Dragonsapien (5 page)

And he had
thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever
seen.

*

In the coolness
of the water, their earlier arguments had been
forgotten.

As he had
watched Celly washing herself clean of the blood in the rolling,
sun-dappled waves, Jake – exhausted and sticky with sweat – had
found their whispering promise of soothing relief impossible to
resist.

His dive was
both shallow and awkward, splashing Celly as he rushed past
her.

She laughed,
chased him, splashed him back.

She swung away,
her own moves fast, graceful, flowing through the water with the
suppleness of a mermaid. She hardly disturbed the shoals of fish
passing around her, even as she dipped beneath the clear waters and
swam amongst them.

Giving chase,
Jake’s relatively awkward actions sent the fish scattering in
panic.

They both broke
the surface spluttering, giggling uncontrollably.

‘Got you!’ Jake
cried triumphantly, clasping Celly tightly by her arms.

‘Only because I
was laughing so much at how clumsy you are!’ Celly
chuckled.

‘Oh, so now I’m
clumsy am I?’ Jake teased light-heartedly, letting go of Celly’s
arms. ‘Just because I can’t swim like I was born in water, like
you, eh?’

‘I
wasn’t
born in water; just in case you’re being serious!’

She laughed
again, if only because it was good to see Jake laughing and joking
once more. Since they’d forcibly brought him to the island, he had
naturally switched regularly between outright anger and moody
acceptance of his situation.

‘Look,’ Celly
said, ‘if you must know, I’m sorry we brought you here.’

Jake took her
attempt at an apology the wrong way.

‘Just because we
had an argument?’ he said.

‘No, silly!’ She
playfully struck his bared chest. ‘Not sorry as in sorry that
you’re here! Sorry that we had to bring you! I wish we could have
left you behind. Left you with your poor mum and dad.’

‘I knew
that
silly!’ he replied with a nevertheless pleased
grin.

‘I’m sure we can
let you go back soon! And dad will drop off your letter to your mum
and dad, as he promised.’

Erdwin had flown
back home with the intention of contacting Dr Frobisher and making
sure that the doctor and his family had managed to avoid being
implicated in the deaths of the police officers, as well as picking
up news of any further developments. He’d also pointed out that it
was a perfect opportunity for Jake to let his parents know that he
was alive and well by writing a letter (carefully checked, to
ensure there was no coding revealing his whereabouts) that Erdwin
would leave with the doctor to be posted later.

Jake shrugged,
unconcerned either way by Celly’s comment.

‘I can’t see
that mum or dad will be that worried about me, to be honest Celly.
I’m sure that doctor of yours told them and the police I didn’t
seem to be in any danger when I was taken by your
family.’

‘Jake! Don’t be
so ridiculous!’ Reaching out, Celly shook him tenderly. ‘Of course
they’ll be worried!’

Jake shrugged
again.

‘Doubt it. Fact
is, they were thinking of sending me away to boarding school pretty
soon anyway. It’s not like I ever saw much of them anyway; they
were always so busy working. You know; high-flyers weren’t they,
right? Board meetings to attend, clients to meet, can’t afford not
to postpone this, sorry about your birthday Jake, blah blah
blah.’

‘But you, Jake;
you
must miss
them
, right?’

Jake grimaced as
he briefly pondered this.

‘Only as much as
I missed them when I hadn’t seen them for a few days because our
individual flight paths never really crossed. Why’d you think I was
always round at your place, eh?’

Giggling, Celly
pushed him playfully in the chest again.

‘And there was
me thinking
I
was the attraction!’

Jake stumbled,
lost his footing, and would have fallen back into the water if
Celly hadn’t swiftly swung an arm around his waist and brought him
back to his feet with nothing more than a panicked
splashing.

‘But you
were
the attraction, silly,’ Jake said, slipping his own arm
around her waist to steady himself. ‘And as for now, well; there
are worse places to be together, aren’t there?’

With a lazy wave
of his other arm, he drew Celly’s attention to their glorious
surroundings.

The hills were
covered in an amazing variety of greens, of weirdly shaped leaves,
of exotic trees and their vibrant blooms. The curling beach framed
it, blinding white in the sun. Then came the sea, the sea they were
still standing in, an ever-changing mix of pure, rich blues, topped
with an endless, undulating web of sparkling glints.

The reflected
sun threw up glistening silver patterns across their bodies,
shimmering, vibrating, bringing their skins alive with a rolling
light that seemed to have its own heartbeat. Their bodies shone as
if made of sapphires.

‘As for mum and
dad,’ Jake continued resignedly, ‘well, we’ve all got to grow up
sometime, haven’t we?’

Suddenly, he
felt Celly slumping limply against him.

‘Celly, you all
right?’ he said anxiously, turning to see why he was now having to
support her in the crook of his arm.

There was no
reply. Celly’s face was blank. Her eyes had rolled back beneath her
lids, revealing noting but white orbs.

‘Celly!’

Wrapping his
other arm around her, Jake began to urgently drag her through the
water back towards the beach.

The jolting,
lurching moves and the splashing of the water across her face
seemed to slightly revive Celly, although she still sounded bleary,
dazed, as she spoke.

‘What? What
happened?’

‘You fainted…you
fainted, or something.’

‘Really?
Sorry…sorry.’

Although Celly
could almost stand for herself once more, she was still a little
unsteady on her feet. Jake continued to support her as they plunged
through the swirling waters. It was ungainly, awkward, clinging to
each other like this as they had to raise their feet high to avoid
the clashing waves. They began to laugh at their own awkwardness,
the ridiculousness of it all.

With relief,
they both threw themselves down face-first onto the soft, warm
sand. Still laughing. Still holding onto each other around their
waists.

They turned
their heads to look at each other, their faces only a hand’s width
apart.

‘Sorry Jake,’
Celly said. ‘I don’t know what was wrong with me out there. I just
suddenly felt dizzy, for some reason.’

‘It might be the
heat. Or perhaps you’re just exhausted after taking on that wild
boar.’

Jake grinned
stupidly.

Celly grinned
back.

‘I don’t think
so; I felt fine until just a few seconds ago.’

‘Well, you seem
okay now; that’s the main thing, right?’

Celly nodded in
reply. Closing her eyes, she smiled contentedly.

She looked so
peaceful, Jake thought.

So…so
beautiful.

The slight
upturn to her delicate nose.

The sweeping
curves of her lips.

The smooth arc
of her chin.

The way she
moved slightly as she breathed.

The way the skin
glistened, even now, when she was untransformed. Yes, there was a
light coating of sparkling, crystallised salt, of shimmering drops
of swiftly drying water; but her skin always shone, as if it were
the finest velvet.

Raising his head
slightly, silently, he looked past the shreds of what remained of
her t-shirt towards her back.

It was a back
like any other girl’s – any other
beautiful
girl’s.

The flowing
smoothness, broken only by the hillocks of her shoulder
blades.

There was no
sign of where the wings came from, where they vanished
into.

Perhaps he was
at the wrong angle to see clearly.

He rose up a bit
more on his elbow.

No; he’d been
right.

The skin was
flawless. Like the wings somehow came from the skin
itself.

How was that
possible?

Delicately, he
brought his hand up from his waist, running it lightly across the
skin of her lower back.

He shivered at
the excitement of his own touch.

So so so
beautiful…

God, she was
gorgeous!

Wonderful!

Unbelievable!

How he loved
her! How he wanted to tell her that–

‘That tickles!’
Celly giggled, trembled.

Embarrassed,
Jake quickly withdrew his hand, let the rest of his body fall back
towards the sand.

‘Sorry, Celly!
I…I…just couldn’t resist touching you!’ he blurted out, deciding he
couldn’t lie to her. ‘Sorry, sorry. I
know
it’s ridiculous,
but–’

‘What was
ridiculous about it? I
enjoyed
it.’

‘
You
did?’

‘
Why
wouldn’t I?’

Celly smiled
lazily, the curves of her lips curling more invitingly than ever.
Her eyes were looking directly into his, like there was a
connection between them, a link between the darkness of her eyes
and the darkness of his.

Drawing them in,
drawing them closer.

Instinctively,
as if working together as one, knowing what the other wanted,
knowing what the other was about to do, they tilted their heads
ever so slightly, so that their lips met, entwined perfectly, the
curves of one complementing the curves of the other.

So
soft.

So
warm.

So strangely but
wonderfully moist.

Jake could feel
Celly’s breath making her lips quiver. Making his lips
quiver.

He ran his hand
against the skin of her back once more.

She
trembled.

He
trembled.

He…he had never
experienced anything so
wonderful
. So
incredible
!

Oh how he loved
her. How he wanted her, needed her.

Smoothly, he
slipped his other arm beneath her body, bringing both his hands up
now along the indents, the arcs, of her back, to bring her closer,
tighter towards him.

Celly’s hands
slipped around his own back, deftly, softly, caressing his own
skin, discovering his own curves, his own areas of softness, of
firmness.

Kissing her
still, continuously, Jake ran his lips across her cheek, beneath
her chin, down to her neck, her throat.

Celly sighed,
arced her head back, offering him more of her neck, her throat, for
Jake to kiss, taste, almost bite hungrily.

Yes, yes; he was
hungry
for her.

He had never
wanted anything more in his life than he wanted to taste every part
of Celly.

To caress every
part.

To
revel
in everything about her.

And the
sparkling light reflected from the waves danced about them, playing
across their bodies, uniting them, making them appear as
one.

*

They lay on
their backs in the sand, an arm of Jake’s cradling Celly’s head, an
arm of Celly’s curling around behind him.

‘So,’ he said,
half-jokingly, ‘everything about you seems human –
ouch!’

Reaching over
with her free arm, Celly impishly jabbed him in his
side.

‘Seems
human? Was all that just some sort of test, then, to find out who’s
human and who’s not?’

‘Well, you
look
human,
feel
human,
taste
–
ouch!’

Chuckling
mischievously, Celly jabbed him again.

‘Who’s coming on
like an animal now, eh?’ she laughed. ‘
Taste
?’

Jake rose up
slightly on his elbow, looking down on her, running a hand across
the indent of her stomach so that she trembled and giggled with
delight.

‘You taste –
delicious
!’

He bent down to
kiss her once more.

Yes, yes; she
was
delicious!

At last he
pulled back, smiling, happy. He glanced down at his hand as he
continued to caress and tickle her smooth stomach.

‘But if
everything outside
seems
human, what’s the difference? Is it
all inside? Is
that
where you’re different.’