#keth

Alratchne: A small, but disproportionately powerful guardian who has traits both humanoid and arachnid. Suave and smooth, she was one of the people in charge of looking after Zach and Zeke before their unfortunate infusion. She has intense agoraphobia and is always piloting a bone puppet made from the bones of other guardians (guardians regenerate from anything so long as the infinity organ is okay, so these are ethically sourced). Luminescence type: bio and phosphorescence, color: yellow.

Boaht: Alratchne’s partner who lives with her in their underground quarantined burrow, he is a massive vaguely scorpion-like guardian with wings who is constantly secreting thousands of constantly evolving diseases (guardians are immune to disease so his quarantine is for the safety of non-guardians). Despite his terrifying appearance, he is a soft, quiet and intensely shy homebody that Alratchne often speaks for because he is nervous around new people. Luminescence type: bio, color: sickly green.

Voltigig: An elegant and beautiful six limbed feathered serpent with a crown of horns surrounding a fully functional parietal eye. While having a positive public image and being one of the people in charge of looking after Zeke and Zach before their sudden transformation into guardians, she hides a murderous hatred towards Yigg and a dark secret. Luminescence type: bio and occasionally cathodo, color: turquoise.

G’aaki: A small, scaly, rainbow colored slug-like guardian with six pseudopods, three eyes, and two rows of spines that inject hallucinatory venom. They are The scientist of the guardian society and are the leading expert in physics, quantum mechanics, and many other related topics as well as being the best teacher. Another person put in charge of looking after Zeke and Zach. Luminescence type: bio, color: rainbow.

Sebek: A rotund, vaguely crocodilian, bipedal guardian with three jaws and arms that end in organic cannons. She is a boisterous and troublesome individual who was previously a POW before going through rehab. Luminescence type: thermo and occasionally cando, color: orange.

Keth: A massive three headed, aquatic, and heavily armored guardian with many retractable body parts. He was once a war strategist, but nowadays he is in charge of keeping Sebek out of trouble. Despite his gruff exterior and attitude, he is actually quite polite. Luminescence type: bio, color: red.

A spot of blue appeared at her right—Ada, to the rescue. She shucked off her coat, swords, and thrust a rope into Red’s hands hard enough to stagger her. “Hold onto this or tie it to the boat,” she ordered, and with the other end secured to her belt, stepped up and dove off the edge. 

Her dad and uncle rushed up to flank her left. Her dad took her end of the rope. Relief nudged in beside the fear—better their lives were in his hands instead of hers, since she was the reason Rigel was at risk of drowning in the first place. 

Two quick tugs jerked the rope. Red cast her gaze over the water beside her dad. She saw Rigel, but no Ada, even though the twine was taut between them.

Keth heaved, bracing one foot against the bulwark. Rigel rose from the water, spluttering but not choking, and Ada followed, holding him round the waist with his head propped above hers. Keth and Rugarth scrambled to drag them both over, lurching with the ship. Ada landed on her hands and knees while Rigel somersaulted once before he tumbled onto his rear. 

He clutched a tattered shirt clinging to his skin with a trembling hand. An angry mark seeped out from underneath the largest tear, restaining the cloth with blood, the edges of the wound crisped with bits of frost.

A cough and a wheeze escaped him before he jabbed a finger in Red’s direction. “That girl is dangerous!”

Red scowled. Ada flipped onto her butt, flicked her braid over a shoulder and rolled to her heels. Her chest rose and sunk from exertion, but her breaths came full and bereft the rasp of wetness. She spit out a stream of seawater. 

“She—I swear, she knocked me over on purpose! Summoned some kind of—giant, ethereal tentacle—” Rigel continued to prattle uninvited, even as Keth helped him stand, his hand’s width the length of Rigel’s arm. “Left me this! Tried to kill me, she did!”

“If I wanted to throw you off, I wouldn’t have used a giant tentacle!” Red argued, too late realizing that didn’t buy much in the way of innocence. She backpedaled. “But I didn’t—I don’t have—”

“My daughter’s not in the habit of killing people,” Keth interrupted.

“I think we’d've noticed a giant tentacle,” Rugarth added.

“In this weather? I could barely see it!” Rigel exclaimed, swiping his sopping brow. 

“We don’t have time for this right now!” Ada yelled, voice competing with the howl of wind. “Rigel, head below deck so Annie can patch you up. Rest of you, back to your stations; witnesses and explanations can come forward later. No buts! Go on!”