Oddly enough, I never learned how to swim. It just never came up when I was a kid. My parents bounced us from place to place and we were always landlocked. Plus, I didn’t exactly hang out with other kids at public pools.
Hard to explain having horns, a tail, wings and embarrassing early puberty scales without being called a devil but that’s trauma for another day.
Though I never learned how to swim, one thing I did learn was how to hold my breath. As it turned out, I don’t actually need to breathe. So if whoever has me wants to drown me, they’d have to try harder than this!
“Dragon Queen.” a soft, serene voice reached into my mind. A hand caressed my face as they pulled me deeper and deeper underwater.
And then, within a few inches of my face, a beautiful woman appeared. She looked more like a mermaid than a woman. Her skin was blue like the ocean, hair as silver as the moon with eyes greener than mine. Gills on her neck and scales on her cheeks confirmed my theory but the dark cloak floating around her ethereal body confirmed my fears.
Oh God. She was one of Rupert's dragon council members.
“Whoever the hell you are, you’d better let me go! I have an angry boyfriend and I’m not afraid to use him!” I yelled at her in my head.
“Who am I? I am Tethys. And yes, I am aware that my nephew is here with you.”
Nephew? Right, the council members probably all looked after Guy or something because he was adopted by Rupert.
“My husband Oceanus has engaged him in combat though it doesn’t seem to be going in his favor.”
“Guy! Let me go, goddamn you!” I opened my mouth wide and unleashed a purification breath directly in her face. The blast was weaker underwater but she still screamed and whatever force hold she had on me, quickly let go.
The quick sound of air being sliced above me was so loud it cut through the water. It almost sounded like something heavy was hit over and over again, creating a sonic boom that pushed me around in the after currents.
I thought with Tethys letting me go, that it would be an even playing field. That was before something large and heavy broke the surface above me. I saw the cuts on his uniform, the blood staining the murky water. A crack on his skull, eyes barely open.
Guy.
He saw me and life surged back into him. Our hands linked as a force gripped us both in one massive hand made of pressurized water and lifted us up out of the water.
Much like Tethys, a masculine face appeared but he was huge. He almost reminded me of a baby monolith—big enough to wreck shit but not big enough to take out a skyscraper in one go. In other words, manageable.
At least it was manageable for me back in the day.
“You have harmed my wife. Your death will be the only way to calm the raging rivers of my heart!” He squeezed the fuck out of me and Guy…but we laughed in between moans of pain.
“Is something funny?!” Tethys roared, covering her face from behind her husband.
“Heh, I’m sorry. This is unprofessional of me. It’s just, that whole line about the rivers of your heart was so…”
“Cheesy as hell.” Guy finished for me.
Oceanus snorted and separated us. Now that I got a better look, it wasn’t his actual body that was moving, it was the water around us. Between him and Tethys, they could probably make a tsunami and wipe out this half of the city.
Not that I intend to give them any ideas.
But my question is, why haven’t they done so already?
“Tethys! Oceanus! Rupert promised me answers to some of my burning questions if I kicked your asses right?”
“You won’t get that far!” Tethys hissed, sending a lash of water around my throat. Oceanus let her rip me from his grasp and pull me back under water. Damn. With my throat closed like that, I can’t release another breath attack.
Good thing I still have a bad mouth.
“Tethys!” I reached out telepathically. It was a longshot but worth trying anyway.
“Why’s your husband so hot? I could always use a third man in my harem—” The pain in my gut from her hitting my abdomen damn near knocked me out. I saw tiny dragons dancing around my head but I had to hold out a little longer. There wasn’t a fleshy fist, just another body of water being manipulated.
Her face appeared next to me, no longer blue but pinkish and pale. Human. Holy shit that gives me an idea!
If only I had telekinesis to call out to Guy!
How dare you talk about my husband that way! She screamed into my head as she headbutted me. My nose started dripping blood and my vision flared in and out. But the satisfaction of my plan working was more than enough to make up for it.
What's that? What are you smiling about? She asked, furious. My tail balled up into a hammer and smacked her right in the chest. Even underwater I could hear something cracking and I winced in empathy.
I guess fish really don't know when they're on the hook.
I swung her over my shoulder and used my tail to grab onto a mushroom stalk near the top of the water. Soon enough we were back on land on the sidewalk nearby. I could see Guy going blow for blow with Oceanus but he wasn't doing any real damage to him. Every punch he dealt, Oceanus just laughed it off and the pressurized water reformed almost instantly.
“Guy!” I called out, “you won't take him down that way. You gotta find his real body!”
Guy smacked his face like it was too obvious to miss. Then he nodded with a savage smile on his face.
“Well I always did like swimming as a kid. One of my favorite moves was called ping pong. It goes a little something like this!”
Using his super speed, Guy darted from one side of the pressurized water giant in front of us to the other. He darted from one side of the water giant to the other—through it, around it, through it again—each pass destabilizing the form until—eventually catching sight of Oceanus' real body near the bottom.
“Got you!” Guy called out. “First catch of the day, look what I got!”
“No!” cried out Oceanus.
That was the only word he spoke right before Guy rushed at him, arm cocked back ready to end it all with one blow. Oceanus wasn’t finished yet! He pulled the water back in, shielding himself in a sphere of pressurized water. Guy isn’t fazed one bit. He pushes through that sphere using all of his strength and lands one clean right hook on Oceanus.
And just like that the battle was over. The pressurized water behemoth was gone and all that was left were the troublesome water couple in front of us.
I turned to Guy,grinning, proud of him.
“You did amazing back there.”
“Yeah well I couldn't have done it without you. See what happens when you work together as a team?”
“Yeah yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “You act like this is the first time I've been on a team.”
“No I know it's not, but it's the first time you've been on a team with me.”
I could have punched and kissed his cocky grit but we had to focus on matters at hand. My eyes drifted back to Tethys and how her face had changed to be more human after my breath.
“All right, it’s time to test out a theory...”
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter