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She took another deep breath, then started to shout in kelpie, loudly clicking in the way only her kind understood. She was calling Nessie's name as loud as she could, again and again, until she finally got a reply. The clicks were too far away to understand, but it was enough to know that someone had heard her and was on the way.
Macey waited, treading water, wishing she could go for a proper swim and visit her relatives. She'd always been an independent kelpie, especially when she moved onto land, but still, she loved her family.
"Maaaceeeyyyy!"
The waves of the loch elongated the call and she couldn't help but smile. It wasn't Nessie who was coming to meet her. It was her father.
He was a large kelpie and didn't just have one, but two antennae protruding from his forehead. It was the sign that he was the king, the most powerful of them all. Kelpie monarchy was only partly hereditary. If a kelpie with two antennae was born, it was usually raised in the Royal family as the crown prince or princess. Neither Macey nor her two brothers had two of the strange sense organs, so if a two-antannaed baby was to be born just now, they'd slip down one place in the line to the throne. Macey didn't really care; she'd never aspired to be queen.
Right now, the king's antennae were twitching as he approached his daughter.
"You brought a friend?" he asked as way of greeting, before gently nuzzling his head against hers. "Is he more than a friend?"
"Dad!" Macey flicked her tail at him. "Behave. He's not met any other kelpies yet, so please don't traumatise him."
The king laughed heartily. "It's good to see you, my daughter. I assume this isn't just a family visit?"
His large eyes turned a little sad and Macey regretted that she hadn't been able to come for a normal visit in such a long time. Right now, she'd love to dive down to the palace, play games with her father, steal treats from the cook, check on her algae collection. But no, she had to save the world. The responsibility was weighing hard on her shoulders, but she also felt like a bit of a fool. How was she, Macey, a loch kelpie, supposed to do something so monumental? She had no clue of what she was actually doing, or what she had to do to succeed. It was all just one big mess that nobody was going to clean up but herself.
"I've missed you," she whispered, rubbing against her father in a hug. "There's a lot I need to tell you."
"I'm listening."
She shook her head. "Let's return to the surface so Cam can join the conversation."
"Cam? That's his name? I'm having trouble sensing what he is."
She smiled. "A wraith."
"Oh. Not met many of those. There used to be a wraith couple running a pub in Inverness, a long time before you were born, but..."
"Dad?"
He chuckled. "Sorry. A story for another time. I'll half-shift, if you don't mind. I don't want to show my future wraith-in-law my naked human form."
Macey swallowed hard, but decided not to comment. It was better that way. Her father had a strange kind of humour, and she couldn't put it past him to shift and go talk to Cam while being completely naked.
Kelpies were used to nudeness when shifting, but she'd learned quickly that other species weren't the same. She was so used to the human sense of modesty that she was almost ashamed to shift and return to Cam naked.
She shook off the embarrassing thoughts and began the shift, slowly changing from kelpie to human. The moment her gills disappeared, she broke the surface and took in a big gasp of air.
"Everything okay?" Cam called from the banks of the loch, quite a distance away.
Instead of answering, she swam to him with strong, fast strides, reaching him much faster than a normal human swimmer would have been able to. It was part of her kelpie magic.
"Who's that?" Cam asked while she was leaving the water, searching for her clothes. Cam handed her her shirt which he'd carefully folded over his arm. He was such a gentleman.
"My father," Macey muttered. "He's the king but just behave normally. He doesn't expect formality from non-kelpies."
Cam nodded, apprehension showing in his features. While Macey had met Jared's adoptive parents, this was the first time one of the guys met her family.
"Is he going to come outside?"
Macey pulled up her jeans and slipped into her shoes. Her feet hadn't dried yet and she sighed at the squeaky feeling that she was going to have to deal with for the next hour or so.
"No, he's going to stay half-shifted," she explained. "Dad, meet Cam!" she called out and her father swam closer to the shore. His torso was human, but his back and legs were kelpie. He looked a bit like a centaur, Macey thought with a smile.
