibly conscious of her presence.

“Is there any reason your cheeks are red?”

“No,” His voice squeaked.

She chuckled. “Are you just a typical guy who is fine bashing monsters to death but struggle with talking to the opposite sex.”

“No,” Daniel said, turning to face her. “That doesn’t sound at all like me.” He looked back out down at the tree. “You’ve just got an ability to scramble my brains.”

“Ivey might have mentioned something like that.”

“You’ve been talking about me?”

“It’s a confusing time. The apocalypse and all that. Jayden being a dick.”

“Yeah, eating termites.”

She burst out laughing. “Yes, that’s what confusing. Who would have thought they would be so tasty.”

He put an arm around her and pulled her closer then they both looked out the window at the setting sun. “It’s beautiful.”

“Terrifying.” Her finger pointed out to the section of bay they could see. There was something there sort of like a stingray but larger than a football oval. Its sides rippled, and it shot forward and a wave that must have been five metres high washed out from it.

“I don’t think you’re catching a ship to get home.”

Tamara laughed again this time with a hint of hysteria. “That’s not funny.”

“You’re an Australian Shelia now. Congratulations on your citizenship.”

“I’m never going to see my parents again, am I?”

“No. But on the plus side, you can throw fireballs.”

“Not a great tradeoff, but I guess it could be worse.”

“Yeah.”

“I could be covered in fur.”

“Hey.”

They chuckled.

“Dan, thank you.”

He looked at her and she was being serious. “My pleasure.”