Dreamstorm by M.C.A. Hogarth

Author:M.C.A. Hogarth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction, new adult
Publisher: M.C.A. Hogarth
Published: 2018-04-02T16:00:00+00:00

Kristyl’s game involved how long everyone could keep their life vests on—“If you make it all the way back to the hotel pier, I’ll buy you a night of drinks! And you Harat-Shar, maybe there will be sexytimes!”—and though Gladiolus and Vasiht’h were automatic winners, she still pressed the vests on them. “So that no one thinks you cheated your way to the prize. Gotta follow the rules.”

The Friendly Mermaid’s crew watched the festivities with professional interest. Vasiht’h wondered if any of them were worried about the same mysterious things Kristyl was, but no one showed any signs of it. Except the captain, who wasn’t on deck at all. The first mate assured him he was down below, “coordinating with the trainers at the platform.” Which seemed reasonable. Vasiht’h squinted into the bright sky, wondering how a few puffy white clouds and some enthusiastic waves could be so troubling as to inspire Kristyl to talk everyone into safety equipment. He patted the top half of his vest. Not that he minded… the only other time he’d been sailing, on Heliocentrus, he’d been asked to don the safety vests the moment he stepped aboard, and had assumed that to be normal until the Mermaid.

Whatever the case, the Harat-Shar took to the game with enthusiasm, and much groaning, as they preferred fewer clothes over their sun-warmed pelts. Kristyl placated them with fruity drinks, which Vasiht’h helped himself to as well. He sat with the Seersa couple again to listen to their account of the Truth or Dare session, and since they were wickedly incisive raconteurs he laughed his way through the entire thing and counted it fantastic entertainment. That got them, at last, to the sandbar’s docking platform, because the show’s complex was large enough to have one. Despite the photos, Vasiht’h had been expecting the place to seem more… rickety. But it felt remarkably stable, and large besides. There was a set of covered bleachers on a large wooden stage—if you could call it a stage with a big hole in the middle leading into the ocean—and several satellite areas reached by boardwalks, selling food, drink, souvenirs, even “changes of clothing,” which sounded alarming. “Oh, don’t worry, alet,” the vendor there assured him as he peered at the shirts emblazoned with cavorting cartoon whales and seals. “It’s just that sometimes the critters like to splash the audience.”

Vasiht’h wandered back from exploring to find Kristyl waving her arms at her Harat-Shar posse. “No, no, the deal is that you have to keep them on until we get to shore. Otherwise you can’t win!”

“No breaks!”

“No breaks,” Kristyl said serenely. “If you’d wanted easymode, you should have partied with some other girl.” She put a hand on her hip and waggled it. “You gotta work for the best things in life.”

A chorus of groans and laughs. Vasiht’h padded up beside her as the Harat-Shar dispersed to shop or take their places on the bleachers. “Serious about the game, aren’t you?”

“I am! So you’re not going to quit, are you?”

Vasiht’h chuckled.

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