The Shell and the Star - Part 9

I'm continuing this week with the serialized version of my "aquatic SFR," The Shell and the Star.  

If you're just finding the story now, you can catch up on all the parts posted to date by clicking this link:

The Shell and the Star

Jinn is in for a few surprises in this segment -- and maybe you are, too. :)

CHAPTER FOUR 

In spite of the beating he took, the game went to Trey who scored two points, much to Tardem’s dismay.

Trey swam to Jinn’s side and surfaced next to her bubble, which was bobbing on the gentle waves. He tossed back his wet hair, ignoring his friends’ jeers and challenges to play another game.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes. You played very well.” Jinn couldn’t help smiling back. “Congratulations on your win.”

“My sincere thanks.”

Trey had to have the most genuine and humble smile she’d ever known.

“Maybe you’d like to go for a swim with me now?” he suggested.

Jinn gawked at him, taken aback. “What? I can’t do that! I’d drown.”

“You only need your envirosphere when you’re underwater. You can breathe air at the surface…just like I can.”

Jinn clutched the armrests of her couch, terrified at the thought of being exposed and vulnerable in the open water. “I can’t swim. I don’t have fins like you do.”

“I’ll loan you mine.” Trey popped off a forefin and held it out to her.

She gave a loud gasp. “Your fins aren’t part of you?”

He shot her another of his trademark smiles “We only wear them so we can better travel through the water. Look.” He popped off his other handfin and both of those on his feet.

Jinn stared at his fingers and toes—identical to those of her Talstar people. “How can this be?” she muttered.

He cocked his head and gave her a quizzical look, as if surprised by her question. “We’re descended from the same ancestors, Jinn. There’s very little difference between our species.”

“But you live in the ocean and we live in the space!”

“We’ve both evolved to better suit our separate environments, but our differences are very minor.” He was watching her face, genuinely surprised by her reaction. “You didn’t know this?”

“I’ve never heard such a thing,” Jinn whispered. “Are you telling me tales?”

“It’s truth. We were one species once, though it was many thousands of longtides ago.” Trey looked away for a moment then met her gaze. “That’s why we can interbreed, Jinn.”

Jinn dropped her eyes, flustered at both his mention of breeding and the odd catch in his voice. Did Trey want to breed? With her? Did he crave her touch in the same surreptitious way she’d begun to crave to be touched? She felt the heat rise on her cheeks once again, along with an unfamiliar tightening low in her belly.

“Why don’t you give swimming a try?” Trey said in a quiet voice. “I think you might have fun.”

“I think I’d enjoy swimming about as much as you’d enjoy floating around on Talstar.”

His eyebrows arched. “Is that an invitation?”

Jinn folded her arms across her belly and gave him a coy look. “I don’t think you’d like Talstar. Much too dry.”

“I might surprise you.” His adorable smile melted her defenses. Would he really accept an invitation to her home?

Jinn sheepishly eyed his fake fins, nowhere near ready to offer such an outlandish invitation. Not yet.

“Another time, then,” Trey laughed good-naturedly, taking her reluctance in stride. He threaded his fins onto a loop on the side of his swimkilt before extending his hands to her. “Come swim with me, Jinn.”

“But how? If I open my bubble, it’ll fill with water and sink. And then I’ll surely drown!”

“Your bubble will float and I won’t let you drown.” He stretched out his arms, beckoning her into his world. “Trust me.”

Trust him? She barely knew him.

Yet…she wanted to trust him. And she definitely wanted to know him better.

“I can’t communicate with you outside my bubble. I’d need my translator.”

“You won’t. I’ve been speaking Talstaric all along. Your voice unit didn’t need to translate my words and I don’t need to translate yours. My father saw to it my brother and I learned your language.” He beckoned to her with both hands. “So come swimming.”

She gave her head a shake. “This is crazy.”

“Think of it as an adventure.”

Did she dare? Should she risk doing something no one on Talstar had ever done? Maybe if she conquered her fears and met this challenge, she could tell her sisters of her bravery. They might look on her with more favor. For once.

Jinn the Adventurer.

She glanced at the top seal of her bubble unit and then at her suitor. “You won’t let go of me?”

Trey’s eyes went soft. “Never.”

_______________________________________

Can Trey coax Jinn out of her shell...so to speak?

Check back next Monday for Part 10, and have a great week.