thoth
we spend all our time running for our lives, going nowhere

Thoth took a deep breath, feeling his lungs filter the oxygen from the water. The situation was, at worst, mildly annoying. This moron of a guard apparently didn’t know him well enough to know what holding his head underwater wasn’t going to drown him, but he was still strong enough that Thoth couldn’t wiggle out of his grasp. He squirmed, trying to break the iron grip on his arms, which were twisted behind his back.

“Not your day, eh?” A sympathetic voice drifted through the current. Thoth managed to twist his neck enough to see a trout skimming idly through the water, watching him with something as close to amusement as a fish face can assume.

“Yeah,” Thoth muttered. “Think you could…?”

“Got ya back, buddy,” the trout reassured him. It darted up to the surface and broke out of the water. There was a yelping sound and the grip on Thoth’s arms loosened. He twisted himself out, pulled his head back out of the water and released an ice blast directly behind him. There was a whistle and a dull oof as the guard was sent flying backwards.

“Cheers.” Thoth threw down at the trout as he dragged himself back to his feet. The little fish did a merry loop-the-loop, but he’d already turned his back on the river and started to make a beeline back for the camp through the trees. How long ago had he heard the sentry whistle, five minutes? Ten? Just his luck to get waylaid by a Goliath type on his way back to camp.

He broke through the boundaries into utter chaos. The furious clash of metal, magic and battle cries vibrated in Thoth’s bones, almost making him back up. He caught himself before he did, noticing the thin plume of smoke on the other side of the camp where the horses were kept. Fire.

He ducked and elbowed his way through the raging battles, blasting any conveniently placed assholes in blue uniform with alternating jets of ice and boiling water. It took a moment or two to break free of the skirmish enough to spot the gate to the paddock, which Tris was crouching in front of. A man in a blue vest was charging towards him, sword raised. Thoth bolted forward, generating a glob of airborne water which grew rapidly the closer he approached. When the man was only a few metres away from Tristan, he dropped it, sending a metric ton of water crashing down onto the guy’s head. He collapsed to the floor and didn’t move. Thoth leapt over him, his shoes squelching on the muddied ground, and dropped to his knees to help Tris lift the fence panel.