Chapter 27
Twenty-Seven
Proteus
The others weren't accepting of her. He wasn't sure why, but he could see it every time he came back to the facility. That was his only complaint about the newcomers, however. They were quick to discover many new and helpful things that were otherwise hidden in Sanctuary.
Of course, Proteus had no question that his companions would have found them, eventually. Both Ellie and Pilot were capable. But would they have discovered all of this so soon? It seemed unlikely. The future was barreling towards them now, and that should have made them all happy.
Instead, all he saw were the scientists and engineers getting more serious. They avoided Ellie's presence as if she had some kind of disease that one of them could catch if they weren't careful. He didn't understand it. It made his skin crawl.
They had no idea how special she was. How quickly her mind worked. Or even how deeply compassion was embedded beneath her skin. They didn't even care.
So he decided if they weren't going to make use of his beautiful, wonderful, and talented human, then he was going to take her out on his own for a while. She deserved that.
Grumbling under his breath, he rose out of the water and watched her as she crossed the room. She had an armful of metal that had already stained her pretty arms with rust, and he didn't like that either.
A low growl rumbled from his chest, churning the surrounding water before he could stop himself. All the humans froze, staring at him with expressions of fear until he stopped.
All right. Maybe he was partly the problem here. He needed to control his reactions. She was working, and that was what he had brought her here for, after all.
"Ellie," he said, his voice a cracking summons in the air. "You are with me today."
She nodded, depositing the metal where it was likely supposed to go before heading over to him. "What would you like me to do, Proteus?"
"You'll swim with me."
"Oh." She blinked a few times and then said, "So you want Pilot to come with us as well?"
No, he didn't want the droid to come with them. That cretin would ruin all the sweet moments he had planned and likely make the water icy cold with his disdain. Proteus had no interest in a cock blocking droid tainting this moment for him.
"Absolutely not," he snarled. "The droid stays here."
Again, she looked at him like he had lost his mind. Quietly, Ellie said, "I still can't breathe underwater, Proteus."
Another woman walked up beside her. The engineer was someone he had seen around Ellie a few times.
Her dirty blonde hair made her stand out amongst the others, mostly because she was so strong.
Broad shoulders and muscular arms that were revealed by her sleeveless shirt made her appear far more capable than the others.
She wore an engineer’s uniform she must have found in the back, but the one-piece suit didn’t fit her. Thus, the arms being ripped off.
"He hasn't breathed for you yet?" the woman asked. "It's eerie, but they can do it just fine. All they do is stick a tentacle in your neck. A quick prick and suddenly you're breathing underwater."
"Who are you?" he grumbled.
"Quinn. Be nice to me, or I won't be as nice to your friend here." Quinn pointed at Ellie and then flashed him a grin. "Go ahead with the tentacle. I've watched it enough times to not let it make me too sick."
He didn't like where this was going. Ellie was already heading toward him, and this wasn't going to work the way either of them thought. "I do not have one of those," he said.
Now everyone was listening. He could sense it. Even the man in the back, who had been making a racket while he hammered together some contraption, was suddenly hammering much more quietly.
He could have heard a pin drop, and that said something for how loud this room had been until he admitted that.
"What?" he hissed. "I'm clearly not an undine. They have always been resilient, and when they discovered the use of that tentacle, it was proven that humans and undine were compatible with each other. I am neither human nor undine."
Quinn just stared. But then he felt her gaze trailing up and down his body, looking him over with fresh eyes before she blew out a long breath. "Ah. Well. That's fine, you can take my rebreather."
The two women disappeared into the back for far too long. He was already antsy, and having to wait for Ellie to return was somehow even worse.
What if she didn't like where he was bringing her? He doubted that she wouldn't like it. Ellie, so far, had been very easy to impress. She liked the ocean. She liked seeing new things. He was going to combine both loves and show her something only in the water and new.
But still, something ugly slithered inside his chest. He hadn't felt doubt like this in such a long time, and shouldn't that say something about him? She weakened him. She made him question his own abilities. She...
Was heart-stoppingly beautiful.
He had to make sure his jaw didn't drop as she walked back into the room wearing a wetsuit with one of the metal devices over her mouth. But his eyes lingered on the curves of her form, and how she moved with such innate grace.
Her long legs were on display so all could see them.
The slight roundness of her stomach made his eyes linger on the softness there, but then he could only look at the plushness of her breasts and swallow as his mouth watered.
He'd tasted her, and now all he wanted to do was rip that wetsuit in half so he could feast upon her again.
Maybe she knew his thoughts. Her cheeks turned bright red as she met his hungry gaze and then gestured at the device on her mouth. There was a muffled sound of her talking, but it was hard to hear her this far away.
"What is that?" he asked, suspicion blooming in his chest. He needed a lot more information before he’d take her into the deep sea wearing that. What if it didn't work?
The engineer swaggering next to Ellie replied.
"Rebreather. One of Mira's creations. It's a newer version, so it'll last longer.
Her idea was to create a way to breathe underwater like fish do, a filtration system for oxygen essentially.
If you look on the side, you can see the canisters of nitrogen and.
.. You don't need to know all that. I'm getting in the weeds.
It'll let her breathe by filtering out what she needs through the water itself.
That's all you need to know." Quinn clapped a hand to Ellie’s back.
"Have fun. We'll all be slaving away here while you're gone. "
"Should I stay?" Ellie asked, and he heard that loud and clear.
"No," he replied for the rest of them, and then held his arms out for her.
She came to him like a woman in a myth. All the world faded away as her hips swayed and she sauntered toward him. Did she know how enraptured he was with her? Did she know that she had woven a spell around him and that somehow she was all that he could think of?
She likely didn't. And that was part of her charm, he supposed.
Proteus took her waist in his hands and lifted her into the water with ease. She barely weighed anything to him, but nothing weighed much when one was as big as he was.
They sank into the water, and once beneath the surface he could breathe again.
He pointed for her to go the way she had before so that he could meet her through the rocks.
The other way just wasn't safe enough for her.
Yes, there was more space, but the rocks were questionable.
A cave-in around an undine was something they could all manage. But her? She would die in a cave-in.
Flicking his tail, he moved through his side speedily so he could be on the other side of the rocks once she pulled herself through.
And again, he was just stunned by her. With her hair spreading around her face, the short dark hair looking like ink, he was shocked at how well she seemed to be adapting here.
Without a word, he wrapped his arms around her and started the journey. It would take a while, but he was a massive beast. Proteus could move faster than most undine could imagine in the water, and he intended to use every bit of his body to get them there with time to spare.
He wanted her to enjoy it for as long as she could, because the seas were calmer today. Almost as though the goddess herself knew that he wanted to show someone something special.
She didn't say a word until they approached the underwater monolith. It was rather impressive to see from this distance. A mountain that had been sunk beneath the waves.
"What is that?" she asked.
"An old volcano," he replied. "It erupted many years ago, and the center has worn back down. The rising tides allowed water to get into the center, but it has hidden the interior from the greatest anger of the waves."
"I'm not really sure what you're about to show me."
"The last living coral reef," he murmured before heading that way. Already he could see it. The coral that clung to the stones, and the schools of fish that decorated it.
This reef had clung to life for years, managing better than he'd expected. Giant brain corals were still there, some of them hundreds of years old. The branching coral had mostly broken in the storms, but deep in the center many of them were still safe.
"The waves break around the reef," he said as he released her from his grip. "And that saves much of the coral from death in the storms. As angry as the sea could get, she always protected this place. Now, I show it to you."
"I... I don't know what to say."
"Explore," he replied with a soft smile. "Say nothing and explore, Sisu."
She turned away from him and glided through the water. At least, she tried to. She kicked off his body and managed for a little while before she sank again.
He'd forgotten she didn't know how to swim. Here he was, choosing the best day he could for her in the sunlight that speared through the coral, and he'd forgotten the most important detail.
Proteus hooked an arm underneath her waist and approached the surface. Flexing a bit, he turned his tail into a float that she could grip onto. He took her hands and made sure she was holding his scales with a solid grip.
"Hold on," he said. "I will keep you on the surface."
She nodded, clearly shocked at what was occurring, but did that matter? He couldn't go too far over the reef himself. There wasn't enough space above the coral for a creature of his size. But he could stretch his tail over it and hold her there.
The rebreather allowed her to watch every tiny fish that darted past them without worrying about lifting her head out of the water. The goggles on her face had yet to fog up either, so he knew she could see all the most incredible parts of this reef.
The tiny fish had always been his favorite. He liked the black and white ones. Striped and quick, they lived a little deeper than the others. They spiraled around the two of them, clearly curious at what new creatures had joined them.
Then there were the needlefish. Long and pointed, they had serrated teeth within their pointed snouts that were sharp enough to break her flesh. But they hovered near the surface in a school, watching the two of them with beady eyes until they all darted away as one.
Ellie touched her fingers to her ears a couple of times, and he thought for a moment there was water in them before he realized she was hearing the reef itself. The crackles and pops of the coral moving made her watch it a little more closely.
He floated her toward some of the larger, colorful parrotfish that were integral to keeping this reef alive. One of them crunched on a coral piece, and he saw Ellie touch her ears again.
Laughing, he pointed out the large creature where the sound was coming from. "A parrotfish," he explained. "They are part of a large ecosystem that helps this entire place work."
But her eyes weren't on the big fish. She was watching a tiny, neon blue and purple fish cleaning a massive clam.
The little fish rubbed its side against the massive clam, and the bigger creature slammed shut with a surprisingly loud crack.
But not before he had seen the delicate blue insides that were dotted with glittering white like stars.
Then she pointed behind him, and he turned to look at an eagle ray that swam past them.
It almost looked like it was flying through the water.
Each wing moved with such grace, with its long pointed tail trailing behind it.
The black body was dotted with white spots, very similar to the clam before it disappeared through the waves into the darkness of the sea beyond.
They spent hours there, watching the sea move as the tides ebbed and flowed. This was his favorite place to rest. Always had been. And when the sea had told him that it was still safe, that he could still come here, he'd known he had to show it to her.
"This is what you want to rebuild?" she asked, her voice still muffled by the metal device on her face.
Proteus nodded solemnly. "It's what we all need to see rebuilt. The sea needs this to live. Your people need it to survive as well."
She looked at him, and for a moment he thought her goggles had a leak in them. Until he realized she was actually crying. Tears slid down her cheeks within those goggles and had pooled at the bottom. "This is beautiful, Proteus. Everything here is so healthy, so... alive."
"That's all the sea wants. That's all this planet needs. More life and beauty." He reached out and brushed a tangled strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm glad I could share this with you."
"There's so many colors."
He chuckled. "Yes, the sea knows how to put on a show of colors, that much is certain."
She shook her head, and bubbles erupted from her rebreather like she was laughing. "I don't think I've ever seen so many colors in my life. How long can we stay?"
Proteus estimated they'd already been here for a few hours, but when he lifted his head out of the water, all he could see was the hurricane barreling toward them. "Not long now. But I did want to show you one more thing."
"You have another gift?" she asked, her voice filled with awe. "What did I do to get spoiled today?"
You exist, he wanted to say. You exist, and you see me as someone more than a monster.
Instead, he grinned and reeled her closer to him so he could gather her up in his arms. "There's an old human temple here. It's been sunk into the sea for years, but I think you'll like to see it."