’ ‘You think so?’ his aunt said and flushed a little. ‘You’re a knockout,’ Tommy said. ‘How about I treat you to lunch after we see the ...awyer? I mean, now that I’m a rich heir, I guess I can afford it.’ Karen walked over and gave him a kiss. ‘You really are a sweet young man, you know that?’ she said. The lawyer, a pudgy, balding man with thick features, couldn’t keep his eyes off Karen once they arrived at the office. Tommy introduced his aunt and explained why he was staying with her. ‘I. The shock of the energy transfer caused him to grasp the handle tightly and, terrified, all he could do was imagine the sword pulling the life from him. Then everything went dark.It was morning when he awoke, still so weak that he could barely move. The edges of his forefinger and thumb were burned, and small blisters had formed. He vaguely remembered steam shooting back at him from the point where the blade entered the tree trunk. Upon studying the sword again, he saw that whatever had. ’ ‘Yes,’ she whispered, her voice hoarse. ‘For about a year now.’ She took a moment to compose herself before finally raising her eyes to meet with mine. There was no fear there when she looked at me. She knew exactly what it is that I was, though there was still a question in her eye in concerns to the who. Instead, she exuded and air of curiosity and intrigue that surrounded her like a second skin. Why, she even smiled at me, or began to, as she, at long last, pulled herself upright to sit. I’m coming,’ he hollered. He walked out along the thin north dock, and there was Londorox, the oldest, largest bull of his shoal. He was massive, even for a Pyfin, close to fifteen-hundred pounds now and eight feet long. His body was a powerful knot of dark brown muscles that pumped his wide horizontal tail-fin. Delicate, feathery, transparent fins sprouted from bulbs behind the head and trailed along his sides. His luminous blue eyes, three in a row and each the size of a mans head, gazed up.