The Little Intruder

Aviemore, Scotland, the day before

Nessy sat sulking on her bed at Clan MacKenzie’s Inn, her mother had grounded her for playing a prank on some tourist. She tried to defend her case that all that she wanted to do was to swim and their boats were in her way. In her haste to scare them away, she had gone too far and now there were pictures all over the mundane web of the new Loch Ness Monster sighting.

Her mother was not amused, she had taught her better than that. Not since she adopted the human girl did the monster have such a problem to deal with. The girl had to learn that there were consequences to her actions, so she decided to make her stay grounded until the whole affair died down.

To Nessy’s angst, Peter MacKenzie had received some news from his twin sister and decided to travel to Springfield. “It’s not fair, I wanted to go too!” Truth be told, she hadn’t gone to Springfield in too long a time and missed her dear friend that lived there.

She was sulking and bored to tears in her room, daydreaming of all the fun she could have had in Springfield. Suddenly, she caught the derp scent of her friend. “Mimi!” She instantly got excited and thought that maybe the gorgon girl was coming to visit her or, better yet, bust her out of her prison.

When she felt that, instead of coming over to her room, the scent was actually leaving the Inn, she began to feel sad. She did not want to lose out on playing with her friend and so, in an act of desperation, she managed to escape from her room.

Unfortunately for her, either Mimi was playing one serious game of tag and seek or someone was playing a mean prank on her. After more than an hour of chasing, following it even when it went back to the Inn, the scent suddenly disappeared.

Back to the Ashcroft Academy cafeteria, present time

After being reminded of his quill, John devised a plan with Amelia for what they had to do during their visit to June’s home. Suddenly, something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. An angry cheerleader was heading towards them. He sighed lamenting that this was not going to be a peaceful lunch for him. They hadn’t even started to eat yet.

“Had a nice time at the Principal’s office, Rita?” Amelia grinned, temporarily stopping the cheerleader in her tracks.

“You bitch!” Rita seethed at Amelia, getting way too close to the girl's personal space. “I knew it was you who sabotaged my chances to win Miss Summers’ art competition. Because of you, I even got detention.”

“That’s what you get for trying to cheat.” Amelia shrugged, trying not to show that she was angry about the intrusion. “You dare to use your powers on our teacher, a mundane one for that matter.”

“How did you…?” Rita started to ask but stopped to defend herself. “I was not trying to cheat, you bitch!” She got closer to the girl, gritting her teeth. “I’ll make you pay for this. This is far from over!”

“I sure hope so,” the Scot scoffed, giving her a challenging smile.

“Trust me, John.” Rita turned to him in an unthoughtful act. She used a softer tone to give John a sense of trust in her words. John had to shake his head as he felt an unnatural pull.

Amelia instantly noticed what was going on and cut her rival off before she said anything else. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing? You better back the fuck off, cunt! Don’t even think that I’ll let you pull that shit on John ever again.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Rita asked, hiding her intentions while smiling at the Scot. “Wait, you mean that little incident from years ago? And you just found out now? And they say you’re smart.

“If you know what’s best for you, John,” Rita said, changing her mind and deciding to warn him while ignoring Amelia, “you’ll stay away from her.” She stormed off to the cheerleader’s table preferring to have the last word.

“Oh, she’s lucky I am not allowed to kick her ass,” Amelia said, still feeling mad at Mrs. Wentworth’s demand. As the duo watched Rita sit down, she added, “Not without provocation anyway.”

‘After all these years, Rita is still trying to separate us,’ John thought then looked at his friend, seeing her observing the goings-on at the cheerleader’s table. ‘This is ridiculous, I don’t want to stay away from Amelia, on the fucking contrary!’

“Ah, Amelia,” John tried to gather enough courage to say what he wanted to since before June’s class, “there’s something I… I wanted to ask you-”

John interrupted himself and sighed once again when he saw movement from the jock’s table. Frank had stood up, gladly electing himself to take care of the nerds for their slight on the cheerleader. From under the table, Amelia took his hand and held it, knowing what was coming as well.

“The guys over there think you’ve got some balls, Nerdman,” the head jock said as he approached the duo. “You know what I think?” he asked as he leaned on their table resting one meaty fist on it. “In my opinion, you've got brain damage from our last talk.” He continued not giving John enough time to answer.

Amelia tightened her hold of John’s hand. He wasn’t sure if she was reacting in anger to the jock’s remark about John being beaten up or if she was trying to hold him in place so that he wouldn’t react to the jock’s provocation.

“Now, we were planning on having another nice little talk with you since the last one clearly didn’t sink in,” he continued with a smirk and then got serious. “But then you had to go and upset one of our girls.” John knew what was soon coming and, as he looked around, he wasn’t surprised when Coach Conroy, who was on duty as the monitor of the cafeteria, was nowhere to be seen.

“You better leave, Amelia,” the jock warned her, giving the same predatory smile his Coach gave to June earlier on. “What are you even doing here, anyway? Someone like you deserves better. Such a waste!”

“You know what, Frank?” Amelia asked as she let go of John’s hand and then stood up. “You are right. He is a fucking nerd and the biggest loser of this school.” The cafeteria fell silent at this point, everyone had stopped what they were doing to watch the scene. John’s mind was going miles a second; he could see that Amelia was up to something, yet he wished he knew what it was. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking. The John I knew when I was younger wouldn’t have taken the crap he’s been dished out lately, it’s like he isn’t even the same guy. I obviously need to move on to the big strong footballer type.

“Please,” she said as she walked around the table and then, as she got close to him, put her hand on the jock’s shirt-covered chest. That one bit of movement almost broke John, but it did have her desired effect on the jock. “Is there anything that I could do that would make up for my mistakes?”

“We... Well,” Frank stammered, “si… since you insist, we could-”

When the jock dropped his guard, Amelia grabbed his shirt and pulled him, adding to the **** of her leg movement; her knee made contact with his groin. Frank fell on the floor holding his package.

John was so surprised, looking down at the felled jock, that the only movement he could manage was an involuntary flinch covering his crotch. All he knew was that the blow looked hard enough to cause serious doubts about any future little Franks ever swimming again.

He got another surprise in the means of an achievement.

Achievement Unlocked - Jock Neutering
Well, almost. But you didn’t do anything to deserve this one. Amelia, on the other hand, will have a big surprise waiting in your barrier scenario option.
And no, she will not be able to read this message, I made sure of it... just in case, this message will self-destruct. Now!

The message disappeared just as Amelia rounded the table. Seeing John was slow to react from his stunned state, she began snapping her fingers in front of his face. “John!” He finally turned to look at her and she smiled at him. “Of course, I’ll go out with you, John. But we really need to get out of here now, before-”

“Get them!” Frank let out a high-pitched scream. Being a jock, he was used to recuperating from the pain.

“Run!” Amelia ordered as she dragged John out of his chair.

As soon as John got his head together, the duo made their escape. With the jocks hot on their tail, Amelia told John, “As soon as we leave the school grounds and are out of sight, I need you to create a barrier. Make it an empty one, we just need a place to hide.”

“Alright.” John nodded. “We need to find a place for me to cast it.”

“Just follow me,” she instructed him after they barged through the academy’s main exit.

A few seconds later, they heard the sound of the door bursting open behind them. “There they are, after them!” the duo heard as the jocks continued their chase. John was thankful that his physical improvements were enough to allow him to maintain enough of a pace so that the jocks were gaining minimal ground on them. “You won’t get away from us!”

While keeping an eye on where Amelia was going, John called up the window for his create instant dungeon skill. She was already part of his GamingDuo party, so he was pretty sure she would get pulled into the barrier.

As Amelia suggested, John was about to create an empty barrier but then remembered the achievement’s reward for Amelia; he quickly tapped on the scenario selection in search of what it was. He had a huge smile on his face when he saw it and, after silently thanking Gaia, he tapped it. As soon as they rounded a corner into an empty alley, he created the barrier.

“Damn, my knee hurts,” Amelia exclaimed after entering the barrier, crouching down and rubbing the impact area. “What the hell was that prick wearing? That was no protection cup, for fuck’s sake.”

“Are you ok?” John asked her, amused that her priority was on the state of her knee and not on where they were.

“I’ll be fine…” Amelia stated those last words slowly as she finally noticed that she was standing on a grass area. Her eyes grew bigger as each detail of the landscape registered. The duo was standing on top of a hill, overlooking a valley. At the edge of the hill was a small town.

Even though he selected the scenario, John marveled in surprise at the details he saw. The very town he was in a day ago was there in front of him. He didn't know that his skill could create a barrier like this, but if anyone could do it, it would have been the creator of his powers. However, whatever he felt, it wasn’t nearly as close to what Amelia was feeling.

“Holy shit. Is that… Is that Aviemore?” she asked, shocked. “How’s this even possible?”

“Ask Gaia,” John said, not even daring to steal the glory from the goddess’ prowess.

Smart move.

“I can see my uncle’s inn from here,” Amelia continued, still taking in everything. “You went there, right?” she asked, too baffled to care that they both had already talked about it.

“Yes.” John chortled. “The Bauchan Camp was somewhere over there,” he said pointing to a wooded area to the left of the town.

“Thank you, John.” She cleared a tear from her eye. “You could have just set up an empty barrier and it would have been enough. The only way this could have been more perfect was if you transported us for real.”

“I had a feeling you’d like it-”

John was interrupted by Amelia suddenly facing and inching closer towards him. She had a determined facial expression, unlike any he’d ever seen on her before. She took his hands and her face inched ever closer until their lips finally met.

John knew it was different this time. This was their proper first kiss. His body and soul filled with joy as he felt the love radiating from her; he was overwhelmed by the feeling of every inch of her wanting to get closer to him. He only took a second to respond and get used to everything he was feeling; still not being used to his extra senses really didn’t help.

Amelia dropped one of his hands and her right hand made its way to hold the back of his head pulling him closer; all he could do was mimic her. Their bodies collided, molding to one another as their kiss got more intense. As if they both knew what the other wanted, their lips simultaneously parted and their tongues met and danced, sending electric jolts coursing through them.

After what seemed like hours losing themselves in the kiss, they finally parted gasping for air. While still in embrace, Amelia dropped her head on his chest, sighing happily.

“That was nice,” Amelia exhaled, smiling as they separated.

“It sure was.” John smiled back. “So, what now?”

“Ameeeeliaaa!” Out of nowhere, something green sped past John, too quickly to identify before it tackled Amelia, who out of reflex positioned herself in order not to get knocked down.

“What the hell!?” both John and Amelia exclaimed at the same time but for different reasons. In John’s case, it was because the barrier was supposed to be devoid of living creatures.

Don’t ask! This is not worth my time explaining.

John saw a small emerald-haired girl happily hugging Amelia. Apart from her pale pink skin, almost everything about this girl was green. She had mint-colored eyes and was wearing a moss-colored one-piece swimsuit with a matching tail sewn on it. To complete what John figured was a costume, she had a green beanie to represent the monster’s head: eyes, nose, and spikes - all green.

“Nessy!?” Amelia addressed the girl as she somehow managed to stay upright. “What are you doing here?”

Before answering her, the small girl started sniffing the air while turning to John.

“You, cheater!” The girl looked at John annoyed. “I’ve been chasing and searching for you for days! It’s not fair to hide inside a barrier.” Her eyes grew wide as she realized she was berating a total stranger.