Claws and Kisses

I lunged at Romeo, the dagger in my hand hovering dangerously close to his throat. The dragon leaned back slightly, letting me tumble past him and onto the rocky ground. I slipped and fell, tearing a new rip into my pants.

From farther back, Bear huffed and glared at Romeo. “You’re stressing her out too much. She’s tense as a board.”

I groaned into the stone, rolling over to face the others. “This isn’t working,” I spat, acid on my tongue as I threw down the dagger. “I’m not getting it.”

“Hey? What did we say about attitude?” Romeo scooped the dagger off the ground and chucked it at me. It landed next to my hand, and I reluctantly fingered it.

Romeo sighed and jerked his head up in a clear gesture. Get up. “Lighten up, Wendy. It’s just practice and this is your first time. You’re not going to ‘get it’ the first hour in. Not as long as you keep acting like a spoiled brat.”

Irritated, I picked up the knife before throwing it at the arrogant male. The dagger spiraled twice before Romeo caught it in his hand. An inch from his chest, where the dagger would have pierced his heart.

He glared down at me, unimpressed. “Throwing knives at me is not going to help you when you are at the funeral. Avel can’t be around you all the time. Neither can we. You have to be able to defend yourself.”

Rising to my feet, I returned his glare, wiping the dirt off my backside. “Is this just your newest way of telling me that I am a dumb human that can’t do anything?”

He smirked, his eyes hard. “While you are a dumb human that can’t do anything, no. That’s not what this is. Now do it again.”

It had taken us an hour to get to the outskirts of a remote lagoon where Romeo had said we were going to practice. Apparently, the five of them all thought that I could use the skills when I was at the funeral. Even Seth had been telling me about how I would have to watch my back when we got there. While I was no good with a weapon of any kind, it seemed sweet that they had thought to try to help me. I couldn’t tell whether they actually wanted to help me or if they were just trying to indirectly please Avel.

As Romeo rushed at me again, I decided it was probably a little of both.

Now Bruce, Bear, Elora, and Seth all sat at the lagoon’s edge on an overturned rock pillar, occasionally shouting out tips or sarcastic remarks. Elora had initially wanted to be the one to show me how to defend myself, but Romeo beat her to the chase, claiming that he would take it ‘easy’ on me. To my surprise, he had been a good teacher so far. It had been the only time in all of our exchanges that I had ever seen him display so much as an ounce of patience. Taunts aside, I found myself enjoying our exercises.

“You’re doing great, Lady Wendy!” Seth smiled wide at me, raising his thumbs up.

I shot him a quick grin, one eye still on Romeo. Lifting my hands into the position he showed me, I deflected his first blow and was able to anticipate the second. The knife flashed as his third advance knocked me backward. I stumbled, the dagger in my hand waving stupidly in the air as I tried to balance myself.

“Stay on your feet, your knees, anything.” Romeo backed off, not a drop of sweat on his muscled frame as he sternly stared at me. “But don’t end up on your back. If your on your back, fight’s over. Stay up when you can. Figure something else out when you can’t.”

I nodded and we went at it again. As the day waged on, I was able to hold my own for a little longer than when we had first started, but that was about it. My grip on the blade was constantly shifting into the wrong hold, my feet were never in the right place, my swings were too wide, and I had not been able to get one hit on Romeo.

Elora saved me from embarrassing myself further at midday. “Romeo,” she called. “It’s almost noon.”

Romeo paused from where he had been repositioning my arms. His eyes flickered to Elora, then to the lagoon beside us. Something bright gleamed in his aquamarine orbs as he looked out at the water.

“Alright,” he grinned, stepping away from me and slapping me on the shoulder. “Not bad for your first day. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.”

My eyebrows rose. “We’re done for the day?”

Bear hopped off the pillar, sashaying towards the lapping waves of the natural stone pool. She crooked a finger at me as she walked. “Come here, sugar. You’re not going to want to miss this.”

I looked toward the lagoon again, now curious and a little scared of what they were going to show me. The lake itself was beautiful. With the sun hitting it just right, the white-frothed water appeared as a light, clear teal blue. There were bunches of coral and tiny schools of fish dotting the sandy floors. Cascading waterfalls flowed from rock caverns hanging above it. Smooth stone surrounded the whole of the water, cutting the lagoon off from the rest of the sea and creating a little world of its own. I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off the sight since we had arrived.

Elora and Bruce even got off the pillar to go to the shore’s edge, followed by a happy Seth. Bear did not wait for them, and captured my hand in her own as she led me further down the mini beach to a rock ledge that hovered right over the lagoon. I followed along, my eyes on the water the entire time.

“You’ve ever been to a lagoon like this, human?” Bear smiled wickedly at me as she dropped into a crouch, pulling me down with her. The rock ledge covered us well enough so that no one on the ground near the water would be able to see us.

“A lagoon like what?” I asked with a small, confused laugh. Romeo and the others kneeled beside us, clustering close together so that we were all hidden. It was immensely funny to see Bruce—the giant bumpkin—trying to squeeze in between the rocks.

Seth tried pushing him in further, laughing loudly as he did so. “Bruce,” he said, heaving again in vain. “You’re going to give us away!”

Bruce gave the boy a long look, as if to say if you keep screaming your head off like that, you are going to give us away.

Seth just smiled in response, laughing all the more.

“Everybody, shut up!” Bear shouted, putting her hand on top of Seth and Romeo’s lips, even though the latter had not even been talking. “They’re coming!”

I frowned. “Who’s coming—?”

“Shhh!”

Everyone stopped speaking at the first stir in the water. There was a churning right in the middle. A sliver of a scale appeared before dipping quickly back into the water. A few feet from there, a flash of a tail popped up before disappearing too. Then—

I gasped as a blonde head slowly descended from the lake, moving up further to reveal sun-kissed skin and pouty, pink lips. My cheeks heated as she pulled herself up onto one of the boulders hovering in the middle of the lagoon, revealing two perfectly sculpted breasts. Her hair was fashioned with dozens of tiny pearls and diamonds, and a plethora of shell necklaces hung from her neck, the only covering for her chest. I nearly fainted as she lifted herself further, making way for . . .

A tail.

Not a dragon, but half-woman, half-fish. Her scales were a deep, lavender hue. Her flippers spread wide, near the width of her hips. Bigger. As she lifted her hands to brush back her hair, I saw the many bracelets and golden straps that jangled on her wrists and forearm. She was absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful.

I was entranced so much that I nearly tumbled over the edge in my efforts to lean closer to get a better look. Several hands pulled me back, and Romeo was the one to grin at me and pat my shoulder. “Easy there, kid. Don’t die before you can’t see the rest of them.”

“Rest?” I mumbled, my eyes widening as I saw that there was indeed more of the halves coming out of the water.

Each of them were painfully gorgeous, and bedecked in jewellery of all kinds. All of their tails were different shades, different sizes. Some of them pulled themselves up into the rocks, but most of them kept to the water, splashing about and laughing lightly. There weren’t just women either, but many -half-men. They were also wearing shiny, sea-endowed adornments like their female counterparts.

All of the dragons beside me were whispering and giggling like five-year olds. I was so caught up in the sight of the lagoon that I only tuned into the end of their conversation. “ . . . watch this, watch this.”

I turned around just in time to see Romeo launch into the air, transforming into his beast above us. Screaming in surprise, I dropped to the ground flat on my stomach, panting hard as Romeo was suddenly flying over the lagoon, roaring in all of his dragon might. The reaction was immediate; dozens of the halves shrieked before diving back into the water, fleeing from Romeo and his sharp fangs. I scrambled to my feet, lunging for the edge of the rock to see the catastrophe that had ensued.

Romeo swooped low, snapping his jaws at the halves. Bear and the others were still laughing quietly. Only Elora was not giggling, but there was still an amused glean in her eyes.

I turned to them, outraged and panicked on the halves’ behalf. “Why are you all just sitting there? Somebody stop him!”

Bear shook her head, chuckling at my obviously worried-stricken state. “Relax, mortal.” She waved her hand in the air, dismissing my words. “Look again.”

My eyes reluctantly returned to the lagoon. There were still halves ducking under the safety of the waves, but I also saw that more than a few of them were staring up at Romeo in a bored, knowing fashion—as if waiting for him to finish up his dramatics. They did not seem at all afraid of the towering, snapping dragon flying over them with jaws ready to tear them up at any moment.

I watched, confused as Romeo flew once low more, right above the rock in which the first blonde had appeared. She still sat there, looking up at Romeo with her arms crossed her lips pursed. He transformed mid-air again, landing in a perfect spiral right next to her. He looked up and gave her a lopsided grin. We were too far away to hear them, but they were obviously conversing. Romeo appeared to be flirting while the half-woman just brushed him off.

“C’mon, Lady Wendy!” Seth sat up now too, scrambling to his feet and swinging himself off the ledge. “Let’s go meet them!”

The young man raced ahead, going to the shores and shucking off his boots before rolling up his pants and wading into the waters. Three of the half-women instantly surrounded him, tugging at his arms and legs, laughing as they pulled him further into the water. He laughed along with them, talking with hand gestures and a wide smile.

Bruce and Bear followed after him, not waiting around for anyone else. Elora smiled at me, lopping her elbow with mine as we walked at a much slower pace behind them. She smiled at me and said, “Not what you expected?”

I shook my head, my eyes on the lagoon—Romeo in particular, who was most definitely flirting with the blonde now. “Does he do that every time?”

The she-dragon nodded. “He gets a kick out of scaring them. Most of them know him and his tricks by now, so it’s losing its luster.” Her eyes focused on him and the blonde, her eyes a bit steely. “Some of them still swim away, though.”

There was a tension in her shoulders as we watched him lean in close to the half to whisper something in her hair. She was no longer bored, but beaming at him in full now. I chose to keep quiet, knowing it was no place of mine to ask about her and Romeo. Instead, I looked to the halves with my brows furrowed in curiosity.

“What are they called?”

Elora glanced at me with a half-smile. “Mermaids.”

Hey, folks!

It feels like a million years since I last updated - five whole days! I want to say that it was to keep to our Saturday/Tuesday updating schedule but I would be lying. This week kicked my ass. I had what felt like a billion things to do and I had no energy or time to write. Apologies!

Good news is that Thanksgiving is this week (yay!) and I am going to have plenty of time to write and update (double yay!)

Also, what did you guys think of this chapter? Was anyone expecting our little adventure to include another mythical species? I kind of had this scene in the back of my head for a little while and thought I might add it in before Avel and Wendy head off to the big boy’s league at Loch’s funeral. If you all are thinking why the hell are they at a mermaid’s lagoon, I promise everything will make sense next chapter.

Alright, that’s all for today folks. I hope you enjoyed. Be on the look out for the next update!

(P.S. Lol - Did anyone else get Peter Pan vibes?)

~Elaine