Young Writers Society

A/N: I added a couple of lines at the very start of chapter 2 that don't make a difference to plot, but not reading them makes a revelation in this chapter look blunt and sudden.

The fierce icy water grappled at Dannel's ankles, threatening to suck him down like the dregs of a drink. His legs thrashed about of their own accord and his arms batted at the water. All knowledge of swimming technique flooded from his brain and he focussed entirely on keeping himself afloat.

He gasped and tried to summon Teersin but their bond was terrifyingly weak. He kicked hard and found the forces acting upon him finally begin to even out. His head began to bob slightly above the water's surface. He twisted around in circles searching for his family but, other than him, the vast expanse of water was empty.

"Dannel!" cried a voice that could only be Hannah. The terror and panic sounded too human to have come from either of the demons.

"Hannah?" he spluttered.

Some of the loch's water sloshed into his mouth and he had no choice but to swallow it and keep his mouth shut. He whirled around again and his eyes pinpointed the general direction of her shout. He spotted the shore - a bank of loose pebbles and greyish sand - and his sister curled up in a ball at the very edge of it. Jaravin was crouched next to her, an expression of worry etched across her face. Teersin was not with them.

"Teersin!" Dannel cried, his mouth once again filling with water. He pushed himself onto his belly and was about to dive into the water in search of his imp when Hannah called again from the shore.

"No, Dannel, don't!"

He swung himself back around to look at her. He could barely see her face in the darkness but it was strained, desperate even. He made a strangled moaning sound in frustration. He couldn't just leave Teersin, could he? And Hannah wanted Teersin dead anyway, according to his mum. He faced Hannah again and she was nearly in tears. He whimpered. If he made the wrong decision, there was no way Teersin would forgive him. He began to chop a quick front crawl to the shore.

"What was the rush?" he pleaded, once he had risen to his feet on the gritty pebbles.

"This is Loch Aldin, Dannel," she reminded him.

Oh, Dannel thought. Oh, no. Geography had never been one of his strongest subjects but there was one thing that everybody in the whole of Manarilde knew about the country's landscape, maybe even all of Tayfir. It had started out as a legend - the pixies in the loch. But gradually, as they'd been investigated it had become known that the loch really was filled with miniature life forms.

They were not pixies. Loch Aldin was filled with millions, possibly billions of carnivorous fish so small that they could blend in as individual grains of sand on the loch floor. And Teersin was somewhere in there with them - poor, beaten Teersin who only moments ago had spent the last of his energy on healing his broken ankle.

In all of the panic, Dannel had almost forgotten the man whose plan had been thwarted by their escape. What had he wanted from them? If Dannel had known, he felt sure he'd have done his best to oblige. He hated to see Teersin in pain, not least because the pain spiked through their bond and jabbed piercingly at him.

"But Teersin,... " Dannel whimpered.

"It's okay," Hannah assured him, "Jaravin's going to go out and find him."

Jaravin nodded briskly and raised herself from her haunches. Within moments she had shuffled forward to the shoreline and was ready to begin her search. It was probably best that the job fall to Jaravin. She was superior to him in every aspect of moment, even swimming. Still, Dannel's chest was squeezed tight by tension and he kept forgetting to breath.

She sprang off the ground and with a flap of her wings angled downwards at the water. As she plunged beneath the surface, Dannel found himself with a desperate urge to distract himself from thoughts of Teersin. He turned to Hannah.

"Okay," he muttered, "Answers."

"What would you like to know?" Hannah asked calmly.

"Who the hell were those men at the house?" he spluttered.

Hannah took a moment to reply. She cast her eyes around, presumably for a rock to sit on. Dannel could see none. A moment later, she sighed and held her hands behind her back. Then she trembled with exasperation and grunted, flopping to her knees on the silt. Dannel followed slowly and avoided her eyes. He gasped as the damp of the silt seeped through the back pockets of his trousers and shifted onto his knees.

“They were mum’s friends,” she murmured, “They worked with her.”

“What?” Dannel spluttered, “That doesn’t make any sense!”

“Of course it doesn’t make sense,” Hannah muttered. After a few moments, she added, “Yet.”

Dannel said nothing. She still wouldn’t look him in the eye.

“There’s something you absolutely have to know,” she whispered, “But I’ve been directly ordered not to tell you.”

Now it was Dannel’s turn to howl in frustration.

“What’s going on?” he cried, “Why can’t you just tell me?”

Dannel glanced out at the loch. There was still no sign of Jaravin. He forced himself not to think of Teersin and turned back to face Hannah.

“I can’t tell you because you’re not eighteen yet,” Hannah explained.

“Neither are you!”

“I almost am,” Hannah continued, “One more week. You have to be of age before they tell you, because they don’t trust kids with it.”

Dannel rolled his eyes and grated, “Just bloody tell me.”

Hannah took a deep breath.

“We’re not like everyone else, Danny,” she whispered, “Our blood - it’s different. How much do you know about Tayfir’s ancestry?”

Dannel shrugged. “I know we’re descended from a penal colony. But what’s that got to do with anything? You don’t honestly believe in that ‘criminal gene’ that was on the news the other night?”

Hannah shook her head. “Tayfir wasn’t just a penal colony.”

Hannah gasped and her hand flew to her forehead. She rushed to her feet and faced out towards the western end of the loch. A golden head emerged from the murky depths and shook water off its scales.

“Jaravin!” Hannah cried. She pounded along the bank of the loch, silt flying outwards from her every step.

Dannel howled and sprinted after her. He expected to catch her within a few moments but she was tearing away from him. What had she been about to tell him? He wondered if it had anything to do with what his geo-histoire teacher had been going on about for the past month. The evolution of Tayfir had never really interested him. As far as he was concerned, the past could go fuck itself. It was his turn now.

Hannah had stopped when she got level with Jaravin and started wading out into the loch.

“Hannah!” he cried. He pictured little jaws snapping at her flesh and shuddered. He couldn’t think about that, especially since Teersin had been somewhere amongst a swarm of micro-piranhas for at least fifteen minutes.

Stop it.

He smacked his forehead and forced himself to focus on Jaravin. She was bobbing up and down, too weak to move. Could she be weighed down by the weight of a multi-limbed imp? He prayed that would be the case, but had no way of knowing for sure. Hannah’s strawberry-blonde hair bobbed over to Jaravin and together the two of them dragged something green toward the shore.

Dannel tried to stop himself but ended up dashing into the water to help. Something nipped at his toes and he knew Teersin would want him to go back, but he just couldn’t. Hannah was the length of two swimming pools away. They’d never make it back if he didn’t go out and help. Even if they survived their arms and legs being eaten alive, they’d run out of energy before they’d even halved the distance to the shore.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and dove into the water.