Page 7 of Alien Triton's Prize

Cetius

“Did you even read the files I sent you?” Lago sighed from behind his large coral desk after I’d made the introductions and explained our speech issue.

Shit! I had not. I ran a hand through my head spines.

Lago had been the one to extract my extra gills and send them to the lab to make the artificial ones for Vera. After finding out I’d been paired with a human, he’d gone above and beyond and sent me some information on the species, but I’d been so busy with the family business that I frankly hadn’t had time to look through it.

“Because if you had, you’d know that temporary loss of voice is a common side effect for some species when they enter the deep. Water is heavier than air, and their vocal cords are not accustomed to it. In time, she will build the strength to speak again, especially once the external gills start merging with her body. There is no cause for concern.”

“Sorry. I’ve just been so busy—”

“I know. I heard the announcement that your grandsire will be leaving the company to you and not your brother. I am not surprised.” He glanced over at Vera, who was still clinging to me like her life depended on it. “But this is a joyous occasion! You should spend time with your new bride while you can. Work will always be there.”

“’I will.” I reached my tail out to the healer and touched his in thanks.

Yes, work would always be there, but Vera might not. In a year’s time, she might return to the surface and the human colony, taking with her my one and only chance at life with a female from beyond the sand.

“Congratulations again. Now go and spend some quality time with your bride.”

“I will.” I turned to leave, and Vera waved at Lago in that strange human way I had read about.

She didn’t have a tail, so I suppose it made sense that she’d use her hands to communicate. Some species touched snouts in greetings, but I heard humans touched hands.

“Don’t forget to read the files I sent you,” Lago called as we exited his office.

As we passed the front desk, Killia handed me a pamphlet printed on an eco-friendly sheet of pressed seaweed that readBook Now: A Guide to Booking an Appointment for the Technologically Uninitiatedon the cover. I was pretty damn sure she’d just printed it out, since the front cover was still warm.

I didn’t bother to read it. I knew how to book a fucking appointment. The moment we were outside, I lifted the pamphlet above my head and waved it around, drawing theattention of several schools of cleaner fish. The moment I let go of the offending document, they converged on it immediately. In mere moments, there was nothing left.

The cleaner fish really did do a great job at keeping Coral’s Deep’s streets free of garbage. They’d learned quickly that anyone waving something over their head meant feeding time. Just don’t accidentally drop any important notes or any edible goodies. If you did, you only had about two seconds to retrieve them.

Vera peered up at the feeding frenzy in amazement. I’d heard the Earth was so dirty now that anyone who could leave the planet did so. But who was I to judge? Our planet might be clean, but Thalassonians had other issues. Big ones. It was why we relied on crossbreeding with other species to keep from dying out.

I took a shortcut to my estate because I was sick of all the staring. The very public news that my grandsire would be handing the family business to me was one of the reasons. But the other was the fact that I had a female from beyond the sands in my arms. The news that I was no longer one of the most eligible bachelors in Coral’s Deep would travel fast.

“Here we are,” I said as I guided Vera into the main foyer. “This will be your home for the next little while. I’ll show you to the room I had built specially for you.”

As we moved through the hallways of the abode I’d worked so hard to build, I couldn’t help but be pleased by Vera’s reaction. She was impressed, that much was certain. Maybe she would change her mind about leaving at the end of the year now that she guessed I was rich, even though a female who only wanted me for my wealth was precisely what I was hoping to avoid by going to Starlight Brides.

“This is your room,” I said, stopping in front of the door decorated with a giant shell, complete with the original pearl, an impressive specimen easily the size of my head. “I built it just for you so you would have a place to dry off and breathe air.” I opened the door to the room designed for those from the surface and pulled her under the lip and up to the other side.

She coughed and sputtered as she tried to breathe the air.

“You will have to expel all the water from your body before you can breathe air again.” The gills breathed for her while she was underwater, but that didn’t mean water didn’t get into all her other airways as well. I gave her back a few firm pats.

“Ugh! That’s horrible,” she finally managed. “Why is the air so sharp?”

I chuckled. “That is how air always feels to me.” With a powerful thrust of my tail, I launched myself out of the water and onto the tiled floor. I’d had them build a ramp so my future bride could help herself up using her legs.

She tried to step up, but her little feet slipped. She tried again, reaching for the edge with a hand, but between the angle and her lack of claws or suckers, her hand slipped as well.

Well, this was embarrassing. I hadn’t anticipated this. I’d need to make some modifications to the design.

I held out a hand to her, then hauled her up into the room. I took the opportunity to analyze her hands. Her fingers had short, flat nails that were slightly soft—from her time in the water, I assumed. Even her thumb had a flat covering over the tip. And she was missing an opposable digit!

So odd. In contrast, I had three claws per hand, plus two blunt, clawless opposable digits. Our opposable thumbs were in the same spot, but where my smaller opposable digit was, Verahad only a tiny finger. How awkward to have only one opposable digit per hand. Poor thing.

“Thanks.” She looked around, her eyes widening when they landed on the computer on the desk. “Is that what I think it is? If so, I’m going to send Starlight Lottery a very strongly worded email.”

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