Chapter 7
I woke up to the soft swaying of the ship on the waves and I rubbed my eyes. I gazed about the room with sleepy eyes to find the dragon, Phyralis sleeping against a wall. He had changed last night into a much more presentable form, namely a human with extremely tan skin. He still had his emerald eyes though because when I went to wake him up, he just opened his eyes to look at me.
"Is everything okay?" He whispered so low that I could barely hear him and I glanced over at my master's sleeping form. Motioning for him to come with me, I walked out the cabin and onto the deck. As I leaned against the railing, I looked over at him.
"Yes, I was just wondering if you were awake or not," I replied and leaned back even more to look at the sky.
"Don't fall overboard," Phyralis warned and I grinned at him.
"I have the best balance out of anyone here. I doubt that I could fall overboard," I stated and jumped onto the railing. Without a moment's hesitation, I started my Air Dance but fixed it so I wouldn't fall off the ship and danced with danger for the sake of it. It had always felt good to dance after sleeping for an entire night. I didn't usually sleep that much so when I did, I felt especially groggy. Dancing helped wake me up to the point where the enemy, if there were one, wouldn't be able to catch me for anything.
I finished my dance with a double back flip off the railing and landed perfectly in front of the dragon. His mouth was open in amazement and I smiled at his astonishment.
"I'm a Selenium. What did you expect? A clumsy person?" I teased and his mouth quirked into a grin. A hand went up and pushed back his blond hair while the other went to his hip.
"I can't say what I expected. Probably anything but that," he admitted with a laugh and grinned at me.
"Well, their people are dancers more than anything else," a soft voice interrupted us and I looked over to see an extremely dark-haired woman looking at us through pit black eyes.
"And you are?" the dragon demanded getting between us.
"Keresha," She replied unperturbed and I gripped his arm.
"She the merlady from last night," I said to him and he bowed low to her.
"Thank you for recognizing me as I am last night," he said stiffly, straightening up.
"Well, you are the only half blooded dragon there is," she replied and I blinked.
"The only one?" I asked him and he nodded not taking his eyes off of her.
"The only half-dragon to make it out of the woman's womb alive that is. Most of the others are killed before so that the tribe wouldn't have to suffer the shame that would be brought upon their family," she explained and I froze up. He had shame just by being born? What kind of sick race would even consider that? The merwoman seemed to feel my dislike of the subject so she decided to change it.
"Will you come and see my king?" she repeated the question from last night and I shook my head.
"I am unable to. My master would never permit it," I refused and she sighed.
"Refuse what?" a sleepy voice asked me and I turned around to see him coming out of his cabin looking only mildly awake.
"I wish to take her to my king's court and have her join us for a simple day visit. Would you mind?" she practically breathed all over him and he carefully backed away.
"What court would she be going to?" He narrowed his eyes and I realized that he wasn't as asleep as I had thought he was.
"The merpeople's court. My king has been pleading with me all night to make sure that I get an audience with her and make sure that she comes to see him. Will you at least give me peace of mind with that? It's only a day and she'll be back before sunset," Keresha promised and my master considered a moment.
"I leave the choice up to her," He decided and they all looked at me.
"I prefer to stay on this side of the water," I mumbled and she nodded, sighing.
"What if I could bring his majesty here?" she suddenly perked up and I glanced over at Aiden. He shrugged and I contemplated what could go wrong. Deciding that much more could go wrong with this than anything else I had ever had to make a choice on, I looked at her and gave her my answer.
"Why not? I'm sure it'll be fun," I conceded and she practically choked me with her smile and ran off to jump over board and into the sea. It was a miracle that not a single crew member saw her jump.
"It looked like we were talking to air when she was here," Phyralis confided in me and I glanced at the sailors. They were looking at us a bit suspiciously.
"Well, have fun. I'm going back to bed," my master yawned and I stepped lightly in front of him.
"You can't go to bed now! The Sea King is going to be here soon. Plus you don't like sleeping," I reminded him and he just gazed at me with glazed eyes.
"You're looking very pretty today, Naomi. Did you do something different with your hair?" he asked touching my cheek and I felt the touch like it was an electric shock.
The electricity didn't come out of my ever loving feelings of him but rather the fact that he was being drained dry by some outside force. His life was literally being drunk like a man who hadn't had any water in years. There had only been two people who had come aboard that ship in time to make him do that and there was only one that could have been in contact with him at the moment.
"Phyralis, stop that! If you take much more, he won't be able to even sleep to get his energy back," I demanded of the dragon and he looked at me surprised.
"But he's just a human," he protested and I glared at him.
"A human who could very well affect all of our lives! He's a prince off to get married to a princess and may one day be king of both countries! Do you understand that? I'll be out of a master and I'll be sold back into slavery if he dies," I hissed and he looked at everything but me.
"You planned on that!" I accused him and he smiled weakly at me.
"I would have bought you and set you free. You shouldn't be a slave to a man like him!" he announced and sprang to kill the prince. I got in the way and kicked him in midair. He went flying backwards and slammed into the railing with a hard thump.
"Why do you protect him!" He roared standing up heaving.
"He saved me from a life that I wouldn't want to think about. For that I am glad to be his slave. Get out of him or I'll make sure you don't feed on anyone else," I threatened and he growled at me but complied.
"Don't think this is that last of this," he forewarned and I glanced over at him.
"I have no doubt that you and others will come after me if I am indeed who you say I am," I answered and helped my master inside to his bed.
