Soothing the Savage Beast

Jess came up with a smart plan to quell the rage of the great ape rampaging toward the tallest tower in the city. It surprised me how bold her idea was, but there may have been merit to it…if we could pull it off, that was.

“You want to cut off her tail?” I said as we bolted towards Yamin, who was closing in on her own target.

“Yeah!” Jess answered energetically. “When you hit her tail earlier, she acted like it hurt a lot. So maybe it’s a major weak point.”

I noticed that too. But there was no telling what would happen once we snipped that thing off. Best case scenario was that it put her unconscious and prevented the chaos from growing. The worst case was that it… Well…

“Can’t lie to you…” I started. “I’m a little worried that might kill her.”

Yamin was one of my dearest friends, practically family at this point. Even if she wasn’t human, I didn’t want to hurt her in a way that she wouldn’t recover quickly from.

But protocol dictated that she needed to be subdued in some way to protect the majority of other lives at risk right now.

“I’m worried about that too,” Jess admitted. “But I think we might not have a choice.”

“I know,” I breathed out. “We’re just going to have to play this by ear.”

We were coming up on the monkey of the hour and she seemed to cool down a tiny bit, but her collateral damage was rising with each step. I was worried she would decide to stop at any moment and blast that tower with another mana cannon like earlier. If that were the case, this city, and maybe even further beyond, was doomed.

“How are we doing this?” I asked.

“I have a song that should calm her down. But I need about a minute to prepare it. Think you can buy me that time and hold her steady?”

Fighting that big monkey was going to be hard work, considering her power was currently dwarfing my own, but a minute was possible.

“I’ll get you all the time you need, but don’t waste it.” I said.

“I won’t!” she said with a determined smile. “Let’s do this!”

Yamin had found a straight lane of little resistance toward the tower and was walking down it. She stomped and kicked cars, sending some flying into the Satellite Industries building and doing major structural damage.

I sped past her and dropped Jess off at about the halfway point between Yamin and the building. Jess immediately transformed her instrument into a violin. A bow sparkled into existence in her other hand and she began to glide the bow hair across the four strings.

A cacophony of soothing sounds swirled around her with a mild doppler effect, trailed closely by an emerald wind and runes pulsing around her skin. Her channeling had begun, and so did that minute she needed.

While she was busy, I went behind Yamin to attack and get her attention.

“Take this!”

I kicked her hard in the back of the head. She reacted by smacking me away with her tail and kept stomping forward.

“Darn!” I cursed, trying again to get her to turn toward me.

No matter the pain I inflicted, and I was really trying to do some damage, she just didn’t seem to care much about me anymore. I couldn't even get close enough after the first few attacks because her tail started harshly greeting my face every time.

“Woah!”

*POW!*

I was rolling across the concrete, scuffing my feathers along the painful trip.

As I got ruffled up, I noticed a bunch of colourful things flopped out from under my plumage. It looked like the monster children that Yamin was protecting before. Were they hiding on me this whole time?

“Kids!” I announced. “Get out of here, now!”

“No!” the fire salamander barked back, a fierce look in his eyes. “We want to help you!”

“That’s right!” the frog plant girl agreed. “You might not be able to get close to her right now, but we have range attacks!”

Under normal circumstances, I would have been worried for their safety, but they might have been our best hope to make sure Jess didn’t get trampled over by a monkey the size of Te-as.

“Fine!” I agreed, but reluctantly so. “Just do enough to get her to look this way. Then get back under my feathers!”

“Let’s do this!” the fire salamander led the charge toward the great ape. I followed closely so I’d be able to grab them immediately once they were finished.

Once we were within a somewhat comfortable range, I gave them the order to attack.

“Ember!” the flaming lizard shouted as little bits of flame scattered out of his mouth.

“Vine whip!” shouted the green frog girl as vines sprouted from her back plant bulb.

“Water gun!” the turtle boy declared as a rushing rapped of water spilled passed his lips.

“Peow-paw-puew!” The yellow cat unfurled and a thunderous bolt of energy tormented out from its rosy cheeks.

The combined might of all four of them struck Yamin hard enough to draw her attention away from Jess, who was still preparing her song.

Great ape Yamin roared in pain as she turned to face us, just like I’d hoped. She was just a few steps away from Jess, who tried her best to keep focused on her spell.

“Back on me you go!” I declared, immediately collecting all the children and cat, then shoving them under my feathers.

I could tell we really peeved off that monkey, because she was glaring those vermilion eyes our way with nothing but pure seething rage in them.

Another energy blast began to build in her mouth. I couldn't let this one fire our way, so I bolted in and kicked her chin upwards.

*BWOOOV!*

The mana cannon breath attack fired straight up into the sky, just barely missing the moon Ecla. I was glad she missed, because that would have been enough to destroy it for sure!

She wasn’t done though, because the great ape immediately began charging another attack. This time I didn’t have the ability to divert it’s aim.

“Jess, you’re minutes up!” I shouted.

“It’s ready!” Jessette twirled her violin bow and strummed it purposefully across the strings.

Jess’s tune rang out from the instrument, supported in volume by the speaker built into her hat. It was like an angel had played a cord that could sooth even the most savage of demons with its heavenly vibration.

Yamin’s maw closed, the energy building within it easing up until dissipating completely.

The howls and growls she shouted into the night sky calmed into deep breaths. Then she soothed further until those breaths were soft and came from her nostrils instead of her mouth, like a beast in a restful state.

Yamin turned to Jess, who was wide open in the middle of the street. She stomped over to her, each step causing far less havoc on the road.

The great ape went down to her hands and knees and entrancingly stared at Jess, who continued to play the violin masterfully. Swirling emerald runes appeared across the witch’s exposed skin, amplifying the mystical effect of her command over the vibrations of the air.

The calming violin song became more easygoing. Jess’s voice joined in to add an extra layer to the song and turn it into a lullaby. Her voice multiplied as if many angels were harmonizing to perfection.

“♬There is no rage, no sorrow. As long as you listen to my voice, we will have a tomorrow.♬”

“♬Great beast, of whom is full of ire. Do not lose your way, and just listen to my one witch choir.♬”

“♬I’ll bring you peace and fill the world with love. Relax and listen to me. These are the cries of a kind dove.♬”

While she did everything in her power to captivate and calm Yamin’s raging great ape form, I broke my focus away from her and dove in to slice away that tail.

*SWING!*

I spiraled in fast and cut clean through! The tail fell heavy to the ground.

Yamin reacted terribly to it, roaring into the night and stomping around like performing some destructive dance. I raced in and grabbed Jess to get her away.

“Look!” Jess pointed. “She’s turning back!”

She was right. Yamin was shrinking dramatically in size and reverting back to her normal form. I quickly came in with a large tarp from one of the shops nearby and wrapped her up so she’d keep her decency.

“Yamin…” I said, laying her across the sidewalk. She was out cold and in no place to respond to me, but alive. “I guess cutting off the tail changed her back.”

“Yeah,” Jess came in from above. “I’m glad she survived.”

Jessette really did incredible work there. Whatever spell she just used, it really came in clutch and helped save my friend and the city.

“Jess, nice job,” I said. “So, you sing to cast spells too?”

“The lyrics have to relate to what I need in the moment, otherwise the spell won’t work right. But yeah.”

That reminded me a little of my own spells, like curse heal. I didn’t explicitly need to sing something related to what it did, but it helped get me in the proper mood.

“Your spell was really powerful, you know?” I mentioned, noticing the children hidden in my feathers were sleeping soundly from the relaxing power.

“That’s another thing about my magic. I can amplify spells to be even more powerful. Give me a few minutes of prep time and a lot of speakers, and I can boost the range as far as I want.”

“You can amplify spells like that with your music?” I asked.

“Yeah,” she poked her speaker hat. “This is an amp too!”

That gave me an idea on how we could save this city from the curse! But it would only work if she could do one very important thing…

“Could you amplify someone else's spell by any chance?” I asked.

She poked her chin and her lip twisted a little bit as she considered my question.

“If we sing together, yeah. Should be able to.”

“Perfect,” I said. “Then that means we’ve got a way to save Urnan.”