Alfred was halfway up the ladderwell when he heard someone shout for him, and turned to see —

Oh, fuck. Alfred’s eyes widened and his heart skipped several beats all at once. That was certainly not meant to be on the deck of his ship, and he’d seen nothing like it in all his years of sailing prior to this. As an explorer he wasn’t one to shy away from the unknown, but this was the wrong kind of unknown — he wanted it off his deck, immediately.

“Make all sail,” he shouted to the officer of the watch, an order which would see the crew aflutter with activity as they loosed everything that had been tightened and unfurled every sail. Alfred didn’t know what this thing was or what it wanted, but he knew he wanted all of the Voyager’s speed available to him as he tried to wrest the ship from its clutches. He turned and jumped back to the main deck, because as much as his command might be needed on the quarterdeck he could not just walk away from whatever that thing was.

He drew his wand, but didn’t know what to do with it. The thing that came to mind most readily was to set it on fire — fire could hurt anything — but a poorly placed spell could put the ship in more trouble than she was currently. “Relashio,” he shouted after a second’s pause. The tentacle flailed and released its hold on the deck, but only to wave wildly in the air a few feet above where it had been.

“Watch out!” Alfred yelled to those nearest the thing — Dionisia and the auror, by the looks of it. Merlin, don’t touch Dionisia, he prayed. Ari’s not going to be quite so supportive of me joining the family if I let his wife get killed by a sea monster.