Chapter 4: The hunt.
'Fuck me!' Lee's eyes widened in realization.
It was probably his stepmother's influence, but fortunately he cursed to himself and not out loud. He made the mistake of calling her mom a month ago, and after a slight shock, Tess's attitude towards him changed significantly.
Of course, Alan tried to persuade that her Lee only had made a sound resembling the simple word 'mom', but she ignored him and from then on conversed with their son as if he was a grownup, except more playfully.
Lee finally understood why Tess was certain the hunt was going to turn out to be a complete fiasco. As the crew members continued to row toward the shore, the dinghies grew smaller and smaller in size and when they finally got to the rocky beach, from the distance Lee could barely discern the tiny figures jumping out of the boats. The distance, which he initially judged to be a couple hundred yards at most, turned out to be closer to a mile.
As it turned, out those were not rocks on the shore but cliffs, and the sleeping sea lions Tess called leoramus were not like the sea lions Lee had seen in the zoo. Those things were at least in the size of a two, if not three-story buildings!
In his previous, life Lee and his family were mostly hunting regular deer and mountain goats. His grandfather told stories about humongous beasts with magical abilities, but Lee always took those for fairy tales.
When the soldiers from the royal cavalry began displaying superhuman abilities, he had a thought that if humans were capable of wielding such powers, it was likely that beasts also could. But then he died soon after and mostly forgot about the passed events.
Tess explanation forced Lee to change his worldview completely.
She said, "Among the beasts capable of igniting a water spark, leoramus are relatively easy to hunt. The problem is – that retard Freewon has no clue how to and will loose a bunch of men in the process, that is – if they succeed. Technically, despite his lack of brains, his idea isn't half bad – at least a couple of beasts in that pack over there could have sparks, but I doubt the sailors stand a chance."