October Challenge (At least I sure as hell hope this is an elseworld)

“Shine,” said Wulf speculatively, gazing out across the water, “is that one of your goat-demons?”

“What?” gasped Shine, and looked where Wulf was gazing. Blackness crested the water, an inchoate mass of teeth, fins, and gills. The water bubbled and hissed where the thing sliced through it. It was headed towards the boat. Shine grabbed a harpoon gun and shot as it approached. A square hit, but to no effect. Or rather, where it passed through the monster, shadows leaked out and began covering the surface of the water, chittering.

“My,” said String Theory, just before the impact, which left them all shaken and shuddering more than it should have done. Shine’s head filled with a fine, unrepeatable vocabulary she had learned from the sailors in her life.

“More sail,” she said tersely, shaking out the reefs she’d put in earlier. “Perun! Take the helm!”

Perun obliged as Shine moved quickly around the boat, adjusting the Evergreen II to the extra canvas. Evergreen II began to thrum and groan. “I’ll just…yes,” said Wulf, and vanished below. Shine mentally apologised to her boat for overloading it, but speed was their best chance now.

Not a very good chance, as it turned out. The thing let them get some distance, then reared out of the water, visibly took stock, and accelerated after them. Shine frowned, then picked up the boat hook.

“Perun,” she shouted over the gathering wind, “Hard to port on my signal.” Perun nodded.

Shine had no clue if her idea would work. But she had no other ones. She ran up to the bowsprit, boathook in hand, chanting under her breath. “Now!” she shouted, and slashed the air to port with the boathook. Perun threw over the helm, and Evergreen II tacked through the rip in reality as neatly as if she’d always done it. Shine ran surefootedly and quickly astern, sealing the gate neatly behind them.

A preternatural silence descended in the calm of the Twilight. “Now what?” asked String interestedly.

“Now, we wait,” said Shine.

Time passed. Not as much as she would have liked. Then the wind picked up, and lightning started playing in the high clouds. When she saw the lightning, her heart sank.

“Shine,” came Wulf’s voice from below. “Is there supposed to be weather here? And is it really supposed to sound as if it’s laugh—“

A monumental thunderclap shook the frame of the boat, and lightning arced down towards the mast, striking it and creating an aura of eerie luminescence. The luminescence started to coalesce into a male form, simultaneously standing on the deck and towering above it. The boat stopped, though her sails were full. Shine let out the sheets so the canvas wouldn’t rip, knowing that anything she did was a token gesture of…something.

“Shine. Kyria,” beamed the figure of light. “It has been a while. A very neat manoeuvre. I’m sure my brother is both vexed and impressed in equal measure.”

“Zeus,” acknowledged Shine, wondering heavily what the price would be this time, and what she’d be turned into afterwards.