He covered me with it anyway. “I’ll get a few more blankets.” When Gregory returned, he began to cover and tuck the blankets around the big creature.
“What do you think it is?” I asked.
“Think?” Cosmo asked in an angry voice as he tossed a fish down to the deck in front of it. “Think?” he asked again incredulously. The creature grabbed the fish and swallowed it whole stretching out its neck as it did and making scraping noises with its long claws against the deck. “There’s no thinking. That’s a damn sea dragon. Shit! Do you have any idea how dangerous they are in stories? No, of course, you don’t. You didn’t grow up here. That’s a baby. Wouldn’t you say so, Gregory?”
Gregory had taken another pole from a compartment, baited it, and cast his line into the water, but he didn’t respond.
“Is that true? Are you a Sea Dragon? Do you know Palena, Goddess of the Ocean Waves? I think she made sure that I’d find your scale.” The scale rested beside us on the deck. The Sea Dragon sniffed at it. I petted its nose, my feelings having changed considerably at the thought it might be a baby who had been trapped and alone. “Poor little guy.”
“Clue, are you fucking crazy? It’s not a fucking pet. It has probably got a fucking mother who is as big as your house who is gonna eat us when she finds us with her baby.”
Angrily, I asked, “If so, where has she been? Why didn’t she claw at that rock as long as it took to get to her baby? She’s a horrible mother. If I could sense her baby, she should have been able to.” I petted the Sea Dragon. “Poor baby,” I said as I stroked its snout. It looked at me through eyes protected by nictitating membranes. “After being in that dark cave for so long, even the night seems bright to you, huh?”
It looked at me with what I thought might be humor. Gregory brought it another fish. I went into the cabin and grabbed four bottles of water. Then, I knelt before the Sea Dragon and carefully dribbled water into its mouth. Palena must have been helping Cosmo and Gregory because soon a small mound of fish was in front of the Sea Dragon.
Sometime later, I emerged from the cabin with a hot cup of coffee and a plate full of cookies in time to hear Cosmo growl out, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Pull up the anchor!”
Gregory rushed to follow the order while Cosmo dropped his pole to clatter upon the deck and hurried into the wheelhouse.
“What is it?” I asked Gregory as he went to join him.
“Pirates. Stay down.”
Crouching down, I sat beside my Sea Dragon with my cup and plate. A cookie slid off to land near the reptile. Tilting its head to the side, it managed to grab the cookie and eat it. “Well, I know a certain Okami with whom you would get along great. He likes sharing cookies with me, too. Don’t worry. We’ll get away from the pirates. Then, maybe Palena will give me a hint about how to find your mommy.”
It twitched its tail. I had a sip of coffee and ate a cookie. Then, I gave the Sea Dragon another one.
“Hold on!” Gregory yelled a little too late.
I jerked to the side spilling hot coffee over the top of my right hand. I hissed in a breath and wiped my hand on my blanket. Cosmo had either turned us too sharply, or one of the whirlpools had the Sea Harpy. Meanwhile, the Sea Dragon had closed its eyes. Behind us, I could see a fog beginning to fill the sky. I heard Cosmo’s string of barely discernable expletives from the wheelhouse. I heard the sound of Gregory’s voice, but slipping with the large creature had been such a strain that even the threat of pirates couldn’t keep me awake. Suddenly unable to keep my eyes open, I laid down beside the Sea Dragon on the deck my cookies forgotten.
I woke up with the mother of all headaches tucked into Cosmo’s bunk. After a visit to the bathroom, I ventured out on deck. The Sea Dragon seemed in much better spirits. In fact, it seemed down right perky. Looking around, I asked, “Where are we?” Porous rock was all around us.
“We are hiding out in a cove formed by the remnants of an ancient volcano. From a distance, it looked like a hunk of dangerous rock. Go look out from the wheelhouse,” Cosmo suggested.
I went up to look. The Sea Harpy was pointed toward the cove’s exit where fog as dense as whipped cream on top of a cappuccino hid us from view. I returned to the deck where Gregory handed me a cup of coffee. I yawned at him and took it. “Thanks. Are the pirates still out there? What do they want?”
Gregory took my hand and guided me to sit. “They came for salvage from the wrecks or anything that can be sold. However, if they spot us, they will probably try to steal Cosmo’s boat. We would be forced to fight. We do not wish to place you in any further danger.”
Before casting his line. Cosmo made eye contact with me. “Yes, Clue, you know how to fight. What would happen to your pet Sea Dragon if we were to start exchanging weapon’s fire? It can’t take cover. If the Sea Harpy were to sink, the critter is too weak to swim. The three of us bobbing around in emergency suits wouldn’t be convincing rescuers.” He cast his line into the water.
I sighed. “How will we know when they leave?”
Cosmo said, “I scaled the cliff wall and hour ago and spotted them with a spyglass. They must be waiting for the fog to lift.”
Gregory said, “The only way they’ll leave is if a storm comes. Only idiots would risk being out here in a storm.”
Cosmo threw the Sea Dragon a fish. It snapped it out of midair. “Well, you’re feeling better,” I said as I pressed the warm coffee cup to my forehead. “Do you have any ice, Cosmo?”
“No, I’ve got something better. Lay back and close your eyes.”
I set my cup down on a small folding table that had been brought out on deck and leaned back against the bench. I felt Cosmo place something cold and heavy over my eyes. I sniffed. I heard them both trying not to laugh.
“Cosmo, you just put a bait fish over my eyes. Didn’t you?” I removed the cold dead fish from my face. The Sea Dragon moved its claws and scooted closer to me. I held it out for him. His tongue darted out, wrapped around the fish, and pulled it into his mouth. “I think I’ll call you Snappy instead of Sea Dragon. Okay?” Snappy flicked his tail. “Hey! You’re hurt.” Snappy’s front left leg seemed to bend wrong. He avoided putting any weight on it as he returned to his prone position on the deck. I shook out his blankets and tucked them around him. “Gregory, look at Snappy’s leg.”
Gregory crouched down beside Snappy, who when dry, appeared to have iridescent dark blue scales. “It seems to have been broken and then healed wrong. He must have been injured at the time he became trapped.”
A loud crack of thunder frightened me. “Maybe that will get them to leave,” Cosmo said.
“I’ll go and check this time,” Gregory offered as he removed his shirt revealing a trail of black hair and hard muscles. Blushing, I looked away. Gregory turned and walked into the cabin to finish changing. He emerged completely covered by a dive suit minus the flippers. Instead, he wore rubber water shoes. Cosmo handed him a small backpack. Then, Gregory silently slipped into the water.
“Come inside, Clue. I’ll fix you something to eat.”
Taking Cosmo’s outstretched hand, I followed him inside and sat on one of the benches around his small table. Cosmo made me his specialty, oatmeal. A thought occurred to me. “I think Snappy might be using my spirit energy to recover his strength. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so tired.”
Sitting beside me, Cosmo put his left arm around me, kissed my temple, and said softly, “I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you. It was brave of you to save that huge lizard.”
“Snappy is his new name.”
“Well, Snappy has had at least twenty fish for breakfast and acts like it was just an appetizer. Want to help me fish?”
Smiling, I said, “Sure.”
Cosmo brought his right hand up to cup my jaw and kissed me. When I opened my mouth to protest, he misinterpreted and took the kiss farther. Thunder cracked making me jump. Slowly, Cosmo pulled away. “Let’s catch your dragon some fish.” He scooted out of the boo
th.
I felt Tadashi’s diamond and jade engagement ring on my finger and felt confused. On the deck, I tried to concentrated on fishing. Cosmo thought my refusal to bait my own hook was a joke. I shook my head at him and made him do it. When I felt a tug, I carefully reeled it in. It was so heavy that I imagined it to be huge like the halibut Gregory had caught. Once I managed to get it over the rail, I was dismayed that it was only about seven inches long. Snappy didn’t care. He ate it while it was still flapping around trying to find its way back out into the water. I was trying to reel in another fish when I heard Gregory dripping on the deck.
“They aren’t leaving. Something is wrong with their boat. They are making repairs, and their divers are onboard. The waves are getting rough out there,” Gregory reported.
He began removing his dive suit. After a quick peek, I turned my head away. Snappy seemed to be scrutinizing everything I did.
“Should we try to get home, now while their boat is broken?” I asked. The wind had picked up.
“No, we’re safer here,” Cosmo said.
“What about Snappy? How do we get him into the cabin with us? We can’t leave him out here in a storm.” Thoughts rushed to me of missing the pounding rain, and how it felt like a gentle caress against his scales. “Oh, okay, if you’re sure. Snappy likes getting rained on.”
Gregory, now clothed, listened as he stowed the dive gear.
“I can secure a tarp from the cabin to the rails for him in case he wants to get out of it,” Cosmo offered. I nodded. Then, I found a plasti-glass bowl, filled it with water, and set it in front of Snappy. Cosmo and Gregory created an area on deck where Snappy could escape the elements if he wanted. Cosmo then took the Sea Dragon’s blankets, folded them, and made him a nest under the tarp. “Now, look, Snappy. If you change your mind and want to come inside and lay in front of the sink, do you think you can manage to claw at the door?” Cosmo asked.
Cosmo’s black hair was being lifted by the wind. I felt myself being pushed by the strengthening breeze and grabbed the rail to steady myself. Snappy limped on three legs over to the cabin door and whacked it with his tail.
“Excellent. Good, boy. I’m here if you need me, and I’ll catch you some more fish in the morning. Come on, Clue,” Cosmo said as he looped an arm around my shoulders and kept the wind from knocking me from the deck. Gregory closed the cabin door behind us. The sound of the wind so suddenly diminished that it seemed odd but a relief. “Go take a warm shower, Clue. I’ll get you something to sleep in and make you dinner.” Cosmo gave me the innocent smile he always gave me and that I never believed.
The Sea Dragon chuckled to himself over his new name. From being trapped and isolated in the small cave to being treated like a pet by the three mortals, everything had changed. Rather than facing immortality alone, now he had his freedom. When the sounds inside the cabin ceased and their movements stilled, Snappy slid over the rail and soundlessly entered the water rejoicing in the removal of all limitations.
With sinuous undulations, he swam from the sheltered cove to which he had led his humans. Diving deep, he swam just above the sandy ocean floor taking sharp precise turns around rocky outcroppings and lava rock and snatching up unsuspecting fish along the way to the pirates. Waves pummeled the ship. The men had abandoned the deck and retreated to safety. Snappy swam beneath the ship to the area where the men had gathered and silently attached himself to the hull.
Slowly, he began to absorb the spirit energy of the crew. As the depletion lulled the pirates into deep slumbers, Snappy began draining energy from the ship’s power source. By the time the crew awoke, their spirit energy would be somewhat replenished. However, it would take their ship at least a day and a half to recharge. As Snappy drew his sustenance, he was assured his humans would be safe from the pirates.
Now, he would lead them to a reward. Releasing the hull, Snappy dove backwards and down to the sandy bottom with a powerful flap of his tail. While catching and eating more fish during his swim to the Sea Harpy, he realized sardonically that the aquatic life in his ocean had thrived in his absence. The overabundance of fish proved to him that the ocean had longed for its predator’s return. For a moment, he swam from the rocky shallows to the deepest reaches and expanded to his full form. The mighty Sea Dragon spun through the water and reveled in the pressure of the water against his scales. He stretched and rolled.
He had been surprised and trapped by exploding rock unable to struggle free. The cave was merely the space he had occupied in his natural form. Hoping to escape, preserve air, and survive on the least amount of fish possible, he had shrunk down to the smallest form that he could hold effortlessly. Aside from the logical reasoning behind his form, he was glad the humans saw him as a small, injured, baby sea dragon. His true form would paralyze them with terror. Snappy didn’t want that. He was lonely. Snappy would be a pet for a few decades until he became bored with humanity. Then, he would become wild in the depths of the ocean.
After gradually adjusting his form, he swam back to the cove. Like a snake, the Sea Dragon climbed the side of the boat. Raindrops masked his minute sounds as he made his way to the nest the man, Cosmo, had made for him. With a satisfied grin, Snappy calmed the storm to one that encouraged sleep. His yellow eyes glowed before they closed.
The storm had stopped during the night, and a cool wind had swirled across the deck drying it before the time the mortals woke.
Chapter Five
I opened my eyes and saw the hull of the boat about an inch away from my face. I tried to move back, but someone held me like a doll effectively trapping me. That someone was Cosmo. Somehow, he had managed to squeeze himself into the small bunk with me. Carefully, I managed to free myself, crawl over him, and get to the floor. The warm long-sleeved shirt with which Cosmo had provided me reached above my knees. Combined with the jogging pants, I looked like I had been playing dress up.
I looked up and found Gregory laying on his back with an arm behind his head watching me. The dining table lowered to the base of the bench seating around it. A stowed cushion transformed the area into a small bed. I waved at him and went into the bathroom where I washed my face and finger combed my hair amongst other things. Then, I made coffee while Gregory turned his bed back into a dining area. Leaving his cup on the counter, I took mine out on the deck.
“Good morning, Snappy. Were you okay out here all by yourself?”
Snappy lifted himself up on three legs and left the slightly damp nest of blankets. Today, Snappy’s eyes were no longer a weak yellow having taken on a rich amber hue. His scales were a deep iridescent sapphire blue. His claws clicked against the decking as he slowly approached me with his head lowered. I sat on a bench and sipped my coffee. Gregory sat down beside me close enough that our thighs touched.
“Aside from being the right thing to do, why do you think Palena sent us to rescue him?” I asked as Snappy put his head on my lap. Surprised by the affectionate gesture, I set my cup down to my left and ran my hands along his scaled forehead. Snappy closed his eyes, and Gregory pondered my question. “You were very lonely, but you have us now. Maybe, Palena wants us to return you to your mother.”
“No curses involving Sea Dragons come to mind,” Gregory said. Gregory dared to pet Snappy’s neck. Encouraged by not losing a hand, he continued. “I’ll go check on the pirates,” Gregory said as he stood, lifted his hand to cup the side of my face, and gently pressed his lips to mine. His eyes were almost the same shade of blue as Snappy’s scales.
When he went to change, I said, “Come on, Snappy. Let’s try to catch you some breakfast.” He sniffed the engagement ring on my left hand. “Yes, I know. It’s complicated. Apparently, I’m not old enough to make my own life choices.” My other hand got sniffed. “That was a gift from Palena. You should be nice to her. She must be the one who arranged for me to find your old scale and the fishing hook that pricked me.”
Next, Snappy’s nose found my ankle. It tickled so much that I couldn’t tel
l him about my bracelet. Cosmo came from within the cabin with a dive suit clad Gregory. Once Gregory left to reconnoiter the pirates, Cosmo surprised me by tossing a few fish to Snappy that he had caught in a net overnight.
“Cosmo, we need to beat Winks back to Scorpius.”
Serious brown eyes met and held mine. “Maybe, being out of town at the moment isn’t such a bad thing.”
I thought of the painting of a moon over a calm ocean that Winks had taken with him. “Maybe, you’re right. Cosmo, where do you think he went?”
Cosmo shook his head. “We shouldn’t talk about it. We can’t risk being overheard by Gregory.”
Blushing due to my shame at what all Gregory could never know, I glanced down and found Snappy gazing at me with intelligent eyes. Nervously, I waited for Gregory’s update about the pirates. I had begun to feel that it was imperative to be home before either Winks or Tadashi could miss us. Snappy lifted his head from my lap and turned to watch as Cosmo helped Gregory onboard. Water dripped from the dive suit and puddled around him.
“All is quiet on the pirate ship. I suggest we take this opportunity to sail back to the port,” Gregory said as he pulled the suit from his arms and chest. Cosmo quickly pulled up the anchor while I averted my eyes from Gregory’s muscular torso.
Once Cosmo had steered us from the cove, the waves and wind seemed as though they worked together to guide the Sea Harpy away from all hidden dangers. At least, it seemed that way until the boat started spinning. Hearing Cosmo’s warning to hold on too late, I fell from my seat on the bench and slid on my side across the deck. Snappy’s tail shot out and wrapped around my side preventing me from skidding any farther. With a snort of air out of his nose, he pulled me to his side with his tail. Scales and the deck filled my vision while the men struggled with the boat. I gritted my teeth fearful of the Sea Harpy crunching against sharp rocks and sinking.
Clue and the Sea Dragon (The Clue Taylor Series Book 2) Page 4