Bound With The Water Dragon

Bragging Rights

Explaining his past was a struggle. Not many of his memories wanted to surface, let alone be aired with this group. It wasn’t for any reason in particular besides not wanting to relive it. There lies the problem though. Ejder saw it all. Every memory, every reason. 

What he could let out though were the good times when he and his father would go fishing out on their tiny raft. He told them about the wonder of the stars and finding their way back for the morning sales. What they would catch and held onto for home were usually crustaceans. 

“Mom liked her muscles,” he chuckled. “And Dad had his terrible Dad jokes referring to never going hungry because he was made of them.” 

Morgan smiled fondly at their finished plates then made sure to get a family platter to go. 

“Who’s that for?” Gwyn asked, elbowing him in the side. “Your favorite?” she continued to aks, grinning from ear to ear. 

“If she’s your favorite…” Grant huffed, “she’s got you mind controlled.”

“Doubtful,” Albion started only to be interrupted by Gwyn. 

“Mind controlled? Are you for real?!” Gwyn hollered, gaining looks from the other diners. 

Bryson took it upon himself to stare them down until they looked away. 

“Careful princess…” he teased. 

“Nah, it’s for Liia. She didn’t come with us,” he glanced around the table before asking if she didn’t want to or couldn’t like she said.

“She can’t leave the water, Morgan,” Albion replied. 

His deep voice called Morgan’s attention back to him. It was strange to see him in his human form. Albion, unlike his orange skin within his squid form, held nearly no pigment in his skin. The slight color Morgan could attribute his color to was his hair and even that was so slight it surprised him. Although Morgan could accept the rest of him as a tall, gangly man, his form was still strong. He ate more than anyone there too. Not even Gwyn could come close to the amount he consumed. 

“Ever?” Morgan wondered. His thoughts had again betrayed him. Morgan’s eyes widened while he apologized. “You don’t have to repeat yourself. I get it. But how did she do at the glacier?”

“Maybe you’ve been out of the water too long,” Bryson interjected. “You seemed to be far more intelligent in it.”

“Oh come on,” Gwyn replied. “He fed, you didn’t he?”

“Food has…”

“Everything to do with this…”

Just then their server came back with their food and the bill, to which Morgan quickly countered with a fist full of small gold nuggets. 

“There’s more than an ounce there,” Morgan said as he gathered his belongings.

“Which is?”

“More than one thousand dollars.”

Muttering and eyebrows raised all around him. Morgan wasn’t sure just what they would encounter other than a denial of payment. 

“In gold?” their server questioned.

“The very same,” Morgan assured him.

“I don’t know if I can take this as payment,” their server began. “Your meal was several hundred and…”

“That’ll cover it!” Gwyn patted the man on the shoulder, putting him in a slight trance. 

“That’ll cover it,” he replied, allowing the group to go without another word. 

**

The entire way back to the shore had them feeling as if they were being watched. 

“That happens when a bunch of outsiders pay with gold,” Ejder reminded him.

“I’m not an outsider.”

“You haven’t been back there since your parent’s died,” Ejder spat.

It stopped Morgan in his tracks. 

“How do you think you’re going to be treated?”  

“You need to not bring that up again, Ejder,” Morgan warned. 

“What? Other people? Or your actions around them?”

“My parents,” he said simply as he made it back to the shore where Liia still hid behind the coral covered rocks in the lagoon. 

It felt like forever since he had connected with her. Morgan blew out a breath and started out to her. Honestly, he expected an immediate change. He thought since Ejder put Akir’s spells on him once, it would happen again but no. He got to look like a silly human boy, racing into the water to bring his crush dinner. He probably looked desperate and stupid but damn it all, he let his walls down around the rest of them. Somewhat at least. Why not her too? 

“Hey,” he said, then waved awkwardly at her. 

Liia carefully dropped lower beneath the surface and looked up from where she was fiddling with tiny fish along the reef. It seemed that even she had her own fears about being so close inland. Deep down he regretted leaving her but what was that before? His jealousy began to rise again only to be ramped down by her careful stare. She didn’t look at anyone else like that. 

“I uh, I have food… for you,” he continued. 

“We might need to eat on the go,” Albion motioned back behind them. 

Morgan rolled his eyes but agreed. It was depressing handing over the wrapped stuffed muscles over to her partner instead of settling down with her there but they had to move. 

“Teach me that thing,” he muttered to Ejder, as he dove beneath the surface. 

Ejder’s energy surged and receded inside of him. Morgan coughed below the surface calling only more attention to himself. 

“You’re sure this is what you want? To draw more attention to yourself, Mr. Gold Heart?”

“If they get her, they’ll kill her. You heard what they said, didn’t you? She can’t leave the water. Humans are…” Morgan stopped himself before he could label himself as such a moron. 

“Go ahead,” Ejder pressed in a knowing way but he got nothing more. 

Morgan looked back at Liia enjoying the food he brought her and smiled. It was enough to push him on. 

“Ejder?”

Morgan listened to him carefully. His mouth moved as he practiced the spell along with him. Several words seemed out of place for what it was he was trying to achieve but even the blue and white lace appeared in the water around him. Morgan held his breath, ready to push it all out, only to have nothing happen. 

“What did you do?” Morgan panicked. 

Ejder chuckled, making him increasingly confused. Again he began his chant, the words only more similar this time, helped Morgan take control once more. Again the water beneath and around him glowed brightly underneath the twilight. It called attention to him, not only by his friends, but also by those who approached them. 

He was their focus now. 

Morgan quickly dove down into the shallow water. His boots were the last thing for them to see before he groaned deeply. His call made the surface tremble. His transformation, barely hidden underneath it, revealed the monster he was. The faceless choked on their words, their breath, like his own, was sucked from their bodies. 

“M-m… monster!” One hollered, while the other turned on his heel to run off into the night. 

“Don’t stare at it!”

“Run!” A third they hadn’t seen followed suit. 

Morgan frowned at that. Being called a monster felt strange. He didn’t think that of himself…

“You’ll get used to it,” Gwyn leaned into the side of Morgan, just over his shoulder and close to his face. She smirked when he realized both her and her form, then added, “when you actually scare someone.”

“Until then, Bryson and I still take the record,” Grant teased. 

“We’ll be hitting the islands pretty soon,” Bryson proposed. “How about a wager?” 

“If it’s for my body weight in food…”

“Bragging rights!” Bryson corrected. 

“What is the point of that?” Albion interjected. “Nothing, that’s what. We don’t need humans to rage against the sea.”

“He’s right,” Liia replied. “Besides. We all know who’s the most frightening.”

“It’s me,” Gwyn grinned once more, settling back into the sea. 

Liia smiled, giving nothing away. 

“I told you!”

Their argument went on playfully as each of them returned to the water, taking their forms as they raced for the horizon. As they went he felt Albion transform beside him, frowning as he went. 

“Do you feel that?” he asked, concerned.

“We need to move,” Ejder pressed. 

“What is it?” Morgan stared at the water surrounding them. 

It began to separate into droplets that hovered above the surface just to be held in place like marble sized pearls. The longer they watched, each individual globe flattened into thin saucers. Morgan frowned as he noticed a tip beginning to form. He’d seen this before, in the room high above the shadows. 

“What did you do, Ejder?” Morgan whispered to himself. 

“Who’s Ejder?” Albion asked as he backed away from the water forged weaponry. 

“Morgan?” Liia asked, repeating Albion’s question. 

Morgan panicked, backing away from the two of them.

“Go on. Why don’t you tell them?” Ejder grumbled. A gasp ripped through the two of them as another tremor grappled with the earth below them. 

“What’s gotten into you?” Morgan asked, louder this time. “I thought we were getting along.”

“Who?” he faintly heard Liia ask. 

“We need to get out of here,” Albion’s message tumbled through his mind. “He’s struggling!” 

He could barely hear the swoosh of the water, nor the ways he feverishly tried to reach her to hold her back, Liia’s presence was there, just as it was from the beginning. Morgan battled with himself, with Ejder and to keep the tiny blades focused inward instead of out towards them only to dive backwards and away from them. 

Morgan could feel them, the tiny blades, zipping through the water as he found his true speed back out in the open water. 

“I should have done this from the beginning!” Ejder cheered. “Your speed is phenomenal!”

“You… you did that on purpose?” Morgan growled. 

His anger pushed him faster still. Each tiny dagger that failed to keep up was recollected by the sea. It went on and on for miles until the final one fell out of range. 

“Do not make anymore of those!” Morgan shouted, throwing his sonar out along with his message. 

“Do not slow down!” Ejder countered. “Remember what we’re here for.”

“Seriously? We’re not here for anything to do with you! My friends…”

“Your friends? You mean the creatures using you?”

Morgan huffed, dodging land masses and the sea littered with boats of all sizes and hauls. He raced along throwing insults back at the dragon and his agenda. 

“That sounds a lot like projection to me! I bet you’re just using me. Just like everyone else!” Morgan grumbled this time, refusing to send the signal out. “You’ll kill me when we get there…" Morgan struggled to push out. "Because that’s fine, right? Poor little Morgan lost his parents and grew up before he turned seven only to gain the right to die at the claws of some magical being that  couldn’t even save himself!”

He couldn’t help but race even faster, summoning an unheard of pace that surpassed even the brothers and Gwyn herself. 

“Poseidon save us,” Gwyn gaped at him, slowing her to a halt. 

“How the hell?” Grant asked at a loss for words.

While Bryson could usually finish or interrupt his brother, this wasn’t the time. 

Morgan grimaced as he passed. He didn’t have time to stop. He didn’t have the ability to lose them, regardless of how terrible they started out as. All Morgan had left was the hope that this trench would give Ejder back his life and be free of his debt.