Leviathan = basically means sea monster

Chapter 15: Leviathan

Wendy knew she wasn't dreaming.

But her nightmare had come to life.

Cold water poured into her throat, freezing into a solid block. Dark teeth and dark golden scales flashed enormously beneath her as the leviathan scourged. And all around her were hooks. Wendy knew that the hanging hooks must be a magical illusion; but she could hear them. Creaking. Crying. Groaning. Clinking. Hooks. Millions of black, jagged, deathly hooks.

The sea monster roared. Wendy screamed, covering her ears as they sensitized to underwater vibrations. The huge sound knocked her across the ocean and into an iceberg. Twitching in pain, she slid down the luminous shaft of ice.

The magic pierced through Wendy's body like a bed of nails, ripping apart her human character. The bones inside her ears reshaped, attuning to imperceptible noise. Skin broke around her neck; the small slivers formed gills, fanning animatedly and independently. The lenses in her eyes constricted and dilated, adjusting to the lightless world. Her nightgown dissolved into her skin, leaving freckles of light blue scales over her extremities and a seashell brassiere fastened with her blue ribbon.

And with a sickening crunch Wendy's legs twisted together; the bones fused and with an electric crack the transformation was complete. There, gleaming in the frosty ocean, was a tail. Silky bronze like the tiger's eye stone, but with light blue chatoyant luster was Wendy's mermaid tail.

She was a mermaid.

She was a mermaid!

Heart racing, Wendy turned over. Cold, crystallized minerals clung to her scales as Wendy slowly raised the end of her fin. She stared, amazed.

Suddenly, jaws appeared over the brim of her fin. Hearing the sea monster before it materialized from the darkness, Wendy fell against the iceberg.

The leviathan shot over her head like a bullet. She ducked and the monster slammed into the berg, the sound nearly cracking Wendy's ears apart. Icy shards exploded and jackknifed through the water.

Wendy clawed from the monster. Every route of escape was disoriented from water and ice thrashing in the monster's wake.

Frantically trying to re-master control of her fins, Wendy thrust her tail. The unexpected propulsion flipped Wendy onto her back.

The leviathan swooped down, curling sharp fins and grinning sharper jaws. For a moment, Wendy saw herself, trapped in the leviathan's silver eyes.

Then the leviathan dove for her stomach.

The monster roared. The teeth extracted.

Thud!

The leviathan screamed, reeling back like a fishing pole. A trident stuck into the leviathan's jaws. Shouting filled the water. And a strong, scaly hand grabbed her arm.

Bewildered, Wendy looked up. It was a merman. A huge, powerful, brawny merman.

"GET DOWN!"

The merman threw Wendy so hard, she crashed a coral garden apart . The brittle fragments spiraled into the water as a pod of mermen streaked over her head and at the sea monster.

Each merman held a trident. But the mer army seemed less preoccupied with injuring the leviathan; instead they seemed to be herding it away.

"SWARM HIS EYES!" shouted the merman that had thrown Wendy. His brawny shoulders flexed as the leviathan's tail swung about. "DISTRACT HIM! MOVE HIM AWAY FROM THE ICE BERG!"

"Conch, he's already cracked the ice!" answered a second merman. He was pointing to the spot Wendy had been attacked. A large crevasse was forming. The iceberg was shaking. "There's a rift!"

The leviathan lashed its toothy head, shaking mermen away like flies. Two mer slammed into the seabed. Three more sprinted away as the iceberg popped.

The brawny merman staggered back. His silver eyes dilated.

"It's giving!" he hollered, catching an advancing comrade. "The ice is going to calve! GET BACK! GET BACK!"

"Conch!"

Wendy's ears pricked as the water trembled under the impeding crash of ice. She knew that voice. Straining to hear over the booming ice, Wendy searched the turbulent water. Again the voice screamed through the turbulent water.

"Conch! Not yet - Leviathan is under the ice!"

"I SAID GET BACK!" The brawny merman shouted. Energy swelled through the ocean as the iceberg broke. Wendy buckled under the building pressure. "GET BACK! NO!"

Wendy saw the brawny merman lunge. His trident stuck into the seabed as a smaller, faster mer sliced through his grasp and charged at the sea monster.

"Leviathan!" the smaller mer yelled. His voice was desperate. Almost…pleading. "Leviathan! Listen! Listen to my voice!"

That voice….that voice….

With all her strength, Wendy raised against the energy bending the ocean to the floor. Shaking, she lifted her head.

The brawny merman was swimming furiously after the smaller mer. But he was too late.

In spite herself, Wendy screamed. "Look out!"

Roaring, the sea monster ripped across the smaller merman. The merman who had called its name. The merman scraped across the iceberg, rolling over his trident. He hit the seabed, head snapping up to reveal two electric grey eyes.

Wendy's heart stopped.

The merman saw her. He froze, thoughtless of the leviathan churning like a tornado upon him. Then, with unbelieving joy, he smiled.

"Wendy…?"

Perhaps it was fear, instinct, or the happiest thought that summoned Wendy's strength and agility as she saw Brine trapped beneath the sea monster. Regardless, as the leviathan opened its jaws, Wendy reached for Brine.

But with a monstrous roar, surmounting even that of a leviathan, the ice calved.

The ocean over Wendy's eyes went white. Then black. The last thing she saw, was Brine.