by Bailey Dark
But will it work?
Eighteen
Ceritha
The gathered collective Will from the surrounding soldiers was a jumble of words and images, but it all left a clear impression to the firefins and dolgons: “Love… Hope… Healing… Trust… Love… Hope… Healing… Trust…”
I reached out as earnestly as I could to the firefins and dolgons where they stirred and roiled, a tempest of spinning scales, barbed tails, and feathered faces below me in the teeming daybreak waters. I opened myself telepathically and tried to bolster the message coming from the soldiers to the animals.
“Please listen to them… Trust us, my friends… We are here to help you…” I showed them images of me on Serpul, helping my firefins and dolgons.
It was working…! The animals were growing less restless. They were calming in their anxious stir. They weren't darting at each other. They weren't huffing out bursts of purple smoke. They weren't raising their barbed tails. They weren't dodging in toward each other and snaking bites at each other's necks or whipping fins at each other's faces.
The rippling waters calmed, and they tread water lightly, just below the surface, listening to our calm call.
The soldiers looked at each other in wonder and their telepathic holds intensified, their messages gaining even more strength. They realized they were doing it, they were connecting with the animals!
I wasn’t sure they could feel any connection back, yet. It didn’t seem like any of the animals were speaking back to them, but obviously the animals were hearing us.
“Don’t trust them!” Gorgin suddenly roared above us. I looked up just in time to see him throw a knife down into the depths. Cartari whipped a blocking telepathic dodge at the blade with one of his own knives, but not before it struck a glancing blow off a firefin's back ridge. The firefin screamed in pain. The animals erupted into an angry shrieking chitter again.
“Soldiers! Bond with me and help calm them again!” I yelled, holding up my hands. We intensified our telepathic melding again, Willing calming goodwill, welcome, thoughts of healing, and hope.
“Cartari,” I said, signaling to the Commander beside me, “I have to go to that firefin and heal him. If it hit one of the dorsal nerves, he may tweak it and paralyze himself. I need to act quickly.”
“How will you get out there?”
“I will float.”
“I don’t know. Those animals aren’t in the calmest state right now. What if they attack you?”
“They won’t. I trust them.”
Cartari looked up in the air at Axis, as if seeking permission from my Prince, but he was tangled back in a wrestling grip with Gorgin again. I huffed in frustration. I didn’t need Axis’s permission. Before Cartari could say anything else, I telekinetically propelled myself toward the injured and bleeding firefin where he floated near the surface, supported by two other firefins.
Rensi was soon beside me in the swirling, hissing swarm of firefins as they noticed my presence. He chittered and chattered as others swam beneath my feet, ducking in and out of the aquamarine waters. I was soon right above the injured firefin.
“I need to look at him. Please, I need to see how he was hurt,” I said. “Please, firefin, let me see where you are hurt…” The firefin turned his agonized eyes toward me and then rolled his dorsal fin my way so I could look at the bleeding area.
I bent low, my dress and feet brushing the water and surveyed the injury. A firefin brushed against me from behind, snarling at me and I heard Rensi hiss at it. My heart was in my throat. The firefin was bleeding a lot, but he was fortunate. The cut was in his blubber, right below the fin, not in the spiked area that protected the dorsal nerve.
“You will be all right,” I said. “I can get some medicine to help it heal.” The impression of medicine didn’t seem to compute. “I can get some nourishment to put on your back that will make it heal. It did not do any severe damage.”
The firefin nuzzled me gratefully and I floated back up and returned to the gazebo.
“Cowrie. Will you please get the poultice bag for firefin salves? We have a dorsal fin knife injury. Need some mandroba ointment.” Cowrie responded quickly and said she was under guard but would see if they would let her come down to the gazebo with the bag.
When I was back on the dock, I was pleased to find the soldiers had not let up their calming litany, and it had just grown stronger. The dolgons were calmer, the firefins were quiet, aside from the few beside the one who had been injured by Gorgin’s knife throw. Gorgin and Axis, still tussling above, were the only real battle still happening.
I stood beside Cartari and watched my Prince get first one hit and then another in on the one-armed pirate. I was proud of having broken his arm. I hadn’t realized he was the pirate leader. It was bizarre that he was the one that had come to capture me.
Suddenly, the knife that Gorgin had thrown at the firefin streaked out of the water and headed for Axis.
“Axis! Below you!” I tried to warn him, but it slammed into his lower left side harshly and made him cringe forward with a sharp cry of pain. Gorgin roundhouse kicked him to the chest, sending him flying backward, crashing his back into the gazebo, his body melting down it and dropping to the ground.
I ran forward and grabbed hold of him, holding tightly to him. He waved me off.
“Are you okay?”
“Let me finish this.”
His mouth was bloody through the gas mask, and his shirt was cut by a knife in a few places. I didn't touch the knife sticking three inches out of his back.
Gorgin hovered off the dock, about four feet above the water. Rensi was swimming off to my right, his head lifted just over the water, his eyes lasering into my soul. I looked at him, knowing he was trying to connect to me. I opened my mind to him and felt my eyes go wide, and my heart picked up a few beats as he told me his idea. I looked from my Prince as he drew himself to his feet, ready to launch back into the air again, then I looked back at the firefin.
I nodded.
Rensi slunk back into the water and disappeared. I followed his winding ripple until it rested just behind and below Gorgin, then Rensi rose into the air behind him, his tail flicked up behind him and three barbs shot out of his tail, right into Gorgin’s neck.
The poison barbs pierced Gorgin's skin, and his hand went to his neck as he yelped with surprise. He plucked out one of the barbs and looked below him at the gathering swarm of firefins. A wicked tendril of black spiderweb infection began to stretch down his neck and across his face, tainting his skin, as his eyes grew bloodshot, and his mouth and nose started to bleed. He dropped a couple feet in the air.
A dolgon jumped up in the air and grabbed his left boot in his massive, dragon fanged mouth and tagged Gorgin under the water, disappearing into the depths.
All was quiet.
Axis stood up and grabbed me around the waist as we moved to the side of the dock and looked downward, trying to see any sign of Gorgin in the deep aquamarine. But, we could not.
The dozens of firefins and dolgons turned to look at us, their colorful arrays of wing fins floating in a rainbow of ribbons against the blue waters. They chittered happily.
One of the Spec Ops soldiers on Gorgin’s ship let loose a flare. The ship had been taken.
I looked at Axis, and he gently took my gas mask off, slipping it down and hanging it around my neck. Then he did the same with his. He wiped his bloody lip on his sleeve. He smiled at me.
“I guess we won.”
“I never doubted that we would.”
Axis turned to Cartari and his soldiers, holding up the gas mask. “The dolgons will not poison us. They are our friends. Thank you, soldiers. This was a first step in a very meaningful relationship we will build with our ocean friends. Let us say thank you.”
Everyone opened their minds telepathically and breathed a vast Will of thank you to the ocean animals. We stood and felt for their tender Will back to us.
It came like rain throug
h a mountain gorge, a flash flood wiping away the remains of yesterday, making us stagger under the weight of new promises and adventures to come. The dolgons and firefins echoed our thanks with thanks of their own and a wary promise of trust and friendship, their goodwill resounding in our heads like a sweet chorus of memories we had long treasured but not thought of in a long time.
Then, with quick flips in the air, sparkle droplets in the Eastern sun, and happy chitters, the ocean animals set forth away from the harbor, back to their homes, imploring us to come help with the blue flu, disappearing into the ocean.
The soldiers around us marveled at the connection, the heady weight of having an animal’s impression of the world in their heads, the dizzying connection, and the grace and trust of such a connection.
They all wanted more of it.
It was going to be the start of something beautiful. I knew it.
As Cartari began to give orders for cleaning up the battle and final words for handling the POWs, Axis grabbed my hands and led me into a corner of the gazebo. He looked at me curiously, cautiously, hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath.
“Did you tell the firefin to shoot Gorgin with his tail?”
I bit my lip.
“Yes. Yes, I did.”
“What about the dolgon to take him and drown him? Potentially, for all we know, to eat him?”
“Well, that I am less clear about. Rensi just told me the idea that they had of how to end the war so that the Prince, lover of Ceritha, would be protected. Rensi wanted to protect you, so you can protect them. They are trusting you.” I smiled at him and put my hand to his cheek. “This is a really good thing, Axis.”
“Yes, that is true, but… You just used one of your ocean animals as an instrument for war. You just did what you have fought so hard to never let happen.”
I pursed my lips and paused. “Well, maybe in the right hands, these animals can have many skills and abilities. Nobilities, even. They are smart, you know. Highly sentient. We treat them as tribes with rights and skills on Serpul. Serpul is not a warrior planet. Farian is. Maybe that means your ocean animals are warriors, too.”
Axis smiled at me and kissed me on the forehead.
“I’m glad you have a warrior’s heart, my Princess.”
I smiled up at him and then tapped him lightly on the shoulder as Cowrie appeared behind him with my medicine kit. “I have a firefin’s dorsal fin to heal. He will be waiting for me and needing to join his tribe.”
“Okay.” He let go of my hands with a squeeze and left to go do Princely duties. Cowrie and I went to the edge where, sure enough, Rensi and three other firefins were waiting with the injured one. We applied the salve quickly and efficiently. I used a certain tool to make it harden, which would allow the salve to remain set for about a week. The wound would heal in that time.
“Thank you, Rensi.” The firefins looked at me with little grateful rolls and purrs and then started to trek away.
“Thank you, Ceritha.”
“We will be working on the blue flu cure and see you soon.”
“I will see you sooner.” Then he flipped backwards and they were rippling away into the ocean waters.
I yawned and stretched up into the sun. I realized I hadn’t slept all night. I wouldn’t mind stretching out in a nice comfy bed. I looked over to Axis where he was speaking to some of the soldiers and pointing to a tablet, likely giving commands about clean up for the city’s destroyed quarters, or perhaps about the aircraft that had been grounded, or maybe for POW transport, or maybe how to get rid of the smoldering ships blocking the harbor. No matter, I wanted him to go to bed with me. And I wasn’t really wanting to catch up on sleep.
As if he could read my mind, and we were pretty close to being able to read each other’s minds, even when we weren’t thinking of each other telepathically, he turned to me. He smiled and motioned me closer.
“I was just wondering if you were tired, Princess Ceritha. You have been through a lot in the last twelve hours. Would you like to go take a nap and I will send someone to wake you in a few hours when we have reports in again about Murex? I have sent the search party out looking for him.”
“Yes, that would be nice. I can find my way to my quarters.”
“I am headed to the command room. I will escort you.”
“Thank you, Commander.”
His eyes were taunting me in that way that I loved. I knew he wasn't headed to the command room. Everyone knew he wasn't headed there. He was headed to my room. And we couldn't get there soon enough. If it weren't dangerous to teleport such short distances, we would have.
While we were quiet, in our own thoughts and not touching the whole way to the room, we practically sprinted the last hall. As soon as the door to my room was closed, Axis picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he carried me, his head buried in my chest. I kissed his face, his forehead, his cheeks, my hands tangled in his hair, pulling at it, raking his shoulders, demanding, commanding. He carried me swiftly to my lush bed and stood in front of it. He looked at and then tossed me on to it. I felt so light, so free, flying. As soon as I landed, I sat up and was stripping off my dress, my bra, my panties.
By the time I had my clothes off, I looked at Axis and laughed, for he was naked, too.
He laughed and then pounced onto the bed with me, rocking the canopy bed and the wisping curtains. He crawled on top of me as I scooted back against the large cushions. He straddled me, then scooped his arms around me, and in one smooth motion, flipped us around so that he was underneath and I was sitting on top of his waist, my wet pussy against his smooth, hard abs.
I gripped his pecs and rubbed the firefin tattoos. I kissed the spiral tribal tattoos and clawed at their beauty. He gripped my hair and pulled my head up to him so he could devour my mouth with his, then he released my hair to bring his hands down and smacked my ass hard with both his hands. I gasped and then giggled.
“Are you ready to ride me this time?”
I nodded. I opened my mind to him, ready to feel that telepathic connection, that Destin connection. Wanting to feel that exhilarating flood of sparks and electricity.
And there it was… I pressed my fingertips into his chest and an explosion of rockets burst through my body, like black holes folding space-time, like the moons controlling the tides. Lights rippled under our skin, a lighting show that lit up the whole room.
I gasped and situated myself just over him, playing with the tip of his hard cock against my clit. He gasped, too, staring at me, grabbing at my breasts as they swung free. He pinched my nipples and fire burned through me, a quest for a flame that I wanted to keep lit forever.
I gently set the tip inside me and let it go in and out, in and out. His eyes rolled back in his head and he moaned. Then I pivoted onto his body more, holding onto his hips, I took a deep breath, preparing myself, my heart beating furiously… I slowly eased all the way down… I moaned in complete ecstasy as he filled me up entirely.
He grabbed my arms, moaning, and pushed me down even further onto him. I screamed out his name.
I moved up and forward, gyrating with him inside me, my clit rubbing against him, driving myself crazy. In and out, slamming down.
“I’m so close, I’m so close already!”
I kept going, faster and faster, not knowing what I was doing, just knowing the way he clenched the blankets and his head rolled and he moaned had to be a good thing, and then he seized up, his abs tightening, his whole body taut and gorgeous, and I felt him cum, flooding me, and I spasmed together with him, stunned that it could hit me so suddenly and at the same time and I reeled over onto his chest, out of breath, shaking from the shock, numb, out of control, shuddering, clenching so tight, and he gripped my back, breathing into my ear….
“I love you, Ceritha…”
I froze inside, my hands spread out, eyes wide, pulse rate beating fast. Tiny tendrils clawed at my heart, making me want to run, to flee, but he was still inside me, our sweat-
slicked bodies held snugly together, and he seemed to sense it and he held me tight against his chest.
“I love you, Ceritha… I know you feel it, too. I can read your mind. You’re my Destin, and you don’t have to say it, yet, but I know you feel it, too. You’re mine and I’m yours.”
I couldn’t stop the fast heart rate, but I let him slide out of me and I focused on the supreme feeling of happiness filling me. I knew he was right. I knew he was right… I loved him, too… I would tell him, sometime… Soon. I would tell him. At least he knew it already. I didn’t have to say it, yet.
I held tightly to him and we listened to each other breathe and he brushed my hair against my head as the cool salt wind came in through the window and I let myself feel safe and loved and home.
This Commander of Farian was my home.
Nineteen
Axis
It was the day of the Declaration Ceremony for Ceritha to be an official Princess of the Bristola Oceans. The last week, since the pirate attack, had been the most mesmerizing of my life. Granted, I had had to take care of a lot of Princely matters, preparing plans to fix the parts of the city that had been destroyed, figuring out how to get ship wreckage out of our harbor before it caused major blockages, assessing damage to our air force, and attending far too many funerals. But it had also been amazing to see Ceritha let herself fall in love with me.
She still, occasionally, had a streak of rebellion against it, wondering why she was giving herself to a Curan. Then she remembered that there was nothing better in her life than the Destin connection that she had somehow been lucky enough to stumble into with me.
I did the same thing.
Just a week ago, I had been cursing Kajo for sending me to Serpul to fetch an alliance bride, with the full intention to do it for the benefit of my Bristola Oceans only, hoping that she would turn out to be, at the very least, spirited and fun, but not difficult and ornery. Instead, she turned out to be my Destin and my beloved.
I was head over heels for the red-headed, blue-eyed passionate warrior activist who was finding a cure to the blue flu and finding a way to get me to smile every day more than I had in my entire life.
