Page 25 of Emerald Waves
You be quiet, dragon.
Or what, you’ll ignore me, our mate and our dragon the way you have since everyone left?
The way I’d still be doing if you weren’t so fucking loud.
You resorting to crass words and vulgarities is always a surefire tell that you know you were wrong. You know of his insecurities. What you did caused them to spark. Even if it was just a little flare, he should never feel that from us!
And what is he going to feel when he sees what we’ve done to the space?
You will have to wait and see, now won’t you? Though from his reaction so far, I do not see why you are being so hesitant. He loved the reef tank.
Because it is one tank and a handful of creatures, like any aquarium lover would have. Not an obsession like what lies around the bend.
What is wrong with obsessively preserving those who the humans would otherwise have destroyed with their arrogance, negligence, and abject lack of caring for anything and anyone that is different from them?
I don’t think it’s wrong.
Then why do you insist on believing he would?
For the same reason I’ve never told our brothers. I can practically hear Mattias scoff and Odem’s laughter if they knew. Mattias would be put off by my obsession with his element.
Perhaps, or perhaps you’ve misjudged them and made assumptions because you are insecure and have always tried to hide how much you crave approval, especially from Ionus, whose praise means everything to you, despite how infrequently he gives it or maybe because of it. You have always looked up to him, and on the surface, attempted to adapt to his way, like upstairs, in the home you created and furnished with things in a style reflecting his, not your own.
Leave me alone dragon.
Ahh, why is it you always ask me for the one thing I will never be able to do. We are one, even when you attempt to block me from your thoughts.
You could make it easier.
So could you.
“In case you were wondering, I’m not going to change my mind about wanting to see everything no matter how long you stand there staring into the tank,” Emerson insisted.
Sighing, I turned away from watching the clownfish to face my mate again. The look of resolve on his face was the fiercest look I’d ever seen on him. In my mind, I could hear my dragon rumbling.
“Emerson,” I said, licking my lips as I searched for the right words. “The rest of the horde is around the corner, but there isn’t anything else in it but sea life. Tanks and tanks of sea life.”
“L-like an aquarium?” he asked, eyes going wide.
Letting out a long, exhale, I nodded. “Exactly like that.”
He squealed much as he had in the library, grabbed my hand, and practically dragged me around the bend into my horde, where tanks of every size, shape, and ecosystem, were carefully displayed, each built into the side of the cave.
“Is that a manatee?” Emerson asked, the awe in his voice was unmistakable.
“Not quite, it’s a Steller’s Sea Cow, they are extinct in the wild,” I explained, “As far as I know, they are the final three left on earth. The two females are pregnant. With any luck, their children will reach maturity, and I’ll need to create a much larger habitat space for them.”
“And what’s in here?” he asked, rushing to the next tank.
I chuckled as he peered into a tank filled with sea grass, cocked his head, then changed sides, and his nose scrunched up like he was squinting.
“It’s just grass,” he declared, sounding almost disappointed.
“Look closer,” I suggested, no longer feeling the hesitation I’d initially experienced. Not when he was so overjoyed and curious.
He did as I suggested, moving around, staring from different vantage points until his mouth widened into a big ‘O’ as he pointed without touching the glass.
“There are snails in there,” he declared.
