Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Old Friends

The storm ripped the sky open and rain just smashed out. The violence was so intense I leapt back into the cave and shivered.

"Holy shit," I said. Water poured through the openings in the wooden structure that the previous resident had built to extend over the mouth of the cave. But it also meant no water was actually getting into the cave. Lightening ripped through the sky in a burst so intense it illuminated everything, then thunder smashed so hard my ears rattled and Assund barked.

"Damn," Itek said.

"Ocean storms," Ormiss said, his lightening cracklings and snapping over his arms, and coiling like bracelets around his wrists. He reached down and grabbed Asund by the ruff and pulled up. Asund transformed in his grip. "Don't worry, wolf, I won't let anything happen to you."

Asund shoved Ormiss off him. "I'm not afraid of storms. I am not a dog."

Another burst of lightening and an island-trembling shatter of thunder.

"This isn't going to flood the island, is it?" I asked nervously.

"I saw no indications that the storm line came up high enough to be a threat," Ormiss said. "I would not suggest we go down to the shore, though."

"Why is it so cold?" Now I was shivering. The wind was cold.

Ormiss leaned his hand onto the rocks, diffusing the lightening he had around his wrists. The warmth increased. "Storms bring cold with them."

I retreated into the cave away from the rain. The wood enclosure held up to the storm, but I was still getting sprayed with water, and the water had the foul, slightly oily slickness that said contaminated that left the skin feeling coated and unclean. Granted, it wasn't like I was fresh from the bath, but I didn't want to get grosser than necessary.

"Stay back there," I told Ethat as he got up to get a look. "It's tainted rain."

Of all of us, Ethat did the worst with the taint. It withered his beautiful green to a brittle, dead yellow.

"There goes our water supply," Asund said.

Another crack of thunder. A few pebbles rattled. I squeaked.

Ethat swept me up in his arms and trilled in his throat. "It's only a storm, my love."

Okay, so this was how the big dragon made an excuse to get his hands on me. "It's okay. It's just a big storm." There'd been thunderstorms back... well, wherever I'd come from. And then there'd been storms in Haven, since Haven was on the sea. But this was a different level of storm. An ocean storm. No wonder these islands were stripped of everything!

He whispered, "Did you enjoy the hippogryph?"

I blushed and elbowed him. "That's what you've been thinking about?"

Another tear of thunder, and somehow the rate of rainfall increased, but the cave was relatively warm and dry, even if the whole island seemed to tremble under the force of the rain and thunder. Ormiss, still at the mouth of the cave, crackled with the pink-purple lightening, and it danced over his hair, but he didn't seem concerned.

"I know I have no right to inquire," Ethat said. "I just worry after your pleasure, since you will not permit me to provide you any."

"There's nothing for you to worry about. You know what I said to you in front of the hippocamp queen wasn't true, right? It was all just an act."

"I worry it might be a little true."

"You're going to worry yourself withered again." He wasn't fully recovered either--he had a couple of clumps of withered-yellow hair mingled with the green, and there were some dry patches on his skin. When he was in dragon-form, it was more obvious. But it was nice being held all the same. I tucked my cheek against his chest. He shivered with happiness and some fireflies flitted off his hair.