The Penny Drops (Sea the Depths Book 1) by Karmon Kuhn (warren buffett book recommendations TXT) 📕

that you like it.” I said and took her hand. I was grateful that she let me hold it.

She opened her mouth and then closed it. After doing this a few times, I asked her, “Is there something you want to say?”

“Yeah,” she said, taking her hand from mine. “Did you ever look like that thing . . . um guy . . . creature? The one in my living room, I mean. He kept saying ‘your’ kind…”

“Well, my people look similar to his, yes. We are a different race though, so our coloring is different, and we have some physical features that adapt us to the ocean rather than fresh water life.”

She started to pull her hand away as she asked, “How do you look like this now then?”

“This is an ability that my people have always had. Each community has a story of how it came about, but I don’t think that there is a definitive answer.”

“Hm.” She completely retracted her hand from my grasp and scratched her scalp. “I think we’d better rinse. This is starting to itch.”

Chapter 13

W

ith our new disguises, we took turns bathing and readied ourselves to sleep. She went to the far window across the room, peeked out and did so with all of the other windows surrounding us. Then, she locked the bedroom door, placed a chair in front of it and retreated to the bed, sliding her feet under the ample blankets on one side. By the time I approached, she’d lined up several pillows down the center of it, and laid another set of blankets on the opposite side of the bed for me.

I approached my pile of fabric and tentatively sat down under the covers. Because she didn’t object, I pushed myself down farther and let my head rest on the pillow. The bed was much more comfortable than the one at the inn, and I realized quickly that I was exhausted.

“Can I ask you something?” asked Penny.

“Yes.”

“Will you have to turn into . . . will you go back to being a . . . are you going to have to change your body back?”

“It is said that my people can stay in a human form indefinitely, but I don’t know anyone who has tried to stay human for longer than a few months. There’s a legend that says that if one of my kind stays in their human body for too long, then they will not be able to return to their other form. One of the old beliefs is that that is how humans came about in the first place.”

“Hm.” she offered in response and turned onto her back across the bed.

It was silent then for a long time. The fatigue in my body and heaviness behind my eyes overtook me. But just as I drifted to the precipice of sleep, there was a shuffling sound. My body stiffened, and my eyes shot open.

Penny’s hand slid into mine, and we looked at each other. I motioned to her to be silent and did my best to get up without making a sound. Again, the noise rustled outside the window, and I approached, softly padding my feet on the carpet. Penny tip-toed up behind me, and with our breaths stalled deep in our chests, we peeked just outside.

At first, my eyes saw nothing as they adjusted to the darkness. Once they did, I saw a small, bushy-tailed animal with big ears passed the left corner of the house along the tree line. Penny let out an audible breath that prickled the hairs on my neck.

“Oh my god. It’s just a fox. We’re gonna hear noises like that all night.”

I let out a hesitant breath of my own and sniffed. There was no indication that she was wrong, but I wasn’t certain. I returned to the bed so as not to worry Penny, and when she removed the pillows in the middle, I was grateful.

“Maybe just for tonight, we can stick together. These woods can get kinda creepy.”

I smiled and laid on my side so that I could look at her. She smiled and then turned her back on me. It hurt to see that until she took my hand and wrapped it around her, holding it to her belly. Some of the tension in my body relaxed, but part of me was still restless. I laid awake long after Penny’s breaths became steady and even. As much as my anxious mind wished to stay alert, though, my body won. Sleep was coming. But, sleep wasn’t the only thing approaching at that moment.

***

Back in my office at the tsez̈ø, I felt the weightlessness of the water around me. The soft and vague sensation of it against my scales. I pored over the sealed pages of the volume at my fingertips, noting elements of the English usage and style. I nearly had the story memorized as I’d read Brave New World repeatedly. Regardless, I always enjoyed discovering new information that I could use to improve my own understanding of the language or apply in some way to my research to enrich English learning for others in the tsez̈ø.

Just as I reached the gripping desperation of John the Savage among the protected manuscript pages, I was torn away by a distorted moan. I stopped reading and looked around me, seeing no one in my study chamber. I went back to my reading and then heard the disturbance again but louder. I slid into the intermediary doorway where the water was let out, and then left it for the swampy hallway tunnel.

I felt instantly heavy and sluggish in my movements. I slithered through the tunnel, but somehow, I was in the wrong department. I didn’t recognize a single room or researcher I passed. I tried to quicken my pace but found myself unable to do so no matter how much I flexed the muscles of my