by Billy Wong

Rose removed her armor, then took off her undergarments and makeshift bandages as well. She stepped into the fast-moving water, gasping in pain as it hit her damaged body. "It's chilly!"

"Whiny female." He paused for several seconds, then asked, "Are you done yet?"

"No! I just got in here!"

"You women always take so long. A river like this, all you have to do is step in and you're clean!"

"So you admit it! And you insisted it was just a stream."

Rose began to scrub the few areas of her skin which weren't torn, washing the dried blood and sweat away. Every moment in the current stung, but it wasn't so bad. Every moment she had spent walking here had hurt, too. She winced, though, at the sight of the water turning pinkish around her. Her worst wounds hadn't totally sealed themselves yet.

Something large and smooth brushed against her leg, something Rose took to be a fish until it coiled around her calf. She yelped as it tugged her off her feet, pulling her towards the deeper center of the river. Through the water churning before her, she could see a nest of rubbery tentacles attached to a conical body the size of a horse. Between two saucer-like eyes, a great beak gaped open awaiting her flesh.

"Ahh!" she cried as she thrashed in the water, trying vainly to break free from the monster's grasp. "Finn, sword!" He threw the blade at her, but a second tentacle grabbed her arm and spoiled her catch. The heavy sword hit the water and sank below. As the snapping beak drew closer, Rose planted her foot on the flesh next to it, holding her body out of its reach. It struggled to turn and bite her leg, and she kicked hard with her other foot into its eye.

Its grip weakened, and Rose struggled free to dive beneath the water. At the bottom, she grabbed up her sword and turned just as the pursuing tentacles reached her. She slashed, and though the water pressure stole strength from her blow managed to sever one tentacle. The other limbs slowed, and she threw herself into their midst to strike at the body. The beak snapped at her, ripping a chunk of flesh from her shoulder. But her sword bit deep into its body above an eye, and it recoiled. Suddenly, murky blackness filled the water before her. She swam up quickly, flailing her blade to ward off any attack. When she surfaced, though, the creature was nowhere to be seen.

Rose swam to shore, playfully crossing her arms over her breasts as she stood. Of course, Finn had already gotten a good look at her naked body. "You look nice," he said.

She stared at him, fingering the gash in her shoulder. "What looks nice? The old scars, or the fresh gaping wounds?"

"You're just so . . . big."

She rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks a lot." Despite her words, the acceptance he displayed gladdened her. Most men would have found her disgusting. "What the hell was that thing?"

He shrugged. "I didn't get that good a look, but it reminded me of the squids we ate all last month at that port town."

"I saw the resemblance to a squid. But that big, and in freshwater?!"

"There is a story about a big monster living in the mountain lake a bit north of here. Maybe that was it?"

"Maybe. Well, I'm fairly clean now. Time to go?"

Finn shook his head. "Wait. I didn't bathe yet."

"You're going to go in there, after what just happened?"

"You scared it away, so it should be safe. Thanks."

Rose sat down to tend her wound. "Fine, you take a bath. I'll just stitch myself up while you're at it."

#

They returned to Coren the next day, and Rose felt an urge to head straight to the inn and lie down in a soft bed. The old lodge dominated the little town, dwarfing the wood-and-straw houses which surrounded it, and its visibility added to her longing. But a large mass of townsfolk who had questions for their saviors blocked the way towards rest and comfort. Rose wished people would be less nosy. Wasn't it enough for them to have been saved?

"Did you stop them?" a stooped old woman asked.

"Of course," Finn replied. "Stephan the Fist is no more, as I promised."

"That is good. I wish our mayor had had more faith in you. Alas, he did not live to enjoy our triumph."

"What happened?" Rose asked, alarmed. The mayor had seemed very frightened prior to the warriors' departure, and she suspected he might have decided to commit suicide rather than face Stephan's cruelties.

"He tried to flee with his family, that disgrace. What kind of leader abandons his people to die? It's too bad about his children, though . . . They never made it--they were killed crossing the eastern river. We found one of his wife's hairy legs, washed up on the bank. It looked like it was bitten clean off."

Rose looked meaningfully at Finn. "When were they killed?"

"Yesterday; in the afternoon, I suspect."

"Not our friend," Finn concluded. "At least, unless he can fly from river to river."

Rose sighed. "There's more than one of those stupid things?"

A young man who had walked up to listen to their conversation asked, "What are you talking about?"

"A giant squid monster tried to eat me."

"Oh, no. If the rivers are no longer safe, how will we get enough food to survive?" The people of Coren depended largely on fishing for their diet.

Rose stifled a groan. She was really tired and hurting. "So these squid attacks are new around here?"