Chantale was stung by a beached lion’s mane jellyfish, which is rarely fatal but certainly hurts like hell
A high, piercing scream rose above the smash of waves.
Chantale, one foot held protectively against her chest, sobbing as she kicked sand at the still ensnared tentacles of the jellyfish wrapped around her paws. The creature was long dead, and she hadn’t meant to wander over it, but the bell had been so squishy beneath her feet that she had eyed up the tentacles as well.
And now she was in a world of hurt unlike any she’d ever experienced. Breath whining in her chest, she managed to escape the snare of the tentacles, but pain still came over her in jolts, all across her legs where the tentacles had brushed her.
Maman!
Her voice rose in that same high wail for
@Mireille , though when she didn’t see her immediately, Chantale wailed again, even higher.
Maman!
Despite the tears still leaking down her face and the fear in her throat, Chantale was a creature of vengeance. The moment her mother pulled her into her embrace, she kicked a wide swath of sand at the jellyfish. Even though she didn’t know what it was called, she knew she hated it.
Looking up at her maman, she tried to sob out what happened. How she had stepped on the bell, how she had jumped on it, and then she thought the tentacles would feel the exact same, like a bouncy house. How she’d jumped from the bell and straight into the tentacles.
Se sa ki mal! Sa ki mal!
She wailed out, kicking another gold stream of sand at the creature in her haste to burrow closer and further away from it.
of course not!! <3
A gentle soothe from her mother meant little to Chantale. The dead creature that had hurt her so, it was evil. No matter what her mother said.
Chantale snapped her narrow jaws, up and down, like she imagined a shark might were it stung by the devil incarnate. A dark shape offered her mother herbs, offered her pain relief, but Chantale’s unblinking, burning gaze stared at the jellyfish, documenting it. She would defeat it, she would kill one and drag it to the beach.
Another snap of imaginary serrated teeth.
Let it be so.