A Thousand Salt Kisses (Book 1 of Salt Kiss series)

><> Chapter Forty-Seven <><

It was dawn when we finally got back into the boat and headed home. We had laid by the fire all night until it finally burnt out and then we had reluctantly got dressed and weaved our way through the cliff back to the beach.

Now I sat looking ahead as Llyr rowed with his back towards the direction we were travelling in. I was transfixed by the thick pink line on the horizon where the sun was rising. I really loved being awake at dawn, it was something about a new fresh day that excited me. 

"What are you thinking?" he said.

"Just that I love the dawn," I replied wistfully. "Although it's a little ironic given the circumstances."

He looked at me and laughed. "You mean us?" he said.

I frowned. "Yes," I replied "I'm glad you think it's so funny."

"Of course I don't think it's funny, it's just you're so sweet sometimes the way you sit there philosophizing."

"It's pretty," I protested,pointing to the candy smudge that parted the sky from the sea.

He stopped rowing and turned and looked at the horizon. After a few seconds he turned back again. "I still prefer to look at you," he said, moving the oars again.

He suddenly did a double take as he looked over at me and I jumped. What's wrong?!

He nodded at my knees, and as I looked down I screamed. They were bright green. Are they mouldy? Gangrenous?

"Hey, hey, calm down," he laughed, "its the moss."

The moss. The moss. Of course. Phew. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"I can't think what you were doing to get knees that colour," he said raising an eyebrow at me.

I smiled and looked away. I think we both knew what I had done to get my green knees.

"Hey, how's Ri?" I asked. We hadn't spoken about how their talk went the other day.

"Oh, he's okay," said Llyr. He paused and looked around us at the sea. "The ocean has ears, you know?" he said.

"Oh," I said. I got off my bench and crawled closer to him so that he could talk quietly.

"He is just angry that I went against his advice, that's all. He worries a lot about humans finding out about us," Llyr said in a hushed voice. "He thinks that they will try and put us in captivity or something."

"He's probably right about that," I said, looking up at him. I'm sure there would be plenty of people who would give an arm and a leg to bung Llyr and Ri in Sea World "Still, you guys would probably annihilate any one who tried to catch you."

Llyr smiled down at me and nodded. "I think you're probably right."

"Is that why he has been so anti-me?" I asked.

"I think it's that, and just that he is very cynical about love," Llyr was whispering now and I had to concentrate very hard to listen. "He's very bitter, ever since my Mother... you know?"

I realized I didn't know. I had never heard Llyr speak of his mother before. I shook my head.

"Oh, well she died," he said. "She got caught in the red tide on a trip to visit the Mexican tribes. She died out there about two hundred and fifty years ago, it was terrible, the tide just came on out of nowhere. Her whole party was poisoned. I have never travelled anywhere near there since."

I racked my brain. Red tide, red tide. Yes, I'm sure Dad had been involved in some sort of case involving this. It's these horrible natural toxins that appear every now and then in the sea, killing all the fish.

"Oh," I breathed, I came up on my knees and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm so sorry."

"He doesn't see the purpose of being with someone because you love them anymore. He just thinks it should be about political convenience," he said, he had stopped rowing and withdrew the oars into the boat. "It's kind of sad, but I can't make him see any differently. I've tried, but I can't."

He put his arms around my waist and rested his head on my shoulder. We held each other for a long time, me kneeling up against him as the boat rocked in the waves around us. I thought about all the sadness he had been through in his life, from his mother dying to his long loveless marriage to Nephys, whilst all the time having this emotionally retarded father.

And now he's about to lose me, but he never complains. He has never ever complained once.

"Do you think that we will see each other again, before summer's out?" I asked, looking hopefully into his green eyes. I could definitely see they were filled with sorrow this morning, they were not quite sparkling, like they usually did.

"Yes," he said, looking back at me, deep into my eyes. "Let's meet in three days, sun-high."