a sea tale

Finale

Scar’s pov:

The next morning, I woke up as we were pulling into the docs. I had stayed by Grian’s side the whole night. I guess I fell asleep on the floor next to the bed. “Gri” I said, gently nudging him awake. He sat up, yawning, before pulling the blanket off him and standing up. My gaze fell on his legs, they were almost completely covered in scales now… today was the last day.

“Scar?” I was pulled from my thoughts and looked up at him. “Hmm?” he chuckled. “You zoned out.” I felt my cheeks heat up from embarrassment. “Oh, sorry.” he laughed again before heading out of the cabin and onto the doc. I followed him out, greeted by the bright warm sun. Grian’s siblings joined us, tearing themselves away from a conversation with the crew.

“Soooooo.” I said, dragging out the o. “You wanna learn how to ride a horse?” I asked. Grian’s face lit up. He nodded excitedly. Pearl seemed just as excited as Gri if not more. Jimmy opted to stay with the crew. I led them back to the palace, sneaking away with two horses, Tilly and Jellie. I led them to a large flat field far off from the castle.

“Alright, first things first. Horses get spooked easily so be careful. I guess the first thing is to mount them.” I hopped onto Jellie, swinging my leg over. “Pearl, how about you try getting on tilly.” she nodded and effortlessly mounted the horse. Tilly already seemed to like her. Before I could get another word out, her and tilly were off. She was quite literally the definition of a natural. “Alright then. Uhh.”

“Grian, hop up here with me.” He walked over to me and Jellie but once he got there he stopped. He just stood there, unsure how to get up due to his height. I chuckled before reaching over and hoisting him up in front of me. “There ya go!” he smiled at me before gently placing his hands on the back of Jellie’s neck. “What now?” he asked. I smiled and gently tapped my heels on Jellie’s side. She walked into a decent paced trot. I rested my hands on Grian’s waist as I started explaining the basics to him.

“Alright, I want you to try and speed up a bit.” he nodded and leaned forward all the way. Jellie sped up a lot more than Grian intended. She was now racing across the field. ''Okay, great time to show how to stop!’ I shouted over the rushing wind whistling past our ears. I wrapped my arms around him. “Lean back with me” so he did as told and we leaned backwards. I tightened my legs as well as my grip around Grian, making sure he didn’t fall off.

Jellie slowed down, eventually to a stop. “Umm… S-scar” Grian said quietly. “Hmm?” I hummed in response. He seemed hesitant. “Nevermind” he leaned into me a little more as we continued practicing.

Grian’s pov:

I was thankful for the fact that Scar couldn’t see my face because it was bright red right now. His arms had been wrapped around me when we were stopping but now they were resting  on my waist. My heartbeat was pounding in my ear. Why was I feeling like this? Did I like Scar? “Umm… S-scar.” I mumbled. “Hmm?” he hummed in response. I hesitated. I mean, I wasn't uncomfortable and Scar didn’t seem to notice. There was no harm in enjoying this, right? “Nevermind” I said as I leaned a little more into him. We continued practicing for the next hour or two before Scar said he wanted to show us something

“I think you two would enjoy cliff diving.” I raised an eyebrow. “What's that?” he smiled. “I dive off a cliff into the sea, I know a really good spot” Pearl seemed to love the idea. “Seems dangerous, I’m in!” I rolled my eyes and followed Scar to a tall cliff that peered over the ocean. “Are you sure this is safe…?” I asked. The water seemed much farther away than it actually was. “Yeah! As long as you land right.” He demonstrated how to land in the water and explained how we would get out. I was still hesitant but he reassured me I would be fine.