He’d come back.

Quickly, this time. Even though she knew he didn’t like to come back at all.

“Oh,” she said, standing there in the middle of the room like an idiot. “I... uh... How much of that did you see?”

A long, drawn out song was her response. He didn’t stop talking for a while, and she had no idea what he was saying. Not an ounce of it.

Glancing over at Byte, she asked, “How much of his language do you think you have a hold of?”

“Two point seven percent,” the robot replied, and then sealed itself shut again.

Apparently, it would not help her get the undine to speak. So it was up to her to figure out how the hell she was going to get out of this mess. Sighing, she started back toward the water.

“The wetsuit I wear is only for going in the water. Being wet is actually a little dangerous for humans.” Seating herself at the edge of the water, she rested her chin on her bent knees and tucked the blanket in tight around herself. “That must seem a little silly to you. Considering... Well.”

Gesturing up and down his body, she struggled to make herself seem like nothing was wrong. She wasn’t stuck in a cave far below the ocean with an undine who likely thought she was a pet. Because those thoughts led to much darker thoughts, and she refused to wallow right now.

Maybe he knew she was struggling. Maybe he was just being a good pet owner. He tossed a dead fish at her, already gutted and ready for cooking. Then pulled out what looked like a purse. Kind of. It was green and covered in a thick layer of goo, but it was definitely the shape of a large bag.

He handed it to her, watching her with eyes that saw far too much.

“Thanks,” she muttered, turning it a bit in her hands. It was definitely full of something. “What’s in it?”

Please don’t be something gross, she thought. The last thing she needed was some weird mating ritual where he’d filled this with the entrails of her enemies or something else equally traumatizing.

He mimed lifting the bag and opened his mouth. Like he was pouring something.

Turning it a bit more, she could see there was a spout at the top. Kind of like the lemonade pitcher her mother had been so proud of having.

“Well,” she muttered, lifting the strange green plant. “Here goes nothing.”

But when she poured the substance over her tongue, she realized it was... water. Fresh, clean water. No taste of salt at all. And even though she knew she should test it a bit, make sure it didn’t run right through her and turn every hole of hers into a fountain of liquid, she drank until she coughed. And even then, she only paused for a little while and then drank even more. Until her belly swelled with the liquid and her mind screamed, she was going to puke.

There was even more water left over. Enough for a full day, maybe two, if she was careful with it.

“Water,” she whispered, sitting with the bag in her lap. “You brought me fresh water.”

He inclined his head, nodding at her like some prince in a fairytale story. But that didn’t match up. He wasn’t the good guy. He’d kidnapped her. Stolen her from her home. Tried to kill her multiple times. And now he was... taking care of her?

“Why am I here?” she asked. “What do you want from me?”

That set him off. He talked for a very long time, even bringing up his hands and gesturing with them wildly. Every now and then, water splashed up from his movements and spilled over her toes. She had no idea what he was saying, but only that he was talking a lot. This was good. This meant that Byte could get even more of his language than before.

And listening to him was strangely beautiful. She’d lay in bed for years, listening to the haunting calls of whales. Haunted by the sound of their melancholy from miles away, and now she got to listen to it up close and personal. Although, his deep voice didn’t quite sound like a whale. It sounded more like he was... singing.

Finally, he stopped and looked at her expectantly.

“I don’t know what you’re saying at all,” she said with a wry smile. “But I assume you have plans for me.”

He nodded.

“Right. Well, until I can understand what you’re saying, those plans are probably not going to happen.” She stood and placed the bag of water on the cot where she knew it wouldn’t get knocked over, before joining him back at the edge of the water.

He’d moved closer to her, she realized. His webbed hands were pressed against the edge, and he’d lifted himself a bit. Maybe to see what she was doing in the back of the cave.

“There’s nothing useful back there,” she said, settling back on the floor beside him. “I’ve already looked. The computer is fried. There’s no signal to the surface, and any of the other electronics are so rusted out that even I can’t fix them. You have trapped me, undine.”

The feral grin on his face said he was quite pleased with that.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m sure that was your plan all along.”

Again he spoke, this time using his hands, so she got the gist of it. He had followed her. He used one of his hands and kicked two of his fingers, kind of like how she swam. The other hand he undulated like the undine did as they swam. It was a remarkably good way to speak and mime what had happened. Apparently, he had been above her the entire time she was swimming, and she’d had no idea. He was very proud of that.

Shaking her head, she had to admit it was almost cute how proud he was of himself. This was clearly a difficult mission for him to take on, and he’d succeeded. Even if it was at her own expense.

“I can’t swim like you. I’m not meant for the ocean.” She poked her feet out from under the blanket and wiggled her toes. “These are obviously not made to help me swim.”

She watched him eye her feet, and then recoil when he realized she could spread her toes wide. Laughing, she let him look at them. Arges even made his way a little closer, clearly wanting to investigate their differences but not sure how to go about it.

Mira reached down and twisted her foot side to side, showing him the limitations of her movement. “We have a bunch of bones in our feet. They help us stay upright when we walk. I’m not sure if you have bones in your tail or⁠—”

He silenced her with a dirty look.

“Or clearly you do have bones in your tail,” she corrected herself. “Probably like a spine. We have long bones in our legs instead of many little ones. You can touch if you want.”

Why had she said that? She didn’t want him to touch her. But then he reached out with those strangely warm palms and delicate webs, and slid his hand along the delicate bones of her foot and up her shin.

She watched with strange fascination. The sight of that gray hand, with the glimmering rainbow webs, touching her? It should have been disgusting and instead it just... was. Like anyone else touching her shin.

He hissed out a long sound the moment he found the prominent bone of her shin. Words poured out of his mouth as he was suddenly much closer, yanking her to him so he could use both hands on the bone.

He was gentle, at least. She thought for a second he was going to try to snap it, but no. He just lifted her leg slightly and then moved it around. Watching her skin move with the pressure of his fingertips as the bone remained stiff and unmoving.

Apparently, this was fascinating to him. He asked her a question, although she had no way of knowing what it was. And instead, he finally mimed her kicking her feet, and then undulated the same hand.

With a laugh, she nodded. “I’m sure there’s a more efficient way for me to swim, yes. But that doesn’t make me any faster. My feet and legs are short and there aren’t muscles in them like you have. That’s why I had the flippers, to help me swim like you do.”

She watched him mouth the word “flippers” before moving down to her feet. He took his time, gently prodding the delicate bones. He looked her over so thoroughly, she wondered at his curiosity, and then his gaze flicked up to hers.