The Tail of the Sword and Shield #Wattys2020

Chapter 14: He Found Jewelry

***

Cordelia saw Volsair dragged under the water. There's a time and place for my tail. Now's the time! Cordelia thought and sang the Song of Shifting like a life depended on it.
The lilting three-bar song, bathed her from the waist down in light, merging her legs and feet into a magnificent purple scaled fishtail.

Cordelia dove into the water, with a knife drawn. Once underwater, Cordelia saw the face of what had attacked them, they had let The Lurker into the arena, and they had been sentenced to die for it.

***

Volsair thrashed, trying to get free from the Lurker's grip. He could feel the creature's grip tighten around him. Either he was going to drown first, or he was going to be crushed, both possibilities seemed like an unpleasant way to die. Volsair vowed to fight 'til his last breath.

With every grunt of exertion, a stream of bubbles tickled his lips, water began to fill his lungs. Volsair's field of vision began to narrow and grow dim. The weight of the water made his ears pop, his mind screamed to breath, his lungs, whatever parts of them that hadn't flooded with water, burned and bellowed for air.

***

Cordelia swam as quickly as she could for Volsair. While keeping a lookout for The Lurker's many other hands. In Siren form, Cordelia could see clearly underwater, but everything had a slight blue-green tinge to it, depending on how close she was to the surface. What she had seen in the book of the Lurker did the creature justice, now she saw that its skin had a sickly grey tinge. By the time Cordelia could get to Volsair, he had slowed down his grappling with the hand holding him to almost non-existent. Cordelia swam up to him, turning her knifepoint downward, and took his face in her hands.

***

Volsair was barely coherent, but when he saw Cordelia's tail , he used up what precious bit of air that remained and panicked. His mouth opened wide, a small sparse cloud of bubbles sprang forth, his eyes bugged out in shock. She's gonna take my throat out! was all he could manage in his state of oxygen deprivation.

"You'll have to trust me or you'll drown," Cordelia told him, lovingly pushing his hair out of his face, his head rolled limply backwards. She slid an arm around his torso, under his arms. With her other arm, Cordelia stabbed the creature's hand. A cloud of thick dark blood spewed forward. The creature's hand released Volsair, recoiling in pain and shock.

Before Volsair could fall, Cordelia had her other arm around him, her lips on his, their mouths open. Since she could breathe underwater, by doing this she was giving him a kiss of life. When she breathed for him, for every breath he drew in, she replaced the water with air. Swishing her fishtail powerfully, Cordelia propelled them away, from The Lurker, up to the surface.

When they broke the surface, Cordelia parted from him and laid Volsair's head on her shoulder. Volsair's eyes were still closed, but he was breathing on his own, rivulets of water ran down his face. Cordelia gave him the kiss of life once more.

Volsair came coughing and sputtering back to consciousness, thanks to Cordelia, he didn't have any water in his lungs to expel. He opened his brown eyes, his vision came into focus again. "C-or-d-e-li-a." he croaked, his throat and lungs burned, like he had tried for bobbing for golden fruit at the bottom of a barrel of mead.

"You'll be okay." Cordelia told Volsair, pushing his hair out of his eyes. She swished her tail keeping them afloat.

"Cordelia! You're – okay." Volsair said, wrapping his arms snugly around Cordelia's waist. He could feel the pull of the current, trying to drag back to the monster. The waters around them were in turmoil, waves with white caps crashed over the landing of the stairs leading to the balcony.