summoned

[mute_pen]

Etty is awoken not by her transformation, but by her summons, a few minutes after dark. In her sleep, she drifted to shore; she's lying in human form - arm intact - half in and half out of the water when she feels it.

It's very insistent.

She cannot bring herself to move. She tries - she does; intellectually she knows it's the smart thing to do - but - she can't. Cannot get up and go to him.

Comments

[pythbox]

"It's not nice to keep me waiting, Odette," he says softly.

[mute_pen]

"Ulllk," chokes Etty.

[pythbox]

He sets her on her feet and slaps her across the face hard enough to knock her back into the lake.

[mute_pen]

She lands with a splash - she gasps - that was a poor choice; her head's underwater -

[pythbox]

As promised, she cannot drown.

She cannot breathe, but she cannot drown.

[mute_pen]

Etty coughs and gasps in more water and coughs and gasps and flails and finally, finally manages to get her head above water and expel the contents of her lungs.

[pythbox]

The Baron stands over her and watches.

[mute_pen]

Etty's attention is on getting water out and air in. She coughs, she gasps, she coughs, she swallows, she sucks in more air and lets it out.

[pythbox]

He can be very patient, when necessary.

He waits.

[mute_pen]

Etty finally manages to get her breathing back under control. And less wet.

She suspects she's about to regret this.

[pythbox]

"Now," says the Baron. "You won't keep me waiting like that again, will you, my swan?"

[mute_pen]

"I tried," she coughs. "I tried - I couldn't -"

[pythbox]

"But you can," says the Baron. "You can. Get up."

[mute_pen]

She tries.

Predictably enough, she slips in the mud, and she falls.

[pythbox]

The Baron just stands there.

[mute_pen]

Etty gets up again, more slowly, shaking.

She lifts one hand to touch her aching throat.

[pythbox]

"Come up to the castle with me," says the Baron.

[mute_pen]

"Please," whispers Etty. "Please don't."

[pythbox]

"You will do as I say," says the Baron.

[mute_pen]

"Please don't make me."

[pythbox]

He picks her up by one arm and the front of her dress and tosses her into the lake.

[mute_pen]

She manages to hold a breath when she's airborne, and doesn't nearly drown this time.

She holds her breath and stays underwater as long as she can.

Maybe if she could find a hollow reed she could fashion a snorkel and stay forever.

She doesn't have one. She surfaces.

[pythbox]

The Baron is standing on the shore.

"Come here," he says.

[mute_pen]

She shrinks back, towards the center of the lake, till it's almost too deep to stand.

[pythbox]

The Baron transforms into his owl shape, swoops down on her, and grabs her out of the water.

He drops her in the middle of the lake, from enough of a height to knock the breath out of her on impact.