Page 24 of Cerban
She pointed two fingers at her eyes, then toward me. “This means I’m watching you.”
A faint smile tugged at my lips. “You will be watching me?”
Colour flushed her cheeks, but she didn’t back down. “Yes. And this–” she made a circle with her thumb and forefinger, the other three fingers extended – “means okay. If you see me do this, I’m fine. If I don’t do it back, I’m not.”
I copied the gesture, my larger hand dwarfing hers. “Like this?”
“Exactly.” For the first time since the storm, she smiled – small but genuine. “Good student.”
Her praise stirred something warm in my chest, stronger than the dawn light. I tightened the straps across my chest and adjusted my regulator. “Stay close,” I told her.
She rolled her eyes, but the faint quirk of her lips betrayed her amusement. “You already made me promise.”
We slipped beneath the surface together, the world shifting instantly from air to water, silence to song. Currents whispered against my skin, fish darted from our approach, and the reef stretched ahead like a sleeping giant waiting to be explored.
She swam with strong, confident strokes, her light cutting through the dim water. But even with her training, even with the new gear, I stayed close enough to feel the brush of her bubbles across my skin.
Because this time, if the sea tried to take her again, it would have to take me too.
We slipped beneath the surface together, the world shifting instantly from air to water. Currents whispered against my greenskin, fish darted from our approach, and the reef stretched ahead like a sleeping giant waiting to be explored. My gills drew in cold water, filtering out the oxygen. My entire body relaxed as I was home. I could live on land, but it would never feel as good as this.
Maelis swam with strong, confident strokes, her light cutting through the dim water. But even with her training, even with the extra gear, I stayed close enough to feel the brush of her bubbles across my skin. Just in case.
The sea was calm after the storm, the water clear as glass. Schools of fish glittered like falling stars, weaving in and out of the coral. She paused now and again to shine her torch into crevices, eyes bright with excitement behind her mask. I loved seeing her like this. So full of life.
I followed her gaze to a hollow where a creature stirred. An eight-armed flabby sort of beast, its body shifting colours as it flowed out into the open. First pale, then dark, then rippling in patterns of bronze and green that reminded me of home. I would have loved to ask Maelis what it was called, but I knew she wouldn't have been able to respond. It was unfair to speak when she could not.
She froze as she spotted the creature, holding up a hand to halt me. She hovered perfectly still, only the gentle flick of her fins keeping her suspended. Her reverence was palpable even through the water.
The creature regarded us for a long moment, its intelligent eyes reflecting the beam of her torch. Then, with a graceful unfurling of arms, it spread wide, drifting like a ghost across the sand before disappearing into another crevice.
Maelis turned to me, her eyes wide with delight. She tapped her fingers against her mask in the gesture she’d shown me – watching you – and then formed the round circle with her thumb and finger. Okay.
I returned the gesture, though what I really wanted was to pull her close, to press my forehead to hers and tell her she was more beautiful than anything in the ocean.
Instead, I swam at her side as she angled her body downward, toward the shadowed drop where the reef gave way to the cliff face. The cave waited below, a darkness cut into the rock.
The calm of the reef faded with every metre of descent. Here, the water was colder, still touched by the storm’s aftermath. Sand drifted up in lazy clouds, obscuring the jagged cracks and crevices.
My gills flared as the current shifted. The ocean was restless here. I tasted metal on the water.
The cave was near.
The cliff face loomed, dark and jagged, its surface scarred by cracks that reached down into the gloom. Maelis slowed, her torch beam sweeping back and forth, deliberate now. I matched her pace, every sense alert.
Then I saw them.
Bubbles, faint but unmistakable, trickling from a narrow seam in the rock. They spiralled upward in silvery threads, catching the light like strands of glass.
I tasted them against my gills and shivered. Not plant gas. Not volcanic vent. Something else.
Maelis pointed sharply, excitement vibrating through her whole body. She hovered in front of the seam, her gaze locked on the tiny streams.
We stayed there, watching.
One… two… three… four… five bursts. Pause. One… two… three… four… five.
The rhythm was the same as before. Steady. Intentional. Too precise to be anything but deliberate.
