Trinket (Reverse Harem)

Detective Itek Is On The Case

We left the bug island (as I decided to think of it). Itek took the point and we flew ahead of Ethat and the others, his feathers effortlessly riding the warm currents on the otherwise clear and bright day. Me? I just kept my face buried in his feathery ruff and occasionally managed to peek out over his ruff to the dark ocean below. Somehow, the water looked both beautiful and very dark, speckled with caps of white.

Getting over my fear of flying wasn't going to happen that day, but fortunately for me, I had plenty of other stuff to occupy my thoughts. Like how had my blood and tears healed Korr? What was I, and where had I been? Those were the big questions. Clearly, I wasn't the Hippocamp Princess (because Ormiss), but I could tell they were all sort of still sidling up with I was, or had been, a hippocamp. Or some kind of hippocamp hybrid.

Maybe a sea-serpent/hippocamp hybrid? Because the sea-serpents had all kinds of magic. They'd also disappeared into the dark ocean and nobody had heard from them for ages, but if there any species that had found a way to break magical spines, it would probably be the sea-serpents.

Korr should have just let me bleed on him some more. A pin-prick for a few drops of blood was hardly some great sacrifice.

Whatever magic I had left was probably getting pulled awake by my consorts. Sometimes that happened--shifters got more powerful once they found their consort. Not incredibly powerful, it wasn't like it changed everything, but it happened. Like Aeon had said, just because my magical spine was broken didn't mean my body was changed. I hadn't just turned into a non-magical human. So whatever made me "shifter-like" to shifters probably had something to do with what I'd done to Korr.

I was going to have to bleed on Korr some more, and that was that.

The islands were getting smaller and smaller, and more scattered out. Some seemed to be just rocks. Itek glided along the currents, leading the way as he spotted each island and we basically just hopscotch'd our way farther south. The sun was brighter, hotter, even in flight, but the ocean got darker, except where it was bright blue or white around each little island.

Itek swept down towards the largest island we'd seen since the sun had been directly overhead.

Ethat landed heavily on the beach a minute after us. Asund tumbled between his horns into the sand again. Ethat flopped into the stand.

I scrambled off Itek. "Ethat!"

He snorted some fireflies at me.

Ormiss slid down off him, then helped Korr, who was a little unsteady. Korr kept his hand on Ethat's sides as the green dragon, who had a bit of a yellowish tinge, panted. His wings looked tattered and a bit yellow around the edges, like sun-scalded grass.

Asund bounced up, shook sand off his pelt, and shifted into human form. How did he have so much energy?

"I spotted water," Itek said. "No caves, though. We'll be sleeping under the stars."

"I will find dinner." Ormiss headed back towards the angry surf. The waves drove aganist the shore in a white froth. Unbothered, he sauntered into the waves, sprang forward, and disappeared under the depths with a flick of his tail.

Asund hooked Korr under the arm and hauled him over to the relative shade of a jutting rock. It was evening, but the sun was incredibly bright and hot. Asund shoved Korr down. "Sit. You. Green dragon. Stick your wing out so we can get some shade."

Ethat hefted himself up and waddled to the rock, and draped his wing over it to create a little tent.

"I'm guessing dragons don't sunburn in dragon form," Asund told me. He pointed at the tent. "You. You're roast like a piglet."