Page 14 of Alien Triton's Prize

“I can’t drink seawater. At least not the seawater on Earth; it’s too salty, and it will only make me even thirstier, dehydratingme. The seawater here tastes pretty salty, too. I need fresh water.”

Fuck. I really should have read through the information package Lago had sent me earlier.

“There’s a pouch of it I received as a sample somewhere. I will find it for you.” I slipped back into the pool by her door. “Stay here.”

Where had I put it? I checked the dining room, but it wasn’t there. Eventually, I found it tucked away in a desk drawer in my home office. I returned with the sealed pouch to Vera’s room.

She took it from me, fiddled with the packaging, and took a sip gratefully.

“I’ve seen these at the stores. I’ll send Seena out to get some for you while I read the info the healer sent me.”

She was still wet, and her hair dripping. She looked very uncomfortable.

Then I remembered the fluffy pieces of fabric on the shelf. I reached for one and handed it to her.

“Oh, towels! I didn’t even notice them. Thank you.”

I sat her down in front of the computer in the awkwardly shaped chair designed for a human body, brought up the files, and then had the computer translate a copy for her as well. I continued reading as she dried off.

According to the information there, her skin was not waterproof and took on excess water if she stayed submerged too long. Indeed, it would start to break down after a few days, exposing her to infections. Sure enough, I noticed the water had not beaded off her body as it did mine. And despite the towel, her hair was still damp.

The only places on her body meant to be constantly wet were apparently something called the mucous membranes. There was a salve that waterproofed her skin, and as long as she reapplied it every few days, it would keep her safe. Her need to ingest fresh water was also mentioned. Without it, she could die in a distressingly short period of time. I stared at the information in shock.

“I’m very sorry. I inadvertently put you in danger because I was so focused on my work that I didn’t read this through before you arrived.” I sent Seena a note listing all the supplies we needed.

“It’s okay. I didn’t know either. I’ve never been underwater for hours at a time until now.” She yawned. “I’m also very tired. I think all the excitement has finally caught up with me.”

“I too have had a long day. We will rest now.”

I guided her to the bed. The fabric of her garments was still damp, so I pulled at the ties at the back and sides.

She gasped and covered her breasts and crotch when the garments fell to the ground. Humans’ shyness about their natural bodies was strange to me, but she’d get used to being naked with time.

“The triangles are wet. You need to be completely dry,” I explained as I pulled back the dry sheets for her invitingly.

She clambered in, covering herself with the blanket.

Then I climbed under the sheets with her.

Chapter 7

Vera

I woke up the next morning…or whatever passed for morning in a city where sunlight wasn’t the main source of illumination…completely naked in bed with a merman. I mean, it wasn’t like those tiny scraps of fabric would have hidden much even if I’d still been wearing them. His tail hung off the foot of the bed, probably since it was so long. His rock-hard body was smashed right up next to mine.

I decided to relax and go with the flow. Technically, we were already married. And his closeness was helping to distract me from the slight headache that had been building over the last little while.

“You are awake,” he said, his hands running soothingly over my back and shoulders.

He started to rub my back with the padded part of his fingers, completely keeping the sharp claws out of the picture. I hadn’t realized my muscles were so sore until now. Cetius had done most of the work getting us down to the city and around town, but just swimming around his home and courtyard had tired me.

I wasn’t used to this amount of exercise. No wonder everyone I’d seen around town, Thalassonian and otherwise, was all so buff. Just getting around every day was a workout. Water was freaking heavy!

I dozed off for a while, then woke later to a muted thud-thud at the door.

The bed lifted slightly as Cetius climbed off and headed to the door. I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to do my business. I appreciated that he’d installed a facility for me that worked similarly enough to the toilets on Earth that I could figure out what to do.

Yesterday, when Cetia showed me around, I had to ask her how the Thalassonian facilities worked, which was a bit embarrassing. Turns out they had these suction cup-like things on the wall that they pressed their vents to. The cups molded to their form and sucked everything away. I had to admit, it was quite convenient. Too bad the cups couldn’t figure out how to mold to the V of my legs.

---