Page 28 of Alien Triton's Prize

I nervously swiped a little bit more of the my-lips-but-glitterier pigment onto my lips. It was as close as I could get to the lowkey makeup I was used to back home. Everything here had tons of mica in it, or this planet’s equivalent of it, and shimmered. Matte was an unknown texture. I guess this was to be expected since the Thalassonian’s natural scales had a bit of iridescence. I was already married to the only triton I wanted to impress.

“You ready?”

“Yup.”

Cetia looked me up and down critically, then bared her teeth in approval. I had acquired my own set of clips and attached several fresh leaves and flowers from the garden to my hair, all of them in Cetius’s colors of blue, silver, and purple. I was a hell of a lot more accessorized than I’d ever been on Earth or at the space station, that was for sure, but I’d learned that just because I didn’t need to wear clothes didn’t mean I had to be naked. There were plenty of other ways to adorn myself.

“Good. Let’s go. I reserved two prime spots for us. We’ll have a perfect view of the winner as they cross the line into safety.”

The race was taking place in the very center of the city through the tallest of buildings. Closing off the busiest sector of what I had come to think of as the downtown core only happened once a year for this event.

Cetia hadn’t been kidding when she said we had prime spots. Not only were they in the first row right by the finish line, they were also in the middle of the water column between the ocean floor and the net at the top that prevented the selach from escaping. Participants could swim up and out through the nets if they needed to, but such a maneuverwas for emergencies only and would disqualify them from the race.

Every precaution was taken not to let the giant beast be hurt. The people of Coral’s Deep revered selachs of this size and it was considered bad luck to harm them. At the end of the race, which I was glad to hear did not end with any of the participants being eaten…usually…large schools of fish were funneled into the racetrack so the selach could feed well before it was released again.

The race was filmed from multiple points along the course, and there was a giant screen right across from us. Currently, it was showing the participants limbering up right before the race. There was a brief shot of Cetius with his friend Iravan, who somehow looked even more like a sea serpent today than when I’d met him before.

Then the screen cut to a shot of the giant selach, already swimming through the buildings, and I had a mini freak out. This thing washuge. The size of a small building type of huge. It made the shark from Jaws, another Earth classic, look like a tub toy.

It was currently circling low down around the buildings, but a shot of the net above showed that it had already tried escaping its temporary prison. It wasn’t cute little fishing nets that protected the spectators. The cables were as thick as my arm.

Suddenly, I sensed something behind me. I turned around—I was getting much better at that, in fact moving around in general—and saw Cetius. No. Not Cetius. This Thalassonian looked very much like him, with the same coloring and handsome features. But something was off. This was not my husband.

“So, this is the human Starlight Brides found for my dear brother.” There was a note in his voice that had the hairs on my arms standing up on end. “Not too bad at all.”

The way he leered at me, his eyes lingering on my breasts, was gross. I knew I was naked, but I reallyfeltnaked now. If I were a Thalassonian or a fish, my spines would have raised in defense.

So this was Cetius’s brother. I’d figured he’d look like Cetius, but I hadn’t expected a carbon copy. Except the constant sneer made all the difference.

I moved ever so slightly to be a little bit closer to Cetia, who had turned to level a gaze at her brother.

“Algrim. Not swimming today?” Cetia asked, completely ignoring his words.

“I have already won the title. I do not need to win it again.”

“Shouldn’t you be watching the race with Nerial then?” Cetia looked around for the female.

I did, too. But I didn’t see her anywhere.

“She is with friends. I thought I’d join my sisters”—yes, sisters plural, and his eyes landed briefly on me (eww)—“in the spectator stands.”

He settled on the other side of me, and I tried to shove away the strange, uncomfortable feeling it gave me as the participants lined up at the starting line. The cables at the beginning and end were spaced wide enough for them to get through, but not the giant selach. Each racer held on to one of the cables and waitedfor the signal. There was a resounding boom of a cannon that had the water around me vibrating, and the race was on.

The participants immediately fanned out, some rising to the top of the water column, some sinking to the bottom. Others stayed near the center where they started. The first section was straight, and it was very clear to all that the selach was not here.

The audience could see exactly on a screen where the selach was. It had been lying in wait after the second bend. But now that it detected movement in the water, it started to swim toward the starting line.

When the participants got to the first corner, they slowed and peered around, checking for any signs of the selach. When they saw none, they rounded the bend and sped along. I was on the edge of my seat as the selach turned the corner itself and found several dozen snack-sized morsels swimming toward it.

The creature was at the center of the column, and those swimming there darted either up or down to safety. The selach looked around, unsure who to choose, before eventually chasing one poor merman for a bit before deciding he wanted an octopus snack instead.

Then, a flash of fluke and fin caught its attention, and it lost interest in the tentacled participant and went for the flash of green and yellow instead. This continued throughout the race. It was heart-stopping excitement, especially when the selach took note of Cetius and started chasing him for a while.

If I were on land, I would have held my breath, but then it lost interest and started chasing a different Thalassonian, this one with red and orange coloring. It kept after this particular contestant for a long time. The way he was colored, he might as well have been waving a bright red flag at a bull.

Suddenly the video cut out, and there was a groan of collective disappointment throughout the spectator stands. Algrim got up from his reclining position and went to the front, placing his hand on the cables and peering through them. The cables were closer together here in the spectator area.

A voice came onto a loudspeaker to apologize for the technical difficulties and assure us that they had a team working on it. Despite this, the video feed was never restored. I started swimming back and forth in our private spectator stand, worrying for Cetius. I knew that my ability to see him or not didn’t change anything, but I was still frantic.

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