As if that weren’t odd enough, its head boasted a central horn that arched back from its forehead in between two larger pearly horns that jutted back from its brow. These horns were marked with pink spots that traveled down their length, down the bridge of its nose, and two lines running down the sides of its neck, arms, torso, and legs. It even had a long, tapered tail with a strange, thin fold of skin at the top like flattened spines that had more ofthose pink markings running down each side. It had long waist-length hair the color of burnished copper and almost nightmarish long, clawed fingers and toes.
It had only been a brief glance, but the image had seared into her mind and was what had her glancing out of her shelter day after day looking for any sign of it. She prayed that it wasn’t out there now. She hadn’t gathered enough dried fish from the tsunami deposits to make it longer in the cliffs and she would need to replenish her fresh water soon.
She grinned widely. The beach was empty!
Snatching her pail up in one hand and a tightly woven net in the other, she descended the cliffside onto the open beach. She could see the strange three-toed footprints of the creature everywhere from where it had scouted around her beach. It had thankfully never attempted to breach the cliffs, but it had made its curiosity abouther territory clear. She only hoped that maybe it gave up and decided not to return. With a satisfied hum to herself, she strode down to the water and set her pail just beyond the reach of the tide. She squinted up at the sky, pleased to see that the sun was high and there were no clouds on the horizon. She would be able to get a long day in before night fell.
The water was cool as it lapped at her legs. She stood thigh-deep in the water and cast her net in. She emerged a time or two to put a fish in the pail, but there was just not enough fish that got beyond the barrier. She bit her lip and stared out at the sea beyond her island. Fishing would be better out there, and it was possible that the aliens moved on. She’d probably still have good fishing days ahead of her before the predators began returning to the area after being frightened away. She probably would never have a better chance. She could fill her canoe with fish and spend her day late into the night smoking provisions.
Pleased with the idea, she bundled her net back up and hiked up to her canoe. She dumped the net into her boat and dragged it down to the beach into the water. As she paddled away from the island and beyond the barrier, she kept her spirits high. She would have a haul so good that it would make the fishing families jealous if they were to see it. She would have enough fish to keep her stocked until the first fruits ripened. She’d almost been tempted to throw the two small fish she already captured back but had left them behind. There was never a guarantee in life. The fish in the pail would keep until her return. If she did as well as she hoped, she could throw them back then.
Hours later, she sat in a boat with a foot of water at the bottom. There were already a number of fish flopping about, their mouths gaping, but she eagerly tugged on the line of her net to pull more in. It was a little disgusting having their slimy bodies wiggling around her toes, but it was a small inconvenience. It was hardly the worst of it. Her nails felt thick with grime as she pulled more fish from the netting that caught around their gills.
She’d grabbed ahold of another fish when movement in the water caught her attention. Not just a movement. It wasn’t like when she’d seen the alien swimming beneath her boat. It was much… bigger. A large dark shape slipped beneath her canoe and she felt a trickle of sweat run down her back seconds before the entire boat heaved into the air.
Thrown free of the canoe, she landed in the water with a splash a short distance away. Water flew into her face, filling her nose and mouth with briny fluid and her eyes stung. Disorientated, she floated for a minute, blinking her eyes rapidly under the water to clear her vision. The monstrosity in the water with her bore some passing resemblance to the considerably smaller sharks of old.
The whip shardon had a wide mouth that encased terrible jaws filled with teeth, but at either side of its mouth it had a long prehensile feeder that snagged around anything within range to drag it to its terrible maw. It made sense that its bulbous body wasn’t built so much for speed as it was for sheer brute strength. Its entire head down to its dorsal area was spiny, but in place of a dorsal fin it had a pair of long, tail-like whips for which it was named, each tipped with an enormous poisonous barb they were capable of attacking with.
Air exploded out of her lungs in fear as she turned away and stroked through the water. She knew she wasn’t going to make it. There was no chance of out swimming a shardon. She knew she was just delaying the inevitable, but she couldn’t make herself stop and accept her fate. She would keep swimming until her body couldn’t do it anymore. She felt a stinging sensation as something wrapped tightly around her leg. It yanked her back with enough force to snap her through the water. She didn’t even have to look back to know that it was dragging her back toward its enormous mouth.
She struggled against the feeder, but the touch of it as it tightened with her every kick dug in and burned the flesh. The sensation traveled up her leg until she couldn’t move it. Seconds later, her entire body seized up into a mass of fiery pain. Her lungs burned with the need for air as she floated limply in the water as the shardon dragged her body effortlessly. The flash of white in the water nearby barely registered in her mind before it fired a round projectile at the shardon. Just before impact, it burst into a network of large, thin needles that pierced the thick flesh of the predator.
The shardon whipped through the water in a rage, gearing up for attack but her rescuer shot off another two rounds. In the end, it served as enough of a deterrent that the predator swam out into deeper waters in search of easier prey. Terra watched it through blurry eyes, a stream of bubbles bursting out of her as her air-starved lungs couldn’t hold it in any longer.
She was dying.
The white blur popped up beside her like a divine spirit. A scary one with its huge horns, but at that moment it looked so beautiful to her. She smiled drowsily at it as she surrendered to death. Two strong arms banded tightly around her and she could feel something sweep up around her as its body collided along the length of hers. It’s piercing, glowing, green eyes filled her vision. When it leaned finally leaned forward, she was barely conscious as its mouth sealed against hers, forcing air into her lungs as it dropped suddenly into the depths. It all seemed like a dream. A bright luminous pink surrounded them as they dropped deeper into the water.
Her vision shifted as her rescuer glided through the water and she was able to see a shining dome at the bottom of the sea. Schools of fish flitted around it from where it was anchored. It was shining like silver and gold, the blue light almost aethereal in quality. It was so perfect and so beautiful that she was certain she had died. She was approaching the city of the netherworld and just looking upon it made her happy enough that she did not dread it.
Chapter Six
Ji’wa held the female close to him, his mouth sealed over hers so he could breathe for the both of them. It made him a bit light-headed since he never employed the method he’d studied and reduced his own air more than he’d been prepared for. He was suddenly grateful for the lifesaving methods that had been a part of a basic training program that had remained unaltered from Sirenx. He was utilizing lesson one-twenty-two: rescuing a stunned sirein from the sea. Since a stunned sirein couldn’t breathe in the water any more than a land-dweller, he figured it would work about as well to force air into her lungs while he descended to the dome.
Despite the circumstances, he was happy to see her again. For rotations he had been giving excuses to High Command as to his absences and the reason for delaying the exploration of the nearby island. He knew he was drawing suspicion on himself. Even Ger’se was starting to watch him whenever he left the dome. Logically, he should have followed protocol, but he couldn’t stand the idea of other males approaching the island—approaching her. It made no sense to him, and yet he returned every
rotation searching for any sign of her, but she’d refused to come down from the cliffs and he wasn’t so cruel as to go up into them to search her out and frighten her more.
So, he’d circled the shores of the island. The island was of more than adequate size and would have been considered large on Sirenx. The sandy beach-ringed cliffs surrounded the island in a pattern something like the horned moon shape of a crater as if it had suffered either some impact or volcanic activity at one time in the past. At the furthest side, the beach opened directly into the interior lush with wooded groves and sweet water that, though it provided no nutrients, tasted fresh and delightful to him upon experimentation.
His exploration also revealed a very pertinent fact. The female was indeed the only inhabitant. That both relieved him and made him worry.
Now he had her in his arms. Being in the water, he couldn’t smell her, yet her warm body was pressed against his and the taste of her filled his mouth. A tingle rushed through him that heated his blood all the way to the tip of his tail, yet it pooled enticingly in his internal seed sack, pulsing with a growing intensity. He moaned a low, reverberating song deep in his chest that echoed in the ripples of water all around them. He was aware of her stiffening against him in surprise, her delicate fingers digging into his arms. He didn’t want to frighten her and tried to hold in his reaction, but another moaning song forced its way out of him.
His arms tightened around her possessively as the water around them flooded with the increasing light issuing from his own bio-luminescent markings. Any sirei in the waters nearby would have known exactly what was happening. Excitement thrummed within him.
Finally, he had a found a mate. It was unfortunate that it was not one of his own species, but her unusual appearance ceased being important to him when he felt the first stirring of his maturation for his mate.
His tail fin fanned out and swept around her in an instinctive mating roll through the currents. They drifted for several minutes before he caught himself and redirected himself toward the dome. A proper mating ritual in the sea would have to wait. The spines of his fins twitched with interest. He would have to be patient. Although he had his translator implanted rotations ago, she would need to be fitted with a translator and her leg seen to by the medic.
His dorsal fin flared aggressively.
En’il was another of his pod who had not yet found a mate. Discomfort filled him even at the idea of exposing her to another male. The intensity of his territorial feelings was somewhat alarming. Sirei were an extremely social species, forming intensely close familial pods within the communal pod. Although males and females could be protective of their familial pod, they were rarely aggressive towards those of the same communal pod. Lines often blurred between friend and sibling, and occasionally even between mated pairs who were particularly close. It wasn’t unusual for mated group families to form, or for a male or female who lost their mate to be invited to join to another mated pair.
Ji’wa had been a rarity among his own kind, with traits of such possessiveness and territoriality that it had earned many concerned remarks in his youth. His sire had excused it as a phase brought about by not having any siblings. He’d been certain that he would outgrow it in time.
Every sharp feeling zinging through him told the opposite tale. The idea of another sirei touching his female made him want to hide her behind his fins.
With a rapid swipe of his tail fin, he propelled deeper, arching through the narrow entrance that led to the drainage chamber. Clasping her tightly to him, he held in her place as the door latched behind them and the water slowly ebbed out of the room. Her body was limp within his arms, but that was expected. Breathing for her only gave her just enough air to survive. He crouched so that he could continue to breathe through his gills for her until the water dropped low enough to clear away from her mouth.
Once the water dropped below her chin, he broke the seal between their mouths and took his first ragged breath of air. His lungs burned with relief, and the sound of her own thin gasp was sweet to his ears. He held her tightly as they breathed together, stiffening only when the entrance slid open for him to proceed into the dome. Ger’se stared from where he stood on the other side, mouth agape for only a moment before falling into a disapproving frown. The male strode forward to his side, his entire frame rigid with fury.
“Ji’wa, what are you doing with that thing?” he hissed. “It does not belong down here. If High Command found out you had a land-dweller within the dome, they would revoke your status and exile you, if they didn’t insist on your execution for endangering the welfare of the pod.”
“She is injured,” Ji’wa snapped impatiently. “You would have me leave my mate to die in the sea just to satisfy males a great distance away?”
Ger’se’s eyes widened in horror. “That thing is your… mate?”
Ji’wa bristled and spun on the other mail, his tail fin unfurling as his dorsal fin raised in a clear challenge. “Do not address my mate as a thing!”
His long-time friend and second-in-command raised his hands, palms up in entreaty. “My apologies, Ji’wa. I didn’t intend to insult you… or… uh… her. It is just… We have barely survived a disaster in space and now you are tempting fates by bringing a stranger amongst us!”
Ji’wa growled in frustration, raking his friend impatiently with his eyes. “And what if we were brought to this planet after so long because they are meant for us? A number of our males and females in our pod alone never mated. Should we blame this on the epidemic that was occurring in our state of hopelessness, or something more? I would argue that an entire generation growing into adulthood where over thirty percent do not find mates would have something to contribute to it!”
Ger’se fell silent beside them as they strode down the corridor. “What are you going to do with her?”
“I am taking her to En’il. I will get her fitted with a translator and see to her injuries. From there… I do not know. I never thought I would find a mate and never paid much attention to the proper way to establish a tie to a female.”
“I think the only part I paid attention to was the mating tie that involves my cock. I can’t say I remember much else of the subject,” Ger’se remarked wryly. “In my defense, the mate education seminars were dull.”
“Then I shall grieve for whatever female brings you into maturation,” Ji’wa returned as he pushed his way by several stunned males carrying long poles laden with large-finned water-dwellers as he entered into the nearby medical unit. Several sirei looked up in surprise but scattered at his glower. En’il, never one to be intimidated, hastened up to the medical bed as Ji’wa settled his mate upon it.
“What is this?” the medic exclaimed as he grabbed her forearm and turned her hand this way and that in curiosity.
Ji’wa growled and snatched her hand away and laid it gently beside her. “I discovered her on the island. She is land-dweller.”
“Well, clearly,” the male huffed. “She has no gills, no thick protective tissue covering her body. Just thin skin and tiny claws. The lack of fins and a tail gave it away at first glance though. But why is she here?”
“She was injured in the water by one of the native predators.”
“How unfortunate,” the medic said as he glanced down at her swollen leg. The flesh was marred by bright streaks of red that looked incredibly painful. Ji’wa made a mental note to put up an advisory to stay away from the species if spotted.
The medic nodded as he looked over her leg. “I will keep her sedated. This shouldn’t be difficult to mend in our healing pod. I think I can adjust the schematics for an artificial mouth piece for her that we used to use on young sirei on New Sirenx when there was an emergency that required them to be evacuated through deep water before their gills had a chance to fully develop. You should be able to return her to the island without her ever waking,” the male finished with a satisfied smile.
Ji’wa took a deep breath. “It is not that simple.”
> “No?” En’il asked absently as he continued to look her over. One hand plucked at the fabric covering her breasts and Ji’wa growled and snapped his hand over that of the medic’s, meeting the other male’s startled gaze with one that threatened retribution.
“She is my mate,” he hissed.
The medic jerked his hand away as he sucked in a breath. “Oh… Oh! That does make it different.” That he met Ger’se’s gaze didn’t slide beyond Ji’wa’s notice, but he understood they had good reason to be concerned. Bringing her to their dome could upset High Command and cause a ripple effect in expunging all current leadership into minor roles. While Ji’wa was the only one who might possibly face death, Ger’se and En’il would be seen as collaborators and duly punished.
“Please, just get a translator implanted, heal her, and let me take her to my quarters. I need at least a little time alone with her to figure out where to go from here.”
“Do you think she will accept your mating?” Ger’se asked, doubt clear on his face.
“I don’t know, but I have to try.”
“Very well,” his second muttered. “I will tell the pod not to communicate the presence of the land dweller until we ascertain any and all implications of her presence. The people will be curious but that should hold off High Command for now.”
Ji’wa nodded his thanks as he moved the female from the bed into a healing pod while En’il stood to the side preparing the translator injector. Brushing her filaments from her face, he smiled down at her and arranged her in what he assumed would be a comfortable position.
His last look at her before the pod closed was upon a female who lay in peace and serenity.
From the Depths Page 17