Page 4 of Alien Triton's Prize

I drew her attention to the chest sitting against the wall of one of the huts with the Starlight Brides logo on it. “That is for you.Maybe it has more suitable clothing for you inside. Something more streamlined.”

She brightened. “Oh! I didn’t even see that! A drysuit would be amazing.”

She opened the chest, and her smile dropped. “Ugh! Whatever. At least I can put my luggage and phone in here. I don’t think they’d survive a trip to the bottom of the ocean.” She grabbed whatever it was she’d found inside and disappeared behind the wall to change.

I didn’t understand her shyness regarding her nudity. My people went around mostly nude, wearing only harnesses to carry our supplies and sometimes decorations to enhance our beauty. Besides, if things went well, she’d be my wife soon in every sense of the word, and I’d see her with no barriers, physical or otherwise.

When she returned, she had only three scraps of fabric covering her body: two triangles up top over her teats, and one larger one between her legs. I swallowed hard at the sight.

She stuffed the clothes she’d changed out of into the chest angrily with the rest of her belongings and closed it.

“You are not happy with the clothing they provided,” I remarked.

Personally, I found them very intriguing. They played up her curves and made me think that perhaps being matched with a human wasn’t so bad after all. With my people’s lack of females, fertility was a highly revered trait. She oozed it in spades; it had me wondering if perhaps I was ready to raise young after all. Coming from me, that was a shocking sentiment.

I wasn’t ready for spawn. I wasn’t even ready to get married! I wasn’t finished going on grand adventures, exploring the openocean and the various floating islands like my grandsire Cetion had done in his youth. But with my older brother the way he was, I knew I had to step up. Our grandsire had already announced that I would take over the company when the time came, and I couldn’t disappoint him. He had dealt with enough heartache in the past decade.

“I would hardly call this bikini clothing. I’m freezing.” She rubbed her hands over her arms.

Indeed, the skin there had started to pebble strangely, making the downy quills on her arms stand up. I wasn’t sure how that was supposed to keep her warm, but it was obviously a reaction to the dropping temperatures. It was noticeably cooler now than it had been just minutes earlier. That was the thing about air; it changed temperature quickly. Under the water, in our city, the temperatures were relatively consistent. It made it easier for us to control the climate artificially.

“It will be warmer in the water.”

The look on her face told me that she didn’t believe me one bit.

“All right, Cetius. Let’s see what these external lungs of yours can do.”

“Gills.”

“Whatever.”

I draped the elaborately engineered collar around her neck. The skimpy top she had on left much of her skin bare. That was important. Now that the artificial gills had detected that they were on a living, breathing creature, they came alive. The tendrils that had once hung limply latched onto her skin.

She gasped and struggled, trying to pull it off even as the gills molded to her.

“Be calm, female.” I grabbed her hands so she couldn’t tear apart and damage the gills.

“It’s trying to burrow into my skin.”

“Yes. It needs to become a part of you to help you breathe. Relax, it is only temporary. You can remove it again once you are somewhere with breathable air.”

Now that it had latched onto her chest and neck, it sent little silver vines up her jawline and cheek and into her mouth and nose. She opened her mouth and gasped for air, like a fish out of water. I’d never actually seen these gills attach in person, just in vids, but I’d seen others wearing them, so I knew it was safe. Then it was done.

I cradled her in the coils of my tail, my arms holding her until she was still.

“How do you feel now?” I asked.

“I…I don’t know. I don’t really feel it anymore, except maybe a bit of weight on my neck and shoulders.”

The gills looked like part of her body now, and the delicate network of pink that covered her chest, throat, and lower face had turned a shimmering silver, the same iridescent silver as some of my own scales. The pattern reminded me of the coral that grew in the shallows. If I didn’t know what it was, I’d assume it was purely decorative, perhaps a necklace like she said.

“Why don’t we give them a try,” I said.

Then, with my temporary bride in my arms, I started toward the water.

Chapter 3

Vera

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