Rising (18 page)

S
ara spotted her wheelchair sitting beside the bed. Her pink sundress and her spandex wrap lay neatly folded on the bedside table. Xanthus must have retrieved them last night. They reminded her of how much her life had changed in one night.

Where should she go from here? Should she go about her life as if nothing had changed? Where would Xanthus go? How long was he going to stay on dry land? He mentioned something about returning in a year.

S
ara remembered the thoughts she had had of a white picket fence. In the daylight, they seemed silly. This wasn’t a fairy tale story. Xanthus wasn’t going to carry her off into the crashing waves where they would swim home to his oceanic castle and live happily ever after.

I
f she did go home with him, she’d probably get herself executed just for existing. And if any human saw her for what she was, they would be in danger too. Her mom could be in danger, maybe even Gretchen. So here she was, knowing she didn’t belong with Xanthus and knowing she didn’t belong with humans. Where did she belong?

O
ne thing was certain. She didn’t belong in his bed (at least not until they were married). Okay, that was a slip. Sara couldn’t possibly marry Xanthus. She didn’t belong in his world and she was sure the only reason he’d been paying her so much attention was because she was the only female Dagonian (or half-Dagonian) he’d seen in she didn’t know how long. And she was apparently fertile right now, which she guessed caused her to be somewhat appealing to him. She was sure he wouldn’t find her attractive any other way.

N
ow that her head was screwed on straight, maybe she could pull herself out of bed. Reaching over to her wheelchair and using her tail as leverage, she raised herself off the bed and sat down into the seat. She grabbed her clothes, placed them on her lap, and wheeled into the bathroom.

A
n old-fashioned, claw-foot tub greeted her as she rolled in. A massive spout hung over the tub like a giant, sleepy sunflower. Showering here would be like lying in a downpour. Xanthus must not recognize the advantages of using a sprayer hose to wash. Well, it was an advantage to her. She didn’t remember the last time she’d had a bath, but it couldn’t be too complicated.

She
filled the tub with cool water. Looking down at the rippling water, she smiled when she felt no anxiety. She stripped out of her clothes and locked the brakes on her chair. Putting her weight down on her fin, she lifted herself over to the side of the tub. After lowering her hips into the water, her fin slipped under the surface. When the tub was full, she turned off the spout.

As
she laid there with cool water lapping up the side of her neck, she realized the enormity of the situation. She was sitting here, submerged in water, and she wasn’t freaking out. Would miracles never cease?

S
ara didn’t even need Gretchen’s psychologist, Dr. What’s-his-name. All she needed was to face her fear. Of course, it helped having a muscle-bound Dagonian force her to do it, but she guessed it was worth it. She closed her eyes and tested herself further by lowering her head under the water. There was a slight flutter in her chest. She couldn’t tell whether it was fear or excitement. That was a good thing.

One more test.
She took in a lungful of water. The burn was excruciating. Sara began thrashing the moment she realized her mistake, and it wasn’t just any mistake. It was a huge mistake. How was she to know that breathing tap water was not like breathing ocean water?

S
ara tried to scream but her throat closed off. She flailed her body around in the tub, trying to get a hold of the side. She had to get some air.

F
inally, she grasped the side of the tub, pulled herself out of the water, and heaved herself over the side, spilling her body and gallons of water onto the floor.

Through a
panic-filled haze, she heard Xanthus pounding on the door. “Sara, what’s going on?”

S
he was desperate for help.
Please, let him come in
. Lying on her back, she clawed at her chest.

More pounding.

“Sara, if you don’t
answer, I’m breaking down the door.”

Sara
realized with a shock that she was completely naked. She made a swipe at the nearby towel on the rack and pulled it down to cover herself. Most likely, the towel would be her death shroud.

With a loud
crash, Xanthus burst through the door. In an instant, his steel fingers were like vices around her shoulders as he shook her hard. “Sara, breathe.” His shouts rang her ears.

S
he tried to obey, but she couldn’t get her throat to loosen. Her eyes were wide and fixed on his face, her fingers scratching and clawing at her throat. Her mouth gaped open, struggling to suck in a breath of air. Xanthus leaned in as if to kiss her. Instead, he pinched her nose, covered her mouth with his, and breathed out hard.

Sara’s
lungs expanded and felt as if they would burst. Now they were filled with water
and
air. As Xanthus pulled away, a fountain poured out of her mouth, and then gurgling bubbles coughed out from her throat. With great effort, Sara squeezed in a breath of air, whistling it through her swollen windpipe. It felt and sounded as if she were breathing through a tiny straw. Then she coughed out more water and then dragged another howling breath in before her windpipe began to relax.

“Hades
, Sara. What were you thinking?” Xanthus pulled her hard against his chest.

S
ara didn’t answer. She couldn’t. She was still sucking air into her lungs and sobbing on top of that.

“If I hadn’t been here…
” Xanthus said. “I swear, little half-Dagonian, I don’t know how you’ve survived as long as you have. I’ve been with you a few weeks and have had to save you from death more times than I can count.”

T
hat was a big exaggeration. “Just twice,” she said between sobs.

“Oh,
Moro Mou,” he said. “You only die once.” Xanthus continued to crush her against his chest, holding her for a long time after she’d calmed down. He seemed to have a more difficult time recovering from this incidence than she did. Finally, he let her go. Mumbling his frustration in Atlantian, he turned to snatch the sundress off the floor. When he looked back at her, he froze. Sara was clutching the drenched towel over her body. He looked at the towel, at the tub, at her drenched hair, and then at the large puddle of water she was sitting in. “Did you cover yourself with a towel
after
pulling yourself out of the water?” he asked, dumbfounded.

Sara’s face burned
as she nodded.

S
haking his head, Xanthus grabbed another towel off the rack and flung it, along with her dress, over his shoulder. “Of all the insignificant…” he began and then suddenly stopped. Sara looked down in embarrassment.

Xanthus
cleared his throat, “Come on, we need to get the chlorine washed out of your lungs and gills.” He knelt down, tucked her drenched towel around her, and lifted her off the floor.

S
ara wondered how he was going to… “Oh no, please just let me breathe air for now.”

“
Don’t you dare, I did not get beaten to a pulp last night for nothing. You
are
going into the water.” And so she did, a few moments later.

If
Sara had wanted to push it, she’d have several legitimate charges of kidnapping against Xanthus, but seeing as how he kept saving her life, she’d let them pass—for now.

Xanthus
led her through the water as she swam around the bay. Sara had wondered if swimming was instinctive for a half-Dagonian. Just moments after getting into the water, she realize that no, it definitely wasn’t.

On her own,
Sara couldn’t seem to move in the directions she wanted to. She was sure, to Xanthus, who was full Dagonian and grew up in the water, that she looked ridiculous. Her fin jerked every which way and her hands clawed at the water in an attempt to pull her in the right direction. As she struggled, she ran into several parrotfish, slapped a trumpet fish, and had innumerous scrapes on her hands from grasping the coral and sea urchins.

S
ara had to give Xanthus credit. He hadn’t laughed, at least not so she could see. There were several times he disappeared for a few moments and came back looking almost
too
serious.

“Are you sure I’m a
Dagonian?” Sara asked, feeling out of her element. “I mean, I know I look like one and I know humans can’t breathe underwater, but I did a little research myself and did you know that there was an experiment done years ago where rats were found to be able to breathe underwater? And if we look back far enough into the past, each of us is descended from fish. I always thought that maybe…”

“Sara
, stop trying to rationalize it. You’re a Dagonian. There’s no other explanation. You aren’t deformed. You aren’t an anomaly. You, well, here, let me show you something.” Xanthus swam up close to her and brushed his fingers behind her ears. “These are your gills.”

Sara marvel
ed at how strange it felt to have his fingers brush at something behind her ears. She hesitated for a moment before she reached back to feel for herself. What she felt shocked her. There were flaps, like the underside of a mushroom.

“Wow, I… I can’t believe it
,” she said.

“Believe it. You’
re half-Dagonian.”

“But how did I miss that
? You’d think I would have noticed.”

“The gills only open underwater
. When you surface, they seal tight. It’s a way of protecting them. Gills are very delicate. Now, back to your swimming lessons.”

Sara continued to struggle through the water. If not for the beauty around her and the company
of Xanthus, she’d be utterly depressed and completely discouraged.

In the daylight, the ocean was very different and
so beautiful. The fish were vibrant, the water was clear blue, and the coral bloomed all around, forming mounds and hills.

Not only was the ocean gorgeous, but
Xanthus had never looked better, He was definitely in his element. His powerful body glided, twisted, darted, and traveled at inhuman speed through the water. His movement looked like a dance choreographed by the gods. In comparison, Sara felt like a twitching idiot.

It
had been close to an hour and Sara still couldn’t swim straight. She couldn’t imagine ever being able to swim like Xanthus. That Dagonian sure could move, especially when she sort of had a brush with a tiger shark. She was glad Xanthus hadn’t had to hurt him. The shark took one look at the big Dagonian and shot away in the opposite direction.

“Sara, you’re using the coral as a crutch. You can’t crawl across the ocean,” Xanthus said, peeling her fingers off the coral.

“I just can’t do it.
Maybe I’m too human.”

“You’re doing fine. Just let go and we’ll
review the proper way to move. Look at me. The movement starts at your head and then travels down your body all the way to your fin. Like a wave. Keep waving and keep your head pointed in the direction you want to move.”

Sara
did as he explained. Suddenly, her body was gliding through the water. She took a quick glance back at her waving tail. When her head came up, a blowfish was inches from her face. It was gone a moment later, darting away in a flash. She sighed, wishing she could swim that fast. The wall of coral that seemed so far away, swelled in size as she neared its jagged wall. She threw her hands out and curled her tail underneath her, trying to slow her movement.

Xanthus
tugged her to a stop. “Good, that’s just how to do it. You’re doing great. All you need now is more practice.”

“What I need is breakfast. I’m starving
,” Sara said.

Xanthus
gestured at the fish around them. “Take your pick. I’ll catch it for you.”

“Oh no
, I don’t eat my food live. That is one human thing I must insist on.”

“You like sushi, don’t you?”

“Well, yes. But it’s not swimming when I eat it. It’s dead.”

While
they were having this discussion, a parrotfish swam a little too close to Xanthus. Like a cobra, his hand whipped out and snatched the fish. The next thing Sara knew, he was ripping the fish’s head off.

“Here, this one is dead.”

“That is disgusting. Besides, it’s illegal to kill a parrotfish.”

“Not where I come from.”
He smiled.

“What about the scales and bones
? Do you have a knife to fillet it for me?” she asked, expecting him to say no.

Instead,
he pulled a knife from his belt. “Parrotfish fillet coming up.”

In a
few smooth strokes, he peeled off layers of scales. In another stroke, he peeled away a long, thick fillet of meat and handed it over to her. Sara hesitated before she took it.

What was
she supposed to do now? She looked at the fillet and felt the soft meat between her fingers. “Okay, I’ve cooked fillets like this a thousand times, and do I love sushi. I can do this,” she said to herself. She made the mistake at glancing over at the head of the dead fish as it floated away and she began to gag. She took several breaths of water and closed her eyes, then lifted the fillet to her mouth and took a nibble.