Suspicious men arrive
Daniel was starting to get used to the idea of all eyes turning on her the moment she comes into view. It was understandable to expect startled gasps and wide eye staggering at her appearance, no one had ever seen anything like her and it boggled the mind to even imagine something like her exists. But this was the first time since her transformation when the Sphinx herself proved to be on the receiving end of such shock. What could possibly happen that would startle a twenty foot tall flying lioness?
The lion’s own eyes bright with worry and shock, the pristine wooded dock and it’s quaint lakeside resort appeared to be besieged by well armed ninjas.
Or at least that’s what Daniel’s mind jumps to on the first moment. Another flap, the waters ripple and she’s hovering weightily, feet just sliding from the green and blue surface. There were at least twenty men within easy view, a small team set up near the road pulling out yellow and black police tape from a massive dark van to streak between various trees. Another team laying down lines of spikes onto the road, as if to stop cars from entering or leaving. In pairs of two the rest were spread across the beachfront, teaming up to grab random people and force them to the ground.
In another blink the sphinx’s wings beat with the horrendous gale of a hurricane, wings shooting out toward the trees and sending spirals of brown and gold and green trailing into the air.
These hostile intruders weren’t quite in stereotypical ninja garb on second glance, the black full body clothing was padded with thick sheets of some modern looking armor over the shoulders, the chest, the knees and thighs. Most were obviously wearing bulletproof vests, all seemed to have a headset and a helmet as dark as their suits. Combat boots being dragged through the mud and kicking up leaves. It was as if in the few minutes since Daniel dove beneath the waters a small army had invaded the resort and was set about capturing people one by one.
Capture is what it resembled, certainly. Daniel could look see a small group of beach-goers in civilian dress seated in the back of another van with arms held tight behind their backs. Cuffs? Those who were being detained had their clothing patted down, belongings and bags stripped away, one of the strange men was in the middle of pulling out a phone from a prisoner’s pocket only to be stunned into a dumb silence when Daniel’s eyes turned upon him.
Flickering from shock to panic, the lioness now realized why Angel was so intent on reaching the shoreline. The woman being a sole source of movement while everyone else was too amazed or too frightened to continue what they were doing. Paddling through the water and shoving herself into a splashing crawl once she reaches the shallows, her body tearing the waves in a wake of white bubbles and brown murk, she had a direction.
Daniel could see Keth wrapped up between two of these men, his back held roughly against a tree, one arm jammed into his throat while another man rifles through his pockets. All of their eyes were turned to look at the sphinx, even while Angel shouted at them and called out squealing obscenities.
Further back Daniel could also see Charley. Pressed against the hood of a car, not even his own car at that, with his face shoved harshly against the metal by a black gloved hand. The old southern spoken man noticed, as did the two who tried to fit the cuffs around his wrists.
“Stop! What are you doing, stop!”
Angel was the only person who dared to move at all, the silence shattered as easily as the tranquil lake had been. And in these surprised men there was fear, tangible as the wings on her back or the mist rising from the woodlands.
Daniel drifted forward. At first dipping down so that her feet splashed through the surf, but then rising high enough on exhausted flaps to push herself toward the shore. Wet and dripping her flaps spread a dazzling mist with each beat, with each stroke, and the sunlight at her back gave the hint of a rainbow in her wake. But wet wings were heavy wings and this was hard flying on the cold dead air. She doesn’t even make it to shore before her four legs crash back down to solid land, splashing through two feet of water and sending a cannonball surge of sprinkles hurling all around her.
Her knees stumbling to force through the waves, Angel was unblinking and unhpazed. Taking this opportunity to close in on the two men around Keth. Grabbing at one arm and screaming for him to let go, tugging the man to one side while Keth slithers free.
But even this wasn’t doing much to pull attention away from a towering behemoth of fur and wings and that gorgeous womanly face.
Written by Arbon on 28 February 2017