Page 4 of Legend of Scorpio
Once done with his drawing, Scorpio placed his hands on his knees, closed his eyes, and then, because it amused him, muttered, “By the power of the Zodiac, let’s go!”
Uh-oh. The realization he’d miscalculated hit the moment his body began disincorporating, but by then, it was too late. He shot to his constellation of stars, faster than noise and light, and then, from there, ricocheted back to Earth.
In good news, he made it to Antarctica.
The bad? He arrived wearing nothing but a grimace.
CHAPTER 2
“Just my freaking luck,”Rebecca muttered as she stared at the leopard seal she’d startled as she rounded the glacier she was studying. The massive bull quivered as it watched her. She backed away slowly, hands out in front of her as if that would keep it calm.
It barked and lifted itself, bristling with aggression.
“Nice seal. I’m not a hunter. You just keep sunning yourself. I’ll come back for samples later.”
Much like her singing, her voice failed to have a soothing effect.
The seal uttered a sound and slid a flipper forward.
To think she’d scoffed at the need for a tranquilizer gun. Antarctica wasn’t known for its predators. Curious penguins, yes. Seals, also, most of which ignored humans. But the leopard seals… they liked meat, and yes, that included humans. While attacks were rare, they did happen. Just ask that poor scientist killed by one in the early 2000s.
Rebecca fumbled at her utility belt and pulled forth a whistle. Sharp sounds startled most wild animals. She put it to her lips and blew.
Skree!
A piercing shriek filled the air, but rather than scare the seal, the beast began humping in her direction.
Oh, hell no. She turned and started to run. In her thick and heavy boots on uneven snow and ice, it went as well as expected.
Thump. She hit the ground and only narrowly missed smashing her face. Huffing hotly, she flipped to her back, scuttling from the seal charging in her direction, death in its gaze.
Would this be how her life ended? A blurb on the internet—Female Scientist Dies After Being Mauled by Seal in Antarctica. She could just imagine the comments.
Should have sent a man.
Why didn’t she shoot it?
Wouldn’t have happened if she stayed in the kitchen where she belonged.
At least she’d die doing what she loved.
Accepting this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study in Antarctica had been the culmination of a dream. From a young age, as a child raised in the arid and hot state of Arizona, she’d always been fascinated by snow and ice. It led to her acquiring a few degrees, including one as a glaciologist, something that had people always saying ‘Hunh?’ after asking her what she’d studied.
They didn’t understand her fascination with glaciers. How slicing into one could uncover all kinds of secrets. The way the ice layers showed past climate events. The warming and cooling of the planet over the ages. How they could help predict patterns for the future. Sometimes, a lucky glaciologist would even come across something perfectly preserved in the ice. A flash-freezing of an extinct species.
The seal hadn’t slowed its approach, and she couldn’t help but stare when…
A streak of light plummeted from the sky, bright enough she closed her eyes. When no boom accompanied the bolt, she peeked to see if she got lucky and the lightning hit the seal.
It hadn’t, but the light had stopped the seal dead in its flippers, mostly because a naked man stood between her and the startled bull.
The seal barked.
The man, who possessed a very muscly back covered in a massive tattoo, barked right back.
Rebecca blinked. Had she already been killed? A glance at her intact clothing and the still-white snow around her seemed to indicate nothing had touched her.
Not dead—not yet—but the man might not fare so well.