Together

The naiads brought them deep into the throat.

Eyna hadn’t been down in a while. The underwater gardens had their own seasons. There were times when forests of kelp grew thick and long as true forests, deeply tangling the throat. Those were the best times for hide and seek. Or for hiding treasure.

Even Eyna didn't know all of the seasons that happened in the gardens. So every time she entered, it was a new experience. Eyna’s favorites were the mer seasons, though. Their celebrations were always the most colorful and lively. She secretly hoped that they might have entered during one of these festivities. But they were impossible to predict. They changed and shifted, just like the waters around them.

The naiads gently deposited Eyna and Sthuna at the hollow base of the throat. They’d reached the water gardens at last. There was a rippling wall, like an underwater lake within a lake.

Eyna flashed Sthuna a bright smile, tugging on his hand. She saw him shift uncomfortably, but he followed her. They both passed through the rippling current, stepping for the first time as the weightlessness of the waters was replaced with something closer to being on land. It was here that land dwellers could breathe on their own.

The naiads remained on the other side, pressing their faces and delicate hands against the current. Some of the marine life could pass through the wall. But the naiads were too aquatic for that, bodies crafted of pure fluid.

Eyna waved. “Thank you!”

Pepper wiggled out from her pocket. He spread his wings, floating with the gentle garden currents.

She kept her mouth with her hands to call after him. “We will be discussing what happened with you later!”

Pepper's rebuttal was immediate. “Right back at you!”

She shook her head as Pepper took off.

He was being stubborn about this. But it weighed on her. 

There were a lot of things on her mind. 

Questions that were left without answers. And she knew that the time to face them was soon. But in the quiet waters of the sunken gardens, she could focus only on the warmth that had taken up space in her heart.

Eyna took Sthuna’s clawed hand in hers. With gentle tugs, she guided him deeper and deeper.

Today the throat was flooded with new life. It surrounded them and fluttered in the waters that were not water. Red shelled nautilus pulsed in clusters through the waters. Slow moving clouds of jellyfish pulsed in pinks and blues and purples. Arachnomorphs, with hundreds of glossy black eyes and armored shells mingled with aquatic creatures darting up and down that Eyna could neither name nor properly discern.

Strange and foreign flower-like bulbs emerged from the walls of the garden. They bloomed on every possible surface, unfurling like cherry blossoms. From the center of their petals, they released thin, glowing threads. There were so many of the diaphanous threads that they were like subterranean spidersilk, forming intricate knots and weaves.

Sthuna and Eyna passed through the threads, feeling them softly catch and stream alongside them. The threads wove into Eyna’s long hair like filaments of gold.

“Hey Sthuna? I’m glad you came to the Heartsprings.”

He was quiet for a moment. His ruby eyes were fixed on her. Her movements as she played with the siphonophore chain. Watching as her fingers delicately intertwined with it. “... Yes. I… I am too.”

It was a simple response. But she knew it meant a great deal.

Sthuna was feeling things he didn’t usually feel. Namely - nervousness. He wanted to make her happy. He wanted to say the right things. But he didn't know what the right things might be. This was the person that had accepted him unconditionally. Even when he had created the curse that flowed between the two of them.

He placed a clawed hand over his central heart. He found a scale there, much to his relief. He had been worried that this new shape would not have what he needed. He pinched both claws together, wedging them beneath the scale. In one swift movement, he tore it out.

It stung. A little plume of blood drifted up from the wound. As it cleared, he could see the perfectly shaped silver scale clasped between both claws.

Eyna looked alarmed. “Hey!”

He quickly took her hands. “Eyna.”

“Y-Yes?”

Sthuna fumbled a little. He gently presented the scale to her. “I… I would like you to have this.”

She immediately moved to take it. Without question. His hearts soared. But as her fingers brushed the offered scale, he closed his hand over hers. “This is my heartscale.”

She looked at him with those sweet, endless emerald eyes. Intelligent and bright and curious. Waiting for his next words.

He cleared his throat. “With this scale, I bear my heart to you.” He indicated to the little wound at his chest. “For a dragon, the scale sits over their central heart. The most vital heart of all three. To gift it means… It… It means that I give you the most important scale that I possess.”

Amongst dragons, it was a very romantic declaration. Typically after a first shared flight. Technically they had shared something like that…

“Oh…”

She sounded a little breathless.

He searched her eyes almost desperately. He hadn't planned this out. It had just felt right in the moment. At least, he thought it had. Was he doing this right? Did she want it? Was that a happy expression on her face? It almost looked…

Eyna started crying.

Her tears were like little diamonds. They drifted from her eyes, floating through the air as if they were bubbles.

His hearts dropped. He'd screwed it up. He did something wrong. “I-I-I’m sorry. I-”

Eyna tackled him in a hug. Arms thrown around his neck, she kissed his cheek. She floored him with yet another tackle. One would think that by this point in time, he'd be used to it. But somehow she always managed to keep him on his claws.

“That's so sweet. It’s so sweet I feel like my heart’s going to explode,” she sniffled against his neck, “But it's also kind of scary.”

He blinked, gingerly pulling her back far enough to look at her. “It’s… Scary?”

“Mhm.” Eyna pressed a hand to his chest. “Does that mean that your heart is exposed? Because that sounds dangerous.”

He considered the question. “I'm perfectly strong. It's not a problem.”

“So it does expose your heart.”

“... It’s fine.” He chose not to mention that heartscales didn’t grow back. A dragon only got one chance at gifting it. Rejection meant a little hole over the heart forever, both figuratively and literally. “I wanted to…”

“It’s dangerous!”

He grumbled a little. They were getting into the topic of his safety rather than the gesture itself. “If you don't want it-”

She got a wild glint in her eyes. Without hesitation, she snatched it. “It’s mine.”

She even bared her teeth at him.

He laughed.

Eyna’s eyes lit up. She was spellbound. The sound of Sthuna’s laughter… His face was totally transformed, and she refused to miss a single moment. Red eyes like a sunrise. His lips quirked when he laughed - one side a little lopsided. His fangs gleamed.

She loved the sight of it. The sound of it. All of it.

Eyna beamed. 

She cradled the scale to her chest like it was the most precious thing in all the world. A beautiful silver scale. Sthuna's heart. And hers.

The light around them flickered as a living chain of glowing blue danced overhead. The siphonophore-like being glided forth, long sweeping tendrils surrounding them like a curtain of tumbling sea glass.

Sthuna leaned in and pressed his forehead to hers.

They had found their equilibrium.

A curse and a blessing.

A dragon and human.

Both and neither.

Together.