Chapter 7

The Nuckelavee screamed at the sky, its body thrashing, hooves throwing up clouds of sand. Kida held tight to its body, one hand digging tight into its skinless flesh, the other holding onto a blood-slicked pickaxe. She didn't know if this beast, this demon, could be killed. She knew she probably wouldn't get the chance to find out. It didn't matter. All that mattered was hurting it, hurting badly, making it suffer for what it had done to her friends. For what it had done to her Milo.

The creature twisted sharply. Finally, Kida's grip slipaped. She fell, the world a blur of sand and sky, a sharp pain ripping up her arm as she scraped against the rocks, the breath pounded out of her as she hit the sand hard. She lifted her head, wiping a few strands of sweaty hair out of her eyes. Her arm burned: the barnacle studded rocks had torn through her shirt, taking a layer of skin along too. Above, the Nuckelavee loomed.

She reached behind her. Her fingers tightened around a jagged piece of stone. The creature was close now, so close that she was choking on the stench of its breath. She pulled herself up, fist clenching around her makeshift weapon, eyes glaring up. If this was how she met her end, so be it. She would go to her death like a true queen of Atlantis, dying in glorious battle. Somewhere in the distance, Obby whined. She gritted her teeth, coiled her arm, and prepared to make her final strike.

There was a sudden crash from behind her. She jerked her head around. Something came blasting out of the cave, throwing the rocks up in a hail of fragments. An icy wind blew past her, thick with freezing spray, and in the midst of the gale, squinting her eyes against the pelting mist, she could make out a vast indistinct shape, writhing and flowing like living water.

The Nuckelavee howled, stumbling back, rolling its huge head, stamping its vast hooves. Now Kida was on her knees, the freezing stream tearing at her clothes, whipping her hair around her face, stinging at her skin. In the haze, she could see something huge and formless, glistening like water in sunlight, go billowing past her. It unfurled, indistinct tendrils reaching out to envelope the bellowing demon. It was all Kida could do to keep her eyes open in the growing tempest, her clothes slicked to her skin, her hair plastered to her face. Now the Nuckleavee was just a huge shadow in the storm, its body wrapped tight in shining water, its hooves cutting trenches in the sand as it was pushed back, inexorably back, towards the ocean. She saw it go down, pushed down into the deep, hands clawing, huge head lingering for a moment above the surface. Then it was driven down, dragged down, with a bellow loud enough to shake the sand beneath her feet.

The blinding rush of spray stopped abruptly. Kida crawled to her feet, wet clothes tangling around her. Whimpering, Obby came scrambling over the sand, and curled into a ball beside her.

"Shh, Obby." She reached down, and patted his head. "I think it's going to be alright."

For a moment, the ocean was calm, the only motion the steely waves lapping at the shore. Then, erupting in a great torrent, turning the waves to churning white froth, the great indistinct shape rose out of the water, racing upwards until it was lost in the stormy sky. Abruptly, lightning streaked across the sky, followed by the deep, rumbling boom of thunder. Then, tumbling one after the other, splashing thickly into the sand, came fat, cold droplets of rain.

For the first time for many days, Kida shivered. The air was cold, wet, filled with the clean mineral smell of the ocean, filled with the smell of warm, wet earth. The great brooding clouds were finally letting down their rain, washing away the oppressive heat, washing the island clean again. Kida closed her eyes and leant her head back, letting the strange sky-water wash her sweaty, blood-streaked face, breathing in the sweet smell of the rain.

"You did it Milo!" She laughed. "You did it!"

Milo slowly surfaced from unconsciousness, awareness half-filtering back to him. For a moment, he lingered there, in the blissful limbo between sleep and wakefulness, feeling the warm softness surrounding his body. From somewhere, not that far away, he could hear voices. They filtered down into his mind without fully registering.

"So he will be alright, doctor?"

"Uh huh. He's just like the rest of us, absolutely fine now. The only thing wrong with him is good old-fashioned exhaustion. That and a few cuts and scrapes."

"Eh, he snores like my aunt Beryl."

Milo grunted, and shifted slightly, the soft chatter slowly pulling him back to wakefulness.

"He awakens!"

"Get out of his face, Mole. I don't think he wants to wake up to that."

"Milo? Milo, can you hear me?"

Curious, finally beginning to surface from sleep, Milo opened his eyes, blinking in the light. He squinted up at the blurry ceiling, and the fuzzy, indistinct face looming over him.

"K…Kida?"

A warm hand reached up, and stroked the hair out of his eyes.

"You're alright!" Kida's voice rang with happiness. "We were worried about you."

"Eh, speak for yourself." Vinny's voice came from off in the blurry distance. "The kid's tough. It'll take more than some hocus-pocus plague to finish him off."

Carefully, Milo shuffled into a sitting position, his ears ringing slightly as he lifted himself up. Other than that though…he felt good. The pain and weakness had gone, leaving behind nothing more than a vaguely shaky feeling.

"So, I did it? You're all alright now?" He said, squinting at the coloured blurs clustered around him.

"Uh huh. Right as rain. Us, Mavis, the kids, even the horses." Doctor Sweet said. A warm, dark blur of a hand passed Milo his glasses, which he fumbled onto his face. "I don't know what you did down there, but you're welcome to come and do it to some of my other patients sometime."

"We have been watching you sleep." Said Mole, with a wide grin.

Milo blinked the room into focus.

"You…you all stayed with me? How long was I out?"

"Only a few hours." Doctor Sweet patted him on the shoulder. "Kida carried you back here. Good thing you're so skinny, huh?"

Milo gazed up at Kida. She smiled down at him, her hair still damp and sticky, a dressing wrapped around one of her arms.

"You did? …Wow."

"Well…I dropped you a few times."

Audrey leaned forwards, and wrapped her arms around him.

"Don't you scare us like that again, okay?"

Doctor Sweet clapped his hands together.

"Alright you lot. Let's leave these two, and let them get some rest. I've got an island to see, now all my patients are better."

Milo led back, as they trooped out of the room, leaving him, Kida and Obby. The lava dog awkwardly heaved himself up and licked Milo's face, his sulphurous breath filling Milo's nose.

"Hey Obby. Who's a brave little lava dog, eh?" He said, patting his broad purple snout.

Kida smiled, and squeezed Milo's hand.

"He's not the only one."

"What? Me? That was nothing. You actually fought that thing. I just crawled around in a tunnel."

He swung his legs over the side of the bed, and moved to stand up. Kida gently pushed him back down.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"Oh, it's okay. I feel great now, I really do. There's no need for me to stay here all day. We could go check on what everyone else is doing, or we could go for a walk along the coast again, or…"

His speech trailed off mid-sentence, as Kida gently brushed his damp hair from his eyes, and planted a warm kiss on his forehead.

"…Or, y'know, I guess we could stay here for a bit." He squeaked.