“Good.” Troll gave a grunt. “Now get to teaching my lady, little merman kingling, and I will be talking to the one wishing to discuss curses.” Glancing around for the person he’d be speaking with, Segrid nodded at Permelia as she raised her hand, then jerked his chin to the table and chairs set up along the far wall.
Seidon blinked. “You know of me?”
“Of course. I am the Troll King,” my male stated proudly. “I know everything.”
“Everything but the nitty gritty with water magicks.” Brushe opened his mouth to say more, ignoring the dirty looks Seidon and Segrid both gave him, but someone threw one of those ring preservers, sending it shooting towards him to smack him in the head. “Hey! Who did that?!” he barked, but no one was copping to it. His brother, Brine, had awfully twitchy lips, his hands shoved behind his back.
Yeah. I think I might like hanging with this lot, the babbling buffoon notwithstanding. Slowly, I rematerialized, and there was my Troll with the shirt off his back, dropping it down over my head. I sighed internally, thinking of how costly our clothing expenses were going to be to replace everything I’d accidentally magically displaced.
“You are one hairy mofo,” Brushe commented, standing a healthy distance away from us, shaking water from his ear, a towel over his shoulders. “What do you think, Per, baby, would I look good with some Sasquatch funk rugging up my man chest?”
“You are smoother than a baby’s butt almost everywhere but your head, honey,” she pointed out, approaching Cinnia as she adjusted her shirt and began to coo down at her son.
Brushe sighed. “I take that as a no.”
“Can I see the baby first?” I asked tentatively, glancing around, my voice low. My hands lifted when Dax’s gaze met mine. “I won’t touch him, I just… I love babies. I’ve never seen one with Mer parents.” My hands dropped and I shoved them behind my back. “I bet he’s really cute. I just… I won’t even touch him, I promise. Just a quick little peek?”
Dax let out a noise that had me grinning.
“I’ll be super careful,” I promised, to his mate’s surprised look as she unearthed a tiny but long babe with the cutest little fishies covered onesie in shades of blue.
“You can understand his beast-speak,” Cinnia murmured.
“So it is his beast talking then?” I glanced between the pair.
Dax nodded slowly, a frown starting to mar his smooth brow.
“Be kinda neat if you had a sister,” Cinnia mused, blinked, then mumbled, “kinda. Wouldn’t it?”
“My sunshine’s form is meant to guard over the lower Mer, your less aquatic living Selkie-Kelpies, yes? Mer-djinn Guardians are males,” Segrid murmured quietly, following me as I approached slowly.
“A Kelpy Enchantress, a Kelpy Guardian, what we’d thought were extinct, were predominantly female. It would make sense that they would possess the ability to communicate within their beasts,” Seidon finished for him.
“So maybe not a sister then, but like a beastly cousin?” Cinnia frowned thoughtfully, then glanced to Permelia, who looked confused as hell trying to work through all of that. “She’s even neater than you, Per,” Cinnia teased her friend.
“Cursedly better,” Permelia mocked herself.
“Puddle-ingly so,” I joked at my own expense, smirking when the women glanced at each other, then me, and twin smirks slowly encompassed their pretty features. Thinking of my startle and puddle response, I glanced to Segrid helplessly.
“We will hold the babe together, if the parents are amenable?” Segrid’s hands slid up behind mine, supporting the sweet little baby Cinnia placed in my arms, so we held him together. I felt better knowing she hovered, just in case. I wouldn't have been surprised if she’d denied my request at all.
“He’s so small,” I whispered, grinning down at him.
Obsidian eclipsed eyes popped open at the sound of my voice, staring up at me with such an intent look. Intelligence. This wasn’t an average Human baby. I was staring down into the eyes of a little old soul.
Segrid peered at the babe from over my shoulder. “He will be strong and powerful, like his Mum and Da. A Guardian like his sire.”
“How can you tell he won’t be a Merman?” I asked, my questioning gaze meeting his. Segrid jerked his chin. “Already he smells too strongly of his father’s magicks.”
“I have thought the same,” Seidon agreed.
“Dax said the same thing, but this little man hasn’t shifted yet, so I’m on pins and needles about this. I hafta know! You really think Beaux will be a Guardian?” Cinnia glanced between us all hopefully.
Dax had the softest look on his face as he stared at his female. I knew that look. It was the same one I got when I looked at Segrid. Cinnia gave Dax a sense of peace and acceptance, like no one else could.
Knowing I couldn’t hog the sweet baby, my first lessons waiting, I handed little Beaux off to Permelia, who was quick to greedily nab him up, where she then began peppering his little face with kisses, and I turned to Seidon expectantly. “Don’t take it easy on me. I have a bun baking in the oven and only so much time before I pop. I need to be ready with the basics before I have to take a break for a while.”
“Then we shall dally no longer.” Seidon gave me what I’d call a charming grin, and maybe some ladies melted for it, gesturing for me to follow him out a side glass door that led out into a sloped garden with very high walls. Not this lady. That blazing white smile didn’t move me like it might have once upon a time. I liked some grit to my men, and while Seidon was gritty in a hot siren fishman kind of way, I liked my fellas a little more… earthy, dirt ridden.
