His smirk only grew wider as he studied me. Those sharp teeth made me think of a shark considering its prey. He wasn’t supposed to be here, not when I was by myself.
"I'm going for a dive," I said firmly when he kept on staring at me. "Have a nice day."
Before I could change my mind, I tightened my grip on my scuba equipment and walked away from him, down to the beach.
"Careful, there's a storm coming," he called after me.
A storm? It was a beautiful day. A light breeze tousled the unruly strands of hair that had escaped my bun. The sun was high in the sky, heating up the sand. There was no storm coming. He just wanted attention.
I resisted the urge to look back.
2
Cerban
I couldn't get her out of my mind. I was supposed to focus on the upcoming meeting with the Hot Tatties Dating Agency, but instead, my thoughts centred on the little Peritan... no, human. The agency had made it clear that we should use human terminology in order to fit in better with the locals. Peritans were humans and Peritus was Earth.
My brothers and I had already acquired a basic command of one of their languages, English, while travelling here, but now lessons were compulsory for all finmen on the island. Yes, we had translator implants that could do the job, but they weren't always completely accurate. Something always got lost in translation. I'd noticed that during our long journey to this planet. Not all the finmen on the Tidebound came from the same country as my clutch-brothers and I. Kelon, our former, now disgraced leader, had hired crew members from all over Finfolkaheem. There had been at least one violent argument born from a simple misunderstanding that could be put down to the implants not understanding the finer nuances of language and culture.
The accommodation building came into view, and I fastened my steps when I saw Rainse was on guard duty outside. My other clutch-brother, Fionn, was away with his mate, taking the Tidebound and half the crew with them. In the absence of the captain, the two of us were in charge. It was laughable. All three of us were simple guards. Yes, we had been trained as warriors, but Rainse was the only one who had seen real fighting action. That was before he'd been thrown out of the navy for arguing with his superiors. I couldn't help but grin. My clutch-brother had always had an issue with authority. And now he was one half of the authority. The irony was immense.
He raised a hand in greeting. "Ready for the meeting?"
It took me a moment to remember what meeting he was talking about. My head was full of the human female. And I didn't even know her name. Maybe Rainse knew. He always seemed to be chatting with humans.
"Not really. Why do we need yet another meeting?"
Rainse chuckled. "Because the first batch of test results is going to come in any sunpass now. The agency wants to make sure that this won't cause chaos among the finmen. Kelon's behaviour has made us look like unpredictable brutes. Pam and the others are worried the rest of us will behave similarly."
I growled softly. Kelon had betrayed us all when he'd kidnapped a human female who hadn't been matched to him. It had all had a happy end - she was mated to Fionn now and Kelon had been sent back to Finfolkaheem to be punished - but it had left a bad taste not just with the dating agency, but also the rest of us. We'd come to Earth to find mates with the help of a human-run dating agency, not to take females by force. Kelon was a stain on our reputation that would be hard to rub out.
The female danced into my mind again. Did she think that we were violent brutes? Was she scared of us?
She hadn't seemed scared, just irritated. She hadn't enjoyed my presence. If she'd known that I had been standing outside her building for a while, listening to her music, watching her sway to the rhythm, she would have been even more upset. Let's hope she never found out.
"Cerban?" Rainse looked at me strangely. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, just thinking. Do you know... never mind. Can you show me how to access Earth's outernet?"
"Internet?" He laughed. "It astounds me every time just how bad you are with technology."
I flicked his greenskin in response.
He flinched but kept laughing. "Yes, I can show you. What do you want to search for?"
"A song. A beautiful song about a female."
His smile faltered somewhat. "What are you up to, brother? You know we aren't supposed to be alone with females on the island, not until we have been matched by the agency."
"It's hard to avoid when so many of the staff are female," I grumbled. "Anyway, just show me how to access this internet."
"I will. After the meeting. I need you to focus. I don't want to feel like I'm the only one listening."
I checked my holoband. I had just enough time for a snack and a piss. No time to look up that song again or find out the female's name. Fuck. It would have to wait. I had to be a responsible adult male for once.
Rainse sniffed the air. "There's a storm coming."
"I know. Can't see it yet, but it's coming fast."
