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I hiked my beach bag up higher on my shoulder and walked on past the last beach towel. Its owner was missing, probably out swimming with the others in the perfect, warm turquoise waters of the Atlantic. There were a couple more popular beaches in town, ones with amenities and without the long boardwalk you had to hike to get to the pristine strip of white sand that currently stretched out beneath my feet. But those beaches were more popular, filled with tourists and people who would get all disgruntled at the sight of a monster in the water.
I rounded the cusp of Crescent beach and headed around to the far point, away from the other beachgoers, where people were less likely to see the tentacles and start in with the staring or the screaming. I slowed when I saw a stocky blond man crouched down by a small, dwindling tidepool.
He seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place him. Then I got close enough to see that he was fiddling with a rack of test tubes. He paused to push his glasses up on his adorably round face and shove a lock of thick, wavy blond hair out of his eyes, movements halting when he saw me. I went and squatted down across from him, glancing into the tidepool to find a colony of little sea folk, sprites that often got mistaken for mayflies by the less observant.
“Hello,” I said, glancing curiously at his supplies. “I think I saw you in the coffee shop the other day. Are you a researcher?”
I waited patiently for the blushing and stammering. I was wearing a bikini, after all. It usually took people a few seconds to find their words. But this guy just blinked at me from behind his glasses. His big brown eyes were nothing but open and surprised at the interruption, and his voice was even. “Oh. Hello. Yes, I’m doing some research.” He gestured at the pool. “I’m taking water samples to look for pollution. And I wanted ask them how they’re doing.”
I stuck out my hand, absolutely delighted by his unusual response. “My name’s Iolani, but you can call me Io.”
He reached across to engulf my hand with his pleasantly thick fingers. “Archibald. But people call me Archie.”
I nodded. “Well, Archie. What have you learned about the water?”
His face lit up, and he was clearly happy to talk to someone about his interest. “Well, the sprites said a few of them haven’t been feeling well, but that’s usual this time of year as the seasons change. They’re sensitive folk. And...you know, because it’s no secret there are more contaminants in the ocean these days.”
I nodded. It was true. I had the ability to purify water, to a degree, and I was larger and stronger than most sea-faring creatures, so it didn’t affect me. But the tiny ones like this were more susceptible. It was one of the reasons I joined the EPA.
Archie finished filling a test tube and corked it, then swished his fingers through the pool, gently playing with the tiny sprites, who let out a burst of laughter that sounded like ocean waves crashing on the beach as they danced over his skin. “I think the river is where things are the worst,” he said calmly. “I’ll probably do more testing there next.”
I rested my elbows on my knees and regarded the man. A fellow shifter, I was sure. Though I couldn’t tell exactly what kind. “Funny you should mention that,” I said with a wry smile. “I was sent down here by the EPA to investigate reports of possible chemical dumping. The person who reported it said they thought the river was contaminated.”
He blinked those wide, dark brown eyes at me. “Um, that was probably me? Not that someone else couldn’t have called too.”
I smiled. “I think there were a few reports. But thank you for calling. If more people would let us know when they first suspect something’s up, we could probably work faster to stop things from getting so bad and keep people like these sea sprites from getting hurt.” I gestured at his kit. “Who do you work for? The university?”
I thought he blushed, though it was hard to tell with the way the intense Florida sun had already reddened his fair cheeks. “I don’t work for anyone,” he murmured, voice so low I barely heard him. “I just do it for myself.”
I arched my brows. “Really? That’s fascinating. What got you interested in that sort of thing?”
He snapped a lid on his carrying case of water testing supplies and glanced shyly at me. “I’m a seal shifter. But, I’m not...right.”
At my frown, he gestured at his stocky body. “Some physical stuff.” Then he tapped the side of his head. “But mostly up here. They say it’s a...developmental issue? Kind of like a human with Asperger’s or Autism. My brain doesn’t work like other people’s. The doctors said I might have been exposed to something toxic when I was a baby, or when my mom was pregnant.”
He shrugged and drew a circle in the damp sand with his finger. “So...sorry if I say something weird.”
I blinked at him. Well...maybe he was a bit more open and easy-going with a stranger than some people would be. But that was hardly a bad thing. And kind of the opposite of most stereotypical autism symptoms. “You seem fine to me.”
He glanced up, one blond eyebrow raised. “Oh, sure. Mostly, I do fine. People just say I’m...quirky.” He shrugged, but I thought he sounded a little sad. “Anyway, I really like numbers and graphs and learning things. And when I realized that maybe other people might be affected by this kind of thing...I just like to work at the puzzle, you know?” At my nod, he picked up his case and stood. “I taught myself how to do most of the stuff—with books and online classes and things like that. But I’m not really a real researcher.”
I pushed myself to my feet and shrugged. “Knowledge and passion are knowledge and passion. A degree wouldn’t make it any more real.”
He smiled shyly. “Do you mean that? It’s nice of you to say.”
He looked at my swimsuit for the first time, but I noticed his eyes didn’t linger on the bits where most would. “Oh! Did you come to swim? Of course you did. Not to talk about nerd stuff.”
I laughed. “I am always down to talk about nerd stuff any time you want. But yes, I was going to go for a swim. I need the salt water. And it helps me think.”
He came around the tidepool and studied my face. “Are you a shifter too? I can’t tell. My abilities are...wonky.”
I smiled. “Wonky. Is that a technical term?”
At his slightly confused look, I let it go. “I was trying to get far enough away to avoid alarming any normies.” I gestured at my body. “Half kraken.”
His eyes widened in childish delight. “Really? I’ve heard stories, but I didn’t think they really existed. Come on!”
He waved me along after him as he hurried toward the point where I’d been headed. I huffed a silent laugh and followed along after him.
“This is my favorite place,” he said with a nod at the slight bend in the coastline. “Most people don’t bother to walk all the way out here, so you won’t feel stared at.”
I set my beach bag down on the sand and looked out at the currently gentle surf with delight. “It’s perfect. Thank you for sharing your spot with me.”
He ran a hand through his hair and looked at his feet. “No problem.”
I headed out into the water, glorying at the kiss of the saltwater on my feet. Michigan had plenty of large bodies of water to stretch out in, but none of them provided the required salt, they were only warm in the summer, and never as warm as the ocean got down here. Plus...there was just something uniquely magical about the ocean. I glanced back at the seal. “Do you want to come swim with me? Or did you have somewhere to be?”
He grinned and set his stuff down next to mine. “It’s really okay? You’re not, uh, just saying that to be nice or something?”
I tilted my head. That was the second time he’d asked me something like that. I thought maybe I was starting to see his issue. “You have trouble reading social cues, don’t you?”
He paused with his toes in the surf. “Um. Yeah. That’s what the psychologist says. I miss things sometimes. Like...someone might say something is fine, but really they don’t mean it and they actually want me to get lost.” He shrugged. “Regular people might see like...I don’t know...body language or hear a tone of voice or something I guess, but to me it’s just confusing. I just hear what they say and think that’s what they mean.” He bit his lip as if he was embarrassed by his outpouring.
I nodded, pushing down the part of me that was instantly angry that anyone had ever made this sweet soul feel like there was something wrong with him. “Okay. I’ll keep that in mind. And you just tell me if something I say doesn’t make sense.” I gestured at the water. “Archie, would you like to go swim with me? I won’t be mad if you say you can’t or you don’t want to—or if you’re afraid because I’m a predator and you’re...not. But I would enjoy the company if you’re so inclined. How’s that?”
He seemed to replay my words through his mind for a second. Then he nodded. “I’d love to swim. I don’t have a lot of friends to swim with. The other seals...don’t like me cause I’m weird.” He shrugged. “And I guess I’m too stupid to be scared of you.”
I laughed. “Not stupid, Archie. More intelligent than most, I think.” I winked at him and waded out into the water, bending and diving beneath the surface once it was deep enough.
I used a bit of fae magic my dad had taught me to save my swimsuit bottoms as I let my half-shift ripple over my body, my lower half morphing seamlessly into a swirling mass of deep purple tentacles. I floated on my back, arms out, reveling in the feeling of my body uncoiling, sensitive tentacles tasting the warm water and sea air. It wasn’t the same as a full shift—my full kraken form was too much to expect the beachgoers to tolerate—but this was...nice.
A deep bark startled me, and I turned my head to find Archie’s big brown eyes watching me from the face of a sweet gray seal. I laughed as he dove and played around, occasionally barking out his joy. It was nice, having another ocean-lover to share this with. It eased the ache of missing my more water-inclined siblings. They all had lives these days. They were usually too busy to drop everything and swim with me whenever I had the urge. And my parents’ saltwater pool got too crowded.
Archie splashed around for a while, then started bringing me gifts, leaving smooth stones and pretty seashell treasures on my stomach as I floated on the waves. I patted his smooth head and laughed at the tickle of his whiskers on my skin. Eventually, he tired of that and rolled over on his back to float along with me, both of us drifting off into our own little worlds as we gently rocked up and down on the lazy surf.
I, of course, got back to trying to work out what was going on with the pollution. I had worked for the EPA for eight years now. They often sent me off alone to figure things out, when usually they’d send a whole team. I had abilities most didn’t have—an intuitive fae connection to the natural world, a kraken’s deep, intimate knowledge of the water, purification abilities, physical strength. And enough family resources and leverage to get things done even without the EPA’s full battery of resources at my disposal. But once in a while, it would be nice to have a partner to bounce ideas off from.
I sighed. The EPA was notoriously understaffed and under-funded. I was perfectly capable of working alone. So much moping lately. What the hell was wrong with me?
I forced my thoughts back to the matter at hand. Something was contaminating the Matanzas river. The chemistry analysis I’d run myself, and sent in to the EPA for a double check, said it looked like hazardous biproducts of manufacturing, but they couldn’t tell me exactly what. Probably plastics or some sort of cleaner or beauty product, though it looked like there were also heavy metals involved. The exact what didn’t matter, at the end of the day. I just had to ferret out which company was to blame. There were quite a few in the area, all close to the water source and all supposedly following regulations for waste disposal. But someone was cutting corners.
It wasn’t an unusual problem. Especially with the rapid re-growth of the nation that had happened after the Great Reveal and the near-apocalypse that followed. Everyone had been so eager to rebuild society back to how it had been that they overlooked the consequences and stopped being as careful as they had been—not that they’d ever really been careful about this stuff before. People were willfully blind to the way they destroyed the natural world. But now they had non-human creatures who were able to actually speak out and not only say that there was a problem, but to say how they knew about the problem—how they sensed things and noticed things that humans couldn’t see with their unique, non-human magic and senses. How they were dying because of humanity’s stupid actions.
Some people still called it nonsense. They said the whole supernatural world was a hoax, something made up for some elaborate political reason or other. It had been a nightmare early on, when all sides used the upheaval to spread misinformation for their own gain. But that crap didn’t fly now. Now things were changing. And it was up to people like me to get society back on course, to attend to the things that mattered.
I sighed, my mind working through options and ideas as I drifted on the surf. Finally, I decided to look into the cosmetics makers first. Lotion and potions that came in plastic bottles and contained the Gods only knew what kind of ingredients would be an easy way to create accidental toxic waste. And way less obvious than the auto parts manufacturers and things like that. Hopefully, I’d get more info from the council tomorrow when I showed up in a different body. But if not, I was going to have to go around grilling each company individually. It was bound to be exhausting.
I closed my eyes and let myself soak in the sunshine and the rush of the water around me, sent out my awareness to the school of minnows currently playing hide and seek amid my tentacles, then out farther, sensing dolphins and a flotilla of jellyfish further off the coast.
Artie rolled over and gave me a sleepy bark, then paddled toward the shore. I moved to an upright position, carefully cradling my ocean treasures to my chest as I propelled myself toward the shallows with short bursts of from my tentacles. The seal shifter grabbed the floating bag that was anchored in the shallows and pulled his swim trunks on under the water, then glanced back at me as I strode out, my swimsuit back in place thanks to my magic.
“That’s a neat trick,” he commented, his voice still sleepy and content from all that time drifting in the sun and surf.
I laughed. “It is. Less public indecency charges and all.”
And...not a single comment or innuendo from him about me being naked in public. I wasn’t sure if I should be insulted at his lack of appreciation for my perfect female assets, or flattered that he had wanted to hang out with me without that particular motivation.
We picked up our things in companionable silence and headed toward the boardwalk, both still happily soaking up the sinking sun. We passed a family spread out on a beach blanket while their kids played in the sand, and I felt their eyes on me. And heard the whispered “monster” as one of the older kids pulled the younger kid away.
I just smiled at them. “You have a beautiful family,” I told the woman with the mistrustful eyes. “Enjoy the beach. Oh...and don’t let them go to much farther out in the water, the undertow is pretty strong today.”
The woman blinked at me and nodded.
When we reached the boardwalk, Archie looked at me from under his mop of bedraggled blond hair. “Are people always afraid of you?”
I smiled, as if I didn’t have a care in the world. “Oh, all the time.”
I felt his gaze on me as he studied me, curious and confused. “It doesn’t bother you?”
“Nope,” I lied cheerily.
“Oh,” he said simply, taking me at my word in a way no one ever should, completely missing the sarcasm in my smile.
I willed the tension that had crept into my shoulders to drain away as we parted ways at the parking area. “Thank you for swimming with me, Archie,” I said with an honest smile this time. “I’d love to hear more about what you find in your research. Do you go to that coffee shop often?”
He nodded, clearly happy about having someone to nerd out with over lab results. “Yeah. I go there almost every afternoon, when I’m not out collecting samples and stuff. It feels nice there. And the owner doesn’t care if I loiter, or do weird stuff, so long as I buy a coffee once in a while.”
I squeezed his shoulder. “I’ll probably stop by there tomorrow after I’m done with work. Maybe I’ll see you then.”
He nodded. “That would be nice. Bye, Iolani.”
I packed my things into my rented Porche and headed back to my fancy hotel, feeling both happy and hollow, all at the same time. Desperate for a distraction from my moping about how people reacted to me, I let my mind wander, wondering if there was any way I could get Archie some recognition for his “not real research.” I imagined the look on his sweet, round face if I could manage it, and I forgot all about the way the humans had watched me with fear in their eyes.