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The idea that I might give birth to a not-human-baby was alittledisconcerting. Although most dragons found that possibility disturbing, too. Even human-form babies struggled to breathe, and Lemuria’s infant mortality rate was, by any topside standard, shocking.
“You’re certain,” Akoni asked Auryn.
“I am not aware of a single documented or even rumored case of birth-form deviation. As long asyoudo not father our children, there is no chance of a water pup. An amphiptere, though, is a possibility.”
“An amphiptere may not be much better than water,” Akoni said quietly.
“We’ll deal with it when the time comes.”
Akoni squeezed my hands a final time. “Fine. Where shall we attempt this? The bathtub is not large enough.”
“I was thinking the bay.” I pointed out the window.
“Where do water dragons get trained?” Keon asked.
“Not in West,” Akoni said. “Fine. But we all go.”
We headed down to the bay, which was busy with the usual barges and boats bringing in mail and goods from the rest of Lemuria. Looked like there were barrels of what might have been eels. Was it eel season again? I needed to find where those eels were going.
We got some curious, sort of nervous looks as we headed down the main dock to where the white boats bobbed. It was busy. Akoni pointed to the part of the bay where it narrowed into the channel that would take you to K’Dol. Not much traffic there. He unsashed his shendyt and tossed it over one of the moorings, then dove into the bay, sliding beneath the water with a small splash before re-surfacing in his golden form. He twisted through the clear water to the channel.
I shed my dress and dove after him. The water was salty. He coiled his fishy tail around my legs as I approached and pulled me deeper into the channel, out of sight of the bay.
“Ready?” he asked, his snout resting level with my breasts. He flicked his tongue through the water and teased one of my nipples, then the other. I tried to squirm away, but his tail wrapped around my ankles prevented it.
“I’m trying to focus,” I told him.
He shifted his tail. “Focus, then.”
When I’d accidently unlocked land-dragon form, I’d been thinking about how I missed the ability to talk. For water form, I thought about how much I’d love to be able to swim in the ocean myself, and see the dark galleons and wrecks and creatures for myself.
The box snapped over me. I fell.
But by now I was pretty used to falling. Zero shock factor.
But something caught me before I fell-fell and I reflexively gasped, air flowing into my mouth as the sides of my neckburnedand begged for chapstick and my torso inflated with a single, long lung.
My overwhelmed brain cleared its work queue and processed that I’d shifted forms, and Akoni’s fins swirled as his long body coiled around mine. Black ink drifted on the surface of the water.
“Silly serpent,” Akoni told me, flaring his gills as he held me so my head was above water. “Don’tbreathewhen you shift in water. You’ll drown. Keep your mouth shut.”
Right. Good point. Being entangled with him like this was very nice. Scales tangled upon scales. His strong body was much longer than mine, much stronger, and he was coiled tightly around me.
“Close your mouth and donotinhale,” Akoni instructed.
I flicked my finlets at him.
He released me. Without him holding me up, I slid instantly into the water. The burning on my neck instantly eased, and I tasted salt. More like Iperceivedsalt, because the “taste” was in my throat, not my mouth.
My vision was not at all blurry under the water either. It adjusted, and I twisted about, aware my wings were doing something, and I saw my usual long dark serpent body, but it remained fully formed until the very last part, which was a kind of triangle-shaped tip with a frilly, smoky fin.
Water form achieved! I had the dramatic swirling fins of a water dragon, except mine ended in inky tendrils, and then little itty bitty fins to stabilize my motion, and my horns felt shorter and more slicked back. I almost gasped, then remembered:don’t breathe.
I flexed my gills. Yep. Gill slits.
Akoni, fins swirling in the current, watched as I tested everything out. He seemed radiant in this form and under the water, all molten metal and magic that created its own currents. I swam over to him, and our lower bodies instinctively entwined.
We broke the surface. He showed me how to keep my head at water-level, allowing water to flow over the gills. My little side-fins naturally kept me stable in the water, frilling back and forth.
