Against All Gods

Chapter 16

Although Sage had grown up on a farm and worked as a shepherd, he was the grandson of a fisherman and had been raised near the coast. Telethusa had made sure that her son had learned to swim before he even knew how to walk.

When he was younger, he had always felt free in the water. The weightlessness of floating and bobbing in the surf soothed and relaxed his mind. He'd spent many hot summer days running through the sea foam and cooling off in the spray of crashing waves. As he became more confident, he would swim out beyond the breakers, ignoring his mother's shouts that he'd gone too far.

But then his breasts had budded, and he'd been forced into modesty. He always had to wear a shirt and soon had to start binding as well. The extra cloth weighed him down and confined his movements. The ocean was no longer a welcome refuge.

So, when he dove into the churning waters to save Violet, it was the first time Sage had gone swimming with his chest bound.

Even though it had been years since he had swum, the movements came back to him without any effort. His arms stroked powerfully and his legs kicked in a fluid motion.

But no matter how fast he propelled himself, the dark shapes below him closed in.

After only a few minutes, on a downstroke, his hand skimmed across the cold scaled side of a large fish.

Reflexively, he yanked back his hand, throwing off his rhythm. He struggled to continue to propel himself towards the rock where Violet was trapped, but he flailed.

Without forward motion, Sage's legs dropped. Horizontal, he started to tread water. His clothes weighed heavily on his shoulders and arms, and his bindings–already chaffing from wearing them for two days straight–gnawed at the sensitive skin around his ribs.

The large fish nudged at his toes and pushed at his backside. Icy dread dripped down his back.

"Violet!" he screamed, more to bolster his resolve than anything else. "I'm coming for you!"

He was still closer to the shore than to the rock, and if she responded, the wind swallowed her words, and the crashing waves drowned out her voice.

With salty water stinging his eyes, Sage tried to push against the slick wall of bodies to get closer to his love.

Something tugged at his trouser leg at the same time he was rammed from behind. Sage sucked in a breath of air as his head was pulled under the churning surface.

Despite the sting of salt, he looked around. Sunbeams filtered down into the water, revealing monstrously large and bulbous-headed blue and orange fish. Each fish was longer than he was tall and must have weighed twice what he did. They stared at him with unnervingly human-like eyes and their mouths moved in silent mockery of his predicament.

Sage tried to swim back up to the surface, but working together, the fish pushed him further into the depth, head butting him and rubbing their large bodies against him. But they didn't seem to have teeth, or if they did, they didn't bite.

What were they doing?

The fish started swimming around him, faster and faster, in tight circles, making him dizzy.

Sage's lungs burned, his ears popped, and a dark shadow threatened the periphery of his vision. All thoughts leaked from his mind. Everything except the need to breathe.

Then one of the fish nipped at his chest.

It was so unexpected that Sage drew in a quick inhale. But instead of choking on water, oxygen filled his lungs.

His eyes darted around in wonder. Somehow, a pocket of air bubbles had formed around Sage's head.

He exhaled and then took another tentative breath. The air was thin, and wouldn't sustain him long, but it bought him a few minutes.