Firefighter Sea Dragon (Fire & Rescue Shifters 4)

A sea dragon song could carry around a quarter of the globe. This close to Atlantis, the entire ocean shook with their voices.

The martial chants of knights patrolling the border, the sweet piping calls of infants playing; the duets of lovers and the call-and-response of hunters; some singing for purpose and others simply for the pleasure of being alive. It all blended into one great tapestry of song, the song of his people.

He could not put his head under the water to add his own voice to the chorus, but his presence had not gone unnoticed. The nearest knights were several miles away, but they had seen Dai fly overhead, and heard the splash of their entry into the water. Their deep voices shook John’s bones as they focused their songs on him in challenge.

“Identify yourself,” one of the unseen border guard sang to him, in harsh notes as warning as a bared fang. “Who seeks to enter Atlantis in silence? Why do you not sing?”

“Peace, peace, honored Knight,” sang a higher, much closer voice, in rippling melodies of delight. “They are known, they are expected, and oh, they are welcome!”

Air did not carry sound as well as water, but John called out anyway, his heart unable to contain his song. “Little sister!”

Her familiar, beloved head broke through the waves, sea water streaming from her indigo scales. “Little brother!”

He rumbled in delight at the old joke, curving his head down to rub his cheek along hers in greeting. Hatched from the same clutch of eggs, it had always been a matter of debate which of them was actually the eldest. She claimed to have cracked her shell first, while he had always countered that he had fully emerged before she had. In any event, he had not been "little" compared to her since their seventh year.

They had been inseparable as youngsters, and even though the tides of duty had carried them far apart since then, they would always share a bond deeper than words. He had missed her greatly.

“You have not changed,” he said fondly. Her strong, graceful coils were as beautiful as ever, and her song still sparkled with her irrepressible zest for life.

She studied him for a moment, her turquoise eyes troubled. “You have.”

Before he could ask what she meant, she lifted herself higher in the water, curving her neck. “Is this really her? Your mate?”

“Yes.” John’s chest swelled with pride as he bowed his head to display Neridia. “This is the Empress-in-Waiting. But we must use mindspeech. She does not yet fully understand our tongue.”

“She is very small,” his sister said doubtfully. “Smaller than I expected. How can someone so tiny truly be the Empress-in-Waiting?”

He was glad she hadn’t said that in mindspeech. “There can be no doubt, my sister. The very sea proclaimed her status.”

His sister gave him a rather dubious look, which was understandable given that the sea certainly wasn’t doing so now. The waves rolled unconcernedly about their business, to all appearances utterly ignorant of the fact that their ruler perched above them. Had John not heard for himself the ocean’s first greeting to Neridia yesterday, he too might have thought that she was nothing more than any other human from its current lack of reaction.

“The sea is wise,” he said firmly, ignoring his inner human’s uneasy silence. “It hides its devotion now, so as not to reveal Her Majesty’s presence to unfriendly observers. It does not wish the Master Shark to find her. Once she takes her throne, her full glory will be revealed, I assure you.”

His sister clicked her fangs, still looking less than convinced. “Well, if the Knight-Commander is willing to allow her into Atlantis, then I suppose she must be more than she seems.”

Neridia flinched back into his neck-ruff as his sister bent to peer at her more closely. *What’s she saying?* she asked him privately, down the mate bond.

*It does not matter,* he sent back. He widened the mental contact to include his sister. *Sister, you are being rude. I told you that we needed to use mind speech.*

*I am sorry,* his sister told Neridia, still inspecting her in fascination. *It is just that you are the first human-ah, that is, the first dry-lander I’ve ever met.*

*Oh.* John felt Neridia lean back a little, craning her neck up to examine his sister in return. *Well, you’re only the second sea dragon I’ve ever met. I hope you don’t mind me saying, but you’re smaller than I expected.*

His sister’s iridescent neck-ruff bristled with laughter. *And I hope you will not judge us all based on my brother’s sole example. In brute size, or any other respect.*

Neridia laughed too, her nervous tension easing a little. *John didn’t say which one of you was older, but I’m guessing you’ve got to be his big sister, right?*

His sister shot him a triumphant look. *I like her already.*

John bared a fang at her, though his own neck-ruff betrayed his amusement. *I did not summon you merely in order to disparage me to my mate. You are here to perform a duty, if you recall.*

She flicked water at him with the tip of her tail. *That’s my brother. Always duty first. Especially if it allows him to avoid an embarrassing conversation.*

He growled, neck-ruff flattening in real irritation, as Neridia giggled. *I am not avoiding anything except sharks. It somewhat defeats the purpose of flying to Atlantis if we then bob about on the surface all day like foolish baby seals.*

*Oh, very well.* His sister blew a stream of bubbles impudently at him as she sank back down beneath the surface. *But don’t think this is anything more than a temporary reprieve. Your mate and I are going to have a nice long chat once we’re all safely in Atlantis. I have many stories to share with her. Many, many stories.*

Behind his head, Neridia chuckled. “I was nervous about meeting your sister,” she said out loud, in human speech. “But now I think we’re going to get along just fine.”