by Laura Wylde
He stopped and waited for her to respond. “I’m taking this all in. Honestly,” she said, holding up her index finger. She took a deep breath. “You are telling me the Greek gods are real and mythological creatures are real and you are…. What? A cross between a human and a dragon?”
“Not quite! Not quite!” I blurted out, interrupting David’s answer. “Centaurs are a cross. Mer people are a cross. We are completely human and completely dragon. We aren’t a cross. We are paired chromosomes.”
“I didn’t think that was possible,” she whispered.
Stick to science and she will understand. “It’s not… synthetically. Humans may think they have god abilities, but they don’t. Everything they use is borrowed material. They can’t make something out of nothing.” I chuckled. “The gods can.”
“Okay.” She was twisting a lock of hair with her fingers. “Show me.” I looked at her questioningly. “Show me how you turn into a dragon.”
“Show her,” said Kauris lazily from his corner. “You’re the smallest. She’ll be less frightened of you.”
“I won’t be frightened,” said Macy stonily, lifting her chin.
Kauris gave a hard, cold laugh. “You heard her mate. Show her how beautiful we are.”
I knew this was the moment I would lose all hope of ever winning her love, but it had been ordained. I was to reveal myself to her. Blushing with shame, I crinkled my nose and blinked myself into dragon form. I trembled in front of her eyes. I may still be a juvenile, but I am approaching maturity. My limbs are starting to muscle up around the hips and across the chest. My head and tail have a little more growing to do, but I’ve got all my basic equipment and it’s impressive. The girl dragons don’t complain, anyway. I still haven’t tried my assets with a human girl. Now, I probably never will.
I puffed out my side gills, hoping this would make me look more impressive, and held my wings at half-mast. She walked right up to my face and gave me that Alice in Wonderland look that first put a spell on me. When she touched me, my normal green and yellow camouflage colors turned to orange and brown. “Ah,” she said. “You can change like a chameleon.” She held my head in both her hands. “May I see inside your mouth?”
I opened my mouth and curled back my lips. She examined my teeth. “Your incisors are small but very sharp. You’re not meat eaters in your dragon form?”
“No,” I answered once she had released my lips. “As dragons, we’re vegetarians. Even in human form, we’re not very fond of meat. We don’t need it. The sharp incisors are retractable. It’s where we keep our venom.”
For the first time, I saw an expression of alarm cross her face. It was fleeting and she recuperated quickly, but it was there. “Then you are poisonous dragons?”
“Not often. Only as a last resort. We can use our tongues as well. We can stun, paralyze, drug or heal with our tongues.” I stopped. “Well, they can. I don’t have all my juices yet but I’m learning.”
“Huh.” Her examination had taken her away from my face to a study of my gills, the structure of my wings, and the muscles rippling down my back to my tail. Her hands glided softly over my ribs. “Your scales are soft and flat, like a salamander’s. Doesn’t it make you vulnerable in battle?”
“We’re fast, slippery and lethal,” I said, trying not to sound too terrifying.
“Yes. I’ll bet you are.”
She was still stroking me as though she was petting a horse. It was turning me on, and I was trying hard not to show it. I turned a bright pink and blue. “I think you need to stop touching me,” I groaned.
She saw what I meant and stood back, startled. “I didn’t think… I was…. I’m sorry. I just didn’t think.”
She stood back as I regained my human form and struggled with my dignity. “Now, you know.”
“I know I’ve got to put a call to the Director,” David said abruptly. “I’ll give him the coordinates for the shipwreck. We’re useless in battle until we regain our juices.”
“How long will that be?” Asked Macy.
David was busy on the phone, so I answered. “Three to four hours. I’ve got all mine but I’m not very skilled yet. David and Kauris are the frontline fighters.”
“What will you do until then?”
“Wait for orders, I suppose.”
“I have a better idea,” she smiled. “I want to see all of you in dragon form. Can you do that?”
Reuben laughed. “Not on the boat. Blimey! We would sink the poor thing. We’d have to do it on the water.”
Kauris also laughed but the tone was hollow. “Kazan’s a little guy. Are you sure you want to see three fully mature dragons?”
“Yes, I do,” she answered stubbornly.
He sneered and turned toward the railing of the boat. “You really think so. Let’s see if this changes your mind.” He jumped over the rail. In midair, his wings spread, and his lizard-like body sprang below them. He skimmed over the top of the water and circled around the boat. “What do you think now, Miss Biologist?” He roared.
She squeezed her hands together, transfixed. “You’re beautiful!” She exclaimed.
He stopped wheeling around, skittered backward on his tail and looked at her with amazement. “What?”
“You are beautiful! You are the most wonderful and amazing discovery of my life. I want to see all of you this way….” As though on an impulse, she climbed over the side of the boat and dropped into the ocean. “Come on everybody! You said you had three hours. Let’s play.”
She splashed at the water, so childlike, so uninhibited, how could anyone resist? No longer feeling embarrassed, I changed into dragon form and dropped into the water behind her.
They all flew down, one after another. It started joyously playful. She accepted us! She thought we were beautiful! We slithered over the waves, shaking away the water droplets, moving in close to her, nudging her with our noses. All she did was laugh and splash water at us.
As we circled around her, we sometimes bumped against her skin. She flipped over on her back to kick playfully with her legs. We slid over, under, and between her legs. As we surfaced, she reached out and stroked us along the spine. We arched our backs in sheer pleasure, our dragon, and human responses merging, shutting down all rational thought.
Instinctively, we began to tongue her, driven by our primal urges. We kept the sensation light, our tongues flicking tiny droplets of saliva that aroused and sent tingles of pleasure. She quit splashing and playing around to become steadily quieter and more sensual. I felt her slide over my body, rubbing her stomach against my skin, turning so we were belly to belly. The short, lizard arms were no longer adequate. I turned human and folded her in, my lips pressing against hers.
My slippery mates continued sliding between her legs, their tongues flickering out so that she opened them wider. I don’t know who removed her bikini. It didn’t matter. She didn’t care. She thrust out her breasts and I grasped them with both hands. I wedged my hips between her open legs, thrusting upward with my cock. She took me in, wrapping her legs around my waist and thrusting hard against my groin.
It was my first time… I groaned and came so quickly. Like an eel, Kauris squirmed up from around her ankles and wriggled until he was facing her then turned human. He pressed one hand against her still grinding pelvis and slipped the fingers of his other hand up inside her. She pressed forward and rubbed frantically against him. He fingered her clit, keeping her legs sprawled desperately open and yearning until he got his hairy club inside her. She drew up her knees and arched her back. They rolled around on top of the water. Reuben came up behind her and supported her back and head so she could breathe. He grabbed the nipples of her breast, pointing straight up over the breaking white caps. He bent over and began sucking one, his juices causing them to swell even larger until they looked like they would burst. She bent backward and orgasmed with a low cry.
David was the only one who still had not changed to human. As she fell back, shuddering, he scoop
ed her up and flew her to the ship, laying her gently on the deck before dropping to his feet. He stood nakedly over her. She writhed as though not completely satisfied. Slowly, he straightened her out and spread over the top of her, his body inches above her own. He pinned down her wrists and lowered himself. She heaved. He pushed back. She heaved up against him again, her feet scrambling on the floor, her hands trying desperately to lock around him. He pushed again and she cried out even louder than she had the first time and bucked frantically, her ass squeezing tight, her toes curled, as she raised herself up to slam down again riding him even as he rode her.
“Oooh!” Her moan seemed to shake the entire boat. Her legs slid to the floor. Her hands opened slackly. He kissed her on the mouth and sat back. Her eyes glazed and she smiled weakly.
“Was that ethical?” I asked, finally. “We didn’t like slip her a date rape drug or anything like that, did we?”
“Neah,” said Reuben, settling back with his cigar. “It was just pleasure enhancements – unless you slipped her something?”
“I don’t know how,” I said, wrapping my arms around my chest sullenly.
“It was ethical enough for me,” said Macy, sitting up. “I’m still tingling. I know people who would sell their grandmothers for the experience.”
It still felt awkward. Not the sex, the revelation of who we are and what we do. We were exposed. We tried to behave as though everything was normal while we waited on the Director’s call, but nothing felt normal at all. I wondered now if she saw us as specimen or curiosities and not as fellow humans at all. I didn’t know much about human women and I don’t think the others did either, no matter how much they tried to keep their cool.
We kicked about on the boat, sunbathed until the sun fell low, rattled through personal belongings, and gazed about restlessly. Macy had put some clothes, which was a relief. She was very casual about nudity, but it was difficult to look at hers for long without thinking inappropriate things. She lounged in a hammock as though she didn’t have a care in the world – as though a Ceti hadn’t recently snatched her up and carried her away. As though she hadn’t just fucked four dragons. How did she do that? I was nervous as a cat.
I nearly jumped out of my skin when the Director’s call came in. David listened several minutes without saying much and hung up. “Fire up the engine, mate,” he called to Reuben. “We’re going in.”
“Aye, aye, captain.”
The engines clanked to a mutter and the ship rolled around in a half-circle. The moon lit our way to Santorini, while the engines chugged in steady rhythm. When Reuben returned, he had an armful of individually wrapped food rations. He tossed them in a pile for everyone to pick through and sat next to David. “What’s the lowdown?”
This was one of those rare times when David lit a pipe. He only did it when he was deep in thought. He sucked at it a few times, letting out small, deliberate puffs of smoke. “The shipwreck was located, and a crew dispatched to rescue the hostages. They were all alive. The Cetis had sabotaged an oxygen chamber from a submarine so the victims could breathe.”
“But why?” Asked Macy.
David sighed. “The Cetis want control over Poseidon’s palace and wants to use our world’s technology to overcome the mer people. They thought by capturing some celebrities, they could get us to comply. An AMP team got the big wigs back but the Cetis are still out there. They will probably strike again. They aren’t very bright,” he added.
“Are we to go after them?” I asked.
The puffs of smoke floated like signals. He looked sadly after them. “The sea dragons have taken over for now. The Director has another job for us, but first he wants to see Macy.”
“Me?” Macy’s eyes turned innocently round. “Did I do something wrong?”
“It’s not that.” He put his pipe down so he could look at her. “He wants to interview you.”
“Is that bad?”
David put his pipe away, stood up, yawned, and stretched. “I don’t know. Maybe not. We’ll have to see tomorrow.” He grabbed a food pack without looking at the contents and climbed up in his bunk.
Kauris stared at the tiny island gradually growing large enough to see a few blinking lights, then, without speaking, turned in as well. Reuben grunted and shuffled through the partition on his way to the pilot’s cabin. Macy swung her hammock until she could reach a shelf and pulled a blanket down for cover. She shifted, creating an inward curve, and spreading one side of the hammock with her arm. She invited me to lie next to her. I stretched out the net and climbed inside. She pulled me close and snuggled her head against my chest. “Stay with me tonight.”
“Are you scared?” I asked, stroking her hair. She smelled fresh and girly.
“Just worried, I think. Maybe sad. I don’t want to leave you. Any of you.”
I took her hand and pressed it to my lips. “Maybe you won’t have to.”
“What if he deports me? Sends me back to the United States. I don’t want to go.”
“Do you really like us?”
“You can’t imagine.” She wrapped an arm tightly around my neck. I left it there until she fell asleep, then took it and drew it down, so it covered my heart. Her warm little fist seemed to ease an aching pulse. I think I could imagine how she felt. Thinking of her stepping on a plane and zooming out of my life seemed like a bleak future. I closed my eyes finally and drifted into a troubled sleep.
5
Macy
My sister always did say there was something wrong with me. From the time I was a small child, I wasn’t afraid of any creature, small or large. I pulled over rocks to pick up beetles and let them crawl over my arms. I kept ant farms, studied the spiders in my window and allowed no one to disturb. I kept a robin with a broken wing one summer, until she could fly again. Over the years, I’ve had a full menagerie of pets – not just dogs, cats, a parakeet, and an aquarium full of fish. Those were shared family pets. My private collection consisted of rats, guinea pigs, ferrets, a hedgehog, two chinchillas, a pygmy goat, and a donkey. Not all at once, but by the time I graduated from high school, I had enough pet care experience to work as a veterinarian. I did, for a while. I worked as a veterinarian assistance to pay part of my college bill but when I graduated, I went straight to work for Green Light.
Green Life is a good place to work. It’s a research and development company that produces low impact environmental landscaping and ecological designs and plans, studies marine plant life for viable food alternatives and creates blueprints for modern, efficient fish hatcheries. I don’t do any of the technical work. I catalog the flora and fauna, take water and soil samples, and measure the good health of the local habitants. It keeps me outdoors most of the time, which is the way I like it.
I’ve seen so many strange creatures, I guess nothing really surprises me. I’ve seen giant tarantulas and sixteen- inch millipedes. I’ve seen crocodiles over a hundred years old, and vipers so small and fast, they’ve struck and gone before you knew they were there.
I never felt fear, not even when a Polar Bear passed within twenty feet of our camp on an Arctic expedition. But when I saw that sea monster coming toward me, I was petrified. It was hideous. The most malevolent-looking thing I had ever seen. It picked me up like it was tucking a football under its arm intent on a home run. The blood rushed into my head and I began to faint, but before I passed out, I saw another strange-looking sight- two large, eel-like animals with short, chubby legs and fairy wings. All logic and reason ground to a screeching halt in denial of that impossible moment. Like an explosion that came and ended so quickly, all you could feel is relief, something cool and soothing washed over my mind and I slipped into darkness.
I don’t remember anything else until I came to on the boat’s deck. They were watching me anxiously and I knew deep in my gut that would I had seen were David and Kauris. They had saved me from that mistake of nature. I saw them change. My brain wanted to deny it, screech that it wasn’t so, but I knew that I had. When
I accepted this reality, I wanted to see them do it again.
It’s not rational to be afraid of something just because you haven’t seen it before. I had reason to fear the monster. It had snatched me up roughly, was carrying me into the deeper ocean depths, where I would be lost and eventually drown, but the team had been nothing but helpful. Maybe they had a new, secret weapons technology. They were government employees. The government always had secrets. I wasn’t ready for the answer they gave me, yet I believed it. They were dragons. By their accounts, the ugliest and least desirable of all dragon species. It’s what made me believe them.
They appeared to be ashamed of the way they looked as dragons. I don’t know why. I’ve never seen other dragons for comparing them, but from what I’ve seen of drawings, most are rather reptilian looking. They have spikes, giant claws, and flared nostrils. These dragons didn’t look anywhere near like that. Their skin was smooth, slippery like a seal’s, and shifted in its colors with the passage of the sunlight. Their toes were widespread but more suitable for clinging than attacking. Their faces were lizard-like, with round, alert eyes, and wide, grinning mouths. Their gills were very impressive. They flared out at the cheeks as colorful and decorative as Japanese fans. These dragons were beautiful.
I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving them, yet here we were, slowly floating into harbor with the morning mist unwrapping and the low-flying seagulls cackling and swearing. We all came awake as soon as we heard the clang of the bells at the lighthouse. We watched the boat drift into dock wordlessly. Walking down the pier felt like I was walking the gangplank.
When I reached solid land, I turned around and looked once more at the boat that had brought me the adventure of a lifetime. It was just an old fishing boat, made over for scuba diving, yet it was like an enchanted sailing ship to me. It had shown me there was more above and under the sea than I had ever dreamed possible.