murky water, right where Spark had said, she could see a pair of lumpy eye sockets and a smaller pair of lumpy nostrils, just above the surface. The eyes seemed to be open, staring blankly into space, but the Grendish made no attempt to move. Asleep, like Spark had said. All along the shelf-tops, Kir could make out nests of sleeping crows, while further down she saw the slender, ropy silhouettes of snakes. She motioned for Rogiere to follow her and together they descended the stairs, waist-deep into the water.
The snakes they had been prepared for. At the slightest fluid movement at their feet, Rogiere had dived in with startling speed and pulled up a red scaled snake with black bands across its body. The serpent writhed angrily in the bear’s maw, but before it could speak, Rogiere crunched down and severed its head from the rest of its body. He spat it out, letting the corpse bob away in the flooded basement. Another snake leapt out to strike at Kir, but her wrench made short work of it by way of a backhand that surprised even herself with its ferocity. Rogiere nodded with approval. Kir looked up from her first kill and noted that the Grendish’s head was no longer visible.
“I think we woke him up,” she said softly. Panic made her voice shriller than she had intended.
The words had scarcely left her mouth when from above came the angry cawing of the now awake crows who dove upon the pair in a fury of claws and feathers. Kir cried out and raised her arms over her head to protect her face, but the birds were without mercy. Sharp beaks pecked at her skin, drawing blood that ran down her arms and overalls and dripped into the Grendish’s bed. Claws tore at her hair and wings--so many wings! The cats had said there were only a half dozen, so how could it be that her entire world had been swallowed up in the relentless flapping of crows’ wings?
Rogiere, seeing no further use for subtlety, bellowed out a great war cry that scattered their attackers and slowed the onslaught only long enough for Kir to see an enormous, leathery tail lashing its way across the room towards them.
“Grendish,” she gasped, and Rogiere pushed her roughly out of the way.
Kir swallowed a mouthful of the bitter, brackish water and came up coughing, her lungs burning. Rogiere’s eye focused solely on the alligator’s form as it slid effortlessly through the water, but neither of them were prepared for when the Grendish leapt. His tail propelled him into the air, almost reaching the birds, and then in a spray of water his great deadly jaws were around the bear’s left foreleg, writhing to pull Rogiere under the water with him.
“No!” Kir cried, splashing up to reach the pair. This was her fight, she was the champion! Rogiere was supposed to be sidekick, not the other way around!
She almost did not notice the sharp stinging in her calf, submerged in the cold water, but as she stood, she felt something slide around her foot, nearly sending her sprawling again. A large, shadowy form slithered away into the gloom as she pulled up her leg to inspect the damage. The snake bite was big--encompassing the area just above her ankle, and already beginning to discolor. The pain reached past the butterflies and filled her eyes with sharp tears, momentarily blurring her vision. Kir swallowed hard and lurched forward towards the beasts locked in combat.
“Rogiere! This was not the plan!” She shouted, wielding her wrench high above her head. It came down hard on the back of the alligator’s skull with a squishing cracking noise. The Grendish cast a hateful eye in the girl’s direction and released his grip on Rogiere’s limb. Kir steeled herself and swung again, surprised when her foe actually took a step back.
The Grendish narrowed his eyes and jerked forward suddenly, snapping at Kir so closely that the edge of his outermost fangs drew a faint scratch of blood down her muddy, tear-streaked cheek. Kir shrieked and nearly lost her footing again. She wondered madly why she ever trusted the prophecy of a flamingo in the first place, and as if in answer, she heard the squawking and chirping of half a hundred birds flying rapidly down the stairwell.
The sparrows had managed to round up a rather large posse in a short amount of time, and soon the flooded basement was a blizzard of feathers and bird shit. The crows and snakes went on the defensive, but the Grendish did not take his eyes off Kir. Not for a moment.
He struck again, but this time her sidekick was ready and willing to stick to the plan. Before the alligator could leap, Rogiere’s massive paw hurled down, claws extended, and sliced out the Grendish’s right eye. The monster tried to sink down into the cover of the water, but Kir was ready for that. She reached into her pocket, pulled out her trusty Pepper Lord, and jammed the toy cheetah deep into the Grendish’s throat. She slipped her hand out just before the gator’s jaws clamped down, but the toy stuck fast, just as she’d hoped. The Grendish could not properly submerge itself with its throat stuck open and angrily lolled at the back of its mouth with its tongue, trying to dislodge it, giving Rogiere plenty of time to messily disembowel him with one final roar of victory. The birds, having finished with the serpents and crows, raised a cacophonous cheer and dove down to land tiny, humiliating pecks on their enemy’s corpse.
Kir’s vision blurred from the pain lancing up through her leg. She thought, impossibly, that she could hear her parents calling her name from somewhere upstairs. Rogiere helped her walk up to the landing where the rest of the Brackwater Alliance had assembled. Tibbs and Spark came forward and each extended a paw to the little girl in a gesture of fealty.
“Veraska’s dreams spoke truly,” the warlord said solemnly. “After generations under the tyrannical claw of the Elder Grendish, you have freed us all.”
“It was all Pepper Lord,” Kir said woozily.
She glanced through the gaping doorway of the hotel and could see cars circling the parking lot. Someone was definitely calling her name.
“I think I need to go,” she said. “They’re waiting for me.”
Rogiere nodded, but Spark furrowed her feline brow and shook her head.
“So soon, Champion? We had hoped you might stay. The Elder Grendish is defeated, but his children, the Younger Grendi, still roam free in the world. Someone needs to eradicate them before they can grow into monsters like their father.”
“If I see one, I’ll be sure to cut it down for you,” Kir promised. Already, though, the heat of battle was fading. Her blood felt syrupy warm and sluggish through the pain. The butterflies had burst, elated, from her chest as the Grendish breathed his last, but now they were gone. She still hadn’t had her nap.
“I’m up here, mom!” She called to the tall silhouettes on the front steps of the Mangrove. “Here.”
The Alliance dispersed quickly to wherever they could hide, save for a little grey tabby. He pushed up against the girl’s face and waited with watchful eyes for someone to come claim her.
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