Residual growls rattled in my chest as I continued to orient myself to my new environment. The platoon of water fae I had encountered above the surface laughed while swimming beneath me looking like a submerged rainbow, their brightly colored hair waving fluidly in the water.
Not a single one had blue black hair.
“Where is she!” I growled to Kira, sensing the water fae leader at my side. My normal speech slurring in a series of surprising stochastic clicks that I somehow still understood. Kira giggled in return. “It’s always so fun to hear a land fae speak within the waves.” She cocked her head assessing me, her hair flowing around her in a variable pink cloud.
“Fuck off Kira and just tell me where she is.” Panic was bubbling to the surface along with a power I normally held tight control over. This fish would fry if I didn’t find Remnant soon.
“Relax, shifter.Solaire…” she drawled amusingly, “has been to The Under many times, although it was of course before the blood wars, we were just faelings then. Even at that age she was a fast and skillful swimmer. A talent, it seems, she has not lost.” Her small webbed hand pointed further below us where a water fae was racing, twirling, and dodging through the water with limitless ease. Flanking her were two water fae guards. “There, you see?”
I did see and I stared. She was like a beautiful nymph in the water, her speed and acrobatics combined into a sensual and playful show. The joy radiating off her was infectious and even made her guards smile.
Kira sighed wistfully. “She has ensnared you, as she does with all that cross her path. Always excelling at stealing fae’s hearts without even trying…she is just so—.”
“Fae.” I breathed. A gorgeous, resilient, fierce, pure, unapologetic fae.
Kira hummed. “Come along little pet. Let us see if you can measure up to the female you think your disgusting shifter hide can win over. May the best fae win.”
Then she shot through the water like a torpedo, leaving me biting at the water after her. Kira was going to be lucky if she lived through the night.
“I’m not opposed to some water fae sushi.”Growled the beast. “Let's make it take out though. I despise the decor and the ambiance is all wrong.”
I choked back a laugh, swimming downward. “As opposed to what, cat?”
“Mountains,” he said longingly and I had the feeling he didn’t know he was still speaking to me. “Where the only tolerable water is from the crystal falls that cut through the towering trees, teeming with flowers and the melodious echoes of the zhar birds…their golden glow lighting up the canopies like stars.”
I paused abruptly in my pathetic floundering of a swim. The vision my beast described was so vivid that I could practically feel the scenery. “Is this…one of your memories?”
Never had the beast shared something so intimate with me and we had been together for thousands of years.
The image quickly disappeared.“I do not know.”He hissed.
Shaking my head, I continued swimming, and I pushed away the disappointed sadness that came with our complicated relationship. We needed each other symbiotically to exist, that was all, and nothing would ever change that.
I inhaled deeply when over a bend, the staggering views of The Under came into focus. The multi-colored city glowed in the open ocean. Its rainbow spiral towers jutted upwards like the mountains on land. Each one adorned by gold and silver that burned with an enchanting light making the city shine brightly in the deep. Even the luminescent algae, perfectly manicured along the city streets, lit up its darkest corners.
I darted around the sealife, both predator and prey, swimming lazily above the water fae city. The fae here paid no attention to us newcomers, focused only on their own concerns. A show of superiority that was a common trait of their race.
Except, I could scent the stench of their hidden unease, desperation, and rotting disease permeating the water. My predator senses were acutely aware that the city itself was overpopulated, overcrowded, and these fae had nowhere else to go. This was the last of their court.
I rubbed at my chest, thinking of home. The shifters were much like these fae. Our dying lands had forced our people reluctantly from their homes and into our capital city, Finlandia.
“Welcome to The Under.” Kira interrupted my thoughts with her sharp clicking tones. “The most enchanting place in all of Faerie.”
I scowled, Kira’s willful blindness knew no boundaries. While the city was beautiful, something obviously festered on the inside. The stench was getting stronger the closer we approached its luminescent depths.
“They used to say the same about Atlantis, I understand. Until the water fae destroyed it with their own greed.” I said dismissively.
Kira shot in front of me with her razor teeth bared. “Tread carefully, shifter. You are in my territory now.”
My canines lengthened. Despite my playing dress up, my shifter powers remained intact.“Put your pathetic teeth away, Kira. My words are true and there’s nothing here worth treading on.”
“We don’t even have feet to do so.” The cat hissed at me, peeking his head out in my consciousness. “But the talking sushi is correct. Watch yourself, fairy boy, she does have the advantage here.”
Snarling inwardly, I shoved past Kira to dive deeper.“The water is making you a chatty cat. If I didn’t know you better, I’d believe you're nervous for me.”
“Of course I am, fairy boy. No highly evolved being would ever voluntarily swim with sharks in the water. You fairies are all imbeciles.”
I rolled my eyes.“There are no sharks in Faerie, cat. And even if there were, I doubt you’d be fearful of one.”
