He turned and swam forthe shore, but his swimming technique as a snake was poor andinefficient, and the beast quickly closed on him. While the squidwas surprised at his physical change, perhaps hoping for an easynewman victim, it had obviously dealt with snake-like creaturesbefore and shot out two long tentacles, one of which hit him alongthe side of his body, where its suckers glued to his body likelimpets to a rock. It jerked him back quickly to get a grip withits eight other smaller and shorter tentacles, but he rolledseveral times as other tentacles tried to get a fix on him,dislodging some, and causing a terrible mixed and knotted jumble oftentacles and snake body.
Unknown to Aquitain,the sea eagle had landed on the beach only twenty paces away, andshape changed to the druidess Miranda. She briefly considered heroptions of either joining the fray or getting help. The closeproximity of the water elemental sanctuary suggested help might beclose at hand, so she raised both arms in the air and began singingan enchanted plea to the waves.
Aquitain had eatensmaller versions of this creature in Panmagica, and held noillusions as to what was on the underside of its body, a largeparrot-like beak as big as his head. In one bite it woulddecapitate a normal victim, but he wasn’t normal and he wasn’tintending to be a meal for this beast. It was trying to manoeuvrehis head end under its body for a lethal bite, and was not asworried about his tail end. He rolled and coiled and bit at itstentacles, tearing chunks off.
Eventually it managedto get his head underneath, and as his head loomed close to itsbeak he swapped it with the tail end of his body, leaving his headend relatively unsecured. When the creature bit into his tailthinking that it was his head his anger exploded, and he let hisdark side take over. His strength doubled and he went absolutelyberserk. There was no consideration of mental control; no thoughtabout his mind wizard powers, nothing but absolute rage.
His head doubled insize and huge fangs grew out of his maw; it rose out of the waterlike the tail of a scorpion and lashed back along the length of hisbody like a whip with jaws wide, striking the beast side on betweenthe eyes. His lower fangs pieced its left eye and his upper fangsembedded themselves in its rubbery forehead. Its reaction wasimmediate. It released its grip on his body and tried to propelitself away from him at high speed in a desperate bid toescape.
Aquitain’s fangs haddug in deep and he hung on jetting along with the creature,dangling off its head like an extra black tentacle, until suddenlyit hit an invisible wall, which stopped it dead in its tracks. Thiswas his chance and he didn’t waste it. His snake body sprungforward, wrapping itself around the upper body of the squid likethe coils of a spring, and began contracting, tighter and tighter.The beast thrashed its tentacles about in a frenzy, madly trying todislodge him, but his bite held firm and his body coils secure ashis muscles tensed and flexed in a vicious hug of death, squeezingits life away.
A large wave seemed tolift the beast with Aquitain firmly attached around it, and carriedthe wrestling pair to the very shoreline, where Miranda drove adriftwood stake through its remaining good eye and into its tinybrain, and it died with little but a gentle shudder. Aquitainwaited for a further twenty seconds, to be sure that the creaturehad expired, oblivious to the presence of the water elemental andMiranda, and then returning to his Logicon form, slithered a shortway up the beach and blended into the sand. He was exhausted.
Miranda turned to thewater elemental, sang a song in the secret language of the druids,bowed to it and began a conversation.
‘I am Miranda, a humblepreserver of the Lady. Thank you for answering my call for help. Iam in your debt great wave runner.’
‘You are welcomeMiranda, daughter of Snowbelle, but it is I that am in your debt.You are known as a friend of the wave brothers, as is Aquitain themind wizard. Please thank him for his help in removing thispredator who has already taken two of our wave children. We are inhis debt again.’
‘You know Aquitain?’Miranda asked, quite astounded.
‘Yes I recognise himfrom his visits to our hatchery, where he made a new way for ourair cousins to reach their food.’
Miranda was almost lostfor words, and even a little jealous. How could he make friendswith the water and the air elementals in a little over two weeks?It had taken her years, but she was still a druid anddiplomatically said:
‘Aquitain is pleased tohave been helpful once more to the wave brothers and thanks yougreatly for helping him ashore where we could end the predator’sbrutal life. He is greatly exhausted after his epic struggle andwill take some time to recover.’
‘I understand. I willlet him rest. We are very pleased to have such good friends asMiranda and Aquitain amongst the newmans here. I bid you farewelluntil we meet again,’ and it left.
Chapter 12 Picnic by theSea
The violent madnessslowly receded from his mind, and five minutes later he rememberedthat there was a witness to his deed. He shape changed to his malehuman form, to be greeted by an angry Miranda.
‘Are you absolutelyraving mad? Didn’t anyone tell you to never to swim in the seaaround here?’
‘No. They didn’t,’ hereplied. ‘Is this one of your protected creatures? I’m sorry, I’llpay a fine or whatever.’
‘No it isn’t. It’s akiller around here. Several people have already lost
