The Sodden Aftermath

You know, in movies where the characters are either hostages or heroes underwater, I’ve always tried to hold my breath with them, just to see if I could survive in the same situation. Sometimes I could hold my breath for that long, but in reality, the increased pressure and fear of death are too much for me. Even if I'm only swimming for fun, when completely submerged, I panic almost instantly.

When everyone had jumped into the old swimming pool to avoid getting burned alive, the water level (which hadn’t stopped rising) rose above my head. With my feet shackled to the floor, panic set in. I strained against the cuffs around my ankles, pulling up and up to the surface. They weren’t budging.

You can’t call for help underwater.

Before I was really in danger of drowning, however, someone grabbed one of my ankles. This scared me very much, of course, but the tight metal against my skin loosened, and my feet kicked free! The shackles had been unlocked. My wrists were suddenly pulled to one side as well, so I opened my eyes underwater to see Jinge-- Jinge!-- unlocking the cuffs around my hands. My gasp of surprise left me breathless, and I resurfaced, gasping in the smoky air. The fire had died down for the most part.

Ciaran's head popped up soon afterward, but he didn't seem surprised at all to see his formerly dead friend standing next to him and shaking the water out of his ears.

“Jinge!” I yelled, treading water and rubbing my wrists where they’d been chafed. “I'm so glad you're alive!”

He grinned, showing his white teeth. “The same to you, human girl.” he said. I never thought that would sound affectionate.

“See?” Ciaran swam over to me, looking like a happy puppy. “I told you we’d be all right!”

“You knew he was alive?” I had to yell over the noise of everyone in the pool.

“Yes, he met us before we got to the castle!” Ciaran yelled back.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

“Couldn’t have anyone overhearing. It was a surprise for Brand!” my faery laughed, pointing.

Brand was at the far side of the pool, his back flat against the wall. What hair he had left was stuck to his head, which changed his appearance completely. His face had an expression of utter disbelief and horror as he stared at the very-much-alive half-goblin.

The other people in the pool were very confused. “What in the worlds happened?” and  “When did they put a swimming pool in here?” were two of the their exclamations.

“Hey!” A voice called our attention. Everyone in the old pool looked up at the boy standing above us with magnificent blue flames still dancing off of him. His clothes were completely fine, not even smoking, and the black dragon's head peering over his shoulder made him look all the more frightening. “As Donal, son of King Alder, I declare my rightful succession to the throne. Do you accept me as your king?” he asked.

The ten bystanders who had been out of it until the fire started, nodded their heads like scared rabbits.

“Excellent! You can come out now.”  Donal said, smiling. The fire around him vanished. “I'm sorry!” He called down, holding his hand out to me. “I'm sorry, I had to get a full confession from him before I stopped him! You're all right?”

I took his and pulled my heavy skirts out of the pool. “Donal! Jinge is alive! He’s right there!”

“I know!” the Faery King laughed.

“Sorry, but what just happened?” One of the others asked us.

“Brand was just owned by Donal's awesome fire!” Ciaran said happily.

“What? And I missed it?” A lieutenant among them was greatly disappointed, and hit the water with his fist.

“Don't worry, you can watch it again.” Ciaran assured him. “Donal recorded and broadcasted the entire thing. The entire kingdom now knows the truth.”

Brand did not take this news well. When everyone else was getting out of the pool, he slid down into the water up to his cheeks and started sullenly blowing bubbles in it. Everything he had previously accomplished suddenly came crashing down around his ears in a matter of minutes, so I can't really blame him for being so shocked. Soon only him and Jinge were in the water.  While the rest of us were talking and wringing our clothes out, they stared each other down. Finally, Jinge waved his hand towards the ramp, as if to say, “You first.”

The former villain slowly walked up the ramp and dropped to his knees in front of Donal. His beautiful, long, white hair was now gone, burned in a short, jagged pattern, and his long, elegant coat was reduced to a scorched, frayed shirt.

“Brand,” Donal said grandly. “You will be taken in front of the court, properly and publicly, and given a fitting punishment. Everyone knows what you really are now.” Donal's formal speech suddenly broke when he bent over laughing. “I can’t believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book! You confessed with the entire world watching, just like on TV! Ah, it worked perfectly!” he wiped a tear from his eye. “I can't believe it was so easy! I was so scared it wouldn't work!”

Brand only grimaced and kept his eyes on the floor. The doorway had been crowded with curious faeries-- John and Emilia among them-- but no one was brave enough to come in after the fire.

“Can we get some towels?” Donal asked them. “We're going to need a lot.”

We were brought towels, and made our way to the current throne room. We got a lot of stares on the way there. A soaking/ burned group of people, with a dragon marching down the hall. I was busy trying to piece together what had happened, so I timidly nudged the magnificent king next to me.

“So when did the dragon come in? It's completely random to me.” I asked.

Donal laughed, and reached up a hand to scratch behind the dragon's ears. “This is Sol, otherwise known as Jinge's cat. We thought her species was extinct until now. Turns out they can shapeshift.”

“She saved my life.” Jinge said from her other side. The dragon wrapped her neck around Jinge affectionately, making it difficult for him to walk. He just smiled. She was black as midnight, with a long neck and tail, sleek black feathered wings that were folded at either side, and a head not unlike the dragon at the end of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. She was about as large as a cow, but she purred softly as Jinge stroked her head.               

“Did you know they'd put us in the old throne room? Was that a part of your plan?” I asked Donal.

“No, I didn't know. But Jinge was receiving the broadcast as well, so he came straight to us.”

“There were a lot of guards around the door. I would have beaten it down if John hadn't given me the key.” Jinge said.

“That did work out surprisingly well. How did you broadcast it to everyone?” I turned to Donal.

“With this!” he showed me a slightly melted piece of metal that he'd picked up from the floor. “It's what they call a bug in the human world. We disguised it in an odd casing so Brand wouldn't recognize it, but apparently he pocketed it and forgot about it. It worked out perfectly. Aunt Maud put the camera portion on my shirt, see? I connected it to the Endless Glass, and told it to stream the video and audio to every mirror in the kingdom.”

I blinked. “That sounds really complicated.”

“It wasn't that bad.” Donal grinned. “Aunt Maud worked as a spy during the second human World War, and since then she's been using these to spy on her relatives. The hardest part was the Endless Glass, but in the end, all I had to do was tell it what I wanted. It linked to me and my camera, and streamed what it saw. It was terrifying, though.”

“Okay, last question for now.” I lowered my voice. “Were you really crying?”

“Hmm? When?”

“When Brand was telling you about your dad.”

“Oh, of course I was!” Donal admitted, his face softening. “I thought he would have agreed with Brand, not stick up for me.” He stopped abruptly in front of the doors to the current throne room, which were respectfully opened for him. It was like stage fright. He did not want to go in. Everyone was already assembled inside, waiting. Donal looked back at us, in need of reassurance.

“You’re gonna be great.” I kissed him on the cheek.

Ciaran patted his back a bit roughly. “What she said.”

“If they throw rotten tomatoes at you, you’re on your own.” Jinge added. 

The Faery King laughed, and took a deep breath. “Well, here goes!”