Chapter 111

Chapter 111: 111 "But that’ll have to wait until we get back to base. I need to pick up Haayi and make sure Helen’s not eaten them all..." said Tuesday, tapping the deck of the boat then dropping down below into the water again. Guess it was just Bran and Zhan and Misha for now. Bran turned to Zhan. "Can she... not become human?" he asked. Zhan, clearly feeling rather awkward, folded his arms and leaned against the cabin doorframe. "Yeah. Hybrids and mix-breeds retain their humanity mentally but not physically." He nodded towards Misha who’d figured out how to open the crate and was feasting on some fish. "He’s..." Bran shook his head but said nothing. "It’ll be figured out," said Zhan after a moment. And with that, he went into the cabin and a few moments later Bran felt the deck vibrate as the engine came to life. He looked at the eating loong then got up and went over to him, careful not to get in the way of his food, and rested a hand against his shoulder. The creature gave him a glance then continued eating. Up until that point he’d thought that it didn’t matter what form Misha took, yet somehow, he felt that saying it out loud, admitting it, made it worse. Made it permanent. And what did Misha think about it? Did he think? Could he? There was that variability in action that made Bran suspicious sometimes that Misha did in fact know what was going on. But if Zhan was right about other supernatural creatures being affected in a similar way, and there was no reason to doubt him, then what did that say about Misha’s situation? Did it make it better, or worse? Bran decided that all this thinking would best be put off until some later time when he wasn’t feeling so tired and he slid down the inner side of the boat and sat on the deck beside the fish crates. All the adrenaline from the surprise attack earlier had left and it was that sudden exertion that made him really reconsider his recent diet. One hundred percent fish and questionable river water was not a healthy, he decided closing his eyes. He doubted he’d be able to sleep, what between the rumbling engine and the rocking boat, but if he could rest his eyes for a bit then... When Bran woke the sky was almost completely light and he found himself trying to roll away from the brightness and into familiar scaliness. He opened his eyes and found a wall of white scales in front of him. They shifted and Misha’s head came round to investigate. Had the loong slept as well, or had he kept watch throughout the whole night? Still groggy, he sat up and planted a kiss to that scaley nose. "Morning," he mumbled vaguely. The loong gave a friendly snort and rustled at his hair. Bran would have been content to go back to sleep then and there but a crackling sound cut through the fog in his brain, putting him on alert. "You’re on a boat in the middle of a lake," crackled a voice over the line. "There are ravens circling above," came Zhan’s reply. Bran forced himself up and went to look inside the cabin. It had been too dark the night before to see much but now that it was day, he saw that the cabin itself was surprisingly roomy and even showed hints of having proper access to below deck. The vessel looked small, but perhaps it hit multitudes. "How are things?" Zhan set down the communicator by the radio on the dashboard and gave a stretch. "Not bad. Tuesday got Helen back safely so we just need to get past security and we’re home." Home. An interesting description coming from someone Bran had thought was on the opposing side. "About you helping out Misha..." Zhan waved a hand. "No need to thank me. It was a fair exchange." "...Did it involve Malcolm?" Zhan actually turned to regard Bran at that question. "No, it didn’t," he replied. "Although..." He paused. "Who is Malcolm to you?" "Why?" asked Bran, not feeling too amenable to this shift in the conversation. Zhan shrugged. "No reason," was the reply. Out through the blurry windows of the cabin loomed the intimidating mountains of a series of islands that Bran struggled to place. There were trees and beaches but not sign of habitation. Must be where this ’base’ was, he concluded. He hadn’t heard of any Whale Toes bases being out on the ocean, but who was he to know anyway. Zhan aimed them toward one dark looking cave then shut off the engine and stood. Bran was gratified to discover that he was still at least a hand taller than him. "We’re docking soon," said Zhan. "You better make sure that loong of yours doesn’t make a mess." "He won’t," Bran replied, annoyed Zhan would even suggest such a thing. Another shrug in response and Bran decided he’d had enough that morning of talking with this guy. He turned and headed out of the cabin. "I spent quite a while working with Morgan. Malcolm. Whatever," came Zhan’s voice from inside. Bran paused. "I don’t think he’s a simple guy, that’s all." "Right." Bran continued on and stood by Misha to make sure the loong didn’t cause a mess as the boat drifted into the waterlogged cave. Darkness quickly enveloped them then edged away as the powerful search lights of the boat came on. No, Zhan was right. Malcolm was by no means a ’simple guy’. -- The ’base’ had more in common with an evacuation point than any kind of operations base, even with all the gear that had been jerry-rigged into working out of it. As it turned out, the place was one of many such places built, maintained, and now being used by the SSD, though Whale Toes and a few other similar organisations, like the Hulijing Alliance or the Brotherhood of Shells, were also welcome. There was a series of caves, not unlike the ones in the now abandoned underground SSD though very different in terms of geological content, that a shocking number of beings used at every given moment. Small, narrower caves and passageways served as just that, corridors between here and there, while the larger ones served a whole bevy of purposes. To the outsider observer on the island, or series of islands as Bran suspected, would have no idea that such activity was taking place just below the surface and they were all glad for it. "The Unity had to have had all this planned out months ago," said Helen. She was still covered in dark fur and lacked a truly human face, but she was bipedal and able to speak unimpeded, at least after having something to eat. Being part taotie had its downsides after all. "Maybe even years ago," offered Bran. After the revelation that magic was real and that there was a whole secret magical world that the government, and others, had been keeping under wraps, many different groups had simultaneously risen up and taken control of key infrastructure, using the phrase ’in the name of the people’ to justify it all, even when it meant going against the so called people. "True." The half-woman, half-taotie took a massive bite of... something. It was shaped like a cooked chicken, but far too large to actually be the said animal. Or at least, a normal chicken. "So do these gangs all run under one leader, or is it more syndicated?" asked Bran. They were going over Tuesday’s ’wild guess’, the jiaoren herself having just ’stepped’ out to get hydrated again. "Bit of both," was Helen’s reply after demolishing the probably-not-a-chicken. She set it to her side on the table and Bran had to quickly grab it before Misha tried to give it a nibble. The loong gave a whine and Bran immediately felt guilty. "Do you have any more of these?" he asked. Before Helen could reply, Zhan returned to the haphazardly furnished cave with a small trolley. On top were human portioned bits of food (sandwiches mostly) while the lower decks had more large avian morsels. "Here," he said, taking the largest and placing it in front of Misha who gave a happy trill and began to eat. Bran noted the way Zhan spent a moment to confirm that the loong really did like the food before moving on. Zhan had said that his dealings with Misha before were a fair exchange which made Bran wonder. Zhan tossed him a sandwich, disrupting his line of thinking, then stacked the rest of the sandwiches in the centre of the table and took a seat. "My aunt, Yeung Serng Yin, is she...?" Alright? Bran found it hard to finish the question. "She’s recuperating," said Helen, who was already eyeing the sandwiches. "She and the rest of the Nine Dragons are meditating as mountains." "As mountains?" "As mountains." "Wow." Bran thought he had a good grip on his aunt’s abilities but it turned out he was wrong, not that it really surprised him. "And it’s not just her and the rest of them. Dragons in general have all been affected much more heavily than the rest of the jianghu," Helen went on. They were speaking in English and her terminology caused Bran pause. "Dragons? Not just loong?"