I had a fitful sleep with yet more nightmares about being captured, enslaved, and tortured again, and having Maddie and the rest of my family either killed or captured along with me. After one particularly traumatic dream, I was awake for more than an hour before I managed to get back to sleep. I spent that time thinking about the state of affairs and came to two conclusions.

The first was that I had done or was preparing to do everything I could about our situation and realistically, there was nothing more that I could do than that. Second, if I let myself worry constantly about things that I had no control over or was already preparing for then I wouldn’t be doing myself or my family any good. I would only wind up being a nervous wreck, jumping at shadows, and would probably be of no use to anyone if we actually were attacked. Therefore, I forced myself to meditate and focus on some mantras and mental exercises that Kieshala had been working with me on since Hart had tortured me.

I woke up to Jenny sitting on the edge of the bed and tickling my fins. It took a moment before I was awake enough to remember where I was and why, but once I had done so, I let out a yawn and sleepily greeted my mate’s little sister. “Mornin’ Jenny.”

“Good morning, Naiya. Kara said that you have lots to do today so I came in as soon as I finished breakfast,” the young emerald-hued Naethari replied while looking as tired as I felt.

“Thanks, Jenny, you can probably take a nap as long as you maintain physical contact with them both,” I told her sympathetically. Then we maneuvered around so that Jenny took my spot, careful to have one of us touching each of them the entire time. Once that was done and Jenny was in place, I began shifting my tail into legs again. “Okay, Kiddo, I have work to do. Have a good nap and take care of Nat and my sister.”

“I will, Naiya” Jenny promised. “You and Kieshala be careful out there. Kara would be upset if anything happened to you, and I’d miss you and your fish jokes.”

“We’ll be careful,” I promised her back. “At least someone gets my sense of humor, I have to come back for that, right?” I said the last with a wink and then stood up and made my way out of the room, through the living room, and into the kitchen where the others were all taking their time eating breakfast.

Kara was sitting there with her tail coiled up beneath her as she ate and conversed with my parents, Uncle Jack, and Aunt Carmen. They all looked up as I entered, and I went straight to Kara to wrap her up in my arms as I kissed her lovingly. Once I released her from both my arms and the lip lock, she smiled up at me. “Well, I don’t need to be an empath to see that you’re feeling better today, Babe. I mean, it helps, but it’s good not to see you so worried.”

“Yeah, I was up late worrying, but what’s the point of it? Maddie seems to be stable, Nat is coming along too, and I tried to lay down a false trail yesterday for whoever is after us to follow. Realistically, there is not much else that any of us can do right now, except take precautions and try to get ready to either leave or fight off our new stalkers. At least I’m trying to prepare in case the shit hits the fan, and it’s not like we’re completely defenseless,” I admitted.

“I’m running the photo that you took of the man watching the fisherman’s collective through a facial recognition search. Hopefully, if I get any hits, it should tell me who he is and what military entity he’s working for. I’m going to have trouble accessing any military records to find out who his commanding officer is and any useful information though,” Uncle Jack explained with a tired sigh. He looked like he had gotten as little sleep as I had.

I nodded, giving Kara another kiss before replying. “Okay, I guess there’s nothing else I can do except try and track down some dolphins with Kieshala after breakfast and then try to get some weapons and close-quarters combat training in.”

“Yeah, Kieshala is already waiting for you in the cove; she said that you can both eat on the go. I wish that I could go out with you, but we all agreed that there is less chance of you getting spotted if it’s just the two of you. And someone needs to be here to relieve Jenny if you two are late for some reason,” Kara reported before pulling me down by the shoulders for one last impassioned kiss.

I sighed as I reluctantly pulled away after a good long kiss and our lips parted ways. “Yeah, and if something does happen to us, it’s best if you’re here so I can contact you to let you know. If we need a rescue or something, I’ll be able to pass on what information that I can to you. As long as we’re not in another time zone or something.”

I wasn’t really sure just how long our range was with each other, but it was a lot further than with Jenny and Kieshala. We hadn’t found our maximum range yet, not even when I was in town doing things with Maddie in Havana and Kieshala had taken Kara out to sea for some one-on-one training on how to use her sonar and other senses to her advantage in the open ocean, how to hunt, and how to hide from other predators. Kieshala had taken Jenny and me out for similar one-on-one lessons, but Kara and I had been able to stay in contact during my field trip as well.

My mate gave me a stern look. “Well, you just better make sure that you’re careful and nothing does happen, Naiya, because there aren’t many of us in shape to mount a rescue at the moment.”

“Yes, be careful, Naiya,” Mom agreed with a look on her face just as stern as that on Kara’s. “I’d suggest that you carry a weapon, but we don’t have anything that would be useful in the ocean depths. Besides, I’m not too worried about the two of you being able to defend yourselves against anyone stupid enough to attack you in the water.”

“If someone is that stupid, then you know what to do,” Dad added grimly.

“Yeah, Dad, we’ll handle it if we have to, but the plan is to avoid anything that smells of humans,” I replied with one last longing look at my mate. “I’d better get going though, Kieshala is waiting on me and I’m getting hungry.”

With that, I headed to the back door of the villa, which opened onto the large deck and an expanse of sandy beach with an excellent view of the cove and the scenic, foliage-covered cliffs to either side. I quickly shed the sleep shirt that I had been wearing to maintain my modesty inside the house and left it on the deck before following the trail in the sand from Kieshala’s slither-crawling to the water’s edge, where waves lapped languidly against the shore. A good distance from the shore, Kieshala was waiting for me in the water, with only her head above the surface, her orange and gold locks shining in the morning light and making her easy to see with my Naethari vision.

The sky was blue, and since it was still early morning, it wasn’t unbearably hot yet. In fact, it was a beautiful day for a swim, and the tangy salty scent of the sea called to me. So I allowed myself a smile and firmly told myself to have some fun as I ran into the water, waiting until it was at my hips before allowing my legs to shift back into my tail and submerging to join Kieshala.

Before passing out of the cove and into the open sea, we made good use of our sonar and other senses before Kieshala decided on a course that she felt would be safe. We made constant course corrections to avoid places where we might be likely to encounter people. We did encounter a fishing boat on the surface at one point, but we were very deep and stayed near the ocean floor in case we needed to hide for some reason.

Not long after that, we encountered a large school of snapper and once we had their scent and used our sonar sense to get their general location, Kieshala paused. ~ We will have our morning meal here, Naiya. We could be swimming for a while and will need our strength to keep up our search. ~

~ That sounds good, Kieshala, I’m getting pretty hungry, ~ I agreed.

~ You may go first; I will watch for danger and then catch my meal after you have caught yours, ~ she offered, as she continued to look around and scent the water.

I nodded and emitted another whistle. Once I had a sense of where the school was and which direction they were in, I began working my tail and fins furiously and tucked in my shalkai to propel myself forward like a rocket at the school of fish. I was far faster than my prey, built for speed and power, When I was almost upon them, I opened my jaws as wide as I could and snapped them closed as soon as the fish that I was aiming for was within reach.

My fangs sank deep into the scale and flesh and my meal only put up a brief struggle before it went still in my mouth, the taste of its blood making my stomach growl in protest of its emptiness. Meanwhile, its brethren were fleeing the scene of the crime as quickly as they could. ~ Okay, Kieshala, you can catch yours now, I’ll keep my senses peeled for trouble while you do. Then we can both eat. ~

~ Thank you, Naiya, ~ came her reply. A moment later as I held my meal in my hands and used every sense available to me to scan for approaching danger, I sensed the sunset-hued Naethari, speeding into the school that I had chased off a moment earlier.

Moments later, we found a nice patch of kelp to hide in and eat along with our fish. I had managed to catch a good-sized specimen and, along with the kelp, it was enough to fill me up and stop my stomach’s protests that I was neglecting it. ~We just stopped to eat, and we’ll be starting our search when we’re done, ~ I thought toward Kara as we ate.

I was both happy and relieved when my mate’s mind voice replied, ~ Okay, Babe, enjoy your breakfast. Keep me updated if you can. ~

~ I will, my love, ~ I vowed.

I made short work of my meal and Kieshala seemed to be finished hers around the same time because as I tossed the bones aside, she said, ~ Now that we have eaten, let us return to our purpose for being here. ~

~ Don’t you mean our porpoise for being here? ~ I teased with a grin.

~ No, we are looking for a dolphin pod. I guess that a porpoise could work as well though, ~ she replied with a confused frown, completely missing the pun. I guess that her command of English just wasn’t good enough for the subtleties of word humor yet.

~ Yeah, let’s go with dolphins, or porpoises, whatever we happen to find first, ~ I responded with a bubbling sigh. Jenny would have laughed.

We carried on after that, but our course was somewhat sporadic since we were trying to avoid anything that could indicate humans, and Kieshala wanted to keep us away from any major currents for the moment. I was starting to get hungry again when our cautious search seemed to turn up what we were looking for. Kieshala found a pod of bottlenose dolphins darting around while using sonar, but they were a little too close to a coral reef for my comfort.

Reefs like that are usually a hotspot for dive tours and the like, so I wanted to avoid it if we could. Kieshala chittered out a greeting and a request to meet their pod from what we considered a safe distance from the reef. The sound was high-pitched, not something that a human could hear, but it wasn’t the porpoise language that Kieshala had taught, Kara, Jenny, and me. She said that the dolphin language had some similarities, but it was a different dialect.

Since I only knew how to speak Porpoise, and wasn’t entirely fluent in that yet, that meant that Kieshala would need to do the talking if they accepted her invitation. I never really realized how well that sound travels underwater before, but it wasn’t long before we got a reply. Two adults and a calf swam toward us, seemingly brimming with curiosity about us.

Since dolphins can be dangerous if they think they’re in danger, I made sure to make no sudden moves as they approached and inspected us while chittering away to Kieshala, who was speaking back as best she could. I guess that there were dolphins and porpoises in her home world, but they had been separated from their earth cousins for a very long time and the dialects weren’t exactly the same. It seemed that she could communicate well enough with them to get by though.

It seemed like I had been listening to a conversation that I couldn’t follow and trying very hard not to move suddenly for ages before Kieshala said, ~ The adult female has agreed to allow you to touch her, but they wish to see you change in return. They are very curious about your ability. ~

~ Okay, that sounds fair, ~ I agreed.

Kieshala then made the introductions, and each of the three dolphins had a unique whistle for their name. She also roughly translated our names into similar whistle sounds. Even with my improved memory from being Naethari, it took several minutes before I could distinguish between the five whistles and repeat them. The dolphins didn’t seem to take offense though, in fact, Kieshala said that they found my early attempts very amusing, since the first thing she did was explain that I didn’t know their language yet.

Once I could speak all of our names in Dolphinese reliably, the slightly smaller of the two adults approached close enough that I could reach out and touch her. I had never touched a dolphin before, she was slightly warm, and her skin felt smooth and almost rubbery. I wasn’t really sure how long I needed to keep contact to properly sample the DNA, but it was a moment before Kieshala bade me to remove my hand. ~You should attempt it now, Naiya. ~

I nodded and swallowed the sudden lump in my throat as I realized that I had absolutely no idea how to do it. I knew what being a human felt like since I had spent most of my life as one, and had been able to imagine the sensations of what it should feel like early on. I knew what it felt like to bend my knees or wiggle my toes, but having a tail and flippers was completely different. They were vastly different from Naethari biology as well.

I froze in uncertainty as I tried to think about how being a dolphin should feel and came up empty. They were all watching me, and I felt like some idiot who bragged about having this really great party trick and suddenly had performance anxiety. They were all watching me so intently.

Wait. Watching. Maybe if I tried to focus on my shift as I examine her with a critical eye, then it might work. I took a deep breath, which was pretty stupid of me since my airway was closed off with my gills doing all the oxygenating, and then concentrated. I drew out my magic, moving it to the surface of my skin, scales, and fins. Then I drank in the details of the body of Sahoozuu (that is the closest that I can come to pronouncing the whistle that was her name in anything close to human language) and committed them to my memory.

I focused on that image, held it in my mind, and then I willed it to be so. I could feel the shift starting and I almost lost it from the excited chitters and clicks of the three dolphins as I began to change. This was apparently great fun for them, and it was only once the change was complete that I realized that there was a minor problem with my dolphin impersonation. I didn’t know how to move or swim like one, and I was going to need to go up for air eventually in this form.

~ Kieshala, I need to learn to move and act like one of them if I’m going to be convincing at anything more than maybe being injured. ~ I sent to my companion.

The elder Naethari was quick to explain the situation in slightly stilted Dolphinese. The calf thought that this was a great game and I had to contact Kara to reassure her that we were okay and would probably be back later than expected because I was suddenly getting a dolphin education. It wasn’t easy since Kieshala had to relay everything that they told her, but it was helping me to pick up a bit of the language as well as learn what I needed to.

Swimming turned out to be the easy part. Sure, I couldn’t swim as fast or agilely as they could at first, but the basics were the same as in my Naethari form. We did have to go up often for air though, and Kieshala didn’t want to risk being seen by humans to join us when we did that. The afternoon sun was beating down mercilessly above the water’s surface by the time my trainers thought that I would make a passable dolphin, as long as I didn’t try to talk to other dolphins before getting a better grasp on their language.

I was exhausted by the time I shifted back to my comfortable and normal Naethari form, and we parted ways with my teachers. We had eaten lunch with them earlier, but we had to stop for another meal on the way home because I was starving and tired. It was a good thing that Kieshala remembered where we were going because I certainly didn’t. I was going to have to get her to teach me to navigate in the ocean depths.

We swam as quickly as we dared and were home in time for Kieshala to relieve Kara in watching over Nat and Maddie. I laid down and cuddled for a bit with Kara since I was so tired, intending to get up after a few minutes to go see my parents about the training they had promised but apparently, I was tired enough to pass out. It wasn’t really a big surprise with the active day I had had, and so little sleep the past few nights.

I woke up to Kara kissing me lovingly and calling in my mind, ~Naiya, you should get up and have something to eat, Honey. I let you sleep because you damn well needed it, but it’s almost time for you to take over for Kieshala. ~