Author's note: Hello again! Here's the new one. I will possibly have another chapter up this evening, otherwise you'll get it tomorrow morning (the whole thing is finished and ready to go!)
Chapter Three: Blood in the Water
Chunks of yellow clay were landing in the boat and in the water, whizzing past Sarah's head and thunking into the oars. She tried to get into a rhythm – stroke, stroke, stroke – but that required a level of calm she didn't quite possess. Eventually the chunks of cliff began to fall short of the boat. She pulled herself further and further out into the open water. A final piece of rock grazed her cheek as it flew past, and Sarah felt blood trickle down to her chin.
"You're sweating, you're covered in clay, and now you're bleeding from your face," Sarah groaned, "so this reunion is going very well so far and I think you're really going to come out on top."
She had never quite dropped the habit of talking herself through tasks. She whinged less now, was more self-deprecating; a lot had changed since she was fourteen. It was probably bad and made people think she was weird, but it was comforting somehow, to be able to tell herself what was happening and what she was going to do.
"Why do you even care how you look? Why are you doing this? Sarah Williams, you must have to most prolonged case of Stockholm Syndrome in history."
The water was getting rougher now, even without debris breaking its surface from above. Sarah looked back over her shoulder at how far she had to go. If she was able to keep a steady pace, it should only take her a couple of hours to reach the tower, but there were some awfully big waves ahead of her. She gripped the oars white-knuckle tight then loosened her hands again. Even the boring parts of being in the Goblin Kingdom were dangerous.
Rowing. Rocking. Trying not to throw up. Rowing and rowing and rowing. Throwing up a little bit. More rowing.
The shore was distant enough now that she could no longer see the tree at the top of the cliff, but the tower still felt impossibly far away. Sarah was drenched from waves crashing into the side of the boat. Blisters were forming on her palms.
She remembered Karen's advice after her first, extremely painful breakup: "no boy is worth this much trouble." That was excellent advice. Karen should get that printed on T-shirts. Sarah should get it tattooed on the insides of her eyelids.
"He's an evil kidnapping fairy," Sarah said to herself through clenched teeth, "you haven't seen him in half a decade, and you jump into some stupid quest without a second thought because the stupid bastard was pretty."
A wave crashed over the stern of the boat, spraying Sarah full in the face. She spat and spluttered, then yelled a very loud curse into the air.
Something bumped into the boat under her feet.
"I... think I will ignore that." Sarah said, adding some speed to her oar strokes.
There was another thud into the wood underneath her, and a bronze fin broke the water's surface. Sarah began rowing as fast as she could, but the bumps were coming faster now, and harder. Another bronze fin crested to her right and something hit the side of the boat so hard that the wood splintered. She stood up carefully, placed the oars in the bottom of the boat and picked up the baseball bat just as something flew out of the waves and at her face. Sarah swung as hard as she could, sending it flying. Another leaped at her and she swung again, but the third landed in the boat beside her.
It looked similar to a goblin, if goblins had fins on their heads and backs and long, sharp teeth. Its eyes were flat and black and it hissed at her, lunged with teeth bared at her ankle. Sarah leapt backwards and the thing overshot, crashing into the side of the boat. She gave it a push and it fell back into the water with an angry splash. It surfaced again, glared at her, and rammed itself violently at the side of the boat. The wood splintered again and Sarah almost lost her balance. Then out of nowhere another creature leapt through the air at her, and she fell backwards into the icy water.