Arista
ARISTA
By Paul Lucas and John P.
This is a story commission from me by John P., who apparently got the idea for it after seeing my original Aquatic Dragoness artwork. He supplied the characters and plot, and I fleshed it out and wrote it for him.
A related pic illustrating a scene from this story is already online:
http://www.yiffstar.com/index.yiff?pid=38198
Interested in a story or art commission? = ) Contact me at: [email protected]
Even though there's romance, flirting, and nudity, the story is at best PG-13.
I knew my life was over when I saw an immense wall of dark water drowning the sky.
I clung desperately to the wreck of my father's boat, the engine drowned, its single mast snapped in two. Lightning flashed far off, showing the top of the monster wave was cresting white. No hope to ride over it, now.
Strangely, I felt little panic. My life had been a long exercise in slacking, one excuse for laziness after another. I had contributed nothing to the world except a string of broken relationships and dwindling the global alcohol supply by a tiny amount. Too much money thanks to my trust fund, too little ambition. Maybe things were just better this way.
The mountain of water curled over, hitting the small wrecked vessel like an asteroid strike. I hit the water and sank like a stone, never again expecting to see the light of day.
I was quite surprised when I blinked open my eyes. All I could see were blurs, but the very fact that I could see anything at all was a shock.
Someone moaned, far away. It took me a few seconds to realize it was me.
"Thou art awake, I see," came a soft, lilting, feminine voice. A vaguely female-shaped blob hovered over me. It looked like she had wings. A nurse? An angel?
"Mis mwa mafter whiff?" I mumbled wittily.
Water was brought to my parched lips. I tried to swallow the tepid liquid but could only cough it out. "Do not try to speak just yet, lander. Thou hast not imbibed that oddly purified water your kind requires for over a day. Thy throat will be dry as a cloudless sky, I imagine."
I manage to choke down a few sips. My vision began clearing. "I--I said, is this the afterlife?"
A laugh, chimes dancing in the wind. "Has thy near-drowning rendered thee daft, sir? Or have ye always retained such addled notions?"
The creature kneeling next to me was taller than me by at least a foot, with gleaming blue-scaled skin and golden highlights along her ventral side and wings. Spikes angled back from her reptilian head, and she managed a broad, toothy smile.
A sea dragon. I'd heard about them, but had never actually seen one. They had chosen to live apart from us surface dwelling species generations ago, though occasionally they still traded for goods here and there. Of all the different kinds of sentient creatures in the world, from neomatans to equinoids to neo-avians, they were easily the most mysterious and unknown.
And she was most definitively female. It was very hard NOT to notice that fact, considering she was boldly and unashamedly naked. Large full breasts, curvy hips, long legs...
I didn't know how to respond about being daft--both options seemed equally likely at that point--so I asked the next most obvious question. "What happened?"
"The surface storm tossed thee about most violently. I detected the wreckage of thy vessel, and when I investigated I was just in time to see a large wave throw much of what was left of thy ship on top of ye. I'm afraid ye were badly hurt and would have drowned, had I not carried thee here."
I looked about. My vision was still a bit fuzzy and the surroundings were dimly lit, but "here" seemed to be some kind of large cave filled with debris. "Th-thanks, I guess." I managed to reply. "But gods, my dad's boat, he's going to be so mad..."
"I wouldst think that boats would prove easier to replace than sons. But then, I am not often ken to the odd thoughts of surface dwellers."
"True," I said, not sure which statement of hers I was agreeing with. "Look, Miss, thanks for the saving my life and all, but I should get back to..." I tried to prop myself up to a sitting position, only to double over as fiery agony engulfed my side. "Gah..."
The dragoness was at my side instantly, white cloth in her hand as she pressed it into my ribs. She took another away, awash in blood. "I am afraid ye will not be able to leave just yet, lander. Thy ribs have a very nasty gash in them from the jagged edges of the wood of thy doomed vessel. Ye were bleeding most profusely, the toothy denizens of the realm had already been drawn to ye by the smell of it. It was all I could do to get ye here before they were upon us fully. I am afraid if I were to try and swim ye back to land now, not only would thy wound reopen, but it would be sure to attract more toothsome monstrosities."
"So I'm stuck here?"
"Only until thy wound heals. Is that really so terrible?"
Goggling at her figure, I had to admit there could be many worse fates.
I settled back down onto the cot as she finished changing my dressing. I wanted to ask her more questions, only to find myself suddenly drifting back into a heavy sleep.
The sea dragoness' name turned out to be Arista. For the first few days I really couldn't do much more than lie there and be attended to. I was simply too hurt.
At least, I think they were days. It was hard to mark the passage of time, as the only way I could tell was by how often I slept and woke.
Watching Arista move about the cave, very unmindful of her nudity, turned out to be one of the most pleasant ways to pass the time. More than once I had to admit that I not-too-accidentally dropped a random utensil on the floor beside my cot just to watch her bend over to retrieve it.
She was fascinated by my fur and markings. "So what is thy kind called, Anthony?" she asked me as she fed me canned peaches. Where she'd gotten those or all the other knick-knacks in the cavern, I still hadn't learned. The place was practically overflowing with boxes and crates and knick-knacks of every variety.
"Raccoon," I told her. "You guys must know about all the different races on land, right?"
She nodded. "Aye. But our contact with ye landers is limited by law. Our rulers decided centuries ago that ye surface dwellers had become corrupt and immoral, and we sequestered ourselves beneath the waves. Only limited trade is allowed to exist, and from what they have seen of thy new machines and products, they are more convinced than ever that they had done right two hundred years agone."
"Is that what this place is?" I asked, nodding at all the piles of surface artifact. "A repository of unwanted items? A junkyard?"
Her cheeks turned red. I was surprised a sea dragoness even could blush like that through her scales. "Not...exactly."
"What then?"
She heaved a great sigh. "Not all of my people...agree with the official policies, Anthony. Many think there is much that the surface world of today can offer us, that in truth some of our leaders are just as corrupt as any of the people who walk on land. So, we, ah, collect certain items for those interested..."
I looked around the cave again, then at her, as realization suddenly dawned. I chuckled. "You're a smuggler! And this is your stash?"
Her blush darkened more. "I suppose that is one way to frame such a thing. I mostly trade with a few select surface dwellers on the sly, but I also scour wrecked ships for items of interest."
Sudden suspicion sparked in me. "Wait...so maybe it wasn't just coincidence you were near my boat when I sank? Did you do anything to..."
Arista turned angry. "Of course I did not do anything to deliberately sink thy vessel! How could ye think such a monstrous thing? If I my heart were truly so cold, I would have let ye drown!"
I glanced away. I suppose I hadn't thought that through.
"But when there is a surface storm, I do track surface ships, in case they wreck and valuable materials may be discovered within. If I can help the sea-stricken landers, I do, though most are unaware of such aid. I simply grab them and bring them to the surface so they may cling to debris until help from their own kind arrives. If I need to, I talk to my contacts on the shore so they may arrange a rescue. But ye were a special case, bleeding as ye were. Ye would have been food for the deeps had I left ye there."
"I--I see." I said. "I still don't know how to thank you..."
Arista shrugged, smiling now. "Simply tell no one of me or this cave when I bring ye back to shore, if ye please. Were my family to ever discover this endeavor of mine..." She looked away.
"Trouble, eh?"
"More than ye can know," she said wistfully, and let it go at that.
She cleaned up after the meal. I kept thinking of her story, and one detail still bothered me. "Can I ask how you found my boat? That's an awfully big ocean out there..."
A mischievous smile crossed her lips. "I am sure ye have heard that sea dragons can talk to fish? That we can make all the denizens of the deep leap and dance to our whims?"
"Yes?"
She snorted in amusement. "Pure whale excrement! A tall tale we have always encouraged. A flight of fancy that has always given us a bit of a chuckle at thy people's expense."
"How then?"
She stood, tossed back her golden hair, and placed her hands on her wide hips. It was quite a sight, made all the more breathtaking when she spread her wings dramatically to frame her curvaceous form. "Have ye never wondered why sea dragons have wings?"
I blinked, studying her for more than a few heartbeats passing before I remembered that she probably expected a response. "I kind of always thought they were vestigial, like on the land dragon species." It was well-accepted fact that dragonkin had evolved from a flying winged creature, but their humanoid forms made them far too heavy and unaerodynamic to fly.
"Pfah!" she said dismissively. "They are vestigial on our land cousins, yes. But my people have developed a much better use for them. They are sensory organs for us."
"How do you mean?"
"The membranes ye see here," she said, gesturing at her spread right wing, "are very sensitive to changes in water pressure and temperatures. When fully spread, we can sense all movement and activity in the water around us for quite a distance, even the smallest of currents. Sensing the vibrations of a big clumsy contrivance such as a land-dweller boat even a mile or more away was simplicity itself."
"Wow," I said. No one up top had any idea sea dragons were capable of that. No doubt one of many secrets they wished to keep from us. "So you can sense anything with them underwater? Like the sonar cetaceans have?"
"Yes and no. It is complicated, Anthony, as ye do not have an equivalent sense. But I can sense fish and water movement and alterations in temperature. Even in the air, with my wings spread like this, I can sense your respiration and body heat through them, even the soft vibrations of thy heart."
Without even realizing what I was doing, I reached out to gently stroke at the wingtip nearest me. My fingers ran down a few inches of her inner membrane, amazed at how silky-smooth it felt.
Arista shivered, letting out a soft gasp. Then she quickly folded up her wings again. "E-enough for now, Anthony. Ye need rest."
"What? I'm sorry, Arista, I didn't mean any--"
She tucked in my blanket and patted me on the shoulder. "Rest," she said with an enigmatic smile. Then she turned and walked to the pool on the far end of the cavern, slipping back into the sea.
When I woke again an interminable amount of time later, I felt amazingly better. Still a long way from hale and hearty, but at least I no longer felt like I was going to faint if I moved or retch if I bent the wrong way. Very slowly and tentatively, I sat up. I could even make my way to my feet after fifteen minutes of straining, grunting, and groaning.
I noticed I had to be very careful, still. If I twisted too far one way or the other the gash in my side burned like hell. But I could at least shuffle around a bit.
Arista still wasn't back. As long as I had this chance, it was time for some snooping. I just had to make sure I didn't trip over the damp, drooping bush of my tail or the very uneven cave floor.
Its not that I really thought Arista was up to something dastardly. It was obvious that if she meant me harm she had ample opportunity to do dire things to me while I lay sleeping and helpless. But as helpful and forthright as she had been, there still seemed many things she was holding back.
There turned out to be many more surface artifacts in the large cave than first appeared. The main cavern had a number of side-tunnels and cubby holes, all of which were overflowing with boxes or shelves of contraband.
Some of the material couldn't be any more than curiosities to the sea dragons, such as car engine parts and light bulbs. But there was a great many plastic items and tools that would hold up fairly well in the undersea environment, as well as a lot of sculpted artworks. There were even a number of paintings and prints, all protected in water-proof mylar. One particular image caught my attention, of a pink-purple-scaled land dragoness kneeling in skimpy lingerie. I whistled low in appreciation.
"I too always found that to be most pleasing to the eye," came Arista's voice behind me.
I started in surprise. I turned, flushing. "Ah, sorry about this..."
"For what, Anthony? I am glad to see thou art strong enough to be up and about. And it would be natural for ye to be curious about my wares." Her eyes narrowed, her arms crossing. "Provided ye did not take anything, I presume?"
I looked down at the ragged remnants of my tee-shirt and shorts. "And where exactly would I conceal anything?"
She laughed. "Nowhere pleasant, I imagine. Very well." She glanced up at the painting of the dragoness in lingerie. "There are many other depictions of surface females similar to that. I wonder, why do surface males find such wispy fabric on their females so enticing?"
I shrugged. "I never really thought of why, but they certainly do have a way to mesmerize us. Not that we don't appreciate nudity. Um..."
She tilted her head, smiling, all innocence. "Oh? So surface males are enticed by a complete lack of clothing as well?"
"Uh, I didn't mean..."
She shrugged. "Dost thou think I have not noticed ye watching me when ye thought my attentions were elsewhere? Surface males are like sea dragon males that way; they think they are getting away with such things when we females are very well aware of what they do."
"You aren't mad?"
"Mad at a male for thinking male thoughts? Its natural, and was one of the first real signs I saw that ye are recovering well. To those in my world, what a male actually does matters far more than what he thinks."
All I could do was nod. Somehow, hearing her say she didn't mind me gawking at her naked body only made me feel even more self-conscious doing so.
Her finger tapped her chin in contemplation. "Still, perhaps you would indulge me in an experiment? There's something I've been wanting to try since I saw these pictures, and now I can do so with someone else' opinion."
"What's that?"
"Go back to bed, Anthony, and rest. Ye've had enough exertion for one day, I think. I will come and show thee in a few heartbeats."
I did as she asked. The newness of my surroundings and being able to stand for the first time in days must have given me more of an adrenaline rush then I realized. Now that it was fading, I felt like my limbs were made of lead. I was very grateful to feel the cot's thin mattress under me.
I had almost drifted back to sleep when Arista strode back into my field of view. "Well, what do ye think, Anthony?" Slumber was instantly forgotten as she twirled slowly around to display her prizes.
She was dressed in lacy white lingerie, similar to the land dragoness in the picture. A white corset snugged up around her waist, pointed flaps of satin barely covering her nipples, a lace-up front exposing her sternum and belly button. Frilly cream-colored panties lay over her cleft, and as she turned it became obvious it was actually a thong, with a large lacy hoop circling the base of her tail. Stockings of sheer white satin slipped up her legs, held by a thin garter belt.
It took me quite a while to realize I was holding my breath while my heart thumped in my chest. I think I managed some witty response along the lines of, "uhh...duhh..."
She giggled, a surprisingly girlish sound from such a large female. "So surface males ARE enticed by such coverings! Tell me, Anthony, what intrigues ye the most about me right now?"
I blinked rapidly. "Its hard to choose," I said, stalling, trying to think of what to say without sounding like a sex-obsessed pervert.
She grabbed the underside of her breasts, hefting them experimentally, seemingly unconscious of my low groan of helpless appreciation. "I must admit, I find it most interesting that as flimsy as this garment may be, it lifts and shapes mine bosom in a way I thought not practical when out of the water. Surface females must use other garments like this to make their bosom more appealing to males, I would surmise."
"They do," I admitted. "And they certainly do make yours very, ah, appealing as well."
She blushed brightly. "I thank thee, Anthony. That is most kind."
She turned, and shifted from one leg to the other, making her rump and shoulder blades work up and down. I whimpered softly. "And what of these parts?" She asked. "The loincloth is most oddly cut. I had wondered about this, but I realize it might be to help draw attention to the rump, like a picture frame draws attention to a painting."
All I could do was moan in agreement. And so it went for quite a few minutes, her showing off every part of her lingerie. She lapped up my attention and complements like a kitten at a bowl of cream. In a way I was glad I was hurt and exhausted or else I would have embarrassed myself by showing my interest in a much more purely physical male way.
After a while, even the sight of her incredible form could not keep me awake any longer, and I drifted off to sleep. I swear I felt someone kiss me on my forehead in my last moments of consciousness, followed by a loud, far-off splash.
I woke again to find my teeth chattering as I curled up in a ball under the thin blanket. Arista was sitting at the side of my bed, watching.
"Were ye eating in thy dreams?" she asked. "Thy teeth were working most furiously..."
I shook my head, hugging myself. "Its just quite a bit colder in here today."
"The current has shifted for a bit, bringing colder waters here. Does the change in temperature bother thee?"
"Yeah." I shivered and wrapped the blanket tight around me. "I guess we surface people don't have quite as efficient a heating system as you sea dragons. That is one of the reasons why we wear clothes so much."
"Indeed?" she said, genuinely surprised. "But you also wear clothes when you are warm..."
"I never said we were overly logical about it. Uh, do you have any more blankets?"
She only had two more, all about as thin as the original. Still, I tried to make do, but I was still having trouble getting warm. My injury and weakened state may have had something to do with it.
"Thou does not seem to be any warmer," she observed with a worried frown. "I do not know what else to do, though."
I thought about it, suddenly remembering a technique campers used. "Wait, I know..." My voice trailed off as I mentally rejected the idea.
"What?" she asked.
"Never mind. Just a passing thought."
She sat on the edge of the cot. "Anthony, if there is a way I can make thee warmer, ye must tell me. I have not nursed thee back to health for days just to see you slip further into illness."
"W-well," I started. "When land dwellers are in a wilderness with no way to create a fire, they, um..."
"Tell me!" she insisted.
"They share body heat," I said in a small voice. "They'll lie next to each other under covers and let the heat their bodies radiate warm to each other."
She looked at me askew, thinking about it. "I suppose that does make sense. Very well. And my virtue is hardly endangered, as weakened as ye are."
"Hey! I wasn't thinking of that!"
She raised a scaly eye ridge. "Oh? Then why do thy cheeks flush so redly?"
I looked away, sucking my lip. "I just thought that you might think that I was trying to take advantage. Not that I ever would. Uh, not with out your permission. I mean..." Dammit, why could I never think of the right way to say things around her?
She chuckled. "I am well aware of that, Anthony. Simply pressing our bodies together is not considered a breach of a virtue among my people. Especially if it is needed in this case."
Without another word she lifted the covers and snuggled onto the small cot behind me as I lay on my uninjured side. We pulled the covers over us to keep in the warmth.
It took longer to feel her body heat than I would have thought. Her people, not surprisingly, must have had more than a few layers of insulation under the skin. But what I did feel immediately was the soft curves of her bare breasts pressing into my furry back, the whisper of her softly-scaled thighs against mine.
Yet, she was the one who gasped aloud. "Ye are so warm! I had no idea thy body gave off such heat as this! How can ye feel cold?"
"Th-that's the problem, I guess," I replied. "We don't keep the heat in as well as your people."
"I see. Is that why ye tremble when ye are cold? Thy body is working too hard trying to produce the heat needed?"
"Maybe. I'm not really sure."
"Is my proximity helping, as ye hoped it might?"
"Actually, yes. Its very...pleasant under the blankets now." Made even MORE pleasant as I felt her incredibly soft curves pressing into me, but I thought it best not to mention that at the moment.
Strangely, we settled into a long, rambling conversation afterward, going on for hours about our respective lives and opinions on a whole range of subjects. I learned more about Sea Dragon culture than most of the scholars on the surface. Before I knew it, I found myself drifting off to sleep. Arista was still laying behind me when I woke up, but left a few hours later when the shifting currents brought warmth back to the cave.
Over the next week, we settled into a routine as I recovered the lion's share of my strength. Arista would arrive, help me exercise and clean up, then we would eat and explore her large stash of stolen goods. As I got sleepy she would join me in bed, determined to keep me warm, despite the fact the cold currents never returned. It was obvious that she may have been as lonely as I was, and welcomed the company. I certainly was not going to complain.
Not that things ever turned overtly sexual. I don't think either one of us was ready for that just yet. But it was easy to tell that we were tentatively being drawn in that direction. Our affection and playfulness with each other just kept growing as the time wore on. I was getting stronger every day, but began dreading the time when neither of us could use my wounds as an excuse for me to stay in the cave any longer.
To help pass the time, we ended up playing cardgames. The cave had piles of electronic amusements, hand-held video game units and portable DVD players wrapped tightly in plastic, but Arista was loathe to use up their batteries or expose their circuits to the damp salt air unless she had to.
During these card games, we did once get into an argument over the rules; we both had differing ideas of how poker should be played. Odd, that her people even knew of the game, but apparently they had their own versions of it.
The argument turned a bit heated, as we sat on cushions on the cave floor with card between us, but soon Arista was pushing me playfully as a kind of mock-attack. I pushed her back, to which she retaliated. Before we knew it the whole thing had turned into a tickle fight. We sat there, wiggling our fingers into each others' tummies like ten year olds, trying to make the other laugh louder. I quickly got the upper hand, as it turned out that Arista was much more sensitive than I was.
She ended up under me on the cave floor as I pressed home my advantage. With a final convulsive laugh and shudder, she surrendered.
My fingers stopped, and we just froze there for a second, me over her, my hands on her smooth scales, our eyes locked together. We both held our breaths, as if waiting for something to happen.
But the moment passed, and she wiggled out from under me and stood, smoothing herself as best she could. Things were somewhat formal between us for the next few days, but I always wondered what would have happened if I hadn't froze up at that moment.
Toward the end of the third week, during the night, I had an odd dream where I heard loud splashing in the entry pool, but instead of Arista's sweet voice and delicate footpads, I heard the clank of heavily booted feet and the growl of something large and terrible. I snapped my eyes awake moments later to find the cave empty of anyone save myself. I quickly fell back asleep, chiding my own subconscious anxieties.
When Arista arrived later that day, we began fiddling with some stereo equipment she had managed to smuggle in. We even managed to arrange a number of batteries to power the system for a couple of hours. At first Arista was delighted to hear surface dweller music, but quickly found much of it was distasteful. With those hyper-sensitive wing membranes, their sense of hearing was far better than anyone surface species' could ever be. She was able to detect subtle disharmonies and disruptions that I was oblivious to, souring much of the work for her.
Not all of it she disliked, however. Some purely digitally-produced tracts she enjoyed quite a bit, and she wanted to know more about them.
"Well," I told her, "Most music like that is usually remixed versions of live and analog sounds, used for dance clubs."
She smirked. "Ah, yes, surface dwellers and 'dancing.' My people find the notion quite amusing, truthfully."
I looked at her askew. "Why's that?"
The Sea Dragoness chuckled. "Truly thy people never watch themselves as they 'dance?' The odd gyrations, the wobbly knees, kicking feet, the strained movements...we all find it most quirksome!"
I crossed my arms. "Hmph. I suppose it could look like that. But not all dance is like that. Some of it can be very slow and graceful."
"What would be the point of dancing slow? I thought the purpose was to show off thy physical prowess to the opposite sex."
"Well, maybe. But some dancing is really for intimacy, for a male and a female to enjoy closeness out in public without scandalizing anyone watching."
"Oh? Show me."
I wondered for a moment if she was serious. I selected a slower track on the CD and took her hand in mine.
It was more than awkward, for quite a while, as she hesitantly learned where to put her hands and stumbled about on the uneven cave floor trying to follow my lead. I had more than a few squashed toes.
But after a while, she began to get the hang of it, and the dancing turned pleasant. More so for me, because as tall as she was, my eyes were almost level with her bosom. I tried not to stare, but it was inescapable.
One song died down about an hour into our dancing lesson. We stopped moving for just a second, and our eyes met again, as they had at the end of our tickle fight a few days before. Her orbs were so beautiful and so deep, an ocean of sky-blue. I was determined that I wasn't going to waste the opportunity this time. As if drawn by an irresistible force, our lips drew together...
"Halt!" boomed a deep voice echoing throughout the cave. "Princess Arista of the Blue Stingray Clan, thou art under arrest!"
We both turned to see a quartet of Sea Dragon males lumber out of the entry pool, all wearing pieces of fitted coral armor on their chests and shoulders. Beside them lumbered a huge lizard-like creature, easily fifteen feet long from blunt snout to tailtip. It wore a nasty-looking spiked collar and snarled ferally in our direction.
"Holy crap," I whispered. Arista looked stunned and panicky, but moved instinctively between me and the intruders.
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked.
The leader, a large green-scaled specimen with biceps as big as my head and sporting a trident-lance twice my height, stepped forward. "I am Orinus, of the Black Hellshark clan, Princess. My clansmen and I are under warrant to bring thee back to the high court of Queen Delphinia to stand trial for the crimes of smuggling, theft, kidnapping, and cultural contamination."
Only one item seemed to surprise her. "Kidnapping?"
Orinus nodded in my direction. "We suspected that land dwellers have been kidnapped by thy syndicate from shipwrecks for use as slaves and food stuffs before. Seeing thee here with an actual prisoner only confirms that."
"I'm not a prisoner!" I protested. "I was badly wounded. She was helping me recover before she brought me back to shore."
Orinus shook his thickly scaled head. The giant lizard-things snapped its jaws impatiently beside him. "Ye have no need to lie for her or fear her any longer, sirrah. Thou art safe with us. There is a surface-dweller patrol boat that is waiting nearby, as is standard in these anti-smuggling operations. We can have thee aboard it in a few hundred heartbeats. Just let us tend to the renegade princess."
I raised an eyebrow at Arista. "Princess?"
She sighed, shoulders drooping. "Yes. I am the ninth daughter of Queen Delphinia's fifth son. Technically, I am a princess, even though I am thirty-ninth in line for the throne."
"No more," Orinus boasted. "Ye will be stripped of thy title and privileges at the very least. I am sure the queen will even make an example of thee, as she cannot be seen playing favorites. I always look forward to when criminal scum like thyself will be stripped of thy wings and be forced to watch as sharks feast upon them."
Arista paled at his words. Orinus' clansmen moved forward, their trident-lances leveled at the female.
My mind worked furiously. I owed her my life. I had to do something. But I was clearly outnumbered, outmuscled, and outgunned. That left only one option. "Say, um, Orinus," I said. The leader turned to regard me with a cold eye. "There were some personal things from my boat that she brought with me here. Do you mind if I fetch them before you bring me to the surface?"
He looked at me askew, then nodded curtly. "Just be quick about it. And make sure it is only thy possessions. The rest will be needed as evidence."
I nodded and stumbled toward a stack of items, a vague plan forming in my mind. I was very sure I was only going to end up getting myself killed, but I figured I was dead already anyway. That shipwreck should have killed me. So what did I ultimately have to lose?
I grabbed up a large glass jar of hot pepper sauce I'd seen earlier. I only hoped this worked. For Arista's sake, if nothing else.
I suddenly straightened as if frightened. I walked quickly back to the sea dragon males, looking around anxiously next to the still-playing stereo. They looked at me oddly. "I--I think there's someone else here," I said.
The leader cocked a scaly brow. "What? We've detected no one else save thyself and the criminal."
"Are you sure? The last few days I could have sworn there was someone else sneaking around in here."
Orinus crossed his meaty arms. "That seems unlikely, mammal. We have far superior senses..."
"Oh? Even out of the water here? There could be another entrance, somewhere..."
Orinus sighed like a martyr. "Very well, I suppose it will not hurt to check." He looked askew at his three compatriots, who all spread their wings to scan for sounds.
My hand shot to the stereo, turning it up full blast.
Raccoons like myself have pretty sensitive hearing, and it was painful for me. The Sea Dragons basically had large, wing-sized hearing tympanums. To them it was pure agony. They howled and were practically paralyzed by the audial assault.
The giant lizard snarled...a low bass counterpoint to the shrill screeching pop guitar on the stereo. I took the glass jar of pepper sauce and smashed it as hard as I could on its snout. Red liquid splashed everywhere on its scales.
It reared back, stunned at first, opening its eyes and nostrils wide in surprise. Big mistake.
When the reddish liquid seeped into its breathing orifices and the fumes hit its eyes, it bellowed an ear-shattering roar of rage and pain. It thrashed about, its tail slamming in one of Orinus' clansman like a club.
I ran, grabbing Arista by the hand and dragging the stunned female with me to the entry pool. I flung us into the frigid water, hoping the splash of the sea would bring her back to her senses. I needed her to get us out of there. I had spent the whole of my strategic planning on the stereo and pepper.
Luckily, she recovered quickly, her strong hands suddenly around my waist and her legs kicking us powerfully through the water. We dived down to clear the cave entrance, me almost panicking as the water got colder and more oppressive, then she shot us toward the surface. Only a few heartbeats later my head broke above the surface of the sea for the first time in weeks. The sun beat steadily down on us as the waves bobbed up and down.
"I cannot believe ye did that!" she said.
"Me neither!" I gasped. "But they'll come after us. You have to get away!"
She looked at me, stricken. "But what about thyself?"
I looked around, and spotted the patrol boat not too far away. They were already turning toward us. "Don't worry about me, they think I was just a kidnapping victim. You go! I'll try and come back here in a few weeks when things calm down, if I can! Now go!"
She looked stricken. But looking around, panicky, all she could do was nod. She suddenly splashed forward, kissed me quickly, and with one last soulful look of despair in her eyes, she disappeared beneath the waves.
The patrol boat picked me up without incident a few minutes later and even gave me some hot coffee on deck as the crew took my statement. I did nothing to disillusion their belief that I was a hapless victim who barely managed to get away.
The boat itself wasn't too large, maybe thirty five feet from stem to stern, little more than an armored pleasure cruiser. The captain was a small, wiry, long-haired felinoid, looking supremely out of place on a sea-washed soggy boat. He sighed a lot.
They had just gotten tired of waiting for the sea dragon counterparts to show and were turning back toward to shore when the boat suddenly lurched violently, the deck on the starboard side almost dipping into the waves. The crew all shouted and held on for their lives.
The giant sea lizard pet of Orinus suddenly lurched up onto he deck, snarling still. Its sore bloodshot eyes fixated on me, burning with pure murder.
"Ye will not dishonor us again, surface scum!" came a voice from the water. I turned just in time to see Orinus' head bob above the water, then disappear again as the gunshots started.
The crew only had small handguns ready. The creature was literally climbing onto the rack of heavier weapons off the aft deck. It shrugged off the small rounds like mosquitoes, then shot forward, snapping its toothy jaws around the abdomen of one patrolman who stood between me and it, a broad-shouldered lupinoid. The poor crewman was almost bit in half.
I grabbed a fire extinguished near me and flung it at the lizard. Surprisingly, it flinched, maybe remembering the last painful time I had thrown something at its snout. Still, that action may not have worked in my favor, as the sea lizard snarled even louder and lunged at me.
An explosion suddenly rocked the water not too far away, then another, distracting mammals and lizard alike. The patrol boat was tossed from side to side by the watery shockwaves, making everyone aboard, including the lizard, stumble about madly to keep their footing.
A figure shot out of the water and scrambled onto the deck. Then it leapt onto the lizard's back. Arista!
She wrapped her long arms the lizard's throat and held on with all her strength. The startled lizard only snarled and began thrashing about in panic.
"Help me hold it down!" she yelled. "Don't let it move!"
The patrolmen were slow to comply, no doubt bewildered and startled, but after a few heartbeats piled onto the lizard and fought against it like a squad of furry wrestlers. I was the last to join in, moving to the side and throwing myself onto the back of the creature's neck.
That put me not coincidentally very close to Arista's face. "What's going on?" I managed to squeak out.
The lizard was fighting us less, and soon was unresisting. It slumped limply to the deck. "The lizard has lungs," she gasped. "But not very good ones. If it over-exerts itself in the air it can very easily fall unconscious."
I blinked. "You mean it fainted?"
"Whatever happened, its good enough," came the felinoid captain's voice. He had taken advantage of the lull in the fighting to grab an assault rifle from the boat's gun rack. Two dozen high-velocity rounds fired point-blank into the lizard's cranium ended the fight. The captain emptied another clip into the lizard's head just to be sure.
I smiled weakly at Arista just as she collapsed to the deck herself, her breath shallow and her entire body trembling. "I never want to do that again," she said weakly. Not a single soul on that boat disagreed.
The flight and battle with Orinus and his pet--which we only saw the last few minutes of on the boat--had nearly killed Arista. Luckily she'd had the foresight to stash a number of nasty surprises in the area around the cave. I learned later that she had a number of traps in the cave of well, and would probably have used them on Orinus if she had not been taken by surprise.
One of her surprises was a stash of plastic explosives with underwater detonators. Those had taken out two of Orinus' clansmen, and may have taken out the leader as well. She had no way of knowing, as she had to surface fast after the last blast to help us with the lizard.
Either way, Orinus had not surfaced again, and the Sea Dragon government denied any part in the incident that claimed the life of a Lander patrolman. Due to mitigating circumstance, lack of witnesses against her, and her heroic efforts to save the other patrolmen, she had her sentence for smuggling reduced to time served. She asked for and was readily granted political asylum by the surface courts.
I didn't see her too much while her case was going through the system; her lawyer thought it best that she and I keep our distance from each other so our testimony wouldn't be perceived as biased either way. But I was there after the final court date, outside of the monolithic federal courthouse in the capital city, waiting for her to exit.
She smiled broadly as she walked up and hugged me fiercely. "Anthony!" she exulted. "It is so good to see thee again!"
"Same here!" I said, as we just smiled and stared at each other as her lawyer inconspicuously excused himself. The sea dragoness and I walked out to the courtyard's adjoining park. I took up her hand in mine. She smiled and made no move to pull it away.
"I have been approached by a number of interests who want to hire me as a consultant on ocean exploration. And a few firms even want me to join in several expeditions first hand, assisting their divers. It would appear I will not have to return to a life of smuggling for money again."
"That's great," I said. "But won't you get in trouble with your people if you go back into the ocean?"
She shrugged. "The seas are vast, and my people are not as wide-spread there as they would like ye land dwellers to believe. There are plenty of places I can accompany expeditions where I will be perfectly safe from extradition. Besides, there are more thinking creatures under the waves than just sea dragons."
"Oh? I'd love to meet them, sometimes."
"I am most glad to hear thee say that," she said, suddenly looking away shyly. "This time among ye surface dwellers has not been all unpleasant, but it has been...lonely. Which is why I have decided to accept the best-paying offer for an expedition consultant...with one condition."
"What's that?"
She smiled and lay her other hand over our intertwined fingers, her deep orbs looking hopefully into mine. "That I could bring along mine own assistant. Would ye be interested?"
All I could do was nod enthusiastically. The hug that came after quickly led to a kiss, and the promise of much, much more.