Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Wet Silk & Tongues

"What the hell was that thing?"

"A shark," Korr said, brushing sand off his arms.

"I wasn't asking you," I hissed. I spun around on Ormiss. "A shark?"

"Shark," he confirmed. "I'm impressed, dragon, that you know what a shark is."

Korr smirked at him, and Itek rolled his eyes. "You say that like land-dwellers never see things that wash ashore or find strange things from the deep in their nets."

Ormiss smoothed his hands against his long hair, squeezing the water out onto the sand. "I give you compliments and you turn them back on me? I'll remember this."

"I'm happy to keep score, horse-fish," Itek retorted.

Ormiss drew a single slash in the sand with his big toe. "Then we'll start. And she was never in any danger. Electric jolts interfere with their perception and orientation, as does a simple punch in the snout. A small shiver of sharks is manageable. It's the squid you need to be afraid of. They'll fight back."

The hippocamp warriors who had come with us waited in human form knee-deep in the waves. One passed Ormiss' lantern-staff to him, another put a polished leather-looking bag at Ormiss' feet. Ormiss removed his various necklaces and twisted them around the staff just under the lantern. "You are dismissed. I will return when I am able."

They bowed to him, then swept even lower to me, before backing into the waves and disappearing with flicks of their tails.

"I presume you know where we are?" Korr said to Ormiss. Korr was soaking wet (we all were), and his hair was plastered against his pale body like sheets of crystal, and his sheer silk bound-clothing was translucent and hid nothing. Ethat was more or less the same, except his skin was a mixture of sickly yellow and its usual skintone.

"Oh, my mistake, I lost track of where we are."

I sighed.

"Of course I know where we are," Ormiss said. He pointed towards the south. "We follow this chain of islands. It will take us to the Pantere Priestess of Dreams' island. What meeting we will get there... that I can't say. But you're determined so."

"I am determined," I interrupted.

"What's along this chain?" Itek asked.

Ormiss shrugged. "Nothing but these small, mostly-rock islands. There are no inhabitants or stranded sailors out here. There's not much fresh water, and while the ocean is calm, out farther, the currents are deadly and dangerous, and the weather is very bad. Sailors avoid this area."

This island looked exactly like all the others: rocks, sand, stubborn rough grass. And nothing else, and we were so far out that I couldn't see anything but ocean, except for a shadow that looked like it might be the next island in the distance. At least the day was clear. "Then I guess we better get started. Or do you three need to rest?"

"I can fly," Itek said.

"I'm fine," Korr said.

"You're a liar." Korr was gorgeous, but he was slightly gray under his shiny pallor. Ethat shifted into dragon form, looking sort of diseased, and carefully stretched his wings. The membranes had healed, and he shook his head as if to say I am fine.

"How far is it to the next island?" Itek asked Ormiss.

"Thirty or so miles, and the winds seem calm, but weather." He pointed far to the west of us. "I can feel the storm coming, and the weather will become more unstable the farther south we push, especially in summer."