If the chapters seem a little slow, it's because I'm currently solely rewriting You Have Wings? for the eBook manuscript that has to be uploaded on the 8th! :D
- Sian
Water that took Rowan's breath away engulfed the boys. As Kaerius got his tail back, his sharp teeth, gills, and webbed fingers, Rowan was still kicking his human legs and holding his breath. Kaerius swam away from the cliffs and surfaced so Rowan could breathe.
"How do I get a tail?" Rowan asked. "You have to wait in the air to get legs."
"Maybe we just have to be close or something?" Kaerius thought. "You should have asked your dad."
Rowan pushed blonde hair from his eyes and his teeth chattered from the cold. "I'm human, soulmate bonds are not natural for me. Maybe I don't get a tail."
"You're not," Kaerius thought. "Your mother was a Thalassic Mortal. Not to forget that she was the literal princess of the sea. There must be a way." As rowan kicked his legs to stay afloat, Kaerius kept thinking about being soulmates. Rowan was half-human, but the bond they shared always seemed stronger when they were closer. They hadn't completed it yet, but maybe... Kaerius didn't give Rowan time to hold his breath before he pushed down on his shoulders and pulled them both under the waves. As soon as the water touched Rowan's lips, Kaerius kissed him. His arms wrapped around Rowan's waist, pulling their bodies so close together; it was as if it fused them at the hip.
They sank down and down, moving their lips together until the water pressure pushed on Rowan's skull. Though he didn't want to stop for breath. Kaerius had kissed him so confidently, Rowan fell submissive, wanting Kaerius to take charge, kissing him, holding him, pleasuring him.
The silence underwater made it easier to focus on the feel of Kaerius lips against his own. They were cold and soft and tingled his entire body. Rowan was so caught up on how he wished for a more forceful kiss, he didn't notice his legs pulling together, or the saltwater going into his nose and finding a way out without blocking his airways.
Kaerius traced his hands up Rowan's back and to his shoulders. His hands covered a rough patch on the side of Rowan's neck, and he pulled away when his bottom lip stung. Purple Thalassic Mortal blood drifted from Kaerius's lip. Kaerius didn't care. He was more focused on Rowan's sharp teeth. He moved his hand from Rowan's neck and stared at the three slits.
"You have gills," he said in the Thalassic tongue.
Rowan didn't understand him, but he was breathing, underwater. His body went rigid, and he touched the sides of his neck. Slits opened and closed with each breath. He wanted to splutter on the cold water and swim to the surface, but he was too shocked to move. Rowan felt things between his fingers and stared at his webbed hands. His eyes connected with Kaerius and together, they looked down to Rowan's tail.
Rowan's tail.
While they had kissed, Kaerius had wrapped his tail around Rowan. As Rowan had kissed him back, he had wrapped his tail around Kaerius without knowing it.
Kaerius unwrapped his turquoise tail to stare. In all his life under the ocean, and all the Thalassic Mortals he had met all over the world, he had never seen a tail so beautiful. Once, while swimming near Brazil, a woman had dropped a necklace into the ocean with a gem Jaiker called rainbow moonstone. Rowan's tail was as white as the flakes that fell from the sky in winter. His scales were almost transparent with a translucent shimmer of every colour in the rainbow. The shine was subtle but brightened towards the fins at the bottom. The white made Rowan's upper body seem more sun kissed. As Rowan stared in utter disbelief, Kaerius circled him, watching the scales shimmer. He reached out and ran a webbed hand down Rowan's tail, in awe of how it looked like it had been carved from the moonstone crystal itself. When his hand moved back up his scales, he caught Rowan blushing and he snatched his hand back. Caressing a tail was the equivalent of stroking a thigh.
"You have a tail precious enough for Royalty," Kaerius thought. "I've never seen one like this before. It's like something from a dream."
Rowan didn't care about the colour. He cared about how much he wanted to control it like it was two legs but couldn't. "My legs feel trapped inside. I don't like it."
"Move it slow. A sea creature's tail is more powerful than-" Kaerius stopped when Rowan plunged metres away because he flicked his fins.
Panic seeped in when Rowan spun through the water like he was falling through the air, not knowing which way was up or where the floor was, not able to reach for anything or stand on something solid or breathe the air he was used to.
Kaerius quickly swam to him and Rowan gripped him painfully tight. "Relax," Kaerius thought. "You're okay."
Rowan panted fast. He couldn't calm down. Breathing underwater was like a trick. He kept expecting to choke at any moment.
When his breathing only got heavier, Kaerius swam with him to the surface. Rowan gasped at the air as if he hadn't been able to breathe underwater. His gills closed but didn't disappear. Neither did his beautiful white tail with rainbow flecks.
The cold air going down his throat and filling his lungs made Rowan feel better. They stayed on the surface until Rowan didn't look like he was hyperventilating. "That was really weird," Rowan said, thankful that Kaerius was holding onto him.
"I don't blame you for freaking out. Humans drown if they breathe water in. Gills are very unnatural for you," Kaerius thought, staring into the ocean and at Rowan's tail shimmering in the daylight. He wanted to see it against the glow of the moon. It enchanted him. "Rowan," he said out loud. "Attractive with tail. Pretty tail. Pretty Rowan... um... yes. Pretty."
Rowan chuckled, finally calming down. "Am I not as attractive when I'm human?"
"Oh, Rowan is," Kaerius said like Rowan had asked a stupid question. "But tail. Perfect."
Rowan looked down when Kaerius coiled his tail around Rowan's tail. "That's how you guys hug, right?" Kaerius nodded, and Rowan knew why. The tail was thick and protected by the scales, but tangled with Kaerius's tail, it was like they had blended together and felt much closer than what human hugs could offer. Though Rowan wasn't sure if that was the bond, and their souls aching to touch.
"A white tail," he said, also able to match it to the rainbow moonstone. If he pulled a scale off, he would see through it like a white stained-glass window. The rainbow flecks were not on every scale, but enough for the shimmer not to go unnoticed, especially on the fins. "It's nice."
"Nice?" Kaerius wanted to shake Rowan by the shoulders and tell him that tails as unique as his didn't exist. If other Thalassic Mortals saw him, they would know he was a Royal without Rowan saying a single word. "I would be jealous, but I'm not worthy of such a tail."
Rowan wasn't used to the attention focusing on the way he looked. Rowan could listen to Kaerius compliment him all day. "I like yours too," he said. "Turquoise has always been one of my favourite colours because it reminds me of the most beautiful parts of the ocean."
Kaerius's big smile cracked through his hard expression. He looked away, blushing and sheepishly thanking Rowan for saying something so kind about a tail that looked so regular next to his.
"Our tails complement each other," Rowan said. His transparent white fins and Kaerius's transparent turquoise fins blended, making their tails appear fused. "Your colour is the wave, and mine is the white water when the wave breaks. They're perfect together."
Kaerius's cheeks hurt from trying to make his smile less noticeable. Rowan felt him bursting with pride. A tail was clearly everything to Kaerius, and Rowan felt a little bad that he had forced him to be on land so much.
"I think I'm ready to go back under the water," Rowan said when the sun peeked at them through the stormy clouds. "Can you take me to where you usually sleep?"
"Take Rowan to cave!" Kaerius said, his purple eyes round with excitement.
"Will Jaiker and Laiken be there so I can meet them properly?"
Kaerius shrugged. "I teach Rowan to hunt fish?"
"You can after all this blows over with my mum. We need to meet my dad back at the cliffs in an hour."
Kaerius forced the enthusiasm down. "Yes. Later."
The boys dipped back under the ocean and this time, Rowan let Kaerius swim with him down and down and down until they reached the ocean floor. The distance wasn't deep enough to block out the daylight, so Rowan saw the fish, the coral, the reefs, the sand and its wave patterns, and the wobbling light like he was looking at the floor of a swimming pool. The ocean had always fascinated Rowan. Now he had the chance to explore it on another level.
Rowan panicked a little when Kaerius let go, though he swam only a few feet away.
"Let your tail drift up and down gently. You'll start to move."
Rowan moved his tail slowly and softly. He had experienced the strength of it and didn't want to catapult himself through the water again. Kaerius clapped happily when Rowan started moving. His belly touched the sandy floor sometimes, but he was successfully swimming with a Thalassic Mortal tail.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Rowan tried to say, but his words were not loud. They didn't cut through water like the whispery words of the Thalassic tongue.
"We're almost at the caves. If you swim in a straight line, you'll see the kelp beds where I usually sleep. Maybe you can sleep in them one day," Kaerius thought. He kept staring at Rowan's tail with admiration.
Rowan turned to face Kaerius. Having a tail and swimming on the ocean floor was scary, but worth it for the joy radiating from Kaerius. He no longer had to sleep on land every night or spend most of his time in a salt bath. They could both enjoy the ocean and the land. They could make their soulmate bond work and spend their lives showing off their homes. Rowan would love to see what really lies in the depths of the ocean, and Kaerius wanted to know what it was like on top of a high mountain with his head in the clouds.
As the kelp beds came into view, Kaerius heard talking in the Thalassic tongue. Jaiker and Laiken were at the cave. His heart twitched with nerves. Now, he was introducing Rowan as a soulmate, and not an inconvenience. He hoped Laiken didn't embarrass him.