“I’m supposed to be behaving! You’re not making it easy!” I whispered and nudged the grinning man perched in the tree with me. The others with us silently giggled.
“Yea, well, you shouldn’t have come with us, then!” He feigned offense but smiled with glee. He was dressed with renaissance flair. All of us were. As if we had just escaped the production of a Shakespearean play.
“You said we would only be observing.” Like the other women in our troupe, I was dressed in men’s clothes. Only my bosom gave away my gender.
“I said you would be observing. I never said I would behave.” He licked the air to punctuate his mischievousness. I rolled my eyes with dramatic emphasis and sighed.
In the lake over which our tree watched, was a man of questionable motives. He was rowing a boat in which a bag of goods could be seen. We saw him from the shore and quickly determined from the man’s muttering the bag of goods were not his to row off with.
“He’s getting closer, we’re too low. We’ll be seen.” One of our cohorts paid closer attention to the rowing man than to our teasing. At the warning, we climbed higher into the tree.
“What do you smell?” Our fearless leader addressed one of the women.
“Gold. Rubies. Diamonds. Some silver. Things that won’t fuss too much about a dip in water,” she answered.
“Hey, behaving means I have to take the moral high ground. If you take the bag from him, I’ll demand you turn it over.” The playfulness was gone from my voice. He knew I was serious.
“Yea, well, there’s other issues that keep us from keeping it ourselves. For one, none of us can touch it because it’s stolen goods. Oaths, you know.” I nodded in understanding. “However, none of those oaths prevents us with fucking with the thief. We just can’t kill him. However, we need to not be recognized. What kind of appearance would be best, Weaver?”
I thought about the time of day and near sunset lighting. “A lake monster. It’s almost sunset. Lake monsters always do something shortly after sunset. Would be a shame if he woke one early, wouldn’t it.”
The others tittered approval and whispered suggestions of coloring. “So, I shall slip into the water and emerge as a guardian of the lake! I’ll tip his boat enough that the goods fall over, and scare him enough that he flees! Metis! Once you see him turning to flee, fly straight to the town and shriek about seeing a monster confronting a thief. Make sure the mayor hears of the bag going overboard.”
Metis, still appearing human, answered in the bright tones of a songbird.
“Gimme a kiss, Weaver!”
“For what, Iagus?”
“For the best production of the day, of course! The curtain rises! My cue is flashed! A kiss, dear lady, that I may be the best upon the stage!”
I rolled my eyes to the point of pain. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Iagus. Thespians! Must y’all be so dramatic! A kiss, then! That you bring Bottom to shame and be more your character than you are yourself!” I gripped his face and kissed him on the lips to the silent cheers of our troupe.
Iagus grinned deeply at the boon, beginning his transformation right there in the tree. He waited until his body was serpentine before entering the water smoothly and soundlessly. We wrapped shadows about us to remain hidden while we watched Iagus, now fully transformed, swim under the water towards the rowing thief.
The water rippled ominously around the small boat. The thief stopped rowing and called out to the empty water. Thinking himself mad from his haul, he started to row further.
The boat was suddenly bumped from below. He stopped rowing. Another bump, harder than before. He gripped the boat’s sides in fear. Despite my whisper to keep from being heard by the thief, I knew Iagus could hear me clearly. “Now, Iagus! He’s holding the boat!”
A deep yellow and brown creature emerged, tipping the boat to nearly vertical. The bag of goods fell overboard while the thief shrieked in fright. Iagus, looking now like a giant eel with far too many extra fins, extended the fins showing a blood red display. The thief was frozen in fright and could only scream in high pitched tones.
“Who ssssaid you could crosssss?” At the speech, most of the troupe facepalmed at the excessive action. The thief, however, found the words to be the impetus needed to regain some of his wits. He grabbed the oars (attached to the boat), and began rowing fiercely for shore. Iagus followed menacingly in the water.
In the tree, we were struggling not to burst into laughter. Metis watched closely as ordered. Once the thief reached land, he jumped out the boat and taunted the lake monster.
Iagus was prepared, and emerged from the water as a giant long necked lizard. The thief’s eyes nearly fell out his head at the sight. He turned and ran screaming into the forest.
Metis jumped from the tree, turning into a bird as she fell, and flew off at once to report the lake guardian that is holding stolen goods. Iagus returned to the water and swam to us. Leaping in serpentine form into the tree, it was a human hand that gripped mine. Fully clothed and dripping wet, Iagus clambered onto a branch beside me.
No one spoke. We looked at each other with held tension. Then we all exploded into laughter. Our mirth spent, we quickly climbed down from the tree and made our way to the troupe’s camp. The townsfolk were sure to investigate Metis’ story and we had to be out of sight before they arrived to rescue the stolen goods.
As we ran and jumped with mirth through the forest, the night settled upon scene and awareness, ending the dream.