The storm had gained strength faster than I had expected. Humans were running around, dismantling the beach pavilions and removing cushions from recliners. They hadn’t expected the weather to change. Maybe I should have warned them. Their technology clearly wasn’t good enough at predicting what was about to happen.
I loved a good storm. Swimming deep beneath the surface, feeling the way nature's forces were fighting each other, was one of the best experiences in the world. Surfing the waves while lightning bolts crashed around me, spray hitting my face, the raw power of the wind all-encompassing... Normally, I would have relished the chance to test my strength against nature itself. But today was different.
I was worried.
Was she still out there or had she returned? I had to find out.
I first headed to the small wooden building where she stored her diving equipment. Earlier, when I’d purposely bumped into her, I’d been full of curiosity and excitement. Now, I approached the shack with a very different feeling. What if she was going to get caught by the storm, swept away from the island, lost at sea?
The building was empty. But there was still hope. She didn’t live here. Maybe she had returned to her accommodation or one of the common areas reserved for the island’s staff. I hurried to the other side of the resort, where humans were running around, preparing for the storm. I wasn’t supposed to talk to females, so I approached the closest male. I had never met him before, but I didn’t bother with introductions. Time was of the essence.
“Have you seen Maelis?” I asked.
He looked at me suspiciously from beneath a mop of blond hair. “Maelis? The diving instructor? What do you want with her?”
I was tempted to make up an excuse, lie to the male. Instead, I stuck to the truth, hoping that he wouldn’t report me to his superiors.
“She mentioned to me earlier that she was going for a dive. I’m worried that she might get caught in the storm. But maybe she didn’t go into the water after all. Do you know where she is?”
The male frowned. “I haven’t seen her since breakfast. I will ask around. You let me handle this.”
I inclined my head in the human fashion. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
This hadn’t done anything to calm my fears. If anything, I was even more worried.
She was out there. I was sure of it. She'd gone for a dive and hadn't returned.
I started down the path to the beach, slow at first, forcing myself to breathe evenly. Every step warred with sense. Pam had made the rules clear. No human staff. We could not afford another scandal. But my body moved despite orders, despite reason.
In my head, the song she’d been listened to played at full volume. Rise up.
By the time I reached the dunes, the storm had arrived in earnest. Waves rolled against the beach, higher with each set. The spray tasted of copper and earth, stirred from deep places.
I waded in up to my waist, relishing the cold water against my greenskin. The sea spoke in many tongues: the sharp hiss of sand dragged across rock, the hollow boom of waves breaking against the cliffs in the distance, the low, bone-deep growl of stone shifting beneath pressure. The last sound made me freeze in concentration.
Something was wrong deep beneath the waves.
I dived.
The first plunge scoured the world to silence. Beneath the chaos of the surface, the currents were worse - twisting, unpredictable, more violent than they should have been at this depth. Sand and small fish alike swirled in the waves. I kicked hard, cutting through them, following the disturbance where silt streamed up in cloudy banners. My greenskin steadied me while sending information about the currents straight to my brain.
I wasn't used to Earth's oceans. The water tasted less salty, behaved differently. I wasn’t sure if I could trust my senses. I had been swimming in this sea many times, but never during a storm.
I angled my body, cutting through the currents in long, strong strokes, letting the water tell me its secrets. Inside, I was begging it to divulge Maelis’ location. Nature could be an ally as well as an enemy.
At first, there was nothing. Just scores of reef fish scattering from my approach, shadows vanishing into corals. I scanned the sea with all my senses, trying to pick up the movement of someone larger than these fish. Nothing. There was no trace of her. My chest tightened. Had I been wrong?
Maybe she’d swum further away. The island was the tip of a large column of rock that reached deep into the darkness. I had explored some of it already, including two small caves that cut into the rock. If only I knew where she’d been headed. Down to the caves? Along the reef? Towards one of the other islands? And how far could a human dive anyway? They didn’t have gills; they relied on air cylinders. I should have asked Maelis just how much time her cylinder would give her.
I circled wider, skimming along the coral reef until I got to where sand turned to cliff, palms brushing the volcanic rock. Silt hung in the water like storm clouds, stirred by the strengthening current. It coated my skin, clinging in gritty trails.
I dived lower, far into the gloom, and tasted the current with my gills. A metal tang. Air bubbles. Lots of them. I opened my mouth and waited for one of them to pop against my tongue. A faint taste, hard to identify, but I was sure this bubble had not been produced by a living being. This was something else. And it was as good a lead as any to follow.
I increased my pace, my webbed feet beating hard against the churning water. I used the cliff as my guide, descending vertically into the depths.
My greenskin picked up another movement in the rock, a low vibration that made my heart beat faster. The current was pushing against a weakness in the cliff. I had a bad feeling about this.
I found a crevasse and pushed inside, only to discover it narrowed to nothing. My shoulders scraped stone, algae rasping across my arms. Dead end. I reversed out, frustration making my greenskin lash against the water.
