One of the most important lessons which Imogen Ward had learned from her years among the dregs and shadows of the High City was that it didn't really matter if a plan was good, per se. Even the most exhaustively researched and cunning plots were only as good as their execution, and even truly inane plans could succeed if executed well. No, the important question was whether the planners were able to achieve the element of surprise. Without it, the best-laid plans went awry. With it...
The smugglers fell to the ground near their boat as Jae's spell caught them off-guard, clawing at their eyes to wipe away the sand, and continued to scramble as best they could in the direction of their craft. The witch waited longer than Jae-Song might have liked, remaining hidden under the boat's rim until she was sure the men were close enough to get a good look, even in the darkness. Then she stood up.
Technically, the form she was wearing as a chimera. She hadn't made many obvious alterations to the base, but she'd done a lot of work on the size and mass for the purposes of shock and awe. As a result, the jaguar which rose up out of the bottom of the boat was almost five feet high at the shoulder, and probably rivaled all of the men combined for weight. What seemed to be smoke curled out around the cat, filling the air above the little boat as the shocked men scrambled to stop themselves before they got too close.
Then Imogen bared her fangs, and her entire mouth erupted with white fire.
One of the smugglers, caught between a demon cat and a man with a sword, chose to fling himself back to the ground, perhaps instinctively hoping that Imogen would leap over him and he could find an escape. The other man, and Nikolas, chose to turn about and try to rush Jae-Song. Neither one seemed, in the moment, to have the wits to really draw steel and attack him; they seemed merely to be hoping they could push past him and leave their erstwhile comrade to sate the sudden demon-beast's hunger.
The witch chose to deny the smuggler that dream. She leapt from the boat like a bolt, a mass of black fur and shadow and flame the size of a small pony slamming directly into his back and driving him to the sand. If it were rock or hard clay, the impact alone might have splintered bones; as it was, he simply lay prone, whimpering and breathing dangerously fast. Imogen chose to sit down on his back, pinning him to the shore, then turned her head to hiss at the other smuggler, who had just begun rising to his feet to flee. His face turned pale, and he froze on the spot.
Meanwhile, Nikolas charged blindly at Jae-Song, eyes wild and wet with tears of shock or terror.
