If he hadn’t been so startled, he would have used the moment to snag her. But he was horrified at the sight of them.

They were mangled. Cut at the ends as if someone had taken a sharp stone to her flippers for decoration. They were so small, too. Was she deformed? Was that why her people had sent her out on her own?

The achromo took that opportunity to wriggle deeper into the lava stones. He could see a long gash down her back, faint and pale where she’d scraped her scales clean off.

Or did the achromos not have any scales at all? Like his chest?

He touched a webbed hand to the smooth plane of his chest, and that was when she caught him off guard. One of those horrible, mangled flippers caught him right in the gills. Wheezing out a breath, bubbles erupting from his mouth in a rather embarrassing display, he shifted just enough for her to slide past him.

For a moment, he let her swim. Where would she go, after all? There was only open ocean, and he doubted she knew where her glowing city was. The currents should have turned her head inside out and upside down.

But here she was, swimming so slowly away from him, and he realized there was a small cave where she was headed. The lava cooled and created long tunnels, sometimes. If she got in there, she would claw her way to the bottom and be so far out of his reach. He’d have to be here for a day at least waiting for her to stick her head out like a turtle in its shell.

“No you don’t,” he growled before he flicked his fin. It took so little effort to catch up to her.

His claws dug into her suit, dragging her closer to him and then into his arms. She fought against him, of course. Wiggling like an eel and almost just as slippery. But soon he had her under control, even though bubbles blasted him in the face as she let out a long scream that sounded eerily like a word in his language.

She didn’t mean to say “safe”, he knew. That wasn’t at all how she felt in this moment, but a male could dream.

“Hush, female,” he said, wrapping his arms tighter around her. He turned her so her face was smashed against his chest, and then squeezed hard until she finally froze in his grip, still stiff but no longer moving.

It was good enough for him. He just needed her to stay still.

Arges glided his hand down her back, his fingers twitching as he hit the top of her hips. This felt remarkably similar to his own people. Although she was unusually small for a female of his kind. They were larger than the males, so it was a rather unique experience to know he held a full-grown female in his arms and her head only just grazed his shoulder.

His tail was longer than her dual tails. He should try to untangle those so that they weren’t just flapping in the water. But then she shifted in his arms and he was rather shocked at her sudden comfort.

Those twin tails moved stiffly, but she jabbed their sharp bends into his gills and tucked those ugly flippers in against his hip fins. Those were usually reserved only for a trusted female of his kind, and he certainly hadn’t had a female touch them in a very long time.

Sucking in a breath, his gills fluttered against her strange second skin as she curled those flippers into him. To stay warm? Perhaps. They had looked very much like they were fragile. Too thin, too bony for this deep in the ocean.

So he let her do whatever it took. He swam for them, letting the current take him not deeper, but up a little so he could bring her somewhere safe. But the entire journey, all he could think about was her little flippers pressed against one of the most private places on his body.

Did she know what she was touching? Was she aware that if he’d been even remotely attracted to her, that she would have a significantly more concerning appendage pressed against her soft belly?

Or rather, between her strange tails, he supposed. He was much larger than her, after all.

Finally, he reached the cave system. They were a little closer to the other tribes of his kind, but not so close that he would lose her to someone who might try him for her ownership. No one knew about these caves, anyway. He’d found them when he was just a child.

She’d stopped shaking so much. He wasn’t sure if that was because she’d given up, or if the water here was that much warmer. It didn’t feel all that different to him, but he was used to the rapid temperature changes.

The entrance to the cave was in the side wall of a cliff that dropped off toward his home. The opening wasn’t so large that it was easy to find, but he could swim through the small crack without touching the stones. And then it opened up. Oh, it opened up significantly.

He remembered the first time he’d mustered the courage to come in here. His whole tail had quivered with delight as he realized almost all the bioluminescent plants had made their home in this cavern. Tiny schools of silver fish stayed here almost all times of the year as well, feeding the plants, which in turn, fed them. The entirety of the cavern was filled with golden light from giant petals of glowing sea flowers and pale white coral. Not a single shadow in here, other than those he cast upon the jungle of color and light.

The achromo in his arms struggled again. But this time, he could see that it wasn’t from fear. She was twisting this way and that, trying to see where he’d brought her.

So he let her go.

She drifted out of his arms, so slowly without those false flippers. Those she’d left in the lava fields, and he already knew he would retrieve them for her.

Arges could only barely see her eyes behind the strange contraption she’d attached to her face, but he could see her surprise. Her gaze had widened, and she flapped her hands to turn slowly in a circle.

What did she see?

A place to exploit? A cavern to turn into dust because there might be a rock she wanted or a plant her people would tear up by the roots? He should never have brought her here.

Every bit of color in his body flared as she swam to one of the rarest plants in this area of the ocean. The giant yellow flower puffed out seeds at her approach, nearly as large as her fist. They cascaded around her in a glittering wave of golden light.

Instead of flinching away or batting at them, she reached out her tiny hands and caught one in between her palms. Carefully—he could see how careful she was being—she lifted it up to her gaze, watched it for a few moments, and then let it go.

Why did that make his heart twist so much in his chest?

He flicked his tail, brushing against her hip and down one of her tails to get her attention. His achromo turned to him and he pointed up.

He had the distinct pleasure of watching her realize that there was air above them. She shot toward the surface, wiggling those horrible appendages as hard as she could until she broke the surface.

Arges followed her, already knowing what she would find. Some achromos had been here before, but his people had killed them years ago. Now, it was a relic of her own people. He’d never gotten out of the water here, nor did he ever intend to. But if she could make something of it, then he supposed he could leave her here.

After all, without him, where would she go?

The female had already dragged herself out of the water. And he watched with horror as she ripped the strange things off her face, showing that they had left deep red marks on her flesh. Then she pulled at the second skin around her face, slowly peeling it off her head and revealing all that red hair, like she was birthing herself. It was monstrous to watch.

Stomach queasy, he shook his head when she chattered at him. He much preferred listening to her when they were underwater and she had both the weight of the ocean and that contraption muffling her horrid voice.

“Stay here,” he intoned, watching her cover the sides of her head again. Sighing, he said much quieter, “I will bring you food. But you are trapped here until I can figure out how to communicate with you.”