“Beka.” Sharp teeth tugged at the long tee shirt she slept in. “Are you getting up? There’s something on TV you need to see.”
Beka brushed away tears with a hand that shook and tried to paste a disgruntled expression on her face as she rolled over to face her dragon-dog. “Fine, I’m coming. But if this is another rerun of The Lord of the Rings, I don’t want to hear about how Smaug isn’t really a bad guy at heart.”
Chewie shook his massive head, not at all convinced by her show of normalcy, but clearly willing to let it slide. For now, anyway.
“No, it’s the local news. Not nearly as much fun as Lord of the Rings, but almost as educational.”
Beka forced herself to get out of bed, ignoring her pounding head and churning stomach. She followed Chewie into the living room, where the TV showed a chipper blond weather girl predicting warm weather and no rain. What a surprise. Beka spun her hand counterclockwise, and the scene on the television rewound slowly.
“Stop there!” Chewie demanded, settling down on his haunches.
Beka snapped her fingers, and the picture started moving forward again at normal speed, showing the news from a few minutes before. A perky female reporter, nearly identical to the one who’d been doing the weather, stood on a dock with a microphone and an intently serious expression.
“We have multiple reports of odd occurrences out here at the harbor,” she said, showing a lot of very white teeth and very tanned cleavage. “Some of the fishermen have told me that their nets are being chewed up and destroyed in a way that none of them has ever seen before. A couple of men I talked to claim to have seen mythical creatures, such as Mermaids or sea serpents, and one even insisted that some kind of mysterious force is responsible for this season’s poor fishing.”
“Gee, Kelly, that all sounds pretty far-fetched,” the anchorman back at the station said. “Have you seen anything unusual yourself?”
Kelly shook her head, although her hair didn’t move at all. “No, Bob, I haven’t. But these guys are mostly experienced fishermen, and as tough as old nails. It is unusual to see them this rattled. And I did see one of the nets they were talking about, and it did kind of look like something had chewed on it.”
“So, Kelly, do you think we are dealing with some kind of sea monster out there in the beautiful Monterey Bay? Could these fishermen be onto something?” The anchorman’s cheery demeanor made it sound like someone was about to declare a new national holiday.
“Well, Bob, this is California, so anything is possible,” Kelly said, the sun nearly blinding as it bounced off her teeth. “But Mermaids? Really?” She smiled at the camera as if inviting the audience in on the joke. “I think it’s more likely that they’re on something than onto something. But I’ll let you know if I run into a talking dolphin. Back to you, Bob.”
Beka scowled so hard at the television, smoke started seeping out the back. Chewie hurriedly hit the “off” button with his paw.
“Gah,” she said, stomping off to the kitchen to make tea. “I guess it is a little too late to try and get Marcus’s father to warn the other fishermen to watch out for things that are odd and dangerous.”
“I’d say so.” Chewie looked slightly depressed under all his fur. “What are you going to do now?”
Besides kiss my career as a Baba Yaga good-bye? Beka sniffed the rejuvenating tea, slightly scented with the blue roses that formed its base. It seemed like her stomach was always upset these days, but the magical tea still made her feel a little bit better. It didn’t do anything to help the fatigue that had suddenly started to make her feel as though gravity was heavier wherever she happened to be standing, but she blamed that on the sleepless nights and too much diving. If she’d been fully Human, she would have suspected the flu. But Babas didn’t get sick.
Too bad the same thing didn’t apply to being lovesick.
She sighed. “I guess I’ll try some more magical work to see if I can get a better idea of what is at the bottom of the poisoning problem. And track down all the paranormal creatures I know, so I can ask them if they’ve heard or seen anything of our mystery renegade. I’ll be happy when the Riders get here.”
Chewie suddenly picked up his head and gave a reasonably doglike woof.
“Timmy in the well again?” Beka asked sarcastically.
“Someone at the door,” Chewie said. “Or at least there was.”
Beka didn’t know if it was just her pounding head, or if the damned dragon was making even less sense than usual. But she made her way over to the door anyway and swung the handle to open it.