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“I see another wish granted,” Akoni informed me smugly.
I chirped. Couldn’t talk in this form either.
Auryn ran a hand over one of my horns. “Interesting. Different horn shape and fully realized body instead of the drifting terminal end.”
Keon shoved Auryn water-polo style and swam closer. Akoni shifted slightly, exposing more of his belly to give Keon a bit of pool-float-belly, while keeping the tip of his tail entwined with mine. I flicked my finlets and succeeded in splashing Keon with a few drops of water while chirping.
Akoni snickered.
Auryn shook water out of his hair and drifted to our other side. I twisted a bit to offer him pool-float belly. Auryn slid over me, and stroked my body while tugging it against him hard enough I let go of Akoni and flicked my tail around his ankle. “You areverycold.”
Akoni snorted in amusement, and Keon said, “This water is freezing, now that you mention it.”
“The air around you is always cold,” Auryn told me teasingly, giving me another stroke. I instinctively tried to giggle, but just chirp/mumbled so hard I slid under the surface and blew bubbles before I regained balance.
“You’ll learn to use your lung like a float bladder eventually.” Akoni lifted himself a bit higher in the water so he could look at me while I wriggled. “Maybe. Eventually.”
“Lets go with very eventually,” Keon said while I got tangled in my own fins and ended up at the bottom of the channel.
I sorted myself out, re-surfaced, and splashed Akoni with some water from my fins.
“Oh no. She splashed me. I am wet. Whatever shall I do.” Akoni sank dramatically into the water.
Auryn’s touch was beautifully warm and made my scales tingle and sparkle like a hard frost night.
whump whump whump
I chirped.
Dekka, in dragon form, came around the bend.
Fifteen
16 - FAMILY
Dekka flared her wings outward, then hovered in the air with slow, strong, and very angry flaps.
I righted myself and frilled my fins extra-hard to raise my body out of the water. I chirped.Look, Roost-Mom, no wings!
Chirp chirp chirrrrp!
Dekka canted her head to one side. “Is that water form?”
Chirp!
She slicked all her finlets down, reminding me of a cat pinning its ears back. “Get back to the dock.Now. All of you. You’ve set off the temperature alarmsagain. And donotbe seen, Helena.”
I obediently headed down the channel, swimming close to the bottom along the lights, then the bottom dropped into the bay, revealing a sandy bottom that was clear but dim. Above me, like a creature made of molten metal, Akoni skimmed the surface.
As I moved over a stray cluster of seaplants on the sandy bottom, they visibly withered from my frigid, destructive aura.
I shifted back into human form and swam the rest of the way to the dock. Akoni waited by the dock in human form, hanging onto the edge of the dock with one hand. He looked unreasonably good like that, and I’d have been more intrigued if not for Dekka having already landed with Hekon tapping his foot just a few inches from Akoni’s hand.
The bells on the hem of Hekon’s formal shendyt jingled in time with his foot taps.
“I figured as much,” Hekon told me as I popped up next to Akoni.
Akoni mantled up onto the dock and hauled me up next to him. I dropped to my knees and shivered, rubbing my arms. Keon and Auryn were not far behind, swimming through the freezing water with effortless grace.
